Happy Festivus

Today will prove to be the longest Festivus of my life. In a few hours I will board a plane for JFK in NY. Fourteen hours later I will arrive on the east coast and the time will be the same as when I took off. Then a quick flight up to Portland, ME and I will be at my grandfather's house before the day is out. Not too shabby considering I've already taught a class today and went to a traditional Korean meal for lunch. In any case, I will be in the states for the next 5 days and am definitley ooking forward to it.

Badminton Tournament

The year is winding down at Dong Mak Elementary and today was the semester-end tournament of the teacher's badminton club. Only six teachers came so we played with three teams. To add a a little balance the men played left-handed. After two rounds every team had won two games and lost two and we decided to award the prizes through a game of chance. I brought home two packages of shuttlecocks; though I was hoping for the badminton socks. Here are a few pictures my co-teacher took. I think they are a little blurry because of how fast I move on the court.

Korean Countryside

I only took three pictures this weekend. This is one of them. It is the view from Petit France (see previous post).

Teacher's Trip

This past Friday, I went on an overnight trip with all of the teachers at my school. Immediately after classes ended for the week we all boarded a bus. I had no idea where we were going or what was in store. An hour and a half later we arrived at a resort hotel and all went to dinner. The meal was Korean barbecue and as soon as we began eating the Soju began to flow freely. After the meal, most of us remained in the dining room for a while.

Later in the night, all of the teachers wound up sitting on the floor of the principal's room drinking and eating more food. Eventually, some of the teachers began filtering off to their own rooms. Some time after midnight I joined the principal and about half a dozen other teacher's at a karaoke room where we all took turns singing songs.

The next morning I woke up on the floor of my room (everyone slept on the floor since the hotel didn't have any beds), to one of the other teachers saying, "time to go to breakfast." So I stood up, tucked in my shirt and headed out the door. Breakfast consisted of a spicy bean curd soup. Later in the day we visited a place called Petit France which is a tourist destination devoted to French culture and the popular children's story, The Little Prince. All in all, it was a pretty good trip.

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up

Today was one of my last days with my 3rd and 4th grade advanced class. I asked them each to write a short speech about what they wanted to be when they grew up. They wrote for the first half of class and each presented their speeches for the second half. What I enjoyed most about these presentations was the different goals of each student:

President

Entertainer

Teacher

Pianist/Singer/Dancer

Zookeeper

Scientist

Fashion Designer

Diplomat

Singer or Artist

Inventor/Basketball Player

Pilot

Lawyer

High School Teacher

Designer

I wish that I could tell people that I wanted to be an Inventor and Basketball Player.

Haircut

Having been here for nearly two months, it was high time that I got a haircut. Given the language barrier, I was understandably nervous. How could I ever explain what I wanted to someone who speaks no English? There are some things that hand gestures just can't adequately describe. So this past Friday, my co-teacher agreed to take me to a barber and explain what I wanted. On our way, she asked me, "Andrew, can you describe your hair style?" I was beginning to get nervous. She then convinced me that I should go to a "hair shop" if I wanted a good haircut. I trusted her. The end result has a very long, fancy haircut that required a lot of translation between myself and the woman who was cutting my hair. After she finished she shampooed my head and I was done. I expected the whole thing to be rather expensive, but they only charged me 10,000 Won (about 7 or 8 dollars). And since there is no tipping in Korea, that's exactly what I paid. Here is the end result:

Winter Camp Suggestions?

It's December, and Dong Mak Elementary has entered the final few weeks of it's school year. The Korean school calendar is very different from that of the United States, so the end of the school year on December 23rd will be followed by a more than month long break. Given this time of year, all of the teachers at my school - myself included - are very busy. Evidence of the increased work load can be found in the dwindling number of attendees at my bi-weekly teacher's class. When I began teaching more than a month ago, about ten teachers showed up to each class. Today I only had two, and one showed up 20 minutes late.

As for me, I have been busy planning a two week Winter English Camp that I will operate during January. I have been given almost total control of the camp and need to develop a plan in the near future. At the moment, I am designing the first week as a "Science in English" camp for about fifteen 3rd and 4th grade students. Some activities that I have thought of are building a model of the solar system and creating a papier-mache volcano and staging an "eruption." And here is the real point of this post: Does anyone have any suggestions for fun activities that I could do with the students? Maybe experiments that you remember doing as a kid (or that your kids have done and enjoyed, if you are a parent)? Also, any recommendations for my second week? I may do the same science camp for 5th and 6th graders, but I can also choose to do something completely different. All suggestions are appreciated.

Good Question

I recently finished teaching my fifth and sixth graders about verb tenses. We used a very simplified method that focused on past tense, present tense, and future tense. On my last day teaching this lesson, one of my 6th grade students raised her hand and asked, "Teacher, what is the past participle?"

I will give anyone in the US 1000 Won if you can answer that question without looking it up.

Wandering through Seoul

I ventured into Seoul alone on Saturday and managed to see quite a bit. I walked everywhere I went and managed to find more than I was looking for without getting lost. Rather than detailing my wanderings, I'm just going to throw up a few of the pictures I took.

I stumbled across this scene on accident. According to a nearby sign, these men were part of a bell ringing ceremony. I watched for about ten minutes as traditional Korean music blared from speakers in the building and these guards stood more or less still. I didn't wait around long enough to see what happened when they moved.

The fish tank outside a restaurant in the Insadong district of Seoul.

This large, anonymous statue is perpetually hammering at nothing. It was designed with a large motor that keeps the hammer arm moving methodically up and down.

As it grew dark, I found a palace that was open at night and had most of the buildings lit up. I took this picture in a pretty remote corner of the palace grounds. There are some other pictures that I will put up on a later date.

All in all, I am enjoying seeing Seoul and learning more and more about the city.

Teaching Parents

Today was my first day teaching my Parents Course. At the behest of the higher-ups at Dong Mak Elementary School, I have begun to offer a weekly course for the parents of our school's students. This week, I had seven moms show up, and no dads. I began the class with some brief introductions and was quickly asked the obligatory personal questions: "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" and "Are you married?" The motive for asking these questions is not simply curiosity, but is very much a part of Korean culture. Knowing my age and marital status helps a Korean place me within their social hierarchy. Age is particularly important since Korean culture says that older individuals deserve more respect than young people. As a few examples: language is more formal when speaking with people older than yourself; when clinking glasses while drinking, the younger person always holds his glass lower than the older person (I made this mistake while drinking Soju with the vice principal and was promptly called on it by someone else at the table); and it is considered rude to have your hands in your pockets while speaking with someone older than you (again, I have made this mistake).

Anyways, my first parents class went well. Considering the trouble I had the first time I tried to teach teachers, I was relieved to have the class go smoothly. In fact, I heard through the grapevine (the mom's talked to the vice principal's secretary, who passed the word on to my co-teacher, who filled me in) that they were very happy with the class. I'm not usually one to put much stock in gossip, but I'll take good feedback when I can get it.

My Neighborhood

This is a picture of my "neighborhood" that I took from the top of a nearby hill. My building is on the far side of the image (middle of the picture, as far back as you can go, just to the right of the large white buildings). I would have tried to make it more prominent, but the view isn't as good from the other side.
Besides a few shops, restaurants, and one small grocery store, every building in this area is filled with apartments. There is only one road leading to this part of Yongin, giving me about a mile walk to go almost anywhere. All in all, it is a predominantly quiet place to live.

Teaching Notes

Teaching is going well but remains challenging. In less than a month of teaching, I have learned a few interesting things:

• Teaching children is fun, but requires a certain temperament and a lot of preparation. On temperament, it is necessary to find a balance between patience and discipline and to know when to use each. On preparation, activities must be educational, interesting, and such that all the 35 students in a class feel involved. It is not easy, but exciting when it works.
  
• It is also a great feeling to believe that your students are excited to see you. I never get tired of hearing students yell hello to me as I walk into school in the morning or down the hallways during the day. As I left school this afternoon, a few of my students were in the playground playing stickball with a wooden bat and tennis ball. They shouted for me to come over and play. Even though I had a ride waiting in the parking lot, I couldn't resist taking a few swings.
  
• I just found out that I will be teaching a weekly "Parents Course" in addition to my other classes. If teaching teachers is any indication of what I should expect from the parents, it will be difficult but fun. I find that engaging adults with lesson plans that appeal to their goals, and solicit active participation from them, is no easy task. When I successfully do it, however, it is a blast.
  
• Trying to learn Korean has made me a better English teacher. The small amount of Korean that I have learned helps me better understand my students and how they perceive things like English pronunciation.
• At the same time, teaching English has provided me with an opportunity to think about the English language in ways that I never have before. I find myself realizing expressions and difficult words in the language I use. I am also becoming aware of the difficulty of the English language lying in the fact that English speakers often don't follow "the rules" that English students are taught. Today, I had to explain to the teachers why "I am going to a movie" is a more common response than the correct future tense "I will go to a movie" when one is asked "What are you doing tonight?" I still don't have a very succinct answer.
  

A Night in Seoul

Saturday night I finally experienced the night life of Seoul. I went into the Hongdae district - which is one of the popular spots in Seoul - with a group of other American/Canadian teachers who are also living in Yongin. After a bus ride, a few transfers on the subway, and stopping to enjoy some Korean street food (mostly different types of meat on a stick) we were finally in Hongdae a little after 11PM. It was the most crowded, active place I have seen in Seoul so far. The entire area looked like a parade had just gone by with debris and flyers littering the sidewalks and street.

We eventually found ourselves at the "Tinpan Music Bar" where beer and tequila are cheap, and dancing on the tables is encouraged (there are hand rails mounted on the ceiling above the two long tables that run half the length of the bar).

All of a sudden it was past 4 in the morning and we decided it was time to go. Outside, the streets were still crowded with people coming and going from bars. We found a pair of cabs, piled in, and headed off. Getting back into Yongin a little after 5, I was the lucky one who got dropped off by the cab first.

All in all, I look forward to spending more time in Seoul.

Dong Mak Elementary School

I don't have time for a long post but wanted to put up this picture of my school that I took last Saturday:

Namhan Samsong Fortress

As my lagging frequency of posts would suggest, I have been pretty busy lately. Yesterday afternoon I visited the Namhan Sansong Fortress with my school's principal and all of the 6th grade teachers (I am technically a member of the 6th grade faculty). The Fortress, which was built during the 1620's, was used to defend the monarchy against invading Manchu forces. Located on a large hill north of Seoul, it was used as a place of refuge for the king. It is about a 20 minute hike to get to the top of the hill.

Here are a couple pictures I took during the afternoon:

This wall wraps around the top of the hill. It is between twenty and thirty feet high at most places.


This is the main building and was used as a base for military options and as a palace if the king ever had to take up residence at the fortress.

After the hike we went out for a meal of raw seafood. Sitting on the floor around a low table in the private room of a seafood restaurant we were joined by the vice principal and a couple other teachers. We were served several courses of different types of raw fish. I tried everything and liked most of it. We also enjoyed several bottles of Soju with our meal.

Apartment Tour

Most "Foreign English Teachers" like myself have small, one-room apartments. I am the lucky one with two rooms. The price I pay? A fifteen minute walk to a fifteen minute bus ride to work.

This is the view when you walk in my door. The laundry room is in the back and the bedroom is off to the right.

Here is the kitchen view from the other side of the room. The bathroom is down the short hall to the left of the sink.This is my bathroom. See the shower? It's the thing that's attached to my sink. This arrangement isn't too bad, except for the time when I went to brush my teeth and accidentally turned on the shower, soaking my shirt and tie just as I was about to leave for work.

And this is my bedroom. Maybe I should have made my bed...

All in all its a good place to live. It was new construction so all of my furniture and amenities were brand new - a definite plus.

Alien Resident

Good News. I received my Alien Registration Card today. This means that I am officially an Alien Resident of South Korea. It also means that I can proceed with getting internet and cable for my apartment and a Korean cell phone. All in all, I am pretty happy about this.

Fire Drill

Dong Mak Elementary School had fire drill today. Unlike similar activites, their drill was much more like a show. As we left the building the school had smoking machines set up outside the windows to give the impression of a real fire. Outside, the students all sat in classes around the edge of the school yard. The fire department began by lighiting a bonfire in the middle of the school yard and having teachers put it out with fire extinguishers. Then they set up the hose and had about a dozen teachers and students take turn holding the hose. All of them tried to spray the audience. At several points, an entire class or grade of students would make a break for it and run into the shower of the hose. Altogether, the production lasted about 45 mintues and forced the cancellation of two of the classes I had scheduled for this morning.

Pictures from Seoul

I have decided not to wait for internet at my apartment to start posting pictures. Here are a couple images from my recent trip to Seoul.

This is the gate to the Secret Garden at the Changdeokgung Palace.

Changdeokgung consists of about a dozen buildings of varoius sizes. Most of them are in this style and are connected by elevated walkways (so that the king never had to go outside and walk on the ground). The downside of this was that a fire about four hundred years ago spread through several of the buildings via the king's walkways.

This is a shot from one of the shows I watched at the Aquarium in Seoul's 63 Building. The woman on the right (outside of the tank) plays a prince. The woman inside the tank is the princess (complete with tutu and tiara around her wetsuit) that the prince wants to marry. Before they can go through with it, children in the audience must answer trivia questions about various aquatic animals. Needless to say, there was a happy ending.

Teaching Update

Since my last post, I have begun teaching in earnest. In the mornings I teach classes of 5th and 6th graders with my co-teacher. Last week, we began collaborating on lesson plans, with varying success. Our lack of fluency in a common language (she speaks very good, but not perfect English) and my lack of experience in planning lessons has made our task rather difficult. So far, we have done four lessons with each one taking about an hour to plan. I should note that these are only forty minute lessons. In any case, we have managed to insert me into the teaching method.

My other classes are more difficult. At the end of last week, I was told that I would be teaching three classes on my own - two advanced English classes and one class of other teachers at the school. My first teacher class was last Thursday and I - having no real idea how to teach a group of adults English - decided it would be best to wing it, try to figure out what the teachers wanted to learn, and go from there. I bombed. With no idea what to do, I began by asking each of them to tell me their names and goals for the English class. It quickly began to feel like a self-help group with me saying things like "Welcome Mr. Kim, thank you for sharing your goals with us. Would someone else like to speak." I then tried to simulate some conversation, failed, explained some grammer that they were uninterested in learning, then discussed my future "plans" for the class. Needless to say, I am hoping for a better performance tomorrow.

My advanced classes are going much better. I taught both of them alone today and things seemed to go well. I think that these will probably be the classes I enjoy the most each week.

Wedding

This Saturday I attended a wedding. No, it wasn't mine. It was the wedding of one of the sixth grade teachers here at Dong Mak Elementary School. The ceremony took place in a conference center devoted solely to wedding ceremonies. Walking through the building, I saw several weddings going on at once in various rooms - each of which was open in the back so that you could look in on the proceedings. I arrived late with a group of teachers, waded through the standing room only crowd in the back, and was able to watch the second half of the ceremony. After the short service, as pictures were being taken, they did one of the bride and groom with all of the teacher's from the grooms school. So, I will be in one of their wedding pictures!

At the lunch which was held after the ceremony I was trying all kinds of new foods - baby octupus, shrimp with the head still on, etc. One of my safety dishes was made from beef and looked pretty good. I had two large bites before I realized I was eating raw beef. It probably would have been much harder to try it if I had known what I was eating. That said, I don't think I will be eating much more of it.

Teaching/ Badminton Update

Today should be my first full day of teaching. I say "should" because I was supposed to begin on Tuesday and it is now Thursday. My Tuesday classes were canceled for student health examinations and I had to leave school yesterday because the vice principal thought I would benefit from going to abother school's open house. I ended up watching a 2 hour presentation about teaching English (spoken entirely in Korean) and learning almost nothing. In any case, I should have four classes today and they are going to start in about 10 minutes.

On to the important stuff - badminton. This week's meetings have forced me to face the grim reality that I need a lot of work. Yesterday, the badminton coach came to improve our form, show us drills, and critique me in Korean. I had no idea how serious these teachers take their badminton.

Seoul

My co-teacher took me to Seoul this Saturday and showed me around. We firstvisited Insadong, a famous Seoul neighborhood where traditional Korean foods, pottery, and artwork are sold. This was the first time since I have been in Korea that I saw large numbers of westerners in one place. Having a Korean guide certainly proved to be a benefit. She pointed out and explained things I am sure the majority of tourists missed, and took me up a non-descript stairwell to a small tea house where we enjoyed tea, a cold rice soup, and rice cookies.

We next visited Changdeokgung Palace, which is one of the oldest and most important palaces in Korea. The palace, which consists of a series of buildings and courtyards, as well as a royal garden commonly referred to as the "Secret Garden" was both impressive and historically interesting. While most of the buildings are four to six hundred years old, kings of the Joseon Dynasty continued living there into the 1920's (even though the Japanese began their occupation of the Korean Peninsula in 1910). The last royal residents were still using some of the palace grounds in the 1980's.

After seeing the palace, we ate a lunch of various Korean foods then headed to Seoul's tallest building, the 63 Building, which is apparently a popular tourist sight in the city. Here, we saw the aquarium (which my father would have loved), then went to the top floor where there is an observation deck/ art gallery. On display was a collection of Hello Kitty artwork which I will not even try to explain. After a quick electric violin concert we took the elevator back down and headed on our way.

Needless to say, the day was pretty full and this post probably does not do my experiences or the city of Seoul any justice. But thats kind of the point. My overall impression of Seoul is that it is a spread out, diverse city that has a lot to offer if you know where to look. Some cities in the world can be seen and understood in a couple of days. Seoul is different. I strongly believe that I will have to spend more time there before I can begin to talk intelligibly about my impression of the Korean capital.

Note: I am having some computer issues and this post may need to be slightly edited in the next 24 hours.

Home Economics

Today, I was observing a sixth grade class again and had the opportunity to take part in another specialty class - home economics. Or as Americans might say, shop class. The task at hand was for every student to build a small shelf. The school-supplied kit included four pieces of wood, a saw, a hammer, nails, sand paper, and hooks to hang the shelves. The first step was cutting the two end pieces into matching shapes (apparently to give the shelves some character and style). Since the student's saws were small and flimsy, the teacher asked me to take the large saw and assist the students who needed help. If all of the students had wanted to make a basic shape (requiring one straight cut) the work would have been rather easy. But instead, the students started coming to me asking me to cut arcs, notches, zig-zags and various other shapes. Before long I was sweating profusely. Then, some of the students began coming to me asking me to make slight alterations from their original designs. I think some of them may have been conspiring to make me work harder for their own entertainment. All in all, I assisted in the creation of about 30 first-rate shelves.

On Tuesday, I will began teaching. While I will miss taking part in the specialty classes, I look forward to actually teaching English.

Pictures Coming...

At the moment, I am only able to access the internet on the computer in my office at school. Once I have internet access in my apartment (hopefully sometime next week) I will begin posting pictures of my apartment, my school, Yongin, and maybe even a few shots of the badminton club. So please bear with the text-only blog until I can start putting pictures up as well.

Badminton and Kick Baseball

Yesterday afternoon I joined the teacher's badminton club here at Dong Mak Elementary School. Every Monday and Wedenesday about ten teachers (and the school's principal) get together to play after school. When one of the teachers invited me to join them, I knew it was a good idea. I did not however, show up prepared top exercise. (Note: I where a shirt and tie to school everyday. Also, in Korea, students and teachers do not wear shoes in the school - they change into slippers outside). So I arrived at the gymnasium yesterday in dress clothes and slippers. As soon as I entered the gym I saw that all of the teachers had changed into track suits and were sweating quite a bit. As I decided that I would watch this week and play next week, the principal (who speaks almost no English) turned to me and handed me his racket, gesturing that I should take his place in the game he was playing. I would also like to note that the principal was wearing the Red Sox hat that I had given to him as a gift when I first arrived.
Fifteen minutes later I was running around the court in blue dress socks, dress pants cuffed up so that they would not drag, and a tucked in white t-shirt. Add on to this that I have not played badminton in at least ten years and you can imagine what I must have looked like. Nevertheless, it was very fun. After we played some of the teachers had ordered Korean pizza and beer to welcome me to the club. Once again I was made to feel very welcome by everyone.

Today, I have been observing a sixth grade class. Their third period was gym and I was allowed to join them for "kick baseball" (which is almost identical to Jim Gately style American kickball - readers from Sterling will appreciate this). I played defence on both teams and made a few big plays in the field. The students seemed to enjoy having me play on their teams and I enjoyed playing. This is quite a job I have.

Korean Food and Korean Drinking

My first full day in Korea was a whirlwind. I ate lunch at the school cafeteria and had my first experience with Korean food. I did not know what everything was but I did recognize pickles, pork, and rice. All in all, it was different but still pretty good. After school I went to get a medical check which proved to be very thorough, opened a Korean bank account and went shopping at an e-mart (something like a Korean Super Wal-Mart).

The real highlight of the day was being invited to a Welcome dinner with my school's Vice Principal - Mr. Lee. He took five other teachers and myself to a traditional Korean meal. As soon as I arrived the table was covered with dozens of small dishes which everyone shared, and meat was brought out and put on the grills to cook. As we began eating, shot glasses were placed in front of everyone and the Vice Principal opened a small glass bottle and poured everyone a drink. He then made a toast and we all drank. The clear liquid tasted a little like vodka and I soon found out that it was Soju. As soon as our glasses were empty one of the teahcers began filling them again. In Korea, drinking is an important part of the culture and is treated somewhat like a ritual. As the other teachers explained to me, drinks are almost always poured according to age with the oldest being served first. This meant that it was a point of great honor that the vice principal had my glass filled before his.

As we drank more and more, some of the teachers began asking me if I drank a lot (not an easy question to answer). They found it very interesting that my face and ears turned red as I drank. It even caused a few of them to warn me that Soju was a strong drink.

Altogether, the food was very good and the meal was very enjoyable. After we finished eating (and drinking many bottles of Soju) we left the restaurant and went to a bar for beers. At Cheers (yes, the bar we went to was called Cheers) the pouring ritual continued with several large pitchers of beer. Although Mr. Lee speaks almost no English, and I speak almost no Korean, we seemed to get along very well. The other teachers translated for us throughout the evening and we agreed that I would learn Korean so that I can have a conversation with him without a translator in six months.

Needless to say, I could not have asked for a better welcome.

Quick Post

I have arrived in Korea, settled into my apartment, and am currently using the internet at my school. I only have a few minutes before I have to go observe my first class (I will be observing, and not teaching for my first week). So, a few quick notes on my arrival and first day so far:

• I brought 120+ pounds of luggage. So, what did I forget? Toilet paper. I realized this with about 4 airplane meals working through my system at 11pm last night.
• After 18 hoursd in the air and a two hour bus ride, all I really wanted last night was a good shower. That said, I have not been able to figure out the hot water in my apartment. So I have had two cold showers and one cold shave. Great start!
• The students all seem to be very entertained by the mere sight of me. I was just introduced to a fourth grade class and was asked three questions: Did you go to Harvard? How old are you? and, where did you go to school?
• I also encountered a group of six graders who immediately erupted into screaming questions and remarks at me in both Korean and English. At least I know they will be enthusiastic students.

Thats all for me. More to come...

Welcome

Welcome to the blog. As many of you know, I am moving to Korea on Sunday morning. I will be living in Yongin, South Korea and teaching English at Dong Mak Elementary School. While I am living in Korea, I will regularly be posting pictures and thoughts on my experiences.

Needless to say, I am excited, anxious, and a little overwhelmed by the realization that I am actually leaving in about 36 hours. That said, my predominant feeling is excitement. I am especially looking forward to meeting my co-teacher, moving into my new apartment, and starting teaching. My first day in the classroom will most likely be Tuesday. I am anticipating that most of my students will know more English than I know Korean. We'll see.

Wish me luck.