Inje English Village

Inje English Village is my place of employment. It is not a public school because in public schools, the English teachers actually teach with the Korean English teacher, so the co-teach. A hagwon (which is what I think I teach at) is defined by Wikipedia as a 'for-profit private academy or institute.' We are not necessarily a a hagwon I don't think, but some other foreign teachers in my city consider us just as "English village." Quite honestly, I don't know the difference, but maybe it's better that I don't.



Some of the time I think it seems like a lot of parents just need to send their kids somewhere to be babysat, so the parents send them to the English village and leave them there all day. So some kids don't seem very interested in learning. So those day/specific classes are difficult and frustrating to teach, but that's just the way it is. And I was just thinking; I usually tell people the youngest age I teach is 8, but I forgot that's their Korean age, so they add one or two years, so really they are 6. I don't remember the way the Korean age works, but here is an example. I am 23 years old Western age, so you either add one or two, so my Korean age is 24 or 25. I think when my birthday comes in April, I will be 26, but 24 Western age. I think it's because when Koreans are born, they are one year old, not one day old. Then when January 1st comes, I think everyone celebrate their second birthday. But I can't remember what happens when it comes back to their actual day of birth..I get very confused. Blah.



Our school is very small, and as I said before, public school English teachers teach with the Korean English teachers, so there are two teachers in the English classes. But at my school/hagwon/English village (whatever you want to call it), it is only me in the classroom. So every week, our director give us three teachers the topic for the week. The past couple weeks we did weather, clothing and rooms of the house. So typically we print out flashcards with pictures and say the English word. We repeat and repeat and repeat. Then we incorporate a game so the kids have fun and can run around. We are responsible for creating the games and activities and as long as the kids learn the vocabulary, it doesn't matter what we do.



Recently, I really feel like I have the hang of teaching and what I should be doing. Usually I have the older kids - the 11-13 year olds - so they understand way more English than the little ones. So now one day I teach the words and play a small game. The next day I try to have a worksheet where they see the pictures and try to match it with the written word for letter recognition. Then another day I do a writing activity where I print a sheet where the kids can trace the vocabulary words, then write it themselves. And finally, lately I have been creating my own crosswords puzzles so they can do word searches. That routine is what I do in my Class 2; I haven't taught Class 1 for a while, so they will need a simpler lesson plan. Class 3 is just vocabulary quizzes all hour.



Inje English Village has four classrooms. During summer camp and winter camp, we have many students because the public school are on vacation. But we only have three English teachers here (our new one is coming from South Africa tomorrow) so we teach five 50-minute classes Tuesday-Friday. Our hours always change and they will probably change sometime in March.

- Mom, you know who this student is -

Inje English Village is really just a fun place to learn English. There is never any homework and never any tests. Personally, I wish there was just not to know if to students are absorbing anything, but it would also show me if I am a good teacher or not. So, sometimes with those activities I can tell which students are learning and understanding and which ones I have to pay extra attention to. But as long as I know, that's no big deal.



That's about all I have going on for now. I am always thinking of the next trip I want to take, but a long vacation isn't coming until August. Then I have another one in September. The two countries I really want to go is China and Malaysia. We'll see what happens.