Gene texted me this morning asking for Ian's phone number. I gave it to him and asked if everything was alright. He said "I hope so. I am with Julia. I am trying to be courageous." I replied "That's good. Stay tough." When I talked to Ian at the end of the day and mentioned Terry arriving as class started he told me that Gene never showed. I immediately worried that my encouragement had gotten him fired. So, I gave Ian Gene's number and had him text him to see what was up. Luckily, Gene wasn't fired, he was just in an meeting with Julia discussing some ideas for the upper level classes (presumably all day since he didn't show up for Ian's classes). Ian talked to him about the ordeal and he said it was long and stressful. Julia told him how the classes needed to be run and Gene sat and nodded. I'm not sure why they had to have this secondary meeting, but I hope it doesn't signify that Gene's job is in jeopardy.
Ian found out today that we're not fully legal in Korea. We have our foreigner's identification cards, but our education qualifications haven't been verified. During the visa process, while we were still stateside, I sent my diploma in order to have all the paperwork filled out. Ian was told that he didn't need his (since it wouldn't be available until much later) and provided transcripts and an official letter from his registrar's office in it's stead. I've since had my diploma returned to me and we figured all the paperwork was finished. We didn't even get our id cards until we'd been here nearly two months. But, it turns out that Yoon's never finalized the paperwork verifying our degrees. I have to hand over my diploma again and Ian has to get a fax copy of his. Since the payscale for hagwon teachers is based on their level of completion of a degree, it makes me nervous that they've left this paperwork hanging. They could choose to reduce our pay and there'd be a lot of hoops to jump through to fight it. But, I don't think they have any intention of doing that. They're simply terribly unorganized when it comes to running their business.
Our days went normally otherwise. In my Beginner 2 class the students were instructed to draw themselves and label "my head," "my hand," "my knee," etc. One of my bright, but younger (and a bit odd) students named Cameron initially drew himself nude. I told Terry that if Cameron asked for the word, I intended to field him the question and Terry told me that they don't deal with that in the Korean school system. Actually, he said "In the American system, you'd do that, but here there's no need." Problem #9,837 with the Korean educational system. I knew they had no AIDS education, but no anatomy, either? No wonder everyone seems naive and childlike far into their adult years. Luckily, Cameron put clothes on his drawing.
Ian desperately wants to watch Shrek 2. He's been really nice about the near constant Christmas music, so we'll be watching it tonight. Good night!
Our days went normally otherwise. In my Beginner 2 class the students were instructed to draw themselves and label "my head," "my hand," "my knee," etc. One of my bright, but younger (and a bit odd) students named Cameron initially drew himself nude. I told Terry that if Cameron asked for the word, I intended to field him the question and Terry told me that they don't deal with that in the Korean school system. Actually, he said "In the American system, you'd do that, but here there's no need." Problem #9,837 with the Korean educational system. I knew they had no AIDS education, but no anatomy, either? No wonder everyone seems naive and childlike far into their adult years. Luckily, Cameron put clothes on his drawing.
Ian desperately wants to watch Shrek 2. He's been really nice about the near constant Christmas music, so we'll be watching it tonight. Good night!
What interesting children you have in your classes. I had to LOL. Strange how in this century and with the information on STD's that even Korea does not have some sort of sex ed in the school system.
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