Before I took my job offer at Chonbuk National University in Korea.. I honestly had some apprehensions about accepting. I'm only 23 years old, a girl, and I've had 1 year of full-time teaching experience... teaching CHILDREN! So all in all, I wasn't sure if I had enough experience to successfully teach and not make my students' lives miserable for the next year.. OH and I wanted to be taken seriously . LUCKILY my focus in these classes is on conversation... and I love talking, so I decided it was a perfect fit! The hiring manager loved that I was a Communications Major.. thank you JMU. :) And so I got the job.
Today, September 5th, is my first official day of teaching. Last week, I was told that I would be teaching some University students, some adults from the community, one class of children a day, and... PROFESSORS. Que the "dun dun duuuuuunn..".... my initial reaction was, "What?! Are they going to be mean to me? How old are they? Are they nice? Will they make me cry?!" ... so basically, University students were the least of my worries, the professor part freaked me out a bit. I knew I was going to get asked questions about my age, my experience, teaching, etc. etc... all of which I was afraid that they would judge me for.. because in all honesty they have a 23 year old girl, with a bachelor's degree, 1 year of experience, a CELTA (Thank God!), and.. mm... an outgoing personality?!, for an instructor.
Well... based on attendance from the previous 7-week conversation classes, I was expecting about 5 people, 4 being men (1 retired) and 1 woman. Today's 9AM attendance included 8 men, 1 woman... and ME!!
So far I've found that 2 are grandparents, 3 are between 30-40 (all married, one without kids), the rest are over 40, an economics professor, music professor, 2 textile production professors, landscape architecture professor... the list goes on and on. Only 4 of them attended the previous classes offered (hallelujah) .. however one has been attending for 7 years!
Of course, I got asked how old I was.. and I turned it into a joke and said "Old enough ::wink wink::"... and skipped the answer to that question. But of course a few questions later one asks me what year I graduated from Uni... I should have lied! lol Jerk!
But all in all, I enjoyed the class a lot! We chatted the entire time and it wasn't like pulling teeth, woohoo!
My schedule couldn't have been better either, Mon-Fri 7:50AM-10:50AM, 5-6:50... so I can wake up early, teach Uni students/adults/professors, have time in the middle to get MY learn on (Korean classes at 1PM!.. guitar, Spanish), and then teaching a class of kids whom I love to teach (SO different than the kids classes I had last year), and a class of uni students.. then done!
Looks like I'll be behaving myself much more this year.. at least during the week. :)
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