Okay, work has officially begun. Is it a grind like my Academy job? No, its not. Is it painfully easy? No, its not. The two jobs are actually fairly similar, despite the larger groups. I have more toys to play with here. I'm allowed to actually prepare a lesson, instead of doing what the Kim's tell me to do.

The kids appear to not hate me. My coworkers appear to not hate me. I think I'm also helping to spread a positive image of foreigners in this country. Or maybe just in my neighborhood. Either way, I've got them convinced that I'm a hardworker who cares about doing his job. I'm always prepared for class(so far) and I try to keep the lessons interesting. We'll see how long this lasts.

I had my first "teacher training class," or as I call it, "English for those who didn't pay attention at Hagwon," today. This was the first time I was nervous about a class since my first TOEFL class last December. I had to teach 20 of my coworkers with the headmaster in the front row. Yeah, I was intimidated. Did I flinch? Hell no. I'd rather them think I'm a prick than a crap teacher(even though I am, but they don't need to know that). The class went reasonably well. I did my best. I was more worried that the other teachers would think I was rude than anything else. Korean is different from English. The polite form of speaking in English isn't as noticable and I think Koreans can be offended by this. Either way, everyone spoke in English and said thank you at the end. I considered it a success. We'll see what happens tomorrow during round 2. Low level(?) class today, high level tomorrow.