2009 SMOE August Orientation Day 4 - teaching demonstrations and getting ear-thermometered for the Nth time . . .

Today was a very, very, very looooong day. The high school group I'm in had to do 10-15 minute teaching presentations in groups of 3 from 9-12, and then 2-5pm. The group was subdivided into 3 smaller groups. This was nice because it meant my group had a total of 12 presentations for the day; six groups presented in the morning and six in the afternoon.

From what I can gather the elementary groups of foreign teachers, the middle, and the high schools groups were assigned instructors/adjudicators from SETI (Seoul Education Training Institute).

I won't go into much detail here about the lecture we had about the teaching demo and how to do it, nor how it got moved from Friday to Thursday and we were told about this on Wednesday mid-day . . . I'll leave that for the bigger post I'm working on for later.

I will share a few moments from the day . . .

The funniest moment that happened took place this morning before the presentations began while sitting in a classroom with my group. A person who shall remain un-named was sitting a few seats away doing his temperature check so he could write it down on the temperature roll call sheet that we're supposed to fill in every morning.

I look over and kind of wonder why he's doing it in the class when most people do it in their rooms before coming to class--and then I notice something shiny and silver at the end of the thermometer sticking out from his arm pit . . . LOL.

Just as a side note here I'd like to observe that "mercury thermometers . . . are becoming increasingly rare, as many countries have banned them outright from medical use" because "The typical "fever thermometer" contains between 0.5 to 3 g (.3 to 1.7 dr) of elemental mercury [and] [s]wallowing this amount of mercury would, it is said, pose little danger but the inhaling of the vapour could lead to health problems" (wikipedia.com, my italics and color) . . . well, yeah, there's no risk as we were all told to use our arm pits for taking our temperatures . . . I just hope no one breaks their thermometer and breathes at the wrong time!

Anyways, back to my story . . . I realize that he's taking his temperature with the metal tipped end sticking AWAY FROM HIS ARM PIT . . . I sit there thinking in my head, "Do I say something to him? What if he does have a fever? Does have Swine Flu?" and I decide to say something. He looks surprised, stops, adjusts the thermometer, and that's that. I do have to wonder, though, if there are other people who don't know that they're using the thermometers incorrectly . . . I really really doubt it, but where there's one . . . lol.

It really doesn't make much of a difference though as the 'quarantine' type conditions we're under here with not being allowed to go off campus, and having to be inside our dormitory building by 10pm or risk being locked outside when they chain the doors (literally), are not really effective in any way.

The foreign teachers walk around the campus going to and from orientation classes and we walk by the Korean students and faculty as they come and go to their classes too. The Korean doctors and nurses who have been doing our temperature checks and medical checks have not been wearing masks or gloves while interacting with us too. Add to all this that door handles, tables, and elevator buttons (to name a few high traffic areas/surfaces) are being touched by both Koreans and us . . . and things really reach a ludicrous level. How isolating us is supposed to prevent the spread of H1N1 when we have close and regular contact with Koreans who are allowed to go off campus is something beyond my ability to fathom.

Another interesting thing about the restrictions from going off campus is that the security guards at the gates have orders to stop all 'foreigners.' Yet I've heard (but not witnessed, so take this with a grain of salt) that a few of the Korean-Americans/Korean-Canadians have been going off campus at will because the racial-profiling of H1N1 as a foreign disease is alive and well at the gates; also, native English teachers are not 'supposed' to look Korean . . . so I imagine that complicates things quite a bit too. But it does boil down to if you LOOK Korean you get through--if you look foreign you get stopped . . . nice.

All of this just makes many foreign teachers I've been talking to today, especially those who are new to Korea, just shake their heads and wonder about how there can be such a SHOW of concern about H1N1 without any actual SUBSTANCE in terms of quarantine procedures.

This morning the middle school group was told to take their temperatures in class because there was a 'Swine Flu emergency.' They were all given a second thermometer to use (most had left theirs back in their rooms) and told to take their temperatures and write them down on a form. Later on in the day my group of high school teachers were told to go to a room where a Korean doctor (or nurse, not sure) had a digital thermometer and she went from teacher to teacher taking our temperatures with an assistant writing down the info next to our names.

Everybody's temperatures were normal . . . so I'm not really sure what the "emergency" was about. Some people were a bit unhappy about the whole situation but most of us just took it as a 'natural' part of being in Korea, and something we had to do.

It makes it a little hard to accept all the temperature taking and restrictions put on us when at the same time the quarantine is not effective in preventing the spread of H1N1 being carried out because Koreans who leave the campus could be spreading it--if anyone actually had it in the first place, that is . . . but we just do what we're told to do, and wait for Saturday when we finish the orientation-quarantine.

Well, I'm about written-out for the day. Tomorrow is Day 5 and the Seoul City Tour has been canceled, and the visit to real schools to watch co-teaching demonstration classes with Korean English co-teachers and native English teachers has also been canceled. Apparently they will come to the orientation instead . . . which really makes me have to laugh because the whole idea of a quarantine is that people do not come into one and then go back into the general population after contact with the quarantainees . . .

I'll end this post, though, on an upbeat note. Yesterday, Day 3, we had a 3 hour Korean Hanji paper making craft session with two Korean experts. Here are some pics to show you what we got to do.

Here is the historical expert, and I think he makes them too, with a coordinator who was translating his extremely fast Korean speaking. The thing that really blows my mind is that one foreign teacher behind me could understand NINETY-NINE PERCENT of what he was saying--wow!

Drawing a model of what we'd be doing with the Hanji paper.

Here are the supplies for the craft project. Basically, we would take a piece of paper and try to tear it along the edges while trying to form a shape and texture related to the part of the picture we were constructing. After finishing tearing and forming the shape you then . . .

. . . got some glue on your fingers, smeared it on the paper, and then put the paper onto the fan. Julianne thinks this picture is . . . 'interesting,' lol! I really have no idea why . . .

Here's my finished fan--unfortunately I didn't win any prizes. I like it and think it's not bad for a first attempt at Korean Hanji paper art craft.

I think people enjoyed making the Hanji. I will admit to first thinking it was stupid, childish, and a waste of time. But once I got into the process it was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it. I think being tired from the long days of lectures at orientation, jet lag, and some stress tried to get in the way of having fun and doing a new Korean cultural activity--I'm glad I was able to get past that, and I think doing the craft was a good stress reliever too.

If you're in Korea and get the chance to make some Hanji I highly recommend it.

J

SMOE August Orientation 2009: a brief description of Day 3, and preview of the SMOE orientation series coming soon

I just realized tonight that my new roomie in the four cell unit we're in at SMOE's 2009 August Orientation is a fellow K-blogger. His name is Matt and he writes a blog called, Matthew's eThoughts.

Roboseyo posted about him at The Hub of Sparkle in a post called,

How Koreans Do It (a blog you should have already been reading)

Matt also has a site called, KoreanClass101.com, which I haven't had time to look at but based on Roboseyo's recommendation I'd suggest checking it out.

Matt, apparently, likes to put up massive numbers of posts . . . lol.

• Is this a house where I have to take my shoes off? (Korean home manners)
• You’re the Designated what? (Korean drinking culture)
• Okay so I’ll pick you up at 8:00…maybe (Korean punctuality)
• Starcraft is like a fine wine… (Korean video games)
• Wah~ you really butchered that phrase, didn’t you? (Korean as a second language)
• ♪♪…now I know my ㄱ,ㄴ,ㄷ…♪♪ (Korean alphabet, 한글)
• Hey guy, can I use your house tonight? (Korean hotels, lodging)
• 404 Error: Understanding not found (Miscommunication in Korean)
• Uniform(ity) (Korean school uniforms)
• The little country that could (Korean geography)
• I can’t eat that… a vegan’s guide to Korean food (vegetarianism in Korea)
• You can lead a 물 to water… (Korean drinking water)
• Uncle Ben’s got nothing on Korean rice (밥)
• Ctrl Alt Elite (Korean electronics)
• My 오빠 from another 어마! (Korean kinship terms)
• Sink or swim with a smile (Korean language immersion)
• Wall Outlet Roulette: Korean Edition
• Caution – Beware of Pool! (Swim safety in Korea)
• Soap Opera? K-Drama? Korean TV shows? What’s the big deal?
• Hey that’s mine! (Intellectual property rights, copyright infringement in Korea)
• Business or pleasure? (Korean visa regulations)
• Teaching English in Korea: a checklist
• I.E. or nothing at all (web browser discrimination in Korea)
• Seoul Metropolitan Subway: clean, punctual, and scary
• So who’s driving in Korea? No one apparently (traffic safety in Korea)
• The DMZ: More fun than a barrel of monkeys (Korean Demilitarized Zone)
• I hate it so much here that I’m staying: Expats in Korea
• We’re going to the mattresses…well, kind of (Korean sleeping arrangements)
• Business or pleasure? (Korean visa regulations)
• The other red, white, and blue (The South Korean Flag)
• The curious case of Korean age (and why it makes no sense)
• 화투 (Go-Stop) – The cutest and quite possibly the hardest card game you’ll ever play
• The IMF crisis of 1997 – a brief history (and why you should care)
• Happy New Year (again) – the real New Years party – 설날
• Korean nursery rhymes – cheesy no matter what country you’re in
• 반찬 – Take all you want but DON’T eat all that you take (Korean sidedishes)
• 노래방 – The phenomenon that is Korean karaoke
• You have much to learn, young 파다원 (Korean children’s daily life)
• March First Movement – 삼일 운동 (Korean Independence)
• 화이트데이 – reverse Valentine’s Day in Korea (White Day)
• You’re in deep kimchi now mister – Korea’s answer to sauerkraut (김치)
• 소개팅 – Blind date: Korean style (or How I Learned To Lose All Pride)
• You’re so polite that it’s rude – Three different ways to be misunderstood in Korean
• KTX – Faster than a speeding bullet train
• 회식 – obligatory fun with your Korean coworkers
• For money, it’s key to have key money, okay money? (월세 and 전세)
• Children’s Day – Tylenol’s favorite holiday in Korea
• If you love someone, let them go (overseas to learn English) p.1 – 유학하다
• If you love someone, let them go (overseas to learn English) p.2 – 외기러기
• You’ve got a friend (for life), 마이 친구 (Korean Friendship)
• Money, Cash, Paper, 돈, 금전, 원 (Korean Money)
• Eat (or how not to run your mouth, gross everyone out and make enemies) in Korea
• Laugh Track 2.0 (or How I learned to love Korean TV post production)
• Korean Flight Attendants and why I should live on an airplane
• VAT and Tipping in Korea (service gratuity and why you should[n’t] do it)
• Sucks to be you – Korean attitudes towards being fat, skinny, and everything between
• and 안녕하세요 right back at you, jerk (greetings, introductions, saying hello in Korea)
• It’s nothing personal – unless you’re in Korea (Korean business relationships)
• Metal chopsticks (Korean eating utensils)

Matt has a post up about the SMOE 2009 Orientation where we both are right now called, SMOE orientation. I'm hoping he'll write more about his experiences and observations as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there yet online from public school foreign teachers who attend orientations in Korea--Matt: wink wink, nudge nudge, sledge hammer over head HINT! I hope maybe later after the orientation (we're all busy and tired right now) he'll write some more . . .

As for me, well, I've edited and uploaded all the pics I took from Day 1 at SMOE's orientation, and am editing little 1 minute vids I made too. I then need to do some more writing and editing of the Day 1 post and then I'll put it up. Day 2 is also slowly getting put together, but likely won't happen for a few days.

Today was Day 3 of the 2009 August SMOE Orientation . . . and for Group D, the high school teachers, we had medical checks done. This meant doing the following 'fun' events . . .

1. We could eat breakfast but no fluids or foods after 9am.
2. We couldn't eat lunch.
3. At 12pm the 1st of 3 sub-groups in our class went for their checks. I was in group 2.
4. Go to coordinator's office and get med check form.
5. Speech about checking spelling of name, gender is correct, and birth date are correct on form.
6. After speech and picking up form we all got ear-thermometered by a Korean nurse (or doctor? donno).
7. Then head outside to an X-ray Truck--yes, I said an X-ray Truck (I have pictures! You'll see, lol)
8. The female foreign teachers had to remove, ahem, undergarments and wear a funky pink top for the X-ray event (some were not too happy about this).
9. After X-ray truck we headed back to area next to coordinator's office and inside a very large room were stations with about ten feet of space between each area.
10. Station 1: pick up pee cup, 2 test tubes for pee, 3 ampules for blood
11. Station 2: height and weight measurements
12. Station 3: vision test
13. Station 4: blood pressure
14. Station 5: blood drawn
15. Station 6: go to bathroom, do what you gotta do, then put in two vials and give to poor dude sitting at table with big ass grid of vials . . .
16. Station 7: recover after blood is drawn for five minutes
17. Station 8: doctor looks at everything written on form from all preceding stations, and then asks you questions: 1) any major surgeries?, 2) medical conditions? 3) taking any medicaitons? 4) and something I can't remember cause I'm tired right now

I took pics of pretty much everything--it was hilarious when I held my camera in my left hand while a nurse was sticking me with a needle (and missed, fished for a second and found the vein-argh) cause she got all flustered and smiley and semi-whiny "opa!" until I reassured her that I wasn't taking shots of her face . . . and I think she was actually disappointed, lol.

Anyways, I plan to do posts on each day of the orientation but need time and energy to get them finished . . .

Tomorrow is micro-teaching demonstrations for the high school group (originally scheduled for Friday). We found out just after lunch that we had to prep to do them tomorrow when we thought we had till Friday--in a way this is great cause it's pretty typical for a teacher in Korea to have times and dates changed without much notice. Newbies getting this kind of experience at orientation, while it's not the most ideal, helps them to get a quick sense of what they're in store for at their schools . . .

Well, I'm pretty wiped out and it's only 10:30pm . . . so I think I'll call it a night.

J

SMOE Orientation August 2009 -- Day 2, Notification: Everybody on the 10th floor gets 'relocated' due to 'construction hazards'--uhm, excuse me?

It's now the end of Day 2 at the 2009 SMOE Orientation in Suwon at Sung Kyun Kwan University . . . and all the foreign teachers on the 10th floor of the dormitory where several of us (about 460) have rooms just saw this at about 9pm.

Our coordinator was walking from door to door knocking to see if the foreign teachers were inside (some people were out at the optional evening classes/activities, exercising, chilling out with friends, or watching the evening movie), and if we in our rooms he told us that we had to pack up our stuff and come down to the coordinator's office. We would then hand in our old room keys and get new keys for rooms on the 8th floor.

I saw the notice sign he was taping on every door and asked him what "construction hazard" meant. I was wondering if it was something serious that we might need to find out more about in case we'd been exposed to something or whatever. He apologized and said he didn't know. He was actually really cool about it and not trying to put up a bullshit smoke screen to cover up something, or worse yet pretending that this wasn't that big a deal . . .

One foreign teacher answered the knock on his door half-awake . . . he'd been sleeping . . . not a nice way to be woken up, eh?

I asked the coordinator what he wanted us to do, and he asked us to go downstairs and turn in our old keys, and get the new room number and keys. Then we needed to come back up to our old rooms, pack, and move our stuff down to the new room. Luckily for me I hadn't really taken much out of my suitcases so I stuffed a few things back in, and got ready to move after less than 48 hours in the room.

While waiting for the elevator I saw what looked to me like a father and son carrying luggage with them coming out of the elevator and walking down the hallway of the 10th floor rooms . . . were they moving into vacated rooms--if so, why? What happened to the 'construction hazard?'

Moving down to the 8th floor I walk into a much larger unit. Here's the entrance way.

Inside there are four small rooms. Here are some examples.

Each unit has four bedrooms . . . and there's one shower for the unit. Luckily, as of right now, there are only 3 of us occupying the space so far.

Oh yeah, one sink and one toilet too.

There's a common area with table and closet.

I don't know if I prefer the old room where it was just two foreign teachers . . . or the new one with 3 of the 4 rooms filled. I guess only time will tell. I will say that I like that I have some privacy now where before I didn't.

This is the old room . . .

The bed is just long enough and I have to wonder how some of the taller new teachers are with the length--there are a few that I think must be close to 6' 6" . . . lol.

Nice closet space for each person.

I really liked that in the old room the shower and toilet are in different rooms (they are in the new unit too).

Well, time to go to bed. Tomorrow I'm not supposed to eat breakfast as I have to go for a medical check sometime between 12 and 1:30pm . . . I'm curious to see whether or not we'll be back in time to eat lunch . . . and if we're late what will be done to feed us.

Here's hoping that everything goes well tomorrow.

Wish me luck,
J
p.s. I'm still working on a post for Day 1 at the orientation, and for Day 2 . . . I'm still jet lagged, and the orientation schedule makes for long days when you're still adjusting. That being said the lunch break is a decent amount of time, 12 to 1:30pm, and the afternoon lectures end at 5pm. If you choose not to do the optional evening classes, activities, and/or watch a movie you have a good amount of free time to do what you want to, and rest if you need to.

I'll try to post Day 1 in the next day or so.

On my way to SMOE's 2009 August orientation in T-minus 4 hours . . .

I arrived back in Korea yesterday (Sunday) around 7pm. I was pretty knackered because since last Thursday I haven't gotten much sleep. Let me explain . . .

Due to the whole wondeful paper work blizzard that is getting an E2 visa to teach in Korea I wasn't able to do the actual application for the E2 until this past Monday. I had to fly out on the Saturday of the same week because the orientation begins the next day. Needless to say I was pretty worried about whether or not my visa and passport would be ready for pick up on Friday when my flight leaves Saturday morning at 9am.

So Thursday night, last week, I didn't sleep at all. Earlier in the week I had already begun staying up later and later in an attempt to return to 'Korea time' and avoid some jet lag effects . . . don't know if this will work, but we'll see.

Friday morning I take a bus down to Toronto, and then a taxi from the Greyhound bus terminal to the embassy. It cost about 15.00 but I didn't care, I just wanted to get to the embassy and pick up my pass port and visa.

I walk into the embassy and begin to cross the foyer to get a number to see one of the clerks when the woman who I've talked to twice now (the first time when I came and didn't have my criminal background check notarized--me dumbass, the info is on the consulate website; the second when I came back with all my documents ready and I applied for the visa) saw me and she waved me to just walk up to the glass wall.

I began to feel a wonderful sense of cautious relief because I didn't think she'd be waving me over to her unless it was to tell me good news.

She asked me if I had been called to pick up my visa--and my heart rate jacked up to a 1000 beats per minute, and I then forced myself to calm down and not make assumptions. I said no that I hadn't been called but was hoping that my visa and passport were ready--she said she thought they were and walked over to a closet thing and began searching for it.

Not finding it she waves me to walk to the far end of the room where I see she's walking out of the glassed-off secure area to meet me. She walks me from there to another room where a woman is sitting behind more glass. She says something in Korean and then says the woman will give me my visa and passport after she finishes up with a Canadian girl who was already being helped.

I was so happy I can't even begin to articulate what I was feeling. All week long I'd been freaking out a bit about what I would do if my visa and passport weren't ready. I kept telling myself that it would not be that big a deal because if I was a day or two late to orientation it's not like I'm going to be missing anything huge because I've already been in Korea for nearly fives years, and I'm usually the one giving the orientation presentation for new foreign English teachers (I actually ran into a teacher in the embassy on my second visit who attended my presentation in Incheon, lol). Add to the mix that while on paper (aka the contract) it says you 'must attend orientation' to work for whatever English program you're in if the powers that be (i.e. an education office supervisor) say don't worry about it that bit of ink on paper is meaningless and I was worrying about nothing. Even if I was a day or two late to the orientation as long as the supervisor wasn't bothered by it then no harm no foul, right? Well, almost . . .

Another factor was that I'd booked my flight with an agent my recruiter had recommended. It was a pretty good deal and I didn't bother to ask about cancelation insurance at the time--not smart on my part when there was a possibility that I might have to rebook the flight for a later date due to my visa not being ready . . .

The final thing, on top of all the other stuff, was that I began seeing on blogs and chat forums rumours about foreign teachers getting totally screwed by having their jobs canceled due to 'budget cuts and some schools not wanting a foreign teacher now because of Swine Flu.' The same foreign teacher I ran into at the embassy emailed me Wednesday night to say this had happened to her! I couldn't believe it.

I then began to worry that this could happen to me. Between worrying about my visa being ready for pick up, losing the money for the current flight I'd booked, and having to rebook it for a later date and pay AGAIN for another ticket, and then hearing it was possible that at any second I might get a call or email saying my job was gone . . . . yeah, I didn't sleep.

But everything worked out! I actually made that my internal monologue mantra for the entire bus trip to Toronto Friday morning to help keep myself sane . . .

Anyways, everything worked out and I'm back in Korea in a PC Bang (Internet Cafe) writing this blog. I went to bed last night around 10pm and woke up at 4am . . . not too bad.

This morning Julianne and I will head to Seoul High School where we're supposed to meet other teachers heading to the orientation. We'll jump on buses and then head to Suwon where the orientation will be held for the week.

Well, that's about it for today. I'll try to write as time and opportunity permit this week. I don't know if much of my usual blogging will be possible because computer access will be limited unless there is wireless that I can tap into with my laptop.

I'm really hoping that the orientation is a fun time and that I meet some cool new people.

Wish me luck,
J

2009 SMOE Orientation -- SMOE Orientations From The Past . . . taking a look at what's online and trying to get a sense of what is coming soon . . .

Update: A friend of mine sent me this link where the 2009 SMOE August 23-30th Orientation schedule is up.

I've been wondering what the 2009 SMOE orientation will be like so I started doing some research to see if anyone had written about it online . . . and before I get into all the stuff I found I'm going to suggest you watch this video made by Jon Pak, SMOE Program Coordinator, for the 2009 March SMOE Orientation Conference.

SMOE March Orientation 2009 from SMOE Coordinator on Vimeo.

The video is posted on a site called Expacked, "This is just the start of Expacked, a brand new (and free) weekly newsletter for native English teachers working in Korea. Expacked is a brief, weekly summary highlighting key news stories, interesting events and hints on how to get the most out of your Korean experience. We are also helping to build a stronger, be informed and connected community of English Teachers. We are also on facebook."

Now I need to preface the rest of this post with this proviso: I put up the good and the bad things I find in my research about topics related to living and teaching in Korea (in this case the SMOE orientation), and then comment on what is said from my own perspective. This perspective is based on having taught for nearly five years in Korea at middle school, high school, and the university level, with experience teaching after school program classes to elementary, middle, and high school level students, and being an instructor in two different 6 month intensive Korean English teacher training programs, one with middle school and high school Korean English teachers, and the second with elementary Korean English teachers. Add to the mix many many many summer and winter English camps and that's the sum total of where I'm coming from.

I began with a Google search for the words, "SMOE Seoul Orientation," and I found Stray Blog's write up, SMOE August Orientation 2008. Now I need to say something about Stray Blog's tag line: "The unspeakable horrors of teaching English in Korea." There's no such thing as a teaching job, anywhere in the world, where you don't have a hard time during your first year of teaching--PERIOD! When you add to the mix culture shock which varies from very little to massive amounts for each person . . . well, for some people who choose to come live and teach/work in Korea it's a nightmare. They don't have an English degree, so they don't have any academic background in the SUBJECT they will be teaching. Many new people don't have a 100 hour TESL or TEFL teaching certificate and that creates a lot of problems especially if they lack any natural talent in varying degrees for teaching. Finally, many people don't read and do research about the culture they're about to live and work in for an entire year . . . all of these things create a cumulative effect that can really knock a person on their ass until they learn what they need to know (and likely should have learned before coming to Korea) and the list goes on and on . . .

BUT HERE'S THE THING: You can learn what you need to know to live and teach in Korea successfully, and also have a good time while you're here. You just have to have an open mind and want to do it. Add in the ingredients hard work and time . . . and things will be pretty good overall.

This is a big part of why I blog about teaching methods, teaching books, and teaching stories specific to Korea. You can learn what you need to know on the fly so to speak, survive, and even thrive . . .

Back to my research . . . I began reading through Stray Blog's post and the links he has on it. This particular post, Part 2: Orientation Week, had a very interesting summary of the orientation--I just wish he had written more . . .

Stray's Blog also put a link here to SMOE's 2008 orientation schedule. I've re-posted it here too.

SMOE Orientation Yong In

I don't have much to say about the schedule other than the upcoming SMOE orientation will likely be a little different, and that the 2008 schedule shouldn't be seen as exactly what new teachers will be doing.

The following quotes/comments should be read and digested with GINORMOUS GRAINS OF SALT. Dave's ESL Cafe chat forums tend to be a lode stone for negativity and complaining and one has to very carefully sift through all the bullshit to find little bits of interesting information--and even then you have to consider the source and forum as suspect, and perhaps most importantly realize that each person creates their own interpretive filters through which external events are processed--often times something can be going on that sucks but if you suck it up, support the other people on your team, and just plain choose to get through things without making them harder by complaining and heel dragging things usually work themselves out.

NOTE: I say 'usually' but bear in mind there are some things that cross each person's boundaries and go past their limits. Some things should get a "No, I won't do that." But bear in mind that you're a new employee in a foreign culture that you don't understand, and for the first week it might be a good idea to pretend you're in boot camp if you must, and just say "Yes, sir" to everything as much as it might make you want to scream, yell, cry, and put your first through a wall . . .

Getting back to reading through some of the posted comments on Dave's ESL Cafe this one caught my eye, "Mandatory exercise starts at 5:30am." I really hope that this was a joke as the other things written in this person's comments were. Looking at the schedule I reassure myself that it must be a joke because there's nothing on there about morning PT . . .

Here's a comment that I think needs to be quoted because it may save some new people from missing a meal due to when they arrive at the orientation location from the airport. The poster says, "Arrive at Hyundai Learning Center at 12:00. Missed Lunch. Starving." It may be a good idea to grab food/snacks while you're at the airport just in case your arrival time at the orienation location doesn't coincide with meal times and no other alternatives have been arranged for people who miss meals.

Some of the activities will be fantastic for some new foreign teachers, and for other teachers they're going to be feeling pretty unhappy. The poster says, "A Korean man in Hanbok greets us with a warm smile. He has a helper with him. We spend the next two hours making total asses out of ourselves by chanting and flailing about, toe dancing and twirling, beating drums and crashing cymbals"

I found this video, "Learning to dance during SMOE Orientation," on youtube . . . wow.

I've actually seen Koreans in traditional costume doing this type of dance many times, and know the music well too. If the people doing the dance are happy and having fun it's actually a really awesome thing to participate in.

Adjusting to Korean food culture will be easy for some people and for others a major obstacle that they'll have to spend a lot of time and energy re-programming their expectations and ideas of what is 'normal.' The bizarre thing in my mind about people who rant and rave and complain about Korean food is YOU CHOSE TO COME TO KOREA! "Dinner....fish heads...hmmm. Bones? Yuck. Kimchi and rice and a bowl of that fish soup." Do some research online about Korean food culture before you come here so you can be a mature and professional individual who arrives with an OPEN MIND before the whinging drives other people nutbar.

Food is something that you MUST get your head around when you come to Korea. "Fish Soup again!?!? Give me a break! Ah...stale cornflakes too...phew. I pour the warm one percent milk over my cornflakes and find a seat. Coffee....must have coffee. I find the coffee machine and to my dismay.. the coffee isn't coffee...it's hazelnut. God, get me outta here." Be prepared for things to NOT be what you are UNCONSCIOUSLY EXPECTING and ASSUMING they will be. That being said, after nearly five years in Korea I still don't warm up to the idea of rice, kimchi, soup, and some of the other traditional Korean breakfast foods . . . but if I'm hungry I'll eat what is available and just soldier on. Complaining about things that cannot be changed is one of the hardest things for some people to not do . . . living and teaching in Korea will teach you how to do this if you can't before you get here; if you don't learn how not to complain about things that cannot be changed you'll slowly drive yourself mad.

One thing every teacher going to orienation should be prepared for is to sit through some education office promotional talks and possibly a video. The general form and content will likely feel 'propaganda-ish' but just take it all in, breathe deeply, and think warm fuzzy thoughts . . . it could be worse. For example, at my first orientation in Korea (2005) I got to sit through speeches in Korean--with no translation into English--and then a lovely 25 minute video about the education system with a nice bit thrown in about 'economic free zones' (which I had never heard about before) . . . oh yeah, and the video was in Korean too.

Now this part I found interesting . . . "The last night everyone is told that our schools have been assigned and are posted on a wall in a classroom near the SMOE representatives' office." I don't know if this is the standard practice but I imagine it must be due to sheer logistical common sense . . . if you have 500 new teachers you cannot tell them one by one, and then hold their hand if they cry cause they don't like it, or have to deal with yelling red-faced rudeness . . .

If you're working in a job where you get "posted" to a location you have to accept the reality that you're now in a culture that expects obedience once an authority figure has made a decision. Arguing with a supervisor from the education office is a quick way to guarantee he/she doesn't answer your calls or emails when you actually have a real problem in the future. And I know for a fact that if you're rude or any other kind of disrespectful behavior to the coordinators you're shooting yourself in the foot too. Find out where you've been posted to, and then begin learning as much as you can about it--ignorance equals keep yourself from complaining until you know that there's actually something factual and specific to support the freaking out you may be doing. Begin networking with people who will be in the same area and focus on making things work--those are the behaviors that will make your time in Korea good.

Everybody, myself included, will always find something to complain about how things are done. "Why couldn't the SMOE representatives cut the information into strips and hand them to us?" Sometimes criticisms are valid but the problem is that new teachers often are GROSSLY LACKING in the knowledge and experience to assess whether or not what they're thinking, and what they're saying "should" have been done in another way, is actually valid in a Korean cultural work context. If there are FIVE HUNDRED new teachers . . . I wonder if this person thought about how long it would take to individually cut up each strip with the teacher's name and school info on it, and how those strips would be handed out . . .

Here's a positive comment, surprise surprise, about SMOE events, orientations, etc. "I've been to a few workshops, orientations and SMOE's is hands down the most organized, professional, and helpful." I'd have to agree with this too from all the stories I've heard from foreign teachers attending presentations and orientations all over Korea, and from foreign teachers involved as presenters and organizers of those events too. The same person goes on to say, "You get out of it what you put in. You have to leave your perceptions, expectations, and fears at the door. A lot of newcomers show up to orientation and they expect to be teaching English like they learned it growing up." I cannot stress enough that this is TRUE. Teaching English as a foreign language is NOT the same as what you experienced growing up and going through your home country's ed system. The problem with this is that people with no EFL/ESL training do what every human being does--they do what they have seen and experienced; they imitate what they remember and thought was good teaching. The bugger with that is that Korea is NOT a place where these ideas and methods can be used without a lot of modifying, imagination, and experience-based tweaking. Becoming a good EFL teachier in Korea TAKES TIME, hard work, and a passion for teaching--well, at least a little bit of interest would be nice for some individuals, sigh.

Another quote from the same person, "A last bit of advice for your SMOE newbies. Every school is different. Questions like, "Will my school ....." or "Can i expect ..... at my school" can NOT be answered. Please don't ask the presenters a question like "Will my coteacher be a man or a woman". How the hell are they suppose to know that?" A lot of new teachers feel like a human being in outer space with no oxygen, space suit, or guidance system. They begin reaching for any and every small detail that they think might help them begin to create a map in their heads and begin establishing a sense of where the hell they are . . . EXPECTATIONS WILL GENERALLY NOT BE FULFILLED.

Let me say that again, EXPECTATIONS WILL GENERALLY NOT BE FULFILLED. This is probably one of the biggest problems for new foreign teachers, myself included when I arrived, and I really wish orientations would have special sessions where the newbies write out their expectations, with some prompting and leading questions from the experienced expat presenter, so that a lot of wasted time and frustration can be pre-empted a little. I have no delusions that hearing the presenter say that some Korean English teachers will have low levels of English will actually sink in until the new foreign teacher is actually in a classroom and teaching Korean students and they experience that sinking realization of "Oh my god, she/he doesn't know the meaning of 'X'--how can they be teaching English?" Some preconceived expectations cannot be dispelled by anything other than the hard learned lessons of personal experience. With that being said it's still nice to know about some things ahead of time . . .

Here's an interesting comment from a SMOE orientation presenter, ". . . they let all sorts of teachers lecture at the orientation and other workshops. I've been demanding that they have at least 7 years EFL/ESL experience. Master teachers. No matter what, at least after being in the trenches, something invisible translates and can be "taught". Otherwise you get a lot of spasmic energy or just drudgery or academic nonsense.... Still, banging my head on this one with the powers that be. Frustrating..." This is something that new teachers don't want to hear but the sad truth is that it's hard to find trained, experienced, talented EFL/ESL teachers who are free, willing, and able to produce good presentations on the basics of EFL methodology, and other teaching issues relevant to newbies just arriving in Korea for the first time. Often the priority is just filling in the boxes on the schedule so that one can show it to their boss--failure is not an option, and saying, "Oh, excuse me sir/ma'am, we just can't find enough experienced teachers to do presentations at the orientation. We'll just have them do blah blah instead." Imagine how that conversation would go over in a culture where superiors give orders/tasks and assume they'll be done no matter what, and the subordinates generally do whatever it takes to accomplish the task without complaining or even having the slightest glimmer of resistance . . .

Here are some quotes from I'm in Seoul but I'm not a Solider from this post, "We then learned that our days would start with breakfast at 7 am, and class would end at 9 pm. A little grueling, maybe, but Korean ideas about sleep and leisure time differ from our lazy Western attitudes. They actually told us so in a segment of the program that taught us the generalizations that Koreans make about us. Lazy, inflexible, and overly legalistic were some of the highlights." This is something that I find hard to accept when one has to consider that the foreign teachers are jet lagged and fresh off the plane. But the fact of the matter is that Koreans go through their public school careers with very little sleep (like 4-6 hours for most), and then all able-bodied men do mandatory military service . . . so go figure, the culture here sees sleep as a luxury, and not as a necessity . . . yeah.

"As boring, disorganized, and hilarious as the orientation was at times, it was actually quite good overall." This gives me a degree of comfort, lol.

Lastly, he says, ". . . somewhere in those 14 hour days they did manage to give us some good teaching tools, as well as useful tips on adjusting and surviving in Korea. I just wished they had been able to tell us which school we would be teaching at and where we'd be living a little sooner than the night before we were leaving to go there...." The reason for this is most likely to pre-emptively avoid the groaning and gnashing of teeth by those foreign teachers upset by their posting locations . . . Koreans generally do not like open confrontation, and especially when the person arguing has a low social rank in the Korean cultural hierarchy, and yet doesn't know that or understand it and they're going 1000km an hour with their mouths at a Korean with a higher rank. Yeah, I think I get why they don't let you know till the last minute, lol.

I'm going to finish with these two quotes. The first one is big.

"Coming from GEPIK to SMOE I'll put in my 2 cents.

The orientation is good. The organization and setup is very professional and better than the GEPIK orientation. Experienced PS teachers will still learn something new. At the very least, you have valuable experience you can share with other people. I spent my time at orientation sharing my experience with others. A lot of people thanked me after orientation for helping them.

Honestly, the orientation period is too long. Its good that they have 2 separate orientations, but like ddeubel said, it would've been better if they separated the experienced and newbie groups. People with experience in Korea don't need to go to museums or attend lectures on Korean culture (well, some people might).

All in all, it is a positive experience. It gives you time to meet people and network. It is better than to just be thrown into your school, start teaching from day 1, and have no idea who the other NSETs are in your district.

It would be nice if SMOE could implement a "mentor" program at orientation. They bring in a group of teachers, and then break up the orientation into small groups so that people can get all of their questions out of the way. I don't do anything at school the first week after break, and neither do a lot of others. I wouldn't mind going down to help new teachers get on their feet."

And the second,

"From the involvement I have had with the SMOE orientation I have to say it was and is very well organized. The sessions are productive because they give newbies and those with experience an opportunity to put things into a Korean educational perspective.

I thoroughly enjoyed helping out and will look forward to helping in the future if I am asked to participate. The people who put any of these orientations together are not perfect, and they do the best they can be expected to do with the resources they have available to them. Some of the features of any orientation are bound to disappoint, but that is what happens in any major event. My advice is to take things with an open mind. Learn what you can, change what you can, network with those you meet, and create a better professional atmosphere for the collective whole. People don't often think about this aspect, but we are all hired to be professionals regardless of what you might believe.

The orientations I have been to for GEPIK and SMOE all had something for me, even if it had nothing directly to do with the scheduled events. These things are a great way to interact with people and bounce ideas off of each other. That is something that pays in experience dividends which you will not get by yourself IMHO.

Hats off to people like ddeubel and others who perform their duties at the orientations. It is a thankless job, and too often those who attend don't understand the enormous amount of planning that must go into the development and presentation of a large scale activity."

Getting away from the Dave's ESL Cafe comments . . . Stray Blog has a link here to pictures from the 2008 SMOE orientation. Problem is that the 2009 orientation will be held at Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon so looking at the pics might mislead some new teachers to form EXPECTATIONS--don't do that!--about the 2009 location.

AH! One thing you should expect at any orientation in Korea . . . getting your picture taken at any and all times. There are 111 pics of foreign teachers at the orientation here. Yeah . . .

Eureka! I found some writing here about the March 2009 SMOE orientation.

"To be quite honest, orientation is super AWKWARD. There's a lot of super structured time -- lecture here at this time, MANDATORY FUN HERE NOW, dinner at this time, lunch at this time, etc. But your free time is completely... unorganized. Like I wish there were not mandatory activities to try to meet people, like movies in a lounge or something like that, but all the activities are mandatory and free time is just totally yours to do whatever with."

"The other thing people are going to ask about: the food. It's all Korean all the time. Well, they have some Western stuff for breakfast, but it's mostly just nonstop rice with various toppings and endless kinds of kimchi. Lunch on the first day sucked; the next three meals were awesome. Then, of course, dinner sucked tonight. At least there's a convenience store to go to."

I'd also suggest reading the First Day entry, it's a good read.

And here's a series of posts written by Moments she'll wants to remember,

Orientation @ Hyundai Learning Centre- Day 1

Orientation @ Hyundai Learning Centre- Day 2

Some new friends.

Orientation @ Hyundai Learning Centre- Day 4

Orientation @ Hyundai Learning Centre- Day 4 Part 2

Orientation @ Hyundai Learning Centre- Day 5

Here's another blog posting about the 2008 SMOE orientation, Taryn's Korean Adventure, SMOE Orientation

I came across this while doing my Google search on "SMOE orientation,"

"A folder of materials for the workshops for new teachers joining the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the ETIS program."

I don't have much energy left to peruse the different files at this link but it looks like it's got some interesting materials . . . Update: I tried to open a few of the files to see what is in them and nothing worked. I'll leave the link up as someone might know how to get it working and can leave a comment.

The last thing I'll put here is this link to, Smoe Teaching Techniques Presentation Orientation, a presentation put together by D. Deubelbeis, an instructor at SETI (Seoul Education Training Institute). It looks like it has a lot of ideas and EFL techniques . . . check it out.

If you didn't watch the video made by Jon Pak, SMOE Program Coordinator, for the 2009 March SMOE Orientation Conference . . . here's another chance to do so.

SMOE March Orientation 2009 from SMOE Coordinator on Vimeo.

At the end of the video a website address for English Teachers In Seoul (ETIS) is given: http://etis.sen.go.kr/ There is an orientation section here. Also, check out the photo album section, and the movie section. Jon Pak has a video up on the movie section about how to get to SMOE. (It's too bad recruiters don't know about this video cause they could put the link in their emails to new teachers to SMOE who have to go to the office.) I'm going to suggest to Jon that he upload this video on youtube cause I imagine it would get a lot more hits there.

Well, I think this is a pretty decent compilation of different views and opinions about the SMOE orientations of the past. I hope it gives people who will be attending an idea of what is coming up soon.

See you there,
Jason