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.
Monday, March 29, 2010
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.
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