Today I played extreme Badminton. Yes, it exists, but only in Korea. You see, Koreans aren't really THAT extreme when it comes to sports; they don't win the Olympics nor do they do well at the World Cup, in fact the only time you hear about Koreans is in relation to the maths or sciences. So you can imagine my surprise when I was asked if I wanted to play Badminton with some of the teachers from my school. OF COURSE I WANT TO PLAY BADMINTON!! So I arrived at the school to be greeted with the biggest shock of my life, this wasn't just sip your tea and eat kimchi while gossiping badminton, oh no, this was extreme-knock-your-teeth-out Badminton. I was given a brief introduction to hitting and the stance and then thrown into the game. WELL, after being thoroughly slammed 3 or 4 times by the birdie (i'm going to have a bruise on my cheeck tomorrow....) I politely thanked them for inviting me and limped home to nurse my wounds. It appears I have to stop judging things by the stereotypes they are given!!
Another interesting thing I learned today is that I live in a GREEN FOOD ZONE, now i'm not exactly sure what this means as the rest of the sign was in Korean but this has to be a good thing...right??
Finally, I tried to go to a Korean lesson today in a different city and since I have no transportation I presumed I could rely on the good ol' fashioned bus. WRONG! The bus I wanted didn't come for 45 minutes (by which time I was already late) and then when it did come IT DIDN'T STOP!!!! I couldn't believe it!! So in order to fix this situation (the one where I sit at the bus stop like an idiot and hope the bus i've been told will take me where I want to go actually shows up and stops) I have doubled my efforts at learning Korean. I purchased a children's book and I intend to translate everything and to make AWESOME posters/flashcards for myself. GO team Molly!
Anyong!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Crash Course in Acceptable Sandwich Fixin's
I would like to state that Korean food is delicious, it's sometimes overly spicy, sometimes overly fishy and yes, sometimes it has too many bones or the occasional eyeball but overall Korean food is delicious. So it perplexes me as to WHY (with such great taste) my kids could POSSIBLY think that adding Strawberry jam to their ham and cheese sandwiches is a good idea? It all started this morning, my co-worker and I decided that we would make sandwiches at our summer camp today, what a great way to break up the drone of english grammar, not to mention sandwiches are an American institution! What with the slim pickins' available to us in the grocery store regarding sandwich options we decided to make ham, cheese, mayo, mustard, and lettuce white bread sandwiches; we also decided that we should give them the option to try peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So we bought everything, I did a powerpoint on how to make a proper sandwich, and we all watched Mr. Bean make a sandwich (if you haven't seen this youtube "Mr. Bean makes a sandwich" it's pretty funny). Then they got up and made their own sandwiches, and you know, instead of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich they made a ham, cheese and jam sandwich...What??? So I decided to try it...and sure enough, it's not half bad! That doesn't mean, however, that i'll be switching my ultimate sandwich to include jam but it WAS a funny moment. They held their breaths while I bit down, and I held mine as they tried their PB&J's.
Hahaha. I love my students, they teach me so much!
Anyong!
Hahaha. I love my students, they teach me so much!
Anyong!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Exhausted...but pleased.
I feel for summer camp counselors and teachers. They honestly have the hardest job in the world. Being a teacher is the single most exhausting thing i've ever done in my very short life, harder in ways than finals and midterm weeks, harder than my first date, more nerve wracking than my first kiss, my driver's license test, my math grades being posted, or even more difficult than my first heart wrenching breakup. I come home every single night at 4:30 absolutely exhausted. I lay down on my bed (fall face first actually) and just lay there for a while, letting the blessed AC wash over my overheated body, reflecting on my day. What I did well, what I did wrong, what I can change, how I should react next time, etc. I have never spent so much time (well...maybe the WHOLE college experience) dwelling on one thing in my entire life. My days are filled with thoughts of these small nuisances I call students and pretty much nothing else. I plan lessons in the mornings, at work, in the evenings as I de-stress, hell I plan lessons in my sleep. It's exhausting, but so rewarding. The smiles on their faces as they get something right and i'm able to congratulate them! Not only do I enjoy watching them grow and learn but I also LOVE learning from THEM. They teach me so much about life as a Korean- the right and wrong ways to handle and approach situations not to amazing Korean slang words! I owe these children my best and so i'll continue to sacrifice my sleep to them (grudging though it may be at times).
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Jjimjilbangs
Jjimjilbang is Korean for:
Spa on Crack
Most Amazing Spa ever
That's a Spa? Seemed more like heaven to me!
However you choose to translate this magical word one thing remains, Jjimjilbangs are the single most amazing discovery of my life in Korea. A Jjimjilang is comprised of several main components: several showers, a river, a sauna and several different temperature pools. You undress (yes naked, boys in a completely different level) in the locker room and then proceed to the showers where you scrub every last inch of you with soap (it's UHmazing) and then you sit and soak in pools. The pools are all different temperatures, some hot, some cold and some of them are infused with different things: coffee, pine needles, smells, you name it you can have it. So you sit, soak, and chat with your girl friends until you feel sufficiently pruny, then you wander over to the Ashimas (women older than you) and they give you a massage. Oh it's glorious, they use gloves that are the equivalent of wire scrubbing a pan to scrub off all the dirt and whatever that has accumulated on your skin, give you a face massage and cucumber pack, they wash your hair, and give you an oil massage. It's the most amazing thing in the world. After the Ashimas have done their damage you go and sit in the sauna, sweat out all the oil then return to the pools. You can stay as long as you want, and frequently people sleep overnight at these places. Needless to say, i'll be returning soon (and often!)
Spa on Crack
Most Amazing Spa ever
That's a Spa? Seemed more like heaven to me!
However you choose to translate this magical word one thing remains, Jjimjilbangs are the single most amazing discovery of my life in Korea. A Jjimjilang is comprised of several main components: several showers, a river, a sauna and several different temperature pools. You undress (yes naked, boys in a completely different level) in the locker room and then proceed to the showers where you scrub every last inch of you with soap (it's UHmazing) and then you sit and soak in pools. The pools are all different temperatures, some hot, some cold and some of them are infused with different things: coffee, pine needles, smells, you name it you can have it. So you sit, soak, and chat with your girl friends until you feel sufficiently pruny, then you wander over to the Ashimas (women older than you) and they give you a massage. Oh it's glorious, they use gloves that are the equivalent of wire scrubbing a pan to scrub off all the dirt and whatever that has accumulated on your skin, give you a face massage and cucumber pack, they wash your hair, and give you an oil massage. It's the most amazing thing in the world. After the Ashimas have done their damage you go and sit in the sauna, sweat out all the oil then return to the pools. You can stay as long as you want, and frequently people sleep overnight at these places. Needless to say, i'll be returning soon (and often!)
Friday, July 23, 2010
A few things I learned on my travels
Never forget deoderant
Always look fabulous
Bring a padlock for my pack
Have an itinerary
Pack less
Take friends with you
Bring a bigger day bag
Stay at a hostel in the downtown area
Wear tennis shoes. Always.
Smile, get lost, and eat street vendor food
Speak Spanish for good measure
See the historical sights, but not too many of them, nor for too long
Speak slower
Keep in contact with the people I meet, people are everywhere!
Always listen to the directions from the locals, regardless of what it seems like they always know best
Bring a book
Never forget deoderant. Ever.
Always look fabulous
Bring a padlock for my pack
Have an itinerary
Pack less
Take friends with you
Bring a bigger day bag
Stay at a hostel in the downtown area
Wear tennis shoes. Always.
Smile, get lost, and eat street vendor food
Speak Spanish for good measure
See the historical sights, but not too many of them, nor for too long
Speak slower
Keep in contact with the people I meet, people are everywhere!
Always listen to the directions from the locals, regardless of what it seems like they always know best
Bring a book
Never forget deoderant. Ever.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Cartoon explanations
So I was surfing the web and came across this website:
Roketship Cartoons that explain Korea
It explains my life here perfectly. Especially the one about the bathroom showers!!
Roketship Cartoons that explain Korea
It explains my life here perfectly. Especially the one about the bathroom showers!!
Korean Lie #3
"I'll buy this time, you can buy next time."
Umm...I keep offering to buy and yet, somehow, you continuing buying...?
Umm...I keep offering to buy and yet, somehow, you continuing buying...?
Korean Lie #2
"Your Korean is so good!"
If my Korean is so good why did I NOT understand what you said when you complimented me?
If my Korean is so good why did I NOT understand what you said when you complimented me?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Social Death of C.C
I was walking back to the teachers lounge from lunch when a woman stopped me by bellering (in her politely quiet, yet zealous Korean manner) "Excusah Me! Excusah me!" and grabbing my arm in earnest (this is common so i'm not really surprised that happened). She than proceeded to introduce herself to me, I caught "...mun...Cha" Now, i'm certain that's not her name, there were too many missed syllables, she then informed me that her son was in 3rd grade (middle school, grade three, the equivalent of 8th or 9th grade in the states) and that he was going to study English in high school. I smiled politely, wondering where this was headed. She grabbed a student out of the filled hallway and gabbled something, I deduced she was requesting he go find her son (this was all established to my horror and the students aparent delight). With her fingers still clenched about my upper arm she began gabbling at me in fluent Korean. My eyes began to glaze over and my smile took on a fixed position, halfway between a smile and a grimace. After about a minute of complete misunderstanding the condemned child (now known as C.C.) was pushed forward by a large group of his peers, all smiling insanely, beady eyes glinting in sheer amusement. C.C blushed bright red, and looked at the floor, his peers stifled giggles, and his mother introduced us (I am merely postulating here as I have no idea what she actually said). She than grabbed both our hands and smashed them together in a forced handshake. I smiled and looked at the floor politely slowly saying the correct American greeting, C.C blushed an even brighter pink than before and mumbled something else in korean, his mother beamed and released our hands. That was the last I saw of C.C as he was swallowed up by his peers and scurried away through the halls. C.C's mother beamed at me, I offered thanks for the introduction, thanks for tracking me down, and then made my departure. On my way to the teachers lounge I saw C.C overwhelmed in the midst of a crowd of hysterical heathen children...poor kid.
Rainy Days
The rain here is soo beautiful! I cannot believe how much rain happens in this place! It's like I need water wingys just to walk to work! The water courses down the street in rivers and floods from the sky in torrential downpours! Incredible! Especially considering I haven't really seen anything the even resembles rain like this in my 22 years of life. In Utah it's considered a flash flood if we get 2 inches of rain a day, here that much happens in the first hour!
One good thing about the Korean habit of taking your outside shoes off at the door and exchanging them for slippers (yes, I have a pair of black flats that I use, i frequently feel as though i'm wandering about in my socks) is that the school certainly stays dry and clean! I suppose this is another reason in the positive for the kids cleaning the school, they feel less inclined to bring dirt and water into the classrooms... But imagine how upsetting for a college graduate from Utah when I was informed I wasn't allowed to wear my shoes into the school and that NOT wearing socks was an absolute insult! Good thing I packed my lacy flats socks at the last minute! I think it's pretty great the way the Koreans think about dirt and grime, you don't bring it into the house. Period. Whenever I enter a restaurant (the more fancy ones), you leave your shoes at the door and go about in your socks. At the school you leave your outside shoes for your inside shoes, if you are a visitor there are sandals just for you! It's pretty funny wandering about in my socks and bare feet but it also feels pretty good.
Just another fun contradiction from my previous life.
Anyong!
One good thing about the Korean habit of taking your outside shoes off at the door and exchanging them for slippers (yes, I have a pair of black flats that I use, i frequently feel as though i'm wandering about in my socks) is that the school certainly stays dry and clean! I suppose this is another reason in the positive for the kids cleaning the school, they feel less inclined to bring dirt and water into the classrooms... But imagine how upsetting for a college graduate from Utah when I was informed I wasn't allowed to wear my shoes into the school and that NOT wearing socks was an absolute insult! Good thing I packed my lacy flats socks at the last minute! I think it's pretty great the way the Koreans think about dirt and grime, you don't bring it into the house. Period. Whenever I enter a restaurant (the more fancy ones), you leave your shoes at the door and go about in your socks. At the school you leave your outside shoes for your inside shoes, if you are a visitor there are sandals just for you! It's pretty funny wandering about in my socks and bare feet but it also feels pretty good.
Just another fun contradiction from my previous life.
Anyong!
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Janitor(s)
As if things couldn't get any weirder here I realized today that there are no janitors employed at my school. I guess i've been so caught up in attempting to figure out what my life is about that I never thought about how the whole school gets cleaned...until today. I was walking up the stairs with my co-worker and there were 3 boys scrapping at the stairs with razorblades, I thought "that's weird" and then it dawned on me.
The children are the janitors.
Everyday during 7th period the kids come into the teachers office and they sweep and mop the floor. They wash the windows and they dust the ledges. In the mornings they sweep and mop the floors inside and on the outer patio. Cleaning up their school is just part of their routine, it makes their school truly theirs. If they spit gum on the floor, they have to clean it up, simple really.
I have a bit of an inner conundrum about this situation, on the one hand I don't believe that the students are here to clean, they are here to learn and to grow into the young adults that they will be. But the other half of me says this is wonderful! In what other way can you take full responsibility for your space, your school than by cleaning it? By cleaning the stairs of gum you realize that you don't want to spit on them!
Ah, the little lessons.
Anyong!
The children are the janitors.
Everyday during 7th period the kids come into the teachers office and they sweep and mop the floor. They wash the windows and they dust the ledges. In the mornings they sweep and mop the floors inside and on the outer patio. Cleaning up their school is just part of their routine, it makes their school truly theirs. If they spit gum on the floor, they have to clean it up, simple really.
I have a bit of an inner conundrum about this situation, on the one hand I don't believe that the students are here to clean, they are here to learn and to grow into the young adults that they will be. But the other half of me says this is wonderful! In what other way can you take full responsibility for your space, your school than by cleaning it? By cleaning the stairs of gum you realize that you don't want to spit on them!
Ah, the little lessons.
Anyong!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Computer Programs
Ok, if I though utilzing Powerpoint and Word to their fullest extent in English was difficult...I was drastically wrong. Powerpoint and Word in KOREAN, is...impossible... Oh man.
Food! Food! Food!
I ate an entire deep fried egg yesterday. They just boiled it, battered it, deep fried it, and than I ate it. WHAT?! It was surprisingly good. There is a woman that has a cart on the corner near my home, i've been passing her by this last week and it always smells sooo good, so I stopped and ate one of everything. I had deep fried shrimp (bones intact, skin intact, antennae intact *of course*), deep fried egg, deep fried dumplings (my favorite by far), deep fried onions, deep fried...i'm not actually sure what it was but it looked like a vegetable root and tasted like deep fried celery!
On top of all this delicious deep fried food I also took my first SOLO bus trip! Woo! I'm getting better and better at navigating the public transportation here, which is key as i'm without car. It was fun, I needed to get off at my neighborhood Samgye (Sam-Gay) at a store called Lotte Mart (Loh-tay Mart-uh) So I just kept asking "Samgye Lotte Mart?" Over and over until someone finally pointed and jabbered about and I realized I needed to exit the bus! What a relief!! I did it! I did it!! I was so terrified that I wasn't going to be able to effectively navigate the public transportation, and i'm certain that i'll mess up a couple of times until I figure it out but still!!! What a great first step!!
I'm off to teach the monkeys, more later!!
Anyong!
On top of all this delicious deep fried food I also took my first SOLO bus trip! Woo! I'm getting better and better at navigating the public transportation here, which is key as i'm without car. It was fun, I needed to get off at my neighborhood Samgye (Sam-Gay) at a store called Lotte Mart (Loh-tay Mart-uh) So I just kept asking "Samgye Lotte Mart?" Over and over until someone finally pointed and jabbered about and I realized I needed to exit the bus! What a relief!! I did it! I did it!! I was so terrified that I wasn't going to be able to effectively navigate the public transportation, and i'm certain that i'll mess up a couple of times until I figure it out but still!!! What a great first step!!
I'm off to teach the monkeys, more later!!
Anyong!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
A few moments of confusion...
When I was in school lunch was always...an adventure in taste and cuisine. In Korea it's even more of an adventure, everyday at lunchtime on of my teachers has the lucky task of escorting me to lunch... I don't think they mind it as they get to teach me new words and i'm ridiculous because I don't know a thing about Korean manners so i'm always timid but looking constantly for the right number of pineapple to take, the correct scoop depth of my rice. Everyday the lunch ladies stand behind the counter in their hazmat suits, face masks, hair nets and hats, shoulder length gloves, three aprons, and they serve up mystery food. There is always rice- with beans or varying seeds, nuts, or whatever ensconced within the steaming white grains, there is always a soup that is usually so spicy my eyes water and my coworkers giggle daintily behind their hands at my misery, kimchi- which is fermented cabbage and apparently takes some getting used to..ew..., some sort of fruit- pineapple, cranberries, a vegetable- radish, cucubmers, carrots, and a meat-mystery meat- fish with the bones still intact, pork with the bones still intact, beef with the bones still intact. You get the picture. Always filling, surprisingly delicious, but always 20 minutes of confusion for the white girl.
The first time I went to go to the bathroom and I stumbled upon this:
http://www.google.co.kr/imglanding?q=korean%20squat%20toilets&imgurl=http://grrrltraveler.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/squat-toilet-KzR.jpg&imgrefurl=http://grrrltraveler.com/2010/03/squat-toilet/&usg=__EYldNph6HcVZEVWon4pcH_Z2dG8=&h=241&w=462&sz=103&hl=ko&tbnid=1_hiPjpjfefzQM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkorean%2Bsquat%2Btoilets%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dko%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&um=1&lr=&newwindow=1&sa=N&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=1_hiPjpjfefzQM&start=3
Wow. Just wow....My first question to myself was: "So...how does this work?" Apparently you just squat over it like you do in the woods and...um...voile? I think the best part of the whole thing is that in that particular bathroom there was a a Korean Proverb at squat eye level that read: "a big fish must swim in deep water." hahaha. Too good. Touche Korea, Touche. I think i'm going to make that my new life motto.
Attempting to pay for anything is, for lack of better words, impossible. I point at what I want, make the number sign delegating how much I want and then hold out my money. I'm sure i'm being overcharged but hopefully the street vendors are starting to recognize my face because i'm trying to go the same vendors...foreign loyalty...or maybe just a familiar face for cheaper food! (here's hoping at least!!)
Anyong!
The first time I went to go to the bathroom and I stumbled upon this:
http://www.google.co.kr/imglanding?q=korean%20squat%20toilets&imgurl=http://grrrltraveler.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/squat-toilet-KzR.jpg&imgrefurl=http://grrrltraveler.com/2010/03/squat-toilet/&usg=__EYldNph6HcVZEVWon4pcH_Z2dG8=&h=241&w=462&sz=103&hl=ko&tbnid=1_hiPjpjfefzQM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkorean%2Bsquat%2Btoilets%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dko%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&um=1&lr=&newwindow=1&sa=N&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=1_hiPjpjfefzQM&start=3
Wow. Just wow....My first question to myself was: "So...how does this work?" Apparently you just squat over it like you do in the woods and...um...voile? I think the best part of the whole thing is that in that particular bathroom there was a a Korean Proverb at squat eye level that read: "a big fish must swim in deep water." hahaha. Too good. Touche Korea, Touche. I think i'm going to make that my new life motto.
Attempting to pay for anything is, for lack of better words, impossible. I point at what I want, make the number sign delegating how much I want and then hold out my money. I'm sure i'm being overcharged but hopefully the street vendors are starting to recognize my face because i'm trying to go the same vendors...foreign loyalty...or maybe just a familiar face for cheaper food! (here's hoping at least!!)
Anyong!
Rice
Rice, Rice, Beautiful Rice. You are the safest option by far. I would just like to thank you profusely for your delicious, bland taste, and your ability to fill me up.
School Yard Days
Life in Korea is fabulous, frightening, smelly, bizarre, and tasteful.
Every moment longer that i'm here i'm beginning to realize that there is so much more to life than what first meets the eye. A simple example is parking, I needed to go to the hospital to get my test results so I can get my alien workers card, to my American eye there was no parking spaces available, to Eunyeong's (my Korean co-teacher and everyday Korean guide) there were plenty. She parked her car face to face with another car, with the back-end sticking a door lengths out diagonally into the road. She put her blinkers on and we exited the vehicle...Who'dathunk that was acceptable?! Was my first question, my second was, Why doesn't everyone park like that? Why do we confine ourselves to a life of ordered simplicity, a life where everyone and everything has a set ordered place, a dusty circle on a long-forgotten bookshelf of rules?
I believe that the thing I find most fascinating about Korea is punishments for disobedient students. My first day in Korea, first day in my new school, I walked up the stairs with my co-teacher, and there, on my left, were about 10 boys, hands and feet planted firmly on the wood floor, back ends raised in the air. I asked Eunyeong what they were doing and her simple reply: "They are being punished." I wrote it off as a misunderstanding, but 10 minutes later when we returned through the hallway there were the same boys, except this time there was a male teacher with a wooden stick spanking them! Not hard enough to leave welts, but physical pain, and emotional duress nonetheless. Today I saw one of my fellow teachers dragging a disobedient male student through the halls by his ear! I thought that punishment only existed in books from the early 1900's!! When I questioned some of my fellow foreign english teachers about their methods of punishment they all enlisted differing responses, but a recurring theme was lines...pages and pages of lines in English. Wow. Just wow.
On a funnier note, an English teacher from England informed me that he tries to wear his students out both emotionally and physically so he has them stand in front of the class and do the "dig and dance" which is essentially mimicking someone shovelling but dancing...hahaha! That one did make me giggle.
It's moments like these that I realize just how far away from home I am, if my cousin Emily, who is a teacher in Connecticut, were to strike one of her students with a wooden rod, have them perform downward facing dog in the hallways, or drag them about the school by their ear she would not only be fired immediately, but probably face countless lawsuits!
It gets me wondering, "Which method is best?" The pacifist, no-touch policy of the Americans, or the rougher, physical respect earned through tough-love of the Koreans? I wonder if perhaps Americans have become so overly concerned with personal rights that they have forgotten that in order to have personal rights to the fullest you have to achieve and maintain the initial respect and action that earned you that respect? I don't personally think i'll be smacking a child about, that just seems too contrary to my personal beliefs, but I do enjoy the thought of manipulating the students through their peers. Aqcuisence through personal humiliation at their own hand. I would like to think that I can compile a method of allowing the students to keep one another in check without forcing me to step in and take action...ah the joys of wishful thinking!
In the meantime I suppose i'll keep trying to eat kimchi everyday in the hope that someday it will taste good...
Anyang!
Every moment longer that i'm here i'm beginning to realize that there is so much more to life than what first meets the eye. A simple example is parking, I needed to go to the hospital to get my test results so I can get my alien workers card, to my American eye there was no parking spaces available, to Eunyeong's (my Korean co-teacher and everyday Korean guide) there were plenty. She parked her car face to face with another car, with the back-end sticking a door lengths out diagonally into the road. She put her blinkers on and we exited the vehicle...Who'dathunk that was acceptable?! Was my first question, my second was, Why doesn't everyone park like that? Why do we confine ourselves to a life of ordered simplicity, a life where everyone and everything has a set ordered place, a dusty circle on a long-forgotten bookshelf of rules?
I believe that the thing I find most fascinating about Korea is punishments for disobedient students. My first day in Korea, first day in my new school, I walked up the stairs with my co-teacher, and there, on my left, were about 10 boys, hands and feet planted firmly on the wood floor, back ends raised in the air. I asked Eunyeong what they were doing and her simple reply: "They are being punished." I wrote it off as a misunderstanding, but 10 minutes later when we returned through the hallway there were the same boys, except this time there was a male teacher with a wooden stick spanking them! Not hard enough to leave welts, but physical pain, and emotional duress nonetheless. Today I saw one of my fellow teachers dragging a disobedient male student through the halls by his ear! I thought that punishment only existed in books from the early 1900's!! When I questioned some of my fellow foreign english teachers about their methods of punishment they all enlisted differing responses, but a recurring theme was lines...pages and pages of lines in English. Wow. Just wow.
On a funnier note, an English teacher from England informed me that he tries to wear his students out both emotionally and physically so he has them stand in front of the class and do the "dig and dance" which is essentially mimicking someone shovelling but dancing...hahaha! That one did make me giggle.
It's moments like these that I realize just how far away from home I am, if my cousin Emily, who is a teacher in Connecticut, were to strike one of her students with a wooden rod, have them perform downward facing dog in the hallways, or drag them about the school by their ear she would not only be fired immediately, but probably face countless lawsuits!
It gets me wondering, "Which method is best?" The pacifist, no-touch policy of the Americans, or the rougher, physical respect earned through tough-love of the Koreans? I wonder if perhaps Americans have become so overly concerned with personal rights that they have forgotten that in order to have personal rights to the fullest you have to achieve and maintain the initial respect and action that earned you that respect? I don't personally think i'll be smacking a child about, that just seems too contrary to my personal beliefs, but I do enjoy the thought of manipulating the students through their peers. Aqcuisence through personal humiliation at their own hand. I would like to think that I can compile a method of allowing the students to keep one another in check without forcing me to step in and take action...ah the joys of wishful thinking!
In the meantime I suppose i'll keep trying to eat kimchi everyday in the hope that someday it will taste good...
Anyang!
Dinner
I've been invited out to my first dinner at my first Korean friends house!!! Her name is Young, she doesn't speak hardly any English but she seems to really like me so here goes nothing! EEEE!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
A Crash Course in Korean Culture
Wow.
What a week.
Tomorrow i've officially been in Korea for a whole week. I cannot believe that everything has gone by so quickly!! I cannot believe how absolutely amazing it is here, the people are ridiculously nice, even if they insist on stroking my hair on the bus...in the streets...in the super market...at school. I suppose someday ill get used to being a pet! There are soo many cool things that the people do here that I would never in a million years have imagined doing! For instance, iced soup. Sounds weird right? But it's absolutely amazing! There is some sort of broth, with buckwheat noodles, cucumbers and carrots, chunks of ice, and spicy chili paste. You mix it all up and eat it! Another one of the more interesting foods is called pot bean sou (no, i'm not missing the "P") the base is ice, than fruit (which includes tomato because *obviously* tomato is a fruit), a small dollop of ice cream and whipped cream, not to mention the beans interspersed throughout the whole thing. You mix it all up and devour! Delicious...in a very new way.
My first couple days of school have been amazing, the kids are really interested in learning about me so the billion photos of my family and friends that I brought coupled with the maps of america and utah have been really exciting and wonderful topics have sprung from them. I have been playing trashcan basketball with them, where the punishment for missing is unscrambling simple english sentences. I'm fairly certain they like this. It has been a fabulous opportunity for me to break down some of the newness barriers that are inevitable.
My co-teacher Eunyeoung (OOH-N-YONG) has been so helpful as I attempt to establish myself here that I wanted to bring her a present today, I asked another foreign teacher who has been here a year what a good gift would be, her response? Fruit. So I brought nectarines today!! They call them jaduu (JAH-DOO) and you pop the whole thing into your mouth (thankfully they are little) and then scrape all the fruit off the pit. Once that is done you spit the pit out. What a funny thing! It's moments like these that make my stay here amazing. Just like yesterday we were eating soup, always spicy with tofu and cucumbers and there was a two half a crabs in there, I asked how you eat it and the response was...exciting for me. You pick up the crab where the legs and the body meet, with your chopsticks, and than you squeeze the meat out with your teeth. How difficult! Especially considering my chopstick skills are dubious to begin with. Well at least my co-workers thought I was cute.
Ah! Class, more later!
Anyong! (AWN-YOUNG)
What a week.
Tomorrow i've officially been in Korea for a whole week. I cannot believe that everything has gone by so quickly!! I cannot believe how absolutely amazing it is here, the people are ridiculously nice, even if they insist on stroking my hair on the bus...in the streets...in the super market...at school. I suppose someday ill get used to being a pet! There are soo many cool things that the people do here that I would never in a million years have imagined doing! For instance, iced soup. Sounds weird right? But it's absolutely amazing! There is some sort of broth, with buckwheat noodles, cucumbers and carrots, chunks of ice, and spicy chili paste. You mix it all up and eat it! Another one of the more interesting foods is called pot bean sou (no, i'm not missing the "P") the base is ice, than fruit (which includes tomato because *obviously* tomato is a fruit), a small dollop of ice cream and whipped cream, not to mention the beans interspersed throughout the whole thing. You mix it all up and devour! Delicious...in a very new way.
My first couple days of school have been amazing, the kids are really interested in learning about me so the billion photos of my family and friends that I brought coupled with the maps of america and utah have been really exciting and wonderful topics have sprung from them. I have been playing trashcan basketball with them, where the punishment for missing is unscrambling simple english sentences. I'm fairly certain they like this. It has been a fabulous opportunity for me to break down some of the newness barriers that are inevitable.
My co-teacher Eunyeoung (OOH-N-YONG) has been so helpful as I attempt to establish myself here that I wanted to bring her a present today, I asked another foreign teacher who has been here a year what a good gift would be, her response? Fruit. So I brought nectarines today!! They call them jaduu (JAH-DOO) and you pop the whole thing into your mouth (thankfully they are little) and then scrape all the fruit off the pit. Once that is done you spit the pit out. What a funny thing! It's moments like these that make my stay here amazing. Just like yesterday we were eating soup, always spicy with tofu and cucumbers and there was a two half a crabs in there, I asked how you eat it and the response was...exciting for me. You pick up the crab where the legs and the body meet, with your chopsticks, and than you squeeze the meat out with your teeth. How difficult! Especially considering my chopstick skills are dubious to begin with. Well at least my co-workers thought I was cute.
Ah! Class, more later!
Anyong! (AWN-YOUNG)
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