I had a call out to Education Yesterday. I had put in to teach an ACE class on the ‘basic principles of home planning and design’, and I suspected that was the reason. When I arrived at Education, I was left standing with an older Korean gentleman waiting for Foster, the ACE course administrator, to get back to us. In making small talk I found out that this other inmate was looking to teach a course on learning Korean. His English wasn’t great, but I told him it was great idea, but that he should keep it simple as the people taking the course would likely only be interested in learning a few simple phrases given the 8 week course run.
Foster soon came out and told us we were likely to be picked for the next round of classes, but that we should not rely on using handouts as they were trying to cut down on wasting paper. After, the inmate came to me in a panic, we explained that it would be impossible for him to teach the class with out more than just a few handouts. His problem was that he was approaching the problem like an academic class where you start with learning an alphabet and proceed from there. I sat down with him for the next half hour and explained how the people taking his class would likely be very happy with learning a few phrases at most. I used my basic knowledge of Chinese characters to demonstrate what I meant. He protested at first, but eventually got the idea. Later, he came back to me after talking with Foster again and thanked me for my help. He had negotiated a slightly more liberal use of handouts, but would focus on teaching 3 or 4 phrases a class. Given 8 weeks, that would mean learning 25 to 30 phrases, which would be plenty to negotiate shopping or eating in Seoul. I told him I would definitely sign up for his class if there was no conflict with mine! It is always nice to do someone a good turn. It is especially rewarding in this place as it helps build a community of people who feel they can help others as well.
