Of Soju and Soliloquies

Note to self: I really need to cut back on my excursions to Seoul. Now, I go to Seoul about five times a week (you would too as Jukjeon is lacking of everything except 여생마사지 and 룸끌럽) but when I go there to drink it always ends badly. I really should switch to soju since I usually do not become inebriated when out with my Korean friends.

In other news this week, we had our first ersatz rehearsals for the English Festival. I have the highest level class at this kindergarten and they will be performing a speech and one of two plays. For the speeches
they are dressing up as a Greek god. It surpised me when I first came to Korea and all the elementary students were reading Greek myth comic books. Here they call it 그리스로마문화 (Greek-Roman comics). When I told them I was Greek and that my father was from the same island as Odysseus they freaked out. Of course, we are now related :)
My students each have a page-long speech to memorise, with actions, but today were only allowed to recite the first two lines. As for the plays, one is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" and the other is a mock classroom play. "The Walrus and the Carpenter" was at the behest of one of my American collegues. The school play is entirely my creation. Any play where you can hear a six year old recite Blake and Shelley is worth the price of admission alone.
***Contrary to popular belief, being American and supporting the current administration are two separate things.***

All this preparation for the Festival, which is essentially advertising for the school, got me thinking of exactly how much work we put in compared to teachers at regular hagwons. We work normal hours (10am to 5:30pm or 7pm depending if you teach pre-IBT) five days a week but in that time we have to make spelling tests, make 3 or 4 monthly tests which need to be at least one hour long, write bimonthly reports for all students in our classes, write weekly reports for kindergarten students and occassionally correct lesson plans. Ultimately, I shouldn't need to go through my kindergarten class' target language to check grammar and spelling as it is copied directly from the textbook. Worse, if I miss something the students usually memorise the sentence as they see it. Also, my supervisor has spelt my name incorrectly every month for the last year.
Still, the children appreciate it. Or at least they seem to. Unlike the other teachers, I rarely receive gifts from the parents. By gifts we are talking about Gucci phone bling and Chanel perfume. For my birthday I got post-it notes and thumb-tacks from my kindy class. I understand their fascination with stationery since when I was their age these kinds of things were the coolest things to have, usually because only teachers had them. And we all know teachers are cool!