So today I'm in the middle of teaching and my boss comes in and informs me that I will be giving a presentation to the mothers of my students at noon. The fact that they don't even speak English only scratches the surface of this conundrum. I've always been told that being flexible is an essential attribute for teaching, so I've been trying my hardest to be calm when I'm told to perform without warning. I know my boss understands that in the U.S. we aren't so last minute, but at the same time, we're in Korea. So the good thing about giving a presentation to Korean parents last minute is that as long as you smile and look nice it doesn't matter what you say. They can't understand you anyways. I had a translator field questions for me. It was nice having a lot of visuals in my room, so I could gesture to the pictures and other student work. I guess it went well because they were very happy and kept saying how much fun their kids were having in my class. A few minutes ago my boss came in and said they sent me really expensive cake. It was probably fanciest cake I'd ever eaten (besides maybe at Jon & Suz's wedding). It actually had a couple flakes of real gold in middle to adorn the frosting. We didn't eat the gold. But on the whole, I'm getting used to how Koreans in general are very last minute. It's actually kind of exciting, I get to come to work everyday and not know when I'll have to give a high stakes performance!
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