Hi there,
I have been teaching in Korea for about 4 months and I am really struggling with many issues.
I'm hoping someone out there has some tips that can make me feel more like a teacher than an incredible annoyance.
The academy where I am teaching allows its students to speak L1 freely, which is what they do for the majority of the class no matter what I do. They pretty much completely ignore me unless I am standing directly over them and forcing them to repeat some English words. The students at this academy have an extremely limited ability with the English language, which means any activities or games that are even slightly complicated are impossible to conduct without translation.

My job is to get students to memorize text out of some English books, which I feel also limits what I can do in class. I do not know how to mix up these memorization "lessons" or make them even a little bit interesting for the students. Also, they are strictly memorizing the sounds that are coming out of my mouth, and not the meaning or usage. I find I can't aid in their understanding, because most, if not all of the students don't even know the concepts of tenses, nor the meanings of nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! If anyone out there has any advice for me I would really appreciate it!
I am approaching my wit's end, and I do not want to end my contract pre-maturely!
Thanks a lot for your time.