Shooting Myself in the Foot

Sorry that this blog is late. I thought I e-mailed it in, but I just
saved the e-mail as a draft.

Well, I made a big mistake on Monday. I'm not sure how it will affect
my job here at Hogye, but we'll wait and see.

One of my co-workers asked me how I like the school. I didn't know how
to answer, so I avoided the question a little.

"The people are very nice. The school is beautiful. The children are
mostly good."

I didn't tell her the part about not enjoying my day-to-day work here.
Her next question was more to the point.

"How about next year ... do you want to stay here?" she asked.

"Oh god, no!!" I answered too emphatically, almost cutting her off.

She was understandably shocked, and forced me to explain the feelings
I was trying to keep hidden.

"I don't really teach anything here. I don't use my teaching skills. I
worked for many years to improve my teaching skills. If I stay here
for long, I won't be a good teacher any longer."

So she asked me the obvious question.

"Where will you go next?"

"I'll probably work in the area. Maybe Changweon," I answered.

"But another public school will just be the same."

I knew that her reply wasn't correct, because I have friends at other
schools who range from virtually no teaching responsibility to 100%
control over all lessons.

"I probably won't work in public school," I answered in order to make
the conversation simpler.

Gale is pushing me toward university next year. The schedule would be
great, but I like teaching children. Who knows.

UPDATE:
After that conversation, my co-worker gave me a lesson to "help" her
with. I get creative control from top to bottom. The last two days
have been great fun.