Teaching English Abroad

[Neil]

And I'm off to orientation for the next 3 days. What a waste of my time.

You'll be oriental before you're done.

[Jacob]

Because that sounds useful. Writing down word for word someone speaking in a manner that isn't typically observed.

Dictation is (was) used for native languages as well.  Generally I think it's considered good for spelling and so on.

[Josquius]

And I'm off to orientation for the next 3 days. What a waste of my time.

You'll be oriental before you're done.

[Syt]

Because that sounds useful. Writing down word for word someone speaking in a manner that isn't typically observed.

Dictation is (was) used for native languages as well.  Generally I think it's considered good for spelling and so on.

We used to have dictation in (native German) language class. Main focus (besides spelling) was interpunctuation and proper capitalization.

I found it much harder in French. Understanding from context whether it would be en, ans, on (all sounding the same to me) etc. was pretty hard for me.

[Jacob]

We used to have dictation in (native German) language class. Main focus (besides spelling) was interpunctuation and proper capitalization.

I found it much harder in French. Understanding from context whether it would be en, ans, on (all sounding the same to me) etc. was pretty hard for me.

... and thus pretty useful, I'd think.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

And I'm off to orientation for the next 3 days. What a waste of my time.

New teachers all have this reaction to training it seems. Eventually it won't bug you at all, though it may still bore you.

[jimmy olsen]

Actually most of the presentations turned out to be useful.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Actually most of the presentations turned out to be useful.

:p

[LaCroix]

though you may have been asked this already in the thread, how are you enjoying south korea? is your base of operations a large city or smaller than you thought? what do you do in your free time, and are you exploring your area as much as you can? how long do you have? have you run across many north korean-south korean adversarial sentiments?

[jimmy olsen]

though you may have been asked this already in the thread, how are you enjoying south korea? is your base of operations a large city or smaller than you thought? what do you do in your free time, and are you exploring your area as much as you can? how long do you have? have you run across many north korean-south korean adversarial sentiments?

I live in a small town in a rural area. I'm luck in that there are 7 foreign teachers living in my apartment building, and three more in the immediate area. There are a few good restaurants, and one can go drinking or to the noraebang (karaoke). However most weekends we take the bus to Suwon, which has 1 million people. That takes about 45 minutes. Sometimes we go to Seoul but that's another 30-45 minutes by train/subway. The cultural sights are great, but going out to Seoul is hard, because the buses and subway stop at 11pm and don't start 'till 5am so you have to stay out all night. At least in Suwon you can take a cab back for a decent price.

I haven't talked to many people about North Korea, but most seem to think that America is overly paranoid, and Kim is just bluffing to get paid.

[LaCroix]

cool. 

do you tend to stick with your fellow foreigners, or have you branched out? how are you enjoying the experience thus far?

[jimmy olsen]

cool. 

do you tend to stick with your fellow foreigners, or have you branched out? how are you enjoying the experience thus far?

Yeah, it's hard to meet people who can speak English well this far out in the sticks.

I really like it so far.

[Josquius]

How's your Korean coming along?
Being in a country where you've no choice but to speak the language must be odd...but good for learning.

[jimmy olsen]

How's your Korean coming along?
Being in a country where you've no choice but to speak the language must be odd...but good for learning.

It's not really coming along well, most teachers, even one's who've been here a while have awful Korean. There's not much incentive when you know you're going back home eventually.

[Jaron]

Have you had a lot of sex?