tucker

I haven't published a post for over a week now, but it's because work has been extremely busy as it's my first week as a 'proper' teacher. What I mean is that I actually have to teach things other than how old my brother is compared with my snails.. So, I've been lesson planning like a pro (but with less than pro results :P) as well as rubbish like paperwork and 'chatting' to every student who wanders up to my desk. What usually happens is that a female student would roll up say 'Hi!!', wave, then leg it. A male student would swagger up, say 'Hi!', realise he doesn't speak much English, then linger until he manages to splurt out 'Bye..', and...

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Seoul - First time round

Right, I know that this blog is a long time coming, but I've been busy :POk, so, it's the first weekend of being in Incheon and I feel completely lost. For example, I remember being in E-Mart (a superstore type place in Korea) and it taking me about 40 minutes to A) ask for a map of the city we were standing in, and B) find the right kind of map that I wanted (I wanted a road map so I could get my bearings and the best they could offer me was one of those maps of Korea that you might find in a Geography class) - but the staff were really friendly :)Next mission: find a payphone to call my friend to see if she wants to meet up (she is Korean/British...

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Lee-Teacher!

I was told by my co-teacher that all I had to do for this week and next was to write an introduction lesson plan. And, so, this is it:Intro PresentationView more presentations from leewhat.What I do is I go through this presentation and say where I'm from and what English food is like and that I love curry. I then say about my family, and when they see the picture of Lauren and Ryan they all go 'ooooo pretty!' (I'm guessing they are mostly talking about Lauren, but I did hear some 'handsome' shouts for Ryan from some of the kids wearing glasses (I think their glasses fog up a bit in the cold)). I ask them what pets they have and then show them...

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Taxi for Lee

My Nan always tells me to get a taxi back from wherever I've gone as a few quid in taxi fare doesn't matter compared to me getting mugged or happy slapped. And, of course, she is right. This advice is doubly relevant in South Korea because, most of the time, I have no idea where I'm going. Also, the taxi drivers over here are amazing because they are the king's of multi-tasking... I mean, the taxi driver tonight managed to keep his eye on the GPS WHILE watching the news and weather on his portable TV (which most people have in their cars over here) WHILE glancing at the address on the bit of paper I gave him and all WHILE driving his taxi on the crazy Korean roads in the pissing rain and snow/slush. He had definitely had some skills to be jealous of.So, Nan, you know I'm in safe hands over...

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Teacher time

OK. So, I had my first teaching experience today. I taught 5 classes using my prepared presentation and minor teaching plan of getting the students to prepare name tags and then practice introduction based conversations with each other using some of the sentences I had already talked about in the powerpoint. It worked half the time, with the other half taking little interest for a couple of reasons:1) They were either too low level to understand most of what I was saying as I found out that some couldn't even write their name in English characters. 2) they were too high level to be bothered with my 'let's write name tags and have a chat' lesson plan.But I didn't really expect much from my first day teaching and I was surprised I got that far. Anyway, I'm revising my lesson plan for tomorrow...

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Apartments anyone?

Just a short video of the sheer amount of apartment blocks around in Korea (this was taken near Dongchun station about 30 minutes on the subway south of where I live):...

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Third time lucky...

ok. so. here is my video WITH sound this time...: Also, on my way back from Bupyeong last night, I got genuinely lost. No one spoke English and I had to ask 3 different taxi drivers and a few passerby's how to get to my apartment. I managed to think of a landmark that was close to my place and I walked from there! But I got pretty stressed out because I thought I was being obvious, but clearly I was talking a load of rubbish... as usual :Panyway, enjoy the video and let me know if it works ...

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My First Day at School... as a teacher.

So, I woke up on Tuesday 2nd March 2010 at 6am - which was lucky because it took me a while to set it properly the night before as the instructions were all in Korean - to start my job as an English teacher! I should've got up earlier really because my co-teacher came an hour later to witness me sockless and still doing up my tie. I also had to go back to get my belt, which was embarrassing..Anyway, after a cold walk to the school, I arrived at my desk! I sit opposite my co-teacher and next to another random teacher, who I have barely spoken to yet. My vice principal sits behind me, which is a little scary, but he seems really friendly actually. I suppose when everyone else in the school is literally bowing to him and the principal you automatically feel their power.Oh, and I forgot to mention...

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My Apartment

Sorry I haven't posted a blog about Seoul yet - I promise I'll do that by the end of the week.But here is a gay little video of me showing you all around my apartment: http://www.megavideo.com/?v=ZQLJL6U9It might be a little bit quiet, so you have to turn the sound right up! Also, just press the play button in the middle and it will load, then press it again to watch it.Enjoy...

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인천!!

As you might've guess from the title of this blog, I am in Incheon! I am living in one of many tower blocks in Incheon called 'My Ville' and I'm on the 8th floor. It's near a few subway stations and apparently not far from my school. Here is a professionally made video tour of my apartment: UPDATE - the video is taking too long to upload, so I'll have to upload it when I get the internet in my apartment... but here a few rubbish pictures. Talking about my school, I met my co-teacher on Friday - and I was terrified. I was all sweaty from nerves on the bus to the meeting and the fact that I was wearing my suit didn't help. They were showing Yuna...

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