Korean rugrats

Yesterday marked the first full day of school at the English-language academy where I teach, and already two of my kiddos have wet their pants! Add in hourly crying, spilled milk and the glue sticks required for overly sophisticated build-a-frog crafts projects, and you get a rather exhausted teacher.

I'm with children almost non-stop from 9:30 to 6:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and finish a bit earlier on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. From 9:30 to 2:15 each day, I work with impossibly cute and generally well-behaved 4-year-olds. They speak extremely limited English, though, and many are feeling the pangs of their first separation from their mothers. It's heart-wrenching when one bursts into tears because he misses his mommy, but lacks the language needed to express his feelings. That's when my assistant, who speaks little English, comes in most handy. Sally's awesome at plugging up the waterworks.

Once we get past the adjustment challenges, it'll be amazing to watch the little information sponges grow and learn – particularly when they learn to ask for a restroom pass.

In the afternoons, I teach older children (around 8 years in age) who have studied English through immersion. They're bright, sweet and considerably stoic since they spend the whole day in Korean elementary school, come to my class for two hours of cut-and-dried English curriculum, and then head off to taekwondo or some other activity. (Kids, especially upper-middle-class children like my students, are kept busy here.)

Horror stories about cash-grabbing hagwons (Korean academies) abound, but I think I lucked out. The staff at my school are caring, the pre-schoolers' comprehensive curriculum seems to encourage them to develop their many different types of intelligences, and several of the 13 foreign teachers are helpful veterans.

I look forward to sharing stories about classroom mishaps (because someone should at least get a laugh out of them), and hopefully many of those wonderful a-ha! moments that make teaching a most meaningful profession. Feel free to e-mail if you have any questions about Korean hagwons; I'm a newbie here, but I'll gladly help you find the answer if I don't know it.