Sunday, May 24, 2009

officially lying

in korea parents spend millions of dollars each year on private academies (학완) which are similar to japanese cram schools this is a hot issue as not every family can afford to send their child(ren) to private lessons also, if you attend academy your day begins at 730 or so, you go to school until 330 then from 5~1130 or so, you are at academy then go home and do your homework

with parents this interested in their children's education, there are also questions about how effective people who have my job are i work at a public school so am paid by the state am i good use of taxes last week kbs (korean broadcasting system) was in my classroom my school was nuts knowing that they were coming in classic korean style i was not told they were coming, and it happened to be a day i didnt shave i didnt look disgusting (it wasnt the one day a week i decided to wear jeans) but a warning wouldve been nice especially as i was told at the beginning of class to find something exciting to do

they film me and the class for a few minutes, then comes the interview the girl has been practicing what she is supposed to say, 'her opinion', since i walked into class she looks into the camera and says (in english):

kevin and miss cheon's class is fun and useful we learn everything from easy conversation to difficult grammars so we don't need to attend expensive academies

she says this a few times, eventually the camera people leave i give her a few candies and ask, 'you go to hagwon? (academy)'
"yes"

3 comments:

Ryan said...

Kevin,

Thanks for your post. I plan on moving to Korea to teach in a year or so. Are there any suggestions/advice you might give me about how to proceed and what I might need to watch out for?

kevin.thurston said...

sure, ryan. i'd be happy to help.
how do i email you ?

Ryan said...

Kevin,

I can be reached at rcdaley at g mail dot com.

Thanks!