Pia-pia-piano

Sorry these posts are coming at the same time but after a few days of casual exploring I have located a cafe with wireless! Success! But the battery power on my computer is quickly dwindling so this is going to have to be a super, ultra fast update on the last few days.

Thursday was my first full day of teaching. The school runs on an even and odd day schedule (like our day 1 and day 2) so I had a whole new set of students than the day before. I was getting to be a pro at introducing myself and teaching a short lesson on Iowa, farms, farm animals, etc. Also come to find out when I arrive on Thursday that it is storybook day. Storybook day means that the regular workbooks are forgotten and certain pages in a designated story is the replacement for the 32 min. class time. The kids generally enjoy storybook days as well as the teachers. My first class of the day is called Pre-step 2. Pre-step basically means little to no English knowledge (aka the younger kids). They have a book that they use to sing along with a CD. It is the cutest thing in the universe!! Here's how one verse goes (it get stuck in your head so easily):

There was a music man,
He comes from down your way
And he can play
What can he play?
He's plays the
Pia-pia-piano, piano, piano
Pia-pia-piano, piano, piano.

Each verse one more instrument is added. Thursday we learned we added trombone so we spent the entire class period learning how to pronounce trombone, what a trombone is, and singing about the music man playing the trombone. It was priceless.

The job of the foreign teachers is mainly to work on pronunciation with the students. The Korean teachers will go over a lesson the day before with the students and the next day us foreign teachers will do the same lesson but work on correct pronunciation. There is a lot of listening and repeating that goes on during classes. Repetition, repetition, repetition. But I think it's an excellent way to learn English...it makes a lot of sense. Ah, I am running out of battery power so....

Friday was even better than Thursday. The other foreign teachers took me out to eat some traditional food. It was delicious (more to come on that I promise).

Saturday I spent the day exploring, settling into my apartment, and watching a lot of Korean TV. Good news, they air a lot of our crappy America reality TV shows. America's Next Top Model for example. Although I tend to like that one. But more good news....I saw a commercial for The Office!! YYYYYESS!!! A dream come true.

Sunday more exploring, a pleasant time reading in the university park watching a soccer game, and this great find of free wireless!

1%...got to go! Love and hugs everyone!!