Hello family and friends

Greetings from hot and sticky Korea.

The heat is really making teaching difficult. The students slouch over their desks and almost none of them have the energy to really participate. I’m going to have to adjust my lessons so that I don’t have to walk to much around the class room, otherwise I am not going to last either. The really scary thing is that those weigooks (foreigners) who have been here keep saying this only the beginning.

Jess and I are using our aircon more frequently, and we intend buying a fan this evening. The evenings cool down, but we can’t open the windows as the mosquitoes are becoming problematic. If you look out the window you see them swarming against the outside pane. All the apartments here have mosquito netting, but the mosquitoes are so damn small that they get through.

Anyways, it’s Friday afternoon and I’m tired. The heat is sapping me of energy. Generally the teaching is going well and things have been going fine for me at school outside the class room as well. So no moans from me.

Jess probably has one or two gripes at the moment. For example her headmaster received a letter saying that no NET’s (native English teachers) could go home for the summer holiday, so he promptly declared that Jess is not allowed to go home. This was after Jess and I had paid for our international flights. We were speechless, and then we got arguing between ourselves. Jess was going on about ‘we are asking’, and I was getting hacked off as I kept repeating ‘we asked, we are not asking, we have an agreement.’ I guess it was easier for me to put things in absolute terms as I was not on the receiving end of the madness.

In the end Jess phoned a woman at the POE (provincial office of education) who we had originally spoken to about going home, as we are actually contracted to the POE, she also said that we have an agreement and that we shouldn’t worry. So this woman is going to sort things out. I think she might be a super heroine in disguise. I love the fact that she is a woman, the headmaster is really going to chafe at her putting an end to his silly theatrics.

The only headache in my life is that all the schools were recently sent a directive instructing them to ensure that we NETs teach during the school holidays. I can’t complain as my contract provides for a shorter holiday than the school holidays. The only thing is, who am I going to teach since the kids are on holiday? The kids? This is causing a bit of a headache for my co-teachers as they now have to find ways to keep me occupied. I don’t really like the idea teaching in the school holiday, the kids are entitled to a break from my mug. So the chances are I will have one or two classes and then spend the rest of the school hols producing materials. This ain’t that bad, hopefully I can plan a couple of classes before leaving for SA.

The good news: We have another South African in town. He’s Afrikaans, through and through, and has been asked by his hagwon (private academy) to develop a US accent. They are busy coaching him. I hope he manages, he wouldn’t be the first person to lose their job for not speaking English with a sufficiently good US accent. (I didn’t tell him this, hey let’s give him some time to settle in first.) Many Koreans, and especially the hagwons, are fixated on learning to speak English in a US accent. Jess and I think this absurd, after all English is spoken all over the world in 101 different accents. Students should be exposed to as wide a variety as possible.

The first time we phoned the new South African he told us he was unsure where his apartment is, but that it has electric doors. Jess and I had a good laugh, and are definitely going to tease him about this at a later point: electric doors are two a penny over here.

Jess and I have been invited to talk at a workshop this coming week. We were asked as one of the speakers fell through, but we were pretty chuffed nevertheless. We surmise that we have a good rep in town.

Things are on the up here in Korea. Classes are going ok, and school in general is fine. I’m really proud of how well Jess and I have adjusted to life here. Other foreigners spend their lives cursing. The less of an attempt one makes to build relationships, understand Koreans and fit in with the Korean way of doing things, the harder things are. In general the loud and brash - and they are loud and brash - US foreigners are the worst in terms of fitting in. Everything is compared back to something similar at home and invariably found wanting. This said one of the nicest foreigners in town happens to be a US citizen, he was in the marines and everything.

Oh and I signed my second contract this week. Now I am formally committed to returning. Arriving in Korea once again is going to be so much easier. We are going to arrive back to our fully kitted out apartment ready to go once again. Once we get back it will soon turn autumn, and then it is winter and I am going skiing and snow boarding as often as possible. “Oh yeah, Julian’s going to be tearing up the slopes! Beginners beware!”

No more tentacles please!

School lunch has grown repetitive(, as school lunches are apt to do).

I’m tired of filing into the cafeteria, taking a metal tray (that could serve as a prop in a prison movie) and then having it filled with the same food I’ve eaten for months now. Day in day out, it's rarely any different: rice, kimchi, side dish and something swimming in broth.

I’m especially tired of tentacles! No more tentacle soup for me please! I don’t care if it’s squid, octopus or star fish. Can one even eat star fish? Who knows. Sometimes I feel that if it walks, crawls, remains still, breathes or has gills it is being eaten somewhere in Korea. The only taboo it would seem is cannibalism.

But then a really plump kid passes me, as I’m contemplating the tentacle that I am busy chewing, and I begin to wonder, “what is this kid being fattened up for? How is it that in a country obsessed with fitness that this podgy kid is left to munch away on tuckshop snacks?”

It would be reassuring if I arrived at school one day and I was told that “today is role the fat kids down the hill day!” We would then role the fat kids down the hill, the roundest wins (of course) and he is given a lollipop to fill that grinning chubby face as we depart for our regular classes.

No discussion of Korean food, at least for a westerner, is complete without a mention of ‘boshentang’: dog soup. Boshentang, and dog meat in general, has been illegal since 1988 but is openly advertised. The consumption of dog meat is an everyday affair in Korea, certain restaurants specialise in it, but opinions about the practice diverge significantly with little middle ground. It’s either, “No that’s disgusting”, or “yes I eat it”. Somewhat unsurprisingly it’s the younger Koreans that react with disgust while older people shrug their shoulders at the affair. Sometimes I wonder whether the kids are being entirely honest with me, and I suspect that some students merely yell the answer that they expect I want.

In truth dog meat is often a specialty dish eaten by older men, in part to maintain their ‘stamina’, and so it would seem natural for younger Koreans to have no interest in the practice. When I look at the students I wonder how many of those who vehemently oppose the practice as teenagers will eventually come to eat dog meat themselves as they come to find their place in Korean society. Or is dog meat destined to become an outdated cultural relic, hidden away, and available only to the connoisseur in the know?

Certainly if the drive to embrace everything that is western continues the taste for boshentang may diminish, but then again it is difficult to predict Korea’s future. Much of Korea’s culture seems to hang in the balance: on the one side Koreans hang onto traditional values, while on the other they avidly consume every available western fashion, product and idea.

The banning of dog meat prior to the 1988 Olympics , which were held in Seoul, was itself part of the incredible balancing act. On the one hand the government banned a practice that disgusts many foreigners, but on the other Koreans have continued to consume as much as 8500 tons of dog meat a year since the banning. A further 96000 tons of dog meat is used in a medicinal tonic.

My personal feelings on boshentang are mixed and confused. I believe that we should respect differences, in culture and even take ourselves out of cultural comfort zones – ‘hey why not try that bowl of steaming boshentang? You don’t have to finish it. Just try it, it’s part of the cultural exchange’ – but eating dogs does not sit well with me.

During my last few weeks in South Africa, prior to leaving for Korea, I often laughed and joked about how I intended seeking out dog meat. Now that I am eight months into my stay in Korea, the notion of eating a dog has grown far less appealing. I know exactly where to order boshentang, it’s available no more than 500m from our apartment. I miss my dogs though which is very off putting.

I eat beef and pork, but dogs? Surely one can’t eat dogs? These are animals that were bread and nurtured over many thousands of years to love and care for people. Dogs naturally seek out human company, it’s in their nature. To eat a dog seems like a betrayal of some basic and fundamental compact.

Apart from missing my own dogs I’ve seen dogs destined for the dinner table. While teaching in Andong in January I saw dogs being transported in stacked cages on the back of a truck. They looked miserable and were packed into cages so small that the only way to get a dog into one would have been to have the dog step in and then lie down. You can’t get a sheep to step a cage and then obediently lie down. It’s impossible. Dogs are loyal though, you can coax a dog into a cage and then have it lie down. Dogs trust the person that have them do this, it’s in their nature. We bread dogs to trust us and yet some people have them step into cages that eventually lead to the dinner table.

Coincidentally procrastination, earlier today, and an interest in ‘Laugh it off’, led me down the garden path to reading about how hens are raised in USA. The stories are horrific, and there were some interesting pieces on the intelligence of chickens. (Man – when I procrastinate I procrastinate – how much further can one get from preparing classes than reading about chickens intelligence??)

All of this has got me thinking: what makes it ok to eat a chicken, cow or pig and not a dog? Why do we eat any of these animals at all, and why don’t we eat everything that breathes or has gills?

[I’m thinking of rewriting this piece and submitting it somewhere or other, any freed back or ideas who might be interested in publishing it would be appreciated.]

I took this photo Haeinsa. A large temple complex, set in beautiful unspoiled mountains, about three hours from Sangju. It houses the oldest complete set of Buddhist tripitaka, wooden blocks form which prints can be made. The tripitaka date back to the 13th century.

It's a pity the photo is a little blurry. This an on going problem for me at the moment.

Pocastination is your friend

Hello everyone,

I’m at school, I’ve just had lunch, and I’m taking a bit of time out. Jess and I work hard at school, but I don’t just don’t have the energy today – I need a time out and I am taking one (at least for a little while).

I often wonder how hard the other NETs (native English teachers) work at school. As a group we are largely left to our own devices, and taking into account how much time some people spend on facebook etc, it is unlikely that many NETs are working to reach their full potential.

I have been told that Koreans are aware that many NETs do not put in the effort that is expected of them, and that some Koreans resent us a group. It is disappointing that so many foreigners do not take work their jobs seriously, and I symphathise with frustrated Koreans, but on the other hand being given free reign is an invitation, to some, to do as little as possible.

You know eight months into my first year in Korea and I’m still amazed at how little direction I am given. I can do almost anything. I have tried many ideas in class, some have bombed and others have worked well, but I have not once been directed to substantially change a class.

It’s easy to land a job in Korea, having a foreigner at your school or hogwan (private academy) is definitely in vogue. The ease of coming here and Korea’s location seems to attract two personality types: First there are the loafers, they mess around on facebook and the week is spent planning how to outdo last weekend; and then, in fewer numbers, there are the strongly independent and hard working individuals. While the loafers have only one agenda, to party, ‘the independents’ are here for any number of reasons – save money, travel, cultural exchange etc.

My good news for the moment is that Jess and I went out for dinner with my co-teachers on Tuesday evening. Apart from scoring a good free meal it provided a chance to speak frankly about the misunderstandings and ill feelings that arose out of our home leave request. It was a very positive experience and I came away feeling a lot happier. We can move forwards once again.

So Jess and I are planning our home leave carefully. It’s a real juggling act trying to fit in what we want while still trying to spend as much of the holiday together as possible. I’m so excited to be coming home. Korea is an adventure, and at times a whirl wind of emotions, and I am looking forwards to finding myself in familiar surroundings once again.

Lastly I am very pleased to see the hits on my blog slowly increasing, please feel free to comment on anything I post. If you have trouble commenting please let me know, and finally thanks to all those who read my blog and special thanks to those few of you who do comment. (Special special thanks must go to Eebee, my main ‘commenter’)

Idle thoughts

Hello all.

It’s been a ‘topsy turvy’ couple of weeks over here in Korea.

Life here it turns out, is drastically different. Of course I already knew this, but the struggle that Jess and I had to go through to ensure that both of us received home leave really brought home how different Korea and its people are.

On a whim Jessica’s principal refused her initial request for home leave. Jessica’s colleagues were sympathetic, but there was no rush to take the principal on. This is a very patriarchal society, and the men at top rule their fiefdoms with impunity. Jess pushed for the headmaster to change his mind which he finally did on Saturday morning.

This was however only after he brought both Jessica and her main co-teacher to tears. We are both very grateful that some of Jessica’s colleagues were prepared to put their own jobs on their line and help Jess push on. These people took very real risks, Jessica’s principal is known for transferring staff that speak out against him.

At the beginning of this school year two of Jessica’s colleagues were transferred to her school’s sister high school. These two teachers only found out about the decision to transfer them at the first staff meeting of the year, and it just so happened that both of these teachers were vocal critics of the headmaster. No middle school teacher in Korea wants to be transferred to high school. The hours that teachers are expected to put in at Korean high schools would drain even the most dedicated teacher.

I’m happy despite all the trouble we went through to secure our home leave. Sure I moan on occasion, and I have every right to. I’m impressed at my new found ability to shrug off difficult situations though. I get angry, curse and then calm down - there’s no dwelling on difficulties - you simply can’t afford to: daily life in Korea is replete with all manner of difficulties.

I’m looking forwards to coming home. For a brief period after returning from Europe I was incredulous at the number of black people in South Africa. After eight months of living in one of the most homogenous countries in the world I am beginning to find Korean faces quite mundane, while non-Korean faces are beginning to take on strange qualities.

I’m amused when I think back to how many times, while living quite comfortably at home, I dreamed of adventuring in foreign lands where I am one of the first foreigners. I’m living that dream. I don’t think it is likely that more 100 foreigners have ever lived in this town. The local populace certainly isn’t used to seeing my face. Fortunately I’ve grown accustomed to people openly staring at me. Sometimes it’s a point of amusement, at other times I curse the ‘starer’ and tell them that “I am not a freak you know”.

Of course they don’t understand me, and it’s unlikely that they hear me as I say this under my breath. The point of the comment is not to be belligerent but to release my frustration.

So I’m living in a surreal and dream like, sometimes nightmare like, world; but growing in a real and appreciable way.