Thursday seminar

My uncle recently mentioned in an email that I hadn't posted in awhile. Sorry about that, but honestly, sometimes I don't have anything interesting to add, and usually I just forget, or wait until it's really late and I don't like writing super gibberish (that's even more gibberish than usual!).

On Tuesday, my boss mentioned to me that I would have to attend a mandatory foreigner seminar on Thursday morning. Apparently there is one of these every year, but my last boss didn't make me go (and he didn't make the girls who work there now go this year either). I think the main reason for these is to keep tabs on the foreigners. Public school employees don't have to attend. Before they start teaching, and randomly during the year, they get other training things they have to go to. We don't get that. We generally get thrown immediately into teaching.

I had to get up early and get to the university on the other side of town by 9:30. Being a person who likes to be on time, meant I was there a little before 9:30, not knowing that the seminar didn't start until 10. Luckily I knew some other people and was able to chat while I waited. Right before we went in, a girl I knew from last year, who now lives in Geoje, showed up. We sat next to each other and caught up during the program.

While we waited for the program to start, they had an episode of Tom and Jerry playing on the big screen at the front of the auditorium. After about 15 minutes, the program started. The first speaker was the head of the English department (I think) at the university. His English was really good and his topic was about the differences in speaking and the difficulties of teaching English to Koreans.

I actually found this part somewhat interesting. We talked very briefly about word order, the fact that Korean doesn't have articles, and some phonetic differences. One of the ones we talked about the most was the "bright" L and the "dark" L. I had never heard of those terms. He said the bright L is the l sound in "love" or "letter". Basically when L is followed by a supporting vowel sound. The dark L is l sound in "jingle" or "bell" or "film". So when it is followed by a silent vowel or consonant. Emily (my friend) and I debated this, because we were saying that it's really the preceding vowel that controls the sound. Either way, the "dark" L sound is difficult for Koreans to pronounce because they don't have this sound in their language.

He also briefly talked about some customs and how we shouldn't be offended when asked personal questions because that's typically Korean. He said that asking "Did you eat" or "Did you have lunch" is a polite thing to say. It is kind of a greeting like "how are you?" and is based on the fact that 50ish years ago they didn't have enough food, so asking if someone ate was a way of checking up on them.

His talk ended and we had a short break. Then we went back in and got to watch a video about Korea and things you can do, and of course Gangnam Style. Then we saw 15 minutes of college kids dancing. Seriously. (The best part starts about 2 minutes in when the guys start break dancing).

After the dancing, another guy got up and read from the materials for 20 minutes about immigration issues and what documents you need etc. This information is only helpful for people BEFORE THEY LEAVE their home countries. Also, this is stuff the hagwon owners should already know as they are the ones who really have to deal with immigration.

As he was talking, staff workers walked around and handed out forms. We had to fill them out with the name of our school and our names. After he finished the immigration talk, we got to leave. They stamped the forms, kept one end and we had to turn in the other to our bosses. Apparently last years was much longer, so I got out lucky. For some reason, I didn't feel that lucky. Oh well, it could have been worse :)

Learn Something New Everyday

One thing that's great about teaching is that you often learn new stuff on a regular basis. Either you have to teach something different and you do some research, or you have to explain something and you never thought about the material in a specific way before, or your kids (students) tell you something you didn't know.

The other day I was teaching how to write before/after sentences. The text book would give prompts and then the kids had to write full sentences. For example, (get dressed/take a shower) (after). So the sentence would be: After I took a shower, I got dressed.

Before they wrote the sentences, we went through each example and determined which event went first. Some, like the above example, were obvious. Others were more interesting. One question was (lock the door/leave the house) (before). Well, to me (and I believe most Westerners, but feel free to correct me), first you leave the house, then you lock the door. To my students, that is not the way it works. We ended up having a 5-10 minute conversation trying to figure out why.

What it boiled down to, is that an individual apartment isn't "the house" according to them. The apartment building is "the house". So they lock the door (to their individual apartment) before they leave the house (the building). I'm glad we talked about it and figured it out. I think these like these are the cause of some cultural issues. If you don't take the time and figure it out, you end up thinking the students don't understand, or that they're stupid, and they think you're an idiot or a jerk for not listening and then they get frustrated.

The other example was dinner and dessert. To me, dessert is a separate meal of sorts. You finish dinner, then you have dessert. To my students, dessert is encompassed in the meal of dinner. You don't always have dessert, but if you do, it's included with dinner. So you have dessert, then finish your dinner.

I love learning little facts like this. It's part of why I like being in other countries and I think it helps me learn how to be more tolerant of other people and their customs. Or at least makes me pause and let them explain before I give judgement.

Motivation

I have fallen back into my old routine - which I didn't intend on doing. I don't have to go to school until 2 pm, and I live 3-5 minutes away depending on the traffic light. So I don't leave my house until 1:50, which means I don't have to get up until late in the afternoon. Which then means I don't have to go to bed until 3-5 am. This is a problem.

I often set my alarm earlier than I need do. I'm not talking crazy times like 8am, because let's face it, that's not realistic :) But 11 am isn't too bad, all things considering. The vast majority of the time, I grab my phone and sleep for another hour plus instead of getting up and out of the house. This is a problem.

I have always been a people pleaser. In grade school I did the best in classes where I liked the teacher. I get up to meet people for lunch, or coffee, or whatever. I used to get up for jobs. I have to have a reason. And the reason can't be because I should. I need a person, or people or some other good motivating factor. This is a problem.

For the last month, I've had a bible study every Tuesday morning. I got up, got dressed and made it to the church every week. In part I enjoyed the study and actually was motivated to learn. However, the fact that other people were there and relying on me to show up (even though I knew it would still happen without me) helped push me to not hit the snooze. The study ended yesterday and the next one won't start until mid to late February. This is a problem.

I thought about taking some sort of class - like a TOEFL or other test, or getting a masters in education or working on a teaching certificate. The main problem with all of these is that they cost money. And not a little bit of money, but semi-significant money. And the honest fact is, even if the money wasn't much, it's still money that I don't have. Not to mention my apartment isn't conducive to me studying which means I would have to go to a coffee shop or the library to work/study (which isn't a super huge problem unless you factor in the coffee money). This is a problem.

I need something and I don't know what it is. I'm planning on joining a gym soon, so hopefully that will help, but honestly, I need some reason to go there too. Once I get into a routine I should be ok, but starting that routine is where I need the push. A lot of it is mental. Coming back isn't what I was expecting. I still see some people, but it's not quite the same. So I'm a little bit sad and missing that connection that I used to have. I'm sure I'll adjust and get to a good place soon, but right now I need some motivation.

Any suggestions?

Winter Wonderland

Jinju is in the southern part of South Korea, so it doesn't snow here often. Lucky for me, I left warm, sunny GA/NC and ended up in freaking snow. It snowed on Wednesday night a tiny bit, but didn't stick. Then, Thursday night it snowed again...and stuck. Then snowed some more on Friday during the day. The forecast is calling for more this weekend as well.

Now I don't mind the snow in general. I think it looks beautiful and I would much prefer snow to sleet or freezing rain or wintery mix. The problems that I have with snow in Jinju are that 1 - bathroom windows are usually open. This includes my bathroom window. In my house. If I don't keep the window open, it never dries. So even when there is actual snow falling from the sky, my window is open. Which means the toilet seat is freezing. 2 - People here don't understand the snow. It's like when it snows in Atlanta. Smart people become stupid. One of my friends posted that his apartment manager was "clearing" the snow by spraying it away with a hose. The kind that squirts water. 3 - Unlike Southern drivers who go unnecessarily slow when it snows, Koreans, especially bus drivers, pretend that nothing is different. Meaning they run right through that red light, as usual, and skid to a halt at the bus stop. The also continue to do the "slow stop" where they don't actually stop the bus completely and just want you to hop on or off, even though the steps are super slippery due to all the snow and water.

That being said, the kids are all super excited because they got to build snowmen and have snow fights. There isn't enough for any type of sledding yet, but maybe there will be later. Also, all of these pictures were taken from friends' facebook pages - thanks for letting me steal guys!!

GNU campus

Olivia's first time in snow

Jinju castle covered in white

Beer bottle eyed snowman

Cup arm snowman...and mouse?

Now the question is, I wonder if we will have a white Christmas?

Beat Downs

I think I've mentioned in a post long ago that while Korea has "banned" corporal punishment, they still totally do it. At my old school, I had students tell me about being hit in class by teachers. I've had some foreigners tell me about seeing kids get smacked upside the head by other teachers. I was pretty sure something went on at my old school, but it was always behind closed doors so I never knew for sure.

At my current school, I've seen it. So far I've seen kids stand in a squatting position and hold it (like yoga), stand with their arms straight out in front of them and hold it (again like yoga) and the last (and most painful in my opinion), they held out their hands palms up and got smacked with a stick. It was very surreal watching this because that would never happen in the US (although it probably should a bit). My director is never cruel in his punishments (in that he doesn't go overboard), but the kids get the message not to mess around.

It's an interesting dynamic because while I see this director actively punish the kids, he is also much more loving and friendly to the kids too. He plays around and jokes with them. They aren't afraid of him by any means (unless they didn't do their homework). The strangest part of all of it is really the kids who aren't being punished. They totally want to see other kids fail. They will tattle on each other and then watch while the "bad" one gets in trouble. In some ways I can understand it - they did the work and want the kid who didn't to get punished. But I am so sympathetic towards other people that I still try and protect the "bad" kids by making them do extra homework, or by rewarding the good kids with candy or no homework.

And while it may have happened and I'm just unaware of it, I will let you know the first time a kid gets punished because of me :)

Happy Thanksgiving

On actual Thanksgiving everything here was business as usual. Lots of my family decided to all have a group skype call so that we could chat and see how everyone was doing. It was midnight my time when we started and I hung up around 1:30 am. At one point we had 5 laptops and/or phones connected to the call. It was nice getting to hear how everyone was doing, plus I got a tour of my sister's house.

On Sunday, IEC hosted its 3rd annual Thanksgiving dinner. There were close to 200 foreigners and Koreans there, which was about the same as last year. Liezle even came into town just for the dinner (and to catch up with some people). After church services, a bunch of people chipped in and moved boxes and cans down from the IEC area to the Korean kitchen area. Apparently there was some minor drama from the lady affectionally called the kitchen Nazi because she didn't want us in there. She was overruled by church elders. I helped peel and slice carrots, then stirred some other veggies.

Part of the reason I took so long to write this was that I was waiting on pictures from other people. I wanted to explain what the kitchen looked like and all the rules surrounding it. Unfortunately, those pictures still aren't posted. I guess I can wait to explain more later.

Decorations (aka left overs from Korean Thanksgiving the week before. The mass of stuff on the right is a bunch of persimmons - I will another post about those. All pictures in this post are from Jackie's facebook page - thanks Jackie!

 Moving on. As I was stirring veggies, then adding butter, salt etc. and setting up some serving stuff, people started arriving. I recognized some people, but had no idea who the vast majority were. This is one of the strange things about coming back to a town you know. I was expecting to feel the same, but I feel kind of like a stranger among friends. I still know some people, but those people aren't part of groups that hang out together. Now I feel like I need to make a whole new set of friends, but at the same time I don't want to lose the others and I don't really want to do the whole dancing/drinking/partying thing this time around. I mean I suppose I will sometimes, just not to the same extent.

Brandon and the main church pastor talking about IEC and giving the blessing

Anyway, dinner itself was really good. The only "bad" part was that my table was the last to be called so we had to watch everyone else get their food first. Luckily there was plenty so I was fine.

Mmmm...food. Costco pumpkin pie is legit by the way.

Then Liezle and I stayed to help clean up, got some leftovers, and went to meet her other friend Ryan for coffee where we talked about bad Christmas songs for two hours. Liezle stayed at my place and we stayed up chatting about life and TV for a long time.

We got up early to meet Keung He for coffee at a Twosome Place downtown. Then I went home and took a nap before school. I feel like there is more to add, but there really isn't!

Watch this

I'll post a real post soon, but as I was monitoring facebook today, I came across this on a friend's page and it made me laugh.

If you want to know some of the food I eat here, and are a fan of Hanson, you will love this video as much as I did:

Kimbap (Hanson's Mmmbop parody)