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!