On my orientation day a month ago at my work there was one important thing stressed to me about teaching adults in Korea. We should take them out for drinks once a month. The way it was put to me is as follows:
'Do you like drinking soju?'
Me: 'Yes'
'Good. It is important that you take each class out for drinks once a month.'
Me: Baffled look as I wondered why.
'Think of them as friends.'
Me: ????
Now I understand. In Korea, it is unlike teaching at high school in Australia. Here I see my classes for one hour five days a week. Occasionaly someone has to miss a day, but so far most have been to every lesson. In that time, because it is a conversation class and we are always talking about our lives, experiences, likes dislikes, beliefs, attitudes to social situations, ethics and a whole host of other stuff, I feel like I have come to know them very well and they are like friends. I know their dreams, what they do in their day to day life, their habits, I hear about their families, girlfriends, boyfriends, relationship ups and downs and sometimes even things I don't really need to know. So it was quite natural when I asked them out for dinner and drinks on Friday night and gave them all me phone number. Hopefully they come. Lol...
But other things are different here too. For example, The students love to feed me traditional Korean food and different things they have found that they don't think I know about. Today one of my students brought me in traditional food his mother made for Lunar New Year, last week another student gave me traditional rice cakes and drinks, still another gave me a Body Shop gift set, another gave me Korean biscuits and Japanese coffee. Again, in Australia it a big no-no to accept gifts off students unless they are graduating. Although I will remember when one gave me sugar candy to cook Asian pear in when I had a really nasty cough and sore throat.
On Friday one of my Korean co-workers had an accident and I took one of her classes, a low level class. There were only two students. One was a girl so cute and she kept calling me 'teacher'. The other guy was so nervous at first. I think I was the first foreigner he had met and he kept fanning his face when he had to talk. He was adorable. At the end he told me it was his birthday on Wednesday (today) so I picked him up this tiny tart with strawberry and cream. I visited his class during my break and gave it to him with a message of Happy Birthday. His teacher later told me that he was so surprised and touched because no one had ever given him something like this for his birthday before. It's quite common in Australia so I thought nothing of it but he really appreciated it. I had no idea how much so.
One of my students teaches me Korean so today we went to a coffee shop after work to study. I buy him a drink in exchange for his help. Again, just another example of how different Korea and Australia are.
At first I thought it was strange but then I realised, it's just normal in Korea. We'll see how Friday night goes!
No comments:
Post a Comment