FYinSK - Feb 2013

February 2013

I got the hang of the GrapeSEED material, went to get the 2-day formation given by the company and got more confident. 

I had been really taking it personal that my coworkers didn't like my accent. Got me stressed and very sensitive. I had nowhere to let the steam out either, because all through January, I was living with a coworker, until the teacher I replaced would leave. 

At the formation, the teachers all had strong accents from different places, and some of them were Koreans who had trouble with basic phonic sounds. In the formation, they insisted on the fact that the GrapeSEED system had the advantage of using CD and DVD materials that made sure that, on top of their classes, they would be exposed to a « standard » English. The teacher was there to put an emphasis on the phonic sounds they had trouble with, and make English fun, so kids would keep wanting to learn. They mentioned that in there was a class in the middle east, where the teacher went « tuttuh, tee-ttuh » for the kids to repeat, and as the people giving the GrapeSEED formation were wondering what that was supposed to be, the kids all went together, in perfect English « tooth, teeth ». I figured that I could give it my best and there would be good results. 

There was an open house scheduled mid February, where parents came to the school to watch classes, a crucial moment for new inscriptions. And my class had been drilled in following a pattern-class. They were really cute kids, and it was fun to teach them. Kids make a day great, when you have nothing else that makes you smile, I learned that this year, if nothing else. 

But I got super sick. The cold weather and the heating from the floor got my throat parched and it got all inflamed. Very bad when your job requires you to speak. I got all my coworkers to fill in for me. That didn’t help me getting better for I felt so guilty to put them through that that I didn’t sleep properly and the cold lasted forever. At lease the open-house actually went well. I had a mike, and my kids, so well drilled, would sing without me using my voice for most of the time. The parents came to hear their own kids after all, not me.

Then, there was my birthday. I didn’t do much, hung out with coworkers.

The  next Friday, the last day of February, my boss calls me in at the end of the day, and tells me I am fired, and that the very Saturday, my replacement would arrive to Korea. That I would need to train him for the coming 4 weeks. 

He says that they had been looking for a replacement for 3 weeks already, but there were only guys available so it had taken a longer time. Tells me that I had a big accent and I should not be considered a « native » teacher. He says that they were not blaming me, but blaming the recruiters that got me in as a native teacher…

I was taken aback by all this, and just went home...