Where does the time go?
It's hard to believe my first week has already come and gone, it's been such a blur! I feel I've made some serious progress though- just look at all of my accomplishments:
- finished my first week as an English teacher
- put my foot down in the classroom- taking away notes and splitting up kids who were talking :) - successfully went grocery shopping, despite my illiteracy of the Korean language
- ate lots of "authentic" Korean food
- went to Yeosu
- climbed a mountain
- got over my jetlag
- most importantly- made new friends!
On Wednesday I went for dinner with my co-teacher Im Seong, and 4 other teachers from school. A real Korean dining experience! When you come into any restaurant you take off your shoes and sit crosslegged on the floor at a small table. Koreans are all about the sharing! We had Golgi jo rim, which was pieces of fish in a spicy red sauce with beans and onion. Everyone gets a small bowl of rice, and another bowl you can scoop your fish into (which the eldest at the table traditionally scoops into your bowl). Good thing I'm getting better with the chopsticks, because picking around the bones was not something you could do with a fork. Besides the fish there are an array of small bowls of different foods at the table, which everyone just picks from with their chopsticks- seaweed, leaves of cabbage, beansprouts, kimchi , other pickled vegetables, and some unknowns. The conversation was pretty well all in Korean, as the other teachers speak only a smattering of English. They were also asking me what I thought of the vice principal, who talked my ear off for a few hours in the staff room that day. "He boring isn't he?!". I wasn't sure what to say- you don't want anything to come back to haunt you, but they're all typical chattery women who like to talk about coworkers. And he was a little boring... haha. But it was a really great dinner! Everyone is so generous, and just wonderful to be around.
Thursday I went with Im Seong and Hae Jin to Yeosu, a port city half an hour from Suncheon. Yes, finally another city! We had to go to the immigration office, so I could drop off my passport for them to process my Alien Registration card. This card is my key to getting a phone hooked up- I can hardly wait until it comes! We picked up my physical, which was all good, except they listed my hair colour as black and my eye colour as dark brown (I guess they never have to change that part of the form?) and headed out. After getting paperwork done, Im Seong took us down to the water, which was beeeeautiful!
At long last Friday! It's funny to be working a 9-5 job, already I'm looking forward to weekends . It was a fun day with the grade 6s learning about turkeys and all things Canadian. My first class that day started out with the typical questions- how old are you and all that stuff. I've started asking them, how old do you think I am, just to spice it up, and I've almost internalized my Korean age, which is 24. Joanna very happily pointed out that this means I'm going to turn 25 before she is!! Augh it's not fair! So as it turns out this class' teacher is also 24- which got a big rise out of all of them. In Korea, it is only proper to marry someone who is the same age as you, give or take a year, so who knows, maybe once one of us learns the other's language, we'll get hooked up ;) I also went exploring at lunch time and met a random Korean man who wanted me to tutor him in English... no thanks! Getting caught for doing any work outside of your contract can get you deported, and I later found out that people in the government will sometimes pose as interested students to catch teachers in the act, yikes.
My weekend was a definate highlight this week, and full of all things social! Friday night I went with some other people in my building to hang out in Dean's apartment, the coordinator for the public schools. It's great hearing all the stories from people who've been here multiple years, there's just so much to absorbe. Yesterday I went with 5 other people on a my first hike up the mountain. Well, one of them. Passing Koreans on the trails, or should I say, Koreans passing US on the trail- are very serious about their hiking. It's a whole industry here, and any department store will have a large section of clothes and gear devoted to it. So us Canadians stick out like sore thumbs in our tshirts and old pants while the Koreans go by in matching pullover jackets with hiking poles. They're so ambitious in fact, that if hiking an hour up a mountain wasn't enough, they also have exercise equipment at the top. How's that for making you feel innadequate? We however, opted for the ice cream and milkshakes in a bag. ohhh yeah :)
The view from the top was great though. We could see Suncheon Bay in the distance, and the rows and rows of apartments below that wrap around the mountain. It's funny to think what Korea would look like if all of those people lived in subdivsions like so many do back home- there wouldn't be an inch of green space left. Canada really needs to wake up and start building UP not OUT. We walked along the ridge for a bit, and came down on the other side into Si dae, the old downtown. It was neat seeing the old traditional homes with tiled roofs, wall murals lining the riverside path, a busy market and so many vendors.
It's hard to believe my first week has already come and gone, it's been such a blur! I feel I've made some serious progress though- just look at all of my accomplishments:
- finished my first week as an English teacher
- put my foot down in the classroom- taking away notes and splitting up kids who were talking :) - successfully went grocery shopping, despite my illiteracy of the Korean language
- ate lots of "authentic" Korean food
- went to Yeosu
- climbed a mountain
- got over my jetlag
- most importantly- made new friends!
It's all about the little things isn't it? ;) This is going to be a long one folks.
My first week of teaching was definately a learning process, and each day an improvement. The lessons are pretty well planned out by the textbook, and I make up my own 'fun' part to the lesson where we all apply what we've learned. How each class responds of course, is never the same. I've learned some tips in keeping them undercontrol, and I feel more and more confident in being head the class as each day passes. A glare is universally understood, and walking around the room will make students be quiet when I get close. At the same time, I understand how they can be easily bored by the lessons: watching the same CD each class, mimicking the characters in random dialogues where they talk about what they did at the park or being invited over for Thanksgiving dinner. Not always stimulating.
I try to add in little anecdotes or stimulate somekind of conversation throughout, and I really have to be conscious of simplifying my words and slowing my speech right down. It's
all about the repetition! Through these little conversations, I've found out the popular bands among 9-12 years olds are Shinhwa, Big Bang, Shiny and Wondergirls. Typical pop bands! I also found out that they don't have turkeys in Korea, unless you go to the zoo, and they also (tragically) don't have pie! So I told them how it's my favourite dessert and that my grandma made the best pie you could eat in your life. I also played some fun games with them, and gave out Canadian flag stickers as prizes. Overall though- my favourite classes are my grade 4s, hands down. They're super cute and so enthusiastic! They're not yet at the awkward pre-teen age, so they're less obnoxious and self-conscious.
all about the repetition! Through these little conversations, I've found out the popular bands among 9-12 years olds are Shinhwa, Big Bang, Shiny and Wondergirls. Typical pop bands! I also found out that they don't have turkeys in Korea, unless you go to the zoo, and they also (tragically) don't have pie! So I told them how it's my favourite dessert and that my grandma made the best pie you could eat in your life. I also played some fun games with them, and gave out Canadian flag stickers as prizes. Overall though- my favourite classes are my grade 4s, hands down. They're super cute and so enthusiastic! They're not yet at the awkward pre-teen age, so they're less obnoxious and self-conscious. My time at my other school where I spend Thursday and Friday was also pretty good. Turns out it's not a country school after all, but just another school on the outskirts of the city. I'm told to consider myself lucky though, since there are other teachers who have to bus up to 2 hrs to their country schools. I can't help but be a little disappointed, as I was looking forward to the potential 'rural' experience, but I'm happy for a 15 min commute! The school is only a year old, so I get my own tech savy classroom with all kinds of multimedia equipment, and it's nice having the classes come to me.
On Wednesday I went for dinner with my co-teacher Im Seong, and 4 other teachers from school. A real Korean dining experience! When you come into any restaurant you take off your shoes and sit crosslegged on the floor at a small table. Koreans are all about the sharing! We had Golgi jo rim, which was pieces of fish in a spicy red sauce with beans and onion. Everyone gets a small bowl of rice, and another bowl you can scoop your fish into (which the eldest at the table traditionally scoops into your bowl). Good thing I'm getting better with the chopsticks, because picking around the bones was not something you could do with a fork. Besides the fish there are an array of small bowls of different foods at the table, which everyone just picks from with their chopsticks- seaweed, leaves of cabbage, beansprouts, kimchi , other pickled vegetables, and some unknowns. The conversation was pretty well all in Korean, as the other teachers speak only a smattering of English. They were also asking me what I thought of the vice principal, who talked my ear off for a few hours in the staff room that day. "He boring isn't he?!". I wasn't sure what to say- you don't want anything to come back to haunt you, but they're all typical chattery women who like to talk about coworkers. And he was a little boring... haha. But it was a really great dinner! Everyone is so generous, and just wonderful to be around.
Thursday I went with Im Seong and Hae Jin to Yeosu, a port city half an hour from Suncheon. Yes, finally another city! We had to go to the immigration office, so I could drop off my passport for them to process my Alien Registration card. This card is my key to getting a phone hooked up- I can hardly wait until it comes! We picked up my physical, which was all good, except they listed my hair colour as black and my eye colour as dark brown (I guess they never have to change that part of the form?) and headed out. After getting paperwork done, Im Seong took us down to the water, which was beeeeautiful!
There were all kinds of sheds lining the water where the fish are processed, and many boats far out on the water. The bay was a really nice taste of the Korean landscape- thousands of small islands, smells of fish, and a hazy sky shielding the ridges of mountains that rise up in every direction. I can hardly wait to get out and see more of this beautiful country!
That night Hae Jin took us for dinner for Western food. I was feeling pretty whooped getting back into Suncheon, and when they at first asked if I wanted to go for dinner the last thing I wanted was more spicy or fishy food, so the suggestion of speggehti really got me excited. Sadly the buffet was not all I hoped it would be. We all know that back home Chinese food is not really Chinese food. Well this was no different. Almost everything on the buffet was Koreanized, except for the mash potatoes and wedgies. When I took a forkfull of speggehti the red sauce was not in any way tomato- but more spicy bean paste. Ohhh Korea. Over dinner we got talking about Korean and Canadian foods, and it occured to me that it was pretty hard to say what Cdn food really was! All I really could tell them was what I ate growing up back home: sausage, swiss steak, saurkraut, goulash, pies, apple pancakes, chives and all that good stuff. Oh would I love some chives right now. So it all depends where you come from. I found out that in Korea they eat kimchi for every meal: spicy pickled cabbage for breakfast? Really?
At long last Friday! It's funny to be working a 9-5 job, already I'm looking forward to weekends . It was a fun day with the grade 6s learning about turkeys and all things Canadian. My first class that day started out with the typical questions- how old are you and all that stuff. I've started asking them, how old do you think I am, just to spice it up, and I've almost internalized my Korean age, which is 24. Joanna very happily pointed out that this means I'm going to turn 25 before she is!! Augh it's not fair! So as it turns out this class' teacher is also 24- which got a big rise out of all of them. In Korea, it is only proper to marry someone who is the same age as you, give or take a year, so who knows, maybe once one of us learns the other's language, we'll get hooked up ;) I also went exploring at lunch time and met a random Korean man who wanted me to tutor him in English... no thanks! Getting caught for doing any work outside of your contract can get you deported, and I later found out that people in the government will sometimes pose as interested students to catch teachers in the act, yikes.
My weekend was a definate highlight this week, and full of all things social! Friday night I went with some other people in my building to hang out in Dean's apartment, the coordinator for the public schools. It's great hearing all the stories from people who've been here multiple years, there's just so much to absorbe. Yesterday I went with 5 other people on a my first hike up the mountain. Well, one of them. Passing Koreans on the trails, or should I say, Koreans passing US on the trail- are very serious about their hiking. It's a whole industry here, and any department store will have a large section of clothes and gear devoted to it. So us Canadians stick out like sore thumbs in our tshirts and old pants while the Koreans go by in matching pullover jackets with hiking poles. They're so ambitious in fact, that if hiking an hour up a mountain wasn't enough, they also have exercise equipment at the top. How's that for making you feel innadequate? We however, opted for the ice cream and milkshakes in a bag. ohhh yeah :)
The view from the top was great though. We could see Suncheon Bay in the distance, and the rows and rows of apartments below that wrap around the mountain. It's funny to think what Korea would look like if all of those people lived in subdivsions like so many do back home- there wouldn't be an inch of green space left. Canada really needs to wake up and start building UP not OUT. We walked along the ridge for a bit, and came down on the other side into Si dae, the old downtown. It was neat seeing the old traditional homes with tiled roofs, wall murals lining the riverside path, a busy market and so many vendors. 
A teacher in my building held a Ladies Night last night, which had me meeting a ton of new people from around Canada, the US and the UK. It was a crammed little apartment, but it was wonderful to meet so many new faces- people at all stages of their stay- many who've been here for years, but some other newbies like myself too. Topping it off with some dancing at Elvis, the foreigner bar, was just what I needed :) The timing couldn't be better- a night out after a whirlwind of everything new. What a week!
Last but not least,
Today's English translation gone wrong comes to you from the cover of a notebook:
Today's English translation gone wrong comes to you from the cover of a notebook:
"With coffee... It keeps me warm as life grows older"
1 comment:
Went back a bit - thought you should know there are people out there following your adventures. Thanks for all the news - its like you are not so far away this way.
Ted
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