At this year's KOTESOL International Conference, aside from the free book(s) or just hand outs we get when we attend their particular session, Pearson-Longman publishing company also gave away Advanced American Dictionaries. After each session, they asked their attendees to go check their booth and gave clues for what books to look up for containing a "golden ticket". When an attendee finds the golden ticket, he/she automatically wins a dictionary.
As I said, I'm just unlucky with such things so I just shrugged off the idea from day 1 about going to their booth. By the way, the first full concurrent session we attended last Saturday, the first day of the conference, was by Marc Helgesen who talked about 10 Minutes for Happiness (Positive Psychology in the Classroom) for YL/S/U/A/B levels...
With no more seats available despite being held in a big room, I, and around 20-30 more attendees (no exaggerations here coz I lost count), endured standing up for 45 minutes just to learn from Marc H. who became my instant favorite. haha...
And so after his talk, a raffle was held for all attendees. I just looked on with so much envy as the winners stood up to get their stuffs... Yeah, I filled out a form too and dropped it in the drop box...
I attended more sessions by Pearson Longman. Afterall, their topics were so interesting and they had assistants who went around before each session, handing out leaflets to further attract attendees.
Oxford offered interesting sessions too and I was able to attend Mark Richard's Teaching Tricky Teens: Practical Approaches to Teaching Teenagers where I found myself joining other teachers who took comfort from the hard floor just to get insights on how to make the teenagers TALK in class... I met 2 NSETs who were really friendly. One teaches at a far province and the other one teaches at a University. Too tired to go to another room or check my book for a session, I stayed in the Oxford room and just waited for their next session. I was immediately given a free book and activity papers. The Presenter, Julie Hwang, was really good. She made teaching Young Learners more interesting and fulfilling...
I was already home last Saturday when I saw the day's Special Events that we weren't able to attend: Kathleen Bailey's Pursuing Professional Excellence Through Reflective Teaching and Marc Helgesen's Let's get Physical: Warm Ups That Include Language and Movement for all levels... Oh, I really regretted not checking the schedule earlier...
Sunday. We all agreed to meet up early for the 7:30am Breakfast with the Presenters.. Circumstances didn't permit us to attend it though... We arrived at the University around quarter to 8 but we all felt shy to enter the venue already. So we went to Costco's booth, grabbed chocolates, coffee and muffins and headed straight to ---- yes, Pearson-Longman's presentation again. It was quite interesting though but after 10 minutes, I realized that I was in the wrong room. I should have attended a more fitting session for a newbie teacher like me...
The day went on as usual. By 3:15, after finishing Marc Helgesen's New English Firsthand-10 New Ideas, and again not winning one of their give aways, I just followed Anne and Marni to Pearson-Longman's booth. They actually gave a clue to where the 2 golden tickets could be found. I assumed it would be attached to a CD case or a book about getting ELT certification online. I tried turning over books. I saw one Korean English teacher turn over a book with a CD case under it. She just got curious and turned it over and lo and behold, a "golden ticket" was attached to it and so the publishing company's people cheered for her and took her picture receiving the dictionary. The female assistant shouted there was one more unfound ticket...
Since I saw one CD case carelessly placed at the edge of one table, I turned it over and even asked, "is this CD's golden ticket not taken yet?" but my question was answered with a loud cheer from the company's people too and was immediately given the following:
the free cased Advanced American Dictionary with a Longman Academic E-tutor CD-rom and their catalogue in a cute blue cotton bag with an attached ribbon that says "not for sale"...
I checked their dictionaries online and they are priced at almost KRW40,000... So spending KRW40,000 registration fee to attend the conference was all worth it.. I actually gained so much from the sessions alone. This prize and the free books I got were all a plus...My winning the dictionary made me more interested in the last 2 sessions that followed both by Pearson Longman, haha! I attended Sam Lee's Teacher Training That Works which made me all the more realize how foolish I had been for forgetting at some point in my life who I really am and about the things I can really do. My companions and I were late for Marc Helgesen's Pursuing Professional Excellence: Language Teaching That Makes Sense for all levels..
Reason for being late? Just look at these...
I actually missed the session for the book Business Venture but someone left the book lying around... I really felt pity for the book and just picked it up... harhar...
yay! the Ajumma in us, Filipina teachers, came out when it was give away time for Pearson Longman... their booth became a "battlefield" hahahaha.... (remembering a post by Emma)... I got the 4 Boost books already but a fellow attendee was grabbing them from my hands. I had to say "hey hey, what are you doing?" And she really felt shy when she finally realized she looked er... funny! The English Firsthand and the small story book with the parrot picture were freebies in their sessions. the Northstar 4 and Backpack were personally given by an assistant when I asked for free samples about Reading and Writing...
really good books from GENEROUS Language World since they were given in sets (in a lovely plastic bag so I got 2 2010 planners too, haha...) 
I bought this book for Alex and now HE BARELY NOTICES WE ARE IN THE SAME ROOM....hahaha... This normally costs KRW18,000 but they were sold for only KRW10,000 at the conference. 
Another good book from a publisher who didn't freely give away books... 
I literally begged for McMillan's assistant to give me this. He was being a "bitch" haha but it so happened that his boss overheard us. She came to us and said, "What's the matter? Just give it to her.." harhar...
I thought I got one more book about speaking from another publishing house. Maybe I dropped it somewhere or at the Onsu Subway Station when I arranged the books in my bags. Ah, although I lost it, I still have lots with me to read...
and of course, my certificate....
I woul like to thank my friend Anne for the group registration. It made our first day easier. And of couse, like ate Betchay already mentioned, I met one of our Professors from SLU who teaches at a University here. I also met Marni and Nhemskie for the first time... It was a pleasure meeting and being with them...
Er... some more pictures? Okay...
The Venue: Sookmyung Women's University. It's a women's university right? But I saw male student volunteers. Ate Betchay confirmed they have male students here... 
With no less than Marc Helgesen... 
and another picture with him after his final session on the second day... I had him sign his book... 
his message?
With Tim Murphy...
During Saturday's 5:15pm Plenary Session with Rod Ellis who talked about Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development for all levels...
They said not to post our pictures together (I assumed that's the pictue taken at the lobby on Sunday afternoon) but this one is really nice... me, Nhemskie and ate Betchay... (Nhemskie please don't post our picture taken at the lobby. I really look tired and beaten in that picture [from carrying heavy books], hahahaha....)
So see you guys again next year.... There were a lot of Filipina attendees. It would be nice to see a Filipino presenter someday... And although it's still a year away, I hope to get lucky again.... 
