time

Hi. How are you? It's been too long.

I got a card in the mail today. It was a Christmas card from my Grandparents. It may seem a little silly to mail someone a card who is on the other side of the world when one could easily write an email instead. Especially since only two weeks ago I received a Thanksgiving card from those same Grandparents. But it really is nice to receive such things. It's nice to hold something in my hands that's directly from home, and read the handwritten note inside.

Along with the card they also sent a Time magazine article from December 5. The article is about the Korean hogwan system- about the kinds of places I work. It bemoans the current system as inefficient and misguided, and sympathizes with the kids who must endure it.

I read the article to my highest level students. It's a topic that I often speak with them about. They see the flaws themselves. Not only do they dislike the amount of work they must do, but also the fact that most of their work is in vain. For instance, they have frequent vocabulary tests, in which they are to memorize about 100 words a week. However they only memorize them temporarily, they forget them by the next day. So they know what's going on. They know they're only learning how to pass a test, that they're not actually learning English. It's one of the reasons they like my class so much. In my class we just talk. If I use a word that they don't know, they learn it and it sticks with them because they have a context they can relate it to.

It's a weird situation for me, because my job is more complicated than one might think. They're my students, it's my job to teach them, and I genuinely want to help them. However, it's also my job to get my academy as many students as possible, to make my employers more money. It's something teachers in the States don't have to worry about. I want what's best for these kids, but the thing is, I don't know if coming to an academy such as mine is what's best for them, or if it's just a waste of their time.

I know that I'm retreading old ground here. I know that I've written about this all before. It's something I think about a lot, though. I want what I do here to help my students not just academically, but in their lives as well. But their best case scenario might also be a scenario in which I don't have a job.

Alright. Sorry for this. I promise to write about something more interesting soon.