LCI Kids Club

I am working at a private English school called LCI Kids Club. Because I live in Suji, one of the two wealthiest suburbs of Seoul, most kids go to English school along with their regular Korean school. And, most of their parents are very very wealthy. Korean school does not start until age 8, so the younger kids just go to English school, and the school aged children go to regular Korean school for the first half of the day and then come to English school until 7. Then, most of the kids usually go straight from English school to tutoring, instrumental lessons, taekwondo, or more schooling of some kind. I know of some girls at school that go to both Korean school and English school during the week, and then math school on the weekends- not kidding at all. The kids here don't really have a clue what it means to just play outside or have friends outside of school.

I was informed today that do to complaints from the mothers- coloring (or drawing pretty pictures) has been banned during the school day-even for the babies (that's what we call the youngest age- 5 years old-really 4 in our years-they turn one here when they are born) UNLESS it is during their 15 minutes of play time a day. The reason for this is that the parents are not paying money to have their children go to art school- they are paying for them to get an education and learn English. Did I mention that they are only 5 years old

(or 4- whatever floats your boat) ?

The hallway at school

The staff room

I start teaching on my own on Monday. I know it will just take time to get used to my schedule- but right now it seems very overwhelming. So overwhelming, in fact, that I will not really be able to tell you exactly what I am doing until next week. I need to figure it out for myself before I can pass along any information. As for what I do know- I will teach a 6-1 kindergarten class. That means they are 6 years old (or 5, got it yet?) and in their first year of English. My class just started learning English 6 months ago (but don't worry-they can almost all read and write). For the upper level classes I will teach two different level reading classes, a social studies class, a writing class, and something else that I don't really understand yet. It's crazy. The kids are way more advanced than I ever imagined they would be, and the amount of work I will have is way more than I anticipated. But all it takes is one little Korean boy named Hoony to give you a huge hug and say "Hi, Teacher Shauna! I feel happy today," and nothing else matters. I have already fallen in love with the kids, and I have only been at the school for three days. This is going to be a great year.

My very own classroom!