A “Normal” Day Teaching in South Korea

I wrote this post on December 14th and since then I haven't found a spare moment to add pictures because we haven't had another "normal" day since then. Cam was sick and then I was sick, we have all these extra meetings and deliverables due at work so that we are often bringing some work home (eg. making books and binders for the new students, getting the new teachers set up). And then we were in Vietnam. So here's a reminiscent post of the last time I didn't feel stressed.

Cam and I wake up sometime between 7-8:30 AM with no alarm. We relax in bed for a bit. There is already sunshine coming through the window. It still surprises me that it’s just sunny almost all winter here. It’s my morning to make coffee and breakfast so I set up the air fryer on the kitchen counter and the kettle on the side table beside the couch. We use our tiny little aeropress for coffee because it fits nicely in the cupboard and it makes pretty decent coffee. We use the air fryer to make toast because we don’t have space for a toaster.

We’ve started buying sourdough at a bakery nearby. It’s the only place we’ve seen sourdough - most bakeries only sell a basic sliced white loaf and then a lot of sweet treats. It is delicious. It also costs $12 but it’s so hard to find good bread here and it’s our new favourite so we buy it. After our sourdough toast and coffees, we chill in separate rooms for a bit doing nothing.

Cam suggests a run/walk which sounds great. We run up the hill nearby - my watch says it’s 44 stories or 132 metres. At the top, there is an outdoor exercise park (they’re very popular here). We attempt some chin ups for fun then run down the other side and around the hill back home.

We chill for a bit - I do a little yoga and Cam makes us delicious breakfast hash with broccoli, potatoes, green onions, and cheese for our 11:30 AM “lunch”. Then we leave for work at 12:05. We stop at the convenience store and buy the last two triangle gimbaps for $2.50 for our 3 PM snack and rush to the subway which comes at exactly 12:13 everyday.

We get to work 15 minutes early so we have over 3 hours to prep. In January, we won’t have prep time so we should be planning our classes in advance for January right now, but instead I spend the whole time deciding what to do today and chatting to the other teachers. I’ve decided for my “activity” topic today, we’re going to discuss designer babies so I make a PowerPoint on the topic. I also mark a few assignments that I’ve been putting off.

At 4 PM, we go to our homeroom classes. I turn the overhead heat on and close the door because the hallway is freezing. My kids usually all come late so it’s just me for 10 minutes. One by one the kids arrive. I ask them how they are. They all have the same answer “just normal” except for one kid who says “bad because I need to finish my homework” and they don’t ask the question back. I put some music on because it’s too quiet otherwise.

At 4:30, only 6 out of 9 kids have arrived but I start the lesson regardless. I have a powerpoint presentation for them and then we play pictionary and then they work on a group project that I set up last week so I’m just walking around helping them.

At 5:55 we all get a 5 minute break. In this time you can have a snack, get water, or pee but not all three. Usually it ends up being a 3 minute break by the time I pack up and head upstairs to the teacher’s office. At 6 PM, everyone must be back in their classrooms. I have a different set of kids for the last two classes and then at 7:20, we walk to the kids to the bus. For some strange reason, we aren’t allowed to take the stairs from the 4th floor to 1st floor so we all stand in line for the two elevators. The most important rule is you need to walk the kids all the way down the hill so that they don’t run and get hurt. Mostly, I’m just taking phones away so they aren’t staring at their phones the entire way down. I also chat with whichever kid is at the front of the line. Usually it’s Jake who wants to tell me about all the different versions of Windows or ask me what would happen if a nuke hit the school. The other day he asked me what condoms are used for. I was a little shocked but honestly relieved not to hear about Windows 98 again.

Then we chill in the teachers office until 8 PM. We aren’t allowed to leave until 8 PM even if you aren’t doing work. Something about our visa hour requirements means we have to stay. Some schools have the teachers stay for over an hour after class so 30 minutes isn’t too bad.

We speed walk down the hill at 8 PM to catch the subway at 8:06. If we miss it, you have to wait 7 minutes and everyone just wants to get home. On the subway, I order dinner from Coupang eats. I opted for a restaurant that only serves one thing - “stir fried pork”. You can get stir fried pork for 2 people, 3 people, 4 people or 5 people. I ordered for two people which cost 21,000 won or about $21 canadian.

At home, we change into our comfy clothes, slipper socks and sit and chat until the food arrives. The delivery guy rings the doorbell and I have to run down to the first floor to get the food. We have no idea how the doorbell works and were shocked the first time someone rang it. The food arrives just before 9 PM and it does not disappoint. We have sesame leaves, rice, pork in this yummy sauce, garlic and radishes. We make sam (put everything in a sesame leaf then eat it), eat as much as can then refrigerate the last third, watch an episode of Taskmaster and then go to bed around 11.

And that’s my day. Rinse and repeat (except most mornings we do chores like laundry or meal prep or cleaning).