Trying Really Hard...

Is it possible to be jaded after 3 days?

I suppose I shouldn't have had any expectations, because history has proven that they are usually defied.  But WOW.  Honestly, WOW.  This job is going to be really freaking difficult.  I was under the impression that most Korean high school students have at least a rudimentary grasp of English having studied it for several years now.  ERRRRR, wrong!!!  I have exactly one class that is considered "advanced" and the rest?  They literally don't.  Know.  Anything.




How do I explain?  So each of the three grades are broken into 5 classes (so 2nd grade has 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, and 2-5 for example).  After homeroom, each group goes to its designated classroom and that particular group of students stays together in the room all day, while the teachers move around from class to class.  The first three classes in each grade (e.g. 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3) are "academic" students, meaning they are geared toward university (kind of like AP or College Prep) but every class is at different levels of ability.  Then the last two classes (e.g. 2-4 and 2-5) are "technical" students, who are basically vo-tech and expected to get a job after graduation.  (Take a wild guess which classes could not give a flying crap about the English language!!!)  Every week, I co-teach 21 different classes, 50 minutes each.  I work with the academic levels of 2nd grade three times per week; the technical levels of 3rd grade three times per week; the technical levels of 1st grade twice per week; and the technical levels of 2nd grade once per week.  This means I only get 9 academic classes to 11 technical classes.  Every single class is at a completely different knowledge level, which means I have to adjust my teaching to every group. 

In addition, being a public school that is required to prepare its students for the enormous, all-important exit exam, we are required to adhere to these textbooks that are so far above and beyond the abilities of the students, it's ridiculous.  Today, in my 2-1 class (so the lowest level of academic 2nd grade students) the textbook asked the students to fill in the blanks in a story by picking out phrases from an audio recording without actually being able to see the words on paper (and, of course, the voices on the recording are talking at super-fast regular English speed, which is moronic considering I have to slow my own voice so much that there are 3-second pauses between every word).  Guess 2 of the 3 phrases the students were allegedly supposed to pick out by ear.  "Dunked the basketball" and "had a crush on."  ARE YOU KIDDING???  "Dunked the basketball" has got to be one of the most idiomatic phrases in the freaking English language and "had a crush on" isn't much better.  These kids don't even know how to formulate the words for basic shapes or physical characteristics, let alone random-ass phrases like "dunked the basketball."  It is totally asinine.

I guess the reason I've been getting so frustrated today is that I don't understand how I'm meant to create lessons for these students when Mr. Lee has made it very clear that I cannot deviate from the textbook.  The books are boring as hell and way too advanced (it's not just that they're advanced, it's almost like the idiot authors took no account of the skill levels of these students and included all manner of words and phrases that are random even for native speakers).  Plus, I do not have any idea how I could speak any more slowly or in any smaller words to the students, and even still they stare at me blank-faced while the co-teacher has to translate.  That is just not going to fly.  How does one teach when students are expected to have Knowledge Base X and instead have Knowledge Base Doesn't-Even-Exist??  I am so totally lost.  I am taking this TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) online but it usually presumes that the students WANT to be learning English.  This is very much not the case with public high school students.  Especially the technical ones.

Ah, the technical class.  Thank freaking goodness that I only teach 2-4 once a week.  I had them earlier today and it was a nightmare.  The co-teacher basically forewarned me that they are "very difficult" and that she doesn't even really try to teach them anything.  She also insisted we walk into the classroom together rather than have me show up before her alone.  Glad I listened to her.  They were wild!!  Arm-wrestling and fighting and running around and one kid who just kept saying, "I am crazy!!"  Bless, a couple of the students tried to speak to me but their English was so so so poor that I couldn't even guess as to what they were saying (which made me feel terrible, since all I could do was stand there blankly).  In 50 minutes, we didn't even try to approach a topic or touch the textbook.  Mrs. Hwang and I just smiled faintly while the students did what they wanted.  I thought my head was going to explode.

I know I'm making it all sound pretty terrible, but there is at least one bright spot.  Class 2-3.  My advanced class.  OMG, knowing I get to work with them 3 times a week... YAY.  They are eager and excited and enjoy speaking and participating and they are the one class that doesn't make me feel like I'm drowning.  It's really sad too, because I think compared to the private hagwons that 5 out of 6 foreign teachers work at, my work environment and colleagues are very nice and very supportive.  But we are hamstrung by the stupid dictate that we must follow these RIDICULOUS textbooks and hindered by the fact that actual instruction in the English language has not really been a priority lo all these years, resulting in a vast majority of students who laugh and smile but have absolutely no clue what I'm saying to them.  I need to figure out how I get around these issues (seriously, HOW??) or I will go crazy.

Man, today was a giant slap in the face.