Goodbye English camp!

Another ten days have passed. The Jeollanamdo English Camp has finished. The students are gone.

Teaching elementary school students during the second camp was a different experience for me because I got a group of energetic and bubbly students. They chose English names like Button, Spaghetti and Danis.

We were homeroom five, and our name was the Funny Yellow Monkeys! I taught food and restaurant (not unlike cooking except we didn't cook anything haha), and we played a game called, Big Chef.

It is the common American game of Big Booty, but I changed the name to chef to fit our class description and made everyone pick a food name from the vocabulary.

Everyone loved the game when we played it in class and called me Big Chef. I think this time around, I enjoyed the camp more because my students gave me energy when I was drained from teaching. Also, I got enough experience with the middle school students to know what types of games and ways of teaching worked.

I had an unforgettable experience English teaching in Gokseong! Many thanks to the Jeollanamdo Provincial Office and the Jeollanamdo Office of Education for making this trip possible and one-in-a-kind!

Now, I am with five other ASU students who also taught at the camp and touring South Korea! ^_^

My first ten-day camp

Annyong hee ga se yo! Goodbye to my wonderful homeroom students!

For ten days, I was one of the 12 native English teachers in the middle school camp in Gokseung. For ten days, I taught the Cooking lesson alongside my Korean co-teacher, Jung-eun. For ten days, I learned how to be a better teacher and impact 15-year-olds.

One would think that teaching the same three-hour lessons twice a day could get monotonous, but I found that each group of students was different. Their English level varied, so Jung-eun and I slowed down or accelerated our lessons. Flexibility was key.

We got assigned a homeroom—number four. For 20 minutes each morning and two hours in the evening, we met together and did icebreakers and journal writing as well as prepared for a skit. This was a time for our 12 students to practice their English more in a more relaxed and fun environment. They each picked an English name to be called for the rest of the camp.

Some of the names were so creative and funny like Blanker, Bieber and Lone haha My homeroom was seriously the best—a group of very polite and kind students. They were always ready to participate and volunteer, and they were patient in learning English (and whenever Jung-eun had to translate something).

In the course of ten days, I taught all 144 middle school students participating in the camp starting with our homeroom. We made ham and cheese sandwiches, pancakes and chocolate chip cookies while teaching the kids vocabulary. We also played hangman, charades and pictionary to reiterate the newly-learned words.

After each class time, the students rotated and went to another lesson (we called them booths) like math, science, shopping and around the world to a total of 12 subjects. But it wasn’t all just teaching; we also had a day for mini-olympics, quiz shows, a talent show and skit time.

The second-to last day, all homerooms performed a skit that the students created, and my homeroom’s was a celebrity show. They had three judges: Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga and Tyra Banks (a boy dressed as a girl) haha The host was Oprah Winfrey and the models were all celebrities as well including Neo from The Matrix and Tom Cruise.

It was very entertaining to see the students do the skits in English because they were so imaginative! Their level of English definitely rose by the end of ten days.

I am so proud of Homeroom Number Four and all the students, native English teachers and Korean co-teachers that participated in the middle school camp. It was a unique and wonderful experience for me as a teacher, and I couldn’t have done it without them and all the support and help from the staff.

A BIG THANK YOU to the Province of Jeollanam-do, principal of the camp, cooks, cleaning ladies and staff that help put this program together! Now, I will stay in a homestay for a three-day vacation before starting the next camp for elementary children…

Orientation comes first, then comes the teaching

For the past four days, I have been at orientation with the rest of the student teachers who will be teaching English at the summer camps. We all come from Portland State University, University of Missouri and Arizona State University. And did I mention that this year will be the first time that ASU is a part of the English camps? Yes, that's right! Go Sun Devils!

At this time, we met our Korean co-teacher who is paired up with us to help us facilitate the class. My co-teacher's name is Jung-eun or Juliet, and she is so much fun--outgoing, funny and energetic! =)

We were all divided into seven camps in seven different locations in the region of Jeollanam-do. I arrived today at my campsite in Gokseong and our camp's principal gave us a warm welcome with beer, fruit and fried chicken awaiting in the basement of our dormitory building.

It was fun sharing a meal with the Korean co-teachers as we learned about their culture and why they chose to be a part of this camp. We will start with a welcoming ceremony tomorrow and meet the children! I am very excited to start teaching middle school students for this first ten-day camp!

Sleep awaits in order to wake up with energy and enthusiasm for these kids... annyong hee chu mu seyo! :)

Three-day tour in Seoul

With a population of almost 12 million people, Seoul is the fifth largest city in the world and the capital of South Korea. It is very colorful and vibrant with its tall buildings, busy streets and numerous shops next to each other.

We had the opportunity to tour the city for three days and two nights with the kind staff members from the English camp.

Traveling in tour buses, we first visited Gyeongbokgung Palace and walked inside. The architecture of the palace and the sanctuaries were breathtaking. To think so much detail went into them!

After, we went to Itaewon Street and bought souvenirs. Mt. Namsan was next and wow, what a beautiful scenery that is! (video below)

Here is a short video on the trip to Mt. Namsan:

I decided that I needed to take advantage that I was in Seoul, so I called my French friend or chingoo, Anne, who is studying abroad here for one year (she is fluent in Korean now--wow!). I met her and her Korean friend, So jin, for a night out in Downtown Seoul by the man-made river,Cheonggyecheon. We grabbed frapuccinos from The Coffee Bean and enjoyed exchanging stories and learning about each others' cultures.

The next day, I called So Jin, my newly-made friend, and she took me to Yongsan, where there is a big mall called iPark. We ate there at a restaurant where they cooked chicken and vegetables in a skillet in front of us and had Korean beer.

Then, we took the subway to Ehwa Womans University, where the streets were just filled with coffee shops and clothing stores. Every direction you looked at, there were rows and rows of stores! I ended up buying two dresses, a skirt and shirt (I couldn't help myself being that they were cute clothes and inexpensive).

It was such a humid day that So Jin treated me to some red bean ice cream called Patbingsu. It is shaved ice and sweeted red beans (made for an interesting dessert!). It was quite the treat :) Thank you So Jin for your kindness!

Seoul definitely made an impression on me--a positive one. The people are nice; the food is delicious; the scenery is beautiful!

Flight and Arrival

It has been one full day since I have been in Seoul, and I am a little jetlagged. There is a 16 hour difference, so I almost feel like I am living in the future.

Here is a short video I edited on my flight experience to Asia and my arrival :)

Seoul, here we go!

As a journalism major, I have worked under deadlines to get a story on the air, but today, this morning, one hour from now...

One more set time frame will close, and this time, it is not for TV.

It is for this blog.

I gave myself a couple of hours to complete this first post because I have a flight to catch soon. Yes, that means that I will not be sleeping much until boarding the plane.

The flight? Phoenix, Arizona to Jeollanam-do, South Korea

The stay? one month (July 15 until end of Aug)

The purpose? to teach English at the Jeonnam Summer Camp for elementary and middle school children

This is the first time that Arizona State University students, undergraduates and graduates alike, will be volunteering their hours in the Jeonnam Province in South Korea. Arizona has become a sister state with this province and wants to give ASU students and alumni an opportunity to give back to the community and teach English in order to strengthen their education system.

(Photo: Part of the ASU groupo that will teach English

in Jeollanam-do, South Korea during a pre-departure meeting)

I will be one of 33 ASU students total embarking on this trip. I am very excited to go and learn about the Korean culture while I hopefully make an impact on these childrens' lives and help them improve their English speaking and oral comprehension skills.

Now... off to the airport to start on this new adventure! First stop--Seoul! =)