Chilbo Middle School

There is a great site for expats called TheYeogiyo.com. It is an invaluable resource whether you are new to the country or have been here a long time. I personally met the people behind it and find them to be so friendly and helpful. They organize great trips, have a fantastic forum, and will generally go out of their way to help you with anything. Check them out!


Well, I've been in one the most video game saturated cultures in the world for going on six weeks now with nothing but a broken XBOX 360. The new 220v power supply I needed finally arrived from Hong Kong despite some shipping difficulties and yesterday I managed to fire up the big black idiot box for the first time since stepping off the plane. Believe me when I say that I would much rather be wasting away the last few hours of my evening in a listless pursuit of experience points, but I did promise you loyal readers a commentary on my school, so here you are.

Allow me to start at the beginning of the day. My alarm goes off daily at 7 a.m. because I tell myself that I will get up early, make a real breakfast, and do some leisure reading. Instead I sleep another forty minutes, take a quick shower, and rush out the door with an orange and a can of coffee. The bus stop is a short jaunt from the apartment. There I catch bus #13 (which is always filled with my students who have far more energy than I can muster at that particular time of day) and arrive promptly by 8:30a.m.

Chilbo Middle School is a three story red-brick institution, L-Shaped and beautifully landscaped. The building lies surrounded by several thousand acres of ripped and churned umber earth, a fertile canvas that will one day support sky-scrapers and apartment complexes. The property immediately outlining Chilbo, however, is green, blossoming, and meticulously cared for. Exotic red flowers, winding trees, and fringed shrubbery wisely conceal alluring wooden and stone carvings along a wide path to the entrance.

When I reach my class room there is a Korean newspaper printed in English waiting for me. If it's Monday or Tuesday I don't have a class until 3rd period so I usually check my e-mail, Facebook, and the hit counter on my blog before doing anything remotely productive. I have four classes a day, and they are mostly enjoyable. Basically I make up cool games and try to get the kids to speak English by bribing them with candy. This week we played Bingo. Next week I'm going to try a cool game I read about called Monkeys & Bananas...I'll let you know how it goes. I see nearly 800 students a week and every once in a while one student will get offended that I don't remember their name. I always just say sorry but I mean come on...it would be hard to remember that may names in English. At 12:35p.m. I join the faculty for lunch. There is always rice, kimchi, and soup though the entree varies. The food is superb for free...interpret that however you like.

At 4:30 the day is over and I split. On Tuesdays and Fridays I have an extra class during 7th period. One class is teachers who want to improve their English and the other is students who have volunteered because they actually like to learn. Both of these classes have less than 10 pupils and I find them to be a lot of fun because I can keep it informal and we laugh a lot.

There are some small differences between Korean schools and American schools that I'll discuss briefly. Firstly, everyone takes off their shoes before coming in the building and puts on flip flops which is both cleaner and more comfortable. Secondly, the students clean everything from the desks and chalkboards to the bathrooms and floors. They should have that in the States because it discourages vandalism and everything always looks beautiful. There is a janitor, Mr. Kim, but he just runs photo copies, fixes stuff, and tells me jokes that don't make sense (but I laugh anyway because of the intonation with which they were delivered). Sometimes students get beat with a stick because they're being disrespectful or won't be quiet. It's really no big deal and the ones who get it usually deserve it. In some of my rowdy second grade classes I often find myself wishing that the co-teacher would lean into it a little more because those kids just don't shut up no matter what. A friend of mine told me the other night that he once gave a kid the option to get beat or do push-ups and the kid said he would rather get beat. They are just so desensitized to it.

The only thing else worth mentioning since my last entry is that I went to see Terminator Salvation in Suwon Station. I won't bore you with my feelings about the movie (except that it was awesome) as many of you may have seen it by now, but the Korean movie experience is worth mentioning. This particular theater of the CGV chain is on the sixth floor of a shopping mall. When you purchase a ticket you select a particular seat like at a concert or sporting event. Also, the theaters are bigger and louder than anything I've ever seen in the states. It just may be the best atmosphere in which I've had the opportunity to enjoy giant robots, machine gun fire, explosions, and high speed pursuits. Well, thanks again for reading. I'll be back.

Cool Thing About South Korea #8: It's not North Korea