I told everyone I would go to Korea when I graduated. I wasn't lying. I hope you enjoy reading about my first adventure as an adult as much as I enjoy having it. (In case you were wondering, the title of the blog isn't an acronym for anything. It's from one of my favorite songs. See first post.)
There's TONS of stuff I need to post about so hopefully I'll get some time over the weekend but right now I'd like to share a quick story from this afternoon.
I was drinking coffee and reading at Paris Baguette when I hear, "Excuse me, where are you from?" I was surprised since it's pretty rare around here to hear someone speak English. Well, there was this Korean guy at the table next to me and I told him where I was from and turns out he went to a university in New York City so he spoke very good English and knew quite a bit about the U.S. He was really friendly, pretty funny, and interesting to talk to. I talked to him for about half an hour while he waited for his girlfriend. I don't know, I guess it's really not much of a story but it kind of made my day since I don't really get to talk to many people outside of work during the week. It's nice that there are people who are so friendly and willing to speak English when they don't have to!
As you can imagine, there are quite a few differences between Korean schools and schools in the United States. I'm sure I'll notice more as time goes on but here are a few I've come up with so far.
-Uniforms. In the US very few public schools require uniforms. Here, most of them do. The uniforms at my school seem to vary. There's one that looks more like a typical school uniform (white button up shirt and gray pants or skirt) but then there's another one that's basically a sweatsuit. The sweatsuit one looks really comfortable actually, but it also tends to remind me of a prison outfit.
-Punctuality. Unlike at US schools, the bell isn't law here. When I student taught, it was imperative to be in the classroom with everything set up and ready to go when the bell rang. Similarly, the students were expected to be in the classroom, if not sitting down and ready, or they could get a grade reduction. Here, the teachers don't even get up and start walking to class until a minute or two after the bell rings. Then, they start setting up. I haven't seen a student scolded for being late, and I wouldn't be able to scold them even if I wanted to because, honestly, I don't even know what late IS here. It's not that people here don't care about being on time though. Whenever any of the teachers tell me they'll be somewhere at a certain time, they always are. I guess they just have the power to decide when they want to start their class.
-Hair and face. The other day, a teacher asked me if girls wore makeup in middle school in the US. She was surprised when I told her they did. Here, they aren't even allowed to wear makeup to school. Also, they aren't allowed to dye or curl their hair. I'm not sure what the reason for this is. I'm thinking it might have to do with decreasing bullying or cliques, like making it so that you can't tell who can afford expensive hair procedures. Also, it might be to reduce distractions in school; making it so that school is only for learning and not a place to go try to impress people. These are all just speculations though, I really don't know for sure.
-Boys and girls. Up until very recently, public schools in Korea weren't mixed gender. Even now, some mixed schools don't have mixed classes. My school is completely mixed, with boys and girls in the same classes but some people are surprised when I tell them this.
-Er...punishment. Corporal punishment isn't against the law here. I haven't seen anything too outrageous but they'll sometimes smack students on the back or like grab them by the arm and pull them out of the room. Also, if a student is falling asleep, they might have them stand up in the back of the room.
-Hallway behavior. The kids are basically insane. This is one reason I'm having difficulty deciding whether I think schools here are more or less strict than back home. The students will literally run around screaming at the top of their lungs, dragging each other across the floor, etc. I don't think that would have gone over well at my middle school, but I also think other students would have judged anyone who acted like that. I think in the US, students are determined to act as "grown up" or "cool" as possible.
This is getting pretty long, so I'll stop here for now. Although I do have a lot of time on my hands today. There are no classes because of the typhoon but teachers still had to come.
The title of this post kind of suggests that a bunch of people from UIC came to Daegu. Really, it was just Sandy and me but I think that's good enough. Sandy is studying abroad in Seoul this semester and this past weekend she came down to Daegu to visit. I've met a lot of great people since I've been here but it was still really nice to see someone from home.
Sandy and me at E-World
By the time Sandy got to Daegu it was almost 11pm. We walked around the city for a little while and eventually settled on a place to eat. We basically got a variety of fried foods, which was fine with me. As a group of Korean men left, they started saying random things to us in Spanish. I'm not sure if they were drunk or if Sandy and I looked Hispanic to them...
The next day we decided to go to an amusement park in Daegu called E-World. I don't know what the E stands for. The park wasn't as impressive as any I've been to in the US but it was fun because it was new to us and it had some things I've never seen before. Such as this...
Pedal Roller Coaster at E-World
The view on the roller coaster shortly after I stopped recording.
There was also like a mini zoo. It was part petting zoo, part regular zoo. There were some animals you could pet and feed carrots, and others you couldn't touch. They had a really random assortment, from farm animals like sheep and pigs to more exotic animals like a monkey and chinchillas.
There's this huge tower at the park called Woobang Tower, the tallest in Korea. One of the attractions of the park is that you can pay extra and basically zipline from up on the tower. We really wanted to do it but, for some reason, it's closed until March. I'll still be here, but Sandy might have to take a trip back :P. We did go up and check out the view, however.
Woobang Tower and the view
From the tower, we rode the sky tram thing back down to the park entrance, which gave us a good view of the park.
E-World
Once we had seen and done everything, we went to get something to eat. We chose a Korean restaurant and had samgyupsal (pork) lettuce wraps. When we got back to the area where I live, Sandy wanted ice cream (as always), so we got Baskin Robins before she left. Overall, it was a really good weekend. Next time, I'm meeting Sandy in Seoul!
Last weekend was our first weekend in Daegu, so we decided to check out the nightlife downtown. We had two separate groups: one that was coming for dinner and one that was coming after dinner. Well, we had way more people than we anticipated show up for dinner (I guess that's what happens when you put something on Facebook) so we ended up splitting into a few different groups. In my group (which was basically Class 3 from orientation, we split up again for dinner. Half of us went to a Korean BBQ restaurant and the other half went upstairs to a Western bar called Traveler's, where we all met up again after dinner.
After dinner, we got cocktails in a bag at this really small place that's basically just a stand (which is fine, because you can carry around open alcohol containers in Korea) and then we ended up at ANOTHER Western bar. I hadn't really planned on coming to Korea only to hang out in the exact same types of places I could go to at home, and luckily, I wasn't the only one. Another girl from my orientation, named Annie, also wanted to get a little more involved in actual KOREAN nightlife. We walked around for a while and eventually decided on the club that had the longest line: a place called Monkey (MK). We went in and it was completely packed. One of the biggest differences between this place and clubs back home was that EVERYONE was dancing. Even boys, and not only just if they were grinding on a girl. Also, the DJs had more interaction with the crowd than I've seen at clubs in the US. There were about five of them on an elevated platform in the back and they would yell things out once in a while. The other people in the club were really friendly. Some of them don't mind pushing you out of the way if they're trying to get by but I think that's just the way they do it since it's so crowded. Aside from that though, we were each given glowsticks on two separate occasions includung a small group of girls that we danced with for quite a while. They even passed us their drinks when they were sharing them. (It wasn't sketchy or anything, Koreans share EVERYTHING.)
I didn't take this picture but it's a pretty accurate picture of what the streets looked like.
We were at MK for about three hours before we left. It was after 3am and the club wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. It was just as packed as when we walked in. I heard a lot of clubs here are open until like 7am. I haven't confirmed this, though, so I can't say for sure. After wandering around and finding some snacks, Annie and I made it back to the Western bar where everyone else had been. Many of them were still there so we talked to them for a while. Then, Annie went...somewhere else and I went home in a cab.
When I got back to my apartment, my feet hurt, my ears were ringing and it was around 5am. But it was totally worth it.
I can't say I necessarily LIKE this song...but I can't really do a post about partying in Korea without it.
This week has been fun, tiring and a little bit stressful. It has taken some time to figure out how I should create my lessons but I think I have a pretty good idea now. Korea has a country-wide curriculum, so the schools follow the textbooks pretty much exactly. This actually helps because it gives me a clear direction to go with my lessons.
Dongbyun Middle School
This week I have been starting every class with a PowerPoint presentation about myself. The students are amazed by the following things:
1. I have a boat. Apparently only rich people have boats here.
2. Sean is my younger brother. I guess I can understand this one. He's obviously much taller than me and he has a beard in the picture I showed them. Also, many of them have said he looks really strong.
3. I played rugby. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that. So I can't really blame the students for this one either.
4. I like Girls' Generation. Most of them assume I wouldn't know who they are. They are also surprised that Sunny is my favorite. Most people here really like Yoona.
5. I included a picture of Sean with a big northern and they're always fascinated by it and sometimes call it a shark.
In conclusion...I guess they're mostly just really interested in Sean. I should bring him in to meet them some day.
This is the picture of Sean's fish that I showed them.
This week, I've been a bit of a celebrity around the school (one student even said I look like Kristin Stewart...). I teach almost every student in the school once a week so they're constantly saying hi to me in the halls. It's actually kind of nice, we'll see if it gets annoying. One student says "nice to meet you" almost every day. I guess maybe that's one of the only things he knows how to say. Also, I live right by the school and I guess most of the students do, too. I can't really leave my apartment without seeing at least 3-5 students on the streets. I had the students make name tags for their desks so I can attempt to call them by name. I kind of wish I would have had them all choose English nicknames. I'm pretty good with names so I probably could have memorized most of them if I had done it that way. However, it's really hard to memorize over 300 names like Soo Yeon, Su Kyeong, Se Hwan, Hye Lim, etc. I might see if I can have them do that next week and just write the English name on the other side of the tag and turn it around.
I have five co-teachers and they all have pretty different styles, in terms of how they work with me. Two hardly say anything during my classes, two intervene for translation pretty frequently, and one gets involved mainly just for discipline (which is quite different in Korea than in the United States). Here, it's not unusual for a teacher to smack a student on the back or shoulder if they aren't paying attention. They also might do things like have them stand in the back of the room. Yesterday, one of my co-teachers put a green dot on a few students' faces with a marker. She was speaking Korean when she did it, so I'm still not really sure what that was about. Another big difference I've noticed is the time at which teachers arrive at the classroom. When I student taught, it was a big deal to be in the classroom and set up by the time the bell rang. Here, teachers usually get to the classroom 2-3 minutes after the bell rings and THEN set up. They thought I was weird when I started to head to the classroom two minutes before the bell rang.
The teachers are all extremely nice and helpful. Last night we all went out for shabu shabu and I was introduced to basically all the teachers.
Shabu shabu. Basically you cook the vegetables and meat in the broth in the middle and there are a bunch of different sauces you can eat it with.
Today has been the best day so far. Part of the reason is that I only have three classes. But also, it seems that they stuck all the best students on this day as well. I teach two classes of intermediate 3rd graders and one class of mixed level 2nd graders. (See explanation of grade levels at the end of this post). The 3rd graders have a pretty high English proficiency and good attitudes. Also, this particular group of second graders were very well behaved and friendly. After class in both levels, students came to talk to me. The second graders told me about how one of them saw Girls' Generation in concert, and a group of 3rd grade boys came to ask me about why I came to Korea. I'll have internet tonight, which means I'll be able to make better lessons. I use the internet a lot for Powerpoints and inspiration.
*Breakdown of Korean grade levels: Elementary School: Grades 1-6; Middle School: Grades 1-3; High School: Grades 1-3... basically instead of continuing to count, they start over when they enter another school. So using the US way to count grade levels, I teach grades 7-9.
I heard this playing outside a store last night and was way too excited :P.
I’m writing this Tuesday night but I won’t post it
until tomorrow because I don’t have internet in my apartment yet. I’ve had a
really busy and exciting past few days. Yesterday, we left orientation and went
to our separate areas. They took all the Daegu people to this place with an
auditorium where they called us up by district and matched us up with our
co-teachers. It felt a little weird because we were kind of on display until
they called our name and we left with the teachers. I’m working at Dongbyeon
Middle School (동변중학교) in the Seo-bu district of Daegu. I got picked up by a teacher
named Kim Hwa Ok and a woman who works in the office. Hwa Ok speaks very good
English and is super friendly. She looks really young, I wasn’t sure if she was
a teacher when I first saw her. But when I told her I was 22, she said she was
jealous that I was so young. So I basically have no idea how old she is. (By
the way, asking someone’s age in Korea isn’t considered rude.)
(If you copy and paste 동변중학교 into Google Maps, you can see my school.)
We went back to the school and the first person I
met there was the principal. He didn’t speak English but he was very nice. We
had coffee in his office and Hwa Ok translated between us a little. After that,
we went upstairs to meet the other English teachers. They had brought some food
for me, like muffins and stuff, which was nice. Everyone was super nice and
excited to meet me. And then the students came into the picture…I felt like a
unicorn or a yeti or something. The students acted like they’d never seen
anything like me their lives. When classes ended they kept coming in waves to
meet me. It was kind of cool, they asked me a few questions and a ton of them
told me I was pretty or beautiful and one said I had big eyes, which kind of
made me laugh.
When school was over, I went back to my apartment
with Hwa Ok and Suh Sang Sun, who will be my main co-teacher. Basically, she is
the main person responsible for helping me get everything set up. Mr. Im, who
is in charge of the finances met us at the apartment and decided he wanted to
come shopping with us. We went to a huge department store called Home Plus.
Sometimes in Korea I feel like I’m in the future. Home Plus had escalators but
they weren’t stairs, they were ramps so you can bring your cart on them.
Genius. It was a little weird being with a group of people I just met and we
were only shopping for me. Also, they said the school was going to pay for my
bedding and dishes so I wanted to be careful not to pick expensive things. Mr.
Im doesn’t speak English, which didn’t help because then the three of them would
be speaking Korean and I didn’t know what was going on. Just when I started to
feel like we should hurry because they all probably wanted to go home, Mr. Im
suggested we take a break and eat some topokki at the store. An interesting
difference between Korea and the United States is their opinions about
foreigners. In the United States, if someone doesn’t speak English people
assume they’re stupid. In Korea, it’s almost the opposite. For example, Mr. Im
and the principal both said they wished they could speak English and the
principal said he would like to sit in on my classes if I do some for the
teachers. So instead of thinking I’m dumb because I don’t speak Korean, they’re
more focused on the fact that I can speak English.
This is topokki. The round things are rice cakes and the flat things are made of fish. It's a little spicy but very good.
When we finished shopping, we went back to my
apartment and they helped me bring everything in before leaving for the night.
So then I was on my own the first thing I did was clean up. The previous
teacher must not have been the cleanest guy in the world. The floors were
pretty dirty and there was a lot of dust. Luckily, he did have cleaning
supplies which he left behind. After cleaning the apartment, I unpacked a
little and went to bed around midnight. Because of the typhoon, school was
delayed until 10:30 the next day, so it was actually a pretty good night’s
sleep. I’ll talk about the actual school days in the next one because this is
getting kind of long!
My apartment video won't upload here for some reason so here's the link to it on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3517073646865&set=vb.1272690024&type=2&theater
Today was cultural experience day at orientation! We didn't have any lectures or classes today. Instead, we went to the Traditional Culture Center, Hanok Village and Keumsan Temple. At the Culture Center, we learned a traditional Korean dance, played sameulnori (traditional Korean drums), and made a pencil case using hanji (traditional Korean paper).
The dance instructors were really funny and entertaining and got the whole class involved (which is difficult to do since each class has about 50 people). First, they showed us the basic moves, then we "performed" in smaller groups, and finally eight people (including me) did a "lion" dance with a big lion costume.
These are two boys from my class.
Annnd those flip flop feet are mine. There was another girl behind me as the body.
After the dancing, we went to the craft room. They had small bowls of glue with paintbrushes in them and pencil cases with colored strips of hanji paper already cut out for us to cover the pencil cases with. The glue was different from any glue I've ever used before. It was very forgiving, so if you made a mistake it was very easy to pull the paper off and fix it. Also, the women in the room who were giving instructions were VERY helpful. As in, sometimes they'd come over and basically do it for you.
Craft Set Up
My Finished Product
Our final cultural experience was sameulnori, traditional Korean drums. We saw these performed during the welcome ceremony for orientation, so it was cool to learn about how they're actually played. The instructor was really enthusiastic and fun. (I will note that none of these instructors spoke English. Our class leaders had to translate. So when I say they were fun, entertaining etc., it's kind of saying a lot since we got this impression of them even when we couldn't understand them.) He led us through the different patterns for the drums and we did a lot of practicing. Some people had other instruments, which was kind of cool because we put them all together. He also showed us some examples of songs.
Some of my classmates with their drums.
Example from the instructor.
After sameulnori, we took some group pictures before going into the restaurant for bibimbap, which was really good. Then, we walked to Hanok Village together, where we had some time to just walk around and go to shops. The shops had a lot of handmade trinkets and things like fan, wallets, keychains, etc. I bought a small wallet and helped another girl buy a fan by asking the woman in the store how much it cost.
Posing in the head cut-outs with Camesha!
Bibimbap
Sign for Hanok Village
When we were finished in Hanok Village, we got back on the buses to go to Keumsan Temple. When we got there, some people went to use the bathroom and found, to their dismay, that most of the toilets were Japanese style toilets, or "squatter" toilets. Basically, the toilet is kind of just in the floor and you squat over it instead of sitting on it. It's actually supposed to be better for you, since that's technically how humans are made to use the bathroom. Anyway, once the bathroom break was over, we walked up part of a mountain to get to the temple. It was a big square area with one big temple at the back and two smaller ones on the sides. In the temples, there were big, gold statues. There were also a lot of stone formations and statues around the area.
The outside of the big temple.
Inside the big temple.
The three leaders of Class 3! The two girls next to me are Ellie and Song, our main leaders, of course.
On the way down from the temple I learned a lot of new vocabulary from some English people, which was pretty interesting. They have like 100 different ways to say "drunk", as well a bunch of other things that I had never heard before in my life.
When we got back to Jeonju University, I had to go to a class leaders meeting, which was mostly just messages to pass on to our classes. However, it was also established that I'll be doing a short speech at the closing ceremony with one other class leader. I'm actually pretty excited about that.
By the way, it's very hot and humid in Korea right now...
