Battle Scars of Boys Middle School

I teach at two middle schools in South Korea. My main school consists of boys and girls and my visit school is strictly boys. The breakdown of my students, then, is 75% boys and 25% girls. God help me!  It has its challenges, but actually, it's not as bad as it sounds. 

For the upcoming school year starting in March, I have been transferred from my boys school to a different boys middle school. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so I'm sure I'll miss my boys no matter how unruly they were.

In this blog entry, I thought I'd describe what life is like in a Korean boys middle school. Certainly, no two schools are the same, and my boys may have been a bit more rough and tumble than the average given where they lived. So this highlights my experience only.

First, the noise level at school is exceptionally loud. I often sat in my office and heard what sounded like a herd of buffalo running down the halls. The vibrations shook the desks and shelves. Even the other teachers, as experienced as they were, couldn't help but smirk at the incredible noise a group of 14-year-olds can make. 

The noise carried into the lessons. At my main school, I can basically talk at a normal volume to the students. At the boys school, I constantly had to yell and raise my voice to reel them in and get their attention. I'd nearly lose my voice by the end of each day. 

There were random and unpredictable screams and shouts in the hallways and on the soccer field. Boys would constantly yell at each other, usually playfully, and often just to burn off excess energy. I imagine similar behaviour is seen in the prison population.

Second, the boys were constantly eating and snacking. Some teachers told me that they wouldn't eat the school-provided lunch because it was too greasy and they joked that it was by design to try to slow down the students in the afternoons. I understood completely. Unhelpfully, there was a corner store next to the cafeteria that sold snacks, ice creams, fizzy drinks, chips, ramen, and even microwaveable hamburgers. The students would often run down to the shop in between classes throughout the day to grab a bite, or even supplement their lunches with extras. On more than one occasion I had to confiscate a can of pop or other food during the lessons. 

Hilariously, whenever a boy walked into the classroom with a snack, he would be swarmed by this classmates, like sharks looking for a taste. Most students were nice enough to share, even with me.

Third, there was always a high level of participation in the classes. Sure, some boys didn't participate because their English level was very low, and others tried to sleep in class, but overall, there was much more participation than at my mixed school. Introducing any sort of competition or game into the lesson would immediately bring about excitement and energy, especially if there was a prize to be won, such as stickers or chocolate. I was always amazed to see boys raising and waving their hands in the air to answer a question, "Me, me! Teacher, pick me!" I loved the participation but it was difficult to control a class like that.

Fourth, boys middle school is a battle royale. There was roughhousing, pushing, arm wrestling, fights, and any number of arguments and confrontations. Most of it was playful and good-natured, but of course, at that age things often got out of hand. Thankfully, the boys were pretty good at policing themselves, and they had to be given that teachers mostly stayed in the faculty room when they weren't teaching. The inmates ran the asylum, so to speak.

On one of my first days at the school, I walked into a classroom only to witness a group of ten or more boys carrying another boy above their heads and towards the window on the fourth floor. On another occasion, I saw a boy get a bloody nose during a game of soccer-baseball, which is meant to be a non-contact game, by the way.

You have to be tough, both mentally and physically to survive in boys middle school. And it's not for the faint of heart. I had never seen a collection of so many injured people, and that includes my football days. In each and every class there were black eyes, broken fingers and arms, twisted ankles, and scrapped knees. I made a point to ask the students how they were hurt. Most often it occurred during a soccer game, they said, or tripping on the sidewalk.

Here are just a few of the photos that I snapped throughout the year of the battle scars of life in a Korean boys middle school.

With any population, there are those who push things beyond the acceptable limits. Some teachers needed to take stress-leave because of terrible student behaviour. There were incidents of sexual harassment against female teachers, and bullying and physical violence against fellow students. Personally, I found the students very difficult to manage when I was the only teacher in the classroom and was always energy-depleted by the end of each day. I once walked out of a class 15 minutes before the end of the lesson because I couldn't control things. Despite all this, it is the active, eager, energetic, and nice boys that I will remember.

Each day, you never knew what you'd see walking the halls - grappling and kickboxing in the stairwells, boys racing down the halls, paper airplanes out the windows, classrooms full of sleeping students, fights, feasts, singing, playing, and so much more. You tested me as a teacher but always kept things exciting. Farewell, boys of D****** Middle School. Try to stay out of trouble.

One Year in South Korea

It's officially been one year since I arrived in South Korea as part of the EPIK program to teach English in public schools. When I boarded the airplane in Toronto one year ago I was nervous and excited for what was to come and the coronavirus was barely on the radar.

While the year has been stunted and stunned by the pandemic, and we are all waiting and wondering about the vaccine, I've had many unique and memorable experiences and plenty of absurd encounters and challenging obstacles.

I am now comfortable with my surroundings and have a basic routine. Still, I sometimes have surreal experiences where I can't believe I'm here. I might be sitting on a bus, surrounded by Koreans, and I realize that I'm all the way in Asia on the way to work. It's a feeling of being in a different world, so far from home. I smile and wonder how I got here.

The biggest disappointment of the year was that I wasn't able to travel beyond South Korea and I had limited opportunity to explore Korea apart from my city of Busan. Thankfully, Busan is a vibrant city with ample sightseeing opportunities and several beautiful beaches to enjoy. Hiking was a saving-grace during the lockdowns and social distancing. Brief jaunts to Jeju island and Seoul were welcome respites and highlights of the year.

Another disappointment is my failure to learn any of the Korean language during the year. True, I studied for a few months in the spring and completed an online undergraduate course in Korean, but I haven't retained much of what I studied and had little need to speak Korean in my daily life. Having the ability to communicate in Korean would have helped me to avoid several awkward situations this year, but the surprising prevalence of English-speakers in Busan made communication easy, most of the time. 

Relatedly, I haven't fully given Korean culture a chance. At least, not to the degree that I could have. I understand very little about Korean food and cultural traditions apart from what I happened to pick up at school. I regularly eat kimchi, even at home, which is about the only Korean thing I have consistently adopted in my everyday life. Most of the festivals and cultural events have been cancelled or cut short this year, so I had little opportunity to participate, unfortunately. With the pending COVID-19 vaccine, I hope to change this in the upcoming year.

An accurate representation of how I simultaneously fit and do not fit into Korean society is a recent experience I had while shopping for shoes. I entered the store not expecting the staff to understand English:

I tentatively asked, "Running shoes?"
The female staff person answered, "Over here we have our collection of men's running shoes."
I was very pleased and thought to myself, "I guess this is going to be easier than I imagined."
I told the staff my shoe size while showing "295mm" on my phone.
"Oh, we don't have your size here", she answered.
I asked for clarification, "You mean you don't have my size in this entire store?"
"Yes, that's right. We don't have your size at this store," she replied.
"Oh", I said, " Do you know another store I could try?"
"No, we don't," was her definitive answer.

That was the end of the interaction and I walked out emptyhanded (i.e. shoeless) yet impressed with her communication skills. Still, it was perplexing because usually when I am able to fully communicate with someone in English, I can achieve my goal. Here, it was a total failure.

Homesickness has been a challenge but regular video calls and chats have helped lessen the impact of being away from family and friends. It hasn't been easy to make friends here, although I have a few, so staying connected is important. I tried to send letters and postcards, as I always do when visiting a new country, but standard mail is not available from Korea during the pandemic, only expensive express mail. I have a stack of postcards ready to send out as soon as the postal service is back to its regular operations. Writing this blog has enabled the sharing of my thoughts and feelings this year. I hope it has been entertaining for my readers and I think it will be fun for me to re-read these accounts years after I've left Korea. 

So, was it worth it? Was coming to Korea worth giving up what I had in Canada? It's a very difficult question to answer and I suppose it's impossible to know for sure. I constantly second-guess my decisions and imagine other possibilities for my life. But when it comes down to it, yes, if given the chance to do it all again, I would choose to come to Korea at this point in my life. True, it would have been better without a worldwide pandemic, but I've had a good year and appreciate all that I've experienced so far. No matter what happens next, this first year has been incredible.

Haedong Yonggung Temple

After staying close to home for the peak of the COVID-19 wave in Korea, I had a free day and decided to take advantage of the low corona-virus numbers to do some sightseeing. One of the most famous images of Busan that you'll find in all of the guidebooks is the Haedong Yonggung Temple, and it's been at the top of my to-do list since arriving in Korea.

The need to avoid crowds was one reason I hadn't visited this top tourist attraction until now. The other reason is that it is over two hours away from my apartment by public transportation since I live on the opposite side of the city. Determined to finally make it to the temple, I got up extra-early on a Sunday morning and made the long trip via subway and bus.

The Haedong Yonggung Temple in eastern Busan was originally built in 1376 but destroyed during the Japanese invasion of 1592-1598. The current iteration of the temple was rebuilt in the 1930s. It is promoted as the most beautiful temple in Korea and is unique because of its seaside location. It is a spiritual place where Koreans come for prayer and to admire the beauty of the temple by the sea. The motto of Haedong Yonggung temple is "at least one of your wishes will be answered here through your heartful prayers."

There are several statues on the temple grounds for specific prayers. Rub a Buddha on the belly and be granted a son. Another Buddha is for those seeking academic success. There was an interesting 7-storey pagoda for ensuring traffic safety when driving your vehicle. My favourites were the enormous, golden pigs that support general luck. 

Common advice is to arrive at the temple first thing in the morning to enjoy the spectacular sunrise with the added bonus of avoiding the crowds. The temple opens at 5am but with the aforementioned two-hour travel time, that was not going to happen. I arrived around 9:30am - early enough to get some photos without other tourists in the shot, but that didn't last long. The temple filled up with people as the minutes went by. I enjoyed the architecture and the various statues, but it was difficult to appreciate the intended serenity of the temple with so many other people around.

I wandered around the temple grounds, snapping photos and taking in the scenic view of the sea for about 90 minutes, then I trekked 10 minutes back down a hill to the bus stop and decided to enjoy a stroll at Haeundae Beach, which is a short drive from the temple. I hadn't been to Haeundae Beach for months and it was an amazingly warm and sunny day for February (15°C). Inexplicably, the beach was still adorned with Christmas decorations.

The weather is getting nicer and I hope to do more sightseeing in Korea this year, depending on what happens with the pandemic. Who knows, I may even be able to visit some nearby countries if things go well. Wear a mask everyone!

Farewell to my 3rd Graders

Once the 3rd graders (age 16) at my middle school completed their final exams back in the fall, their focus shifted to applying for high schools. I had the frustrating experience of teaching these understandably unmotivated students after their final exams. But with the COVID-19 situation, they shifted to online study and I hadn't seen them since late November.

The 3rd graders were back at school for their final week of middle school. They received their admissions to high school and were just wrapping up a few things before the graduation ceremony on Friday. Several classes were cancelled for special events but I did have to teach 3 classes this week.

I was really excited to see these students again after several months away but I struggled to decide what to teach them. On the one hand, it's been so long since we've had class together, I thought I should do a proper lesson so they could finally have some face-to-face education. Also, I thought, maybe I should do something memorable and nice for the last class so they would leave the school on a high note. On the other hand, I knew that the students would be unmotivated, so perhaps I shouldn't expect anything from my last classes.

I had a lesson prepared from earlier in the term that I thought was pretty fun. It was a song-based lesson. We would learn the lyrics and the meaning of the song "Ain't that a Shame" by Fats Domino. The class concludes with a group sing-along. The lesson was successful with my boys classes. So, I made a few modifications to the lesson and was satisfied that I was prepared for my final class with the 3rd graders this week.

I like to have my lessons prepared well in advance of the lesson, but the night before my class I wasn't feeling right about teaching a song. I was concerned the lesson called for too much participation from the students. I suspected that their motivation would be at an all-time low, especially my first class which was scheduled for the first period of the day. 

I decided to scrap the song idea and just try to play a game with the students. I did a little warm-up by asking the students some basic questions like "Are you excited for high school?" Then we played a game called Three Kingdoms. Essentially students needed to move through the map to catch all three kingdoms. If they wanted a space on the board occupied by another team, they challenged them to Rock, Paper, Scissors, and the winner took the space.

When I played this game at the boys school, the students were incredibly competitive and passionate about the game. This time, it was excruciating trying to get students to play, but after a while, they seemed to get the hang of it and at least the game had a good flow and was somewhat entertaining. I'm glad that I decided to change my lesson plan.

If nothing else this year, I learned to become more comfortable as a teacher when facing the wall of silence from my students. It's incredibly awkward and frustrating being in front of a non-participatory group of students, but now I know I can handle it.

What I will miss most about these 3rd graders is that while it was often difficult to elicit their participation, their English speaking abilities were the highest of my students this year. So, when I had a chance to speak with them more casually in the hallways during lunch, we had a really nice connection. The COVID-19 pandemic really hamstrung my efforts to get to know the students, but when that opportunity was available, it was a real highlight of my year.

Year one is in the books and many lessons have been learned. I'll apply these lessons in year two and hope for the best.