FF through March!

So, I have just started formal teaching, which means I’m actually making lesson plans with my co teachers and having to put more and more thought into class preparation. I wanted to set up a Skype session with my cousin, Kristie, who’s a teacher at North Elementary in Saint Peter, but I don’t think it will work with the crazy time difference. I thought it would be really awesome to link up both classrooms, I know my Korean students would absolutely love something like that; to see a real American classroom and other American students about their age would be quite a treat for these kids. For the most part, I’m the first white people that these kids have even seen, more or less talked to, so they really find it quite fascinating. One thing that I’ve come to see as an issue is the fact that some of the more privileged students will attend hagwon’s after school, which offer private English, math and Science lessons, while some of the less-off students are literally just beginning English in 3rd grade. The gap between the most advanced English student and the lowest is enormous. Example: There are some students that can carry on a conversation in English for minutes and others who can only comprehend a handful of words.

Today was actually parent’s day, elementary style. I was actually told a few days in advance, which was a pleasant surprise but I guess I didn’t realize I would be talking in front of about 300 curious parents. I guess the principal wanted to say “Hey! We’re serious about teaching English here at Sangwon!” So, I was required to give a little speech, which just consisted of me telling everyone where I was from and that I was happy to be in Korea. They were just giggling through most of it, I think because they couldn’t understand me, but they would all say,“Ohhh” as if they understood me, so I don’t know some of them actually understand me or if they were just ‘ohhhing’ because I would pause for a moment or two. They did seem to be impressed that a native English speaker would be teaching their kids; they gave me a pretty impressive round of applause after my full-hearted bow. I think I saw one of the teachers taking a picture of me stumbling through my speech, so I’ll have to hunt that down and see if I can’t get it posted on this blog, add insult to injury I guess.

The kids love me, I walk into school and all the kids will stop whatever it is they’re doing and give me a big “Hello Mayo Teacher” and then an enthusiastic one or two-handed wave. It’s pretty cute. It’s hard for that not to put a smile on my face. It’s been about three weeks now and it still hasn’t gotten old, but I feel that this constant attention might get a little exhausting. I think some of the teachers feel the same way. I’m starting to get the impression that other teachers are a little displeased at my popularity with the students. It has actually gotten kind of bad at times. Pretty much every class that I go into with a co-teacher all the students say, ‘hi’ to me without any regard for my co teacher. I feel bad, but I don’t really know why I can do; tell the students not to say hi to me? I’m probably looking too far into it, but there have been a few instances where I get a weird vibe from some of the other teachers after a group of kids say, “hi” to me and not them. I guess it’s better than everyone hating the weird foreign teacher.

Actually the other day I brought in a big thing or mandarin oranges and some strawberries and they loved it. My head teacher made a big deal out of it and brought me into the main offices, got on the intercom and said in Korean, “Mayo teacher has brought a treat for everyone” and then proceeded to make me hand out oranges one by one to everyone that walked in. It was quite humiliating but it was over quick I guess. No, actually it really wasn’t. I ended up sitting around a table talking to some co-workers eating strawberries, oranges and someone had brought a cake? It ended up turning into a big deal, there were probably about 10 – 15 of us in their at one point. It probably would have gone on for a while longer if it had been mid-day instead of towards the end of the day.

So my co-teacher is pregnant and I thought I would give her a gift! I taxied down to E-mart and bought her a little baby boy’s outfit, complete with mittens and slippers. I have no clue if her baby is going to be a boy or girl but I just bought boy clothes. She didn’t know either, I suppose I could have gotten her something more neutral like diapers but where’s the fun in that? I also remember reading from the travel book that it used to be illegal in Korea for you to figure out the gender of your baby before birth. Most people in Korea want a baby boy to carry on the family name; so many baby girls will be aborted late into the pregnancy, much like in China. But there’s no one-child-per-family policy in Korea, so it’s not nearly as bad is in China and might even be legal now to determine the sex of your baby. But yea, the outfit wasn’t too expensive and I already had to go there to pick up a few things for my apartment so it wasn’t like I was making a special trip or anything.

During orientation, we kept hearing, “dynamic Korea” and by that they meant that things can happen unexpectedly in Korea, and to not to take it too seriously. I remember one teacher telling a story about how he had stayed up late the night before preparing a lesson plan that he thought was going to be great and he was very excited to get to school and give it a go. Well, when he got to his school all of the kids had big white things stuffed in their mouths and everyone was drooling white foam... He said that they canceled all classes that day because it was time for everyone to get their monthly fluoride treatment. He said they must have known about it weeks in advance but failed to inform him that there was no class and he wouldn’t have to come in that day. The moral of the story being: he could have gotten really upset about this, and made it a bigger deal than it needed to be, but he said he just went home and said, “dynamic Korea.”

My first experience of “dynamic Korea” was on Friday night. I had just gotten off work and was planning on catching some ‘z’s’ before I head out for the night. I had made some plans with a few friends and wanted to meet up downtown for some Pizza and beers. About mid-nap and full drool, I woke up to an old Korean woman screaming “Awween” and pounding on my door. After I realized what was going on, I get to the door and it’s my furrowed, 70 year old landlord, (the polar opposite of what I had been dreaming about a moment earlier) so needless to say I was not excited to see how this situation was unfolding. Anyways, she storms into my room and hands me a phone. It’s my co-teacher. She’s on the other line repeating, “Principal wants to eat dinner with you, I be there in 10 minutes.” I think to myself, “oh great, another uncomfortable meal with uncomfortable conversation and terrible food, much better than pizza and beer with friends.” I check my watch and it’s 6:00 pm. I’m supposed to meet my friends at 8:00 so I wasn’t too worried about missing the rendezvous point. I get to the restaurant and it’s my principal, vice principal, co-teacher, another administrative guy and three other parents of the some Sangwon students. The dinner ends up taking quite a bit longer than I had anticipated. Every time I thought we were done eating, they would bring out more and more food. It never ended. I ate so much. However, it was actually really good. A big delicious bowl of boiling beef soup is what I remember most, but there was other good food there as well. Also, I’m pretty sure that they didn’t talk about anything else but me. I couldn’t tell you exactly what they were saying, but I’m starting to get better at deciphering some words and picking out English words every now and then. Well and everyone at the table would look at me every two minutes so that was a dead giveaway. After about 3 hrs of dinner (literally) the principal decides we should all go to a rice-wine bar and keep drinking.

On our way to the bar the principal holds my hand for a good minute … In Korea that’s not considered weird or anything. I mean, I was uncomfortable as all hell but he seemed to be enjoying it a lot. He said, “friends” and motioned to us holding hands; I just kind of nod my head as if to say “sure.” It’s not uncommon to see two guys or two girls walking hand in hand or with their arms around each other. I know it carries quite different meanings back in the states and in most western cultures but here it just means friends. I actually read something that mentioned homosexuality as being considered so repulsive that it’s just considered a fable or something that doesn’t really exist, at least with the older generations. Anyways, the principal and I are walking hand in hand to this bar for a good minute or so and we finally get there and get seated and what do they bring out? Larva. A giant plate of larva. They said, “This turns into butterfly” and proceeded to pressure me into trying it. After a while of saying I was still full from dinner I give in and slurp one down… It really wasn’t that bad, I would have been better off not knowing what it was but yea, it was super salty! We drank for a while longer, talking about how I should start a basketball clinic after school and coach basketball and teach English. I would absolutely love to do something like that but I don’t think it’s going to happen. They don’t have a gym here and their outdoor court is a portable hoop on gravel plus, many students attend hagwans after school anyways so I really don’t see anything coming from it. If it did, great, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

That’s about all going on in my life right now. I’m helping my head teacher with some English for about a half hour a day after school. It’s not intense and she usually just ends up talking about her kids for most of the time, so I just listen. But classes are going good and I really like my school and co-teachers. Everyone is really nice and they tell me just about everyday how glad they are to have me at Sangwon. March is FLYING by and I’m getting excited for spring/summer!

UPDATE: I was about to post this when one of the teachers I share an office with asked if I had breakfast. I said no and she offered me some mocha cake that she had brought in. As I’m eating the cake the teacher whom I bought the baby clothes for comes up to me and says, “My husband and I were moved by your kind heart, so we bought you something.” It was a sweatshirt from a popular Korean clothing company, apparently because I was talking to her earlier this year about how I needed to expand my wardrobe. I was really hoping she wouldn’t do that… I knew Korea was a very gift giving culture but I was still just kind of crossing my fingers and hoping she wouldn’t return the favor.

Which reminds me of a story, during orientation I was out to eat with some friends one night and there was a table next to us celebrating a birthday. It was a man; early twenties and we decided to get him a bottle of soju, it’s inexpensive but we just thought we would do something nice. So I walk over and hand him this bottle and say, “Happy Birthday.” They all stand up and bow. I walk back over to our table and sit down, not a minute passes and they’re bringing over cake and different types of Korean food to our table. It’s just Korean culture I guess!

1st Day!

So today was my first day of class!

This morning I walked into a classroom of about 25-30 Korean 4th graders all giggling and going “Ohhhhhh” at the tall white guy in the corner. I was a little nervous going into class but then quickly realized that they couldn’t really understand me. It worked out pretty well, my co teacher and I have a pretty good system, if I said something too quickly or use some vocabulary that the student’s don’t know, then my co teacher will repeat, in Korean, what I say. It’s really funny, the students are very, very curious of me. At the end of my slideshow I opened it up for questions and the most common questions I got were “How much do you weigh?” “Do you have a girlfriend?” and of course, “How old are you?”

All three times I walked into class I almost started laughing, because there is a, “Whoa” when I walk into the class; some of the kids sit hard back in their chair and get wide eyed like they’d just seen a ghost. It’s seriously hilarious. My co teacher took the first 20 minutes to introduce herself and go over class rules; while I was given the last 20 minutes to introduce myself. During the first twenty minutes I would sit over to the side and let my co teacher do her thing, during that time I would catch about 5 or 6 students literally staring my down like I owed them money. I would make eye contact with them, thinking they would shy away and start paying attention… wrong, they would just give me an expressionless stare, but they’re literally so cute that I can’t help but laugh. The first ten minutes of each class consisted of me sitting in the corner trying my hardest not to break out laughing. It’s hard to describe the situation. All these kids are staring me down and you can tell - itching for a chance to ask my age and weight; it’s the funniest thing ever.

My introduction got progressively better throughout the day. I’m pretty sure my first one sucked, and then got a little better from there. I showed a video of the Minnesota Vikings on my PowerPoint… They were asking me so many questions about American Football afterwards. One student asked, “Is football in America violent?” I don’t think they really have much for contact sports over here; Ty Kwon Do is huge as is baseball and soccer. Oh, and a side note, after the first class, I don’t know what I did, but I had about 15-20 kids follow me and my co teacher out into the hallway laughing, jumping up and down, wanting a high five or just saying, “goodbye” and waving with both hands. One girl even wanted an autograph.

I also asked them if they knew who the president of the U.S. was, and the entire class erupted and said, “OBAMA” “OBAMA”- it was pretty hilarious. I didn’t think they would know who the U.S. President was; I thought I might be able to teach these Korean 4th graders something today, but apparently not. I did show a picture of Obama after that and said, “Handsome?” and the entire class said, “NO!!!” I guess I really don’t know what to think…

Once school was over, all the male employees, my interpreter and I went out to dinner… we had raw fish and steamed pork… it wasn’t nearly as sweet as it sounds. The fish, whatever kind of fish it was (I saw a picture of it, and the fish was a in the shape of a square, so your guess is as good as mine) was probably one of the worst tasting things I’ve had ever ate. I almost puked. And on top of that it smelled awful inside (like ammonia maybe) and it was a smell that didn’t go away with time, it stayed right under my nostril and burned inside my nose, terrible. On top of that I was sitting on a pad on the floor so I had to choose which leg I wanted to fall asleep next, by which one I decided to lean on. I can’t sit camper style, because I’m about as flexible as a 2x4 so I had to put my legs straight under the table, which helped for a while but then my side started to hurt because you can’t lean back. It’s just the worst situation I could have been in. Oh, and we had some homemade fermented rice wine that had literal chunks of rice in it. It probably wouldn’t have been all that bad if I didn’t have to sift through the rice with my teeth as I drank it. To sum up, this evening I was sitting at a two foot table with 4 other people, 3 of which I can’t communicate with, eating god-awful, unnecessarily spicy ‘food’, drinking fermented rice wine with literal rice chunks floating inside while I’m trying to situate myself so I don’t die of a side ache or turn the table over.

Besides these conditions I was in it was actually a pretty nice restaurant, clean and very traditional. It was expensive too, I saw the menu and our meal was about 80,000 won, about 70 some odd dollars, all of which was paid for by the principal. I may have paid my own money not to eat it, but that’s part of the experience I guess. I didn’t feel too bad either because two of the other people I was with openly admitted not enjoying the meal either; which I thought would be rude but apparently not. We did have some good conversation too. We talked about North Korea and how bat-shit crazy Kim Jong Il is. I told them I was hesitant to ask about this because I was unsure if it was a sensitive subject or if they openly talk about it - I guess 30 years ago it would have been sensitive but apparently not anymore. The younger generation actually has the mindset that North Koreans have the same blood and could see the two countries merging in the future. Another interesting bit is that Korean men are required to join the army for two years during adulthood, which I was told because “North Korea could attack us at any point and we need to be ready.” Comforting I guess.

Quick Update.

It's currently Thursday night and I just finished eating a big buffet style meal with my entire school. I met one of my new co-teachers today and she was SO cool. She helped me out in just about every facet, from finding a movie theater to helping me pronounce some fundamental Korean words. She's pretty much fluent in English; I can talk to her as fast as I would talk to another native English speaker, I just have to remember not to use slang, like outta = out of, things like that. Anyways, at dinner, my new co teacher, myself and another new administrative co worker were recognized and we were asked to stand in the front of the room to say a few words. Of course there was no mention of this earlier. Luckily I'm pretty sure even though I was standing in front of a room full of about 30 people, about 3-4 actually knew what I was talking about. I did try and talk slow but I'm still thinking no more than 4 people could actually understand me. We finished our speeches, they gave us some flowers and we sat down. It was a very good meal, one of my co workers earlier in the day said, "We going to have traditional Korean meal but since you American, we have buffet". Normally, I would try and be polite and tell them that, that was unnecessary but at that point I was really feeling the buffet of Western food. Also, I think we may have different forms of politeness because whenever I try and tell someone that they don't need to do something for me and that I can do it myself, they seem to be either surprised or offended, I can't really tell. So I've just started not arguing or trying to explain myself and just let people do stuff for me.

The Vice Principal told me, actually told my translator, that I make her smile, and that other teachers have told her that when they see me, they become happy. I don't know if something was lost in translation there or what the deal was, but that seemed strange to me. It may be because I haven't mastered the system of greeting people here yet, it changes with every person and your relationship to them. If they're older or hold more authority than you, then they receive a new greeting than when you're greeting someone of equal or lesser 'status' than yourself. First of all, I don't know where I stand as a foreigner, and I have absolutely no idea of how old anyone is. So, I will either come off as impolite or silly if I mess up, kinda a lose, lose situation.

About the pictures... I really wish I could figure out how to put them on the side of the page instead of right on top of each other. If you notice the bottom two pictures are in the middle while the rest of them are on more of the left side of the page.... that's me experimenting with Blogspot.... I'll figure it out sooner or later, although it may be a while. I hope it doesn't bug any of you as much as it bugs me. Oh, now really about the pictures, the bottom ones are of my school and it's 'playground' in the back of the school... you can see the projects right behind the playground.... that's because I'm fairly certain there are no zoning laws here, so you could have a million dollar house next to a low income housing project. I mean, naturally there are nicer parts of Daegu, but you can find some houses that seem a little out of place. The top picture is of "guys night" with my principal and some other male employees. We ended up drinking 8 bottles of soju, which really isn't that much of an accomplishment... buy my principal was HAMMERED. It was great. I couldn't believe how drunk he got. I was buzzed I would say, but he could barely stand and was talking about god knows what by the end of the night. I didn't think he had drank that much more than I had... (he must have been sneaking some soju bombs under the table).

Hope this message finds everyone well!

My Apt