Yale Peculiarities: Behind Closed Doors

In light of some new revelations I have been given I would like to portray as detailed account of what I can about my Academy. These are nothing more than excerpts that are trying to depict my life as best as possible. Time is always of the essence and for the most part going against me. I am as they say working with the hand that was dealt to me. I am muddling through it and plotting my next course of action and trying to take away the best case scenarios. I know that there is a lot of anguish that is going on with what happens at work. This is definitely a high level stress induced job but through everything I have found something out of the thicket of peculiarities that occur which are uncountable in nature but do exist.
Each day I try to give an accurate story of what happens. I am trying to be as honest and forthcoming as I can be. My stories are for the most part rather personal but I would like to show people what it means to be living in Korea. As is always the case I do strive to learn more about things that surround me and would truly like to hear every standpoint out there.
The oddities that surround Yale...
Each morning is relatively the same. At precisely 10:30 the door opens to Yale and ever so slowly work begins. You have to keep in mind that I live on the 5th floor and work on the 2nd. I hear everything. There are 2 other directors in this building who are much nicer than my director. Whether its because I work for my boss and naturally I have more beef with him or if its just because my boss tends to be a self-centered maniac who thinks he is a whiz at everything I am not entirely sure.
When the Academy opens around 10:30 its due to the arrival of the secretary. The Secretary Miss Jeong and I have always been at opposite sides. She is a very obscure person if you ask me. Her primary function is secretary, but she is also study hall teacher, janitor, and daily obligingly and humbly does her servitude. She comes in the morning but most of the time she just reads her book and sits behind her desk just waiting to badger Christina. She tells Christina about some kids needing this or that. What is the homework, etc. etc. She is literally a 30 year old baby kid. She drives me nuts with her inability to act normal. i find it really weird that she daily will show up to do menial tasks, and just sit there and do nothing. She could plug in the hot water, load the paper trays, get the progress reports, and well do whatever else her slave driver (distant family member) beckons her to do. In the end, if she doesn't do it she is prone to getting slapped. No joke. When it all gets down to it, I feel sorry for her because she is a fragile woman who lacks any sense of dignity. I don't like to cross paths with her because its just upsetting and hard to get any point across because she doesn't make an effort to speak English. I do know that she understands more than she lets on but she is comfortable living her life in the Shadow of Yale. At least this is my interpretation of it.


Telephone Teaching is something that Christina and Vicki have to do each month. They have to call twice each month. I think they need to talk at least 5 minutes. Christina has 60 kids I think. 300 minutes on the phone just to telephone teach. Its a complete waste of time because the kids come and go on their parents accord and its just busy work. I can't believe the lavish demands that my boss has us to. Its all a scam to appease the parents who know nothing of the happenings in the school.

Practicing What you Preach
It is constantly becoming harder and harder for me to be a good teacher. There is nothing to solidify my beliefs on, they are as translucent as my Academy lords lure for money.

Everyday I notice many things that I would like to be more apart of the School life. For example, since I work in this place so much it would seem that we would all want to work together and be nice to each other but we are kind of separated at work. Mr. Jeong hides in his office and rarely walks into the Teacher's office. Miss Jeong sits behind the counter where she keeps mainly to herself and well the 3 of us: Vicki, Christina, and I enjoy our time together as we should. The three of us have personable talks, and interact like friends/co-workers should. I don't know Vicki very well and unfortunately I don't know Pearl anymore but I consider them very good friends and a pleasure to know them and spend my time in Korea with them. On the other hand, Christina is Family in my eyes and I couldn't live in Korea without her.


The Kids have a funny way of treating me. They don't talk to me unless they absolutely have to. I have very few interactions with the kids and its kind of sad because supposedly I am here to help them with their English ability. Its hard for me to teach kids who can barely understand English and who don't understand what I say outside of the book. If they can't see the words (no matter how easy the words are) then they can't understand the question.
I use the example: Hi, how are you? Im fine Thank you and you?
Most people don't talk like that and even we did say that a lot... We have an expanded thought which the kids fail to even recognize. The kids know I am having a bad day I don't need to say I'm bad...they just know.. but they can't tell me a thought of their own. Its a problem with memorization. I don't know if this makes sense but these are my own thoughts outside of what I ever learned reading etc.
I can tell Vicki and Christina my feelings in Korean. I don't understand why kids can't do it a little bit in English. They have had 11 months of me its not learning unless you see a change.



I may have to expand on this post later but these are a few of my thoughts about Yale and Life in Korea Part I of II I will return to this later and soon!