Today, students returned from winter break. Yet, it probably made no difference to most of these kids whether they're back in school or not. Why? There's no break from learning here. In theory, that sounds great. In reality, it's made me kinda sad to see kids schlepping around backpacks and not having any free time to relax. Unless they really really love English, I doubt they're idea of a great winter break did not involve extra English classes.
Yet, that's what the majority of students do. Just like all the other elementary, middle, and high schools in Korea, my English Center hosted English camps throughout winter break. We had a week long camp for 3rd and 4th graders and a two week camp for 5th and 6th graders. Now, my school is different from a normal Korean public school. A few months before winter camp we had almost 100 5th and 6th graders from other schools nervously take an hour long exam in English proficiency. As icing on the cake, when they finished the exam they also had an interview/speaking test. I felt pretty awful about it but hey- that's life (in Korea). A lot of parents were sitting in the hallway waiting for kids and you could hear them say "fighting!" every now and then. I only interviewed 23 students but it was a pretty memorable experience. We had students that had lived overseas and spoke fantastic English, students that couldn't make one sentence, and students that were so nervous that they were shaking or giggling uncontrollably.
36 lucky (sarcasm) students were selected and enrolled in our intensive 5th and 6th English camp. Compared to the other teachers I know here (all in public schools), my camp was NOT fun at all. For example, my friend Megan taught a Harry Potter themed camp. She taught a potions class (coke and Mentos experiments- how fun does that sound!?!) Other examples of camps I've heard about: Mystery, superheroes, holidays, etc. Our theme is Making a Foreign Friend. I'm sure it's super fun to have classes about daily routine, school life, Gwangju, Korea and holidays. So fun right? SO. MUCH. FUN.
Although I felt bad for them, it was really fun teaching them. My normal classes are all low level and it's really refreshing to have such high level students. I had fluent conversations with the few students who lives abroad and almost fluent conversation with many more.
One of the main things that the campers had to do was present about a pen-pal that they wrote to during the two weeks at camp (found through a pen-pal website). Some kids didn't have any responses to their emails so that's when I asked Becca (the greatest sister ever) and Daniel (the cutest of the cousins no matter how old he is or how long his beard grows) if they would be willing to write to campers so they would have someone to present about. The kids were really amused and embarrassed to be writing to my relatives but whatever, they had a pen-pal.
Kids who never got in touch with a pen-pal and didn't write to one of my relatives were able to present about anything they wanted. The standout presentation was by a girl who absolutely loves Disney. She presented about every Disney princess. Kids were required to talk for min. 2 minutes but I think she carried on for almost 10. We should have cut her off but she was just so enthusiastic about it.
While I could go on and on about the adorable things kids said at camp throughout the 3 weeks, I think I'm just gonna focus on one less adorable thing I found out one day when we were discussing our daily schedules. We found out that almost none of the 5th and 6th graders ate lunch most days because they were too busy with classes. When they were finished with English camp at noon, they went straight to their Hagwons (extra classes) until who knows when. Sometimes they could finish at 5 or 6 but they could also stay out studying until as late as 10. Remember, this is winter break. Imagine their schedules when school's in-session. During a lesson about my high school experience, I broke it to them that America doesn't have a Hagwon culture. They were shocked, awed, and jealous.
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| I loved the 3rd and 4th graders. They seemed happy most of the time and were amused by everything. |
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| They were really excited that I was taking a picture. I think 3rd and 4th grade are my favorite grades to teach. |
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| 3rd and 4th graders. Had to use this picture because of the fantastic pose of the kid in the front. Amazing. |
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| Teaching. Please don't judge my ugly outfit. I've given up caring about clothes in the winter. It's cold and I put on whatever looks warm and reminds me of a blanket. |
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| One of the students giving her presentation about her pen pal. |
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| Some cute 5th and 6th graders. |
Peace!
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