Irish Dancing Hits Korea

OK, so week one out of four is over! I have to say, I have really enjoyed it. I didn’t think I’d be saying that! We have to work very hard but it is rewarding. I am teaching Business English and Business oral English to classes G1 and G2, which are the classes with the lowest English level. There are only ten people in each class, so I can get to know the students a lot more and actually help the more and see them progress. At the start, some were very shy and lacking in confidence but I think they are gradually coming out of their shells. I also teach CV writing/interview skills/presentation skills to classes G3 and G4. I have found that the students are really nice, friendly and eager to learn. That makes the job a lot nicer. We are all one big happy family here!

We had to organise a 2 hour “ice-breaker” session the other evening. There are five Irish people teaching in the camp so we came up with the idea of teaching them an Irish dance. When we were in secondary school, we were all sent off to the Gaeltacht (summer camp for learning the Irish language). Every night we would have a ceili, where we had to do Irish dancing. Well, why not do it here as well (for one night only).

The most famous dance we learned was Ballai Luimni (The Walls of Limerick), where you dance with a partner and face another pair. Step in and out and so on. It’s all good fun. Here is the vid of us all making eejits of ourselves. I think Michael Flatley doesn’t need to worry too much…..



The funny thing was that the students were so shy to ask the opposite sex to dance. We picked 12 guys first and told them they each had to ask a girl to dance. “Off you go”, we said and nothing. They stood there in terror, like statues! We did eventually manage to get them to pick a girl each. They did enjoy it I think. ‘Twas good craic indeed! Hope we can do it again!