Mr. Strict comes to town...

Yesterday I went out for lunch with all the English teachers (they know I'm vegetarian, so my co-teacher pointed at a few things on the table, telling me they're vegetarian...one of them was a pot of soup with half a dozen crab claws sticking out...) haha. The lunch was great, I had some rice, namul (some sort of leafy vegetable) and deep-fried tofu (a lot like the Japanese agedashi, but tastes better). During the informal meeting, the subject of disciplining the children came up and (thankfully) they were all in agreement that I was too soft on them and I should be more strict. This is exactly what I had been hoping for. I didn't want to be too tough and come across as a jerk my first week, but being nice simply wasn't working.

RANDOM: photo of the Buddhist temple (I finally got around to getting a Flickr Pro account, so I could upload the rest of my pics)

So, today I tried raising my voice and telling the kids that they have three strikes (which I have been advised to knock down to two strikes) before I make them kneel in the back corner. And guess what? It worked! Even the toughest wannabe became as tame as a kitten after his first strike. I also told the usual loud ones that I appreciated their enthusiasm and that I think their energies could be MUCH better used by modelling exercises in front of the class instead of talking about whatever they were talking about previously...lo and behold, they started paying attention and stopped talking. Perfect. Having a loud voice and being twice as big as the biggest of them definitely helps tone down the tough guys, but I'm finding that being 99% nice guy and 1% Mr. Strict is a balance that works.

RANDOM: A nice little park near the university in Changwon (this is at some sort of government building, I think)

Yesterday was a pretty full day (5 classes and they want me to start an afterschool English class on Mondays and Tuesdays), but it was fun. More introductions and I started teaching out of the book. Their English is very limited so unfortunately I have to do most of the talking (not that I mind talking, but I do think people learn best by doing things themselves, but they're not yet at the level where I can let them loose...it'll come hopefully). 

RANDOM: Public art in Changwon

After school I went home and chilled out a bit before going on another 2-ish hour walk. I went north of my place and found a highway that kept going up and up...after about 30-40 minutes of going uphill I was getting tired and turned around, but it was kind of nice...I saw dark mountains and a dark sky (though no stars as it was cloudy), but it was nice to know that both a big city and somewhat wilderness are within easy reach of where I live. 

Also, it smelled pretty fresh...perhaps it was because of the small shower we had earlier that night, but it was good to be able to smell pure outdoor freshness...I'm sure some of my colleagues in Tokyo or Seoul may not be so lucky.

I'll keep this short, as I finally have enough materials and direction (at yesterday's lunch they finally told me what they want me to teach) that I can start making lesson plans, so I want to get going on those...hopefully tonight I can go for another little exploratory walk (I just found out that there are dinosaur tracks not far from where I live!). As usual, thanks for reading my humble little blog :) 

I'll leave you with another random pic...from downtown Changwon on a very hazy/smoggy day...this is one of the handful of Deros (big, wide, straight road that can serve as a makeshift airport in case...you guessed it...the North is in an adventurous mood) as it hits the big roundabout in downtown Changwon.