Eating Soup with Chopsticks

Well, it's been a very busy and tiring week so far...

As you're probably aware by now, I'm teaching for Chung Dahm Institute.



Chung Dahm puts their new teachers through a very intensive 1 week training program in order to assure quality in their schools. They have a very set curriculum which they insist be followed, although teachers are definitely allowed to bring their own personality and style to the mix. While it's a lot of work... much more so than most of the hagwons (private English schools) I think in the long run it's definitely worth the investment, especially for someone who may have limited or no teaching experience.

The training basically consists of 6 hours of class time a day, during which we are taught the format/structure of Chung Dahm's curriculum, with homework assignment go prepare for mock teaching to be done the following day. We then get feedback from our trainers as to how to improve our overall performance. The first night we spent hours as a group preparing, but the result was that everyone in our group did really well for a first try... and (pat myself on the back a bit) my trainer actually said that I was already performing up to their standards and he was having a lot of difficulty finding areas to critique my teaching. Of course, the fact that I've taught school for several years should show up.


Yesterday we went for lunch at a "noodle restaurant" next door to Chung Dahm's headquarters. Their specialty is called "kahl-gook-soo". It's a lot like chicken and noodle soup-- except instead of chicken it has mussels.



Of course, it does take a bit of practice to eat your soup with chopsticks!



And if I look like I have bags under my eyes in the picture, I do from being up until 4 the night before. Between prepping for class and everything else, I just haven't gotten a lot of sleep the past couple of days. Oh well, the weekend's just a couple of days away... I'll be moved down to Daejeon to my own apartment... and I can crash then.