Yesterday afternoon, when the incredibly pleasant two Korean teachers, with whom I share the English office, received a phone call that caused them to pass the phone between the two of them, and make anxious, gloomy-looking faces in my direction, I knew something ridiculous was a-brewing.
"Ah-di-ael, ummm, sorry, but the, ummm, the director of the POE won the election in June."
"Riiiiight?"
"So the Educational TV in Jeju will do a news story about him. And he really pushes the development of English."
"Riiiiight?"
"And so they want to video tape your class tomorrow to show how he is doing a good job pushing the English curriculum."
"That's about right."
I suppose it's fair enough that the director of the Educational Office in Jeju wants to show off Jeju's best elementary school full of fluent English-speakers. Not only are many of them fluent in English; their parents are Jeju's richest; most of them have been overseas; nearly all of them take English classes 5 days a week at local hagwans (privately-funded 'extra' schools), which many of them have attended since their toddler days, learning Korean and English simultaneously. I suppose that's fair enough. But honestly is the wealth and opportunity of Halla Elementary's rich families any reflection of a job-well-done on the part of the re-elected director of the Educational Office? Why do I even pose questions like this anymore, one would think I knew better after all my time in Korea.
Today was my final day of Friday classes, meaning that my lesson plan outlined 5 minutes of 'Good mornings,' 5 minutes of 'Simon Says,' 25 minutes of 'Review Jeopardy,' and 5 minutes of 'Good-byes.' A lesson plan, surely not adequate for showing off Jeju's richest and finest young English speakers. My co-teachers, aware of this, argued my case to the Vice Principal, suggesting that the TV station use my prepared videoed class from weeks before. And suggested as well that a plethora of videos, including videos of last year's award-wining-teachers (of which I am not) sat in the Educational Office.
To this they answered, that the re-elected director of the Educational Office (let's call him Mr. Kim for simplicity, and for the overwhelmingly likelihood that his name is indeed Mr. Kim) insisted upon making a new video, shot by real TV cameramen, with a real TV camera.
"So, Ah-di-ael, sorry, but we have to make this video. It is okay?"
They don't really mean, 'It is okay?' They mean, "Ah-di-ael, you have no choice but to make the video because we live in a polite hierarchical society where we have to do many nonsensical things just because people in higher positions than us have requested it. But we cannot demand it of you with our words because we are too polite."
"Sure, I'll do the video, but I'm not going to plan anything new. I'll just use one of my old lesson plans, and those poor students in 5-2 will have to repeat a lesson, instead of playing a review game."
"Yes, that's a good idea!"
Is it, really?
This morning, when I arrived to school, my co-teachers informed me that all my other classes were canceled, because they were unaware of the arrival time for the camera crew. We were to sit and wait until we heard that the camera crew was coming. Also, they added that the class needed to be filmed in the English room. A high-tech, expensive, poorly designed classroom with long desks and chairs too big for children, that I opted not to use all semester because of its clumsy structure.
As I was rearranging the clumsy room this morning, I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of a re-elected director of the Educational Office trying to show off the English ability of students who didn't learn the majority of their English through the public school system. And doing so by forcing a non-award-winning English teacher to make a professional video on her last day of 'Jeopardy Review' class, which she then changed to reteach a prepared lesson to children in a clumsy room she'd never used.
And furthermore, since all my other classes were canceled, no actual English learning took place in Halla Elementary this morning, and all for the sake of showing off yet another Mr. Kim!
