Teaching in a Foreign Country: First Year Edition

I think it's time that I write about my teaching experience in South Korea. Not only is it my first year ever teaching, but I am teaching in a foreign- non English speaking- country. With that in mind, I have learned a lot about myself as a teacher and how to best serve my students. Teaching has not always been my dream job. I honestly just want to travel and experience different cultures from my own. Being in a foreign school allows me to see all of that up close while also living near other countries that it is not too far (or expensive) to hop over to one.

When I am not in the classroom, my interactions with the other staff and teachers is very little as there is the barrier in language. Talking with teachers normally go with just a polite greeting and ends there. Whereas with my students, some of them are able to talk in full conversation with me and ask well structured questions- these students attend English academies after school. Sometimes, these students help me in giving directions to their classmates, being my translators more than their homeroom teacher.

For an overview of how I teach, I am the only native English teacher in my Korean public school. This means I am not the only English teacher, as there are too many grades to cover for their English class requirements, but the only one that comes from an English speaking background. This school year I taught 3rd and 5th grade English. My 5th graders easily became my favorite. I taught them all year, each class twice a week, creating relationships and getting to know their personalities more in and out of the classrooms. For my 3rd graders, they are just beginning their English learning in the school system. This means ABC learning and little vocabulary. Where this isn't my most ideal level to teach, it is cute to watch their growth in what they know. Singing songs and playing games based on their favorite characters helps them interact more in the classroom. Their confidence definitely grew throughout the year as did their English knowledge.

Each period, I would go into the classroom, set up my USB with PowerPoints for that lesson, and bring any extra materials that I wanted for the activity I would make up. This sometimes would make it difficult if classrooms did not have the capability to do what I wanted to do for the lesson. The homeroom teacher for that class would be my translator for the class. I would still have to speak in small sentences and use basic terms as not all teachers could understand what I was saying. Again, this is when my students who go to English academies would step in and help deliver what I was saying to the class. They would also be the translators for the class to me if there were questions or additional comments.

So here are my takeaways as a first year native English teacher:

Students will try to get away with things because I do not understand their language fully. However sneaky they might think they are, their body language and classmates around me tell a different story to what is happening. Learning basic phrases to respond back to their behaviors is definitely key to having a controlled classroom environment.

Directions need to be in Korean and English. It took me about halfway into the school year to realize this (rookie mistake). Have the students read them together so there is no confusion to what I am asking them. Their homeroom teacher can explain more if they do not understand. Practice the first one together as they may understand better once it starts.

Students love games and hate writing. It's a basic fact. To reward them in finishing the writing assignments, I trade off with games that they enjoy to play. Do the hard stuff to get to the fun part is how I see it.

Always having a transitional way to play the games are crucial to a good class period. There will be days where there is zero energy in games and speaking practice. When this happens, independent games where they have to respond via writing are the best. I try to balance out their day with English class being a flexible time in what they want to do, more or less.

Coloring might be the easiest way to keep the class quiet, however, there needs to be a little bit of reason behind the scribbles (letter of the day, sentence building, number recognition, etc.). Where it can be a quiet activity, they still need a bit of challenging.

Getting the students out of their seats is a great way to get their energy out. Giving them a time limit to get an activity done is also great because their concept of time is very little so five minutes could turn into 10 minutes if I choose.

You can't get every student excited about learning English. Some students will use this time to take a nap or to just read their book. Teachers may not care to get their attention either. Since I do not give them tests, quizzes, or homework, I see this as a time where they can advance what they learn or fall behind when going into the next year of English class. It is their own personal learning challenge that they get to decide on.

Rewards are great, but not essential. I did not use candy majority of the time I taught. The only time I used candy was on unit review days. Students will get in a mindset that if they do something, they should expect a reward. I want them to feel satisfied with learning English with the reward of knowing more. I don't want candy to become a crutch in the classroom where they only participate to receive something.

I said this before but body language is crucial in understanding what a student in trying to communicate in their broken English and my broken Korean. I can understand best when a student is using their hands in describing or directing me towards something they want. Where they say to not assume, about three-fourths of my teaching year was assuming what students were saying based off of reactions and body language. I got it right about half of the time. Papago, a translation app, was my favorite app of the year.

Find the students that want to tell you everything that is happening in the classroom. Not tattlers but those that enjoy teaching me what is being said in Korean so I feel part of the conversation. This helps to build more relationships and bond with the class more. I am beginning my lessons in Korean to be able to communicate better altogether. One of my favorite things to do was to ask my students to teach me words in Korean. This gave them a chance to teach their teacher and see how difficult it is on the other end of language teaching.

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Where there are some difficulties that came with being a first year teacher, I have taken all those times of "teacher fails" and have managed them into something better for the next year. I really do love my job. Hearing the students scream "hello teacher!" in the halls gets me through the times when I am not sure I want to continue. Now having the first year completed, I am excited to see how year two goes!