My Job at Cheongju English Center-Restaurant

 

I spent the whole first 2.5 months of my Korean life teaching "library" where I taught students how to check into the library and check out.  I also taught them several games and talked about some of the popular English books ("TEACHER I LOVE TWILIGHT").  It was such a wonderful change from what I was used to in the States.  I'm a little bit luckier than most of the other teachers I know here for several reasons.  The first being, I know what its like to be a real teacher in my home country.  I hear a lot of my buddies complaining about their jobs, but if only they knew what life was like when you are actually a real teacher and your content areas are tested!  Try being an algebra teacher!  Because of this, I have a deeper appreciation for my job here and the lack of stress I am under.  The second reason is because I teach more of a summer camp than a real school.  Our students come in on Monday and we bid the adieu on Friday, starting the whole process over the following week.

This is a blessing and a curse because it causes me to have to have high energy at ALL times (because I only physically have students in my class once) and it makes my life completely redundant.  At the same time, I know that certain kids that annoy me will be out of my room in 50 minutes or less and I will never have to see them again!  Its beautiful!

Now, I teach "Restaurant".  We cover the types of restaurants- fast food, buffet, dine in- we cover the meals in a day- breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch - and several other things.  Majority of my time is spent having them repeat after me and asking them fun questions like "What do you eat for breakfast?" "Yummy!  What is your favorite dessert".  Then we have a role play where the student have the opportunity to be waiters/waitresses and customers.  They take orders, have menus, get the food from the cabinet, pretend to eat, pay, and tip.  They have an excellent time and so do I.  At the end of the role play we have a boys vs. girls memory game where they have to match cards together.  They get so into it and they do all of this for a few reward points that I stamp into their "Passports".  This is my day. 

People have been wondering why I am so happy... its because I know what my life could look like right now had I done what most people urged me to do and stayed in Phoenix within the comforts of normalcy.  I know how bored and utterly dissatisfied I could have been had I listened and not done what was in my heart for the first time ever.  I know how much I could have been hating my job had I not just said Fuck it!  And I am going to happily keep doing things that make me happy, and Korea is definitely this first of many!