Friday, June 29, 2007

The "C" Word

The art teacher, who sits next to me, is having computer problems. I asked her what is wrong. Her computer is very old. She said that the computer is "crazy." I said, "No, it's old, not crazy. Our students are crazy." She looked at me very seriously and said "Daniel, I like my students."

I don't know why this is, but Koreans think that the word "crazy" is really a very serious word, and they find it very offensive. I wonder what their textbooks teach them about this word. They need to loosten up and understand that we say "crazy" all the time and that we really don't mean insane.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

It's All About The Fine Print

The "by-the-book" people at the province office are at it again. Yesterday my substitute co-teacher wanted to talk to me about reimbursing me for the plane ticket that I bought to go home. He said they would only pay 75% of the price, as per the province office. Oh, no no no no no. I reached over, got my contract out and pointed it out to him. The contract says nothing about any percentage. It says "free ticket." So, disheartened, the school is going to have to pay the full price for the ticket.

Today Mr. Yoo, my main co-teacher is telling me that the province office claims my vacation is too long and they are going to dock my pay. First, they are counting the day I leave, July 24, as a vacation day. My flight is at 8:50pm. I will be at school all day that day. So, they can just bite me. After understanding that, Mr. Yoo came back after talking to the province office to say that I'd still be getting back one day late. Out comes the contract again. I got 2 calendar weeks to visit home when I renewed my contract. No one is disputing that. However, on top of that 2 weeks, I also get my normal 14 work-day vacation for the year. That works out to 7 work-days in the summer, 7 in the winter. The contract clearly says that these 14 vacation days do not include saturdays and sundays, they are work-days only.

So, I'm taking my 2 week vacation, plus I'm taking 5 of my 7 days to visit the U.S. This gives me a grand total of 3 calendar weeks, which is how long I will be in the U.S. I still have 2 extra vacation days at my disposal. I need Mr. Yoo to understand this. I am also planning on taking those 2 last days of vacation, right when I get back. I return on a wednesday, and the semester begins on monday of the next week. So, I will probably take thursday and friday off to recoup from jet lag.

The big problem here is that my signed contract is apparently different than the blanket contract that the province office has. Mr. Yoo keeps saying "but the contract in the book says..." and I just cut him off and tell him "that doesn't matter. The signed contract is the legally binding document here, not the contract in the book at the province office." They simply don't put much stock in the signed contracts here. They will change them as they see fit. How annoying.

Co-human

Well, it's that time again. Final exams. That means one thing... I'm going to be "co-observing" students taking exams. Ok, I already know I'm not a real person here, but co-observing? What makes it even worse is that there are already mothers that come in to help observe the students to prevent cheating. So, there are 3 of us watching kids fale their exams. I'm such a vital cog in the educational machine that is Juksan Comprehensive High School.

I love that the more you watch teenagers, the more you realise that they are all the same, and all very boring. My last exam I had to co-observe, about 1o boys were finished in about 5 minutes. I was walking around, looked at their answer sheets, and they had every answer marked as "C." Yup. These are the kids I have to teach. I hope they enjoy pumping gas, because that is what I see in their future.

Finally

I discovered a newly opened hamburgber restaurant in my city here. Up to now, the only hamburgers available were from Lotteria or from BHC hamburgers. Both of these places covered their burgers in some disgusting black sauce. They also covered their miniscule burgers with loads of roasted peppers and other things that simply do not belong on a burger.

I went to this new hamburger joint yesterday. They have a big menu (by Korean standards) and serve lots of good looking burgers. Now, these are not exactly like U.S. burgers, but it's close enough and it's not covered in nasty sauce. Their burgers do have a fried egg on them, but that is also available at some burger places in the U.S., I know they have one like that at Red Robin. Anyway, it's pretty exciting to be able to get a burger in your own city.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Snacks Making Me Think About Culture

I'm sitting here in the office at school, and one of the secretaries bought in some snacks for the teachers. This is a very common practice. Lately, the snacks have consisted of watermelon, or oriental melons. This is great, since watermelons cost about $17 here. Today, the snack was steamed white potatoes. This is also very common. More common is a big bowl of steamed sweet potatoes, which are much more yellow than the orange U.S. variety. This has started to make me think about food here in Korea.

Korean cuisine is very simple and hearty. Lots of soups full of vegetables, lots of pork dishes, and lots of spicy stuff. Everything contains red pepper paste (gochujjang) so everything has a kind of red "DANGER" look about it. But, that is not what was making me think here.

There is no distinction in Korea between foods. Let me clarify. If the U.S. we have food that is traditionally breakfast food, i.e. bacon, eggs, cereals, pancakes, oatmeal. I mean, people eat these things at all times, but usually they are found only at breakfast. This is not the case in Korea. They use the same dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast here is often rice and kim-chi chiggae (spicy kim-chi soup with tofu). There is nothing in the cuisine that is considered "a breakfast food." They do not have labels like this. There are some traditional foods that are for specific holidays. Ddeok-guk, rice cake soup, is a traditional New Years dish, but it is also served everyday.

I wonder where this "all food for every meal" thing came from. I'm sure that it has to do with the fact that Korea for many years has known real hunger. When people are struggling to survive, you don't exclude food because it's just breakfast food. It's interesting to wonder about.
More interesting though, would be why we have separate breakfast foods in the West. Anyone have any ideas?

Sunday, June 24, 2007

New Plans In Life

By far, the most annoying aspect of life in Korea has to be my inability to make decisions here. I don't know why it is that I have no objectivity here to use in my decision making. That being said, I've come to a new plan.

Now, for the last several months, I've believed that I would stay here in Korea, and pursue my MA in TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language). This would give me a highly employable degree and some real time teaching experience. However, my time here has shown me one major flaw in this plan. I am not entirely happy teaching English. It's just not where my passion lies. I've tried, and it's just not enough to make me completely happy.

So, at the end of my contract, in April, I will return to the U.S.A. I want to pursue my MA in Slavic Studies at Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. So, when I return to the U.S. I'll be moving to Columbus, where I will live for a year to establish my residency. I will have to spend the year also getting my Russian skills back up to speed. That is the plan as of now.

Ultimately, I am going to follow my heart on this one. It means that I'll be giving up my life here where I make very good money and do not have to worry about finances. I'll be returning to the life of a poor student. However, I know that I will never regret this choice. In the end, Korea will always be here and they will always be hiring more native speakers of English to teach. So, I could always return if need be.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Games

Today, friday, is my most difficult day of the week. I have all of my classes back-to-back, and I have to teach the very worst class in the school. It's a very trying time of the week for me. So, to pass the time today more quickly, I decided to play a game.

The game today was Scattergories. Remember that game? You have a list of 12 categories and you chose a letter and write down words in those categories that begin with that letter. I made a spinner with the alphabet on it and ran of copies of a list for the students. They really got into playing the game in groups. Each group with the most responses received candy. I gave out a lot of candy today.

Speaking of games, the Rubik's cube is suddenly very popular here in my school. Today each class had about six different kids playing with them. I don't know what the sudden rush of popularity is all about, but they're distracting.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Bo-jee-mah!!!!

Friday night I was sitting outside the Soda Star waiting for a friend. A couple of very drunk men walked by. One was staring at me intensely, really burning into me. I stared back and said "bo-jee-mah!!!" It freaked him out. He kind of jumped back and went on his way. Bo-jee-mah means "stop staring at me."

Later, after my friend arrived, we were talking in the same spot. The drunk guy and his friend came back. I pointed them out to my friend. The guy, when he saw me, covered his eyes with his hands. My friend and I were laughing so hard. I guess he took it to heart, and didn't want to stare at me anymore.

All The Girls Hate Me

I am so sick and tired of looking at my female students during class. They're always applying make-up, lotion, powder... something to their faces. Or, their noses are pressed up against a mirror as they stare at their faces or fix their hair, or mess with pimples. I've had enough of it. I'm cracking down.

Friday, a girl was warned to put away the make-up. I always warn, I'm a softie that way. So, when she was applying powder next, I took away her compact. She wanted to know when she could get it back. I told her never. I took it home and threw it away. I did this at home so that the students wouldn't fish it out of the garbage here at school when they empty the trash.

Today, a girl was using a mirror in class. Now, this girl is always applying make-up or using a mirror, a horrible student. I took the mirror from her desktop and put it in her school bag. I told her not to bring it out again or I'd throw it out the window. Two minutes later, out it came. I calmly walked up to her, took the mirror and threw it out the second story window. CRASH! That's one less mirror I have to deal with. The class loved this. That girl did not.

Am I being harsh? I don't think so. They know the rules. They're breaking them. I give them a warning. It's their choice to not listen. If they won't give me respect and they don't care if they get hit... how about I hit them where it hurts? I know that cosmetics and mirrors will get pricey if you have to continually replace them.

I warned my last class about cosmetics and mirrors. One girl is going to cosmetology school. She told me that her make-up kit was expensive, $200. I told her I'd better not see her playing with it during class, I don't care how much it costs. I hope she understands.

Missed Calls

I don't know why exactly, but I'm receiving many strange messages lately on my Vonage phone, the one with the Michigan phone number. First was a call from Neil at the WalMart hiring center in South Carolina. Apparently, if I go back to the U.S. I could very easily have a job at WalMart. Today I received a message from Jesse wanting to know if it was too late to join the Megabook Club, which she could only join after finishing camp.

Jesse... I think you're too late for the book club.

WalMart... I think I'll have to pass.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Baby's Coming Home

This morning, I booked my flight for my visit home. For those of you who are interested in seeing me, I'll be in Michigan from wednesday, July 25 to wednesday, August 15. The ticket was quite pricey. $2,005.30. Thank God my school will reimburse me for this. I can't wait to see everyone.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Outrage

Today while teaching one of my senior classes, I saw that one of the boys had a big bandage on his arm, running from the elbow down to the wrist. I stopped to ask him what he'd done. He told me, and seemed to be rather proud of himself, that he was drunk and got in an accident on his motorbike. I was shocked. He was proud of himself. It wasn't a big deal. Just a daily thing in his life. My co-teacher wasn't shocked or even really concerned. I yelled at him and told him not to do that again. I let him know that if he were in America that he would be in jail right now. Apparently it is illegal in South Korea, drunk driving, but there are absolutely no police out on the streets, so it goes unenforced. I am so shocked and disgusted by this. It's no wonder that the traffic accident rate is the highest in Korea. When will my kids learn? Getting smashed does not make you an adult or a man.

Saturday Night

On Saturday, I was invited to Brandon's for dinner. I'd never been to his apartment, so it was a nice treat to say the least. First of all, his apartment is very nice. It's in the big high-rise apartment buildings that most Koreans live in. He has separate rooms, not like me, two large rooms, a big kitchen, and balcony, and bathroom. His apartment is also newly renovated, with him being the first new occupant. So, that's nice too.

Brandon also invited an artist couple that he knows. He teaches their children, and became friends with this man and his wife. They travel all over the world working. Listening to their stories were great. His living in Italy, the U.S., Austria, Costa Rica... everywhere. It must be an incredible life.

Dinner was grand. Brandon made a wonderful chicken curry, from scratch. I was incredibly impressed. I can't cook anything.

Talking to the artist couple, they started to think that I don't like Korea. This is my fault. I realise that when I talk about Korea and tell stories, I talk mostly about negative things that have happened to me. Let's face it, it's more interesting to talk about people grabbing me on the street and staring at me then it is to talk about a student that was polite. However, in telling these "interesting" stories, I give the impression that everything here sucks. The truth is that if I hated it here, I wouldn't be here. The money wouldn't be worth my misery. So, I will have to be a bit more careful when I talk to strangers about my Korean experience. I'll need to pepper my stories with the positive aspects too.

On a side note, I learned how to say "stop staring at me" in Korean. I can't wait to use it. It is definitely a useful phrase to know.

Meetings

It's monday morning. That means one thing, Korean teachers' meeting. Like clockwork, the office manager uses a microphone and says something in Korean. You stand up and face the flag. Next thing he says means that you put your hand over your heart and salute the flag for about five seconds. Next word means you're finished. Then he says something else which means "sit down and say hello to your neighbors." After I sit down and say "annyeonghasseyho" to no one in particular, I get out my mp3 player and start listening to music and chatting online.

This is the form that the Korean teachers' meeting takes. Different important teachers from each department stand up one-by-one and report on what is going on. I mean, this is what I assume is going on, since it's in Korean, and not translated for me. There is no discussion of anything, just reporting.

Looking around the office, I think that the other teachers are about as involved as I am. I see the teachers surfing the net, writing email, or trying to stay awake. I'm glad to see that they're as bored as I am. I just view this time as my mp3 and chatting time or my time to cut out things that I've laminated. Oh, the daily grind of the Korean teachers. Every monday... at least it's a nice and easy way to slide into the work week.

Korean Treats

Periodically in school, we recieve treats from parents, former students, or other teachers. Generally the treats take the form of little bottles of "juice" that are very healthy for you... but generally taste like evil. After drinking onion juice, I no longer drink these things. There is a vitamin C drink that I'll drink, but that's it. Sometimes the treats themselves are things that I'm really not crazy for. Some of these include things like traditional rice cakes, which are little colorful balls of goo... they're very pretty, but taste like nothing or simply taste bad. Some of them I like, but some of them are just not for me. When I'm given these little "treats," more often than not, I give them to some passing student. The student is so shocked that I'm giving them these amazing treats. They're so thankful. It's nice. It gets rid of the "treats" for me, and gives the students a nice little lift to their day.