Last weekend, Kait and I went hiking in an area very close to our apartment; the trail head is just about a five-minute walk from where we live. So we started up the trail, at first not knowing at all where it went or how far, and we came across several breaks in the trees that gave us a very good view of Daegu. The view from above Daegu is an interesting one because the city is cram packed with generally uniform apartment buildings all over the city, most of which are very clustered together in different residential areas around the city. It just looks very different from the multi-faceted cityscapes that I have seen in other cities. Anyways, these breaks in the trees are very good places to just take a break from hiking and enjoy the view. While we were at one such break, an older Korean gentleman said plainly, "Nice viewpoint!" which was maybe a little surprising to us because most Koreans of his age do not speak much English. But we were glad to talk to him, so we carried on with a small-talk conversation. After a few minutes, he said, "Where is your destination?"
"We don't really have a destination," we replied.
"Why don't you come with me, then," to which we replied in the affirmative. So we followed the able-footed, 54-year-old Mr. Lee up the trails higher and higher. We learned that the trail made a large circuit that topped all the mountain peaks and ridges, if we so wanted to climb them.
Then we took a break at another small spot to sit down and have lunch. From the start, Lee shared everything with us. He let Kaitlin sit on a light blanket that he had brought along - I was content on a rock - and he gave her a small mat to sit on as well. "Ladies first," he said. The first food he pulled out was two triangular pieces of rice wrapped in seaweed; he offered them to us outright as if they had originally been ours, and he almost seemed offended when we told him that we did not want to eat all of his food, so we (I) had one, and we packed the other for later. Lee had other food to eat too. His lunch of rice/seaweed/veggies put our plain ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread to shame. Once we finished our meals, we sat in silence as he indicated that we meditate for about ten minutes or so, a habit that he regularly did everyday.
So we sat there, cross-legged, eyes closed, and with our bodies relaxed, thinking about whatever. I thought about my moderately poor attempts at learning the Korean language so far. I recognized how easy/dangerous it can be to allow yourself to become stagnant from the comfort of "getting by" or "surviving" with just speaking English, a common tendency among some of the teachers here. I just thought about ways to improve myself in this regard. Before long, we started once more on our hike. After a short while, I indicated to Lee that I was very interested in learning the Korean language, and he seemed delighted. I told him that my plan was to go to Daegu university and post a note somewhere saying that I would gladly have a free exchange of language learning, teaching someone English and learning Korean. Much to my satisfaction, he eventually said that we could learn Korean from him and we could teach his wife. I was so glad to hear this! He invited us to his house/apartment (sometime) and said that we could learn much that way. He started teaching us generally useful phrases, such as "glad to meet you." Once we finished our hike (about a five hour hike including brief breaks) we met Lee's wife, who was also in the forest, at which point we told her "glad to meet you" in Korean, to which she seemed delighted. His wife does not speak much English, but she can understand basic words if we talk slow, as she studied English a long time ago, but lost some of her usage since then.
Once we were out of the forest, Lee and his lovely wife took us out for dinner at a nice chicken restaurant. (We realized we were going out for food about a minute before we went into the restaurant, and we were like, "Are they feeding us?") So we had a wonderful dinner - with a good amount of beer to boot, and we celebrated our good day together and what we thought would be the beginning of a nice relationship between the four of us (not including Lee's children whom we have yet to meet). With smiles on our faces, food in our bellies, and gratitude in our hearts, we left the restaurant (after Lee paid for our dinner) and went back to our apartment to get ready to meet up with some friends later in the evening.
All in all it was a very good day: we got to explore a new area - very close to where we live - and we got to meet a wonderful couple who showed us the best of Korean hospitality. We very much look forward to seeing them again, and we will keep you updated on how things go. For me, meeting them was perfect because, even before I came here, I wanted to meet some native Korean people so that I could have a way to learn the language and to get some insight into the culture.
Aside from that, I am about to go to my second hapkido class, even though I am still very sore from my first. I haven't experienced enough to write much about, so I will let you know how this goes a little later. I can say, though, that I think it will be a very good experience for me. Also, Kait and I took our first Korean language class yesterday, which was a very good way to learn some of the basics just starting off. Once again, we will let you know how this goes. Ace
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Picture Site is Up!
Hooray! Check out our photos at http://kateandace.shutterfly.com/. Hope you like them!
Kait
Kait
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Chuseok
The last week has been an eventful one! Last weekend was Chuseok, which is Korean Thanksgiving. This meant that we got Monday off and had a glorious three-day weekend.
Saturday we slept in, then met up with our friends Godwin, Sarah, and Laura downtown. We spent the afternoon wandering between the various little parks in downtown Daegu- due to the holiday, there were lots of people hanging out in the parks and playing traditional games. We had a great time getting coached by little boys and old men on how to throw sticks into buckets, chase metal hoops around and keep a top going by slapping it with string. We must have been quite the spectacle, because we must have had a hundred pictures snapped of us. The guys (Godwin, Ace, and Godwin’s friend Mike) played a quick game of basketball with the tallest Korean guys I’ve ever seen. It was pretty cool to see how quickly and happily everybody accepted us into their activities, even though we couldn’t communicate at all. Later, we found a bookstore with a good selection of English books. I bought six! I was so thrilled to see a decent selection that I had to stock up. Right now I’m reading “Everything Is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer- it’s brilliant. It’s much better than the movie, of course.
We spent the rest of the evening getting a crash course in nighttime Korean activities- we ate (a lot, and in several different restaurants), drank Soju (the Korean national vice- like rice vodka, but not actually distilled from anything. MMM, cheap chemical liquor for only a dollar a bottle!), went to a really awesome hookah bar, played our first round of BilliBow (a cross between bowling and billiards- you hit a pool ball with a pool cue down a mini-bowling lane and knock over mini-pins- fun!), stopped in a local Foreigner bar, hit the NoriBong (a singing room- like Karaoke, but without the innocent bystanders- every group gets their own soundproof room!), and finished the night up in a dance club. WHEW! What makes this epic evening even more amazing is that, between the second restaurant and the hookah bar, it started pouring, so we all started sprinting for the hookah bar. Ace made it there safely, but when he tried to stop, he skidded on a metal grate- he didn’t notice anything wrong until he glanced at his foot and noticed it bleeding profusely. He got about 5 parallel gashes on his foot, and with the rain spreading out the blood, the entire area was just covered in red. It looked like something from a horror movie or something. But did Ace want to go home? Bah! He’s no quitter. So he spent the rest of the evening travelling to five other destinations hopping on his left foot and riding piggy-back on Godwin and Mike. A group of five foreigners in Daegu is spectacle enough, but when one of them is hopping through the bar district at one in the morning with horrifically bloody Kleenex wrapped around one bare foot, it’s pretty exciting for the onlookers. One of the funniest things was that when he was bleeding all over the hookah bar’s hallway, the only thing the doorman was worried about was that Ace take the flip-flop off of his other foot! Foreigners bleeding all over the hallway are ok, but absolutely no shoes allowed inside! Anyway, I was pretty worried all night, but we had a great time and Ace was a sport. His foot is healing up just fine now.
Sunday we (the same group minus Mike) took a bus about an hour outside of the city to a nearby mountain. It was gorgeous! It didn’t look too different from the forests at home- very lush and green, with lots of deciduous trees just starting to turn. I guess the mountains here are incredible once all the leaves are changing colors- everyone tells us fall is the time for hiking here. Anyway, we explored the mountain, which is a pretty big tourist area with tons of things to do. There were temples, an incredible hundreds-of-feet-tall standing stone Buddah, a climbing wall and lots of restaurants. There are tons of things to see there, but we only had time for a few. We ran into some other English teachers that Sarah and Godwin knew at the Buddah, and got to know them over dinner. Everyone here is so easy to get along with! We headed home and watched “Gone Baby Gone” at Sarah and Godwin’s, which was excellent
On Monday, our new friends that we met on the mountain had a barbeque, so we bought some chicken and some veggies and grilled up dinner on the rooftop at Josh’s apartment building. There were probably 18 other English teachers there, so we met a bunch more nice people. It was a really nice, chill evening- everyone grilled meat by the light of cell phones, chatted, smoked hookah and played guitars. We learned all sorts of stuff chatting with the other teachers. For example, have you ever heard of “fan death”? It’s an Korean urban legend that if you fall asleep with the fan on, it will deprive you of oxygen and you’ll die! This is accepted as Gospel truth by most Koreans and the Korean media. It has been cited by the Korean mass media as one of the top five causes of death! I’m not kidding! Please Wikipedia “fan death” for yourself. It’s there, I promise! Also, something that we discovered this weekend and found really interesting is that they’re terrified of Mad Cow disease over here, and won’t eat American or Canadian beef. All the major restaurants have signs posted advertising Australian or Korean beef.
So far, the rest of the week has gone really well. Ace and I got bicycles this week! We bought his used mountain bike at a shop on Wednesday, and after work on Wednesday night Sarah hooked me up with a free bike that had been left behind by an English teacher on her way home. It is, without a doubt, the coolest free bicycle ever. It’s a beat-up, cherry red cruiser-style one speed with a basket on the front and a horn. I’m completely in love with her. I named her Clementine. Thursday, we took our sweet new bikes out for a ride, and discovered this beautiful area that’s only about a 10 minute ride from our apartment. There’s a reservoir and a lovely little mountain with nice hiking trails on it- I guess the trails even connect to Mt. Apsan, which is the most popular hiking area nearby. We’re really excited to explore it some more this weekend.
Work is going well, too- we’re getting a little more comfortable and confident every day. Some days I teach the same thing 4 times in a row, which I think will get boring soon, but it’s fine, and the kids are mostly really nice kids. The students work so hard you wouldn’t believe it- the average student here has pretty much no life beyond studying. They usually go to school a few hours early for study groups, go to school for 6 or 7 hours, then spend all evening getting private lessons or going to extra academies for everything from origami to science and math to violin and piano, then come to our English school , sometimes as late as 10:30. Koreans pride themselves on working harder than anyone else, and they really do. The kids are made to understand extremely well how important an education is, and most parents are really involved in their kids’ education. The Korean teachers at MoonKkang spend a large part of the day talking on the phone with parents, filling them in on how their student did that day at school.
Well, as always, this has turned into a marathon blog. I guess I’ll leave it be for now! I’m working on getting a photo site set up so you can check out some pictures if you like. I’ll let you know as soon as I have the URL for it!
Love you and miss you all!
Kait
Saturday we slept in, then met up with our friends Godwin, Sarah, and Laura downtown. We spent the afternoon wandering between the various little parks in downtown Daegu- due to the holiday, there were lots of people hanging out in the parks and playing traditional games. We had a great time getting coached by little boys and old men on how to throw sticks into buckets, chase metal hoops around and keep a top going by slapping it with string. We must have been quite the spectacle, because we must have had a hundred pictures snapped of us. The guys (Godwin, Ace, and Godwin’s friend Mike) played a quick game of basketball with the tallest Korean guys I’ve ever seen. It was pretty cool to see how quickly and happily everybody accepted us into their activities, even though we couldn’t communicate at all. Later, we found a bookstore with a good selection of English books. I bought six! I was so thrilled to see a decent selection that I had to stock up. Right now I’m reading “Everything Is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer- it’s brilliant. It’s much better than the movie, of course.
We spent the rest of the evening getting a crash course in nighttime Korean activities- we ate (a lot, and in several different restaurants), drank Soju (the Korean national vice- like rice vodka, but not actually distilled from anything. MMM, cheap chemical liquor for only a dollar a bottle!), went to a really awesome hookah bar, played our first round of BilliBow (a cross between bowling and billiards- you hit a pool ball with a pool cue down a mini-bowling lane and knock over mini-pins- fun!), stopped in a local Foreigner bar, hit the NoriBong (a singing room- like Karaoke, but without the innocent bystanders- every group gets their own soundproof room!), and finished the night up in a dance club. WHEW! What makes this epic evening even more amazing is that, between the second restaurant and the hookah bar, it started pouring, so we all started sprinting for the hookah bar. Ace made it there safely, but when he tried to stop, he skidded on a metal grate- he didn’t notice anything wrong until he glanced at his foot and noticed it bleeding profusely. He got about 5 parallel gashes on his foot, and with the rain spreading out the blood, the entire area was just covered in red. It looked like something from a horror movie or something. But did Ace want to go home? Bah! He’s no quitter. So he spent the rest of the evening travelling to five other destinations hopping on his left foot and riding piggy-back on Godwin and Mike. A group of five foreigners in Daegu is spectacle enough, but when one of them is hopping through the bar district at one in the morning with horrifically bloody Kleenex wrapped around one bare foot, it’s pretty exciting for the onlookers. One of the funniest things was that when he was bleeding all over the hookah bar’s hallway, the only thing the doorman was worried about was that Ace take the flip-flop off of his other foot! Foreigners bleeding all over the hallway are ok, but absolutely no shoes allowed inside! Anyway, I was pretty worried all night, but we had a great time and Ace was a sport. His foot is healing up just fine now.
Sunday we (the same group minus Mike) took a bus about an hour outside of the city to a nearby mountain. It was gorgeous! It didn’t look too different from the forests at home- very lush and green, with lots of deciduous trees just starting to turn. I guess the mountains here are incredible once all the leaves are changing colors- everyone tells us fall is the time for hiking here. Anyway, we explored the mountain, which is a pretty big tourist area with tons of things to do. There were temples, an incredible hundreds-of-feet-tall standing stone Buddah, a climbing wall and lots of restaurants. There are tons of things to see there, but we only had time for a few. We ran into some other English teachers that Sarah and Godwin knew at the Buddah, and got to know them over dinner. Everyone here is so easy to get along with! We headed home and watched “Gone Baby Gone” at Sarah and Godwin’s, which was excellent
On Monday, our new friends that we met on the mountain had a barbeque, so we bought some chicken and some veggies and grilled up dinner on the rooftop at Josh’s apartment building. There were probably 18 other English teachers there, so we met a bunch more nice people. It was a really nice, chill evening- everyone grilled meat by the light of cell phones, chatted, smoked hookah and played guitars. We learned all sorts of stuff chatting with the other teachers. For example, have you ever heard of “fan death”? It’s an Korean urban legend that if you fall asleep with the fan on, it will deprive you of oxygen and you’ll die! This is accepted as Gospel truth by most Koreans and the Korean media. It has been cited by the Korean mass media as one of the top five causes of death! I’m not kidding! Please Wikipedia “fan death” for yourself. It’s there, I promise! Also, something that we discovered this weekend and found really interesting is that they’re terrified of Mad Cow disease over here, and won’t eat American or Canadian beef. All the major restaurants have signs posted advertising Australian or Korean beef.
So far, the rest of the week has gone really well. Ace and I got bicycles this week! We bought his used mountain bike at a shop on Wednesday, and after work on Wednesday night Sarah hooked me up with a free bike that had been left behind by an English teacher on her way home. It is, without a doubt, the coolest free bicycle ever. It’s a beat-up, cherry red cruiser-style one speed with a basket on the front and a horn. I’m completely in love with her. I named her Clementine. Thursday, we took our sweet new bikes out for a ride, and discovered this beautiful area that’s only about a 10 minute ride from our apartment. There’s a reservoir and a lovely little mountain with nice hiking trails on it- I guess the trails even connect to Mt. Apsan, which is the most popular hiking area nearby. We’re really excited to explore it some more this weekend.
Work is going well, too- we’re getting a little more comfortable and confident every day. Some days I teach the same thing 4 times in a row, which I think will get boring soon, but it’s fine, and the kids are mostly really nice kids. The students work so hard you wouldn’t believe it- the average student here has pretty much no life beyond studying. They usually go to school a few hours early for study groups, go to school for 6 or 7 hours, then spend all evening getting private lessons or going to extra academies for everything from origami to science and math to violin and piano, then come to our English school , sometimes as late as 10:30. Koreans pride themselves on working harder than anyone else, and they really do. The kids are made to understand extremely well how important an education is, and most parents are really involved in their kids’ education. The Korean teachers at MoonKkang spend a large part of the day talking on the phone with parents, filling them in on how their student did that day at school.
Well, as always, this has turned into a marathon blog. I guess I’ll leave it be for now! I’m working on getting a photo site set up so you can check out some pictures if you like. I’ll let you know as soon as I have the URL for it!
Love you and miss you all!
Kait
Monday, September 15, 2008
My birthday (ace)
I'll start by saying that my birthday was a very good one. After only spending 6 days in this country, I had about 14 people show up to my birthday party. There is a very large group of people who all work at our school, and a large number showed up for my birthday, which was really nice. We went out to a restaurant that serves a spicy, veggie-laden dish which was really good. Other than that, I pretty much worked earlier in the day and chilled out before that.
I have to say that I am really going to like Korean food so far. It is definitely very different from western food or even Thai food - the spices are completely different - but I think it has a very good flavor. Kim chi is also very much growing on me. Also, our schedules here are very different, but I think I'm getting used to that too. We work in the evenings and have the whole first half of the day completely free, which is pretty nice. So we usually end up being very productive during the first part of the day, then we work in the evenings. The only problem with this is that sometimes we are hungry after work - at about 10:30pm or so - which is a pretty bad time to eat. But that is something we are getting used to. I just like to cook up a nice lunch when I can, and I usually cook up more than we can eat so we can take it to work. Anyways, that's all for now, as we are about to hit up a bookstore that caters to English teachers; we are going to look around for some research about Korean learners and about teaching methods in general. We wish the best to all of you, and we'll update things as soon as we can!
I have to say that I am really going to like Korean food so far. It is definitely very different from western food or even Thai food - the spices are completely different - but I think it has a very good flavor. Kim chi is also very much growing on me. Also, our schedules here are very different, but I think I'm getting used to that too. We work in the evenings and have the whole first half of the day completely free, which is pretty nice. So we usually end up being very productive during the first part of the day, then we work in the evenings. The only problem with this is that sometimes we are hungry after work - at about 10:30pm or so - which is a pretty bad time to eat. But that is something we are getting used to. I just like to cook up a nice lunch when I can, and I usually cook up more than we can eat so we can take it to work. Anyways, that's all for now, as we are about to hit up a bookstore that caters to English teachers; we are going to look around for some research about Korean learners and about teaching methods in general. We wish the best to all of you, and we'll update things as soon as we can!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Internet, bank accounts, and cell phones
So I guess getting internet setup, bank accounts, and cell phone accounts are all dependent on getting our alien registration cards, which coincidentally take about three weeks to process. (This is the government's fault, not our school's.) So for now we are either going to "PC" rooms - where dozens of Koreans play computer games, eat, smoke, and even sleep to pass the time - or we are leeching off of a local business' internet here in our apartment in order to get by. I guess only my computer can pick it up, and I have to be sitting on the bed in order to get the signal. But honestly, that is not a big deal at all. I am just glad to have internet! Knowing that we have this access to it, we will likely start posting our photos online somewhere so that you all can look at them. (More details on this as we figure it out.)
Earlier today, we had a lunch with all the other teaching newbies here at our hogwan. Our personnel manager gave us the run down on many of the specifics of our positions/contracts and gave us many helpful tips about beginning teaching. Also, we have a fellow teacher who helped us out with buying cards for the subway, buses, taxis, and other forms of transportation; these cards will save us some money as individual tickets are more expensive.
In pedagogical news, we just started teaching our first classes today all by ourselves. No outright disasters took place, for which we were grateful. But we both have many kinks to work out before we completely understand the curriculum we are supposed to teach. Luckily, we have an incredibly supportive staff; there are four other teachers that have been there for some time, and we have Korean partners (who teach our students during different periods) who give us many pointers as well. So we are very lucky to have a great network of other teachers to help us out, and luckily - for both them and us - prep time is almost non-existent as our lesson planning is done for us and is generally based on a canned curriculum. (I may express my thoughts on this via email.)
After work tonight, we met some of the other teachers who teach at schools just a few buildings away from us. Our hogwan has somewhere in the area of 160 teachers spread throughout Daegu, and our school is almost right next to two others. (Our schools are in large buildings that house other businesses, like gyms, billiards rooms, PC rooms, etc.) But tonight we were able to receive quite an earful about Korean culture from some of the teaching veterans, so it was nice to learn so many things all at once. It seems we feel more and more prepared as time goes by.
Ace
Earlier today, we had a lunch with all the other teaching newbies here at our hogwan. Our personnel manager gave us the run down on many of the specifics of our positions/contracts and gave us many helpful tips about beginning teaching. Also, we have a fellow teacher who helped us out with buying cards for the subway, buses, taxis, and other forms of transportation; these cards will save us some money as individual tickets are more expensive.
In pedagogical news, we just started teaching our first classes today all by ourselves. No outright disasters took place, for which we were grateful. But we both have many kinks to work out before we completely understand the curriculum we are supposed to teach. Luckily, we have an incredibly supportive staff; there are four other teachers that have been there for some time, and we have Korean partners (who teach our students during different periods) who give us many pointers as well. So we are very lucky to have a great network of other teachers to help us out, and luckily - for both them and us - prep time is almost non-existent as our lesson planning is done for us and is generally based on a canned curriculum. (I may express my thoughts on this via email.)
After work tonight, we met some of the other teachers who teach at schools just a few buildings away from us. Our hogwan has somewhere in the area of 160 teachers spread throughout Daegu, and our school is almost right next to two others. (Our schools are in large buildings that house other businesses, like gyms, billiards rooms, PC rooms, etc.) But tonight we were able to receive quite an earful about Korean culture from some of the teaching veterans, so it was nice to learn so many things all at once. It seems we feel more and more prepared as time goes by.
Ace
Update
Kait and I just finished our first weekend here in Korea, and we have had a very good time of it. Yesterday we scouted out the area around our house and found several useful stores that we will come back to in order to provide ourselves with some good groceries and household items. We also just got to know our area to a large degree (although we still have yet to find an illusive park that exists on the map, but does not seem to appear in reality...) Today we just went to the downtown area to look around and see what it had to offer. (We live in the S.W. section of Daegu, so we had to take the subway.) We only had one day to spend on foot, but we definitely saw a lot. But we know that we will want to come back often because we heard about a weekly salsa class that will take place, and a lot of our co-workers are into it already. We figured that would be a very healthy, productive way to spend our Saturday nights here in Daegu. (I have heard that a lot of foreign teachers drink their nights away while here, which seems pretty silly.) I also heard that one of my co-workers was in an aikido class, which would be a great way to get into shape and learn a nice martial arts discipline at the same time. I look forward to exploring these possibilities,and I will let you all know how they go. Lots of love,
Ace
Ace
Monday, September 8, 2008
First Impressions
Well, we’ve been in Korea for about five days now, and we’re working on getting settled. We’ve spent most of our time just walking around, exploring our area and trying to find groceries, apartment stuff, etc.
Our apartment is on the second floor of a little three story building in the southwest of Daegu, about a 15 minute walk from the nearest subway station. It’s a nice little place- definitely more space than we are used to having to ourselves, though that isn’t saying much J You walk in the door and our tiny little table/desk is on the right with our two little chairs. Our kitchen is straight ahead- we have a nice big fridge, a sink, a rice cooker, a microwave, a toaster oven, and a stovetop (no oven, though). Our appliances are living on the floor at the moment, as we have no counter to put them on! We don’t really know how to cook much from the grocery stores yet, so we’ve been living quite happily on sautéed veggies and tofu on rice. Our eating schedule is going to be a little strange, since we work from 4:30-10:30 most nights- it looks like we’ll be cooking nice lunches and packing sandwiches and fruit for dinner. Our bedroom is on the right, and it has a lovely little air conditioner. We also have a little TV room with a couch and DVD player (which doesn’t connect to the TV) and a laundry room with a washer (which isn’t set up) and some drying racks. All in all, it’s a cozy little setup, and it’ll be even better when we get the kinks worked out.
Daegu itself looks like a pretty normal big city- lots of tall, blah, uniform apartment buildings- but the surroundings actually make it quite lovely as far as cities go. A nice river runs through the city, and it’s surrounded on all sides by these lovely green mist-shrouded hills. They’re not developed at all, which makes for a nice reminder of the natural world when we’re surrounded by concrete. I hear the hiking is quite popular and quite good around here, so I’m really excited to give that a try. When Ace and I explored downtown, we didn’t find much of interest, but our coworkers seem to be happy here- they say there’s lots of stuff to do. Some theaters play movies in English, there are Cuban Salsa classes that some people go to (HOORAY! I can’t believe my luck!), and one of the guys is learning Ikeado, which Ace is excited to try. I’m really dying to get internet in our apartment- we have the websites for some local English newspapers and sports and culture clubs, and I really want to start figuring out what kind of things there are to get involved in. MoonKkang should be starting up it’s free Korean classes soon, which is going to be great- we’re dying to start learning. Almost no one speaks any romance language here, and all the writing is in Korean script, which we can make absolutely no sense of whatsoever. This definitely makes everything extremely difficult! I think we’re going to be highly motivated to learn quickly!
As far as work goes, I think we were pretty lucky to get such a good school. It seems very well established and in tune with the needs of foreign teachers. They have over 100 native-English teachers employed around Daegu! All of the teachers that we met on Friday seem happy with the working conditions, pay, location, etc. It’s really different from anything that I expected, though- it’s so completely different from the types of classes we were teaching in the CELTA course! There are Korean teachers that teach grammar and writing, and we mostly teach conversation-type classes. There is a very strict, set formula that each type of class follows- basically all we have to do is pick up the folder of materials that’s on our desk, go into class, and lead the class through the steps while keeping the children from killing each other. There is no prep, no grading, no nothing. The students are told all of the things they should prepare for our classes by other teachers, they do it at home, then they bring it to our classes and present it. The Korean staff takes care of all that stuff! The pedagogy seems a little odd to us- most of the classes I observed on Friday were presentation classes, which means that the students memorize a story as homework, then come into class, review it, then stand up in front of the class and regurgitate it. I think it’s in line with a lot of the Asian school systems (very memorization-heavy), but it’s a real shock coming from the creative curriculums encouraged in the CELTA course. MoonKkang is pretty strict about the way they want things done though, so I’m going to do the best I can.
This is my first time travelling without a really solid support system to take care of me, and Ace and I have both been pretty surprised about how “on our own” we feel. We got into Korea, got picked up and dropped off in our apartment, and then were left of our own to figure out this crazy new country where we don’t understand anything. We’re slowly starting to get our bearings (we’ve found a grocery store, figured out that we can check our email in the gaming rooms packed with chain-smoking guys playing online video games, we’ve figured out how to take the subway, etc.) but we’re still completely lost when it comes to so many things. We’re as good as mute, deaf and illiterate here! How do we order in restaurants? How can we get internet service at home? What is our address? What do we do with all the scary-looking Korean mails (bills?) that are in our mailbox? etc, etc. We definitely have all of our basic needs taken care of, but there is so very much to learn! (update- we found out yesterday that we have to get a foreigner registration card through immigration before we can get internet at home, cell phones or a Korean bank account- and getting the card takes three weeks!! L)
update- Tuesday morning
We taught our first classes last night! We observed three classes, then taught the last two with the teachers in the room if we needed them. It felt really good just to start learning by doing- I’ve been really nervous about teaching, but I know now that I’ve gotten started I’m going to learn so much more and so much faster than by studying the lessons or observing. Tonight we get our own students and teach all six of our classes- our first day of being real teachers! There are a lot of specific steps for each class (I teach five different types- reading, phonics, workbook, story, and speaking) and a specific way you’re supposed to go through each step, but I think once I get the hang of those I’ll be ok. After that, I think it’s just a matter of getting the respect of the students and then getting comfortable with them. They all seem like extremely good kids, but I’m going to have to figure out some sort of discipline system- they definitely figure out exactly how much you’ll let them get away with and then test those limits. I thought I’d just be teaching middle school students, but each teacher actually teaches a mix of lower elementary through middle school age. I’m actually kind of glad- the younger ones are a bit more enthusiastic. That’s it for now….wish us luck tonight!
Kait
Our apartment is on the second floor of a little three story building in the southwest of Daegu, about a 15 minute walk from the nearest subway station. It’s a nice little place- definitely more space than we are used to having to ourselves, though that isn’t saying much J You walk in the door and our tiny little table/desk is on the right with our two little chairs. Our kitchen is straight ahead- we have a nice big fridge, a sink, a rice cooker, a microwave, a toaster oven, and a stovetop (no oven, though). Our appliances are living on the floor at the moment, as we have no counter to put them on! We don’t really know how to cook much from the grocery stores yet, so we’ve been living quite happily on sautéed veggies and tofu on rice. Our eating schedule is going to be a little strange, since we work from 4:30-10:30 most nights- it looks like we’ll be cooking nice lunches and packing sandwiches and fruit for dinner. Our bedroom is on the right, and it has a lovely little air conditioner. We also have a little TV room with a couch and DVD player (which doesn’t connect to the TV) and a laundry room with a washer (which isn’t set up) and some drying racks. All in all, it’s a cozy little setup, and it’ll be even better when we get the kinks worked out.
Daegu itself looks like a pretty normal big city- lots of tall, blah, uniform apartment buildings- but the surroundings actually make it quite lovely as far as cities go. A nice river runs through the city, and it’s surrounded on all sides by these lovely green mist-shrouded hills. They’re not developed at all, which makes for a nice reminder of the natural world when we’re surrounded by concrete. I hear the hiking is quite popular and quite good around here, so I’m really excited to give that a try. When Ace and I explored downtown, we didn’t find much of interest, but our coworkers seem to be happy here- they say there’s lots of stuff to do. Some theaters play movies in English, there are Cuban Salsa classes that some people go to (HOORAY! I can’t believe my luck!), and one of the guys is learning Ikeado, which Ace is excited to try. I’m really dying to get internet in our apartment- we have the websites for some local English newspapers and sports and culture clubs, and I really want to start figuring out what kind of things there are to get involved in. MoonKkang should be starting up it’s free Korean classes soon, which is going to be great- we’re dying to start learning. Almost no one speaks any romance language here, and all the writing is in Korean script, which we can make absolutely no sense of whatsoever. This definitely makes everything extremely difficult! I think we’re going to be highly motivated to learn quickly!
As far as work goes, I think we were pretty lucky to get such a good school. It seems very well established and in tune with the needs of foreign teachers. They have over 100 native-English teachers employed around Daegu! All of the teachers that we met on Friday seem happy with the working conditions, pay, location, etc. It’s really different from anything that I expected, though- it’s so completely different from the types of classes we were teaching in the CELTA course! There are Korean teachers that teach grammar and writing, and we mostly teach conversation-type classes. There is a very strict, set formula that each type of class follows- basically all we have to do is pick up the folder of materials that’s on our desk, go into class, and lead the class through the steps while keeping the children from killing each other. There is no prep, no grading, no nothing. The students are told all of the things they should prepare for our classes by other teachers, they do it at home, then they bring it to our classes and present it. The Korean staff takes care of all that stuff! The pedagogy seems a little odd to us- most of the classes I observed on Friday were presentation classes, which means that the students memorize a story as homework, then come into class, review it, then stand up in front of the class and regurgitate it. I think it’s in line with a lot of the Asian school systems (very memorization-heavy), but it’s a real shock coming from the creative curriculums encouraged in the CELTA course. MoonKkang is pretty strict about the way they want things done though, so I’m going to do the best I can.
This is my first time travelling without a really solid support system to take care of me, and Ace and I have both been pretty surprised about how “on our own” we feel. We got into Korea, got picked up and dropped off in our apartment, and then were left of our own to figure out this crazy new country where we don’t understand anything. We’re slowly starting to get our bearings (we’ve found a grocery store, figured out that we can check our email in the gaming rooms packed with chain-smoking guys playing online video games, we’ve figured out how to take the subway, etc.) but we’re still completely lost when it comes to so many things. We’re as good as mute, deaf and illiterate here! How do we order in restaurants? How can we get internet service at home? What is our address? What do we do with all the scary-looking Korean mails (bills?) that are in our mailbox? etc, etc. We definitely have all of our basic needs taken care of, but there is so very much to learn! (update- we found out yesterday that we have to get a foreigner registration card through immigration before we can get internet at home, cell phones or a Korean bank account- and getting the card takes three weeks!! L)
update- Tuesday morning
We taught our first classes last night! We observed three classes, then taught the last two with the teachers in the room if we needed them. It felt really good just to start learning by doing- I’ve been really nervous about teaching, but I know now that I’ve gotten started I’m going to learn so much more and so much faster than by studying the lessons or observing. Tonight we get our own students and teach all six of our classes- our first day of being real teachers! There are a lot of specific steps for each class (I teach five different types- reading, phonics, workbook, story, and speaking) and a specific way you’re supposed to go through each step, but I think once I get the hang of those I’ll be ok. After that, I think it’s just a matter of getting the respect of the students and then getting comfortable with them. They all seem like extremely good kids, but I’m going to have to figure out some sort of discipline system- they definitely figure out exactly how much you’ll let them get away with and then test those limits. I thought I’d just be teaching middle school students, but each teacher actually teaches a mix of lower elementary through middle school age. I’m actually kind of glad- the younger ones are a bit more enthusiastic. That’s it for now….wish us luck tonight!
Kait
Friday, September 5, 2008
(Ace)
Nugent Waterside:While staying at “Nugent Waterside,” the name of the complex where we studied for the CELTA, we had many a fond memory. This was especially true for the other trainees that we met there. With such a wide variety of English-speaking people, Kaitlin and I learned very much about the Britishisms that escape the American vocabulary. When we studied, we were either secluded in our rooms with our laptops, or if we wanted to use the internet, we went to the resource room, which was a large room with about eight computers. With the outside temperature already very hot and humid, this room became an undesirable place to stay for any longer than a few minutes, especially for me as I had a hard time adjusting to the climate as it was. However, it was also a haven where the trainees could get together and ask questions about lesson planning and assignments, as well as chew the fat with the others for a while you waited for lunch or while you checked your email. Our days consisted almost entirely of classes that the trainers put on, lesson planning, review of the previous day’s lessons, and our lessons. (We taught every other weekday.)
One particularly interesting memory is when some of the students and trainers found a gigantic fly with a body almost as long as a normal-sized watch laid flat, with very large wings to match. Of course, when some of us were bending down to get a close look at it, one of the students poked it with a pencil, causing it to fly almost in our faces. (The students thought that was pretty funny.) When it did fly, it sounded like a miniature bomber flying overhead. Cool.
Kaitlin and I – for the most part – thoroughly enjoyed the meals that were served; they were all various Thai dishes, from Phat Thai, spicy noodle soups, to rice with chicken and fish (with skin on) and Tom Yum soup. Others, however, began to complain, saying such things as, “Oh, we have rice AGAIN today!” or “Oh great, more noodles!” which Kait and I didn’t really understand because we thought that the dishes were pretty delicious. The only things that we had a hard time eating were actually the desserts. (I know. It’s pretty crazy when Kaitlin and I like desserts the least of all the food!) Some of the desserts were made from corn and beans, sometimes mashed into a gluey, sticky paste that didn’t really have much of a taste, but the texture was enough to turn us off a bit. Other than that though, the meals were, on the whole, very good. The only bad thing was that we were in a small compound with everything we needed no more than a two-minute walk from our bedrooms; combine this with how busy we were and how hot/humid it was, you can imagine how little quality exercise we got. (I went running in the heat once, and it took me about three hours to stop sweating profusely!)
Overall, we were both glad to have taken the course, even though each of us saw some pretty major flaws with the methodology. But we learned a great many things that will help us once we start teaching in our own classroom. Perhaps the most useful thing – at least to me – was the overall flows of the different types of lessons. Although some needed to be modified to fit a particular lesson/focus, the provided an easy way to flow from one activity to the next in a very logical, systematic method that holds the students’ interest and keeps them on their toes.
Another great experience overall was simply interacting with the students. Many of us interacted with them very well, and we found that they were all very interesting people. You have to keep in mind that few of these students were actually children; nearly all of them were working adults. One of the students, Neng, was a taxi driver, and he was kind enough to go well out of his way to cart us around on the weekends for a nominal fee or for free. Another student was an importer/exporter, exporting Thai handicrafts and importing heavy machinery like caterpillars. Others were university students or employees of the university. Other professions ranged from health care professionals to small business owners to secondary school students. Overall, I personally think that the students were perhaps the best part of the course. I don’t think I’ll ever forget their kindness inside the classroom and out.
Once the course was over, we had a large party with all of the Thai students that we taught throughout the month. They were so kind; all the expenses for food, gifts, etc were paid for and arranged by the students themselves. They have such a high appreciation for all of us trainees (past, present, and future) that they throw a party in such a way at the end of every month. Apparently, they alternate who gives gifts for the trainees. This time, a jeweler who owns and manages three stores in Chiang Mai brought us all bracelets and necklaces from her business. (In the past, gifts have included belts and backpacks, among other things, I’m sure.) After the gift-giving, we all chowed down on the delicious, authentic Thai food that the students had prepared for us. The best dish was perhaps the spicy Thai sausage that someone had brought us. But the spicy green papaya salad was also to die for, as were a good number of the other dishes. Delicious! Thai food overall was exceptionally delicious.
After the course was over, some of the trainees (only those who hadn’t already flown home) went out to the bar to celebrate our newly-acquired certification, perhaps indicating a milestone in each of our lives. The bar we went to, called Riverside, had live bands that played a wide range of American and European popular songs. We were convinced that at least some of the band members were recruited straight out of a karaoke bar. One of the bands was so good that some of the songs that they sang/played were actually better than the originals! In any case, after several bottles of Sam Song, a Thai whiskey, Kaitlin and I had to say goodbye to the last of the crew that we would see before we left Thailand. After much hugging and blubbering, we finally made a quick exit to make it back to our hostel so as to get a good night of sleep before we went from Chiang Mai to Pai early the next morning. (The other two that were with us at the bar, Zoe and Rachel, ended up going to an all night bar to continue their late-night adventure.)
Pai had to be the best city we saw in Thailand by far. It was principally a tourist town, with an entire section of town covered with guest houses/hostels, shops of various sorts, and restaurants that catered to western appetites. One thing we were glad of was that we came during the “rainy” season, even though it rains more in Corvallis than it did during our stay in Thailand. (At least in Thailand, you wouldn’t go a month or more without ever seeing the sun!) This meant that there were very few tourists in Thailand, and, ergo, in Pai, so we had no trouble at all finding a place to stay for the nights we were there. (We found a nice bungalow made of a leaf-thatched roof and bamboo walls/floors.) Perhaps the best quality that Pai had to offer was that there wasn’t a terrible amount of things to do. Pai was such a small town that there was no point in spending a terrible amount of time exploring, and while we were there, we had zero obligations, responsibilities or duties. We got along very well by going to the local bookstore, buying a couple of good books, and sitting in a café sipping coffee, tea, or lassi (a fruit drink blended with a sourish yogurt. Delicious!) Before we came to Pai, Rachel, a fellow trainee at the CELTA program, recommended that we go to Joy’s elephant camp in order to get a wonderful ride on an elephant. So we woke up the second morning we were there and got a bicycle to ride out to the camp. (It was a really beautiful bike ride, with luscious vegetation and rice fields everywhere.) Before we got to the elephant camp, we saw an AWESOME looking tree house resort, so we stopped by and made a reservation after inspecting the tree house, some 30 feet or more above ground (more on this later). Once we got to the elephant camp and on the elephant, the elephant trainer took us down to the river for some fun. Once we were on the elephant’s back in the river, the trainer – who was on the ground at this time – decided to have some fun with us. (He seemed to have a good sense of humor.) Apparently, the elephant was trained with one verbal command to shake her head and body vigorously – with us on her. And so it went for what seemed like 25 minutes or so. Kait and I had a great time trying to stay on the elephant’s neck/back – with only a single rope to hold onto around her neck; we were largely unsuccessful. Needless to say, we got pretty wet, repeatedly, and the elephant seemed to enjoy herself too. But luckily, we got some GREAT pictures of the event, as the trainer was on the bank with Kait’s camera, snapping photos all the while. He caught us in mid air falling off of the elephant as her trunk went swooshing through the water. This was by far the highlight of our trip to Pai. After the elephant ride, we cleaned off in a hot spring pool back at the elephant camp and headed back to town for some lunch. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking in our lack of responsibility, rather guiltlessly I might add. Unfortunately, after dinner at a nearby restaurant, Kaitlin got a bit sick with a mild, yet exhausting bout of the stomach flu. Poor Kait had dizzy spells and exhaustion for the last day we were in Pai, and so was mainly bedridden. Poor thing. This meant that we could not stay in the tree house.
After a very windy van ride back to Chiang Mai the next day, we gathered our luggage from the guest house we had stayed at and left for the airport to catch our flight to S. Korea. Once we got there, we realized that our luggage was about 10 pounds overweight each, so we had to get rid of some of our winter clothes. (I had anticipated this and wore my heaviest shorts under my heaviest jeans.) Still a few pounds overweight, we had to pay a fee to get our baggage checked. Once we connected to Bangkok, we had to walk the distance of several football fields in order to figure out how to check in with Korean air and find our gate. Finally we got on our flight to South Korea.
We got our luggage and went to the arrivals section of the airport expecting to find our contact waiting for us…but he wasn’t there! So we called MoonKkang and let them know we had arrived, and they sent their man, Hyun, to pick us up. He apologized as he had thought that we would get in in the evening. (Usually this is the case, but since we came from Thailand, we arrived at 7:45am or so.) Hyun seemed very nice as he showed us to our new apartment. (Yay!) We have a washroom, a bathroom, a TV room, a bedroom, a dining room/kitchen (with much more room than Kait’s kitchen at her old studio), and the best part about it is that IT’S ALL OURS!!! We are still smiling about that.
Once Hyun showed us how to work all the gadgets in our apartment, we took a long rest after getting little sleep on the flight over. After this, we ventured to a local min-mart and stocked up on various toiletries that we had to throw away in Thailand to lighten our loads. Then we braved going to dinner at a Korean restaurant that had delicious BBQ-style food with various vegetables and meat. We sat down and asked the server for a menu, and she showed us a large one directly behind us on the wall, all in Korean script. After looking at this for a second or two, I turned to the waitress and said simply, “Um, we can’t read that…” After some amusing (if not comical) befuddlement on our part, we communicated through basic English words and gesturing that we wanted the same meal as the people sitting next to us. The table was set up with a hole in the middle, into which an employee placed some large, hot coals before placing a grilling screen on top. Soon, we got some meat and placed it onto the grill. After undoubtedly seeing our confused faces and glances to other tables, the proprietors came to our table in a very parental manner as if to say, “Okay children, let dad show you how it’s done.” We sat there, mildly embarrassed yet grateful for the help, as we learned how to eat Korean food. After we ate some delicious food (Kaitlin had mostly overcome her illness by this point,) we scouted out a grocery store about a block or two from our apartment and bought enough food to keep us until we could come back.
Since Saturday, Sept. 6th
We just had our first observations yesterday at Moon Kkang and we look forward to becoming part of the team. We think that Korea will treat us very well. The only real problem that we have had so far - and it was a minor one - was when we went out to dinner last night and we bought a meal and a drink. But apparently, the drink cost"more" than the meal. We think that since the price wasn't listed, the owners decided to take advantage of us considering that we couldn't speak the language in order to argue with them about the price... Oh well. We'll just never go there again! Up until that point, it was a very good night though. The two female owners seemed glad to have us and they joked around about our abilities with chopsticks.
Anyways, that's all we have for now. We are just in a large Korean computer gaming room where literally everyone is playing some kind of online game. We weren't even sure if we could just come in and use the internet! Crazy. We have been thinking of all of y0u very much lately and miss you all. We hope that things are going well, and we can't wait to hear from you. Lots of love from both of us!
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