All Work and No Play

....you know the rest. To go on a tangent (if I can go on a tangent on the very first line of my blog), there was a discussion about proverbs on bbc radio 5 live today. Who the hell is Jack and why is he a dull boy? Who is this 'Larry' who's always so infuriatingly happy? Anyway, yeah, I definitely have fallen into the rat trap recently that I'm usually so keen to steer clear of. Go on Bob...



It's only Tuesday and I'm already living for the weekend. I cannot tell you strongly enough that that is not how I want to live my life. A big part of working in Korea is my desire to steer clear of the illusions of career, materialism, competition at work, and having to give due consideration to disgusting expressions such as 'work/life balance'. I don't want there to be a balance, I just want to have a life!

I guess my schedule has been tough since I started back after the summer holidays but it was do-able and I was feeling positive about it all. What has driven me to complain about my job (mere days after having chastised foreigners in Korea for complaining about their jobs...) is that I found out on Monday morning, from students, that I'm actually not off work next week, as I had been told by my boss. It might not seem like a big thing (and it isn't) but it's the principle of it that really bothers me. A co-worker pointed out that last-minute, inexplicably frustrating changes like this are just a part of working in Korea - and he's right. But they don't have to be. The end result is that I'll have lessons next Monday and Friday, pooping on any plans I had to get away for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). On top of that, I'll have classes on the eighth week of this session (originally supposed to be a holiday) so I don't have any solid time off between now and going home for Christmas. Ok, I know a lot of people have it worse, but it's still frustrating. And needless.

Of course, it's out of the question to really criticize or inquire why you couldn't have found out earlier or why you had to be told by students (making you look as though you don't know what you're doing) or why this directly contradicts what you had been told at an earlier meeting. I nearly did that a bit when I first talked to my boss about it because it was at the end of a long Monday and I was pretty ticked off, but nothing good comes of that approach here. You have to do it because what the boss say, goes, and that's it. At a time of the year when I am, genuinely, working my ass off and cutting no corners in the hope of delivering good lessons consistently, it's tempting to ask yourself why you bother. My two DDE classes last night reminded me of the answer, if I had really even doubted it. When I went back to class to collect my computer at near enough 10pm, about half-a-dozen students were sat there in silence studying their TOEIC textbooks. Absolutely unbelievably. Brilliant. As a teacher, when the powers-that-be fuck you off, you've got to remind yourself that it's the students that you're really doing it for. Ok, no more complaining about work...for now...

FC Seoul Foreigner's Day? Well, you'd have to say that it was a pretty successful day for the club. I am indebted to Matt at Hollywoods in Itaewon for four free tickets to the game. It was bizarre seeing so many foreigners in Sangam World Cup Stadium and, to mark the occasion, the club kept showing reveling non-Koreans on the big screens throughout the game. There was a nice family atmosphere where we were in the East Stand. Check out the highlights of what ended up being a comfortable 4-0 win over Daegu, the highlight being a wonder-strike by the one and only, Dejan. That's eleven goals in our last three games, with only one conceded (against Pohang). K-League fans should also check out the latest (and ever improving) 'The Outside View' podcast, greatly enhanced by Matt Burnett this week, but still a little too Suwon Bluewings flavored for my liking. I can see that it's still a work in progress, and I'm looking forward to following it over the coming weeks and months.

No much more to say today because, these days, I'm eating, sleeping, laying awake in bed thinking about and dreaming about teaching. I kid you not. In fact, my goal for the week is to care less about my job. Thinking about an escape usually does the trick. I was reading about International Schools in Poland last week. Maybe I should toy with the idea of wrapping things up in Korea (for a while) in March, which is much easier said than done...

LBH

LBH is something I heard pretty early in my time in Korea from a Canadian friend who has long since moved on to bigger and better things. We were talking about the kind of foreigners you sometimes come across working here. Oh, I had no idea how accurate it was then as I do now. LBH? LBH = 'Losers Back Home'. In general, I've been pretty fortunate with the people I have worked with here, particularly in my first year when I was the only foreign teacher at my academy! But, there's no doubt, you see them around. Regularly on their own at Seoul Pub in the wee hours on a Saturday night. Constantly the first to pipe up and share their 'knowledge' of the sun, moon, stars or everything at any given opportunity. The only people who ever say anything negative (to our faces) at gigs, in the mistaken belief that criticizing makes it sound as though they know what they're talking about. All over the message boards on Dave's. Facebook's most vociferous, even though they seem as timid as a mouse when you occasionally meet them in person. Commonly to be seen on the arm of some beautiful Korean girl who, for some reason, can't see how much of an asshole her boyfriend is. Oh, if you live/have lived in Korea, you know who I'm talking about.

The reason I bring it up now is that the only real complaint I ever have about life in Korea is complaining foreigners. I know, the irony isn't lost on me, don't worry. At times, it actually infuriates me. The absolute worst thing is foreigners complaining about the Koreans offering their services but not speaking English well enough for their liking. WE LIVE IN KOREA! THEY SPEAK KOREAN HERE!! Often, the person who says this has lived here for a fair few years, but (like myself) hasn't bothered to learn the local language to the point where they can do all their dealings through it. Another is people complaining about the amount of work they have to do or unfair expectations from their employers. No doubt, some people are royally screwed over here. I can't argue with that. But I have some strong opinions about the qualifications necessary to teach here. If I had a child and found out that his/her teacher had, for example, a 2:2 degree in a subject unrelated to what they teach, well, I wouldn't be happy. Would you? Nor do I buy the TEFL/CELTA argument. Having done my PGCE, TEFL and CELTA, I can tell you that the latter two only really need to be completed, they're not exactly taxing. They don't necessarily improve you as a teacher. A year-long PGCE doesn't even slightly prepare you for the range of scenarios you might have to deal with in the classroom. There's no way a 100-hour (or similar) certificate can claim to do more than serve as a very small first step. For those reasons, I think teachers here should count ourselves very lucky to have been able to get jobs that are, in general, straight-forward, relatively well-paid and fairly secure. That's not me saying that teachers with fewer qualifications can't be good, or that those with more qualifications necessarily are.

Some people here have legitimate gripes, I don't mind them. It's the majority who are basically complaining rather than facing up to their own inadequacies that do, sometimes, really bother me. Please let me NEVER turn into that. Living in Korea has paid for my MA, my trips over the past 4/5 years, given me teaching experiences beyond those I could have had in England, given me the opportunity to sing with great musicians and introduced me to a lot of people I know I'll know for years to come. I could complain, I sometimes do (and will), but we shouldn't. I think it's totally disrespectful to the place we live and the people who live here. Rant over.

Haven't been blogging due to a heavy workload and what I think I can accurately refer to as sleep-deprivation over the past few days. I, perhaps unwisely, got up at 3.30am on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning to watch Ireland labour to a 3-1 win at home to Andorra. Brownie points if you even know where Andorra is. McGeady was better than I have ever seen him for Ireland (which isn't saying much) but the cautious Trapattoni approach can be SO frustrating to watch. Nevertheless, we are top of the group after two games (20% of the campaign already). After we have welcomed Russia and visited Slovakia (their conquerors last week in Moscow) next month, we'll have a much better idea where we stand. I loved my time in Poland last December. How sweet it would be to go back to watch Ireland there in 2012.

Like I said, work is tough these days but I'm enjoying it. I'm probably putting more time into preparing the lessons than I need to but the classes are going really well and, to be honest, I love the satisfaction of creating a lesson from scratch with an end goal in mind and watching it all fall into place the way I wanted. That doesn't always happen, but when it does, it feels good. Some of my students are so earnest and hard-working that they make me want to prepare even more so that I can squeeze everything I can out of them. Sometimes that has resulted in me pushing them too hard, but I guess you have to learn from that. I have the added pressure (in my own mind, at least) of sharing my DDE2 classes with probably the best teacher here. I know I need to be at the races to avoid looking anything other than rubbish in the eyes of the students in comparison to him. Reading back, I see I need to get a bit of balance back into my life too. What would Tom Hodgkinson say!?

On that note, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, Friday, hopefully meeting my friend's girlfriend, dinner with friends at Hollywoods on Saturday, free tickets (I hope) to FC Seoul V Daegu at 7, and whatever happens after that... No band practice this weekend due to unforeseen circumstances but here's one of the songs we're planning on covering at our earliest convenience. Classic...