Sorry again folks... even though it's been business as usual around here, I've managed to not find time to write in the blog. Now where was I? Okay.
Oct. 22-24th was my trip to Busan. Even though it was a very cool place, I don't think I'll be going back for a while. It's just so hard to get to. Here's a rundown of the itinerary to get there:
5:15 Bus from school to Buyeo - 15 minutes
5:50 Bus from Buyeo to Daejeon - 1 hr 40 minutes
7:32 Taxi from Seobu Bus Terminal to Daejeon Station - 15 minutes
8:01 Train from Daejeon to Busan - 2 hrs
10:01 Taxi from Busan Station to hostel - 20 minutes
Catching the 8:01 train out of Daejeon just put my life under a lot of stress. Don't think I'll do that again any time soon.
Luckily the trouble getting to Busan was worth it. It's a gorgeous coastal city. We went to the aquarium and the Busan International Fireworks Festival. It was nothing short of insanely crowded - the kind of crowded where you could literally be picked up off your feet and swept away. The fireworks were good, but I wouldn't go again. For all the hype I was expecting a lot more. Maybe Koreans just don't know how seriously Americans take their explosives because 4th of July fireworks are just as good in my opinion. Either way I'm still glad I went for the experience. I got back Sunday evening.
The following weekend was Halloween! Or as the Koreans insist on calling it no matter how many times I correct my students, Halloween Day. They don't really celebrate it, but some kids dress up (I don't know about trick or treating though). I bought fairy wings at Homeplus and was a fairy. I went to Cheonan with some people from Buyeo - there was a big group of foreigners (waygooks - Korean for foreigners) congregating at a bar for Halloween.
I did Halloween lessons Thursday afternoon and all day Friday at Seokseong. I think the kids enjoyed it. I showed my older kids one of those goof YouTube videos where you stare at this peaceful-looking car commercial and all of a sudden this monster jumps out screaming. So many of them freaked out! Then all day long it was, "One more time! Teacher, one more time!" The 1st/2nd grade class made jack o lanterns, and 3-6th played a Halloween game. Kevin dressed up like a zombie, face paint and bloody shirt and everything, and he said one of his 3rd graders cried because he was "so scary."
Tomorrow the Seokyang teachers are going on a picnic, then we're going to a dinner. I don't know why we're going on a picnic and then dinner. Last Wednesday Mr. Kim told me we were going hiking instead of volleyball, and now we're going on a picnic instead of hiking. Oh Korea. If I had 1,000 won for every time Mr. Kim said, "The ______ is not," I would be able to buy a kimchi refrigerator. Today, "The 3rd grade class, is not." Sure thing. I'll just hang out for the 40 minutes when I'm usually teaching 3rd grade.
Then Thursday I have a teachers' dinner with Seokseong. I think it will be good... the last teachers' dinner I attended with Seokyang was fine. However, I am glad I don't work at Celina's school. The way they do things there is both baffling and appalling. For example: she went hiking with her fellow teachers. They weren't done until like 6, I think, and then they went out to a restaurant, and she didn't even leave to return to Buyeo until 11:30! This was a Wednesday night! It's also the second time she got roped into staying out with the other teachers an insanely long amount of time. Don't the other teachers want to get home to their families? Also - she doesn't speak Korean! That is a long, long time to socialize when you can't communicate. Based on my previous teachers' dinner experience, I don't think this will happen to me, but I'm a little concerned. Two teachers' dinners in a row can be a lot.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Culture
First of all - Aunt Nellie, I was looking back through the blog and noticed a post by you I had missed earlier... sorry! Actually yes, I have met a few parents, but it's been pretty coincidental. Everyone knows who I am, so sometimes random people will approach me. The mother of one of my fourth grade boys came up to me at the bus stop because apparently she works at the restaurant that's right next to my stop. She was really nice - she gave me a little fried dough thing shaped like a fish with red beans in it.
Also - Uncle Tom, I hear you were not happy with my lack of posting. I will try to update more often!
I hope everyone had a great time at the pumpkin party!
So a note on red beans. I don't know if I've gone into detail about this, but Koreans LOVE red beans. They are under the impression that red beans = dessert food. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten some kind of pastry full of what appeared to be chocolate only to bite into it and discover mashed up red beans! It's actually pretty good, but you can imagine my disappointment when I'm expecting chocolate and I get... beans. What a letdown.
I really enjoyed my teachers' training on Monday. Learning more things about Korean and Korea has definitely helped improve my teaching the teachers. For example, I inserted a little cultural tip on Monday. The book we're working with had a sample dialogue on how to get someone's attention (i.e. "Theresa?"), and I got to thinking about the differences in America and Korea when it comes to politely asking for someone's attention. In Korea, if you're sitting at a restaurant, you have to beckon the server over... no one will just wait on you if you "look ready" to order. How do you do this? 여기여! Yeogi-yo!! Essentially, this means "here!" Kind of rude in English, isn't it? I don't think you'd get great service if you just shout "here!" at a waiter/waitress in America. I have a hard time even calling out Yeogi-yo! in Korea because it just feels so wrong.
So I talked to the teachers about what's okay when you want someone's attention in English. If you know them, saying their name as a question works ("Theresa?"). I told them that yeogi-yo is actually kind of impolite, and they were so surprised! I explained that "Excuse me?" is the best way to get anyone's attention if they're someone you don't know. Koreans also really don't apologize for bumping into people, so I demonstrated how to use "Excuse me." as an apology.
There's also a major difference in nonverbal attention-getting. When you want someone to walk over to you, in America you extend your hand out palm up and curl your fingers at them repeatedly. This is really rude in Korea! That hand gesture is reserved for beckoning dogs. Instead, Koreans extend their hand palm DOWN and sort of flap their wrist/fingers toward themselves. I explained to the teachers that in America the first way is normal and if they attempted the Korean way, people probably wouldn't know what they wanted. This wrist/finger flap thingy works for taxis, too. Don't stand in the street and stick out your arm a la New York - this is a gauche foreigner move that I'm guilty of. Stick out your arm and do the flapping thing. Again, I demonstrated for the teachers and encouraged them to be very assertive when flagging taxis in America.
I think they really enjoyed the culture stuff. I know the vocab/dialogues, etc we work on are useful, but I'm trying to think of what I would want to know if I was just a tourist in a new country - these are the basic things that you might not know. In Korea I can get away with doing culturally inappropriate things because I'm obviously foreign so I get a little more slack, but Koreans in America wouldn't get the same consideration because it's not as obvious that they're foreign.
Also - Uncle Tom, I hear you were not happy with my lack of posting. I will try to update more often!
I hope everyone had a great time at the pumpkin party!
So a note on red beans. I don't know if I've gone into detail about this, but Koreans LOVE red beans. They are under the impression that red beans = dessert food. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten some kind of pastry full of what appeared to be chocolate only to bite into it and discover mashed up red beans! It's actually pretty good, but you can imagine my disappointment when I'm expecting chocolate and I get... beans. What a letdown.
I really enjoyed my teachers' training on Monday. Learning more things about Korean and Korea has definitely helped improve my teaching the teachers. For example, I inserted a little cultural tip on Monday. The book we're working with had a sample dialogue on how to get someone's attention (i.e. "Theresa?"), and I got to thinking about the differences in America and Korea when it comes to politely asking for someone's attention. In Korea, if you're sitting at a restaurant, you have to beckon the server over... no one will just wait on you if you "look ready" to order. How do you do this? 여기여! Yeogi-yo!! Essentially, this means "here!" Kind of rude in English, isn't it? I don't think you'd get great service if you just shout "here!" at a waiter/waitress in America. I have a hard time even calling out Yeogi-yo! in Korea because it just feels so wrong.
So I talked to the teachers about what's okay when you want someone's attention in English. If you know them, saying their name as a question works ("Theresa?"). I told them that yeogi-yo is actually kind of impolite, and they were so surprised! I explained that "Excuse me?" is the best way to get anyone's attention if they're someone you don't know. Koreans also really don't apologize for bumping into people, so I demonstrated how to use "Excuse me." as an apology.
There's also a major difference in nonverbal attention-getting. When you want someone to walk over to you, in America you extend your hand out palm up and curl your fingers at them repeatedly. This is really rude in Korea! That hand gesture is reserved for beckoning dogs. Instead, Koreans extend their hand palm DOWN and sort of flap their wrist/fingers toward themselves. I explained to the teachers that in America the first way is normal and if they attempted the Korean way, people probably wouldn't know what they wanted. This wrist/finger flap thingy works for taxis, too. Don't stand in the street and stick out your arm a la New York - this is a gauche foreigner move that I'm guilty of. Stick out your arm and do the flapping thing. Again, I demonstrated for the teachers and encouraged them to be very assertive when flagging taxis in America.
I think they really enjoyed the culture stuff. I know the vocab/dialogues, etc we work on are useful, but I'm trying to think of what I would want to know if I was just a tourist in a new country - these are the basic things that you might not know. In Korea I can get away with doing culturally inappropriate things because I'm obviously foreign so I get a little more slack, but Koreans in America wouldn't get the same consideration because it's not as obvious that they're foreign.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Photo montage
Buddhist temple at Haiensa
More temple pictures
Joon, our Buddhist monk guide. A very nice guy.
My friend Gena celebrating the 3am wakeup call.
Me and Gena and another woman at the temple stay. Pictured: temple attire. SO fashionable.
Seokseong 3rd grade - Jason (Eungi), Thomas (Donghyeon), Evan (Jonghyeok), and James (Donggeun). The 3rd grade girls took this picture while we were waiting for the after-school class to begin.
Me with the 3rd grade Seokseong girls: Ruby, Sydney, and Alice. Presh.
Joseph (Kim I-Kyeom), Seokyang 3rd grader. Adorable, yet a total pain at the same time.
Mr. Kim getting ready to play some volleyball at Seokyang.
Ice (Lee Jae-Lin) and Cole. Ice comes into my room roughly 20 times a day - "Hi!" "Hi!" "My name Lee Jae-Lin!" "Ice!" Twenty. Times. Every. Day.
Don't know their names or ages, but these Seokyang girls like to escort me to the bus stop occasionally. They hold my hands and walk me out of school. They asked me to take their picture when they saw my camera... at least, they said "SomethinginKorean, please." (I know "please" in Korean) and pointed at my camera, then posed.
Cole (Heo Hyeon-Woo). Again... Seokyang 3rd grade. He drives me bonkers, but how do you stay mad at this face??
Seokyang
Seokyang 6th grade, left to right: Michael, Jake (orange), Chuck (blue hoodie), Christopher, and Thomas. Jake is my unofficial 6th grade translator... he's super good at English.
Seokyang 6th grade - we had a English competition in the gymFriday, October 15, 2010
Ppali ppali!!
So I realize that it's been a full week and a day since my last post. Sorry about that - everything has been ppali ppali (hurry hurry!) lately. The weekend temple stay was good. I had more than a few problems with transportation, but it ended up going fine. Made it to Daegu, then we went to Haiensa for the actual temple stay. I have now complied quite an extensive list of why I will never be a Buddhist monk.
1. They wake up at 3am and go to sleep at 9pm EVERY DAY.
2. They always sit on the floor, usually in lotus position, for literally hours.
3. They bow 108 times (like on the floor prostrate bowing, not head/waist bowing) every morning before dawn.
4. They meditate for hours every day.
5. Each year they do a week long mediation. They meditate 14 hours per day for seven days straight. Not a joke or a mistranslation... my group questioned our monk extensively.
6. They keep the heat on waaaaaay too high.
7. It's a 40 minute hike up a mountain to their living quarters (I know, we hiked there).
8. They drink tons and tons of green tea every day.
9. They are silent during meals and while walking.
10. They wake up at 3am every day. This deserves two spots on my list.
So yes, on a temple stay, I did most of the forementioned things. Meditation, green tea, 3am wakeup call, silence during meals, walking in a single file line, 30 min meditation, 108 bows... the works. A temple stay is not for the casually interested or easily bored. It's especially not for the out of shape or inflexible. Seriously. But I did have a good time and it was a good experience.
This week has been business as usual pretty much. School is becoming more routine, which I think is good. I've been struggling with my Seokyang classes because they're so rowdy all the time. Finally on Monday I cracked down hard on my sixth grade. I learned my new favorite Korean word, "gamji." It means writing sentences for punishment. I made the sixth grade write "I will not talk in class" 120 times and assigned them the pages we were supposed to do in class for homework. I also put Google translate to good use on Tuesday... I put it up on the overhead screen and Mr. Kim also translated (I assume that's what he was doing). Now I think they know I'm serious. The 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades all got a stern Stephen Hawking lecture via typing. I'm glad because I didn't want to punish them without any warning, but I can't warn them because they wouldn't understand. Now they know that if they act up there will be consequences. I don't want to go punishment-crazy, but I have to do something. From what I understand from other teachers and things I've read, Korean kids are used to pretty strict authority figures, so they will expect the same out of their teachers.
The 3rd grade was really grinding my gears, so I warned them a few times then finally said they have to come in during recess and sit quietly for 10 minutes. Gotta love kids - when they filed in, two little girls came up and hugged me around the waist... "Teacherrrrrr, I looooooove you... 5 minutes? 5 minutes?" Sorry, your cuteness will not faze me.
Wednesday in the 3rd grade one of the little girls got socked in the face by her seatmate. Now, the kids are always hitting each other... they tackle, wrestle, and punch each other, but this one actually cut her lip on her teeth. Blood is kind of a problem. She started tearing up, so I made the boy go stand facing the corner. After a while I went to get him, and when I turned him around, his little face was streaked with tears and his eyes were red and he was sniffling. I felt like a complete and total monster. I made a third grade boy cry. Or hey maybe he was crying because he punched that girl and made her bleed. Either way I never, ever want to see one of my students cry like that again because I can't just hug him like I really, really wanted to. I just had him go sit down and gave him a tissue. I think he got over it though... I went around giving high fives for a good job on homework, and when he low fived me I let him push my hand onto the desk, pretending he was super strong and he laughed. Even now though, a few days later, picturing his little face makes me kind of sick.
Today I'm going with Joo to Nonsan to meet his family. I'm very excited to see what they're like. The kids here are SO CUTE. I've been teaching the kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade some kiddie songs, and the 3rd and 4th grade the hokey pokey. They LOVE the hokey pokey. It's actually starting to become a distraction because all they want to do is "hokey pokey Teacher, hokey pokeyhokeypokeyhokeypokey." NO! Learn how to say "This is my family." I started "The Eensy-Weensy Spider" with the kindergarten yesterday, and when I dropped by their classroom after lunch they all said hi and started waving, and one little boy started doing the eensy-weensy spider hand motions.
So you may remember reading about kimchi in my blog. Recently there has been a serious spike in the price of cabbage as documented in this online news article, and it's really screwing with everyday life and the Korean economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/asia/15kimchi.html?_r=3&hp
Koreans eat kimchi every day three times a day. They love their kimchi. We're still getting it at school, and since there's such problems with it lately I feel really bad if I waste any so I've been eating all of it every day. Hasn't been so bad really... I think I'm getting more used to Korean food. This is good because the other teachers keep giving me food.
The funny thing is, the Korean teachers are really nice, and I think they're expressing this niceness via food. The problem is, I find about 90% of the food they give me to be not exactly my style. To date I've received a bunch of grapes, about 30 mushrooms, pork cutlets, a persimmon, multiple rice cakes, countless sweet potatoes, and pumpkin porridge with beans. None of these foods really appeal to me, but I want to show my appreciation so I do my best to eat them.
1. They wake up at 3am and go to sleep at 9pm EVERY DAY.
2. They always sit on the floor, usually in lotus position, for literally hours.
3. They bow 108 times (like on the floor prostrate bowing, not head/waist bowing) every morning before dawn.
4. They meditate for hours every day.
5. Each year they do a week long mediation. They meditate 14 hours per day for seven days straight. Not a joke or a mistranslation... my group questioned our monk extensively.
6. They keep the heat on waaaaaay too high.
7. It's a 40 minute hike up a mountain to their living quarters (I know, we hiked there).
8. They drink tons and tons of green tea every day.
9. They are silent during meals and while walking.
10. They wake up at 3am every day. This deserves two spots on my list.
So yes, on a temple stay, I did most of the forementioned things. Meditation, green tea, 3am wakeup call, silence during meals, walking in a single file line, 30 min meditation, 108 bows... the works. A temple stay is not for the casually interested or easily bored. It's especially not for the out of shape or inflexible. Seriously. But I did have a good time and it was a good experience.
This week has been business as usual pretty much. School is becoming more routine, which I think is good. I've been struggling with my Seokyang classes because they're so rowdy all the time. Finally on Monday I cracked down hard on my sixth grade. I learned my new favorite Korean word, "gamji." It means writing sentences for punishment. I made the sixth grade write "I will not talk in class" 120 times and assigned them the pages we were supposed to do in class for homework. I also put Google translate to good use on Tuesday... I put it up on the overhead screen and Mr. Kim also translated (I assume that's what he was doing). Now I think they know I'm serious. The 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades all got a stern Stephen Hawking lecture via typing. I'm glad because I didn't want to punish them without any warning, but I can't warn them because they wouldn't understand. Now they know that if they act up there will be consequences. I don't want to go punishment-crazy, but I have to do something. From what I understand from other teachers and things I've read, Korean kids are used to pretty strict authority figures, so they will expect the same out of their teachers.
The 3rd grade was really grinding my gears, so I warned them a few times then finally said they have to come in during recess and sit quietly for 10 minutes. Gotta love kids - when they filed in, two little girls came up and hugged me around the waist... "Teacherrrrrr, I looooooove you... 5 minutes? 5 minutes?" Sorry, your cuteness will not faze me.
Wednesday in the 3rd grade one of the little girls got socked in the face by her seatmate. Now, the kids are always hitting each other... they tackle, wrestle, and punch each other, but this one actually cut her lip on her teeth. Blood is kind of a problem. She started tearing up, so I made the boy go stand facing the corner. After a while I went to get him, and when I turned him around, his little face was streaked with tears and his eyes were red and he was sniffling. I felt like a complete and total monster. I made a third grade boy cry. Or hey maybe he was crying because he punched that girl and made her bleed. Either way I never, ever want to see one of my students cry like that again because I can't just hug him like I really, really wanted to. I just had him go sit down and gave him a tissue. I think he got over it though... I went around giving high fives for a good job on homework, and when he low fived me I let him push my hand onto the desk, pretending he was super strong and he laughed. Even now though, a few days later, picturing his little face makes me kind of sick.
Today I'm going with Joo to Nonsan to meet his family. I'm very excited to see what they're like. The kids here are SO CUTE. I've been teaching the kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade some kiddie songs, and the 3rd and 4th grade the hokey pokey. They LOVE the hokey pokey. It's actually starting to become a distraction because all they want to do is "hokey pokey Teacher, hokey pokeyhokeypokeyhokeypokey." NO! Learn how to say "This is my family." I started "The Eensy-Weensy Spider" with the kindergarten yesterday, and when I dropped by their classroom after lunch they all said hi and started waving, and one little boy started doing the eensy-weensy spider hand motions.
So you may remember reading about kimchi in my blog. Recently there has been a serious spike in the price of cabbage as documented in this online news article, and it's really screwing with everyday life and the Korean economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/asia/15kimchi.html?_r=3&hp
Koreans eat kimchi every day three times a day. They love their kimchi. We're still getting it at school, and since there's such problems with it lately I feel really bad if I waste any so I've been eating all of it every day. Hasn't been so bad really... I think I'm getting more used to Korean food. This is good because the other teachers keep giving me food.
The funny thing is, the Korean teachers are really nice, and I think they're expressing this niceness via food. The problem is, I find about 90% of the food they give me to be not exactly my style. To date I've received a bunch of grapes, about 30 mushrooms, pork cutlets, a persimmon, multiple rice cakes, countless sweet potatoes, and pumpkin porridge with beans. None of these foods really appeal to me, but I want to show my appreciation so I do my best to eat them.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
An uneducated take on the Korean language
After checking the date of my last post, I realize it was a few days ago. I'm getting busier at school, so I've found my blogging down time has seriously decreased.
Not much has happened. I think my classes/lessons are starting to improve. Now that I've had a few, I know better how long each activity will take so it's helping me plan. For example, I think this week's teacher training was a total success. It's the third one, but it's the first one that I really feel made some progress and I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing. I've picked up some Korean, and it's been incredibly helpful. Knowing some hangul has really helped me learn what's hard for Koreans and why. For example, most Westerners know that people who speak Asian languages don't really distinguish between "r" and "l." I finally know why! (At least, for Koreans.) The hangul symbol ㄹ is translated into the Roman alphabet as sort of a cross between r/l. The symbol ㅂ is b/p. You might remember how I mentioned that Buyeo (부 여) used to be called Puyo/Puyeo. I think (remember, this is not fact, this is just what I've hopefully deduced from the very, very short time I've been in Korea) that this is because in Korean there are no separate "b" and "p" sounds, so you can't actually phonetically translate it into Roman letters. There's also no "v" at all. Imagine trying to explain the difference between b, p, and v! Also imagine it in reverse - when I speak Korean ("speak"... i.e. say hello, Buyeo, etc.) I have to kind of jam b/p and d/t and r/l together. Buyeo isn't really BU-yeo, and it's not PU-yeo, it's like B/Puyeo. Let me break down the Buyeo symbols, then you too will know some Korean!
Like I said, it's 부 여.
ㅂ is b/p
ㅜ is u as in you
ㅇ when you see this "o" shape, it's silent unless it's at the end of a word, then it's a "ng" sound like Seokseong
ㅕ yeo as in yo man!
So now just sound out 부 b/p-u 여 silent-yeo and there you have it! And the best part is every time you see the ㅂ, ㅜ, ㅇ, or 여, they will always sound like the sounds I've just described. I think there's exceptions, but pretty much unlike English, what you see is what you get. ㅜ is always "u." In English there's really no good explanation that I know of for why "apple" and "father" both have "a" but they sound completely different, which makes learning English so hard.
So you see, if you were to try and write a word such as "library" in hangul, even though it's got the different "r" and "l," in hangul they would literally be the exact same symbol ㄹ. So if Korean is your native language, you probably think in hangul (just like I think annyeong haseyo instead of 안녕하세요 even though they're the same thing) so it would be massively hard to get out of the ㄹ box, you know? So essentially I think knowing these sorts of things can help me identify problem areas for my classes.
Okay, quick quiz: what's this Korean word? It's crucial to their everyday lives.
밥
You should know ㅂ by now, and I'll give you a hint: ㅏ is ah. Sound it out! Start with the upper left and read left to right, then down to the bottom.
Okay okay, it's bap/pap, aka RICE! Congratulations, you can now eat rice in Buyeo if you so choose.
Linguistics aside, I really feel like I'm taking control at Seokseong and I like it a lot. My lessons are getting more exciting. Yesterday with the 3rd grade and today with the 4th grade we learned how to ask, "What do you need?" and answer the question. I made a game where everyone gets several cards with things like "a pen," "scissors," "a pencil," etc. written on them. We arranged the chairs in a circle facing inward and everyone but one student sat down. The one in the middle had to choose someone and ask them, "What do you need?" The student sitting down would look at his/her cards and say, "I need a pen/pencil etc." If the student standing had the matching card, he/she had to give it to the student sitting down. Then they switched places. If the standing student didn't have the card, he/she said, "Sorry, I don't have any." (We also included, "Here you go." "Thanks." "That's okay.") Then everyone had to group in the center of the circle and I'd say, "Go!" and they'd dash for the chairs. Last one standing was the middle person. There was a LOT of squealing. The fourth grade were total angels - third grade was acceptable.
I feel like Stephen Hawking here. Not because I'm super smart, but because I like to communicate through a computer. Especially at Seokseong - my computer is hooked up to display the screen to the class, so when I'm on my own I'll leave Google translate open and if they don't know what I'm talking about, I'll type it in. Also we have "conversations" in between classes. One of my students told me via the computer that I was a very good Korean teacher! Not quite sure what that means because I am not actually a Korean teacher... I think she meant my Korean is very good. Probably, "Teacher, you have good Korean." and Google messed it up. Either way it was some kind of compliment so that's sweet. The 5th/6th grade hasn't seen me in a while since I was gone last Friday and they were on a field trip last Thursday and the week before, so they've missed that I've learned several important classroom words in Korean (Eyes up here! Scissors. Volunteer. 1-10. etc.)
I'm going out of town this weekend. I'm headed for Daegu, a city about an hour east of Daejeon. My friend from IU is there, and we're going to stay at a Buddhist temple Saturday/Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes... I googled it and it looks cool, but Kevin said one of his friends did it and it was "horrendous." Lots and lots of bowing and waking up super early and well, doing Buddhist-type things. I'm looking forward to the experience. All this out-of-town-ness makes the weeks very, very long though so hopefully I'll get back at a decent time on Sunday.
Not much has happened. I think my classes/lessons are starting to improve. Now that I've had a few, I know better how long each activity will take so it's helping me plan. For example, I think this week's teacher training was a total success. It's the third one, but it's the first one that I really feel made some progress and I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing. I've picked up some Korean, and it's been incredibly helpful. Knowing some hangul has really helped me learn what's hard for Koreans and why. For example, most Westerners know that people who speak Asian languages don't really distinguish between "r" and "l." I finally know why! (At least, for Koreans.) The hangul symbol ㄹ is translated into the Roman alphabet as sort of a cross between r/l. The symbol ㅂ is b/p. You might remember how I mentioned that Buyeo (부 여) used to be called Puyo/Puyeo. I think (remember, this is not fact, this is just what I've hopefully deduced from the very, very short time I've been in Korea) that this is because in Korean there are no separate "b" and "p" sounds, so you can't actually phonetically translate it into Roman letters. There's also no "v" at all. Imagine trying to explain the difference between b, p, and v! Also imagine it in reverse - when I speak Korean ("speak"... i.e. say hello, Buyeo, etc.) I have to kind of jam b/p and d/t and r/l together. Buyeo isn't really BU-yeo, and it's not PU-yeo, it's like B/Puyeo. Let me break down the Buyeo symbols, then you too will know some Korean!
Like I said, it's 부 여.
ㅂ is b/p
ㅜ is u as in you
ㅇ when you see this "o" shape, it's silent unless it's at the end of a word, then it's a "ng" sound like Seokseong
ㅕ yeo as in yo man!
So now just sound out 부 b/p-u 여 silent-yeo and there you have it! And the best part is every time you see the ㅂ, ㅜ, ㅇ, or 여, they will always sound like the sounds I've just described. I think there's exceptions, but pretty much unlike English, what you see is what you get. ㅜ is always "u." In English there's really no good explanation that I know of for why "apple" and "father" both have "a" but they sound completely different, which makes learning English so hard.
So you see, if you were to try and write a word such as "library" in hangul, even though it's got the different "r" and "l," in hangul they would literally be the exact same symbol ㄹ. So if Korean is your native language, you probably think in hangul (just like I think annyeong haseyo instead of 안녕하세요 even though they're the same thing) so it would be massively hard to get out of the ㄹ box, you know? So essentially I think knowing these sorts of things can help me identify problem areas for my classes.
Okay, quick quiz: what's this Korean word? It's crucial to their everyday lives.
밥
You should know ㅂ by now, and I'll give you a hint: ㅏ is ah. Sound it out! Start with the upper left and read left to right, then down to the bottom.
Okay okay, it's bap/pap, aka RICE! Congratulations, you can now eat rice in Buyeo if you so choose.
Linguistics aside, I really feel like I'm taking control at Seokseong and I like it a lot. My lessons are getting more exciting. Yesterday with the 3rd grade and today with the 4th grade we learned how to ask, "What do you need?" and answer the question. I made a game where everyone gets several cards with things like "a pen," "scissors," "a pencil," etc. written on them. We arranged the chairs in a circle facing inward and everyone but one student sat down. The one in the middle had to choose someone and ask them, "What do you need?" The student sitting down would look at his/her cards and say, "I need a pen/pencil etc." If the student standing had the matching card, he/she had to give it to the student sitting down. Then they switched places. If the standing student didn't have the card, he/she said, "Sorry, I don't have any." (We also included, "Here you go." "Thanks." "That's okay.") Then everyone had to group in the center of the circle and I'd say, "Go!" and they'd dash for the chairs. Last one standing was the middle person. There was a LOT of squealing. The fourth grade were total angels - third grade was acceptable.
I feel like Stephen Hawking here. Not because I'm super smart, but because I like to communicate through a computer. Especially at Seokseong - my computer is hooked up to display the screen to the class, so when I'm on my own I'll leave Google translate open and if they don't know what I'm talking about, I'll type it in. Also we have "conversations" in between classes. One of my students told me via the computer that I was a very good Korean teacher! Not quite sure what that means because I am not actually a Korean teacher... I think she meant my Korean is very good. Probably, "Teacher, you have good Korean." and Google messed it up. Either way it was some kind of compliment so that's sweet. The 5th/6th grade hasn't seen me in a while since I was gone last Friday and they were on a field trip last Thursday and the week before, so they've missed that I've learned several important classroom words in Korean (Eyes up here! Scissors. Volunteer. 1-10. etc.)
I'm going out of town this weekend. I'm headed for Daegu, a city about an hour east of Daejeon. My friend from IU is there, and we're going to stay at a Buddhist temple Saturday/Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes... I googled it and it looks cool, but Kevin said one of his friends did it and it was "horrendous." Lots and lots of bowing and waking up super early and well, doing Buddhist-type things. I'm looking forward to the experience. All this out-of-town-ness makes the weeks very, very long though so hopefully I'll get back at a decent time on Sunday.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
"Orientation" is Korean for "death by lecture"
I have finally, finally, FINALLY returned from orientation. It was touch and go for awhile but I made it out. This was easily the worst orientation I have ever gone to for anything in my life. It was a just a perfect storm of awful: short notice, missed my field trip, missed my soccer game (which, incidentally we won 1-0!!), had to travel 3 hours to Asan in order to even get there, didn't get paid overtime, am about to work 12 days in a row, was forced to eat rice for breakfast, was on total lockdown for three days straight, and I didn't even have a bed. Yeah, I went all-out Korean on the room thing... we were assigned roommates and rooms, and for some bizarre reason, all but four of the rooms had beds. It's kind of an old-time Korean thing to sleep on the floor so this isn't super strange, but the deeply irritating part was that nearly every single TWO PERSON room had THREE beds. Yes, three. Was I allowed to sleep in another room? No. Was I allowed to move a bed into my room? No. Was I allowed to move a mattress into my room? No. Why? "It is not Korean culture."
It was three very, very long days. I took the 7:30am bus from Buyeo to Asan, then another bus to the Sucheonhyang University, then a taxi to the Korea Financial Institution. We had the opening at 11:00am and went until 9:00pm with two hours for lunch and dinner. Saturday we had a cultural trip to Independence Hall, which was essentially just museums, then lectures from 2:00-9:00. Sunday we had lectures from 9:00-5:00. Breakfast was from 7:00-8:00, so even though we didn't have to be ready until 9:00, we had to be up for breakfast by 7:30 because that's when they'd start clearing away the food.
Okay now enough complaining. I really enjoyed our cultural trip... I don't know much about Korean history, so it was cool to learn some stuff.
I'll write more about it later, but for now please enjoy the assortment of pictures.
Me and Celina at Independence Hall in Cheonan. The guide said this sculpture is supposed to represent two hands praying for peace.
My kindergarten Seokseong class. You can't really see their adorable faces so well though.
Kevin on the spinny/bouncing ride at the Great Baekje World Festival. This is a pretty accurate representation of how Kevin looks most of the time - fingers poised in Asian peace sign mode.
Parade at the Great Baekje World Festival.
Blake, Kevin, and Chris on the pirate ship. Kevin is afraid of heights and kept claiming his side "went higher" than our side. Please observe that apparently no one wanted to ride with the foreigners.
Pirate ship. Looks quite small from this angle.
This is what I'm surrounded by every day. Adorable.
Parade for the Great Baekje World Festival.
Independence Hall - orientation group
It was three very, very long days. I took the 7:30am bus from Buyeo to Asan, then another bus to the Sucheonhyang University, then a taxi to the Korea Financial Institution. We had the opening at 11:00am and went until 9:00pm with two hours for lunch and dinner. Saturday we had a cultural trip to Independence Hall, which was essentially just museums, then lectures from 2:00-9:00. Sunday we had lectures from 9:00-5:00. Breakfast was from 7:00-8:00, so even though we didn't have to be ready until 9:00, we had to be up for breakfast by 7:30 because that's when they'd start clearing away the food.
Okay now enough complaining. I really enjoyed our cultural trip... I don't know much about Korean history, so it was cool to learn some stuff.
I'll write more about it later, but for now please enjoy the assortment of pictures.
My certification of completion for orientation. Quite fancy, actually.
Saturday night of orientation. Lucky us - there was a noraebang (karaoke) underneath the Korea Financial Institute. This is how serious Koreans are about their noraebang. Louis, who's Korean-Canadian, and I performed two duets: Ain't No Mountain High and One Sweet Day (Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men). I picked the former and he picked the latter. Next day at orientation I was chosen by my peers to receive a fancy-pants bookmark because of my singing ability! Those of you who have been lucky enough to hear me sing might be pretty surprised to hear that, hahahaha. It was tremendously fun.
Me and Celina at Independence Hall in Cheonan. The guide said this sculpture is supposed to represent two hands praying for peace.
My kindergarten Seokseong class. You can't really see their adorable faces so well though.
Kevin on the spinny/bouncing ride at the Great Baekje World Festival. This is a pretty accurate representation of how Kevin looks most of the time - fingers poised in Asian peace sign mode.
Parade at the Great Baekje World Festival.
Blake, Kevin, and Chris on the pirate ship. Kevin is afraid of heights and kept claiming his side "went higher" than our side. Please observe that apparently no one wanted to ride with the foreigners.
Pirate ship. Looks quite small from this angle.
This is what I'm surrounded by every day. Adorable.
Parade for the Great Baekje World Festival. Independence Hall - orientation groupMonday, September 27, 2010
Fashionista!
So I've been jotting notes in my blog draft because I didn't have time to write a full post, and now I've got all these random things I wanted to talk about. Therefore I'm going to do this in list form to make things easier.
1. Orange nails
So I get along really well with the two Seokyang kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Lim and Mrs. Chung. Sometimes I forget that we don't ever actually have conversations because neither of them speak any English! I sometimes go visit the kindergarten room after lunch because Mrs. Lim is teaching me how to count and write the numbers in Korean, and I am teaching her how to count and write in English. Mrs. Chung always makes me coffee, which is nice. Anyway, so as a part of our bonding, I thought Mrs. Lim asked if I wanted to cut flowers with her (I deduced this because she pointed to her fingers, the nails and tips of which had been dyed a deep orange color, then pointed at a bush and said, "Flower.") Sure, I'll cut some flowers with you. Don't know where or when, but why not? So this is how I accidentally roped myself into getting my fingernails dyed. Turns out that she didn't mean cut flowers, she meant she had ALREADY cut these flowers and made this paste out of them. Koreans put the paste on their nails, cover them with cellophane and tie the bundles, then leave them on their fingers for anywhere from 4-8 hours. Then you take them off and your fingertips/nails are dyed orange. So she started doing my nails and I was like, Okay - there is absolutely no tactful way to politely say I don't want orange fingertips for months (because did I mention it doesn't come off until your nails grow out?!). So she did my ring and pinky fingers and gave me the rest to take home and do myself. This is how I ended up spending my Wednesday night trying to tie little dye bundles on my fingers. I'll take a picture and post it... I only wore them for like an hour and a half (in the hopes of minimizing the damage), so they're just this pumpkin color.
2. Sickness
So I caught a cough over Chuseok, and all the teachers seem kind of concerned, which is nice. I'm getting much better, and I don't even feel sick, it's just the cough. Mrs. Chung gave me a mason jar of plum juice that says it's good for your health. I guess she made it herself, which was really nice. My Seokseong vice-principal (henceforth referred to merely as VP) gave me a small container of ginseng candy, which he says will make me strong. ("Yes, strong! Next week, volleyball, *pretends to spike a ball*.")
Joo, on the other hand, seems awfully sick. He said there's something wrong with his stomach, and I gave him a bunch of my cough drops because he keeps coughing. If I had Mrs. Chung's plum juice with me I might have given it to him because he looks like he needs it.
3. Swimming
I went swimming with Kevin at the Buyeo girls' middle school on Monday. It's a really nice facility, but I'm not crazy about swimming in 50 meter pools. The highlight of the outing was when I had to get my picture taken because it was my first time at the pool. You have to crouch down to get on eye level with the webcam that takes your picture, and Kevin thought it would be hilarious to jump in with me, so now every time I go swimming a picture of me laughing with my eyes closed and Kevin grinning with the Korean peace signs will pop up. Every. Single. Time. I really wish I had a copy because this picture is hysterical.
4. Native teachers dinner
Tuesday I had the special principal's volleyball like I said. It turned out to just be a team of Seokyang teachers vs. the principals. I was hitting the ball around with some principals and of course the first question was, "How old are you? Husband? Husband?"
As I've said before, because I am tall the Koreans think I am really good at spiking/blocking, which is sadly not true. I can't jump. The whole game all I hear is, "Theresa, more jump-ee! More spike! Block-uh! Spike-uh!" Every time someone on the other team would go to spike my principal would yell, "Block-uh!" So I'd attempt to block. I blocked one, maybe two. The thing is, if I'm going to spike the ball, I need a running start (because of the whole bad at jumping thing), so it's hard to play the net and block and simultaneously be ready to spike.
That evening there was a Buyeo native English teachers dinner, which was good. A Korean buffet.
5. Soccer
Wednesday I had regular volleyball then native teachers' soccer. Kevin is really good so he was coaching us on some drills, and I can actually get the ball off the ground! I still remember being little and hating how every ball I kicked was a grounder. I still have zero ball-handling skills, but the kicking part is looking better. Kevin told me I had a "demon shot" when we were practicing goal kicks.
6. Fashionista, kids' names
I have learned a few more things in Korean, and they're mostly classroom-related. For example, "Eyes up here! Empty hands!" My sixth graders were impressed ("Teacher, very good!")
One of my sixth grade boys walked up to my desk wearing his sweater around his head and proudly told me, "Fashionista!" This particular boy, Elliott, is good friends with Jake, one of my more advanced students. I actually asked Jake how to say "empty hands" in Korean (bin song), and he was like, "Hands - song, empty - bin." So I tapped Elliott's head and asked, "Bin? Bin?" and they didn't get it at first. Then they thought it was hilarious. I went back to my desk and Elliott and Jake conferred, then Elliott came up and said, "Teacher, I am a genius!" So you are.
I'm working hard on learning the kids' names. I know some, but certainly not all. Some I know their English and Korean names (i.e. Elliott is Lim Byeongchan) but some I only know their English names (i.e. Jake). Some I barely recognize as my students! Mr. Kim says I am learning them fast, but it's not fast enough to suit me because it's hard enough to get their attention when I'm actually saying their names.
7. So instead of dealing with the Thursday bus, I met my friend Piro at the taxi stand this morning. He works at Seokseong Middle and takes a cab there, so I thought I'd split it with him as Seokseong Middle and Elementary are reasonably close. So we dropped him off, then the cab driver proceeds to go 100 feet in the distance to Seokyang! I was like, Why don't cab drivers take me to Seokseong!!!!! He kept pointing to Seokyang and saying, Chodunghakgyo (elementary school) and I kept saying, "Aniyo, aniyo (no, no) Seokyang! Seokseong chodunghakgyo, SEOKSEONG." Finally he rolled down the window and asked this guy, then was like oh sorry and took me to Seokseong. He didn't charge me the full amount because of the mix-up, and so I was happy about that. My VP saw us pull up and was curious why I'd taken a taxi since I usually take the bus, so he quizzed the cabbie. Then he turns to me and says, "Ah, Seokseong Middle school teacher, couple?" I was like, "No no, friend, friend!" So now that Piro and I shared a cab, we are a couple I guess. Oh Korea.
1. Orange nails
So I get along really well with the two Seokyang kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Lim and Mrs. Chung. Sometimes I forget that we don't ever actually have conversations because neither of them speak any English! I sometimes go visit the kindergarten room after lunch because Mrs. Lim is teaching me how to count and write the numbers in Korean, and I am teaching her how to count and write in English. Mrs. Chung always makes me coffee, which is nice. Anyway, so as a part of our bonding, I thought Mrs. Lim asked if I wanted to cut flowers with her (I deduced this because she pointed to her fingers, the nails and tips of which had been dyed a deep orange color, then pointed at a bush and said, "Flower.") Sure, I'll cut some flowers with you. Don't know where or when, but why not? So this is how I accidentally roped myself into getting my fingernails dyed. Turns out that she didn't mean cut flowers, she meant she had ALREADY cut these flowers and made this paste out of them. Koreans put the paste on their nails, cover them with cellophane and tie the bundles, then leave them on their fingers for anywhere from 4-8 hours. Then you take them off and your fingertips/nails are dyed orange. So she started doing my nails and I was like, Okay - there is absolutely no tactful way to politely say I don't want orange fingertips for months (because did I mention it doesn't come off until your nails grow out?!). So she did my ring and pinky fingers and gave me the rest to take home and do myself. This is how I ended up spending my Wednesday night trying to tie little dye bundles on my fingers. I'll take a picture and post it... I only wore them for like an hour and a half (in the hopes of minimizing the damage), so they're just this pumpkin color.
2. Sickness
So I caught a cough over Chuseok, and all the teachers seem kind of concerned, which is nice. I'm getting much better, and I don't even feel sick, it's just the cough. Mrs. Chung gave me a mason jar of plum juice that says it's good for your health. I guess she made it herself, which was really nice. My Seokseong vice-principal (henceforth referred to merely as VP) gave me a small container of ginseng candy, which he says will make me strong. ("Yes, strong! Next week, volleyball, *pretends to spike a ball*.")
Joo, on the other hand, seems awfully sick. He said there's something wrong with his stomach, and I gave him a bunch of my cough drops because he keeps coughing. If I had Mrs. Chung's plum juice with me I might have given it to him because he looks like he needs it.
3. Swimming
I went swimming with Kevin at the Buyeo girls' middle school on Monday. It's a really nice facility, but I'm not crazy about swimming in 50 meter pools. The highlight of the outing was when I had to get my picture taken because it was my first time at the pool. You have to crouch down to get on eye level with the webcam that takes your picture, and Kevin thought it would be hilarious to jump in with me, so now every time I go swimming a picture of me laughing with my eyes closed and Kevin grinning with the Korean peace signs will pop up. Every. Single. Time. I really wish I had a copy because this picture is hysterical.
4. Native teachers dinner
Tuesday I had the special principal's volleyball like I said. It turned out to just be a team of Seokyang teachers vs. the principals. I was hitting the ball around with some principals and of course the first question was, "How old are you? Husband? Husband?"
As I've said before, because I am tall the Koreans think I am really good at spiking/blocking, which is sadly not true. I can't jump. The whole game all I hear is, "Theresa, more jump-ee! More spike! Block-uh! Spike-uh!" Every time someone on the other team would go to spike my principal would yell, "Block-uh!" So I'd attempt to block. I blocked one, maybe two. The thing is, if I'm going to spike the ball, I need a running start (because of the whole bad at jumping thing), so it's hard to play the net and block and simultaneously be ready to spike.
That evening there was a Buyeo native English teachers dinner, which was good. A Korean buffet.
5. Soccer
Wednesday I had regular volleyball then native teachers' soccer. Kevin is really good so he was coaching us on some drills, and I can actually get the ball off the ground! I still remember being little and hating how every ball I kicked was a grounder. I still have zero ball-handling skills, but the kicking part is looking better. Kevin told me I had a "demon shot" when we were practicing goal kicks.
6. Fashionista, kids' names
I have learned a few more things in Korean, and they're mostly classroom-related. For example, "Eyes up here! Empty hands!" My sixth graders were impressed ("Teacher, very good!")
One of my sixth grade boys walked up to my desk wearing his sweater around his head and proudly told me, "Fashionista!" This particular boy, Elliott, is good friends with Jake, one of my more advanced students. I actually asked Jake how to say "empty hands" in Korean (bin song), and he was like, "Hands - song, empty - bin." So I tapped Elliott's head and asked, "Bin? Bin?" and they didn't get it at first. Then they thought it was hilarious. I went back to my desk and Elliott and Jake conferred, then Elliott came up and said, "Teacher, I am a genius!" So you are.
I'm working hard on learning the kids' names. I know some, but certainly not all. Some I know their English and Korean names (i.e. Elliott is Lim Byeongchan) but some I only know their English names (i.e. Jake). Some I barely recognize as my students! Mr. Kim says I am learning them fast, but it's not fast enough to suit me because it's hard enough to get their attention when I'm actually saying their names.
7. So instead of dealing with the Thursday bus, I met my friend Piro at the taxi stand this morning. He works at Seokseong Middle and takes a cab there, so I thought I'd split it with him as Seokseong Middle and Elementary are reasonably close. So we dropped him off, then the cab driver proceeds to go 100 feet in the distance to Seokyang! I was like, Why don't cab drivers take me to Seokseong!!!!! He kept pointing to Seokyang and saying, Chodunghakgyo (elementary school) and I kept saying, "Aniyo, aniyo (no, no) Seokyang! Seokseong chodunghakgyo, SEOKSEONG." Finally he rolled down the window and asked this guy, then was like oh sorry and took me to Seokseong. He didn't charge me the full amount because of the mix-up, and so I was happy about that. My VP saw us pull up and was curious why I'd taken a taxi since I usually take the bus, so he quizzed the cabbie. Then he turns to me and says, "Ah, Seokseong Middle school teacher, couple?" I was like, "No no, friend, friend!" So now that Piro and I shared a cab, we are a couple I guess. Oh Korea.
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