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| Markus's Beauty and the Beast illustration for class |
After teaching and working Korea for two years, I realized that I didn't know what Korean school life was really like. I've always been really curious what life is like in the schools and I begged Markus to let me visit his school. Thankfully, he and his teachers were willing to let me visit. Back in early July, I had the opportunity to spend the day at Beomil Elementary School.
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| Just hanging out. |
School life is drastically different than what I'm used to. Markus takes more of a backseat and assists his Korean co-teacher. I think it's really amazing and I wish that I had a co-teacher in my classes. Most of the time, I have to gesture and speak in broken Korean so the students can sort of understand me. The class size is also much larger than what I'm used to. His classes are around 35 students, but mine never reach more than 15 students. It's such a stark contrast to what I'm used to! Also, there was a old guy climbing into one of the windows during class and no one blinked an eye. Apparently he was trimming the trees and needed to hang on the window. Oh Korea...
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| Markus and his fan club |
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| I'm also a fan! |
While I was at Beomil, there was one thing that was obviously clear, Markus's students love him. Markus always tells me funny and amusing stories about them. He really loves them and they definitely love him back. He often talks about how funny and sweet his kids are and I desperately wanted to meet them. I mean, he has a freaking fan club. What English teacher has a fan club? I really had a great time taking a backseat and seeing Markus at work and in his element. I was actually really touched that these kids would love him so much. I know why I love him, but seeing these kids looking at him with so much awe and respect was incredible.
Markus not only has good relationships with his students, but he also has a great relationship with his co-teachers and a few other teachers as well. Everyday after lunch, they meet for coffee and even have a little club. I don't know what it is, but Markus has so many clubs all of a sudden. When the school day was over, we went out to dinner with the coffee club. They were really sweet and for some reason they knew a lot about me! It was really cool to be able to hear what they had to say about Markus, which was all nice things of course!
I have to say that I was really impressed with Beomil. It really was everything Markus boasted about. I can definitely understand why he constantly talks about his kids. They really are ridiculously cute and really funny. As much as I love working at the library, experiencing a Korean elementary school made me a little envious. It's okay though, I'm just glad I was able to see what life is like at a Korean school. Thank you Beomil Elementary School and Markus for letting me spend the day with you!
