Cirque de Seoul: February 2010

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Gearing Up

Things are gearing up over here to be sure! In less than two weeks Leslie and I will officially be head instructors at our school, however the responsibilities of our new positions are already upon us.

This last week we had the unfortunate mission of returning to "Hell," more commonly referred to as CDI Training Center, a place Leslie and I vowed to never return if at all possible, due to our less than positive experience there 7 months ago. We were headed there for CDI Head Instructor Training, which thankfully was only 3 hours instead of a full week. After we overcame the initial nausea and panic upon entering the building, the training turned out to be not nearly as bad as we predicted. We actually learned a lot useful information, like how to deal with various instructor personalities, strategies for creating effective workshops, and the best ways to tell bad teachers that they are doing a crappy job. Overall, it was much less mind-numbing, exhausting, and sterile than our original training.

Over the next two weeks Leslie and I will each go to two more workshops. We both have to go learn about a new test-taking course CDI is implementing this term. Also, Leslie will be teaching a TOEFL Test preparation class next term, and needs to go to a workshop for that. I will most likely be teaching a speaking presentation and debate class that also requires me to attend a workshop. We have heard that these workshops are of limited value, and the best thing to do is just smile and nod until they let you out. However, our first workshop was a pleasant surprise so we're hoping the trend continues.

There is breaking news on the food front as well. The latest excitement stems from the discovery of a California Pizza Kitchen in Seoul, which we are hoping to try soon. We also learned of a spot that apparently serves "legit" Mexican food. Our quest on this culinary manner has repeated been filled with great hoped followed by utter despair. Let's hope this time things turn out differently....

Finally, our friends Eric and Dana are coming to Korea on Tuesday for a teaching gig down in Gwangju, a city about 2-3 hours south of Seoul. They will be working in the public school system. We are looking forward to having them here and going down for some visits. We have heard Gwangju is really nice and have been wanting to see more of the country once the weather warms up. We are hoping their training goes a bit more smoothly than ours did.

That's all the news for now. Leslie and I have to hold our own workshops in about two weeks, plus train some of our newbie teachers. We'll let you know how it goes.