Numbers game

Earlier this week my youngest class had a whip round and presented me with some birthday presents. A lemon vitamin tablet, an (in)edible sweet, some money (160won) and my favourite kid in the class bought me a pen. I saw the funny side and went on to have a fun class. Yesterday was my actual birthday, my fifth consecutive away from home in Korea. A pretty uneventful day but with some highlights, particularly an after work dinner. Birthdays continue to become an irrelevance as I age.


I'm starting to get very annoyed/frustrated with my workplace, my branch and its management. In truth I think I would like to move on from where I work (the branch) but I have some ties to the area where I live. These days work is becoming less and less enjoyable and it is inevitable that my effort is diminishing - I need another holiday! A number of curriculum changes don't seem to be working. Even if well meant, the change from reading classes to listening have been ineffectual and the students put in minimal effort, only studying to avoid retest and not to actually improve.