Well before I tell you about the work lunch, I'll do a quick catch up. Things are still going well. Teaching is good. We are coming to a strange part of the year. In January students re-enroll in the program. This makes things stressful for the school on several fronts. Obviously they need a certain number of students to keep the school afloat. Also, they rework the schedule. They test all of the older kids to decide who should progress to a more difficult class and who should stay at their level or level down. Our friends and co-workers Joel and Jessica leave at the end of December as well. The two of them are being replaced by only one person (Amelia, who seems great). So that calls for some rearranging class-wise as well. Although none of this changes my current schedule, you can definitely feel the strain of management freaking out. I'll be interested to see how it all works out in January, but there isn't much I can do about it now.
So now to yesterday. First of all, it was Ben and my 3 year anniversary. That's crazy. We had to go into school on a Saturday for an open house/information session thing the school does to try and get more students involved. Our job was to dress nicely and look American/Canadian/English. We also bowed at one point. Videos of some of our classes were taken ahead of time to show the kids' language progression. They were actually pretty adorable. After the presentation was over, the school took all the employees out to lunch at a duck shabu shabu place.
Lunch was a fun but strange experience. I found it to be kind of draining. Being the odd one out as far as fully understanding etiquette and Korean customs was a bit exhausting. The lunch was done as a sort of two in one holiday party/goodbye to Joel and Jessica. This is the second goodbye meal we've been to (the first was Johnny and Amanda's just a few days after we got here). Mr. Kim, the head of the school gives a speech thing, and then other people are asked to as well. All of the foreign teachers, including myself, stood up to say something to Joel and Jessica.
Then there were "In This Coming New Year" type speeches. I found the speeches given by the Korean staff to be bizarre (as did many of my foreign coworkers). I have found several times that speeches that have an uplifting "you guys are doing such good work" message always have a "but we have to do EVEN MORE" side to them. Also, there is some concern about the amount of money the school is making. In almost every speech given by management, there was a pretty clear message along the lines of "you guys are doing really good work. Please keep doing good work. The only way we can get more students is if we work harder." While I understand that teaching well and having the students be engaged and excited is very important, the idea that any teacher can do more than put their best energy into teaching to up enrollment is very strange to me. I consider it my job to teach the kids in my classes to the very best of my ability and with the best attitude I can. If I do a good enough job that the kids are happy and stay enrolled, or other kids and families become interested I guess that could count as DOING BETTER. But I'm not sure how much control I have over it.
Something to keep in mind (for you, reader, and probably for me too) is that these speeches were mostly given in Korean and then translated by our head teacher. So it's possible that some of the strange undertones came from being lost in translation. They were also all delivered in a very affectionate way that was clearly meant to be inspiring and motivational. Once again, cultural differences and the Korean work ethic have to be kept in mind.
It was a fun lunch despite the strangeness. There was good duck, and lots of chatting and laughing. Our head teacher Lynn had been pouring her heart and soul into the open house and was absolutely giddy when it was over. It was great to see her smiling and relaxed.
Another interesting note is about Korean drinking etiquette. It is very very common to have drinks at business dinners or lunches. The rules of this sort of business drinking are really complex and interesting. The top things to remember as they have been explained to me are: never let your bosses cup run dry, never fill your own glass, but be sure to fill the glasses of anyone around you who is drinking, face away from your boss when you drink, and when someone is refilling your drink hold your glass with two hands. (Actually taking and giving things to others with two hands applies to everything, not just booze. It's a respect thing I actually really like, it makes passing something less haphazard. It shows that you are putting bodily effort into taking or giving something to someone.) ANYWAY. Fortunately, because I am a female and foreign, people filling up the cups (mainly my boss) were less pour happy with mine then they were with the men.
It was another interesting experience. Later that night Ben and I had a nice dinner out, and after getting incredibly lost and wandering for an hour and fifteen minutes looking for our meet up point, joined our friends downtown for a great night of dancing and singing (at a nori bong, which is karaoke where you get your own couchy room with your friends). Then there were glorious 5am kebabs, and sleep by 6. It was a great day.
Next weekend we are going to a Korean coworkers wedding. Korean wedding! I am psyched. I will most certainly have something to say about later!
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