hi all, this will be my one and only blog entry on teachenglishinasia.... not because i don't think this is a GREAT site, i plan on contributing to it on a regular basis... but i already have an established blog on blogspot... so if no one minds... here is a gratuitous plug for it ----- http://documentarist.blogspot.com ------- please read, comment and enjoy!!!
lizm :)

North Korea has announced that they have conducted a nuclear test. The country's official Korean Central News Agency, as reported by Reuters, made the following announcement.

"The field of scientific research in the DPRK (North Korea) successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, Juche 95 (2006) at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation.

"It has been confirmed that there was no such danger as radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test as it was carried out under a scientific consideration and careful calculation.

"The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100%. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA (Korean People's Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability.

This is my blog about my experience living and teaching English on Jeju Island, Korea. I am working at two elementary schools: Jungang Elementary School and Samsung Elementary School. I teach at Samsung on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Jungang on Wednesdays and Fridays. I alternate schools every other Monday.

All together, I have 8 different co-teachers and am doing my best to adapt to each teachers style of running their classes. Some of them run their classes with an iron fist, pulling students over their chairs by the ear and flicking or knuckle-punching their foreheads, while other teachers rely more on the rewards system to get the desired behavior.

The students are very cute and classes are going well for the most part. I have found the exercises and activities in the textbooks to be quite fun and at an appropriate ability level for the students. This was very different from my experience teaching English in Okinawa, Japan, where the textbooks were boring to the point of being unusable. I would say, however, that the reason may in the simple fact that elementary students are more fun than their older peers.