I'm back

It's been about a month since I posted on this thing but that's because it's taken me a month to get settled here. It's been a steep learning curve here in Busan. At first your kids are angels because they are afraid of you, but after a month they can become nightmarish. I'm learning what to do and what not to do with the kids. Always have something to do and if you don't make sure there's something you can get your hands on quickly. The work is about the same amount as you would do in the US except you don't have to work as hard for the same money. Also you're not spending all of it on rent and food. This is not for everyone. It is a test on your nerves and your comfort zone. I've enjoyed my time here but there've been some bumps in the road. For example my hot water went out on Tuesday. When we complained about it our director just told us we didn't know how to work it. So after complaining about it a few more times she finally sent someone out to fix it on Friday at 1 o'clock. So we had to boil water all week to clean ourselves. Also our director believes that Americans are A) Mind-readers, B) All living like the people in her favorite show Sex in the City, and C) Very good at art. The last two she explicitly explained to us and found it weird that we were married. The first one though she has kind of implied through the way she just expects things to materialize within seconds w/o any prior notice. For example she comes up to us with about an afternoon's notice and expected us to have about 85 typed evaluations each from us of which we had no prior knowledge that we were supposed to do. So some things she just expects us to know how to do without any prior training, things that are very specific to her company, like knowing how to fill out her inventory sheets, and that even though she says she wants things to be changed up, she really wants them to stay exactly the same. Well that's enough bitching about my director. The real thing I want to address is disciplining bad children. Notice I said bad children, there are children who misbehave and children who are just bad. I have one in particular who is a constant disruption to class and his parents have actually told the director that he has no desire to learn English. I believe that it is only their desire. So, I'm helping this kid through his work and he turns to me and says "Teacher!" and I look at him just long enough for him to spit a big gob of phlegm into my eye and laugh. It was a short laugh because he was quickly dragged from his seat and out into the hall. I don't know what came out of my mouth, but it wasn't "Boy, I love spit in my eye." (It wasn't cursing either). So, I made him sit out in the hall w/ his work for the rest of the class and I started feeling bad for yelling at him. The next day when he came in he got it for about ten minutes from every other Korean teacher in the place, so much so that he missed my entire class except for five minutes. I feel awful for him, but I have to wonder how he could be that disrespectful of someone. If I'd done that to anyone as a child my mother would have beaten me senseless. I don't know what to do with this kid because he's terrible but I can't just throw him out for every class but I can't have him hanging around and being a horrible distraction either. This kid is decidedly not there for instruction and this has been told to me by my director. I've just got to find some strategies to deal with him. Well I have to get back my reading, I just picked up Mindreading for Dummies so I've got a lot of studying to do. Hope everyone is well where every you are.
~Cullen