Showing posts with label Podcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Podcast. Show all posts

Friday, January 22, 2010

Musings Over Makgeolli

After months of difficulties with several podcast hosting sites, I've decided to scrap them all together and just host them myself. From here on out all of my podcasts will be on "Musings Over Makgeolli". I have scheduled myself to where I make one every day and like I used to, I have a weekend co-host who gets bombed with me on the show.

Head on over if you're curious.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

And the "Musings" podcast returns

I've finally gotten the podcast up and running again. I'll throw new ones up there under the banner as much as possible. The one up there now is about the IRS and American taxes in relation to wages earned in Korea or you could click on the sidebar or here for past podcasts.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Podcast Update

Sorry about the light posting. I had a mini-vacation last week and forgot to time-stamp my posts. I'm a genius.

Back to it this week. In the meantime, make sure to listen to the most recent podcats: Expat Stories and Big City Adjustment.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Expectations from your Korean students

Here's the question:

I just got to Korea last Wednesday and started teaching today [Friday]. I didn't recieve any training and was totally shocked and scared when I was standing in front of a class of nine adults. I'm really freaked out and don't know what to do!!! What do the expect from me? Any advice about how to handle or manage these students would be sooo great!


I have talked about teacher training before and let me add that you are not alone. Everyday dozens of new teachers step off the plane and into a classroom. On top of that, many don't have much experience or any knowledge of what students expect of you. Don't worry about it. Students (or at least older students) know that people are new to the teaching scene and even newer to Korea. Most of the time, they'll give you a little adjustment time for you to get settled. Each class of students is different from the last and your teaching methodology will constantly evolve as you get into your groove.

In the meantime, let me offer you a bit of advice. In my years as a teacher and supervisor, I have discovered that people unfamiliar with Korean culture and its education system go through months of missteps and frustration as they try to adjust to a new job in a new country.

Listen to Part One of my podcast on how to better understand the education culture in Korea. It's a four-part series that covers the culture of education; methods; goals and strategies. The last one should be published within the next day or so.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

2 New Podcasts: "Teacher Training" and "K-Bloggers"

Remember that I'm also answering questions on the podcast, Musings Over Makgeolli...

On Teacher Training:

Dear Expat,

Is it normal for hagwons not to really train their teachers for the work they’re supposed to do? My training was 2 days of observation for teaching classes. We are also writing the textbooks (which we sell to the kids and other schools). For that I was trained in an “as-you-go” kind of way. I have been here almost three months and still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing with the textbooks! I have tried to express this to my supervisor, but to no avail. He seems to think I have been sufficiently trained and keeps saying it would be worse at other schools. Is this true? Is this normal hagwon behavior and “training”? Is there a better situation out there?

Podcast here.

And one on K-Bloggers:

I stumbled upon your blog and have followed your links to all the other South Korea-related blogs. It’s a little intimidating though. How am I supposed to sort through the good ones from the bad one’s. There seem to be thousands!

Does everyone write a blog who goes to teach in Korea? If I were to write one, would anybody care?

Podcast here.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Musings Over Makgeolli

Make sure to check out the podcasts and stay tuned for the next episodes...

June 18th: This Week in Korea...

June 19th: Weekly Blog Wrap-up

June 20th: Nightlife in Seoul...

June 21st: Sunday Politics

Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Expat's Podcast

Don't forget to check out my podcast, "Musings Over Makgeolli".