Week 2

So we have now been here for 2 weeks and have started our training at the school (Eungpyong SLP). On Sunday we went to church with our friend Eric and his family. They attend Yumsan Presbyterian Church. The drive to the church was an adventure in itself. Eric’s father drove up many steep hills through some very narrow streets with cars parked on both sides of the road; we were amazed at the tight spaces he was able to get through. Once at the church we parked on top of a steel parking structure build to add more room for parking. The people here have to park so close together in order to maximize space for others that it is hard to believe that anyone can get out of their cars once they are parked.


We met up with Eric’s grandmother (Young Sook’s mother) as soon as we entered the church and Eric translated her greeting and questions. Everyone was very welcoming. The service started off with praise music, and then there were prayers, readings and a sermon. Everything was in Korean so we did not know what was being said, but the sermon was accompanied by images displayed with 2 digital projectors so we could kinda figure out the topic.

I didn't take these pictures, they are from the churches website

After church, Eric and his father took us out to lunch at a Korean restaurant where a few other people joined us. We were served so many dishes that they did not all fit on the table and some had to be removed to add new ones. It was all very delicious.


On Monday we started our training. Throughout the week our teacher, Hanna had taught us the rules of the school and about some of the programs that we will be teaching. We have also had the opportunity to sit in on many classes to see how the other teachers manage their lessons. We are being trained with a new Korean teacher who started off as Jin and then was told she had to change her name because there is another teacher named Jin, then she was Sue but Hanna had forgotten that there was already a primary teacher named Sue so she had to change it again and finally she is now Jenny. We found this interesting; they require everyone to have an English nickname, even the students. We may have to name some of our students who come to the school without English names, so Don has compiled a lengthy list of name choices for us to choose from.

View from the floor that the school is on

On Friday we were required to create a lesson plan and teach a mock lesson. It was pretty funny pretending that we were students while one of us was teaching; we had a lot of fun with it. We have also received our teaching schedules, Don will be teaching 7 classes Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and 6 classes Tuesdays and Thursdays; and I will be teaching 6 all week. We are teaching different types of classes to, some are more intense than others so we will see which ones require more preparation. I have 2 classes of students who come to the school all 5 days for 80 minutes each day, these are for students who have done their kindergarten at the school and therefore already know some English. I think that it is amazing that these kids go to school all day and then come to our English school for 80 minutes and then have to go home to do the homework that they have received from both schools. Many of these students take other classes too. There are some classes that we have that are 160 minutes long! I would like to see some Canadian students live a day in the life of a student here, that would make for some interesting reality television!

On Friday night the director of the school took all of the afternoon teachers out for supper. We went to a Korean BBQ restaurant where we had numerous side dishes and thick pork slices that kind of looked like bacon. It was very good. Don drank some Korean beer and we both tried some Soju which is a Korean liquor made from sweet potatoes. There are different kinds, some are smoother than others but it is not bad. After supper we walked down the street to a local “western” bar that the teachers have adopted as their own. The owner of the bar speaks English and they are super friendly. We had a great time talking with the other teachers and meeting some of their Korean friends. Don played darts and lost :( . But he came close to winning the second round.

Craig and Tosin

On Saturday Craig and Tosin, two of the teachers from the school took us on a bus tour of downtown Seoul. The bus took us past 27 landmarks and gave us some great ideas for places to visit in the future. We did stop to walk around Itaewon; a district of Seoul that is very popular with tourists and U.S Army personnel, so there are a lot of foreigners there. We walked around for a bit and had some kebobs at a great little place. Then we caught the next tour bus. We had a great time and are thankful that the teachers here are so helpful and willing to show us around.

Some of the things we saw on the bus tour