Well, my first week officially teaching has come and gone... and it was certainly interesting. The curriculum that I am to teach is entirely derived from the TOEFL, and when I say entirely derived, I mean ENTIRELY. Though there is to a certain degree flexibility in how I teach the material, there isn't in the material itself. This translates to me covering the most boring, absurd, and inappropriate material you can imagine to middle and high school students. What, you may ask do I mean by boring, absurd, and inappropriate? Last week, I had to give a group of 11-12 year olds a reading on the concept of paradigm shifts, and then proceed to read a lecture on it. Or there was the class of 11 year olds who had to read about, and then regurgitate to me the Ancient Greek Emission Theory of Light and then compare it to the Modern Wave Theory of Light.
For the high schoolers in my actual TOEFL classes, the material is equally dense and uninteresting. The way the TOEFL class works, is that students come in, take a practice TOEFL test on the computer, and then once taken, my co-worker Rick and I go over the test material with them. It's broken into sections, and I go over the 6 speaking questions with them. Last week, my favorite question involved them listening to a short lecture on a brief history of rocket science, and then identifying three pioneers in the field and summarizing their contributions. Though much of the language in the lecture was not necessarily beyond their comprehension, much of the material was. Hell, some of it was beyond my comprehension. I don't know how to elaborate on velocity in a vacuum or the fundamental equations of rocket propellants (or something like that...I have no idea what it was). In a nut shell, my job is to teach them to pick up key words and phrases, that allow them to regurgitate material that they neither comprehend nor have an interest in. Talk about teaching to the test. That is what I do. I feel I can say with certainty that were all native English speakers forced to take the TOEFL, a good number of them would certainly not do favorably. (We also learned about the Roswell Incident... what is that you may ask? Well, I could tell you all about it since I lectured on it last week, but if you really care just google it and read all about flying saucers in 1947.) On the plus side, I think I will leave this experience being a bona-fide encyclopedia of completely random information. (everything from Borax and cedar oil as a means of ridding your house of fleas, to the lost colonists of Roanoke). Here come my year-long American history class full of everything that I never learned in high school, and where I'm the teacher.
The seeming absurdity of the material aside, the people that I work for at SLI- Seoul Language Institute, are lovely. I feel I have a solid support system, and I enjoy chatting with the people I work for and with. One thing that I think is telling of the company is that everyone teaches. My boss- the guy in charge of the entire branch- is in the classroom teaching, as is everyone else that does administrative work. I really appreciate the sense of connectedness and equality that this engenders. Also for the most part, the students are hilarious. The English names they give themselves highlight this- I have 2 Mia's (one is a boy) and a Mi-mi (also a boy), I have a Captain America, Darth Vader, Haha, and Egg (his head is a bit egg shaped..) to name a few. Though they are admittedly sometimes quite obnoxious.
Case in Point: Last night I had the unfortunate pleasure of learning about a game that young kids love to play...it literally translates to "poop stick." It involves sneaking up behind someone and putting your index fingers exactly where you imagine you would from the not so clever title of the game. Needless to say, as appalled as I was, I couldn't quite contain my laughter. Though it was with a strong warning that I would physically hurt anyone who tried that on me and I would not apologize. And I'd probably would fail them too for good measure.
Anyway, I'm off to go read about mucus and its function and composition (antiseptic enzymes and proteins you know) for one of my classes tonight- at least this one if for 15 years olds.
For the high schoolers in my actual TOEFL classes, the material is equally dense and uninteresting. The way the TOEFL class works, is that students come in, take a practice TOEFL test on the computer, and then once taken, my co-worker Rick and I go over the test material with them. It's broken into sections, and I go over the 6 speaking questions with them. Last week, my favorite question involved them listening to a short lecture on a brief history of rocket science, and then identifying three pioneers in the field and summarizing their contributions. Though much of the language in the lecture was not necessarily beyond their comprehension, much of the material was. Hell, some of it was beyond my comprehension. I don't know how to elaborate on velocity in a vacuum or the fundamental equations of rocket propellants (or something like that...I have no idea what it was). In a nut shell, my job is to teach them to pick up key words and phrases, that allow them to regurgitate material that they neither comprehend nor have an interest in. Talk about teaching to the test. That is what I do. I feel I can say with certainty that were all native English speakers forced to take the TOEFL, a good number of them would certainly not do favorably. (We also learned about the Roswell Incident... what is that you may ask? Well, I could tell you all about it since I lectured on it last week, but if you really care just google it and read all about flying saucers in 1947.) On the plus side, I think I will leave this experience being a bona-fide encyclopedia of completely random information. (everything from Borax and cedar oil as a means of ridding your house of fleas, to the lost colonists of Roanoke). Here come my year-long American history class full of everything that I never learned in high school, and where I'm the teacher.
The seeming absurdity of the material aside, the people that I work for at SLI- Seoul Language Institute, are lovely. I feel I have a solid support system, and I enjoy chatting with the people I work for and with. One thing that I think is telling of the company is that everyone teaches. My boss- the guy in charge of the entire branch- is in the classroom teaching, as is everyone else that does administrative work. I really appreciate the sense of connectedness and equality that this engenders. Also for the most part, the students are hilarious. The English names they give themselves highlight this- I have 2 Mia's (one is a boy) and a Mi-mi (also a boy), I have a Captain America, Darth Vader, Haha, and Egg (his head is a bit egg shaped..) to name a few. Though they are admittedly sometimes quite obnoxious.
Case in Point: Last night I had the unfortunate pleasure of learning about a game that young kids love to play...it literally translates to "poop stick." It involves sneaking up behind someone and putting your index fingers exactly where you imagine you would from the not so clever title of the game. Needless to say, as appalled as I was, I couldn't quite contain my laughter. Though it was with a strong warning that I would physically hurt anyone who tried that on me and I would not apologize. And I'd probably would fail them too for good measure.
Anyway, I'm off to go read about mucus and its function and composition (antiseptic enzymes and proteins you know) for one of my classes tonight- at least this one if for 15 years olds.
I miss you, Mia!!!
ReplyDelete-Emily
Poop Stick? OMG that is hilarious! Hope your having fun :)
ReplyDeletehahaha oh my gooosh. Poop stick?! Too funny. Sounds like you're enjoying yourself though :)
ReplyDelete