E for Ego, P for Perception
After a direct and honest conversation with the co teacher that I find challenging to work with, I came to realize a few things:
1. I do not know everything (I know, I bet you are as surprised as I am ;))
While I do know a lot about children and have a lot of experience, that does not mean that I should close my ears to other ideas and perspectives. Especially when I am on another continent!
2. Despite the fact that I consider myself quite perceptive, when my feelings are intertwined with my perceptions, especially if the subject is teaching or something to do with children, I don't exactly always see, shall we say, clearly...?
3. Someone who drives you completely mad, and you struggle to understand, can actually be a good person who is hardly at all what you thought she was.
Now, logically, I knew all of these things before this week. However, I did not get them.
A big challenge for me in Korea is that many things look the same as at home, therefore I get my expectations mixed up. My school looks like many other schools I have worked in, my apartment could easily be one in the South End at home (except for the bathroom!),I have heat and hot water and cable t.v. with some English channels. I can shop in Emart which is very much like Walmart. So, many times I expect things to work as they do in Canada.
When someone says "I don't care!", it generally means that they don't care. In Korea, it can mean, "That is something that you do, I don't think it works the same for me, we should talk about it and see if we can come up with something that works better for both of us." So, even when the English teacher speaks English well, she has difficulty expressing herself and it is easier to say, "I don't care". As you can well understand this can cause problems for a Canadian teacher.
This week I have been made aware of just how much my expectations cloud my perceptions. In Kenya, I could literally see how different the situation was. In Korea, I have to look a little deeper. If I can do that, I think I will have a more satisfying experience.
1. I do not know everything (I know, I bet you are as surprised as I am ;))
While I do know a lot about children and have a lot of experience, that does not mean that I should close my ears to other ideas and perspectives. Especially when I am on another continent!
2. Despite the fact that I consider myself quite perceptive, when my feelings are intertwined with my perceptions, especially if the subject is teaching or something to do with children, I don't exactly always see, shall we say, clearly...?
3. Someone who drives you completely mad, and you struggle to understand, can actually be a good person who is hardly at all what you thought she was.
Now, logically, I knew all of these things before this week. However, I did not get them.
A big challenge for me in Korea is that many things look the same as at home, therefore I get my expectations mixed up. My school looks like many other schools I have worked in, my apartment could easily be one in the South End at home (except for the bathroom!),I have heat and hot water and cable t.v. with some English channels. I can shop in Emart which is very much like Walmart. So, many times I expect things to work as they do in Canada.
When someone says "I don't care!", it generally means that they don't care. In Korea, it can mean, "That is something that you do, I don't think it works the same for me, we should talk about it and see if we can come up with something that works better for both of us." So, even when the English teacher speaks English well, she has difficulty expressing herself and it is easier to say, "I don't care". As you can well understand this can cause problems for a Canadian teacher.
This week I have been made aware of just how much my expectations cloud my perceptions. In Kenya, I could literally see how different the situation was. In Korea, I have to look a little deeper. If I can do that, I think I will have a more satisfying experience.
posted by Nancy at
7:51 AM
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