Yesterday was the 9 month mark of being here in Korea. I'm not sure how to gauge the time here so far, whether it's flown by or dragging out, but I think it's somewhere in between. Shannon and I are definitely staying for another year, and will be re-signing our contracts at the end of this month, so it's safe to say the time spent here has been enjoyable, though not overwhelmingly amazing. I've always known that, if everything else in the equation on where to go was equal, I would have preferred another country to teach English in, most likely Japan. But it's hard to argue with 3 months of paid vacation a year plus a salary that allows you to save significantly more than most every other English teaching job there is. Since coming here, Shannon and I have:
Traveled to Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand
Put over $15,000 towards student loans
Traveled across Korea
Gotten by without having to worry about money (except for a few times where we're saving up for a big travel trip).
So all in all, it's been a very good 9 months, and I'm pretty happy to be doing it for another year after this one.
My Introduction to Korean Cinema
I watched my first Korean movie the other day, something that I've definitely put off for too long. It's not so much that I was avoiding anything from Korea, but it's hard to know what's good or what you might enjoy when it's all in another language. Anyway, the movie I watched is called "Old Boy", and was quite an adventure. You may have heard of it if you follow film at all, as it did exceptionally well at the Cannes Film Fest in 2004 (I think that was the year).
Watching it definitely took me a short while to get into. Like everything else in Korea, film (this is a big generalization here, perhaps not all films but just the film I watched) seems to have strong roots in 80's culture with overtones and themes you would fine in the imagination of any 13 year old (epic-ly absurd violence, overwhelmingly/unrealistic romantic moments, etc). Watching "Old Boy", I could quickly get by all these things I wasn't used to, since the movie took itself so ridiculously seriously, and it really was quite good. It's about a man, Oh Daesu, who's probably an alcoholic (his opening drunk tirade is sad and hilarious), and then wakes up to find himself imprisoned in a room for the next 15 years. That's it, that's what you get - the rest of the film, Oh Daesu trying to exact revenge on whoever imprisoned him, is so intense, it was like an idea a 15 year old boy had, but then waited around another 10 or 20 years till he was good enough to make a film out of it.
Well, I've gone on far too long about a movie and not my own life and activities. I will say though that watching the closing scenes to that were some of the more intense and disturbing things I've seen in a while, and if you can handle some violent moments, I'd recommend checking out "Old Boy".
Turnover
It's time for a new batch of teachers to roll into town here, though it doesn't look like there will be a lot coming in this time. Nearly 10 teachers are leaving town, but only 2 or 3 are actually being replaced. It seems some of the teachers leaving didn't give the best references for their school, and some jobs are now being left unfilled. It will be interesting to see the change in things here in town though. Mokpo has a small foreigner community, so you're moderately limited when it comes to finding people to hang out with. So, it's not so fun when people don't get along, which has been a minor issue here since as long as I've been here. It's not terrible, but for anyone's who's lived in a small town or found themselves in a tiny community for a long period of time, squabbles always seem to come about. I'm curious to see if they carry on with new people coming, or if they die away (ie. are the people themselves the problem, or are there always problems with people?)
Well, I've rambled on long enough here, and I've been cruel enough to not include any nice pictures to look at. On a funnier note, two of my students saw me walking to my house with a beer in my hand over the weekend, and now they won't leave me alone about it. What were they doing in my neighbourhood anyway? Probably looking for dirt on their teacher, I'm sure.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Teacher's Day and Sports! Sports! Sports!
There's a lot to be said for social responsibility here in Korea. The language, family relationships, and social interactions, all of these are rife with unwritten rules about how a person should act and behave. Being a teacher in Korea puts me in a position relatively high on the social totem pole, and days like today are nice reminders of how much people respect teachers here in Korea.
Today is Teacher's day (whether it's all of Korea or just my school, I'm not sure), a day where all the teachers in the school get the day off. We still have to be at school, but the kids parents have actually come to school and are teaching all the classes today. They've brought us flowers and food, and this afternoon will take us all out for lunch. The kids are all wishing me happy Teachers Day, bringing in a steady stream of flowers for me. Wow, what other job can you think of where the people you're working for will come in and do your job for you?
Being a teacher here means you're a professional employee, and while most of us foreigners don't quite pick up on just what it means to Koreans, you can generally see what a big deal being a teacher is. Many teachers wear full suits to school, and people will generally refer to a teacher as "honourable teacher" whether their kids are being taught by them or not. And the parents are always around to show their appreciation.
Last week was the big volleyball tournament. All the schools in town got together to play at the local sports centre in a big single elimination tournament. It was such a big deal to everyone that there was a one hour opening ceremony to go with it, with speaches, an orchestra and a middle-school student choir. And of course, all the students' parents came. Every game that was played had all the parents and non-playing teachers cheering, and at lunch they laid out massive picnics for everyone and served all the food for the teachers. It was quite the production, though it helped me understand that while most of these parents might want to be putting forth all this effort, a lot of it has to do with society and social customs dictating that they should be doing such things. Teachers were expected to stay and cheer with their schools when not playing, parents brought us drinks and moist towelettes during every break in our games, and despite our inability to play anything remotely close to "good" volleyball, they cheered our every move.
I shouldn't say that our team (and others) were actually that terrible, but no one ever learns to play volleyball until they become a teacher I think, so they've never had a chance to learn much and the curve at getting to be a decent player is pretty slow. There's nine people on the court for each team too, so it gets really crowded when playing. Anyway, my team did pretty good in the end, winning our first two games before losing in the quarter finals.
Oh, and with 29 teams playing and only two courts available to use, to play my three games took 8 hours. It was a loooooong day.
Here's a picture one of the English teachers in town took. The colour's a little off, but you can see just what the sunset here can look like sometimes. The smog isn't always quite as thick as this, but there are days when you can watch the sun set for an hour without burning your retinas off.
Anyway, back to sports. Our school had it's second sports day a few weeks back, which was a great day that I spent most of the time avoiding. It's hard taking part when I can barely understand the schedule and never really know where to go, so I hid in my classroom most of the day. The parents, as you may have expected, came out and cheered on the kids (and teachers), then took out all the teachers for lunch. What really made it an unusual day wasn't so much the day itself (it's pretty much like a sports day back home), but the preparation day. We actually had a full day of preparation, running through the schedule and activities so the kids would be ready for the actual sports day. Now, I suppose this makes some sense to alleviate any lengthy explanation delays the next day, but it still strikes me as funny to go through so much effort to get ready.
A few weeks ago, I also made a trip, with a dozen other teachers from Mokpo, to an island called Jeju, the "Hawaii of Korea". Here's a picture of the island, though honestly I never got to see any of the nice beachy parts of the island.
I spent the entire weekend playing ultimate in one of the more exciting ultimate tournaments I've ever been to. To see more pictures of the weekend, you can check out http://koreaultimate.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3710 though there's not really many of me in there (which I'm sure is all you'd really like too see). 
What's really strange though about the island is the "love park", which is like a cross between an art exhibit and a public park, made unique by having all of it's art pieces as graphic sexual sculptures doing all sorts of things that won't be discussed in this PG rated blog.
It was quite a weekend though, and while I don't normally get into details on money for my adventures, this trip was amazingly cheap. For $40, plus travel to and from the island (another $45), every one who came got - free food all weekend long, a free frisbee (a good one too), a weekend of ultimate, free beer all weekend long (not just at night, but all day too), a free hotel room for two nights, and a whole whack load of prizes, including $1000 for the winning team. My team, The Ajumma's (which mean's elderly or married woman) came in 15th out of 19.
Well, that's all for now, apparently there's cake to be had, so I'm off to have it! Till the next blog.
Today is Teacher's day (whether it's all of Korea or just my school, I'm not sure), a day where all the teachers in the school get the day off. We still have to be at school, but the kids parents have actually come to school and are teaching all the classes today. They've brought us flowers and food, and this afternoon will take us all out for lunch. The kids are all wishing me happy Teachers Day, bringing in a steady stream of flowers for me. Wow, what other job can you think of where the people you're working for will come in and do your job for you?
Being a teacher here means you're a professional employee, and while most of us foreigners don't quite pick up on just what it means to Koreans, you can generally see what a big deal being a teacher is. Many teachers wear full suits to school, and people will generally refer to a teacher as "honourable teacher" whether their kids are being taught by them or not. And the parents are always around to show their appreciation.
Last week was the big volleyball tournament. All the schools in town got together to play at the local sports centre in a big single elimination tournament. It was such a big deal to everyone that there was a one hour opening ceremony to go with it, with speaches, an orchestra and a middle-school student choir. And of course, all the students' parents came. Every game that was played had all the parents and non-playing teachers cheering, and at lunch they laid out massive picnics for everyone and served all the food for the teachers. It was quite the production, though it helped me understand that while most of these parents might want to be putting forth all this effort, a lot of it has to do with society and social customs dictating that they should be doing such things. Teachers were expected to stay and cheer with their schools when not playing, parents brought us drinks and moist towelettes during every break in our games, and despite our inability to play anything remotely close to "good" volleyball, they cheered our every move.
I shouldn't say that our team (and others) were actually that terrible, but no one ever learns to play volleyball until they become a teacher I think, so they've never had a chance to learn much and the curve at getting to be a decent player is pretty slow. There's nine people on the court for each team too, so it gets really crowded when playing. Anyway, my team did pretty good in the end, winning our first two games before losing in the quarter finals.
Oh, and with 29 teams playing and only two courts available to use, to play my three games took 8 hours. It was a loooooong day.
Here's a picture one of the English teachers in town took. The colour's a little off, but you can see just what the sunset here can look like sometimes. The smog isn't always quite as thick as this, but there are days when you can watch the sun set for an hour without burning your retinas off.Anyway, back to sports. Our school had it's second sports day a few weeks back, which was a great day that I spent most of the time avoiding. It's hard taking part when I can barely understand the schedule and never really know where to go, so I hid in my classroom most of the day. The parents, as you may have expected, came out and cheered on the kids (and teachers), then took out all the teachers for lunch. What really made it an unusual day wasn't so much the day itself (it's pretty much like a sports day back home), but the preparation day. We actually had a full day of preparation, running through the schedule and activities so the kids would be ready for the actual sports day. Now, I suppose this makes some sense to alleviate any lengthy explanation delays the next day, but it still strikes me as funny to go through so much effort to get ready.
A few weeks ago, I also made a trip, with a dozen other teachers from Mokpo, to an island called Jeju, the "Hawaii of Korea". Here's a picture of the island, though honestly I never got to see any of the nice beachy parts of the island.
I spent the entire weekend playing ultimate in one of the more exciting ultimate tournaments I've ever been to. To see more pictures of the weekend, you can check out http://koreaultimate.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3710 though there's not really many of me in there (which I'm sure is all you'd really like too see). 
What's really strange though about the island is the "love park", which is like a cross between an art exhibit and a public park, made unique by having all of it's art pieces as graphic sexual sculptures doing all sorts of things that won't be discussed in this PG rated blog.It was quite a weekend though, and while I don't normally get into details on money for my adventures, this trip was amazingly cheap. For $40, plus travel to and from the island (another $45), every one who came got - free food all weekend long, a free frisbee (a good one too), a weekend of ultimate, free beer all weekend long (not just at night, but all day too), a free hotel room for two nights, and a whole whack load of prizes, including $1000 for the winning team. My team, The Ajumma's (which mean's elderly or married woman) came in 15th out of 19.
Well, that's all for now, apparently there's cake to be had, so I'm off to have it! Till the next blog.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Bloggin' It
In my last post, I mentioned a bit about priorities and how classes and teaching often takes a back seat to paperwork and volleyball. Well, the other day gave me a perfect example to further demonstrate my point.
Each week, I teach 3 after-school English classes. I'm supposed to teach for 2 hours each class. However, since an hour of class is only 40 minutes here, I should be teaching for 80 minutes every class. The principal however was just fine with the kids getting out 10 minutes early, so that puts me at about 70 minutes. I then let the kids go 10 minutes early cause they really don't want to stay much longer than that. I also give them a 5-10 minute break in the middle of class, depending on how squirrelly they are. So, every week I teach three 50 minute classes, which adds up to 6 hours.
Every month, I need to have 20 hours of class-time completed to get paid. This past month, I was 6 hours short, as there was a week the kids were gone, and a number of other classes were canceled. This was quite a problem for my coworkers, and they told me, "you must teach 20 hours every month." Yep, okay, 20 hours a month. They looked at the schedule some more, said things to each other, then "Every month, 20 hours." They mulled over the schedule a moment longer, then it was off to the principal's office to sort out this dilemma.
After a few more "you must teach 20 hours a month" comments, a solution was reached. I would simply write that I had taught these missing classes in the schedule. So, we tore out the old attendance sheet, and wrote up a new one, making up days when the kids were there and I had taught them. Even the kids who couldn't be there because they weren't at school had to be accounted for, so I had to write notes on the schedule about further classes I'd taught to ensure every kid had a chance for 20 classes that month. Anyway, they told me again, "every month, 20 hours", and the problem seemed to sort of just go away.
The next day our school had volleyball practice. My after-school class? Canceled so I could train.
Training and preparation are quite important here, though the methods for preparing are, to me, a little questionable. Sports day is this Friday, and while my school isn't too bad, some schools have their children marching in circles for weeks to get ready. The principal will get on the loud speaker and bark orders to the children who will move about as he directs for a few hours. Sports day comes, and it has little to do with marching in circles, but maybe it's just the order and preparedness that matters.
Volleyball is another tricky thing when it comes to training. Some schools do well at training, some not so well. For example, many schools have a men's and women's team. They train together, which isn't too bad, but the men won't let the women play anywhere but the back row, and even then they hardly get to touch the ball. One of the female teachers in our school is quite a strong volleyball player, but every game she's put in a spot that does nothing to take advantage of her strengths or help her game.
I may seem a little harsh this week on Korean culture, and I apologize if I am. There has been a few incidents that have put me a little off this week, the largest being a visit to the pet store.
Here's a photo of the cute little dog we've taken in for the time being. His name is Miso, and while he has a few issues with abandonment and bathroom habits (he's a little afraid to pee at all), he's quite a cute and affectionate puppy. Anyway, the other day while picking him up a few goodies, Shannon and I noticed one of the saddest, most frightened dogs I've ever seen in the back of the store. I've never seen a dog shake so badly or have such a sad, terrified look on his face, and after seeing him we all but ran out of the store, and Shannon even started to cry. I don't know what was wrong with this poor animal, or what had been done to him, but just glancing at him was enough to put me in a dejected mood and keep me there three days later. Honestly, it was like watching a person slowly drowning right in front of you, and then just turning around the other way.
There have, fortunately, been lots of good things going on lately as well, which I'll slather all over the blog next week. A dozen of us just got back from Jeju, "The Hawaii of Korea", this week, and I'll be sure to have some photos to go with the stories then. Till next time, try not to think about poor, sad puppies. If you do need to help one out though, we've got one here in Korea that will be coming to Canada in August.
Each week, I teach 3 after-school English classes. I'm supposed to teach for 2 hours each class. However, since an hour of class is only 40 minutes here, I should be teaching for 80 minutes every class. The principal however was just fine with the kids getting out 10 minutes early, so that puts me at about 70 minutes. I then let the kids go 10 minutes early cause they really don't want to stay much longer than that. I also give them a 5-10 minute break in the middle of class, depending on how squirrelly they are. So, every week I teach three 50 minute classes, which adds up to 6 hours.
Every month, I need to have 20 hours of class-time completed to get paid. This past month, I was 6 hours short, as there was a week the kids were gone, and a number of other classes were canceled. This was quite a problem for my coworkers, and they told me, "you must teach 20 hours every month." Yep, okay, 20 hours a month. They looked at the schedule some more, said things to each other, then "Every month, 20 hours." They mulled over the schedule a moment longer, then it was off to the principal's office to sort out this dilemma.
After a few more "you must teach 20 hours a month" comments, a solution was reached. I would simply write that I had taught these missing classes in the schedule. So, we tore out the old attendance sheet, and wrote up a new one, making up days when the kids were there and I had taught them. Even the kids who couldn't be there because they weren't at school had to be accounted for, so I had to write notes on the schedule about further classes I'd taught to ensure every kid had a chance for 20 classes that month. Anyway, they told me again, "every month, 20 hours", and the problem seemed to sort of just go away.
The next day our school had volleyball practice. My after-school class? Canceled so I could train.
Training and preparation are quite important here, though the methods for preparing are, to me, a little questionable. Sports day is this Friday, and while my school isn't too bad, some schools have their children marching in circles for weeks to get ready. The principal will get on the loud speaker and bark orders to the children who will move about as he directs for a few hours. Sports day comes, and it has little to do with marching in circles, but maybe it's just the order and preparedness that matters.
Volleyball is another tricky thing when it comes to training. Some schools do well at training, some not so well. For example, many schools have a men's and women's team. They train together, which isn't too bad, but the men won't let the women play anywhere but the back row, and even then they hardly get to touch the ball. One of the female teachers in our school is quite a strong volleyball player, but every game she's put in a spot that does nothing to take advantage of her strengths or help her game.
I may seem a little harsh this week on Korean culture, and I apologize if I am. There has been a few incidents that have put me a little off this week, the largest being a visit to the pet store.
Here's a photo of the cute little dog we've taken in for the time being. His name is Miso, and while he has a few issues with abandonment and bathroom habits (he's a little afraid to pee at all), he's quite a cute and affectionate puppy. Anyway, the other day while picking him up a few goodies, Shannon and I noticed one of the saddest, most frightened dogs I've ever seen in the back of the store. I've never seen a dog shake so badly or have such a sad, terrified look on his face, and after seeing him we all but ran out of the store, and Shannon even started to cry. I don't know what was wrong with this poor animal, or what had been done to him, but just glancing at him was enough to put me in a dejected mood and keep me there three days later. Honestly, it was like watching a person slowly drowning right in front of you, and then just turning around the other way.There have, fortunately, been lots of good things going on lately as well, which I'll slather all over the blog next week. A dozen of us just got back from Jeju, "The Hawaii of Korea", this week, and I'll be sure to have some photos to go with the stories then. Till next time, try not to think about poor, sad puppies. If you do need to help one out though, we've got one here in Korea that will be coming to Canada in August.
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