Simon says... BEHAVE!

Last week was much the same as last week, teaching-wise. The only difference being that I delved into the depths of my suitcase to find my box of tricks in order to deal with the problem kids. On opening the box, a man called Simon popped out and started telling me to sit down, stand up, jump and find something green. I knocked him out and stuffed him in my bag for school. So, as you've probably guessed, 'Simon says' became my new weapon of choice for the start of lessons. Why? I figured it'd knacker them out early on. Did it work? Totally. I did manage to make one kid cry, though. That wasn't Simon's fault though...

I'll fast rewind to last Friday. I was teaching what's my most difficult class, in terms of the kids in it. I can't even explain any kind of discipline to them as they just laugh all the time. Not in a 'cute kid who's having fun' kind of way. They are deliberately all joining up to do anything except what I say. Case in point- in 'Simon Says' they do the opposite of what poor old Simon actually says, every single time. Very annoying.

Well, there's one of them who I identified as the ring-leader of the group. So, all I did was move her to the back corner of the classroom to sit on her own. It was actually only originally going to be for 2 minutes, as a warning. I figured she'd have to make more effort to disrupt things from over there. Instead, she proceeded to sulk and, eventually, cry. She refused to move or look at anyone else during the lesson, and stormed out at the end of the lesson. Temper temper!

At this point, I'm going to point out something I've noticed- all the misbehaving kids here tend to look a bit like Cartman from South Park. They're not hungry to learn, just plain hungry. 'Respect my authoritahh!' is futile against them.

Anyway, back to girl Cartman- I ignored her attempts at attention seeking and, funnily enough, the other kids actually behaved for the rest of the lesson and learnt something. And had fun doing it it. So- it worked. The price of good behaviour? A cup of tears from a bratty child. Worth it? Totally.

Other than my reign of evil over the kids, I'll tell you about my actual performance as a teacher. I may not yet be fluent in Korean yet, but I'm definitely getting better at the language of miscommunication. So much so that, when I was supposed to be giving a class a test, I was playing 'Simon says' instead. They all passed.

Besides school, I managed to dust off my Pool skills on Thursday, against my flatmate. I lost 1-0. The other 5 games I lost don't count- they were warm-up matches. We then went for a drink at a local bar that turned out to be a bit cosy for our tastes, and where the waiter was Louis Spence. The bar food was not nuts, but cherry tomatoes and slices- it was like half-time at a football match....

We now have our own wireless internet connection too as we bought a wireless router after two weeks of being kindly lent some internet by one of our neighbours. We haven't told whichever neighbour it was that we have our own now- it'd only hurt his feelings...

(Update- this router has since broken down. We have temporarily re-engaged our mutual understanding with Mr Neighbour. Lovely chap.)

Finally, I've signed up for a site called Adventure Korea where you can go on weekend trips with other teachers- I'm due to go Sea Rafting, Paintballing and to something called a Pumba festival in two weeks time. It'll have taken me a month to meet some more English speaking people. I'm a Social Butterfly...

I suppose that's the end of this week's blog (apologies for the lateness- I've been too busy losing 1-0 at Pool again). It's been a bit disjointed I guess, but on positive side it's been my least offensive blog yet. On the negative side, though, it's been my least offensive blog yet. B*****ks.