I haven't taught many kids so far this week. It's not just because my school doesn't have many students; middle schoolers had some school tests on Monday and Tuesday, so they had to prepare for those in lieu of attending my academy. Korean schools handle their testing differently from how we're used to it. Rather than having different subjects' tests scattered about the semester, every class has their tests during the same two days. It's like midterms, but every 2 months.
On Tuesdays I have two elementary school classes, and then 5 classes of middle schoolers. This past Tuesday I was just finishing up my second elementary school class when my boss wanted to speak with me. She said that she wasn't sure how many middle schoolers would be attending that day, but she had an idea for me. I was to gather all of them together in one class, and I could administer some sort of speaking activity or game. This sounded like pure hell to me, because I only had about 20 minutes to prepare for this thing she'd just sprung on me, and also getting middle schoolers to speak when they absolutely don't have to is like trying to get water from the proverbial stone.
After this inevitably and inescapably miserable period of time, she had another idea for what I could do next. I could take this group of students one building over to a nearby movie theater, to a 7:30 showing of Taken 2. Now, I don't know much about Taken 2, but I'm pretty sure it's not appropriate for 13 to 15 year olds. Also, being a foreigner here, I'm well aware of how I'm perceived when I'm out and about. So when my boss tells me that this is what I'm to do, all I'm picturing is me, the foreigner, flanked by middle school girls, asking for tickets to the movie about child abduction and sex slavery. The best part of this is that she didn't want me to go into the theater with them, instead she wanted me to buy them their tickets with her credit card, wait in the lobby for two hours until the movie ended, then walk them back to the school.
When I start to explain my timidity about taking a group of kids to see a rather adult movie, but she's having none of it. She pretty much cuts me off and says LOOK THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST DO. In my mind I know that there is no way it's going to happen. I figure that Korea must have a movie rating system, and I realize that they only thing worse than buying a bunch of kids tickets to this movie, would be asking for tickets to the movie only to be told that the kids aren't old enough to see it. I poke around on the internet and find that yes, indeed, in Korea one must be 18 years old to see Taken 2. I show this information to my boss, and a calm wave of relief washes over me.
As it turned out, only two middle school girls showed up that day, so I mean really, thank God I didn't have to take them to see that movie, because how creepy would I have looked doing that? Instead I just had to have a couple of classes with them individually, which wasn't bad.
It's no wonder this academy of mine is going down the drain. My boss is a lunatic.
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