Hello again! This is another long one everyone. If you want the Cliffnotes version, scroll down to the last paragraph. You may want to read all of this after you see it.
So the first week of school progressed rather well. Once the kids got over their initial fear of me, they became a little more open to attempting to speak with me. Some of them had some very interesting questions, like if I had a boyfriend, how many I’ve had and how long I’ve dated each of them. They also want to know which of their male classmates I find “most handsome” and which teacher is “most handsome”. Um? Haha not sure how to answer any of those questions appropriately but oh well, if it gets them hearing, speaking, and understanding English I’ll answer their questions. Naturally my answer was that all of the boys are handsome and same with the teachers. They saw through that though and had no trouble remembering the English for “you lie!”. Haha well. What am I supposed to say? They also have the basic questions like what is my favorite sport, and what do I like to eat (cheeseburgers! I’m going to live up to the American stereotype and I don’t care). Some of the male students are much more outspoken, and like to blow me kisses and tell me they love me. Another has offered to teach me Korean himself (said with the flirtiest English he could manage). When I politely turned him down all the girls in the class broke into applause. I guess we know how they feel about him. Some of the more shy students like to come into the teachers’ office where I have my desk and sit next to another English teacher who is able to translate for me/them when they can’t understand me or they can’t find the right English word. One girl made me a bookmark with the Chinese character for love. She asked for my favorite color in English and was so proud of herself when she realized that I could actually understand her. The next day, I had my blue bookmark! Also, all students learn 1500-2000 basic Chinese characters, which is why its in Chinese. Another girl stopped me after a class that I sat in on, and gave me candy and thanked me for coming to this school.
Favorite thing out of a kid’s mouth so far: “Hello. I am English very well”. Thankfully Jin was in the room with me and was able to laugh at it. I think he meant that he speaks English very well, which is ironic, but also hilarious.
The way it works here is that the kids are basically in the same classroom the entire day, and it’s the teachers who switch classes. So there is nothing in the classroom specific to a subject. No science posters, no history timelines, etc. The kids all have little cubbies in the back of their room, and each teacher is assigned a homeroom, but then throughout the day the teachers spend their time in the office to make their lessons plans, and then move to the classes accordingly. I am special however, and have my very own English classroom. This means that the school has bought me not one but two very nice Samsung computers, and my new classroom (which is still getting some of the electronics worked out) is complete with a new white board AND a huge touch screen that is hooked up to my computer, so that I can click and move around on the screen without having to actually be at the computer. Eventually I’m having a sort of virtual reality system built in a corner of the classroom so I can do crazy stuff with that. So high tech. I’m still learning how to use it, but its so great.
The schools in Gyeonggi-do province are ranked from best to worst. My school is one of the worst. Maybe some of the other teachers from UW are in a similar situation but I don’t know. At my school a lot of the kids come from a family situation or home life that isn’t so good. Not all of them, but Jin told me at least half. She said that the students have no incentive to do well in school because they can graduate just on attendance. They don’t have plans to go to college and Jin explained to me that most of them don’t have anyone at home who really cares either way if they go to college or do anything valuable with their lives. Actually, she put it this way: “They have no dreams”. Um. If that’s not depressing I don’t know what is. I almost started crying. A school full of kids with no dreams?! In addition to this – and I’m finding a general consensus on this from the other UW high school teachers – there is little in the classroom or in the school to offer encouragement otherwise. The walls in the schools are bare, hallways classrooms, everything. I plan to decorate my English room with things that are visually appealing to kids, and sort of force them to understand what is said. For the classes that I’ve sat in on, the students literally just sit there, they read a paragraph or so, and the teacher basically just translates it for them. There is no speaking really – which I assume is why the kids are so hesitant to speak to me. Its obvious that my job is to engage the kids in conversation, but the challenge is getting them to actually do it. My obvious incentive is candy, because I mean who doesn’t like candy? But I think eventually that will get old and I’m going to have to get more creative. Its just strange to me that there is no real push for these kids to actually learn the information, they just memorize it enough to pass the test if they sort of care about their grades, or, since most of them just don’t care, they just sleep. Maybe its because its English and everyone learns it? I mean if everyone in the U.S. had to learn Spanish I feel like it would get annoying, but since we get to choose what to learn, its more enjoyable? I don’t really know. I mean when I was learning Italian, I had big plans to go to Italy – which as we all know I followed through with – so I had an incentive to learn the language. If these kids have no desire to travel there may not be that drive. English really is important though, and I know I’m extremely biased, but I’ve noticed in my travels that if two people speak a different language, they tend to communicate in English. Example: while waiting in line to buy a boat ticket to Capri in Italy, there was a German couple ahead of me in line. They couldn’t speak Italian, the man at the ticket window couldn’t speak German, but they managed to communicate through English. See? It really is important!
But also, the teachers of foreign languages in the U.S. seem much more fluent than foreign language teachers here. I don’t mean to undermine them, or make an unfair comparison – the U.S. does have more resources – but sometimes the teachers don’t say things properly, grammatically, in the class. Maybe it happens in high school Spanish classes all across America too and I was just never proficient enough to notice? I don’t know. I really was expecting the kids to know more than they do, but I’m literally going to be doing the very basics with them: colors, numbers, animals, articles of clothing, and all those lessons that we all remember from our high school days of flashcards and jeopardy. That makes it easy on me, but how do you make something visually appealing to kids (I have to use visuals since I can’t speak their language to equate it with a word they know in Korean), while at the same time making it fun but conducive to learning without being too childish. Meh. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m complaining. I’m not. I signed up for this, and I’m still excited about it, and I hope that I will be a change of pace from their boring translating grammar lessons everyday. Its just going to take a lot more encouragement and creativity than I had anticipated. But no worries, I have lots of time during the week to come up with creative things and plenty of encouragement to give. I am the youngest teacher here (except maybe the student teacher who is still in college), so it’s not that long ago that I was in high school and I remember what it was like. Hopefully my age will be an advantage and if they think I’m “cool” they’ll be more inclined to participate and actually learn.
Went to immigration the other day, so I could get my foreign registration card that would allow me to get all the essentials like a cell phone and the internet. A girl who was about my age at the immigration office was there working as a translator. For Mongolian, Vietnamese, English and Korean. Um? I’ve never felt more inadequate. Seriously? When did this kid learn all these languages?
On a not-work-related note, I went shopping the other day with Jin in Myeong-dong (a neighborhood in Seoul). Boy, was I missing out by not going here. As much as I loved the COEX mall, Myeong-dong was even better. COEX will be saved for when its cold out and I don’t feel like walking around outside. But Myeong-dong is an awesome shopping area with tons of little streets, shops, food vendors, and A FOREVER 21 AND ZARA! Right. Next. To. Each. Other. I was in heaven.
Myeong-dong, Seoul
Jin and I shopped around for a long time, grabbing random things to try on. Cue the crazy movie montage of us trying on some of the most ridiculous outfits and accessories we could find. We looked absolutely crazy but it was so much fun and of course a great girl-bonding experience. Guys sit around, watch sports, and drink beer. Girls shop. We also made a dinner out of the yummy food vendors on the streets. We ate some sort of sausage (they call it bulgogi) with pressed rice cakes stuffed inside (tteok = rice cakes). There was some dried octopus tentacles available but I passed on that. She also took me to some cute shops where I was able to buy things to make my apartment more homey, like an adorable alarm clock, little magnets, coffee mugs, etc. And most importantly she took me down some of the smaller side streets I wouldn’t have thought to go down with bargains on shoes. Woo!!
Jin and me in Myeong-dong.
Met up with Anna finally last Thursday. We went with another guy from our program and walked around Myeong-dong and Insadong. Friday I went to Suwon, which is the biggest city in Gyeonggi-do province. It should be about 2 hours on the subway but that was not that case. The subway ride there was terrible. It was way overcrowded, and my train didn’t come for 30 minutes at my transfer station, which made me 30 minutes late to meet Anna. And we didn’t have cell phones so that was a problem. One of the people I was going to meet up with happened to have a cell phone and was with Anna, so as soon as I got off the subway in Suwon, I called him from a pay phone and while I was standing in the phone booth freaking out that I had lost my friends, I serendipitously ran into Catie and Rebecca who are also from UW. I don’t even know how they found me, I was huddled in a phone booth in front of a massive multi-level subway station on one of the busiest roads in Suwon. But I was so relieved. We all found each other eventually and had a great night. I did, however, have to do a sort of “walk-of-shame” back home from Anna’s; literally end to end across the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the world. No big deal. Anna also cooked breakfast on Saturday morning, consisting of scrambled eggs and toast. Since forks are hard to come by in these parts of the world, I was forced to eat my eggs and toast with chopsticks. And I did it. Without too much effort.
Anna and me out in Suwon
Scrambled eggs, toast, and chopsticks. The epitome of blending cultures.
Saturday Anna and I met up with some friends in Seoul that are doing a non-UW teaching program, and went clubbing until 5:30am. Why so late? Because the subways closes at midnight and doesn’t open again until 5:30 or 6am depending on the station. And its probably a 40000-50000 won (so like $40-50) cab ride to my apartment. When we all left the club at 5:30, people were still raging pretty hard. Once the subway opened up, we hopped on a train and slept the entire way home. We probably looked crazy – like we don’t get enough stares as it is. By the time Anna and I made it to my apartment, it was 7am and the sun was shining and people were starting their day. But we slept until 3:30. Not sure I can handle partying til the sun comes up every weekend. I think in the future we’ll just get a love motel – a really cheap hotel where Korean businessmen take their mistresses. But they’re usually full of foreigners who just need a cheap place to stay in Seoul. At least I can check partying until the sun comes up off my list of things to do here. Sure it won’t be the last time.
Went to Home Plus with my neighbor Sang-Eun. Thought I was going to fly out the open window on the bus that I was standing next to because the bus was so crowded and the driver drove like he was on drugs. I was hanging on for dear life. Dropped another 100000 won trying to get my life together in this country at Home Plus. I usually buy western food at the grocery store, because I can’t really cook and some of the preparations for Korean food are sort of more than I can handle and more than I have time for. Sang-Eun is all about teaching me the names of food though, which is great. So I learned some basic words, which I’m really struggling to remember already but she’s really helpful. She cracked me up though when it was my turn to teach her. I was picking out some rice wine (so good and cheap!) and there was a “mountain berry” flavored one. I think we would just call it mixed berry – the pictures were of raspberries and blackberries. And when trying to say that the berries are grown on the mountains, she could only come up with “the berries live in the mountain”. So cute. The supermarket part of Home Plus is full of samples at practically every aisle. Sang-Eun made me try something that…I don’t even remember the Korean name because I was trying to get over what it was in English. Noodles and pig’s blood cooked up and stuffed in a sort of sausage casing. Oh. My. God. I told her I didn’t think I could handle eating it, but she dragged me over to the sample cart and made me do it. To be honest, it wasn’t totally disgusting as far as taste goes. But it sure wasn’t good. Maybe it was a case of mind-over-matter. But my mind won and I had a hard time getting it down. She let me stop at the yogurt sample cart so I could have something I actually liked. Ahhhh I can’t even believe I ate that. She also tried getting me to buy bugs in a can. To eat. Her reasoning was that the bugs are smaller in the Korea so they’re easier to eat than the ones in China. But I drew the line at eating pigs blood. After buying our goods we went to the food court in the Home Plus. Lunch was not so good that day, there was straight up crab legs in my soup for the second time in two weeks. I couldn’t bring myself to deal with pulling crab meat out with chopsticks and a spoon. Or eat soup that had legs of a sea creature floating in it. So at the food court I got fried pork with a sort of sweet and sour sauce, and a big bowl of spaghetti. It was Korean style spaghetti, which was a little different, but still so good. And I ate every last bite. I don’t even want to discuss the irony of me eating pork immediately after freaking out about pig’s blood. All the other dishes had rice, and I’m so sick of rice because I eat it every single day at school. So if I can avoid it, I will.
I am enjoying squid jerky though!
Me and my squid jerky. Yeah I'm really eating it. And YES I actually like it.
Finally got my cell phone. Signed a one year contract with LG, and got a free phone. Usually I’m picky about my phone, but I got a cute baby pink cell phone for free. Not the best phone in the world but definitely not the worst. Has video calling, a Korean-English dictionary, texting, music downloads, and all the other good stuff. I had to wait for 30 minutes while some paperwork went through, so Jin and I decided to get some food. She suggested chicken and beer. Did Ludacris circa 2003 pop into anyone else’s mind when I said that? So fried chicken and a beer for 30 minutes turned into another beer. Which turned into Jin making a few phone calls and inviting some more teachers (luckily at my school there’s quite a few teachers that are in their late 20s, so I have people somewhat my age to hang out with), which turned into more beers, and before I knew it I was belting out the Backstreet Boys in a noraebang. I scored 100% singing Backstreets Back, which I am both extremely proud and ashamed of. You really never know when all that useless pop knowledge will come in handy. Amazing too, how my brain can pull up those ancient lyrics but can’t remember some of the stuff I learned my last semester of college.
Learned that the word for "station" (역) pronounced "yeok" and the word for "f*** you" (욕) pronounced "yok" are extremely similar looking and sounding. And I live near Ganeung Station (or Ganeung Yeok), which means that I need to be very careful when telling somebody where to go to find my apartment or where I live. I could be kicked out of a cab in the middle of who knows where, real quick.
So in short: Korea so far has meant that I can now successfully party til the sun comes up, make it home in last night’s clothes across a city of 20 million people, avoid unintentionally offending a cab driver by mispronouncing a simple word, find my friends in a massive subway station even though the odds are against us and we have no real means of communication with each other, eat scrambled eggs with chopsticks, sing the Backstreet Boys error-free while in a Korean karaoke room, and eat pigs blood noodle-y stuff and squid jerky. Beat that resume. These skills will be applicable at some point later on in life right?
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." --Mark Twain
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