So Tuesday has rolled around again. This can only mean one thing: hakwon. While I have finally learned how to control my massive urge to destroy noisy children, the new challenge of actually teaching in an effective manner has arisen. This is for the sake of the one or two kids who actually want to study. For understandable reasons, they're usually sitting alone too.
Since it's been about 2 1/2 months since I started, the pressure is on to keep up with the schedule. There are times when it's not enough to ignore the students and just keep teaching; their constant attention-grabbing measures actually force me to stop class and put a stop to their shenanigans. If their problems are not addressed, the class will turn into absolute chaos known as the sixth layer of hell. This is more prone to occur in the younger classes of course. So I'm desperately trying to keep the ball rolling, whether or not anybody's listening, just so I write down in my schedule that we technically covered the material.
Tuesday is primarily a listening class day for me. 3/4 classes I basically have to play a CD and hope that the kids are getting it. The other class... I forget what it is. Ironically, listening classes are the most difficult to get through because it's difficult to force them to actually LISTEN rather than screw around with their friends the whole time. No amount of shouting, pleading, or making an ass of myself, seems to grab their attention for more than 2.5 minutes. I can't really blame them, but good GOD. They could at least refrain from screaming at the top of their lungs for no reason or banging on the walls.
Man... I can't ever have kids... not after the horrors I've seen...
In somewhat unrelated news, I had a conversation class with a single ninth grade student (everyone else was on a field trip). This totally normal-looking girl told me she was on a diet. It was about 9 PM and she said she hadn't eaten since about 12 that day for lunch. She claimed to not even be hungry. So imagine this... a teenager attending school from 8 AM to 11:30 PM, only eating twice a day. Initially I was aghast. How does she have the mental, let alone physical strength to endure this kind of schedule?
Then I thought... hmm. If she can do that, why can't I resist eating after 12 AM? Hmm. Something to ponder. And perhaps act upon. If I feel like it.
Anywho, in spite of the hakwon, life is looking all right. Crystal Castles is rockin my socks, the weather is fine, and I have plenty of time to slack off. Ah... being a foreigner is good.
