Koreans love tea made out things like black beans and corn. They're both really good. When I move away I will miss some ice cold black bean tea for sure.
Koreans love to exercise in strange ways, like walking up mountains backwards. I live by a man-made river which has a bunch of weird exercise machines. At 2 in the morn old ladies will be rockin these machines. Men in suits will stop, do some pull ups and walk away. I was told that I would see some old men kicking trees. I haven't seen this yet but I have seen a few kicking polls or the air. Koreans exercise. I see thousands of Koreans a day and maybe 1-4 of them are fat . I don't think this is a coincidence.
They also love spicy food. I talked to another teacher about it and asked if little kids ate spicy food too--she gave me an awkward glance and replied, "of course they do." I said that it was odd because kids have very sensitive taste buds, to which she replied, "well we force them to eat it, it's good for their health."
As much as I hate parents who force their kids to do thing they don't want to do, eating spicy food probably builds character. eh?
Often when I ask why they do something or don't do something I'm told it's because "this is good for health" or "this is bad for health." For example they never drink water when eating. They swear that it's bad for your digestion. I asked a very intelligent, educated Korean about this and she said it's been scientifically proven. Really? Maybe, but it's water.
They tell me that drinking ginseng drinks is "good for your stamina."
They eat dog here, but they love tiny lap dogs as pets. Women hold them like babies on the subway.
When I bump into another native English speakers that I know they often start the conversation like this-- "man I'm so tired. My co-teacher forced me to go out to drink soju and sing karaoke until 3am. I kept telling him I had to teach the next day and he kept saying 'so do I fool'. They drank me under the table and they're all like 50 years old."
I like my co teachers but none of them have offered to take me out on a drinking binge. I'm told this is a Christian school thing.
Probably better for me in the long run.
My dad keeps telling me about this thing called "Dr. Fish" where you drink a beer while fish eat the dead skin off your feet. I don't know if I like this idea.
He loves it.
I bought a bike and am very happy about this.
A science teacher who only knows a handful of English words took me out to buy it. He bikes to school and I asked him why he didn't drive a car. He said "I love the planet." It was nice, in a Disney movie sort of way.
Koreans love bikes, they bike around the Han river and then take breaks to smoke cigarettes, drink soju and eat noodles.
I taught the moms for the first time. They are all nice and many have kids that are my age. Only two of the nine have students that go to the school so I'm not really sure why I'm being paid to teach them. One asked me if I was single. Then she asked me if I wanted her to "match make." I didn't know what to say. I told her "maybe, give me some time"
Also, we found their coffee maker, another teacher stole it for his room. Now they don't hate me.
Students keep asking me if they can take my picture on their cell phones. I always say yes and give a big smile and cheesy, two-handed thumbs up. I'm not sure why they want to do this. The girls think I'm James Dean and the boys think I'm a cartoon character named wed-DING. I'm happy to play along. While I would not be happy about being a joke as a teacher if I were in the states, it seems to be OK for my role here. At least they're speaking English to this silly cartoon wed-DING guy, right. I might be on a lot of Korean myspace pages.
The drivers here are crazy. The cabbies are the worst, they never stop at red lights and regularly honk at other cars trying to get them to do illegal things.
Motorcyclist are crazy as well. They drive on the sidewalk or street, whichever suits them at the moment, and expect you to move out of the way regardless of the fact that you have the crosswalk signal or that you're on the sidewalk.
Despite the crazy drives, close lanes and massive amounts pedestrians, no one seems to get hit or into accidents.
The police drive around with their cherries on but never do anything. The cherries are always on, which seems to defeat their purpose.
There are two maintenance guys who work at my building. They are there 24/7, and there's only two of them. I'm not quit sure how they work such long hours without going insane. Actually I think on of them is insane. He was always yelling at me in Korean. Then my friend Daron's girlfriend's sister came by to give me some plates. Ever since then he's been very nice to me. I think the old man might have a crush on her.
The other guy is great. If I don't say "hello" he runs after me to say hi.
When I get the nets I'll post some pics of some of the above.
Cheers.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Names
I started to write a response to the comments on the last blog, but it became lengthy and probably deserves to be a blog in its own right.
As silly as it sounds, I have all my students pretend like they are in the US while in my class. I do this for several reasons, one being that it allows me to have the students pick and use western names. I teach something like 600 students and there is no way in hell I would remember even a fraction of their real names. I gave them a long list of popular first names and had them pick one, although I included a few unpopular dorky names for fun.
I have 3 students who chose the name Jason because their real name is jae-i-sun or something like that. I made a point of telling them that their name is Jason, and they have to pronounce it like that. One of them refuses and corrects me every time I say "Jason". Some of the names are funny as hell. I tried to get some girls to take the name Amy which means mother in Korean, some took it while others refused. Gerund is a good one, for sure, as is Gerald. If I ever have a son I'm still naming him Thelonious Maurice Wedding and he can go by "theo" or just "the" if he wants.
Some students chose the same names so I would give them numbers, like "Sally #1" and "Sally #2", the #2 would always vehemently object. I let most kids choose their own name but if they couldn't decided on one I had fun with it. I've got three boys who sit next to each other named "Moe, Joe and Bo".
One kid who named himself "Tom and Jerry", another "Tom Cruise" (they were just told to pick one first name). My predecessor was Canadian English teacher named Fred, the students seems to have disliked him so I got a few kids to take that name. One student insisted that his name English name is "Shopa", which is fun to say so I let him keep it.
Another named himself Tre Cool. When I got the Green Day reference, he asked me if I liked them and I didn't have the heart to tell him no. When I was in middle school I listened to several of the bands that Green Day got rich ripping off. I harbor a strong, irrational dislike for them because of this, but they're better than the crappy k-pop music that most of the students like so I felt ok about telling him that I liked them. Then he asked me if I liked Sum 41 and I had a say no. He seemed really bummed, but I couldn't explain other than telling him that I was too old to like them. Another kid named himself DJ Dragon, but most stuck to the list. I didn't tell them to use "Mr." but some did. I've got a Mr. Bill and for some silly reason I thought he might be referencing the old SNL Mr. Bill so I did the Mr. Bill "ohhh" scream and of course no one knew what I was talking about. .Because of the language barrier I can't really explain myself after these types of incidents and the end result is that my students think I'm crazy.
One of my favorite students is named "Mr Bob". On Thursday I asked for a volunteer, which is sometimes difficult because no one wants to do it, and luckily Mr Bob put his hand up. I took him out in the hall and then went back in the class and put up signs with locations like "post office" and "park" around the classroom. Then I blindfolded Mr Bob, brought him into the classroom and had students give him directions on "how to get to the ..." I stood behind him to make sure he didn't fall, but he did run in to the wall and chairs several times. Mr. Bob didn't enjoy being blindfolded. Although I asked him if it was OK beforehand, he seemed to be terrified. The poor kid's heart was beating really fast and after he took off his blindfold he was almost hyperventilating, I had the class give him a whooping round of applause, and then he put his hands up in the air and struck a Rocky Balboa pose. The only reason I am telling this story is because the Rocky pose was classic.
In other news, I've got some other English teachers in my apartment, 3 Americans and 1 Irish guy curses in ways that I've never heard before. All good guys.
I've been to the immigration office 3 times and am having a lot of difficulty getting my alien registration card, because of complications that are not my fault. Until I get it I can't get internet, which I need for several reasons, least importantly to post pics on this blog from the fancy ass camera that I am borrowing.
I'm extremely happy that I came to Seoul. I am living a very simple life, emancipated from possessions, familiar surroundings and the old habits that I left in dogtown. Of course I miss a lot of my city, the hoosier mansion, and friends (no family in St. Louis anymore). It's amazing how routinized my life was. For the past 6 years I did the KDHX thing every week. For the past 6 or 7 years Martina has been the only person to cut my hair. Almost every day I would drink coffee at Meshuggahs and see the same people, day after day, year after year. These things were great, and for the most part I was very content, but I now realize the sameness of life in STL was turning me into a complacent, soft and boring old man.
Now all I've got are a few books, a frying pan and some ties. Nothing is familiar. If I can get a couple of solid friends and internet in my flat I'll be set for a while.
As silly as it sounds, I have all my students pretend like they are in the US while in my class. I do this for several reasons, one being that it allows me to have the students pick and use western names. I teach something like 600 students and there is no way in hell I would remember even a fraction of their real names. I gave them a long list of popular first names and had them pick one, although I included a few unpopular dorky names for fun.
I have 3 students who chose the name Jason because their real name is jae-i-sun or something like that. I made a point of telling them that their name is Jason, and they have to pronounce it like that. One of them refuses and corrects me every time I say "Jason". Some of the names are funny as hell. I tried to get some girls to take the name Amy which means mother in Korean, some took it while others refused. Gerund is a good one, for sure, as is Gerald. If I ever have a son I'm still naming him Thelonious Maurice Wedding and he can go by "theo" or just "the" if he wants.
Some students chose the same names so I would give them numbers, like "Sally #1" and "Sally #2", the #2 would always vehemently object. I let most kids choose their own name but if they couldn't decided on one I had fun with it. I've got three boys who sit next to each other named "Moe, Joe and Bo".
One kid who named himself "Tom and Jerry", another "Tom Cruise" (they were just told to pick one first name). My predecessor was Canadian English teacher named Fred, the students seems to have disliked him so I got a few kids to take that name. One student insisted that his name English name is "Shopa", which is fun to say so I let him keep it.
Another named himself Tre Cool. When I got the Green Day reference, he asked me if I liked them and I didn't have the heart to tell him no. When I was in middle school I listened to several of the bands that Green Day got rich ripping off. I harbor a strong, irrational dislike for them because of this, but they're better than the crappy k-pop music that most of the students like so I felt ok about telling him that I liked them. Then he asked me if I liked Sum 41 and I had a say no. He seemed really bummed, but I couldn't explain other than telling him that I was too old to like them. Another kid named himself DJ Dragon, but most stuck to the list. I didn't tell them to use "Mr." but some did. I've got a Mr. Bill and for some silly reason I thought he might be referencing the old SNL Mr. Bill so I did the Mr. Bill "ohhh" scream and of course no one knew what I was talking about. .Because of the language barrier I can't really explain myself after these types of incidents and the end result is that my students think I'm crazy.
One of my favorite students is named "Mr Bob". On Thursday I asked for a volunteer, which is sometimes difficult because no one wants to do it, and luckily Mr Bob put his hand up. I took him out in the hall and then went back in the class and put up signs with locations like "post office" and "park" around the classroom. Then I blindfolded Mr Bob, brought him into the classroom and had students give him directions on "how to get to the ..." I stood behind him to make sure he didn't fall, but he did run in to the wall and chairs several times. Mr. Bob didn't enjoy being blindfolded. Although I asked him if it was OK beforehand, he seemed to be terrified. The poor kid's heart was beating really fast and after he took off his blindfold he was almost hyperventilating, I had the class give him a whooping round of applause, and then he put his hands up in the air and struck a Rocky Balboa pose. The only reason I am telling this story is because the Rocky pose was classic.
In other news, I've got some other English teachers in my apartment, 3 Americans and 1 Irish guy curses in ways that I've never heard before. All good guys.
I've been to the immigration office 3 times and am having a lot of difficulty getting my alien registration card, because of complications that are not my fault. Until I get it I can't get internet, which I need for several reasons, least importantly to post pics on this blog from the fancy ass camera that I am borrowing.
I'm extremely happy that I came to Seoul. I am living a very simple life, emancipated from possessions, familiar surroundings and the old habits that I left in dogtown. Of course I miss a lot of my city, the hoosier mansion, and friends (no family in St. Louis anymore). It's amazing how routinized my life was. For the past 6 years I did the KDHX thing every week. For the past 6 or 7 years Martina has been the only person to cut my hair. Almost every day I would drink coffee at Meshuggahs and see the same people, day after day, year after year. These things were great, and for the most part I was very content, but I now realize the sameness of life in STL was turning me into a complacent, soft and boring old man.
Now all I've got are a few books, a frying pan and some ties. Nothing is familiar. If I can get a couple of solid friends and internet in my flat I'll be set for a while.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
I've kind of messed up this whole blogging thing
So I'm living in a place where I don't really know anyone, besides my dad (weird coincidence that we are both in Seoul at the same time).I don't speak the language. I just started a new job. I just moved into an apartment. I don't have anything besides a laptop and a few clothes.
I've been quite busy. Too busy to dork it out over the internets.
So......the last two weeks...let's see if I can type this in less than 15 minutes, before I have to split.
I was hired by the government organization that oversees all the schools in Seoul. As a political move, the Korean government is trying to get one native English speaker in every school in Seoul. I am one of the teachers who got hired. I left my couchsurfer to go to a week long orientation. The thing is that no one told me that the orientation was at a hotel 1/2 an hour outside of the city and that we would be staying there, day and night for a week. I assumed that we were going to stay in Seoul and have lodging provided for us, in Seoul. So I just came to the bus with a notebook. A few others were in the dark as well, and we all had to go back to Seoul that night and get our stuff. The orientation was good, but a bit weird. 200 teachers. A lot of Americans and Canadians and a few people from Australia, the UK and New Zealand. Some of them had very strong accents. Imagine taking an English class from a guy who sounds like he's from Trainspotting. We had workshops all day and night with breaks in between where people smoked thousands of cigarettes, play ping pong and complain about being on lockdown (we were not suppose to leave the premises of the hotel). In many ways it felt like summer camp. At night myself and about 10-40 others would sneak away down a trail in the woods to the convenience store and drink beer and soju. Convenience stores in Korea have tables and chairs out front so people can drink the beverage they just bought. Some of the teachers were in their 40s and 50s. It was especially funny and surreal to sneak away with these people. I'm a grown man and everything, but a 50 year old sneaking out to have a beer? Some of them were real afraid of getting caught. It was very odd.
The workshops were beneficial, but the best thing was talking to other teachers who had already taught in Korea, which was most of them.
After a week I met up with one the teachers from the school that I am now teaching at, and he took me to my place. It's a efficiency apartment that is good enough for me. Once I get internet at the pad I'll post some pics and blog more, it's hard to get things like internet when I don't speak Korean. It took me a week to get a cellphone.
There are 6 English teachers at my school, all of them Korean of course. One guy lived in London for college and has a brilliant English accent, everything he says is funny. He is kind of funny but I think watching Monty Python at a very young age has just imprint my brain with the idea that anything said with a british accent is hillarious. Another teacher spent part of her life in Little Rock and went to school with Chelsea Clinton. Generally Korean English teachers know all their grammar and spelling up and down but are not good at speaking, it's difficult if you've never lived in an English speaking county. I'm very lucking in this respect.
The middle school kids love me. I'm rock star status. Girls come in my room, blush, giggle and then run away screaming. I'm not taking it personally. It's just because I look very young, and different from them.
The job is great. I teach almost every student in the school and see each one of them once a week. I also teach an English club and 8 mothers who want to learn English. I really don't know how to teach the moms. They already dislike me because they think I stole their coffee maker.
The other day, I kept making fun of this one kid because he wouldn't stop talking. He yelled something and I said, "someone tell Jason to shut up", then I looked over and saw blood all over his shirt. Turns out he just had a bloody nose but it almost gave me a heart attack.
So the one really bad thing about my school. It turns out that they really don't have the distinction between public and private schools that we do in the states. Some of the "private schools" are just public schools that have a religious affiliation. So I am teaching in a Christian school.
Everyone is nice and I love the job, so I not going to fight this. But man it's fucked up that I'm teaching in a Christian school. Everyday starts with the school staff reading the bible together (of course it's in Korean and I don't know what they're saying). They all know that I'm "not religious". But I kind of consider my agnosticism to be a religion, at least it's a view that I strongly believe in. No one from the office of education asked me if I would be OK with working in a Christian school, what if I was an orthodox Jew?
Again, it's ok because the students, teachers and principles are all great and they understand that I got randomly placed there. I think I am just going to write a letter to the person who did the hiring and express my discontent.
The next 2 weeks are going to be hard because I'm down to $50.
Then I get paid. I still think that money and greed are terrible things, but it is going to be orgasmic to get a pay check with 6 zeros behind a number--even if it's not in US dollars and not really that much money.
The next blog will have some links and photos and nice prose and whathaveyou.
I promise.
I've been quite busy. Too busy to dork it out over the internets.
So......the last two weeks...let's see if I can type this in less than 15 minutes, before I have to split.
I was hired by the government organization that oversees all the schools in Seoul. As a political move, the Korean government is trying to get one native English speaker in every school in Seoul. I am one of the teachers who got hired. I left my couchsurfer to go to a week long orientation. The thing is that no one told me that the orientation was at a hotel 1/2 an hour outside of the city and that we would be staying there, day and night for a week. I assumed that we were going to stay in Seoul and have lodging provided for us, in Seoul. So I just came to the bus with a notebook. A few others were in the dark as well, and we all had to go back to Seoul that night and get our stuff. The orientation was good, but a bit weird. 200 teachers. A lot of Americans and Canadians and a few people from Australia, the UK and New Zealand. Some of them had very strong accents. Imagine taking an English class from a guy who sounds like he's from Trainspotting. We had workshops all day and night with breaks in between where people smoked thousands of cigarettes, play ping pong and complain about being on lockdown (we were not suppose to leave the premises of the hotel). In many ways it felt like summer camp. At night myself and about 10-40 others would sneak away down a trail in the woods to the convenience store and drink beer and soju. Convenience stores in Korea have tables and chairs out front so people can drink the beverage they just bought. Some of the teachers were in their 40s and 50s. It was especially funny and surreal to sneak away with these people. I'm a grown man and everything, but a 50 year old sneaking out to have a beer? Some of them were real afraid of getting caught. It was very odd.
The workshops were beneficial, but the best thing was talking to other teachers who had already taught in Korea, which was most of them.
After a week I met up with one the teachers from the school that I am now teaching at, and he took me to my place. It's a efficiency apartment that is good enough for me. Once I get internet at the pad I'll post some pics and blog more, it's hard to get things like internet when I don't speak Korean. It took me a week to get a cellphone.
There are 6 English teachers at my school, all of them Korean of course. One guy lived in London for college and has a brilliant English accent, everything he says is funny. He is kind of funny but I think watching Monty Python at a very young age has just imprint my brain with the idea that anything said with a british accent is hillarious. Another teacher spent part of her life in Little Rock and went to school with Chelsea Clinton. Generally Korean English teachers know all their grammar and spelling up and down but are not good at speaking, it's difficult if you've never lived in an English speaking county. I'm very lucking in this respect.
The middle school kids love me. I'm rock star status. Girls come in my room, blush, giggle and then run away screaming. I'm not taking it personally. It's just because I look very young, and different from them.
The job is great. I teach almost every student in the school and see each one of them once a week. I also teach an English club and 8 mothers who want to learn English. I really don't know how to teach the moms. They already dislike me because they think I stole their coffee maker.
The other day, I kept making fun of this one kid because he wouldn't stop talking. He yelled something and I said, "someone tell Jason to shut up", then I looked over and saw blood all over his shirt. Turns out he just had a bloody nose but it almost gave me a heart attack.
So the one really bad thing about my school. It turns out that they really don't have the distinction between public and private schools that we do in the states. Some of the "private schools" are just public schools that have a religious affiliation. So I am teaching in a Christian school.
Everyone is nice and I love the job, so I not going to fight this. But man it's fucked up that I'm teaching in a Christian school. Everyday starts with the school staff reading the bible together (of course it's in Korean and I don't know what they're saying). They all know that I'm "not religious". But I kind of consider my agnosticism to be a religion, at least it's a view that I strongly believe in. No one from the office of education asked me if I would be OK with working in a Christian school, what if I was an orthodox Jew?
Again, it's ok because the students, teachers and principles are all great and they understand that I got randomly placed there. I think I am just going to write a letter to the person who did the hiring and express my discontent.
The next 2 weeks are going to be hard because I'm down to $50.
Then I get paid. I still think that money and greed are terrible things, but it is going to be orgasmic to get a pay check with 6 zeros behind a number--even if it's not in US dollars and not really that much money.
The next blog will have some links and photos and nice prose and whathaveyou.
I promise.
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