I have been trying to come up with a name for this post for a while. My first thought was "Weird Korea", but I realized that it didn't fully encompass everything I was planning on writing about. My next that was "Odd Korea", but again, was limited. My final thought was "Life Crushing Korea" but that really only applies to one topic, one which I will reserve until the end so as to keep you tuned in. I've watched enough news to know how to keep people hooked.
First of all though, I thought I would offer a couple of corrections. I am trying to be as accurate as I can in these posts, but sometimes I get things wrong, or not fully right, due to my inexperience and all. The first point is on Kimchi, the national food of Korea. I believe I described Kimchi as tasting as if they took cabbage and cooked it for many hourse and then adding some not pleasent tasting seasonings, although I never actually made a claim as to how it was made. This is wrong on many counts. First of all Kimchi is not solely cabbage. Kimchi is more of a process than a certain food. It seems to be similar to pickles. You have the standard pickle, which is a cucumber that has gone through a pickling process, but you also can pickle a great veriety of foodstuff. Kimchi seems to be the same way. Cabbage Kimchi seems to be the main type of kimchi, but other types of kimchi are frequently served. As for the process, the cabbage, or other foodstuff, isn't actually cooked, it is just fermented, sometimes for years or decades. Also, even cabbage Kimchi isn't always as limp as I first thought, it depends on the part of the cabbage you are eating and how long it has been fermenting. I am told the older the Kimchi the more prized it is because the taste improves the more it ages, much like a fine red wine. Also, apparently it is hard to hold onto Kimchi for so long because people are always eating it, although I have heard reports of 15-20 year old Kimchi.
The second correction is about a TV channel. I mentioned this one channel that seemed to show nothing but Starcraft tournaments. This is not true, they do sometimes show other gaming tournaments, not solely Starcraft. It is mearly about 90% Starcraft.
While I am talking about TV I might as well mention the oddness of their channels. They have a handful of channels that play mainly English movies and TV shows (with Korean subtitles), and they are kind of nice because during the show they show very few commercials. A show that would take an hour to watch in the states takes about 45 mins. here. The annoying bit comes after the show though. The show you what is coming next, and then proceed to show 15-20 mins. of commercials. The same goes with movies, you can watch a large chunk of a movie, and then it will be inturrupted by 15 mins. of commercials. I don't understand why they do this. Do they seriously think people are going to sit there for that long watching nothing but commercials waiting for the show to come back? It is a nice system if you just want to watch the one episode, or only the first half of a movie, but very annoying otherwise. Also on commercials, there have been two that I have seen frequently that should be mentioned under the catagory of odd. The first show what appear to be the Lion, Scarecrow, the Tinman, and Dorothy (wearing a skirt far shorter than I recall from the movie) from the Wizard of Oz singing a song that continually says "Welcome". I realize that the writing and all are in Korean, but even after numerous viewings I still cannot fathom what the commercial is about, except that they are welcoming me somewhere, or to do something. The next commercial is much more clear and will lead me to my next topic. It is a commercial for a brand of Soju (as a quick reminder, Soju is the alcoholic drink of choice for Korea, and doubles as a cleaner). This commercial shows several situations of people being bored, like a group of friends sitting around a table, a man and woman meeting with the woman's father for the first time, a woman at work given a particularly boring assignment. It then shows bottles of Soju being opened and cartoon characters flooding out and making everyone happy, including the woman at work. The cartoon characters, representing Soju, dance around her computer and she is very happy. In short this commercial seems to be advocating drinking at work.
As mentioned, this brings me to my next topic: drinking. In particular drinking alcoholic beverages. Korea seems to fully enjoy this activity, and to support his I will cite some common examples that I see frequently. It is not uncommon to see older men drinking Soju (the bottle is distinctive, even from a distance) together, in the park, in restaurants, or on train terminals, before noon. Also, on the weekends, it's not that unusual to see at least a few middle-aged men stumbling down the street, often supporting a friend who can't quite make it under his own power. There's also the freedom to drink pretty much anywhere and everywhere, so long as you're not in a store. In America you can't go to a park or a beach and drink, at least so long as your beverage is obviously alcoholic, but in Korea you can drink such things openly at all times of the day.
Since I mentioned the beach I suppose that will be my next topic, and really the main reason I was tempted to name this post "Weird Korea". To be fair, it's not the beaches themselves that are weird, it's the people who occupy them, namely Koreans. First of all imagine a typical Western beach. You have people in bathing suits and bikinis lounging in the sun, maybe playing volley ball, each group trying to be as seperate as possible so as to enjoy some privacy. You might see some beach umbrellas, and of course you will see lots of people barefoot or in sandels, playing in the water. The first time I went to a beach populated by Koreans was the number and placement of umbrellas. They weren't scattered but all in a row three or four deep. It looked a little like a cartoon seeing so many umbrellas all proped up so close together. You might assume it was because the place was packed, but that wasn't the case, there was plenty of room, but they still insisted on being packed together. Then I noticed on the other end of the beach were the tents. I don't mean canopies or something, but full blown camping tents, even though most of them would not be camping. Indeed, they usually cycled out after a few hours to be replaced with another who would place their tent as close as they could to another tent. You see, unlike in the west, Koreans don't seem to enjoy getting tanned by lying on the beach. They actually seem to try to avoid the sun as much as possible. This is further attested to by their dress. As I mentioned, on Western beaches people are lounging around in swim suits and bikinis, in Korea, Koreans are lounging around in full dress and hooded shirts under the shade of hundreds of umbrellas and tents, while being packed like sardines. Also, you haven't had a full day at a Korean beach until you see at least one man in a suit (I don't mean swim suit, I mean the business kind) and several fully dressed young women attempting to walk through the surf in very high heels. This isn't to say Korean beaches are all bad though. Since the Koreans like packing closs together it's pretty easy to get a more isolated spot with your friends, and as mentioned drinking beer on the beach is perfectly fine. In fact sometimes they'll have people walking around with kegs on their backs selling beer. Also you can sleep on the beach with no worries. A few weekends ago I spent a full 18 hours on the beach, never going more than 30-40 feet from the water, and spent the night sleeping, my only worry being that the tide would sweep me away. It got within about 5' of my feet, but no closer. I must say there is nothing more refreshing than bathing in the ocean during the sunrise, although drinking a cold beer while enjoying the sun on a beach is close. Also, because of my friends here I get to go to the beach sorrounded by attractive females in bikinis. In short there is little better than laying in the sand, drinking a cold beer, and being escorted by attractive women in bikinis. It makes me feel like a rich tycoon.
While my leasure time is spent on the beach, avoiding Kimchi, and watching TV, much of my time is still at work, so I might as well mention what is going on there. There has actually been a lot of drama recently, and I will attempt to summarize as best I can. First a little history (as I understand it). The school I work for was first formed, along with a few others, by some guy (I don't know his name) who sold the schools to a large corporation not too long before I arrived. The director of the school was called Moon, and Moon was well respected among the parents of many of the students due to the program she built in this particular school. Unfortunately Moon did not agree with the way the corporation ran things and then left a few months after I arrived. Due to Moon's way of doing things she had a loyal following among the staff, and in short during a 3 month period every Korean worker will have changed (the last remaining Korean teachers will be leaving by the end of the month, most of whom will be following Moon to the school she is starting). Along with the entire Korean staff leaving, many students are leaving as well. Also, we are going to be changing the books from which we teach starting to September. Part of me is sad because I've made friends with many of the Korean teachers and will be sad to see them go, but this drama has been going on for a while so I'll be happy to have a fresh start in September with new books, maybe some new students, and new Korean teachers. While there has been a lot of drama (the drama mainly is a he said/she said, or we don't like the new director of the school, etc.), I want to assure those who may be worrying (mainly my Mom), that there is little chance that they will shut down the school before the end of my contract. It is a large corporation that owns the school and they are just now implementing cirriculum changes, so they will see it through until the end of the school year, which is March, which is when my contract ends. Also, while there is a segment of the current school who is loyal to Moon, there are many students and parents who don't care about her, or who don't know who she is. Also, the corporation that I work for has many hagwans so I would assume there will be some people who come to the school due to the reputation of the corporation. In short, don't worry about my job here. If the worst happens I could always get another job. There are a rediculous number of jobs for native English speakers here and they all pay well. Also, depsite all the drama my working life here is good. I go into work 5 days a week and I don't dread it. I've never had a job where I didn't hate going into work after 6 months, and here I don't. The foreign teachers I work with are all great people and I really enjoy being with them. The job itself can be annoying, but at no point is it really stressful. In nearly 6 months the two things I have been told regarding my work is that I need to be sure to mark the homework, and that I am at times too nice to the kids. Short of actually abusing the kids or something, there isn't a lot I can do to screw up. I was once told by a more experienced person that if you at least care a little that puts you in the top 90% of English teachers. I don't know if I fall that high, but I certainly enjoy the stress free work environment (despite the drama). I also enjoy the freedom I have. I don't know how it will work with the new books, but at least for now I am given a set of books and am told to finish in 3 months. On a day to day basis what I do is up to me. There are no people checking to make sure I'm on track to finish, there are no people questioning why I'm doing this instead of that on a particular day. So long as the parents are content I have an extreme amount of freedom on a daily basis. It's what I liked about trucking, being given a goal (deliver at this time) but no set schedule I had to follow. This just doesn't have the stress of trucking. If you do something wrong on a given day, or just phone it in because you are tired, there aren't really any consequences, whereas in trucking that could mean your company having to pay thousands of dollars, or you having to pay thousands or going to jail due to braking some law, or at the worst someone ending up dead. Here it just means a student might have to wait a day to learn that the "gh" in "rough" sounds like an "f" instead of the "g" that it should be. While I might be mainly enjoying my time here I will end on a more somber note.
I will finally reveal the life crushing part of Korea. Really there is only one part that I have found life crushing, but I suppose you only need one thing to be life crushing. I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but if not, I will now. Koreans seem to love The Simpsons. I can catch episodes of the Simpsons most nights, and as with most English programming, it is in English with Korean subtitles. However recently they have started to do something very disturbing, they have started dubbing some episodes with Korean voice actors. They attempt to make the Korean actors sound as much like the real Simpsons as possible, but it is still in Korean, even though all of the animation is the same. You may question my labeling this as life crushing, but allow me to explain. I grew up watching the Simpsons, despite my parents trying to prevent it. I know all of the episodes, I can pick up even subtle references, I know these characters forward and backwards, including their voices. Thus to hear a foreign speech come from their lips is crushing. Allow me to explain with an example. Suppose you had a friend growing up who you loved and cherised. You played with this friend every chance you got, shared all your secrets with him/her, and she/he was as close as family, if not closer. Then one day when you were an adult, you heard this person speaking Russian into a radio, obviously transmitting secrets to Soviet Russia (yes, I know there is no longer a Soviet Russia, just work with me here). In that moment you realized your cherished friend was no friend, but was instead a secret commie spy. In all those years you never even suspected, but you were faced with this cold reality. This person who you loved and trusted for as long as you could remember wasn't who you thought. After experiencing this you aren't sure if you can trust or love again. That is how I feel after watching an episode of the Simpsons in Korean. These people who I knew and trusted aren't who I thought. I don't know if I can trust or love again.
In short my days in Korea are working at a stressless workplace, spending weekends on the beach, and questioning whether I can trust or love again.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
A More Balanced Post
I realized I have been very positive on Korea in my last few posts, thus this post I figured I would be less positive and point out some of the less good things about this country.
First I will talk about food. I generally enjoy Korean food (except Kimchi since I don't enjoy rotting cabbage), but when they try to imitate Western food they often fail. For instance I recently bit into a good looking donought. The dought part of it was quite good, it was sprinkled with sugar and the dough part was flakey and tender. The filling was another matter. This particular doughnut was filled with red bean mush. This read bean mush was not seasoned or flavored in anyway. And no, this was not an exception or an odd doughnut by Korean standards. They actually often fill their otherwise delicious doughnuts with red bean mush. They also seem to think that cakes (yes actual cake) should be filled with peas, or beans, or sweat potatoes. In short Korea doesn't really understand pastries.
You might be wondering about all this talk of bread products since Asia doesn't really have a reputation for bread products. While this bread thing is apparently a new thing to Korea, it has become quite popular. There are 3 bakeries within a few minutes of my apartment (although neither of the two grocery stores near me have much of a bakery). At these bakeries you can find good bread like products, but you also find things like doughnuts filled with red bean mush. In other words you must be careful when you bite into a pastery in Korea.
Another problem with Korea is their national pride. You might be wondering about this given that I'm from America, and America is all about national pride. It's not so much the national pride but the unwillingness to accept that anything might come from somewhere other than Korea. For instance I've mentioned PC bongs before. These places are labeled as "PC" then a bung of Korean stuff. Yes, the PC is English letters. Despite this many of my kids were convinced saying "PC" is Korean, despite the fact that the letters are clearly not Korean whenever they are shown. In case you think this is just a thing among stupid kids, adults also have the problem. A while back I was offered a "Korean" ice cream cone. This was the pre-wrapped ice cream cone you can find in any store with a freezer in America. Despite this they thought "American" ice cream was the scooped kind and "Korean" ice cream was the kind in a cone that you bought pre-made. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was not a Korean ice cream cone since they are widely available in America (he was actually shocked that I could get this kind of cone in America). All this depsite the fact the there is much English on the packaging of the ice cream cone. This usually indicates that the product is imported. Despite all of this the ice cream cone that you get from your local store is in fact a Korean style cone.
To be more balanced I will include some good things here too. The buses in Korea are awesome. I can travel to just about any major city in Korea in a short period of time. I can literally go down to the bus station right now and catch a ride for $10-15 to any major city in Korea and I won't have to wait more than an hour. Also, the buses here are not grey hound. They are actually comfortable with plenty of leg room. They are kind of like chartered busses but better, and they leave every 30-60 minutes to every where. You can also take a train for less money, although you have to plane that a little better since they don't leave as often, but they do cost less money (as a side note I rode my first train ever between cities a couple weeks ago. It was very exciting).
I'll be posting more later, but for now I must be going.
First I will talk about food. I generally enjoy Korean food (except Kimchi since I don't enjoy rotting cabbage), but when they try to imitate Western food they often fail. For instance I recently bit into a good looking donought. The dought part of it was quite good, it was sprinkled with sugar and the dough part was flakey and tender. The filling was another matter. This particular doughnut was filled with red bean mush. This read bean mush was not seasoned or flavored in anyway. And no, this was not an exception or an odd doughnut by Korean standards. They actually often fill their otherwise delicious doughnuts with red bean mush. They also seem to think that cakes (yes actual cake) should be filled with peas, or beans, or sweat potatoes. In short Korea doesn't really understand pastries.
You might be wondering about all this talk of bread products since Asia doesn't really have a reputation for bread products. While this bread thing is apparently a new thing to Korea, it has become quite popular. There are 3 bakeries within a few minutes of my apartment (although neither of the two grocery stores near me have much of a bakery). At these bakeries you can find good bread like products, but you also find things like doughnuts filled with red bean mush. In other words you must be careful when you bite into a pastery in Korea.
Another problem with Korea is their national pride. You might be wondering about this given that I'm from America, and America is all about national pride. It's not so much the national pride but the unwillingness to accept that anything might come from somewhere other than Korea. For instance I've mentioned PC bongs before. These places are labeled as "PC" then a bung of Korean stuff. Yes, the PC is English letters. Despite this many of my kids were convinced saying "PC" is Korean, despite the fact that the letters are clearly not Korean whenever they are shown. In case you think this is just a thing among stupid kids, adults also have the problem. A while back I was offered a "Korean" ice cream cone. This was the pre-wrapped ice cream cone you can find in any store with a freezer in America. Despite this they thought "American" ice cream was the scooped kind and "Korean" ice cream was the kind in a cone that you bought pre-made. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was not a Korean ice cream cone since they are widely available in America (he was actually shocked that I could get this kind of cone in America). All this depsite the fact the there is much English on the packaging of the ice cream cone. This usually indicates that the product is imported. Despite all of this the ice cream cone that you get from your local store is in fact a Korean style cone.
To be more balanced I will include some good things here too. The buses in Korea are awesome. I can travel to just about any major city in Korea in a short period of time. I can literally go down to the bus station right now and catch a ride for $10-15 to any major city in Korea and I won't have to wait more than an hour. Also, the buses here are not grey hound. They are actually comfortable with plenty of leg room. They are kind of like chartered busses but better, and they leave every 30-60 minutes to every where. You can also take a train for less money, although you have to plane that a little better since they don't leave as often, but they do cost less money (as a side note I rode my first train ever between cities a couple weeks ago. It was very exciting).
I'll be posting more later, but for now I must be going.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Sorry for the Delay
As some of you may have noticed I have not updated my blog for a while. You may have been wondering if this was due to my lack of interest in continuing to blog, or perhaps nothing interesting has happened to me, or maybe I was just dead. None of these are true. The problem has been, and continues to be, my lack of a computer. A few days after my last blog post I broke my computer by tripping over the power cable. I thought I would be getting it fixed soon so I didn't bother trying to find an alternate way to blog. Unfortunately my computer was not fixed soon, nor is it fixed now, and I have since moved to PC Bongs (internet cafes) for my computing needs, so I should be more faithful in my updates going forward.
Since I am writing this in a PC Bong I figured I would start by describing it. I have never really used an internet cafe in the States before so comparing them to the ones in Korea is a bit difficult, but I will do my best. First of all even though I compare them to internet cafes, that's not really a good picture for PC Bongs since PC Bongs are not about surfing the internet so much as gaming. All of the computers feature large screens (probably about 20 inch), a comfortable reclining chair and fast processing power. The room it self which houses the computer has dim lighting and lots of fans. There are few to no rules while in here it seems, you can eat (even having food delivered), drink, sleep (when I walked in this morning there was a guy snoring in one of the chairs while the computer was on), and even smoke. The smoking part may be a big surprise for my American readers, but in Korea you can smoke nearly everywhere, so it isn't surprising you can smoke here too. It should be noted though that the official position on smoking in this particular PC Bong is not clear. On the initial login screen there is a clear no smoking decal, indicating you can't smoke here. On the other hand the person at the register smokes and they provide ashtrays when you walk through the door, so they seem to be sending mixed signals. Speaking of the register, the best part of PC Bongs is the price. Despite all you get, you still only pay about $0.75 an hour. Also, for those of you wondering, yes Koreans seem to really enjoy Starcraft. Every computer here has Starcraft installed, and I have yet to come here where I didn't hear or see at least one person playing it, even if there were only a few people using computers.
Speaking of Starcraft leads me to the Television here. I recently got cable hooked up (I've been trying to get it hooked up for a while, and it eventually got done). I've only had it for a few days so I can't say too much, but from what I can tell there is a channel that seems devoted to showing people playing Starcraft all day and night. The all day and night might be an exageration, but everytime I've turned to it they have been showing Starcraft battles, although during the day when I am at work they may show something different, I can't say. Despite this being Korea, you can easily find some English programming. They seem fond of NCIS, CSI, Bones, the Mentalist, and other such shows. There's usually an English movie or two showing as well (although all of these have Korean subtitles). I also have CNN. They apparently also show the Simpsons regularly, but I haven't been able to find it yet.
On an unrelated note, I thought I would describe a night out with my coworkers to show why I like Korea, although it is a double edged sword. A couple of weeks ago we went out to celebrate two of my coworker's birthdays. We went after work, so we started about 9:30pm. We went to this place where you cooked oysters, clams, muscles (also pork and chicken) over coals at your table. There was also a soup with the same seafood in it. In the soup they also threw in a live octopus, which was rather shocking and a little disgusting. I can tell you that there is nothing apetizing about watching living tentacles flay around in your soup as it cooks. Anyway, there were about 20 of us. We all ate our fill, we ordered loads of drinks, and ended up being at the place for at least a few hours, eating and drinking to our hearts content. The price? Less than $20 a person. Most of us went on to "round two" at a soju bar. I honestly don't know how long we were there (but it was a while), we had some food and lots of drinks. The cost? About $10 a person. We then went to a Nuri Bong, which is Korea's version of karaoke. In Korea, instead of being in a bar with lots of strangers singing, you are given a room with just your friends to sing to their hearts content. We sang about an hour or so. After that I decided to go home, while most other people were going onto yet another bar. You are probably wondering how this is possible, since bars close at 2am, and surely it was past 2 at this point (it was). You see, in Korea apparently bars and such never actually close (or if they do it is sometime well after sunrise). After all of this I ended up getting home sometime after 4am (the record for me has been 5:30am). This is the bad part of Korea. In the state when you go out you know you'll be ending it around 2am, in Korea there is no set end point, so if you aren't watching the time closely the time can just fly. The good part is that even after such a long, funfilled evening, I spent less than $40 (that includes the cab ride home). Try going out to a nice dinner with fresh seafood and having a few drinks for just a couple of hours. You'll probably spend a lot more than this. Although you'll probably get home before 4am. I guess it's all tradeoffs.
I hope this post will satisfy your curiosity for a while. As I said I will hopefully be blogging more regularly again. I have lots of things I could be writing about (I didn't even talk about work in this post), but I have to be running off to teach impressionable young minds.
Since I am writing this in a PC Bong I figured I would start by describing it. I have never really used an internet cafe in the States before so comparing them to the ones in Korea is a bit difficult, but I will do my best. First of all even though I compare them to internet cafes, that's not really a good picture for PC Bongs since PC Bongs are not about surfing the internet so much as gaming. All of the computers feature large screens (probably about 20 inch), a comfortable reclining chair and fast processing power. The room it self which houses the computer has dim lighting and lots of fans. There are few to no rules while in here it seems, you can eat (even having food delivered), drink, sleep (when I walked in this morning there was a guy snoring in one of the chairs while the computer was on), and even smoke. The smoking part may be a big surprise for my American readers, but in Korea you can smoke nearly everywhere, so it isn't surprising you can smoke here too. It should be noted though that the official position on smoking in this particular PC Bong is not clear. On the initial login screen there is a clear no smoking decal, indicating you can't smoke here. On the other hand the person at the register smokes and they provide ashtrays when you walk through the door, so they seem to be sending mixed signals. Speaking of the register, the best part of PC Bongs is the price. Despite all you get, you still only pay about $0.75 an hour. Also, for those of you wondering, yes Koreans seem to really enjoy Starcraft. Every computer here has Starcraft installed, and I have yet to come here where I didn't hear or see at least one person playing it, even if there were only a few people using computers.
Speaking of Starcraft leads me to the Television here. I recently got cable hooked up (I've been trying to get it hooked up for a while, and it eventually got done). I've only had it for a few days so I can't say too much, but from what I can tell there is a channel that seems devoted to showing people playing Starcraft all day and night. The all day and night might be an exageration, but everytime I've turned to it they have been showing Starcraft battles, although during the day when I am at work they may show something different, I can't say. Despite this being Korea, you can easily find some English programming. They seem fond of NCIS, CSI, Bones, the Mentalist, and other such shows. There's usually an English movie or two showing as well (although all of these have Korean subtitles). I also have CNN. They apparently also show the Simpsons regularly, but I haven't been able to find it yet.
On an unrelated note, I thought I would describe a night out with my coworkers to show why I like Korea, although it is a double edged sword. A couple of weeks ago we went out to celebrate two of my coworker's birthdays. We went after work, so we started about 9:30pm. We went to this place where you cooked oysters, clams, muscles (also pork and chicken) over coals at your table. There was also a soup with the same seafood in it. In the soup they also threw in a live octopus, which was rather shocking and a little disgusting. I can tell you that there is nothing apetizing about watching living tentacles flay around in your soup as it cooks. Anyway, there were about 20 of us. We all ate our fill, we ordered loads of drinks, and ended up being at the place for at least a few hours, eating and drinking to our hearts content. The price? Less than $20 a person. Most of us went on to "round two" at a soju bar. I honestly don't know how long we were there (but it was a while), we had some food and lots of drinks. The cost? About $10 a person. We then went to a Nuri Bong, which is Korea's version of karaoke. In Korea, instead of being in a bar with lots of strangers singing, you are given a room with just your friends to sing to their hearts content. We sang about an hour or so. After that I decided to go home, while most other people were going onto yet another bar. You are probably wondering how this is possible, since bars close at 2am, and surely it was past 2 at this point (it was). You see, in Korea apparently bars and such never actually close (or if they do it is sometime well after sunrise). After all of this I ended up getting home sometime after 4am (the record for me has been 5:30am). This is the bad part of Korea. In the state when you go out you know you'll be ending it around 2am, in Korea there is no set end point, so if you aren't watching the time closely the time can just fly. The good part is that even after such a long, funfilled evening, I spent less than $40 (that includes the cab ride home). Try going out to a nice dinner with fresh seafood and having a few drinks for just a couple of hours. You'll probably spend a lot more than this. Although you'll probably get home before 4am. I guess it's all tradeoffs.
I hope this post will satisfy your curiosity for a while. As I said I will hopefully be blogging more regularly again. I have lots of things I could be writing about (I didn't even talk about work in this post), but I have to be running off to teach impressionable young minds.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Things I Love
I've been a little hard on Korea in my last couple of posts, so I figured I would make a post sharing the things I like about working here.
First of all I thought I would start with my job. There are frustrating classes and days that I have, but there are plenty of enjoyably parts too. To start with, one of the first classes I have in a day is a class that is new to English. On my first day it took my literally 10 minutes to convey that I wanted them to draw a cat. They didn't know what cat meant, or draw meant. I of course didn't know this when the class started, but I quickly figured it out. This is a difficult class since they don't understand most of what I say, but it is also highly rewarding since whenever they can answer questions I know it is because of me. I realize that the Korean teacher has helped out too, but when I ask questions based off the of the book, and they can answer, it makes me smile. Some of them can also figure out and add to what the book teaches. For instance, one of the units dealt with foods you like and don't like. The phrase to learn was “I like....” or “I don't like...” and some of the students could figure out that they could say “I like Trevor teacher”. That made my day. This class also makes me smile because, between the Korean teacher and myself, the class and I can now communicate, even if it is in a very basic form.
These kids are in 1st grade, and nearly the youngest kids I have. The youngest kids I have are in kindergarten, and I have two classes of such kids. One of the classes is new to English, I am working off of books to teach them “science” and “social studies”. I don't particularly like this class, but the kids are very cute and some days they are very good. My other kindergarten class is in their second year of English kindergarten. This class is kind of fun for several reasons. I tend to think of them speaking pretty good English, although that's partly because I don't really know how well 6 year olds speak English. The main reason I like this class is because the things I'm teaching them is difficult to teach, especially to 6 year olds who don't speak English as a first language. There are of course simple things I'm teaching like reading and pronunciation, but a few days ago I had to try to teach syllables to these students. This lesson was in their work book, and I had seen it a few days before hand, and since then I had been racking my brain trying to figure out how to teach syllables to these kids. Shortly before class on the day I would have to teach this (I can't skip pages in the workbook because the kids would freak out, especially at this age) I remembered learning about syllables when I was young. Basically you put your hand under your jaw and count every time your mouth moves. Anyway, this brings me to one of the joys of the job, I was actually able to show this class of six year olds, who spoke Korean since birth, how to figure out how many syllables are in an English word. This technique only works if they actually pronounce the words correctly though. In practicing this I went through the English names of the students, asking how many syllables they had. They were mostly good, and almost all of them were putting their hand under their chin. However, there was one student, named Jason, who would not believe that there were only two syllables in his name. With hand faithfully under his jaw, he said his name, but with three syllables. I attempted to correct him on the pronunciation of his name, but he would not hear of it. His name was Ja-a-son with 3 syllables, and no amount of saying his name would dissuade him. This brings joy to my heart because he was actually doing the counting correctly, as I taught him, but he was pronouncing was wrong, but it was so cute that I eventually gave up and said, “Okay, Jason has 3 syllables”.
The kids also pick up on this you say even though they aren't part of the text. For instance I say “Good” or “excellent” a lot, depending how how well the person answers the question. As such every class of mine can say excellent very well, even though it is a difficult word for Koreans (an “x” sound followed by a “c” and a double “l”). Sometimes I'll just have them sit there and repeat “excellent” in a Monty Burns type voice while I imitate Burns' finger motions. It is my goal that by the end of the year all of my students will be able to look and sound like Burns while saying “Excellent”.
This brings me to another thing I enjoy about working here. I have a lot of freedom in the way I teach and the rules I impose in my classroom. For instance, there was no indication on how I should teach syllables to these kids, so I had to invent my own way. It seemed to have worked (although I'll be checking on Monday to see if they remember), but if it didn't work I could try something else. There is very little penalty for failure. If something doesn't work, try something else. It might make for a difficult half hour (the length of a class) but beyond that no harm done. Has for rules, there are several discipline options open to me. The Hagwon I work for gives coupons to students, and these coupons can be used to buy things a few times a year during market days. Thus one of the ways to keep order is to promise coupons (or stickers, which are exchanged at a rate of 10 stickers to 1 coupon), or to threaten to take coupons or stickers away. I of course have to option to call my Korean teacher or the main disciplinarian to settle matters too (as a side note, I have gone out on several nights with the main disciplinarian, and if they could see her singing at a karaoke bar, they probably wouldn't be as afraid of her). I like this freedom because it allows me to change things based on the class, allowing me to be really strict with some classes, a lot more free with others, based on the temperament of the class. This also applies to teaching. I have books that I teach from, and there is an end date that I have to finish the books, but apart from that I have a lot of freedom. There have been times when I've looked at a page and had no idea how to teach this, or more usually, no idea how to convey the information since the layout was awful. One such instance was teaching a class, and they were learning about bugs and things like between, on, next to, behind, etc. The picture covered two pages and consisted of characters from “A Bug's Life”. Basically the picture was so poorly organized that, even though I spoke English fairly well, and not exactly stupid, I couldn't figure out where the various bugs were based on the words given. I tried teaching, asking “where are the ants” without really studying the page, the student gave an answer which caused other students to shout “No teacher”. I looked at the page and thought, and thought, and said “Turn to the next page”. So long as I finish the books on time and don't physically harm the children I'm fine.
I said “physically harm the children” for a reason. In Korea I am much more able to physically touch the children and play with them than the average kindergarten/elementary teacher in the States. Every day I have kids hugging and kissing me, and I hug them back. I routinely throw them around and tickle them while they tickle me. Basically I am allowed to be affectionate towards the kids without being worried about being prosecuted for being a molester.
Apart from the job, there are things I like about Korea itself. Partly I like the weired nature of Korea. It is an advanced country with many aspects of a non-advanced country. They have new computers and LED TVs, but it is also easy to find cassette tapes and tape players. To further make this point of Korea being a country of contrasts, let me describe the shopping options. On the one hand near my apartment there are vendors who sit on the street corner selling food, clothing, blankets, etc. There is a truck that is near my apartment nearly every night selling things like strawberries, oranges, orange like fruit, and fresh crab. To contrast this, recently I wen to the largest department store I've ever seen. I don't mean to exaggerate here, but this department store was 8 stories high, it was more or less an entire mall built up instead of out. I got lost several times trying to get out. Getting out led me to the second largest department store I've ever seen, only a few blocks away. I find it amazing that I can buy things from an old woman with her goods on a blanket, and a 20 min. bus ride I can go to the largest department store I've ever seen, a store so large it would put most malls to shame.
Apart from the actual Korean part of things, I'm enjoying living in a city. I've never lived in a city before, always living in suburbs. I enjoy going doing the elevator and being only a few minutes from several convenience stores, a couple grocery stores, a bakery, and many street merchants. I don't really miss having a car, since the public transportation here is good, I can get most places by bus, and taxis are cheap enough that it isn't a big deal to take a taxi to most places.
There are many other things I enjoy about Korea, and I'm sure I will expand on them later, but for now I will leave it at this.
First of all I thought I would start with my job. There are frustrating classes and days that I have, but there are plenty of enjoyably parts too. To start with, one of the first classes I have in a day is a class that is new to English. On my first day it took my literally 10 minutes to convey that I wanted them to draw a cat. They didn't know what cat meant, or draw meant. I of course didn't know this when the class started, but I quickly figured it out. This is a difficult class since they don't understand most of what I say, but it is also highly rewarding since whenever they can answer questions I know it is because of me. I realize that the Korean teacher has helped out too, but when I ask questions based off the of the book, and they can answer, it makes me smile. Some of them can also figure out and add to what the book teaches. For instance, one of the units dealt with foods you like and don't like. The phrase to learn was “I like....” or “I don't like...” and some of the students could figure out that they could say “I like Trevor teacher”. That made my day. This class also makes me smile because, between the Korean teacher and myself, the class and I can now communicate, even if it is in a very basic form.
These kids are in 1st grade, and nearly the youngest kids I have. The youngest kids I have are in kindergarten, and I have two classes of such kids. One of the classes is new to English, I am working off of books to teach them “science” and “social studies”. I don't particularly like this class, but the kids are very cute and some days they are very good. My other kindergarten class is in their second year of English kindergarten. This class is kind of fun for several reasons. I tend to think of them speaking pretty good English, although that's partly because I don't really know how well 6 year olds speak English. The main reason I like this class is because the things I'm teaching them is difficult to teach, especially to 6 year olds who don't speak English as a first language. There are of course simple things I'm teaching like reading and pronunciation, but a few days ago I had to try to teach syllables to these students. This lesson was in their work book, and I had seen it a few days before hand, and since then I had been racking my brain trying to figure out how to teach syllables to these kids. Shortly before class on the day I would have to teach this (I can't skip pages in the workbook because the kids would freak out, especially at this age) I remembered learning about syllables when I was young. Basically you put your hand under your jaw and count every time your mouth moves. Anyway, this brings me to one of the joys of the job, I was actually able to show this class of six year olds, who spoke Korean since birth, how to figure out how many syllables are in an English word. This technique only works if they actually pronounce the words correctly though. In practicing this I went through the English names of the students, asking how many syllables they had. They were mostly good, and almost all of them were putting their hand under their chin. However, there was one student, named Jason, who would not believe that there were only two syllables in his name. With hand faithfully under his jaw, he said his name, but with three syllables. I attempted to correct him on the pronunciation of his name, but he would not hear of it. His name was Ja-a-son with 3 syllables, and no amount of saying his name would dissuade him. This brings joy to my heart because he was actually doing the counting correctly, as I taught him, but he was pronouncing was wrong, but it was so cute that I eventually gave up and said, “Okay, Jason has 3 syllables”.
The kids also pick up on this you say even though they aren't part of the text. For instance I say “Good” or “excellent” a lot, depending how how well the person answers the question. As such every class of mine can say excellent very well, even though it is a difficult word for Koreans (an “x” sound followed by a “c” and a double “l”). Sometimes I'll just have them sit there and repeat “excellent” in a Monty Burns type voice while I imitate Burns' finger motions. It is my goal that by the end of the year all of my students will be able to look and sound like Burns while saying “Excellent”.
This brings me to another thing I enjoy about working here. I have a lot of freedom in the way I teach and the rules I impose in my classroom. For instance, there was no indication on how I should teach syllables to these kids, so I had to invent my own way. It seemed to have worked (although I'll be checking on Monday to see if they remember), but if it didn't work I could try something else. There is very little penalty for failure. If something doesn't work, try something else. It might make for a difficult half hour (the length of a class) but beyond that no harm done. Has for rules, there are several discipline options open to me. The Hagwon I work for gives coupons to students, and these coupons can be used to buy things a few times a year during market days. Thus one of the ways to keep order is to promise coupons (or stickers, which are exchanged at a rate of 10 stickers to 1 coupon), or to threaten to take coupons or stickers away. I of course have to option to call my Korean teacher or the main disciplinarian to settle matters too (as a side note, I have gone out on several nights with the main disciplinarian, and if they could see her singing at a karaoke bar, they probably wouldn't be as afraid of her). I like this freedom because it allows me to change things based on the class, allowing me to be really strict with some classes, a lot more free with others, based on the temperament of the class. This also applies to teaching. I have books that I teach from, and there is an end date that I have to finish the books, but apart from that I have a lot of freedom. There have been times when I've looked at a page and had no idea how to teach this, or more usually, no idea how to convey the information since the layout was awful. One such instance was teaching a class, and they were learning about bugs and things like between, on, next to, behind, etc. The picture covered two pages and consisted of characters from “A Bug's Life”. Basically the picture was so poorly organized that, even though I spoke English fairly well, and not exactly stupid, I couldn't figure out where the various bugs were based on the words given. I tried teaching, asking “where are the ants” without really studying the page, the student gave an answer which caused other students to shout “No teacher”. I looked at the page and thought, and thought, and said “Turn to the next page”. So long as I finish the books on time and don't physically harm the children I'm fine.
I said “physically harm the children” for a reason. In Korea I am much more able to physically touch the children and play with them than the average kindergarten/elementary teacher in the States. Every day I have kids hugging and kissing me, and I hug them back. I routinely throw them around and tickle them while they tickle me. Basically I am allowed to be affectionate towards the kids without being worried about being prosecuted for being a molester.
Apart from the job, there are things I like about Korea itself. Partly I like the weired nature of Korea. It is an advanced country with many aspects of a non-advanced country. They have new computers and LED TVs, but it is also easy to find cassette tapes and tape players. To further make this point of Korea being a country of contrasts, let me describe the shopping options. On the one hand near my apartment there are vendors who sit on the street corner selling food, clothing, blankets, etc. There is a truck that is near my apartment nearly every night selling things like strawberries, oranges, orange like fruit, and fresh crab. To contrast this, recently I wen to the largest department store I've ever seen. I don't mean to exaggerate here, but this department store was 8 stories high, it was more or less an entire mall built up instead of out. I got lost several times trying to get out. Getting out led me to the second largest department store I've ever seen, only a few blocks away. I find it amazing that I can buy things from an old woman with her goods on a blanket, and a 20 min. bus ride I can go to the largest department store I've ever seen, a store so large it would put most malls to shame.
Apart from the actual Korean part of things, I'm enjoying living in a city. I've never lived in a city before, always living in suburbs. I enjoy going doing the elevator and being only a few minutes from several convenience stores, a couple grocery stores, a bakery, and many street merchants. I don't really miss having a car, since the public transportation here is good, I can get most places by bus, and taxis are cheap enough that it isn't a big deal to take a taxi to most places.
There are many other things I enjoy about Korea, and I'm sure I will expand on them later, but for now I will leave it at this.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
On Roads and Road Like Things
As mentioned previous, my main recommendation on driving in Korea, at least in cities, is don't. This is of course assuming you are used to driving in the USA or Canada (I would assume a lot of European countries too, but not having been there I can't comment). I will attempt in this post to explain why, and why I have called driving in Korea “bat-shit insane”. I will start off by giving you some advice that I was given when I started driving, “Always expect the other drivers on the road to do something stupid.” I have driven by this rule all over the US, but when I got here I learned “stupid” is a relative term.
I will start by explaining roads in Ulsan (I can't guarantee that this will hold true all over Korea, but I've been told by reliable contacts that it does for the most part, although it doesn't hold to the same degree away from cities). The first type of road in Ulsan is the big arteries. These are usually at least 6 lanes wide and intersect each other with roundabouts, although sometimes with standard traffic lights. These main arteries sometimes have other roads intersect them with lights, although the main purpose of these lights seems to be cross walks, and they have many places where there are lights for cross walks without any intersecting roads. The roads themselves look just like you would find on any big arterial in the US, with lanes and the like. The biggest difference is the actual driving on them, I will hold off comment on the actual driving for now.
The second type of road is basically everything else. With some exceptions, non-arterial roads do not have any lights, stop signs, yield signs, or really anything else. Another feature of these roads is that, despite the fact that they have two lanes (a yellow lane divider goes down the middle of a lot of them), there is usually only room for one car on the road at a time. This is due to cars parked in legal spots down the road. As such you will have long lines of cars stopped at a wide spot on the road, usually an intersection, while cars from the other direction squeeze through the narrow spot (it should be noted at this point that most such streets do not have sidewalks, so you are squeezing by with the cars as a pedestrian). You also find people trying to turn on to another street, only they can't fit because there is a car on that street trying to get onto their street, often trying to turn left. The first car turns partly onto the second street making it difficult for the second car to turn left, which is the only thing that will allow the first car to get onto the street. Sometimes you have this situation from all directions, and one or more of the directions is stuck due to the before mentioned problem of narrow roads. Thus you have 3 or 4 cars in an intersection all trying to go different ways at the same time) As such everything comes to a standstill. This sounds bad, but this is one of the few times pedestrians can easily get across the street.
Allow me to defend my last statement. The first thing I noticed about the roads in Korea is that pedestrians do not have the right of way at intersections, or cross walks (unless there is a light), at stop signs, or really anywhere without a green cross walk sign. This is an important point, and I assure you that I am not exaggerating at all in anything I'm about to say. If I go to a marked cross walk (without a light) and I try to cross with a car anywhere nearby, the car will not stop, they may honk, they may swerve, but you do not have a right to cross that street while a car is coming. To add to this, let me ask you a question. You are driving down a small street (no lane dividers, like a residential area or a small commercial area), no lights, no stop signs, and lets say you see a kid(maybe 7-9) getting ready to cross the street, he's obviously checking both ways and such and he's at a labeled cross walk. Do you stop? If you were trained in the US, I'm going to assume you would, if not you're probably a jack-ass. In Korea it is expected that you won't stop (yes, even for young kids trying to cross a small street at a cross walk), even if you multiply that one kid by a dozen, and include kids that are younger. If you are a decent human being trying to keep young kids safe and you actually stop you will be honked at, even when the other driver can see the kids crossing. If you are the adult in this situation bravely standing in front of the car so that the kids can cross quickly in safety, you will be honked at.
Okay, so those are the two main types of roads here in Ulsan, now allow me to explain the actual driving style of Koreans. Basically Korean driving is based on a big game of Chicken. If you're driving down one of those narrow roads, whoever stops first is the one who is stuck until the traffic lets up. If you're driving down a big arterial and want to change lanes, whoever keeps moving over gets the lane. This explains why pedestrians are the low man on the totem pole since most pedestrians will give up when there is a car coming down the road right for them. Another thing to note about driving in Korea is that they are always looking forward. This may not sound like a bad thing, since you are supposed to keep your eyes on the road, but they are actually trained to always look forward, never turning their head. If this doesn't strike you as a bad thing, just think about what you (hopefully) do when you change lanes. Yeah, Koreans don't do that. Some cars have extra mirrors on their cars to reduce blind spots, but most cars don't have these. As such there is a lot of honking on Korean roads, not out of anger, but to let other drivers know that there is a car in their blind spot. To make it worse, if there is an accident due to a car changing lanes without checking their blind spot, whoever is farther back is at fault. Thus, if you are driving along and a car is a little ahead of you, enough that you are in his blind spot, and he decides he wants in your lane and moves over and hits you, you are at fault. Another thing to note is that lanes are not strict things, often cars will drive along in two lanes at a time, I guess they're just keeping their options open (I know this sometimes happens in the states, but this seems more the norm instead of the exception). Given all of this I have a hard time watching while anyone is driving, especially while I'm in the vehicle.
Thus far I have only spoken on driving, but parking isn't much better. It is not unusual to see cars double, tripled, or quadrupled parked. The worst I saw was at a bank with two rows of cars 7 deep with a building on one side and a high sidewalk on the other. This basically means the first car in wouldn't be able to move until at least 6 other cars moved. This was a bit more extreme than I normally see, but literally every day on the streets or parking lots I see cars double or tripled park. Sometimes I look at parking lots and am reminded of bad car lots, the kind where they have lots of cars jammed into their lot (probably due to some sale they're having), and you can't get most cars out without moving several others. Seeing this has often make me ask “Why” and “How”. If you are a faithful reader of this blog (and I assume you are) you will know that I shouldn't ask “Why”, but I couldn't help myself. Fortunately, as I felt the blood getting ready to burst forth from my head, there was an experienced foreigner nearby that I could ask. As it turns out, in paid parking lots the keys are often left with the attendant, and this person moves cars around as needed. On the street or in other situations where there is no attendant, the cars are either left in neutral with the parking brake on ( manuel transmission cars at least) and people just push them out of the way and then back. In other situations, all cars have cell phone numbers on them. If they are blocking you in you simply call that number and tell them to move their car. This stopped the blood from shooting from my brain, but it still makes me shake my head in wonder when I see it.
I'm sometimes ask what I miss most about home. It may sound stupid, but the thing I miss most about the USA is the driving system they have. I miss not having to dodge cars on my way to work, I miss not having to close my eyes when I get on a bus. I miss walking down the street and not marveling at the insanity of the roads at where I live. I miss not having to squeeze through moving cars in order to get somewhere. I miss all of this and I don't even drive here. I miss this most even though I haven't used an oven, a microwave, an oven, a clothes dryer, a TV nor been able to talk to anybody at a grocery store or restaurant in 2 months. While I certainly miss those things, I don't miss them on a daily basis.
On a final note, especially given my last paragraph, I want to make it clear that I have not exaggerated in anyway in this post. All of the examples given are ones that I have actually experienced or witnessed and reported as faithfully as possible. While I'm sure I'll come to get used to the roads in Korea, I doubt I'll ever find their system in anyway equal to the traffic system in the States.
(P.S. Please excuse grammatical errors in this and future posts. I know I'm college educated and all, but it's amazing how quickly your grammer goes when speaking with kids who are trying to learn English as a second language and you're trying to communicate with them. After a few hours of teaching it becomes perfectly appropriate to say "I good" or "they is happy" or "I was excitedly". Also you learn that you don't need things like "the" "a" "of" "is" "are", or any of the other "throw away" words, and dropping the "s" at the end of words should be expected. Sometimes I think my kids teach me more than I teach them. {To further this point, I read through this last section a couple of times before I realized I was missing a "s" at the end of a couple of words, it's amazing what you can miss when you're used to not hearing it})
I will start by explaining roads in Ulsan (I can't guarantee that this will hold true all over Korea, but I've been told by reliable contacts that it does for the most part, although it doesn't hold to the same degree away from cities). The first type of road in Ulsan is the big arteries. These are usually at least 6 lanes wide and intersect each other with roundabouts, although sometimes with standard traffic lights. These main arteries sometimes have other roads intersect them with lights, although the main purpose of these lights seems to be cross walks, and they have many places where there are lights for cross walks without any intersecting roads. The roads themselves look just like you would find on any big arterial in the US, with lanes and the like. The biggest difference is the actual driving on them, I will hold off comment on the actual driving for now.
The second type of road is basically everything else. With some exceptions, non-arterial roads do not have any lights, stop signs, yield signs, or really anything else. Another feature of these roads is that, despite the fact that they have two lanes (a yellow lane divider goes down the middle of a lot of them), there is usually only room for one car on the road at a time. This is due to cars parked in legal spots down the road. As such you will have long lines of cars stopped at a wide spot on the road, usually an intersection, while cars from the other direction squeeze through the narrow spot (it should be noted at this point that most such streets do not have sidewalks, so you are squeezing by with the cars as a pedestrian). You also find people trying to turn on to another street, only they can't fit because there is a car on that street trying to get onto their street, often trying to turn left. The first car turns partly onto the second street making it difficult for the second car to turn left, which is the only thing that will allow the first car to get onto the street. Sometimes you have this situation from all directions, and one or more of the directions is stuck due to the before mentioned problem of narrow roads. Thus you have 3 or 4 cars in an intersection all trying to go different ways at the same time) As such everything comes to a standstill. This sounds bad, but this is one of the few times pedestrians can easily get across the street.
Allow me to defend my last statement. The first thing I noticed about the roads in Korea is that pedestrians do not have the right of way at intersections, or cross walks (unless there is a light), at stop signs, or really anywhere without a green cross walk sign. This is an important point, and I assure you that I am not exaggerating at all in anything I'm about to say. If I go to a marked cross walk (without a light) and I try to cross with a car anywhere nearby, the car will not stop, they may honk, they may swerve, but you do not have a right to cross that street while a car is coming. To add to this, let me ask you a question. You are driving down a small street (no lane dividers, like a residential area or a small commercial area), no lights, no stop signs, and lets say you see a kid(maybe 7-9) getting ready to cross the street, he's obviously checking both ways and such and he's at a labeled cross walk. Do you stop? If you were trained in the US, I'm going to assume you would, if not you're probably a jack-ass. In Korea it is expected that you won't stop (yes, even for young kids trying to cross a small street at a cross walk), even if you multiply that one kid by a dozen, and include kids that are younger. If you are a decent human being trying to keep young kids safe and you actually stop you will be honked at, even when the other driver can see the kids crossing. If you are the adult in this situation bravely standing in front of the car so that the kids can cross quickly in safety, you will be honked at.
Okay, so those are the two main types of roads here in Ulsan, now allow me to explain the actual driving style of Koreans. Basically Korean driving is based on a big game of Chicken. If you're driving down one of those narrow roads, whoever stops first is the one who is stuck until the traffic lets up. If you're driving down a big arterial and want to change lanes, whoever keeps moving over gets the lane. This explains why pedestrians are the low man on the totem pole since most pedestrians will give up when there is a car coming down the road right for them. Another thing to note about driving in Korea is that they are always looking forward. This may not sound like a bad thing, since you are supposed to keep your eyes on the road, but they are actually trained to always look forward, never turning their head. If this doesn't strike you as a bad thing, just think about what you (hopefully) do when you change lanes. Yeah, Koreans don't do that. Some cars have extra mirrors on their cars to reduce blind spots, but most cars don't have these. As such there is a lot of honking on Korean roads, not out of anger, but to let other drivers know that there is a car in their blind spot. To make it worse, if there is an accident due to a car changing lanes without checking their blind spot, whoever is farther back is at fault. Thus, if you are driving along and a car is a little ahead of you, enough that you are in his blind spot, and he decides he wants in your lane and moves over and hits you, you are at fault. Another thing to note is that lanes are not strict things, often cars will drive along in two lanes at a time, I guess they're just keeping their options open (I know this sometimes happens in the states, but this seems more the norm instead of the exception). Given all of this I have a hard time watching while anyone is driving, especially while I'm in the vehicle.
Thus far I have only spoken on driving, but parking isn't much better. It is not unusual to see cars double, tripled, or quadrupled parked. The worst I saw was at a bank with two rows of cars 7 deep with a building on one side and a high sidewalk on the other. This basically means the first car in wouldn't be able to move until at least 6 other cars moved. This was a bit more extreme than I normally see, but literally every day on the streets or parking lots I see cars double or tripled park. Sometimes I look at parking lots and am reminded of bad car lots, the kind where they have lots of cars jammed into their lot (probably due to some sale they're having), and you can't get most cars out without moving several others. Seeing this has often make me ask “Why” and “How”. If you are a faithful reader of this blog (and I assume you are) you will know that I shouldn't ask “Why”, but I couldn't help myself. Fortunately, as I felt the blood getting ready to burst forth from my head, there was an experienced foreigner nearby that I could ask. As it turns out, in paid parking lots the keys are often left with the attendant, and this person moves cars around as needed. On the street or in other situations where there is no attendant, the cars are either left in neutral with the parking brake on ( manuel transmission cars at least) and people just push them out of the way and then back. In other situations, all cars have cell phone numbers on them. If they are blocking you in you simply call that number and tell them to move their car. This stopped the blood from shooting from my brain, but it still makes me shake my head in wonder when I see it.
I'm sometimes ask what I miss most about home. It may sound stupid, but the thing I miss most about the USA is the driving system they have. I miss not having to dodge cars on my way to work, I miss not having to close my eyes when I get on a bus. I miss walking down the street and not marveling at the insanity of the roads at where I live. I miss not having to squeeze through moving cars in order to get somewhere. I miss all of this and I don't even drive here. I miss this most even though I haven't used an oven, a microwave, an oven, a clothes dryer, a TV nor been able to talk to anybody at a grocery store or restaurant in 2 months. While I certainly miss those things, I don't miss them on a daily basis.
On a final note, especially given my last paragraph, I want to make it clear that I have not exaggerated in anyway in this post. All of the examples given are ones that I have actually experienced or witnessed and reported as faithfully as possible. While I'm sure I'll come to get used to the roads in Korea, I doubt I'll ever find their system in anyway equal to the traffic system in the States.
(P.S. Please excuse grammatical errors in this and future posts. I know I'm college educated and all, but it's amazing how quickly your grammer goes when speaking with kids who are trying to learn English as a second language and you're trying to communicate with them. After a few hours of teaching it becomes perfectly appropriate to say "I good" or "they is happy" or "I was excitedly". Also you learn that you don't need things like "the" "a" "of" "is" "are", or any of the other "throw away" words, and dropping the "s" at the end of words should be expected. Sometimes I think my kids teach me more than I teach them. {To further this point, I read through this last section a couple of times before I realized I was missing a "s" at the end of a couple of words, it's amazing what you can miss when you're used to not hearing it})
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Thoughts on Various Things
Sorry for the delay in posts. I've been meaning to update sooner but I have been preoccupied trying to send money home after my payday. I won't go into the gory details, but it took longer than I thought and too most of my time and thoughts. Also, I know I've promised a post on the driving in Korea, and that is coming, I'm trying to get some good pictures to show, but for now just know that if you are coming here, don't bother renting a car, I don't care how good you think you are, if you've only driven on US roadways, or other sane roadways, then you are not qualified for Korea. In short driving in Korea is bat-shit insane. Also, for this post, instead of having a unifying theme I will just talk about random things about life in a different culture and language.
First on language. After nearly 5 weeks in Korea I can speak 2 phrases in Korean, “Hello/Goodbye” (the same phrase can be used for both) and “Thank you”. I can also usually understand when someone else says these phrases. The rest of the time I can only assume they are actually saying something, although they could just be making random sounds for all I know (and that is usually the way it sounds). I learned a little Spanish in high school and when I went to Mexico for a while, but the Korean language is vastly different from English. The sounds that they have are different from we are used to make with our mouths. Thus even then I try to speak Korean I am laughed at (only by my students and Korean teachers though, when I'm in shops and such they are very friendly). To give you an example say the word “Pucca”. No matter how you are saying it I can almost guarantee that it is wrong. It is the name of a Korean cartoon character here. In one of my classes it was written in English and I read it as it looks (and I'm sure that's how you read it). The class erupted in laughter and “No teacher, “Pucca””. I didn't hear much of a difference between what I was saying and what they were saying, but it was enough that they insisted that I was wrong. It reminded me of one of my classes. In this class I have a student who has the name “Ally” and one named “Elli”. Obviously these are different names, and I can only assume that I could walk into any class in America and the students would know who I was talking about if I said “Ally”. In this class though, I have had to resort to saying “Ally with an A” or “Elli with an E”. I have the same problem in another class where I have a “Jinny” and a “Jannee”, although it's not quite as bad, they are only confused if I talk a little fast.
Anyone who has taught grade school has probably started to unconsciously adopt their “culture” if you will. You laugh at things they find funny, at first it's just so you can be a more effective teacher, relating to those things they like, but then you start to actually internalize it. Then the end of the day comes and you can talk with adults and it's like a breath of fresh air. My teaching experience is a little like that, but not only do I adopt what they find funny but how they talk too. For instance I'll find my self saying “I no Korean” instead of “I don't speak Korean”. It's worse than that though because most of the Koreans I encounter who do speak English don't speak much more proper than this. To try to keep my ability to speak English I translate what they say, which is sometimes a guessing game since they don't always use proper tenses. You don't always know if they are talking about the past, the future, or the present since they will use all three within a couple sentences on the same topic (and I'm saying not to criticize, just to note my difficulties, my lowest level class, which are 6 year olds, can speak better English than I can speak Korean). Basically I don't know if I would be able to speak English at this point if I didn't have my foreign teachers to talk to after classes and on the weekends.
Another note of the Korean teachers. They are all very nice, although as mentioned they like to tease. Not only do they tease my Korean speaking (although they are more than happy correct and help) but also my chopstick skills. I use chopsticks all the time now, even in my apartment just to get better at them, but I'm still not good enough. The other night while eating dinner the one of the Koreans pointed out my lack of skill and challenged me, all in a teasing manner of course, and in good fun. You see, these dinners (as do a lot of Korean cuisine) consisted of my individual bowl of rice and several things also seaweed to roll the rice in. I say things because most of the time I don't actually know what I'm eating, I just know that most nights at least some of the Korean teachers are laughing at me because I find something very spicy. These “things” are in the middle of the table and everyone just reaches with their chopsticks and grabs what they want. As such one's chopsticks skills is always on display. One teacher brought forth a bowl of beans and wanted me to pick up an individual bean without dropping it or squishing it. Somehow I was able to do it. The next challenge was to roll rice in a square of dried seaweed using only chopsticks (many of the Koreans make it look like a tight sushi roll, and somehow they do it all with their chopsticks, never touching the seaweed or rice). Yes it is possible to do such a thing since I've seen it done many a time, but I didn't even attempt it. I realize that I'm making the Korean teachers sound cruel, but that is far from the case, they are nothing but kind and helpful, but they do enjoy poking fun.
Another word on language. Immigrants to America are often criticized for not speaking English, or only speaking a little English, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, I can fully understand their position. Learning another language is very difficult, especially when you get older. If your job doesn't require it, there is little need to learn. I've been here 1 month and able to shop for anything I want or need, opened a bank account all by my self, and gotten around town. This is in part due to people I know who speak English or people at the bank who spoke some English, also pictures on menus at restaurants. But in part that is my point, in most major cities in America you can find people who speak your language and English, and especially if you speak Spanish, you can certainly find a bank who has Spanish speakers. Another point I wish to raise is that Americans are sometimes criticized for only speaking English, no other language. We're given examples of Europeans who speak more than one language, or Asians who speak both their local language and English, but I don't think that's quite fair. Yes, our education system could emphasize second languages more, but really what's the point? I don't even mean that as English speakers, we have the near universal language due to our economic and political might. The bigger point, especially when compared to Europe, is that there is no need to learn another language. If you live in Germany and want to visit beautiful coast lines you have no choice but to go to France, or Italy, or something. If you live in America and want beautiful coast lines you go to Florida, or California, or Hawaii, if you want to ski you go to Utah Idaho, Oregon, or Washington, if you want to experience deserts you go to Arizona or New Mexico. Want frozen tundra? Go to Alaska or Canada. Want a one of the largest most active cities in the world? Go to New York. Want the fruited plains? Go to the mid-west. What do all of these places have in common? You can experiences while speaking and hearing nothing but English (well, maybe not in New York). In other places you have to leave you country (and often your country) to experience significant different terrain or life styles. In America all you have to do is hop in your car and drive a few hours. Speaking only English you can experience vastly different cultures and climates all within the borders on America. As such Americans feel no pressure to learn another language. That isn't to say that I'm not going to try to learn more, but if I wasn't living here for the next 11 months I wouldn't feel compelled to learn much more than a few basic phrases.
To answer the most basic question, I am doing well after 5 weeks. Yes, there is odd odd things here and some things that are just bat-shit insane, but I'm adapting (I constantly remember my parents mantra “the flexible shall not be bent out of shape”). Korea is a first world nation so they have all of the amenities that you would expect, and whenever I feel homesick I can always find a hamburger or pizza to make me feel better (so long as I ignore the Korean way of doing such things), or I can write an e-mail or write a blog post. I have a nice routine going for work and making it through the day, as well as the weekends. Speaking of which, I am really enjoying having weekends. It's been a while since I've had normal weekends or a consistent schedule. I'm really liking that part. Basically, don't worry about me, I'm doing alright, although I enjoy hearing from friends and family from home so don't be afraid to write.
First on language. After nearly 5 weeks in Korea I can speak 2 phrases in Korean, “Hello/Goodbye” (the same phrase can be used for both) and “Thank you”. I can also usually understand when someone else says these phrases. The rest of the time I can only assume they are actually saying something, although they could just be making random sounds for all I know (and that is usually the way it sounds). I learned a little Spanish in high school and when I went to Mexico for a while, but the Korean language is vastly different from English. The sounds that they have are different from we are used to make with our mouths. Thus even then I try to speak Korean I am laughed at (only by my students and Korean teachers though, when I'm in shops and such they are very friendly). To give you an example say the word “Pucca”. No matter how you are saying it I can almost guarantee that it is wrong. It is the name of a Korean cartoon character here. In one of my classes it was written in English and I read it as it looks (and I'm sure that's how you read it). The class erupted in laughter and “No teacher, “Pucca””. I didn't hear much of a difference between what I was saying and what they were saying, but it was enough that they insisted that I was wrong. It reminded me of one of my classes. In this class I have a student who has the name “Ally” and one named “Elli”. Obviously these are different names, and I can only assume that I could walk into any class in America and the students would know who I was talking about if I said “Ally”. In this class though, I have had to resort to saying “Ally with an A” or “Elli with an E”. I have the same problem in another class where I have a “Jinny” and a “Jannee”, although it's not quite as bad, they are only confused if I talk a little fast.
Anyone who has taught grade school has probably started to unconsciously adopt their “culture” if you will. You laugh at things they find funny, at first it's just so you can be a more effective teacher, relating to those things they like, but then you start to actually internalize it. Then the end of the day comes and you can talk with adults and it's like a breath of fresh air. My teaching experience is a little like that, but not only do I adopt what they find funny but how they talk too. For instance I'll find my self saying “I no Korean” instead of “I don't speak Korean”. It's worse than that though because most of the Koreans I encounter who do speak English don't speak much more proper than this. To try to keep my ability to speak English I translate what they say, which is sometimes a guessing game since they don't always use proper tenses. You don't always know if they are talking about the past, the future, or the present since they will use all three within a couple sentences on the same topic (and I'm saying not to criticize, just to note my difficulties, my lowest level class, which are 6 year olds, can speak better English than I can speak Korean). Basically I don't know if I would be able to speak English at this point if I didn't have my foreign teachers to talk to after classes and on the weekends.
Another note of the Korean teachers. They are all very nice, although as mentioned they like to tease. Not only do they tease my Korean speaking (although they are more than happy correct and help) but also my chopstick skills. I use chopsticks all the time now, even in my apartment just to get better at them, but I'm still not good enough. The other night while eating dinner the one of the Koreans pointed out my lack of skill and challenged me, all in a teasing manner of course, and in good fun. You see, these dinners (as do a lot of Korean cuisine) consisted of my individual bowl of rice and several things also seaweed to roll the rice in. I say things because most of the time I don't actually know what I'm eating, I just know that most nights at least some of the Korean teachers are laughing at me because I find something very spicy. These “things” are in the middle of the table and everyone just reaches with their chopsticks and grabs what they want. As such one's chopsticks skills is always on display. One teacher brought forth a bowl of beans and wanted me to pick up an individual bean without dropping it or squishing it. Somehow I was able to do it. The next challenge was to roll rice in a square of dried seaweed using only chopsticks (many of the Koreans make it look like a tight sushi roll, and somehow they do it all with their chopsticks, never touching the seaweed or rice). Yes it is possible to do such a thing since I've seen it done many a time, but I didn't even attempt it. I realize that I'm making the Korean teachers sound cruel, but that is far from the case, they are nothing but kind and helpful, but they do enjoy poking fun.
Another word on language. Immigrants to America are often criticized for not speaking English, or only speaking a little English, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, I can fully understand their position. Learning another language is very difficult, especially when you get older. If your job doesn't require it, there is little need to learn. I've been here 1 month and able to shop for anything I want or need, opened a bank account all by my self, and gotten around town. This is in part due to people I know who speak English or people at the bank who spoke some English, also pictures on menus at restaurants. But in part that is my point, in most major cities in America you can find people who speak your language and English, and especially if you speak Spanish, you can certainly find a bank who has Spanish speakers. Another point I wish to raise is that Americans are sometimes criticized for only speaking English, no other language. We're given examples of Europeans who speak more than one language, or Asians who speak both their local language and English, but I don't think that's quite fair. Yes, our education system could emphasize second languages more, but really what's the point? I don't even mean that as English speakers, we have the near universal language due to our economic and political might. The bigger point, especially when compared to Europe, is that there is no need to learn another language. If you live in Germany and want to visit beautiful coast lines you have no choice but to go to France, or Italy, or something. If you live in America and want beautiful coast lines you go to Florida, or California, or Hawaii, if you want to ski you go to Utah Idaho, Oregon, or Washington, if you want to experience deserts you go to Arizona or New Mexico. Want frozen tundra? Go to Alaska or Canada. Want a one of the largest most active cities in the world? Go to New York. Want the fruited plains? Go to the mid-west. What do all of these places have in common? You can experiences while speaking and hearing nothing but English (well, maybe not in New York). In other places you have to leave you country (and often your country) to experience significant different terrain or life styles. In America all you have to do is hop in your car and drive a few hours. Speaking only English you can experience vastly different cultures and climates all within the borders on America. As such Americans feel no pressure to learn another language. That isn't to say that I'm not going to try to learn more, but if I wasn't living here for the next 11 months I wouldn't feel compelled to learn much more than a few basic phrases.
To answer the most basic question, I am doing well after 5 weeks. Yes, there is odd odd things here and some things that are just bat-shit insane, but I'm adapting (I constantly remember my parents mantra “the flexible shall not be bent out of shape”). Korea is a first world nation so they have all of the amenities that you would expect, and whenever I feel homesick I can always find a hamburger or pizza to make me feel better (so long as I ignore the Korean way of doing such things), or I can write an e-mail or write a blog post. I have a nice routine going for work and making it through the day, as well as the weekends. Speaking of which, I am really enjoying having weekends. It's been a while since I've had normal weekends or a consistent schedule. I'm really liking that part. Basically, don't worry about me, I'm doing alright, although I enjoy hearing from friends and family from home so don't be afraid to write.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Korean Food
Food in Korea can be summed up with rice, ramen noodles, seafood, garlic, pork, fire, kim chi, and soju, not necessarily in that order.
Rice is the sticky style rice, it is served either as a side dish or with some sort of soup like substance, the soup like substance has tofu or seafood in it along with some vegetables and usually fire. It can be served with other things or as a meal in it self. Often when you order rice it comes with this soup thing (I don't know the name of the soup thing). It is usually spicy but you can cut the fire with the rice and it works out.
Ramen noodles I'm sure isn't very surprising, the noodles are very cheap here and better than the ramen you usually get in the states. The seasoning that comes with the ramen noodles usually come with varying degrees of fire. I've found some ramen noodles that I can eat, and I tend not to stray from it because when I do it usually involves more fire. One bowl of noodles I got was so how it took me over an hour to finish due to my mouth being of fire.
Seafood is both cheap and abundant. In the grocery store I can buy fish for about $0.85, although they usually come non-filleted. Other sea critters are cheap too. At some restaurants you can buy basically a pot of seafood, filled with shrimp, clams, muscles, squid, etc. The pot is put in the middle of the table over a burner and everyone dives in with chopsticks. It is cooked in a delicious sauce and all around pretty good tasting.
Garlic is not obvious since you often cannot directly taste the garlic in meals, although that is probably due to the fire, but I assure you that Koreans either consume a lot of garlic, or they just enjoy buying large amounts of garlic. At grocery stores you usually do not find bulbs of garlic, although you can find them. Usually the garlic comes in bags with the cloves de-papered and ready to go. The bags also usually come with the equivalent of about 3-4 bulbs of garlic. You can buy bags with a few hundred cloves in it as well. As of my first month, I have yet to see an option to buy anything less than about 2.5 bulbs of garlic at a time.
Pork is easy to come by and pretty cheap. You can find at least two main type of pork restaurants here in Korea (there might be more but so far I've been to two types). The first type is a fried pork in a breading. It is a little like Shake and Bake, or chicken fried steak by with pork. From what I understand this is a fairly westernized way to eat pork. The second part is more authentic and very good, I'm actually surprised it hasn't taken off in the States. I don't know the name of the type of restaurant, but what it is called by the foreigners is usually galbi restaurant. This is due to one of the cuts of pork you can get there. Basically at these places you sit at a table (either on chairs or on the floor), the table has a hole in the middle. After you order your cut of meat (of which galbi is one) the waitress brings burning coals to your table and places them in the hole. Over which she places a grate and then brings you the raw meat. You cook the meat right there in front of you (the classier places actually have vents over the coals, the less classy places don't and thus tend to have a lot of smoke hanging around). Along with the meat they bring lots of different adornments for the pork. This varies by the establishment, but seems to always include kim chi, garlic (either whole cloves or sliced cloves), onions, some sort of vegetable type things, and leafy vegetation. The way you eat this meal is you cut up the pieces of pork, place the pork in one of the leafs along with the other things you want, like onions and garlic, and then consume. While this is the traditional way to do it, there really is no wrong way to consume it, so long as you enjoy it.
Before I came to Korea I read a lot about the heat of Korean food. After being here for a month, I can attest that a lot of the food here is rather spicy, but it is easy enough to avoid if you are careful. Also I am struck by the vast differences, some of Korean food is very hot, but there is also a lot of food that is rather bland. It is a study in contradictions.
While on the subject of fire I'll speak on kim chi. Before I came here, what most people I spoke with knew of Korean food was kim chi, and that kim chi is disgusting and very hot. After being here or a month I can say that kim chi is edible, usually rather spicy, not completely disgusting, but certainly not something you would want to eat. Kim chi is the national food of Korea and is served with just about every meal as a side dish. While it is usually hot, there is a variety types of kim chi. At the heart of kim chi is cabbage. As I understand it kim chi is basically pickled cabbage, but that doesn't quite do kim chi justice. To give you an idea of what it tastes like, I'll tell you how I assume it is made (I have done no research on this, I'm going just on how it tastes and feels like in the mouth). Basically you take cabbage and cook it until it is so overcooked you can't imagine anyone wanting to eat it. You then cook it for another 7-8 hours. At the heart of it, this sums up kim chi.
You can't speak on Korean food without mentioning soju. Soju is Korean rice wine (rice wine is usually called Sake in the States, although Sake is Japanese rice wine). I think soju tastes pretty good, although many people disagree. Soju is drunk freely and everywhere. I was actually accused by some students of drinking soju when I got a little flushed during class due to the heat (I swear it was because of the heat and not soju). Perhaps the best part of soju is the cost. If you are an alcoholic or want to be an alcoholic, Korea is the place you want to be due to soju. Soju is about 20% alcohol (about half of hard liquor) and can be bought for less than $4 for 2 liters. In case you are wondering, yes, that is more than enough to get anyone very drunk. The one downside is that soju brings with it some of the worst hangovers known to man, but its a small price to pay for such cheap drinks. Apart from being a cheap drink soju apparently also makes a good cleaner. I have seen at least two restaurants use soju to clean the tables. They basically just screw a sprayer on top of the unused bottle and spray down the table. This of course begs the question: Which came first, soju the drink, or soju the cleaner? No one may ever know.
A couple other notes, Korea has kimbab, which is basically Korean sushi rolls (they also have sushi). Basic kimbab costs about $0.85 and for that you get about an 8 inch role, that is very similar to a California roll (without the imitation crab). For another $0.85 you can add raw tuna to that. It is shockingly cheap and quite good. As one of my co-workers pointed out, thanks to soju, it is possible to get very drunk and be well fed for only a few bucks.
As for Western food, it is easy enough to get Western food here (due to this being a large city), but usually when eating Western style food here it's more like you're eating what an alien concocted after observing Western places from a space ship. For instance they have fast food burger joints, you can get burgers, and they taste pretty good, but they often come with some sort of sauce other than ketchup, and they seem to come with a slice of bell pepper too. Pizza is abundant, but can be difficult to get a normal pizza. For one the tomato sauce is always way too sweet, but on top of that the toppings tend to be a bit unusual. I ordered a pizza at one point that had a picture that showed pepperoni and some pepper looking things. I ordered it and it tasted pretty good. It did have pepperoni, and pepper like things (they weren't too hot) but also corn. Yes, kernels of corn on a pizza. Why? God only knows. At another point I got a pre-made sandwich, apart from the normal meat and tomatoes, it also came with pineapple, pickles, and olives....on a sandwich.
So after a month that is my summation of Korean food. I'm sure I'll have more to say on it after a little while longer, so be waiting updates and clarifications as I learn more. This is all just first impressions on Korean food based on my limited experience. My apologies for anything I've gotten wrong or misrepresented. This are just my views after one month, so I'm sure there are things that are wrong. Basically what I'm saying is don't form too many impressions on Korean food based on this post. Although, if you come to Korea these will probably be many of the same first observations you would notice.
Rice is the sticky style rice, it is served either as a side dish or with some sort of soup like substance, the soup like substance has tofu or seafood in it along with some vegetables and usually fire. It can be served with other things or as a meal in it self. Often when you order rice it comes with this soup thing (I don't know the name of the soup thing). It is usually spicy but you can cut the fire with the rice and it works out.
Ramen noodles I'm sure isn't very surprising, the noodles are very cheap here and better than the ramen you usually get in the states. The seasoning that comes with the ramen noodles usually come with varying degrees of fire. I've found some ramen noodles that I can eat, and I tend not to stray from it because when I do it usually involves more fire. One bowl of noodles I got was so how it took me over an hour to finish due to my mouth being of fire.
Seafood is both cheap and abundant. In the grocery store I can buy fish for about $0.85, although they usually come non-filleted. Other sea critters are cheap too. At some restaurants you can buy basically a pot of seafood, filled with shrimp, clams, muscles, squid, etc. The pot is put in the middle of the table over a burner and everyone dives in with chopsticks. It is cooked in a delicious sauce and all around pretty good tasting.
Garlic is not obvious since you often cannot directly taste the garlic in meals, although that is probably due to the fire, but I assure you that Koreans either consume a lot of garlic, or they just enjoy buying large amounts of garlic. At grocery stores you usually do not find bulbs of garlic, although you can find them. Usually the garlic comes in bags with the cloves de-papered and ready to go. The bags also usually come with the equivalent of about 3-4 bulbs of garlic. You can buy bags with a few hundred cloves in it as well. As of my first month, I have yet to see an option to buy anything less than about 2.5 bulbs of garlic at a time.
Pork is easy to come by and pretty cheap. You can find at least two main type of pork restaurants here in Korea (there might be more but so far I've been to two types). The first type is a fried pork in a breading. It is a little like Shake and Bake, or chicken fried steak by with pork. From what I understand this is a fairly westernized way to eat pork. The second part is more authentic and very good, I'm actually surprised it hasn't taken off in the States. I don't know the name of the type of restaurant, but what it is called by the foreigners is usually galbi restaurant. This is due to one of the cuts of pork you can get there. Basically at these places you sit at a table (either on chairs or on the floor), the table has a hole in the middle. After you order your cut of meat (of which galbi is one) the waitress brings burning coals to your table and places them in the hole. Over which she places a grate and then brings you the raw meat. You cook the meat right there in front of you (the classier places actually have vents over the coals, the less classy places don't and thus tend to have a lot of smoke hanging around). Along with the meat they bring lots of different adornments for the pork. This varies by the establishment, but seems to always include kim chi, garlic (either whole cloves or sliced cloves), onions, some sort of vegetable type things, and leafy vegetation. The way you eat this meal is you cut up the pieces of pork, place the pork in one of the leafs along with the other things you want, like onions and garlic, and then consume. While this is the traditional way to do it, there really is no wrong way to consume it, so long as you enjoy it.
Before I came to Korea I read a lot about the heat of Korean food. After being here for a month, I can attest that a lot of the food here is rather spicy, but it is easy enough to avoid if you are careful. Also I am struck by the vast differences, some of Korean food is very hot, but there is also a lot of food that is rather bland. It is a study in contradictions.
While on the subject of fire I'll speak on kim chi. Before I came here, what most people I spoke with knew of Korean food was kim chi, and that kim chi is disgusting and very hot. After being here or a month I can say that kim chi is edible, usually rather spicy, not completely disgusting, but certainly not something you would want to eat. Kim chi is the national food of Korea and is served with just about every meal as a side dish. While it is usually hot, there is a variety types of kim chi. At the heart of kim chi is cabbage. As I understand it kim chi is basically pickled cabbage, but that doesn't quite do kim chi justice. To give you an idea of what it tastes like, I'll tell you how I assume it is made (I have done no research on this, I'm going just on how it tastes and feels like in the mouth). Basically you take cabbage and cook it until it is so overcooked you can't imagine anyone wanting to eat it. You then cook it for another 7-8 hours. At the heart of it, this sums up kim chi.
You can't speak on Korean food without mentioning soju. Soju is Korean rice wine (rice wine is usually called Sake in the States, although Sake is Japanese rice wine). I think soju tastes pretty good, although many people disagree. Soju is drunk freely and everywhere. I was actually accused by some students of drinking soju when I got a little flushed during class due to the heat (I swear it was because of the heat and not soju). Perhaps the best part of soju is the cost. If you are an alcoholic or want to be an alcoholic, Korea is the place you want to be due to soju. Soju is about 20% alcohol (about half of hard liquor) and can be bought for less than $4 for 2 liters. In case you are wondering, yes, that is more than enough to get anyone very drunk. The one downside is that soju brings with it some of the worst hangovers known to man, but its a small price to pay for such cheap drinks. Apart from being a cheap drink soju apparently also makes a good cleaner. I have seen at least two restaurants use soju to clean the tables. They basically just screw a sprayer on top of the unused bottle and spray down the table. This of course begs the question: Which came first, soju the drink, or soju the cleaner? No one may ever know.
A couple other notes, Korea has kimbab, which is basically Korean sushi rolls (they also have sushi). Basic kimbab costs about $0.85 and for that you get about an 8 inch role, that is very similar to a California roll (without the imitation crab). For another $0.85 you can add raw tuna to that. It is shockingly cheap and quite good. As one of my co-workers pointed out, thanks to soju, it is possible to get very drunk and be well fed for only a few bucks.
As for Western food, it is easy enough to get Western food here (due to this being a large city), but usually when eating Western style food here it's more like you're eating what an alien concocted after observing Western places from a space ship. For instance they have fast food burger joints, you can get burgers, and they taste pretty good, but they often come with some sort of sauce other than ketchup, and they seem to come with a slice of bell pepper too. Pizza is abundant, but can be difficult to get a normal pizza. For one the tomato sauce is always way too sweet, but on top of that the toppings tend to be a bit unusual. I ordered a pizza at one point that had a picture that showed pepperoni and some pepper looking things. I ordered it and it tasted pretty good. It did have pepperoni, and pepper like things (they weren't too hot) but also corn. Yes, kernels of corn on a pizza. Why? God only knows. At another point I got a pre-made sandwich, apart from the normal meat and tomatoes, it also came with pineapple, pickles, and olives....on a sandwich.
So after a month that is my summation of Korean food. I'm sure I'll have more to say on it after a little while longer, so be waiting updates and clarifications as I learn more. This is all just first impressions on Korean food based on my limited experience. My apologies for anything I've gotten wrong or misrepresented. This are just my views after one month, so I'm sure there are things that are wrong. Basically what I'm saying is don't form too many impressions on Korean food based on this post. Although, if you come to Korea these will probably be many of the same first observations you would notice.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
My Name is Trevor Teacher, I am a teacher
Now that I have a few weeks experience teaching I thought I would write about teaching English in Korea. I know I mentioned it on my first post, but I didn't have any idea what I was doing then so it wasn't very informative.
First I'll explain the set up. I go in at 1PM every day and my first two classes are kindergarten. The kids are fun but also probably my most difficult classes. From 2:20-8:40 I teacher elementary classes. I have 4 periods each lasting 1 hour 20 min. Of this I have two classes lasting 40 min. each. I share the classes with a Korean teacher. She has one of the classes for 40 min. and I have one for 40 min. then we switch kids. After every period we have a 10 minute break. As or the teaching, I mainly teach vocab through pictures with the younger classes and more phrases and sentences with the older classes. I don't really try to teach grammar or anything complicated, the Korean teacher does more of that. If I ever do have something that I can't explain I grab the Korean teacher to explain it.
You may be wondering why they bring foreigners to teach when they have Korean teachers who can speak and understand English. It's a good question until you actually talk with the Korean teachers. They do speak and understand English, but not very well, at least they don't speak English very well. I don't say this I a mean way, they speak English better than most other Koreans who speak English, but they have pronunciation problems and phrasing problems. As such they bring us in as more refiners of the kids English, refining both the pronunciation and phrasing (The are happy, not They is happy).
On the pronunciation, Koreans really do have problems with some of the English sounds (just like I'm sure I sound very funny when I try to speak Korean). This can be at times a little frustrating but also at times funny. For instance tonight I spent a while in class trying to get the students to say “Rapidly” correctly. The problem was that they would say it and it would sound like “rapeatedly”. They basically kept overstating the “d”. It was both funny and frustrating since I would say “Rapidly” very slowly and they would go “Yes teacher rapeatedly”. At times its just funny, mainly when its not something I'm trying to teach, just some random word I say that the kids try to pick up. For instance I say “excellent” a lot when the kids say something very well and sometimes the kids try to repeat it. The problem is that they have trouble with the “X” sound. It ends up sounding very funny, even funnier when I try to get get them to sound like Monty Burns from the Simpsons. Strictly speaking its not part of the lesson plan, but it sure makes my day. To be fair I also have the kids repeatedly say the words they are learning purely because I enjoy hearing them say it. For instance one of the classes has learned “waterfall” and somehow some of the kids make the “all” sound both like “L” and “R” at the same time. I usually have to stifle a laugh or a smile when they say it. I don't laugh in a mocking way, but because it is so darn cute and funny sounding. Less humorless but still prevalent is the dropping of “S” at the end of words. They can make the “S” sound just fine, they just seem to not find it important at the end of words. They also over emphasize “D” at times (like I mentioned previously), also “P”. Working with kindergarten kids I understand where this tendency comes from. It's difficult for very young kids to make those sounds so at the younger age we emphasize “D” instead of “B” or something. The kindergarten kids sound better but sometimes the kids keep on doing it later in life.
While classes can be fun and challenging it can also be frustrating. Some of my classes are very rowdy and some of my students just don't listen, fortunately I don't have to deal with discipline. I do some speaking sternly to get them to be quiet, but if I do have any problems with a student or a class I just grab either my Korean teacher or one of the head staff and they take care of them. This is done for several reasons. The obvious reason is its hard to communicate with the kids on such thing, but also a Korean speaker can make threats that can be carried through. The threats usually involve calling the students parents and/or sending the parents a video of what the student was doing (all the classes of CCTV in them). This is also done because the school knows that we don't actually have teaching training so we probably wouldn't know the proper things to say to American students either (although we could have a better go at it). Finally this is done so that the foreigners are viewed in a more positive light so that the kids enjoy learning English more and are more motivated so that they can communicate with us.
Finally I decided to include a couple pictures from a couple of my classes. I took them from my Palm Pre so they don't have the best quality, but the kids still look pretty cute. They are pictures from my more advanced class. I'll try to take more pictures of some of the other kids at some later point. Enjoy!
No, you're not seeing double, the first and second pictures are of the same class and neither show all of the students in that class. Some of the students were shy and thus hid behind some of the others. This is my most advanced class and my oldest students. They are a bit of a hand-ful and I have to crack down some, but they are also a lot of fun since they understand a lot and we can have actual conversations. The third picture is from a mid-skilled class although they are my favorite. All of the students are well behaved and work hard. They are easy to work with and I never have to raise my voice or grab a Korean to yell at them. They are also all eager to learn and as such easy to teach.
On a final note, I am trying to get into the habit of writig more, but I keep putting off the actual writing. To make you feel better I do spend a lot of time thinking about writing and the things I'll put here as I go about my day. I see something and think about how to describe it and how I will phrase it. As such you would think that these things would be better written than they are, but you get what you pay for. :)
First I'll explain the set up. I go in at 1PM every day and my first two classes are kindergarten. The kids are fun but also probably my most difficult classes. From 2:20-8:40 I teacher elementary classes. I have 4 periods each lasting 1 hour 20 min. Of this I have two classes lasting 40 min. each. I share the classes with a Korean teacher. She has one of the classes for 40 min. and I have one for 40 min. then we switch kids. After every period we have a 10 minute break. As or the teaching, I mainly teach vocab through pictures with the younger classes and more phrases and sentences with the older classes. I don't really try to teach grammar or anything complicated, the Korean teacher does more of that. If I ever do have something that I can't explain I grab the Korean teacher to explain it.
You may be wondering why they bring foreigners to teach when they have Korean teachers who can speak and understand English. It's a good question until you actually talk with the Korean teachers. They do speak and understand English, but not very well, at least they don't speak English very well. I don't say this I a mean way, they speak English better than most other Koreans who speak English, but they have pronunciation problems and phrasing problems. As such they bring us in as more refiners of the kids English, refining both the pronunciation and phrasing (The are happy, not They is happy).
On the pronunciation, Koreans really do have problems with some of the English sounds (just like I'm sure I sound very funny when I try to speak Korean). This can be at times a little frustrating but also at times funny. For instance tonight I spent a while in class trying to get the students to say “Rapidly” correctly. The problem was that they would say it and it would sound like “rapeatedly”. They basically kept overstating the “d”. It was both funny and frustrating since I would say “Rapidly” very slowly and they would go “Yes teacher rapeatedly”. At times its just funny, mainly when its not something I'm trying to teach, just some random word I say that the kids try to pick up. For instance I say “excellent” a lot when the kids say something very well and sometimes the kids try to repeat it. The problem is that they have trouble with the “X” sound. It ends up sounding very funny, even funnier when I try to get get them to sound like Monty Burns from the Simpsons. Strictly speaking its not part of the lesson plan, but it sure makes my day. To be fair I also have the kids repeatedly say the words they are learning purely because I enjoy hearing them say it. For instance one of the classes has learned “waterfall” and somehow some of the kids make the “all” sound both like “L” and “R” at the same time. I usually have to stifle a laugh or a smile when they say it. I don't laugh in a mocking way, but because it is so darn cute and funny sounding. Less humorless but still prevalent is the dropping of “S” at the end of words. They can make the “S” sound just fine, they just seem to not find it important at the end of words. They also over emphasize “D” at times (like I mentioned previously), also “P”. Working with kindergarten kids I understand where this tendency comes from. It's difficult for very young kids to make those sounds so at the younger age we emphasize “D” instead of “B” or something. The kindergarten kids sound better but sometimes the kids keep on doing it later in life.
While classes can be fun and challenging it can also be frustrating. Some of my classes are very rowdy and some of my students just don't listen, fortunately I don't have to deal with discipline. I do some speaking sternly to get them to be quiet, but if I do have any problems with a student or a class I just grab either my Korean teacher or one of the head staff and they take care of them. This is done for several reasons. The obvious reason is its hard to communicate with the kids on such thing, but also a Korean speaker can make threats that can be carried through. The threats usually involve calling the students parents and/or sending the parents a video of what the student was doing (all the classes of CCTV in them). This is also done because the school knows that we don't actually have teaching training so we probably wouldn't know the proper things to say to American students either (although we could have a better go at it). Finally this is done so that the foreigners are viewed in a more positive light so that the kids enjoy learning English more and are more motivated so that they can communicate with us.
Finally I decided to include a couple pictures from a couple of my classes. I took them from my Palm Pre so they don't have the best quality, but the kids still look pretty cute. They are pictures from my more advanced class. I'll try to take more pictures of some of the other kids at some later point. Enjoy!
No, you're not seeing double, the first and second pictures are of the same class and neither show all of the students in that class. Some of the students were shy and thus hid behind some of the others. This is my most advanced class and my oldest students. They are a bit of a hand-ful and I have to crack down some, but they are also a lot of fun since they understand a lot and we can have actual conversations. The third picture is from a mid-skilled class although they are my favorite. All of the students are well behaved and work hard. They are easy to work with and I never have to raise my voice or grab a Korean to yell at them. They are also all eager to learn and as such easy to teach.
On a final note, I am trying to get into the habit of writig more, but I keep putting off the actual writing. To make you feel better I do spend a lot of time thinking about writing and the things I'll put here as I go about my day. I see something and think about how to describe it and how I will phrase it. As such you would think that these things would be better written than they are, but you get what you pay for. :)
Friday, March 19, 2010
The First Rule of South Korea
The first rule of South Korea is “Do not ask why.”. I've been told this by a few westerners here who have been here for a while. This “rule” is not some law imposed by some authoritarian government. Rather, it is a rule that prevents your brain from shooting blood from you skull, although that maybe an exaggeration on someone's part. Basically there is a lot in South Korea that is down right weird to a Westerners view point, and as such, if you try to figure it out you just go crazy and have an aneurysm. I'll try to explain some of these things that I've seen, although I will not provide an explanation since I am attempting to live by the first rule. One of the things that stuck out to me was a street call “Terror street”. This was a perfectly normal street with some restaurants and bars on it, a place you could easily take a family for dinner, and yet they called it “Terror Street”. Another thing I discovered is that South Korea doesn't hold to the Western norm for bathrooms. In America, almost universally, womens restroom has a picture of a stick person in a dress, men's restroom has a picture of a stick man. In Korea (I will from this point use the short hand “Korea” to refer to South Korea. I'm assuming all of you are smart enough to figure out that I am not referring to North Korea), these norms are sometimes used, but often times they are not. For instance, this past weekend I went to a few bars with some friends. One of the bars had stick figures, unclothed, to show the different sexes. And by “stick figures” and “unclothed” I mean exactly that. Womanly parts were on display, and manly parts were on display, in stick figure form. At another establishment the markers where similar, but some how so much worse. Instead of showing the manly and womanly parts, they decided to show how each sex used the facilities, the man standing, and the woman squatting. Yes, not sitting as I always assumed, but squatting.
Apart from the odd pictures you see, Korea also has an odd assortment of English thrown in, although the English is often off. One of my favorite, probably because it was one of the first I saw, is “Pets is people”. For some reason it reminds me of “Soylent Green is people”. The before mentioned “Terror street” is a classic too of course. Another is a gaming arcade that listed “shottig” instead of “shotting”, or a coffee house that said it is “comming” soon. Although perhaps the worst offender is the school that I work at which has as it's motto “Children who speak English”, but has on it's wall in big letters “Childern who speak English”. One has to wonder how hard it is to get English translations, especially in a large city like Ulsan, which has a major university and literally hundreds of English teachers. Just ask one of us before you put up a sign. Even if we don't want to give away our knowledge for free, if we cringe when you say it, it probably means it's wrong.
As for living in Korea in general, it is a learning experience in many ways. I've never lived in such a way that I rely on buses and taxis, and yet I do now. I currently take a bus to and from work every day. I have taken buses before, and yet buses in Ulsan is very different from any bus I took in the states. I hate to generalize to the rest of Korea based on Ulsan although based on what I've learned from my co-workers it's pretty much the same. The buses are not so much bus drivers as drag racers. Bus drivers basically have two positions, peddle to the metal, or full on breaks. I have almost been thrown from my feet while standing due to the quick acceleration or deceleration of the bus drivers. You may think I'm joking about the acceleration or deceleration thing, but on the way home we come upon a speed bump, and almost every night the bus driver will accelerate hard until the last second, at which he slams on the breaks for the speed hump. Taxis are not better, although the driving in Korea is a whole other blog post.
Shopping is quite a bit different than most areas in the states too. First of all Koreans love their convenience stores. Within three blocks of my apartment there are no less than three such stores, and on the way to the bus stop I pass another two, with a couple more near my school. Apart from convenience stores, there aren't nearly as many mega stores than there are in the states. There is a huge grocery store that is about 15 min. taxi drive from my home (think a very large Super Walmart), and there are a few other such huge stores in Ulsan, but most of my shopping is done at small stores or smaller grocery stores. I have two grocery stores near my apartment, but the grocery store is about a third the size of most grocery stores I go to in the states.
As for my living quarters, they are quite nice and I'm getting used to the Korean aspects of it, like there being a step for the entry way and the bathroom, or the heating and the hot water. Unlike in the states the heating style is hot water pipes flowing under the ground it's effective and quiet, and since it is customary to take off your shoes when you enter your home you end up walking around on warm floors. It is wonderful. The one odd thing that takes some getting used to is that this heating system and your hot water is tied together and you have to hit a button to turn your hot water on to take a shower. I've stood in my bathroom for several minutes trying to figure out why I didn't have hot water until I realized I didn't hit the right button. Well, enough trying to describe my apartment, here are some pictures:
This is a picture of my apartment from my entryway
This is my bathroom. No, I don't have a shower curtain or anything like that. The entire bathroom is tile and that is a central drain that the water runs down. It does make it easier to clean since you basically just spray everything down.
My kitchen. It's rather small without a lot of counter space, but it's adequate.
These are some pictures from my balconey. I'm pretty happy with my view, it's a lot better than some people's, who basically just look at another building.
I'll try to take some more places around where I live so that you can get a better idea of my living situation.
I hope you all are doing well, I will attempt to post my next update quicker next time.
Apart from the odd pictures you see, Korea also has an odd assortment of English thrown in, although the English is often off. One of my favorite, probably because it was one of the first I saw, is “Pets is people”. For some reason it reminds me of “Soylent Green is people”. The before mentioned “Terror street” is a classic too of course. Another is a gaming arcade that listed “shottig” instead of “shotting”, or a coffee house that said it is “comming” soon. Although perhaps the worst offender is the school that I work at which has as it's motto “Children who speak English”, but has on it's wall in big letters “Childern who speak English”. One has to wonder how hard it is to get English translations, especially in a large city like Ulsan, which has a major university and literally hundreds of English teachers. Just ask one of us before you put up a sign. Even if we don't want to give away our knowledge for free, if we cringe when you say it, it probably means it's wrong.
As for living in Korea in general, it is a learning experience in many ways. I've never lived in such a way that I rely on buses and taxis, and yet I do now. I currently take a bus to and from work every day. I have taken buses before, and yet buses in Ulsan is very different from any bus I took in the states. I hate to generalize to the rest of Korea based on Ulsan although based on what I've learned from my co-workers it's pretty much the same. The buses are not so much bus drivers as drag racers. Bus drivers basically have two positions, peddle to the metal, or full on breaks. I have almost been thrown from my feet while standing due to the quick acceleration or deceleration of the bus drivers. You may think I'm joking about the acceleration or deceleration thing, but on the way home we come upon a speed bump, and almost every night the bus driver will accelerate hard until the last second, at which he slams on the breaks for the speed hump. Taxis are not better, although the driving in Korea is a whole other blog post.
Shopping is quite a bit different than most areas in the states too. First of all Koreans love their convenience stores. Within three blocks of my apartment there are no less than three such stores, and on the way to the bus stop I pass another two, with a couple more near my school. Apart from convenience stores, there aren't nearly as many mega stores than there are in the states. There is a huge grocery store that is about 15 min. taxi drive from my home (think a very large Super Walmart), and there are a few other such huge stores in Ulsan, but most of my shopping is done at small stores or smaller grocery stores. I have two grocery stores near my apartment, but the grocery store is about a third the size of most grocery stores I go to in the states.
As for my living quarters, they are quite nice and I'm getting used to the Korean aspects of it, like there being a step for the entry way and the bathroom, or the heating and the hot water. Unlike in the states the heating style is hot water pipes flowing under the ground it's effective and quiet, and since it is customary to take off your shoes when you enter your home you end up walking around on warm floors. It is wonderful. The one odd thing that takes some getting used to is that this heating system and your hot water is tied together and you have to hit a button to turn your hot water on to take a shower. I've stood in my bathroom for several minutes trying to figure out why I didn't have hot water until I realized I didn't hit the right button. Well, enough trying to describe my apartment, here are some pictures:
This is a picture of my apartment from my entryway
This is my bathroom. No, I don't have a shower curtain or anything like that. The entire bathroom is tile and that is a central drain that the water runs down. It does make it easier to clean since you basically just spray everything down.
My kitchen. It's rather small without a lot of counter space, but it's adequate.
These are some pictures from my balconey. I'm pretty happy with my view, it's a lot better than some people's, who basically just look at another building.
I'll try to take some more places around where I live so that you can get a better idea of my living situation.
I hope you all are doing well, I will attempt to post my next update quicker next time.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
My First Week
I've been in South Korea a little over a week now (it is Tuesday night as I right this, early morning in the states. It has been a learning experience. I will attempt to describe some of my experiences and first impressions of South Korea.
First of all, everyone speaks Korean and writes Korean. This may sound obvious, and it is, but it weird walking down the street and everyone is Korean and almost every sign is in Korean. Living in the US my entire life, I grew used to being able to walk down the street and being able to read street sign and store signs. Also, living in Tacoma area I was used to seeing people from every nationality in the store. In Korea that is not the case. If you see someone who isn't Korean it's a safe bet they speak English.
My first week at school was rough, but is getting better every day. My first day was the first day of the semester so it was basically controlled chaos the entire day. During my classes I was attempting to get to know the students, and they were trying to get to know me. This is a difficult process when they don't speak English and I don't speak Korean. My first class was a new class and thus basically no English (although they knew the alphabet and whatnot). It took my about 5 minutes to get them to draw a cat. The day got better as the later classes spoke more English. My classes range in age from Kindergarten to 5th grade, although the age doesn't necessarily tell you how well they speak English. In my most advanced class we are reading a book together. It's a book that's basically intended for 5th graders in the states, and it's hard to remember all of the cultural things they don't know about, even though they speak really good English. For instance they have no idea who Merlin is, or what Camelot is, or King Arthur (all things important in the story). They understand most of the words just fine, but I'm having to explain the context of those words.
As for training, I didn't really receive any training, I was given the books that I am teaching from and thrown in, which has been quite the experience. With that said I must say that I am very impressed with everyone at the school. They are all very nice and helpful. Everyone has asked me on more than one occasion if I had any questions or needed any help.
I work at the school with 6 other non-Korean English teachers. I just want to say that everyone of these teachers have been more than helpful and friendly as I attempt to learn my way around Korea. If I ever have a question or need any help they are more than willing to give a lending hand (even when I get lost and I have to call them in order to find my way home). The Korean teachers and staff is very helpful too. My main boss is named James who was born in Korea, moved to America when he was young, married a Korean, and moved back to Korea. Thus, he speaks fluent English and Korean. He is very helpful interacting with the Korean teachers (who speak varying degrees of English), and he is also very friendly and helpful when it comes to teaching.
As to the school itself: I work at a Hagwan. This is basically a private after school school. There is two elements to this, there is a kindergarten school which is in school during the morning and early afternoon and operate as any normal kindergarten works, but part of the lessons are English. The second half of the day are Elementary school kids. Of the seven teachers, 5 work 10 AM to 6:40PM, to other two (of which I am one) work 1PM to 8:40PM. As such I work mainly with elementary school kids, although I have two classes of kindergarten. The point of the school (for the elementary school kids at least) is to work as an extracurricular activity. The kids are there for about an hour and a half and we have kids coming and going every hour and a half. I split the classes with a Korean teacher. I have a class for about 40 mins and my Korean counterpart has a class for about 40 mins and then we switch. One of the main motivations for parents is that learning English well helps kids get into college later in life.
As for the teaching, imagine teaching a bunch of elementary aged kids, but they only understand some of the words you say (and when I say “some” I don't mean the words like you would expect elementary aged kids to understand, I mean “some” of what a normal elementary aged kid would know, also they for the most part don't know tenses and normal English phrases).
As for the kids, they are pretty cute and I like a lot of them, although a few of my classes are very rowdy and difficult to control. My first elementary class is full of 7 and 8 year olds and are very cute and it makes my day when they say “Hello Trevor Teacher”(this is the class that basically speaks no English so I'm happy when they can say anything correctly in English), which brings me to my next subject. In Korea they say “[first name] teacher”. I don't know why they do this and no one has been able to explain it to me. That is all I have to say on this subject but it helps to remind me that I am a teacher now, a role that I have never really played before, at least in an official sense.
The last thing I will speak on are names (this will be the last thing because this is a very long post as it is). The kids are given English names. My first day (before I realized they were given English names) I looked at their name tags and was shocked at the English sounding names they had. Names that wouldn't stand out in any American school. The school does this (as do other Hagwans) partly to help with the pronunciation of English sounds (the kids seems to have a lot of problems with R, S, particularly at the end of words, and double L), but also for the benefit of the English teachers. Since we don't speak Korean we can't hear or pronounce the difference between a lot of the names, and thus by giving them English names it prevents long discussions on how to pronounce their Korean name and why it is different from another kid's name. For instance, the kids roared with laughter when one of the books had a Miss Jones while there was a John in class. They knew Miss Jones was a girl and John was a boy. I had to attempt to explain how Miss Jones (or any Jones) was very different from John. So this is the reason we English teachers don't attempt to use their Korean names.
I know I promised pictures, but this ended up being a lot longer than I thought, so I will hopefully have pictures next time of my apartment and what not(I already took the pictures, I just have to up-load them).
I hope you all are doing well. I don't know if I am doing well, but I am alive and I haven't gone crazy yet (although that is in large part due to my fellow English teachers, it's nice to be able to speak normal English between classes and after class). I will attempt to update in a week or so, next time I will probably focus on Korea itself instead of the school, as well as my apartment.
First of all, everyone speaks Korean and writes Korean. This may sound obvious, and it is, but it weird walking down the street and everyone is Korean and almost every sign is in Korean. Living in the US my entire life, I grew used to being able to walk down the street and being able to read street sign and store signs. Also, living in Tacoma area I was used to seeing people from every nationality in the store. In Korea that is not the case. If you see someone who isn't Korean it's a safe bet they speak English.
My first week at school was rough, but is getting better every day. My first day was the first day of the semester so it was basically controlled chaos the entire day. During my classes I was attempting to get to know the students, and they were trying to get to know me. This is a difficult process when they don't speak English and I don't speak Korean. My first class was a new class and thus basically no English (although they knew the alphabet and whatnot). It took my about 5 minutes to get them to draw a cat. The day got better as the later classes spoke more English. My classes range in age from Kindergarten to 5th grade, although the age doesn't necessarily tell you how well they speak English. In my most advanced class we are reading a book together. It's a book that's basically intended for 5th graders in the states, and it's hard to remember all of the cultural things they don't know about, even though they speak really good English. For instance they have no idea who Merlin is, or what Camelot is, or King Arthur (all things important in the story). They understand most of the words just fine, but I'm having to explain the context of those words.
As for training, I didn't really receive any training, I was given the books that I am teaching from and thrown in, which has been quite the experience. With that said I must say that I am very impressed with everyone at the school. They are all very nice and helpful. Everyone has asked me on more than one occasion if I had any questions or needed any help.
I work at the school with 6 other non-Korean English teachers. I just want to say that everyone of these teachers have been more than helpful and friendly as I attempt to learn my way around Korea. If I ever have a question or need any help they are more than willing to give a lending hand (even when I get lost and I have to call them in order to find my way home). The Korean teachers and staff is very helpful too. My main boss is named James who was born in Korea, moved to America when he was young, married a Korean, and moved back to Korea. Thus, he speaks fluent English and Korean. He is very helpful interacting with the Korean teachers (who speak varying degrees of English), and he is also very friendly and helpful when it comes to teaching.
As to the school itself: I work at a Hagwan. This is basically a private after school school. There is two elements to this, there is a kindergarten school which is in school during the morning and early afternoon and operate as any normal kindergarten works, but part of the lessons are English. The second half of the day are Elementary school kids. Of the seven teachers, 5 work 10 AM to 6:40PM, to other two (of which I am one) work 1PM to 8:40PM. As such I work mainly with elementary school kids, although I have two classes of kindergarten. The point of the school (for the elementary school kids at least) is to work as an extracurricular activity. The kids are there for about an hour and a half and we have kids coming and going every hour and a half. I split the classes with a Korean teacher. I have a class for about 40 mins and my Korean counterpart has a class for about 40 mins and then we switch. One of the main motivations for parents is that learning English well helps kids get into college later in life.
As for the teaching, imagine teaching a bunch of elementary aged kids, but they only understand some of the words you say (and when I say “some” I don't mean the words like you would expect elementary aged kids to understand, I mean “some” of what a normal elementary aged kid would know, also they for the most part don't know tenses and normal English phrases).
As for the kids, they are pretty cute and I like a lot of them, although a few of my classes are very rowdy and difficult to control. My first elementary class is full of 7 and 8 year olds and are very cute and it makes my day when they say “Hello Trevor Teacher”(this is the class that basically speaks no English so I'm happy when they can say anything correctly in English), which brings me to my next subject. In Korea they say “[first name] teacher”. I don't know why they do this and no one has been able to explain it to me. That is all I have to say on this subject but it helps to remind me that I am a teacher now, a role that I have never really played before, at least in an official sense.
The last thing I will speak on are names (this will be the last thing because this is a very long post as it is). The kids are given English names. My first day (before I realized they were given English names) I looked at their name tags and was shocked at the English sounding names they had. Names that wouldn't stand out in any American school. The school does this (as do other Hagwans) partly to help with the pronunciation of English sounds (the kids seems to have a lot of problems with R, S, particularly at the end of words, and double L), but also for the benefit of the English teachers. Since we don't speak Korean we can't hear or pronounce the difference between a lot of the names, and thus by giving them English names it prevents long discussions on how to pronounce their Korean name and why it is different from another kid's name. For instance, the kids roared with laughter when one of the books had a Miss Jones while there was a John in class. They knew Miss Jones was a girl and John was a boy. I had to attempt to explain how Miss Jones (or any Jones) was very different from John. So this is the reason we English teachers don't attempt to use their Korean names.
I know I promised pictures, but this ended up being a lot longer than I thought, so I will hopefully have pictures next time of my apartment and what not(I already took the pictures, I just have to up-load them).
I hope you all are doing well. I don't know if I am doing well, but I am alive and I haven't gone crazy yet (although that is in large part due to my fellow English teachers, it's nice to be able to speak normal English between classes and after class). I will attempt to update in a week or so, next time I will probably focus on Korea itself instead of the school, as well as my apartment.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
First Day
I've been in South Korea for a little over 24 hours now (although most of that time was at airports). The trip itself went very well. I got into Seoul in plenty of time to get through immigration and customs, get my luggage and get re-checked in for my flight to Busan. I got into Busan and got on the correct bus heading to Ulsan. I was supposed to go to the bus terminal in Ulsan where I was going to be picked up, but for some reason the bus didn't go there and I was put off the bus on some street in Ulsan. Fortunately I was able to get into a taxi, with the help of some English teachers coming back from a vacation, and headed to the terminal. At the terminal there were two people holding a sign with my name on it, so I got into the car with them. Fortunately they were the people I was supposed to meet and not robbers who were hopping to get lucky. They took me to my new apartment and got me all settled in.
My apartment is a studio style apartment, although it's a pretty good sized place with an enclosed balcony. That means that I have a sliding door leading onto a balcony that then has another sliding door that has railing right on it. This is where the clothes drying is taken place. I do have a washing machine which is in the kitchen. I have no dishwasher or oven. My stove top is gas which is exciting since I've never used gas before. The school has provided me some pots and pans and I am looking forward to cooking my first dinner tonight which leads me to my next topic.
I woke up at about 8:30 this morning, my first full day in Ulsan. Normally I would have gone to work but today is a national holiday in this fair country so I got it off. I decided to go exploring this new city some. It was raining but it wasn't too cold. Before setting off I of course decided to set a couple tall nearby buildings as landmarks so I wouldn't get lost. I started walking found some nearby grocery stores and convenience stores (I have three convenience stores within about 3 blocks of my apartments). I also found a farmers market of sorts and bought some vegetables. In the course of exploring I of course got lost. The land marks didn't work very well since every tall apartment in town looks exactly the same. I eventually found my apartment after about 2 hours of wondering around getting soaked.
It's still a little soon for me to have much in the way of first impressions. It's all still new and exciting and different. The biggest thing is that they don't speak English and I don't speak Korean so when buying things I have to trust them. For instance when I was buying something the guy held up 5 fingers and said something, presumably 5 something won. I assumed it was 5,000 won since I hadn't had seen anything under 1000 won before. I handed him 5,000 won (about $4.25), his eyes went wide and started shaking his head. It turned out it cost 500 won (about $0.42). Also after doing some shopping it struck me how it's fairly easy to get around (at least walking, other transportation could get difficult) and shop without knowing a single word, just numbers.
Hopefully this will give you an idea of my new life in Korea, at least my life so far. I'll attempt to load some pictures next time.
My apartment is a studio style apartment, although it's a pretty good sized place with an enclosed balcony. That means that I have a sliding door leading onto a balcony that then has another sliding door that has railing right on it. This is where the clothes drying is taken place. I do have a washing machine which is in the kitchen. I have no dishwasher or oven. My stove top is gas which is exciting since I've never used gas before. The school has provided me some pots and pans and I am looking forward to cooking my first dinner tonight which leads me to my next topic.
I woke up at about 8:30 this morning, my first full day in Ulsan. Normally I would have gone to work but today is a national holiday in this fair country so I got it off. I decided to go exploring this new city some. It was raining but it wasn't too cold. Before setting off I of course decided to set a couple tall nearby buildings as landmarks so I wouldn't get lost. I started walking found some nearby grocery stores and convenience stores (I have three convenience stores within about 3 blocks of my apartments). I also found a farmers market of sorts and bought some vegetables. In the course of exploring I of course got lost. The land marks didn't work very well since every tall apartment in town looks exactly the same. I eventually found my apartment after about 2 hours of wondering around getting soaked.
It's still a little soon for me to have much in the way of first impressions. It's all still new and exciting and different. The biggest thing is that they don't speak English and I don't speak Korean so when buying things I have to trust them. For instance when I was buying something the guy held up 5 fingers and said something, presumably 5 something won. I assumed it was 5,000 won since I hadn't had seen anything under 1000 won before. I handed him 5,000 won (about $4.25), his eyes went wide and started shaking his head. It turned out it cost 500 won (about $0.42). Also after doing some shopping it struck me how it's fairly easy to get around (at least walking, other transportation could get difficult) and shop without knowing a single word, just numbers.
Hopefully this will give you an idea of my new life in Korea, at least my life so far. I'll attempt to load some pictures next time.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Change of plans
Just a quick up date, instead of getting to South Korea on the 24th as originally planned, I will now be starting on the 28th. This is primarily due to delays getting my work visa. I don't really know the reasons for the delay but I assume it has something to do with me being a very shady character.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Preparing to Leave
In case any of you haven't heard, I will be heading to the wonderful country of South Korea around the 22nd of February. Specifically I will be going to the city of Ulsan, which is in the South East part of the country. It is right on the coast on the Sea of Japan. The city it self is a major industrial city with a population of 1.1 million. It is home to the largest automotive plant and the largest shipyard in the world. Despite its size it is still only the 7th largest city in the country.
I will be teaching at a private language school there. A private language school is basically an after school school parents send their kids too to learn how to speak English better. The kids do learn English in their normal schooling, but the private schools allow them to learn the language better and provides better opportunities for their future employment. As such I will mainly be working afternoon evenings over there 5 days a week 35-40 hours a week. I will be making 2.5 million Korean Won a month, so I will literally be a millionaire after the first month. Before you start hitting me up for money though be aware that the Korean Won does not transfer into the US dollar at a very high rate. (I hope you'll forgive me for hoping the US dollar will continue to devalue against the Korean Won, at least during the next year).
Most (if not all) of you are probably wondering why I am doing this. Well, there are several reasons. First of all it is quite hard to find a good paying in the current economy and this job will pay well, even once I transfer the Won into the US dollar. Secondly, I am still sort of young (going on to more than a quarter of a century), I have nothing holding me down, and it is a chance to experience a different country and culture while being payed well. Many of you are probably saying these are very similar to the reasons I gave for becoming a truck driver, and you'd be right. I did that to see the country and make some money and have some good experiences. Replace “country” with “another country” and the reasons are the same. Perhaps I'm just not any good at settling down, or finding a career, or finding a steady job. Or, maybe I'm just a wild and crazy youth, going out to experience the world. It's really hard to tell.
Apart from the “why” the second most common question I receive is “Do you know any Korean?”. The answer to this is “No.” I got Rosetta Stone from a friend and I couple of phrase books/dictionaries and am very slowly going through them. It is very slow going, especially since Korean is so different from English. They don't even use a similar alphabet. It's like they are trying to make it hard for me. The most troubling part is that I have to trust these books and software to translate accurately for me. It reminds me of a Monty Python sketch where things are mis-translated and wackiness and harm is done. Hopefully I won't be accidentally saying anything vulgar in Korean, but it's impossible to know for sure.
Since this has been going on longer than I thought I'll try to wrap it up. I'm going to South Korea in a week or so, I will be there for a year. I will attempt to maintain this blog, probably updating every week or two to keep all you wonderful people updated on my comings and goings. While there I will of course miss all of you, although hopefully you will keep in touch. Don't bother calling me since I will be cancelling my phone service. My e-mail is either trevor54@gmail.com or trevor54@hotmail.com my Skype username is trevor.dykeman. You can try contacting me on Facebook, but that is probably the slowest way to keep in touch.
I will be teaching at a private language school there. A private language school is basically an after school school parents send their kids too to learn how to speak English better. The kids do learn English in their normal schooling, but the private schools allow them to learn the language better and provides better opportunities for their future employment. As such I will mainly be working afternoon evenings over there 5 days a week 35-40 hours a week. I will be making 2.5 million Korean Won a month, so I will literally be a millionaire after the first month. Before you start hitting me up for money though be aware that the Korean Won does not transfer into the US dollar at a very high rate. (I hope you'll forgive me for hoping the US dollar will continue to devalue against the Korean Won, at least during the next year).
Most (if not all) of you are probably wondering why I am doing this. Well, there are several reasons. First of all it is quite hard to find a good paying in the current economy and this job will pay well, even once I transfer the Won into the US dollar. Secondly, I am still sort of young (going on to more than a quarter of a century), I have nothing holding me down, and it is a chance to experience a different country and culture while being payed well. Many of you are probably saying these are very similar to the reasons I gave for becoming a truck driver, and you'd be right. I did that to see the country and make some money and have some good experiences. Replace “country” with “another country” and the reasons are the same. Perhaps I'm just not any good at settling down, or finding a career, or finding a steady job. Or, maybe I'm just a wild and crazy youth, going out to experience the world. It's really hard to tell.
Apart from the “why” the second most common question I receive is “Do you know any Korean?”. The answer to this is “No.” I got Rosetta Stone from a friend and I couple of phrase books/dictionaries and am very slowly going through them. It is very slow going, especially since Korean is so different from English. They don't even use a similar alphabet. It's like they are trying to make it hard for me. The most troubling part is that I have to trust these books and software to translate accurately for me. It reminds me of a Monty Python sketch where things are mis-translated and wackiness and harm is done. Hopefully I won't be accidentally saying anything vulgar in Korean, but it's impossible to know for sure.
Since this has been going on longer than I thought I'll try to wrap it up. I'm going to South Korea in a week or so, I will be there for a year. I will attempt to maintain this blog, probably updating every week or two to keep all you wonderful people updated on my comings and goings. While there I will of course miss all of you, although hopefully you will keep in touch. Don't bother calling me since I will be cancelling my phone service. My e-mail is either trevor54@gmail.com or trevor54@hotmail.com my Skype username is trevor.dykeman. You can try contacting me on Facebook, but that is probably the slowest way to keep in touch.
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