The Korean Surprise

During one of our lectures at orientation, we had an amazing presenter who talked about classroom management.  She mentioned that as you teach in Korea, you will be presented with many last minute "surprises."  Sometimes this could be that a class is canceled, other times it might be that you have an extra class or have to go to a staff dinner.

This presenter said that she refers to these instances as the "Korean Surprise."  She told us that whenever these last minute surprises happen to her, she yells "SURPRISE!" in her head to add some enthusiasm and to try and make her feel better about it.

Of course, this was probably one of our favorite lines from orientation, and since that lecture we have been anticipating our own Korean Surprises.

I have to say, this was a momentous day. Today I got my first real Korean Surprises.

When I got to school this morning we had a faculty meeting.  I sat in the meeting having no idea what was being said, when my co-teacher turned to me and told me that the Vice Principal had just introduced me and that I had to get up in front of the teachers and introduce myself.

Ok, not so bad.

But after the staff meeting, I was then told that I had to go to the auditorium, where I would have to speak in front of the entire school.

SURPRISE!

So I got up on stage and said a few words.  It's only mildly awkward trying to sound gracious being put on the spot like that....

So that was Korean Surprise number 1.

Surprise number 2 came when I was teaching.  One of the classes I teach is Advanced English Conversation--this is the class I was told to teach writing in.  I have these kids for two periods in a row on Mondays, so I had prepared a writing assignment for them today so I could assess their writing abilities.

Of course, after my first class my co-teacher told me that only the first half is supposed to be writing. The second part of the class should be speaking.

SURPRISE!

I'm sure this was mostly just a miscommunication.  The language barrier makes it REALLY hard to figure out what is expected of me, so I'm sure I'm just going to have to make mistakes to figure it out.

So for lack of a better idea, I had the kids interview each other and introduce their classmates.  Such a boring lesson and not the way I would have liked to have started my time teaching them.

But that's the thing about Korean Surprises--you just never know when they're coming.

Oh, and I also found out I don't have classes tomorrow (except for my night class).  At least I had 24 hours notice on that one.

Oh Korea, definitely keeping me on my toes!