Yeah… I don’t feel like chatting.
Over the last 6 or so weeks, the academy has acquired a handful of new Korean teachers. It’s part of an overhaul that academy is undertaking to focus a little more on the older students, where grammar is considered a lot more important that saying words correctly. While I appreciate the importance of grammar, I don’t believe the focus of middle and high school English education should center around it.
That of course is an argument for another day.
I’ve been asked by a couple of people so far why I’m not bonding much with the newer teachers. While I can’t give an clear cut answer to this, the reason lies somewhere between
the realms of not wanting to get too friendly with people I won’t see in a few months, the need not to engage in pointless small talk, and because I have very little in common with them.
The first reason, not to get too close to them, is more along the lines that I find 95% of all Korean ‘friendships’ as shallow. I’m happy to live without them, especially with co-workers I don’t really care about. Sorry that sounds blunt, but it’s the way it is.
As for small talk, after 5 years here in Korea, I’m no longer amused by going through the same questions and conversations that I have with every Korean person I’ve met over that space of time. And, to be blunt once more, there are no more questions I want to ask them because for the most part, Korean people don’t seem to differ all that much. I won’t tell you how many times I’ve asked a Korean teacher what they did on the weekend and to be replied with the standard, "I met my friends for coffee" or "I met with my school friends", or, "I did some study". Such a beautiful country, go out and do something interesting in it.
My last comment, that there is nothing I have in common with them, is fairly self-explanatory. The newest teacher, who sits next to me, is a mother, house wife, and just not that interesting to me. There’s no need to engage in much, if any, conversation at all.
There is also the factor that I’ll be leaving in the next few months and I’m beginning to care less and less about my work here. That’s not a great attitude but that’s just how it is. There are many changes happening at the school that I’m not overly happy with, but alas it’s not my school and I fully respect that my opinion hold very little, nor no, weight with management.
It’s a well known fact here that private academies are more to do with making money than educating children. It took me a few years to get that in my head, but once I did, there was an element of anxiety that disappeared during my teaching day.
I still enjoy teaching English here in Korea, but the truth is, the end is near and there are more important things on my mind, none of which include ‘entertaining’ new teachers (I should stress that this doesn’t include you Rob 
). While I’m happy to be polite and listen to what they say, I hope they don’t misinterpret my reluctance to ‘chat’ with them as anything personal.
Tags: academy, hagwon, Life in Korea, Rob, teachers
12/11/2009 - Thursday 12:11 pm 
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