No more brutal 4:45am wake up calls!!!
Today marked my last day of brutally early morning tutoring at Samsung and it was celebrated with quite the sweet goodbyes by many of Samsung’s security guards whom I’ve become familiar with, partly because of the Ssangyong Hulk being one of them. I’ll miss the security guards the most from this tutoring job. They’re a pretty cool group of guys.
Today also marked my first official day of teaching at the academy out in Bundang where I’ve picked up an afternoon part time job. On Wednesday I sat in on orientation but today I was thrown into the class and forced to make sense of the confusion of books and whatnot. Am convinced two of my students either have ADD or have been injected with pure sugar cause one flapped her arms like a bird with every word she said and another kid, who sat beside me, insisted on touching every single thing possible. If he were a teenage I’d be convinced he was on E.
I totally understand that they don’t know me and I don’t know them so we’re kind of feeling each other out right now. I was expecting today and am expecting next week to be uncomfortable as I become more familiar with them and lay down the classroom expectations and rules.
Best case scenario, these two classes become like my Asan church classes. I miss those kids! They were awesome. I really hope these kids become awesome to me too because as it stands they’re just new students whom I’m not particularly interested in or motivated to teach.
It’s only the second day for me here at this school but I’ve already established myself as the Invisible Teacher. The other teachers have heard about me, just briefly, but no one’s really seen me, met me, or has heard me… and that’s exactly the way I plan to keep it. I arrive when the other classes are in session and I leave quietly after all my classes are done, being sure to walk down the four flights of stairs instead of the elevator. Moreover, my classroom is at the very end of the hall and many don’t even know it’s been changed into a classroom because prior to Wednesday morning it was basically an unused classroom used as a storage room.
I don't want this job to get personal. My focus here is my students so I really don't want to be concerned with things outside of my classroom walls. The drama and stress of my coworkers and staff was what really killed my Dankook job for me so I refuse to have this happen here. Moreover, this is a hagwon and no offense to the others working here who do really care about their job and give it 120%, I don't plan on giving this job 120%. Don't get me wrong, when I'm at work I will be focused only on my students and my teaching but when that 6:30pm bell rings, I have no intention of bringing home extra work. This is just a job for me, a means of extra cash.
The job that I will however allow myself to get personal with is my position at the daycare.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Do you bring work home with you?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.”
-- Aristotle
As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).
After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.
Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.
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