Week 1

Our first week in Korea was extremely intimitating and uncomfortable. This is mostly because the agreement that was agreed upon before going to Korea, changed as soon as we got there. Without Paul Mountfort who organised the trip being there, we were unsure of what to do. There were a few dramas in the first week, with Danni's student yelling at her and the intern group trying to get along with each other -which was essential in the fact that we were going to spend a lot of time together. Danni's issue with her student was extremely important in my understanding of the Korean culture as i have naver heard of this happening in New Zealand. Dealing with this isssue was also a good learning experience. As i was not sure at first how Danni or the rest of the group should deal with it. The work-based supervisor dealt with this by making excuses for the student. Saying he was just shy and or he was really enthusiatic. This is most likely related to the idea of "saving face", or i hope so anyway. We used the computer and projector screen a lot in our class. I did this because i felt it would keep the students interested by using different teaching methods. I feel like the students found this a little shocking at first as they were not used to this teaching style. From what i have heard they students usually had a very formal teaching and learning style, this was also shown by the way the classrooms were set up. I found that the Namseoul staff were very accomodating. We were given an assistant, he was part of their English programme. Anytime we asked him a question he would jump up and do it right away, even when we were not asking him to do so. This was something i had no experienced before. As coming from a New Zealand culture i am used to the mentality of 'if you can do it yourself, do it yourself' or 'DIY'. Sometimes when asking a simple question like "how far is the closest town?", he took it quite seriously. By finding us bus routes or saying he would organise a taxi for us. It was quite nice to experience this kind of hospitality.