A fun Saturday

Last week, a friend of the wife of a co-worker asked for some help. She teaches English to children in their homes. She works for a school with lots of teachers who visit children's homes. A few times a year, they have big events for all of the students. Yesterday, they rented out a Tae Kwan Do school for a few hours of games and Market Day. They wanted a native English speaker to help liven up the day and I thought it would be a fun few hours.

Rie and I took the bus to a part of the city that we had not visited before and found the school. We had some tea and went over the lesson plans with the teachers. It was great, I did not have to do any thinking. They designed all of the games and practically gave me scripts to read. Too easy.


After a half-hour of games, all of the kids got $50 in fake money to buy snacks or things at the little store. I played shop keeper and sold a bunch of toothbrush holders. The Koreans seem very serious about learning English. I was told that Market Days are a very popular learning activity here. I even read about a fake town where schools visit and spend the whole day interacting in English.


After one round of games with the pre-school kids and one round with the elementary school kids, Rie and I went for a walk. Near the school, we found a river with a great path near it and decided to see where it led. The path was popular with elderly cyclists and walkers. Every kilometer or so, there was some exercise equipment and benches. We also passed a few roller blade courses and basketball courts. Next to the basketball courts, they had big hooks in the wall for hanging your jackets. I have never seen that before.

One little girl's bicycle broke. I felt sorry for her and spent nearly 15 seconds putting the chain back on. She thanked me in English.

The river led all the way to Pusan University. We found a good Indian restaurant and then explored the neighborhood. Rie found a bookstore with some Japanese books and bought a new book. After dark, we took the subway home and played some Settlers of Catan.