YBM International Academy in Gaepo occupies the third floor of a five story building with trees on two sides and a dusty football pitch along the road leading to the front door. In her office, Principal Susie suggested that I might do my best to promote YBM: enrollment is down, and parents talk when their children return home excited about their education. In the teachers' room, Christine introduced me as "Benteacher" to the rest of the staff, whose reception was warm. Inwoo from San Diego sits at the desk across from me and likes to discuss Michael Jordan. Verity from Canada, on my right, is the head teacher with some ten years of seniority, who greeted me with a list of tips on classroom discipline.
I observed Becky, Jane and Rex teach classes of two to six students. At the end of the session, they tell me, the students leave in favor of other English-study avenues and because of "intensives," their public school exams. School was out of session last week after a student contracted H1N1, which I suspect may also have affected the roster.
Exact responsibilities and procedures remain only vaguely clear yet, but orientation continues through the week.
After school Kim, Jenny, Jane, Inwoo and Rex invited me out to dinner at one of the many Korean restaurants where your food is cooked on a grill in the center of the table. The food was phenomenal to the point of prohibiting conversation. The group all live in YBM housing within walking distance of my hotel, and Jenny's is the home I'll be occupying when she returns to Houston for the first time in four years next week. "There's a new president now," I told her, "and Conan does the Tonight Show."
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