Third Rock From The Sun

2010 Winter English camp

2010-01-10T15:09:00.014+09:00

On Friday Jess and I returned from a four and half day English camp. It was intense. We would arrive at the camp shortly before nine in the morning and would leave at about nine in the evening. What is more, the breaks at lunch and dinner were short so there wasn’t even time to recuperate during the day. The only lengthy break that we had were two additional hours off on Wednesday when the students watched Ratatouille.

We had a great time but it was not easy. We attended the same camp last year, so we had an idea what to expect. Unfortunately this year only four foreign teachers attended the camp. Last year there were eight of us and I honestly feel that I had to put in twice as much effort. It’s a pity that there were fewer foreign teachers since the camp was intended as a week of English immersion, and to immerse students in English one needs as many fluent English speakers as possible.

I had a Korean coteacher that was supposed to assist me, but he was more hindrance than help. The kids lacked confidence, and although he meant well, my coteacher’s tone and choice of words knocked their confidence rather than built it up.

Like many Korean teachers he thought it was alright to sit at the back of the class room and read books rather than get involved. I guess I could have made an effort to involve him more, or perhaps I could have spoken to him outside of class, but it is difficult to sum up the energy to micromanage kids as well as an adult when you are working a twelve hour day with precious few breaks.

I’m glad that the camp ended early on Friday as my patience with my coteacher by Friday morning was thread bare. I really don’t understand how this person thinks. I mean for example he would come into class three-quarters of the way through a lesson, see that we were behind schedule, loudly announce that the students have to hurry up, and then sit down to read. It’s not enough to simply announce to students that they have to hurry. They hear the message but they don’t move on with a sense of urgency. As a teacher one has to get involved and help the students.

A real pet peeve that I had regarding this teacher was that he would walk in, make an announcement that the students should speak English and then sit down to read his book as if all of sudden the kids would magically switch to speaking English. The kids spoken English was relatively low and they lacked confidence. What they needed were teachers who would speak English to them and prompt them to reply in English. My coteacher could have filled this role, his English was adequate, but he didn’t take the initiative.

My worst moment with this teacher was during the skit rehearsal only a few hours before the performance. I was in the auditorium helping the students, my coteacher was no where to be seen, and I was watching the kids go through their final skit rehearsal when he entered. The play that my coteacher walked in on was by no means perfect, but it was as good as it was going to get and the kids were really doing their best. I had given the students a motivational talk before the rehearsal and told them that this would be the final run through before the actual performance. As soon as the play ended I leapt up and applauded the students, they were looking nervous and I sensed that they were looking to me for affirmation.

I told the students that they had done an excellent job and then my coteacher stepped in. He lectured them about how they needed to be more confident, that they had to learn their lines and how the play needed to be perfect. He really shook their confidence. I could have strangled the man on the spot. Afterward he told me how he thought the play was good, but that he wanted it to be perfect so that we would win. He had little to no idea how effort how much the students had put in; and that at this late stage the play was as good as it was going to get. I was so angry. Even now, two days later, recalling his absolute lack of finesse with students makes me angry all over again.

The actual skit performance did not go as well as I had hoped. By this point the kids were tired as well as nervous which caused them to forget lines that they had previously recited without effort. We came third out of the four teams which was disappointing. I had hoped that this would be our team's grand moment. Still the kids seemed to have a good time and they were happy enough that they had not come fourth.

When we returned to the classroom after the play the students shared some of their sweets, which they had won, with me which I took as a sign that I had been an effective teacher over the week. The students did not learn a great deal of English, but I feel that their confidence in their spoken English improved over the week. I believe that I played a large role in this.

The first class on Friday morning was set aside as a period to say goodbye to one another. I was supposed to go to class say goodbye to the students and spend the period with them writing messages to one another saying goodbye and wishing each other well. I was really looking forward to the lesson as I felt this was my chance to end the week on a high note. When I got to class the students had already completed the exercise as my coteacher had handed out the sheets of paper, that the students were to write their goodbyes on, before class. Not only was I disappointed, but the students now had nothing to do -- as if to put a cap on a difficult week my coteacher had royally fucked up.

I said goodbye to the students, it wasn’t the grand moment that I hoped it would be.

In terms of my teaching I felt that this years camp went much better for me than last years. Teaching has really brought out a more spontaneous and fun side to me, which I think is very important when teaching a difficult foreign language. I enjoyed playing MC even though it was exhausting. I felt that I ‘managed’ my English well at the camp, this is to say that I spoke English at a level that the students could understand. ‘Managing’ one’s English when teaching is a skill that has to be worked on, it is not something that comes naturally. At one point a student told Jess that I don’t speak English well, in reply she asked why the student thought this; his answer was that I can’t be a very good English speaker since I am easy to understand. I had a good laugh when I heard this. I guess the logic for the student was that his English is poor; that my English was understandable to him must mean my English is poor as well.

My group sung "I Will" by the Beatles for the talent show.

The students had to complete a number of situations. I was a doctor that they had to visit.

My students and myself

Jess and her students at the "party." Each group had to come up with a theme party and do a presentation on it. The activity did not go very well. The kids had already had loads of sweets during the week and we did not have enough time to get our presentations ready.

The foreign teachers at the camp took turns playing MC. Moments before this picture was taken Jess asked two boys how many pretty girls there are at the camp, they said there were only three pretty girls so Jess called a group of girls to the front of auditorium to confront the boys.

At the outset of the camp the students were asked to choose an English nickname which they then used for the week. Two of my students chose the nicknames A4 and B4. This is B4 taking part in the Golden Bell competition.

Jess playing MC.

My original idea for my 'immersion' lesson was to have the students create and decorate soccer balls as part of learning about the soccer world cup. The exercise proved far too difficult for the students.

We made snow men on the first day. I came from the side and kicked this one over before seeing how nice it was. The students weren't thrilled at the idea of making snow men.

My students and myself on the first day. They were shy, and it took a lot of effort on my part to get them to liven up. Incidentally South Korea had very heavy snowfalls on Monday. The whole country was blanketed and the snow fall was close to the heaviest on record. Traffic ground to a halt, students were late for the camp and we battled to get transport back to our motel on Monday evening.

2010 Goals

2010-01-09T11:21:00.004+09:00

At midnight tonight we enter 2010. I’m excited, more so than I am ordinarily on New Years Eve. 2010 promises to be an interesting year - it’s a fresh start and it holds many opportunities, some of which once passed may not present themselves again.

I have a sense that I am going to have to make some important decisions next year. Apart from generally saving money I wonder whether I should aim for a specific target, and if so how much? Should I opt for a third contract in Korea? I have already suggested to several friends that we travel from Beijing to Moscow in October, and I remain committed to this. If I am to spend a third year in Korea it would mean returning with the February 2011 intake, or trying to arrange a similar deal to the one I had in summer this year and not returning to SA during the weeks that I have off between contracts. Jess leans toward returning home permanently after this contract and I appreciate that I must also take into account her thoughts before making any of these decisions.

Should I choose not to sign on for a third year in Korea I will need to begin a masters degree in 2011. Despite having put in a lot of thought and having done some research I am far from making any decisions regarding masters. In the interim between leaving Korea and returning to SA I am thinking of applying to be an ‘Ecumenical Accompanier’ in Palestine and Israel. I would like to bear witness to what is going on in the region.

Now it’s not often that I share information about my goals, but on this occasion I would like to make them public. I know that some friends and family follow my blog, and I am happy share my goals. I have held most these goals for some time, some longer than a year, which I feel is both positive and negative. On the one hand I have a clear vision of what I would like to achieve, on the other the fact that these goals remain on the list of things that I would like to achieve indicates that I am making less progress in meeting goals than I would like.

Here they are, in no particular order, my 2010 goals:

1. Take as many opportunities to explore South Korea as possible - Korea is not as beautiful as South Africa and there are very few places that remain relatively unspoiled. There are nevertheless beautiful places to see and I am well aware that I am highly unlikely to return to Korea as a tourist. Jess and I recently discovered that it is relatively economical to hire vans, so I am looking forward to some fun adventures come spring time.

2. Cut costs by spending money carefully - I’m not a huge fan of setting exact goals of how much to save, and then being glum when I do not reach the goals for any number of reasons, some of which may have been beyond my control. Instead I aim to live relatively frugally and be aware that saving even small amounts here can amount to large amounts at home. Principally I aim to cut down on the foreign drinks - Baileys, Cockburn’s port and foreign beers - that I enjoy so much. I also aim to use fewer taxis.

3. Improve my photography and familiarise myself with Photoshop

4. Continue to search for opportunities to write for newspapers, especially South African newspapers, and refine my writing - I submitted three pieces in 2009. Two were published. Unfortunately my first article only made it as far as a Grahamstown rag - I was very disappointed in the news agency that I sent it to; it clearly made no effort to place the piece in the appropriate paper. My second published piece received a number of comments online, and was picked up by several blogs. A few people wrote to me to thank me for my well balanced article. 2010 has started well in terms of my writing goals. The Korea Times published an article by me last week. It didn’t generate as much discussion as my first article but it was picked up Expacked; a blog that aims to gather and disseminate news that is of interest to foreign teachers in South Korea. [See: "Equal Pay for Equal Work"]

At present I have several articles in mind and hope to have another one published in a South Korean paper before the end of the month. Following this I hope to do some travel writing for an SA paper or magazine. As a step toward this goal I intend submitting an article to a travel website. My final goal in terms of my writing is to have the M&G publish a piece of my writing. Having failed to get the first piece that I submitted to the M&G published, I’m not going to approach the M&G until I have had a good number of articles published in a variety of newspapers and / or magazines.

5. Put less time into preparing classes - Some of the teachers that I know need to spend less time drinking, others need to spend more time preparing classes. I on the other hand need to spend less time preparing classes, and perhaps a little more time partying it up -- well maybe. I often get what I feel what is a good idea for class and launch into preparing the lesson without any consideration for how long it will take to prepare. I enjoy preparing lessons, but I have spent many hours outside of school time preparing for lessons when I could have been doing other things.

And you know -- so long as the kids are entertained, they couldn’t give a toss how much preparation I put in.

6. Get fit - This is my eternal goal. I am going to spend more time swimming in 2010 and I have arranged to try out Taekwando for a week in January. I only swam once in 2009, and this was on the 31^st of December.

7. Restart my search for masters opportunities, and activities that might increase my chance of being accepted into a masters program.

8. Do my bit for looking after our household in terms of cooking (I’ve already got the cleaning bit nailed)

Christmas 2009

2010-01-09T10:23:00.014+09:00

Christmas has come and gone. It was so much better than last year’s Christmas, and I feel that our effort to make the most of the long weekend really paid off. It was jam packed with goodness, fun, friendship and a sprinkling of booze.

I got off early on Thursday. I asked to leave early when I heard there was going to be an afternoon meeting from 4:00pm. I hate late afternoon meetings, I never know how long they will go on and am effectively consigned to my desk for their duration. Anyway I was given permission to leave early, so I squeezed some last minute shopping in before rushing home. There was a definite sense of urgency to the afternoon as Jess and I needed to pack various gifts and cooking utensils that we intended taking to Thomas’ house before the arrival of our single Christmas guest.

Last year Emily a Brit on a global backpacking adventure joined us for Christmas, this year Bianca who we met on Ulleungdo, played the role of Christmas guest. Ulleungdo is a small and remote island that is only accessible by a ferry that takes three hours to reach the island. Bianca had had, earlier in the day, arrived on the mainland for the first time in months and was thrilled to be offered a gin and tonic as soon as she entered our house. Ulleungdo’s remoteness, and relative inaccessibility, ensure that very few western products make it to the island. Bianca was incredulous that we have gin and tonic water here. While we drank, toasted and packed Bianca regaled us with tales of the many creative ways she had to devised to cook squid while on Ulleungdo; and of times when fresh fruit, vegetables and milk disappeared from the shops shelves during periods of bad weather which prevented resupply from the mainland.

The story telling did not last long and soon we were on a bus to Gumi. Unfortunately for us the seats on the bus to Gumi were all full by the time we arrived at the bus station, so Jessica and Bianca stood for the forty minute trip while I perched next to the bus driver. Once in Gumi we took a taxi over to Thomas’ large and very comfortable apartment where we met several friends from across the province. There was much drinking and laughter. Jess and Bianca, along with one or two others, cooked us roast chicken and vegetables; before which we played ‘secret santa.’ Secret santa is a very simple game. Each of us had brought a wrapped gift along, that cost under W10 000, placed them in a pile and then took turns choosing a single gift to unwrap and keep. The gifts were anonymous and afterwards we all said ‘thank you secret Santa’ together.

I’m told the drinking went on till late, but exhaustion and beer saw me pass out before midnight. On Saturday we took a cable car up Gumi san where we saw a frozen waterfall and a cave containing a Buddha figure. When we returned to the base of the mountain we ate ‘pajeon’, best described as a cross between a pancake and omelet with loads of vegetables, and drank ‘makoli’, an alcoholic drink made from rice.

In the evening we watched Sherlock Holmes, on the big screen, before catching a bus home.

On Saturday we caught the 8:30am bus to Suanbo, which is in the mountains north of us, from where we took a taxi to Woraksan national park. We had hoped to make a snow man, and although it had clearly snowed the previous night there wasn’t enough snow to roll into balls. None of us it to be so bitterly cold and we were unprepared to stay outdoors for long, besides the port that we had brought along barely touched sides, so we caught the first bus back into Suanbo where we sought out a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet for it’s pheasant dishes. Pheasant meals are a specialty of the Suanbo area. The meal was superb and consisted of seven courses. Once again much makoli was consumed, and once again I fell asleep.

Sunday was pretty quiet. Bianca, Jess and I visited a small persimmon festival on the banks of the Nakdong that runs through town. There were a number food tents, and many of them were clearly selling whale meat. Whale meat can only be sold if the whale was caught us bycatch. Since the legalisation of the sale of whale bycatch, reported bycatch of whales, in Japan, has increased dramatically raising serious questions.

On Sunday evening Simon, Dan and Melissa joined us for dinner at our home. It was a three course affair, eaten under candle light.

This morning I went to school for the last time this semester. Bianca had left for Seoul by the time I arrived home. I now have a few days off as the camps only start in the New Year. The last couple of days have been great, Jess and I enjoyed Bianca’s company. It’s always refreshing to meet like minded people. Looking back this year has, for the most part, gone well. I’m especially glad that Jess and I have made many new friends over the last couple of months. Having an extensive group of friends really makes a difference.

Having a little nap after the pheasant lunch.

Jess and Mark on our walk in Geumosan

Jess and Bianca

Simon and myself on the back of bakkie / pick up truck. We hitched a lift into a town when it looked like we mike miss our bus. I'm a big fan of Simon, he's always game for a good time.

The four of us in Woraksan National Park

Gathering snow during the failed snow man attempt.

Jess on Christmas eve.

Pajeon.

About to take the cable car up Geumosan

Scott and Sarah at our place for an early Christmas dinner.

Simon and Jess in Woraksan National Park

2009-12-12T23:14:00.005+09:00

Hello everyone

Greetings from across the world to all of you - how I hate the time the difference between us and the travelling time that it takes to get to Korea. As for Korea - ah Korea “I heart you”, even though I speak so very little Korean I really feel that this country is becoming a second home to me. I’m enjoying life here. It’s incredible to think how far I have come in a year, and how different my attitude to this country is than when I arrived.

Life continues at break neck pace over here. Jess and I are busy every weekend and have our weekends planned well into January next year. I’ve neglected uploading news of my life to my blog, and I see that I failed to mention that I went to Japan a couple of weeks ago. We took the ferry from Busan to Fukuouka on Saturday the 21^st of November, watched a Sumo contest, partied on into the night and took a return ferry on Sunday at lunch time. I should have written something at the time, and now I want to write on other topics. Anyway, Jess has posted news about the trip to Japan on her blog for those of you who are interested.

By the by, Japan was the 10^th country that I have visited! Yay, it’s a milestone. I feel fortunate to have visited so many different countries. I have had amazing opportunities that for the majority of people on this planet exist only in dreams. The next country that Jess and I would like to visit is Cambodia which we intend visiting in January next year.

We are still looking into the trans-Manchurian as an option for October 2010, and my good friend Clint has expressed serious interest which brings our little party of intrepid Moscow bound adventurers to four people.

Talking of Clint, I would like to mention that he is going to do a friend of mine a favour by couriering a camera to him. Last Sunday Jess and I went up to Seoul where we searched Yongsan electronics market for a bargain before settling on an excellent price for our friend back home. We managed to save R5000 on what would have had to be paid back at home. What a saving! What is more in between the bargaining we managed to fit in the best Thai meal I have ever eaten - Seoul really is a cosmopolitan city.

On Friday of the same week Jess and met a whole bunch of friends for dinner here in Sangju. We organised a private room at a local restaurant and all told about 30 people joined us - it was a big success.

This past Friday, last night, Jess and I went to Jeomchon, a neighbouring town, where we met friends to party it up and celebrate a birthday. They are such a nice crowd of people and keep introducing us to more people, our social circle is growing which is fantastic. There were three other South Africans at the party, which is unusual - it’s not often that we meet other South Africans, but this trend is changing rapidly. There are already far more South Africans in Korea than when we arrived a year ago.

Today we set out for Suanbo, which is in the mountains about one and a half hours north of here, to investigate the local ski resort and see whether it is open. When we travelled to Seoul last Sunday we passed through lots of snow which got us hoping for a bumper ski season. Unfortunately we have had an unusually warm week and the only snow to be seen at the ski resort was on the two ski runs that were open. We were tempted to hire skis and take part in the fun, but even the two slopes that we could see were looking tacky; and as skiing is an expensive sport we decided to be responsible and head home. All was not lost though, we managed to fit an enjoyable walk in.

Things have been going well for me, but I received some bad news this week. My main coteacher is likely to transfer to another school. When I received this news I felt as though the bottom of my world was about to fall out. Even now that I have had two full days to digest the news I am filled with a sense of dread at the thought of not having her around next year -- I am totally freaked / freaking out. My anxiety increases still further when I start wondering who is going to take her role as my main coteacher next year. I am, with no exaggeration, very very worried about how things are going to pan out for me. None of the other English teachers at my school even remotely understands my situation, how important the role of ‘main coteacher’ is to me and the significant difficulties they can cause me through simple inattentiveness.

I received the news on Thursday evening by means of email in which my main coteacher asked me for my thoughts. I stated in strong terms that I believe she would be much happier at another school. I so wanted to write a completely different reply, but I couldn’t - how could repay her kindness with ill advice? When I saw her the next morning she told me she had not slept at all on Thursday evening. She looked haggard. I didn’t tell her that I also had a sleepless night. I so hope she gets the transfer, she deserves a better work environment; and I so hope her request flatly turned down - it’s nasty to say this, but my I own set of instincts are very much at play.

My main coteacher’s departure will be a real blow to the school, she has been an unappreciated asset. So spare a thought for me. I’ve dropped all grandiose wishes from my Christmas wish list, all I want is a decent replacement.

Kelsey, our town's' "Miss Party Animal of the Year". She's always good for a laugh and an outrageous comment which leads to another laugh.

Romeo sporting his Jamexican [Jamaican Mexican] frog hat. He made it himself.

Jess and yours truly with our gracious host. His staff worked so hard that evening. We were given a discount at the end of the evening, in SA there might well have been a surcharge for serving such a large group -- Korea is unmatched when it comes to service.

Cameron, in the middle of the picture, is one of the newer westerners in our province. He lives in Jeomcheon which is twenty minutes bus ride from Sangju. I like his expression, is it bewilderment or surprise or both?

Wooseong is a friend of Jessica and myself. He taught with Jess for a brief period. Unfortunately he lives in Daegu these days.

Giovanni Romeo, our Italian American friend. He is one of the more experienced teahers, and one of the more level headed westerners I have met since coming here. He really is a fountain of knoweledge when it comes to Korea and a host of other topics.

Some of the guests at the big dinner.

Dak galbi, the meal that ate at the big dinner. It is similar to chicken stir fry.

2009-11-27T16:00:00.002+09:00

Here's an interesting articles that I read recently. It's available at http://blog.educationusa.or.kr/category/history-and-background/, it's part of a series of essays that can be downloaded at http://blog.educationusa.or.kr/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/korean-culture-essays-hhunderwood.pdf

____________________________________________________________________________

In and out

Dr. Horace. H. Underwood.

The problem of "in and out" is only a small part of a larger pattern: Korea is fundamentally not an egalitarian culture, not one that values equality of treatment, but one that makes distinctions between people, one that is hierarchical.

Well, you knew that Korean culture was hierarchical. But do you know what that really implies? I mean, it's arranged vertically!

Just as one clue, there is no word in Korean for "brother." There is no such word. There is a Korean word for "elder brother" ("hyong") and a Korean word for "younger brother" ("tongsaeng") but no word for brother. American brothers are generally equal to each other, but Korean brothers are not equal; the elder brother has what we would call the responsibility of a father toward his younger brothers. The relationship is different, so the word is different. My Korean friends always consider me slightly immoral in that I do not tell my younger brother what to do.

Koreans have separate words for elder sister and younger sister, too. In fact, they have different words for a man to use for his elder sister and for a woman to use for her elder sister. The words are different because the roles are different and the relationships are different and the responsibilities are different and not equal.

Korea is a Confucian society. Everyone is Confucian, including the Christians. Confucianism is primarily a system of ethics, not religion, and within ethics, even more a system of social relationships. The very center of Confucianism is the "Five Relationships" of "king to subject, father to son, elder brother to younger brother, husband to wife, and friend to friend." Note that four out of five of these are hierarchical. That's about right; Korea is at least 80% hierarchical. (And even "friends" only applies if the two were born the same year, and are thus the same age and capable of being roughly equal. And even then not quite, because the one born a month or a day or an hour ahead is senior. Even twins: like Esau and Jacob, the twin born first is the elder brother. Koreans are very confused when Americans claim that someone clearly not their own age is their "friend.")

Language reinforces inequality not only in things like the words for "brother" but in every sentence. The "levels" of spoken Korean are controlled by and also define the relationship of the two speakers. Even if you know no Korean you will notice that younger people use a lot of long sentences ending with "-imnida," while older people talking to younger people end their sentences with short cutoff endings. Two people can't even talk to each other until they have defined their mutual relationship, hierarchically, by position or age.

Teachers, particularly senior teachers, maintain a certain dignity. Americans may think such teachers are putting it on, but in their minds they are simply being senior, acting as a teacher ought to act. Granted that Koreans treat Americans as somewhat outside the Korean hierarchical system (my "honorary" age for a long time has been about 10 years greater than my real age, though the gap has now disappeared), and granted that Koreans take things from foreigners that they would never take from other Koreans, still, hierarchy is the whole world, and being aware of one's relative place in the world is a way of making life easier in dealing with Koreans anywhere.

About the author:

Horace H. Underwood is the fourth generation of his family to live in Korea. His great-grandfather was one of the first Protestant missionaries to arrive in Korea in 1885, and later founded Yonsei University, where his family has continued to teach. Dr. Underwood first went to Korea in 1946 at the age of three; after earning a doctorate at SUNY Buffalo he served for 30 years as a professor in Yonsei's English Department. During that time he also had various other posts in international education, including Director of the Division of International Education and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, and Executive Director of the Korean American Educational Commission (the Fulbright Commission.) In 2004 he retired and moved to a home in South Carolina near his granddaughter, but still returns to Korea regularly as a member of the Board of Directors of Yonsei University and as a friend of Korea. Dr. Underwood can be contacted at: hhund@fulbright.or.kr

Hierarchy at school

2009-11-27T15:51:00.003+09:00

Earlier this week one of my classes did not pitch to my lesson. There was no fore warning, they just didn’t arrive. Not being informed of things is a pet hate of mine. I expect my coteachers to inform me when a group of students are not going to attend my lesson. I have often spoken to the coteacher, whose students did not arrive to class, about the need for communication but he continues to fail to inform me. I’ve pleaded and reasoned with the teacher in question, I’ve even refused to attend a school event once when I received notice of it extremely late; all too little effect.

Not being informed of things irritates me, but I try to bear in mind that I am not at home – I am in Korea and the two cultures are markedly different.

At home if important information is withheld, it’s acceptable to be peeved off. Unfortunately for me, Korea is a strictly ordered society. I don’t fit into the ordering well since I have only a very rudimentary understanding of the culture and I am not Korean, but this is not to say that aspects of Korean culture aren’t applied to me. In Korea it is acceptable for more senior people to not pass on information to junior people, and so I am not informed about changes in class schedule.

Similarly junior people are not involved in discussions about decisions which affect them. For example I submitted my request for my winter vacation yesterday, and I was told by my coteacher that the other teachers had discussed my request and that it is likely to be approved. I thanked my coteacher, but I must admit my immediate instinctual feeling was irritation since I couldn’t help but feel that my leave request concerns the schools senior administrator and myself; and nobody else. Unfortunately my feelings don’t match reality – instead of my leave request being a simple matter between two people it has to go through several people; which is why my coteacher could not give me an immediate answer event though my requested dates are in the middle of the vacation. My leave request is likely to land on the desks of - the senior English teachers, the head of English, the 3^rd in charge at school, a senior administrator, the teacher in charge of leave, the vice-principal and finally the principal.

Hierarchical relations are all pervasive in Korea, and are strictly applied; even to the layout of the teacher’s office. The vice principal’s desk is against the windows at the back. The most senior teacher’s desks form a line with the vice-principals, with the second most and third most important men in the room seated on the left and right side of the vice-principal. These senior teacher’s desks are arranged in relation to the importance of their subject. The more important the desk, the closer it is to the vice-principal. Sport is the least important of the subjects, so although the head of sport sits with the most senior teachers his desk is the furthest from the vice-principal. Oh, and the most senior teachers are all men.

The rest of the desks are organized in perpendicular rows to the vice principal’s desk. Desks are assigned according to the teacher’s age and the subject’s importance. So for example, sport is not a very important subject; but one of the sports teachers is an older man so he sits closer to the vice-principal than a younger sports teacher would. My coteacher is a woman and in her mid thirties, but she has a relatively well positioned desk. This is probably because she plays a pivotal role in English education at school; as English is an important subject this warrants her current desk. I’m young and I am one the most junior teachers so I sit at the furthest end of my row from the vice-principal. Although my current desk is situated marginally closer to the vice-principal than when I first arrived, it is next to a basin which makes it an unpopular spot.

Generally the more senior teachers sit closer to the vice principal, the only exception being a group of senior teachers that get to sit with their backs towards cupboards which affords them a bit more privacy.

Finally the least important person – the office assistant, who is a young woman, sits the furthest away from the vice-principal.

At the beginning of the year just about everyone move desks. This was a huge task, both books and desks were pushed around the teachers office. At the time I did not understand why the teachers were prepared to come into school during the vacation to undertake the massive move; but now I understand that the move was important and must take place every year. As the teaching staff changes slightly, the teacher’s office has to be rearranged in order to maintain the hierarchy.

Teaching

2009-11-17T18:28:00.002+09:00

Hello Everybody

Hello anybody - does anybody read my blog? (Jess as always you don’t count - oh and Eebee you rock.) Everythings instant these days - where’s the gratification in wading through my half baked blog posts, when you can watch truly random crap on youtube? Well I’ll keep writing, if only to keep a record of my years in South Korea.

So Jess and I have been extremely busy over the last while. I’ve been at the coal face preparing lessons, but I am enjoying teaching and I feel that my effort to become a good teacher is really paying off. I finally feel that I can give the students instructions without resorting to translations if I choose my language, class activities and visual cues carefully. It is so immensely satisfying to walk out of a classroom and feel that the lesson was a 100% success. I only dreamed of such feelings in my early days, and now I experience satisfaction on a regular basis.

This is not to suggest that I don’t deliver crap lessons once in a while. They still happen, but their frequency is on the wane. At least the responsibility for the success of lessons does not lie solely with me, ‘class dynamics’ play a huge role in the success of a lesson. Some groups of students will respond to just about any lesson, while others remain uninterested and unruly in lessons that the majority of other classes have responded favorably to.

I’m enjoying tapping into my creative side. It’s awesome to think of novel ideas for class, and sometimes one has to. There are very few ‘ready made stick in the microwave for five minutes’ lessons that are geared towards large classes of easily disinterested students. Stuff like ‘pair work’ is by and large a joke, it hardly ever works, within minutes it’s a jam session for the majority of the class. This said I had an awesome lesson that involved extensive pair work at my rural school today, fortunately the class that I gave the lesson to are fairly enthusiastic. My only regret is that it took to long to get the activity started, but then again I am well versed in the catastrophic results that come with turning students loose on an activity to soon.

I can’t believe some of the lessons that one finds in text books - I mean do, the authors really believe that teenage boys give a flying continental about introducing oneself at a party, or discussing one’s weekend at work? I realise they teach accurate language, and provide realistic situations - but teenagers aren’t interested in that stuff, they want excitement - they want to use their imaginations. Many of my successful lessons have been based on ‘escapism’, or ‘role-playing’ -- being different, escaping from everyday situations. Who gives a toss if the ‘coffee cup is on the table’? No ways, ‘the gold bar’, which is part of the evidence that you are trying to collect, ‘is on the table’ is soooo much more interesting.

Yesterday I started teaching ‘Africa v2’, that’s right I’ve incorporated some general knowledge into my classes, ‘Africa v1’ was overly ambitious and flopped so I scrapped it after the first lesson. The second lesson is a quiz and is proving successful. The students have time to go through cards that I have prepared before the quiz starts - the only thing is I really didn’t think the cards through very well before diving into preparing them. Each card consists of 3 pieces of paper, each group has 17 cards and there are 6 groups. So 3 X pieces of paper X 17 cards X 6 groups = 306 pieces of paper that need to be cut and glued together = the weekend totally wasted. So now I am laminating the cards as I can just see some little shit scribbling on the cards, drawing phallic symbols, writing stuff, adding horns etc.

If I only I had spent a little more time in the planning stage, I would not have spent nearly as long preparing the materials. Oh well, lesson relearned.

Au revoir great vacuum of the internet.

Comment folk, comment!

Gender Equality in South Korea

2009-11-08T12:00:00.004+09:00

Here’s an article that appeared in last weekend’s Korea Times.

It was placed within the editorial on page six.

I don’t know much about laying out a newspaper, but given the exceptional importance of the topic to a large percentage of the population I would have thought that news of South Korea's slide in terms of gender equality would have warranted space on the front page.

I guess it’s a little ironic that the piece was buried deep within the paper, albeit in the editorial.

Gender Equality: Korea's Global Ranking Slides Due to Widening Gap

The nation has a long way to go to narrow the widening gender gap. On Tuesday, the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum ranked South Korea 115th in its gender equality list of 134 countries. The forum gave Korea 0.615 in the gender equality index, which is far lower than that of most Asian nations, not to mention top-ranking Western states.

Iceland won 0.827 points, taking the world's top place. Among the leading groups were Finland, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and Lesotho. The Philippines was listed 9th, emerging as the Asian leader. The United States took 31st place, while China ranked 60th and Japan 75th.

It is really disappointing that Korea's ranking has continued to fall over the past years. The country was listed 92nd in 2006, 97th in 2007 and 108th in 2008. As far as gender equality is concerned, Korea has reached the global bottom. We have to humbly accept the ranking and go all-out to bridge the gap between the sexes.

In fact, the nation has neglected its efforts to promote gender equality, while boasting of only its economic power and technological breakthroughs. Korea gained only 0.0714 in the forum's political empowerment index, the lowest level in the world. The reason is because only a small number of women take elected positions such as those of lawmakers, governors and majors.

Currently, the proportion of female legislators only stands at 13.7 percent in the 299-member National Assembly. Only two women serve as ministers, with no female governors. And a mere 3.68 percent of ranking government officials were women in 2008, a plunge from the 6.23 percent in 2006.

South Korean women also have to tolerate less economic opportunities than their male counterparts. Women's economic participation is less than half that of men and their wages are still lower than those of their male competitors.

The nation is required to make concerted efforts to improve gender equality so that it can cement its social cohesion and raise its national competitiveness. It should implement various programs to offer more and better opportunities to women in every field. The role of women is pivotal to national development in the 21st century.

Recent news

2009-11-04T18:27:00.003+09:00

Hi Everyone

I feel like I am falling out of the habit of communicating with all of you. I don’t write to anyone as regularly anymore, and I don’t hear much from anyone either. I don’t want to lose contact with my mates, so this email / post is me reaching out to all of you.

It’s not laziness that has kept me from contacting you, I have been extremely busy. Keeping up with classes, and trying to keep a constant flow of creative ideas going is both time consuming and tiring. At the end of the day I am buggered. At least my effort at school has really been paying off. I feel that my students respect me, and that they enjoy my classes. The students’ participation in my classes has been through the roof of late. Sure I have one or two dud groups of students, who doesn’t, but even some of these students have warmed slightly to my classes.

My poetry competition was a huge success, so much so that I have not been able to keep up with the submissions. So my teaching life is going well, but I must admit I don’t have as much energy as I did several weeks ago. Even with my recent trip to the DMZ I feel worn out. I need a break, but I only have the odd day off through until February. Don’t feel sorry for me though. Feel sorry for my students, they are working doubly hard. Their attention hasn’t begun to slip in class yet, but I think this largely thanks a lucky streak I have had with my lesson planning. All I need is one bum lesson and I am going to have heads on desks.

Jess and I visited the DMZ last weekend. I’m haven’t fully got my head around the experience yet - it was bizarre. Within half an hour of leaving Seoul one begins to see barb wire along the Han river, which runs through Seoul, and soon after that guard posts begin appearing at regular intervals. The closer one gets to the DMZ the more regular the guard posts become. Seeing the guard posts begin so soon after Seoul really brought home how close it is to the border, and the substantial threat that it is under. There can be little doubt that North Korea has selected numerous targets in and around Seoul, and some of the outlying areas are probably within reach of North Koreas artillery. Taking such measures no doubt serves as a valuable dissuasive measure against any rash military action on the part of South Korea.

Once one reaches the DMZ a bored soldier enters the tour bus and checks everyone’s IDs. Touring the DMZ is big business and the soldiers that man the entry points have to check several hundred IDs a day.

The DMZ is a bizarre mixture of tourist attractions, military installations, monuments, viewing points, and ‘education centers’. The weather was miserable on the day that we visited, so I didn’t take any pictures, but I doubt there would have been much worth photographing anyway. On this occasion I left the picture taking to some of the less serious members in our group who took every opportunity to have their pictures taken next to imposing, and unflinching, border guards; as well as next to the really kitch theme park style statues of the same soldiers at other points. After photographing themselves next to the kitch statues the same people would rush to be photographed next to the more appropriately serious statues. Once again they would grin and pose, or lean, all over the statues flashing grins and peace signs with little going on behind their eyes.

With hindsight the DMZ was not worth seeing. I didn’t gain much from the experience. It wasn’t informative, and the whole experience was geared more towards voyeurism than meaningful reflection.

When feeling cynical I can’t help but feel that South Korea has been so corrupted by its unabashed pursuit of wealth that it has turned a sad reminder of the Korean war and continued division of thousands of families, into just another money making racket.

Once back in Seoul among the hoardes of fashion clad people, massive billboards, and screaming advertising Jess and I got chatting about the likelihood of the two countries uniting again one day. The sad thing is that even though most south Koreans view South and North Korea as one divided country, I doubt very many would be prepared to substantially fund the extend the high standard of public services to the north Korean public. South Koreas cities simply don’t seem to be producing socially minded individuals, and with each successive generation the horrors of the Korean War and continued tension may well attract less interest.

Kim Jung Il and the north Korean military are an obvious major stumbling block to reunification, but beneath the surface the huge development gap between the countries may well push back the possibility of reunification back by decades after the final demise of the Kim regime.

I wonder how many South Koreans wonder about the development gap, and the problems it poses to reunification. Everyone sees Kim and his acolytes as stymieing meaningful discussion, but what if all Kim Jung Il et al disappeared overnight? After the euphoria resided would south Koreans be prepared to pick up the massive bill that would surely be entailed in reunifying the country?

We spent Saturday evening with Clint in Dongducheon. Dongducheon is north of Seoul and home to the US military base Camp Casey. As a result it is not uncommon to see groups of heavily built western men. A number of clubs catering to the soldiers have sprung up in a suburb near to Clint. The clubs, all with dodgy names and exteriors - and most likely still dodgier interiors, didn’t interest us; but we took the opportunity to visit Chong’s American Breakfast House on Sunday. Chong’s American Breakfast House is staffed by Phillipinos, and we really got a multicultural experience with our large American style $12 breakfasts that we ate while sitting among hulking, tattooed and crew cut men.

The breakfast wrapped up our weekend up north. Five minutes after it ended Jess and I sat down in a train station to begin the wait for the train that would take us into Seoul. There we caught the comfortable KTX express train which we swapped in Gimcheon for a forty minute ride on the substantially less comfortable train to Sangju.

Last night Jess and I attended a small farewell for one of the foreigners who has come to the end of her contract. Everyone in our small community of just less than twenty people was invited, but only five, excluding Shirley who is the person that is about to leave, attended. I felt a little sorry for Shirley. She wasn’t great friends with anyone and a number of faces in our community have changed recently, but I had expected more people to attend. The five people that attended were all South African. Was it simply a coincidence that the five of us were all South African? Do South Africans place greater value on a sense of community, are we less individualistic? Who knows, perhaps there is something to gleaned from last night; but then again five people is simply to small a number to extrapolate from with any confidence.

Weekly round up

2009-10-24T16:39:00.003+09:00

Weekly round up

Hey everyone, here’s my weekly round up.

So I was sick on Monday, as in genuine sick at home sick. Not that I know any other type of sick; but I was worried that the teachers at school may have thought that I was not sick, but rather skiving off. So I deliberated taking the day off but in the end my not wanting to pass on the germs and genuine sick feeling won out.

Anyway it was one of those 24hour bugs where you make a miraculous recovery very quickly, so I was back at school on Tuesday.

School has been going very well for me of late. My lessons have been going well and I feel that I am achieving something in class. On Tuesday I helped the students at my rural school prepare for ‘show and tell’ which is taking place this coming Tuesday. I really enjoyed helping them with their pronunciation and correcting their grammar. I didn’t simply correct their speeches/talks that they were preparing, I kind of led them through the problems - you know made them puzzle out the solutions which I felt was helpful to them. I really felt like a proper teacher at the end of the day, rather than someone fumbling about in the class room.

My birthday lesson has been going very well, and it only took me half an hour to dream up - this is how it is meant to be. It’s so simple. First I go through the numbers 1 to 20 with the students, getting them to say ‘first, second, third’ etc. The students already know the language, so it’s more like a refresher which is really what I aim to do in class. I want to refresh and reinforce rather than teach new language.

After this I lead them through the language that I would like them to use. They have to say “That was your X/Y/Zth birthday” when looking at photographs of my birthdays. It’s a simple sentence but the students find it difficult to remember. If the students guess how old I was correctly they win a ticket, so the exercise is also competition which adds an element of excitement. The really cool thing is that as the pictures change every couple of minutes the students don’t get bored. I’m also pleased that as the weaker students hear the same sentence over and over they begin to pluck up the courage to have a bash themselves.

After this exercise I hold up a bag which contains my birthday presents and get the students to guess what gifts I was given. Since the students are warmed up from the previous activity they listen to my clues and make guesses.

The best thing about all of this is that I finally feel that I am engaging the more hyper students, I feel like I am channeling their energy.

The poetry competition has been a great success and lots of students have made submitted poems, + students have been visiting the blog that I created which is fantastic. Of course I am now going to have to mark the poetry and update the blog, but I really don’t mind since the pay off is that I am engaging the students. Of course the students aren’t just writing poetry out of a love for poetry, they want to win tickets for the draw.

The draw is sooo popular, everyone wants to win tickets. The students shake the box (containing the tickets that have already been entered) to mix up the tickets and examine it carefully to see if they can spot names on the tickets.

So I’m a happy but very busy teacher.

Next week Jess and I are going on an EPIK sponsored trip to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) between North and South Korea. The trip starts on Friday, so we get Friday off. Yay!

In terms of other trips our long train trip is slowly beginning to take shape. My friend Guy is set on joining us which I am thrilled about. I’m hoping Clint will join us as well so that we take up a full cabin on the train; but even if it is just Guy and us it will still be great. Clearly Guy doesn’t feel like a spare wheel with us which I would hate. Blech, I really don’t dig couples that make you feel like a spare wheel.

We hope to go to Japan in November. Friends have invited us to watch Sumo wrestling with them. We only intend going for a weekend, but it is going to be awesome.

And finally, last - but far from least - Jess had a piece published in the Korea Times. See: “New Songdo city - How eco-friendly is it?” She worked long and hard on the article, and deserved to have it published.

Stereotypes and food

2009-10-18T13:34:00.006+09:00

Last Sunday was Clint’s birthday. So we joined him, and a number of his friends, for a bit a party in Seoul forest (really a large park). We left early as we did not want to risk missing the last bus home. I didn’t want to leave, I always enjoy seeing Clint and his friends, but I’m glad that we did since judging by the photos that have since seen the party went on well into the night.

Teaching with a hangover is no fun. I’ve only taught with a hangover once, it followed a night of drinking with Jessica’s teachers when we first arrived. I remember not wanting to drink as much as we did, but we were new and did not want to offend anyone. These days I simply say ‘no thanks’.

We got such looks from the Koreans as we partied it up in the park while families were on their day out. I felt a little guilty playing the ‘drunk indecent foreigner’ stereotype, but the truth is Koreans (mostly men) drink everywhere and anywhere. At least we didn’t harass anyone, I’ve often been harassed by groups of drunk Koreans. I know they mean well, but I am tired of drunk Koreans telling me they ‘love me’ and trying to get me to drink with them -- I’m also entitled to my space.

Autumn is growing colder here. I’m wearing two jerseys at present. The forests are looking beautiful, unfortunately though each time I see the forests I am reminded of the bitter cold to come. Autumn in Korea is a time of ‘dok’ (rice cake) and dried persimmons. I don’t like either. ‘Dok’ and ‘persimmons’ are the bane of my existence since I am offered them regularly. My polite refusals are often followed by questions about Korean food, and more specifically “What Korean food do you enjoy?”. I get the strong sense many people over here take my dislike of ‘dok’ and persimmons as a sign that I generally don’t enjoy Korean food, which is simply not true. The back and forth about ‘dok’, persimmons and Korean food drives me up the wall.

I enjoy Korean food, there are very few dishes that I don’t enjoy -- why can’t people accept that I can enjoy Korean food and still dislike specific dishes?? My irritation is only worsened by the fact that the teachers at my school have seen me eat, and complete eating, many different Korean meals. How can I break out of the stereotypical ‘foreigner that doesn’t enjoy Korean food’ mold?

This whole back and forth about Korean food reminds me of a meal from last term: Some teachers and myself had ordered Chinese takeaways for lunch. The meal that we ordered was spicy, as in ‘seriously mouth on fire spicy’. I must admit a struggled to eat it. My nose was running, my eyes were watering, I was sniffing.

My colleagues across from me were doing exactly the same, they were also struggling. Only according to them the food was clearly too hot for me, but not too hot for them.

How does that work? I ate the meal, finished it all, and yet it was too hot for me and not for them. I had the strong sense that on this occasion the teachers saw less of Julian managing to eat, and finish, a seriously spicy meal and more of a stereotypical foreigner that cannot manage spicy food.

Serious stereotypes about foreigners exist in Korea. They drive me up the wall, but serve as a valuable lesson to avoid indulging in stereotypical beliefs about others (which I am prone to do).

Motivation

2009-10-18T11:40:00.012+09:00

I recently did a bit of free writing - you know, when you just sit and write with no aim and purpose in mind - anyway, I thought I would share a snippet of what I wrote:

- - - - - - - - - - -

So I’m feeling unmotivated at the moment, on top of which I’m tired. I’m not sure whether I am tired because I’m unmotivated or unmotivated because I’m tired; or whether the two are related at all - although I suspect they are.

What happened? When I arrived back in Korea I felt motivated, I was going to work hard, improve my lessons and become a great teacher.

I guess reality poured cold water on these ideas. My reality is that under the conditions that I teach it can prove difficult to remain motivated.

Each lesson I pack thirty plus, often restless, students into my classroom. There’s little room to move once the class is seated, so the majority must remain in their seats for the duration of the lesson.

No matter where I pitch my lessons they are either too difficult or too easy for number of the students.

At this point I fee like I’m rediscovering how low some of the students are. Some of them are at foundation level, they require special attention which in a class room of thirty or more students is not possible. It’s an indictment on the Korean schooling system that these students are pushed from year to year of English education never having grasped the most basic elements of the language. I feel sorry for them, and wonder how they feel when I occasionally misidentify one of their number as a student that is actually keeping up in class.

I want to apologise when this happens. I want to explain that my intention is not to embarrass them. I want to tell them that I do my best to avoid inadvertently embarrassing them, but that it is hard to keep track of 700 boys English abilities when I only see them once every two weeks. I wish I could quietly pull these students aside and apologise but my Korean is too poor, and this is a failing on my part. I would like to ask my Korean colleague to translate, but I doubt they would understand my sentiment and my own pride would probably leave me feeling awkward and unsatisfied.

- - - - - - - -

So I have been a little unmotivated, but I do have some good news. Some of my higher level students have taken to the idea of writing for me which I am thrilled about. In the last week I have received a range of poems and short pieces.

The vast majority of my students also like the new reward system that I have implemented. The reward system is really simple: I have created two boxes, one for each of my schools, and the students can win 'tickets' in class, which they fill in with some basic information - their name, their class and the date - and then put into the box. At the end of the school year we are going to have a draw, and one student is going to win a voucher. I have also told them that there will be a small prize for the student with the most tickets in each class. I hope the novelty of this new reward system doesn't wear off. I'll hold an interim draw if the students’ interest begins to wane.

I enjoy teaching, it’s both fascinating and complex; and I can understand how people ‘fall into teaching’ and remain teachers for the rest of their lives, but teaching is not something I wish to do indefinitely. Teaching is an adventure for me, but it’s one that has an end in the relatively near future.

One of the challenges of teaching, for me at least, is to remain motivated. My experience, both from growing up and as teacher, is that adolescents, especially boys, can be difficult to motivate and keep interested. Combining adolescents and unmotivated teachers is a recipe for disaster, and not for the teacher - but rather for the students. I can thank a certain Afrikaans teacher who taught me in my final years of schooling for effectively killing my interest in the language. Only now am I beginning to take an interest in Afrikaans once again.

Despite my current apathy I at least recognise how important it is for teachers to remain motivated; and have so far not let my personal lack of motivation affect my classes. I put in as much enthusiasm as ever when teaching.

This is the box that I created for my second school. I had the students decorate the box.

Trans-Manchurian

2009-10-07T20:58:00.005+09:00

I recently mentioned the possibility of doing the trans-Siberian, or more accurately the trans-Manchurian as I want to travel from Beijing, next summer in an email home.

Only now I am not so certain. It’s not that sitting in a train for days on end with mates consuming large amounts of coffee while reading Russian literature between consuming copious amounts of vodka is not appealing. It’s just that the summer holidays may prove too short to fully take in the adventure. I have been inquisitive about Russia and Siberia for several years now, and I don’t want to rush the adventure.

So now I’m thinking why not scrap the summer hols idea and travel to Moscow at more leisurely rate after the end of my contract. Only I’m not content to end my journey in Moscow, I would like to travel on down to Istanbul. There’s so much of eastern Europe to discover, and Istanbul would prove an excellent place to end the journey.

The trip from Beijing would take me through China, through the Gobi desert and Mongolia up to lake Baykal, and from there I would start the westward journey to Moscow which includes taking in the Ural mountains. Moscow would end the trans-Manchurian journey, but Moscow is also the starting point of my east European, or rather former Soviet bloc, adventure. After leaving Moscow I would cross the Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and fair amount of Turkey before arriving at Istanbul.

Imagine the culinary adventure to be had while travelling 9,621km, my mouth waters at the thought.

It’s nice to dream.

Hey anyone want to quit their job and adventure with me?

Now to find a starting point, hm - Lonely Planet here we come. Done, it’s ordered!