Thursday, January 14, 2010

Winter English Camp Was Quite A Punch In The Face

For the past three weeks, Jan. 4th-Jan.22nd, Andrew and I taught at a three week English camp made up of about 350 6th graders and 40 4th graders. We stayed at a university in Gyeongju which is about 45 minutes from Ulsan. So Monday mornings we boarded a bus and headed of to camp, not able to return to Ulsan until Friday afternoon when they bussed us back again.

Our days were very tightly scheduled from 8:20am until 9:00pm when our evening meeting wrapped up. We were with these kids literally all day. The first class in the mornings was a listening test followed by three lecture classes. Then came lunch and and hour and a half of afternoon activities which consisted of a rotation between 'mini-olympics', a movie, and some sort of folk dancing mixed with tawkwondo (I was never quite sure what this meant. All I knew was that several kids alluded to Folk dancing as 'Fork' dancing and were very surprised when they had to dance with people and not Forks! So funny!) At the conclusion of these activities, we had snack time, then grammar, followed by two classes of vocabulary and storytelling time. After dinner, we then had an hour and a half of evening activities. Needless to say, we were quite exhausted at the end of each day, but those had to be the fastest three weeks of our lives.

The location wasn't bad for this camp but it wasn't ideal either. The first day we arrived, it was snowing like crazy and the campus is set on the side of a mountain so it was very hilly. Watching those kids try to bring their luggage up the slick, steep hill was probably one of the most comical things I have ever seen. After seeing their friends slip and fall down the hill, I never quite understood why the kids didn't say, "Nuts on this, I'm gonna walk around to the flatter part to carry my luggage." They were all about the steep shortcut.
It was freezing that first day and they didn't turn on the heat. The classrooms were freezing, our rooms were freezing, hardly anyone slept and everyone was so exhausted the next day. I slept in sweatpants tucked into my thick socks, a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, and a sweatshirt with the hood tied over my ears....oh, and a pair of gloves. It was miserable. Luckily, they got the heat urned on in the rooms the next day, but my classroom didn't have heat for a week!

Funny Story #1: Here are a few funny stories, although there are tons. The first one refers to the title of this entry. "Winter English Camp Was Quite A Punch In The Face." That's right, I was literally punched in the face by a 6th grade boy. As I was leaving the lecture building, I saw two boys just going at each other, really punching each other hard. One boy even had a ripped shirt where his stomach was exposed. Naturally I told them to stop several times and I was even saying it in Korean (or I think I was) but they didn't bat an eye to me. I was nervous because they were on top of this really steep hill and one wrong hit or back st udder step would send a kid rolling down the hill to the concrete bottom. Since they weren't listening, I grabbed one boys arm and pulled him away from the other. Well...that worked for about one second until he wiggled loose of my grip and launched towards the other boy. I got in the middle yelling stop and that's when he clocked me, from behind without warning. It hit my neck and cheek area. It didn't hurt so much as I was just stunned...I couldn't believe it had escalated to this.

I grabbed the boys hand, and whipped the other boy around to my other side. They were yelling in Korean and I was so fed up. I yelled "Shut up!" as I practically drug them down the hill to the teachers room where a Korean teacher could deal with them. They weren't getting out of my kung-fu grip this time.

Sadly this wasn't the only issue with fighting. One evening a fight got so bad that a student was taken to the emergency room and treated for a broken eye socket. Fighting is always the students' first answer to any problem.

Funny Story #2: So this picture of the roof with a hole in it was taken because I couldn't stop laughing. Some idiot kid thought it would be funny to run across this really weak looking roof of a old home on the campus property and he fell through! I wish I could have been there to see it happen in real time :)

Awesome Story #3: On the last Thursday of camp, they had a talent show. I am proud to report that my class took home a third place prize for our version of the YMCA. I re-wrote the words to the first part and the chorus and instead of YMCA, we spelled CAMP! It was great and we had fun planning it. The kids were really into it!

Below our some of my favorite journal entries. Every night, the kids had to write in their English Diaries. What you are reading is exactly how it appeared in their notebooks. That includes spelling and punctuation. They are hilarious and remember they are in 6th grade, enjoy!
1) I'm so tired. I'm very very tired. I miss my home. I want to go home. I'm so glad to meet my roommate again. My roommate brought strawberry perfume from her house. That is becaus she said "my blanket has bad smell." The strawberry smell is good. It's sweet. But is make me hungry. I want to eat strawberry!

2) Title: I got punish
Yesterday, when teacher check out room for sleep, we have to come out front of my room. But, when teacher was come to my room, we didn't come out and stayed in room. So, teacher said stand in front of your room. Later, teacher called me with few girls and made us line up and said ''hold your ears and stand up and down 50 times. After I did, my legs was really hurt. And I feel that I can't walk from now to 1 week. From today, I have to ready to roll call time.

3) Today my feel so good! Because tomorrow I go to my mom! Hooray!! And today I see movie!! Movie title is ‘Up” it is interesting!! Today vocabulary class time is very great! So Excited!! Now I like vocabulary time! Ah! I like English teacher Sarah (heart) Andrew, Mitchell, Matthew! Ah! Today we doing test so, my grade is 100 congratulations!!! I hope Sarah and Andrew love so long time!! I want to marry with Andrew…this is joke Sarah Teacher…I like Mitchell! Next time I ‘m marry with foreign! I think every foreign is very very kind people!! Teacher I love you! My English name is Ella, remember.

4) Today I feel tired, because we’re not turn on heater, so I’m so cold and we doing Folk dance that is tired and not exciting. Our abode is not warm, only cold!!!! I miss my family!! This camp is not so good!!! Ah! Today I go to clinic two times! Because first, I have a terrible headache and two, I eat food but bite chopstick so my tooth is feel breaking abd my nose is hit to a chair to nose is so sick…now…very sick.I want go home! Mom come here!!! My teacher some kind! But English teacher more than more kind! But mom is more than more everyone! Bye!

5) Tomorrow I go back to English camp too!! Feel bad!! I think I miss my family…ha… Ah! Today I cut my hair! So my hair style is change. Well long hair style is change short hair and I have an bangs (front hair)?? So, I am look like a mini pig. Oh, no!! but mom dad say me “you are so cute!! Oh, now!! But feel so good! Mom and dad! I miss you forever! Bye! Take care!


6) Today feel very sad.. because I go to the English camp! And one friend is betrayal. So, I really hated coming here!!! Ah..everybody say to me, (I think)… “Her hair style is not good!” So I’m not play there…well..ha ha one person say me I borrow my dictionary so her fret and her look my MP3 player so her say “This is so old, so very bad!” Feel sad!! Oh no!! Mitchell I want you my boyfriend! So sad!

7) Today I happy because I stay home and play computer games. My dad and dads friend drink lots of alchol and had many fun. My dads friend stay at my house and he sleep in my bed. In the morning he give me 10,000 won!!! olleh!! I am rich now! Bye!!

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