For those not in the know, I literally spent all of last week madly studying Korean in an attempt to become proficient by the weekend -- my weekend plans involved going away to Gyeongju for a couple of days with some folks I know.
So, things from this weekend (in no particular order):
1 - I was able to communicate in Korean in a casual conversation context! Well, kind of. (WOOT!)
2- I suspect there's a really cute, sweet Korean guy who speaks almost no English, who is sizing me up for marriage. (I could be wrong, but I just got that sense from some of the questions I was asked, such as "Do you like Korean guys?", "If you met a Korean guy you liked, would you marry him?", "If you married a Korean guy, would you want to live in Korea?" etc.)
3- I have learned and forgotten the Korean word for "sesame leaves" 4 separate times (that's right, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday) from 3 different people in 3 different locations (Friday and Sunday were the same friend, same location.)
4- I have mastered the Korean words for "pervert", "secret" and "illusion". Also: "innocent" and "cinnamon". Funny enough, these are the kind of words that you learn when you learn your Korean from bartenders. He, on the other hand, learned the following English words: "attrocious", "illusion", "vulva", "cinnamon" and "sesame leaves". (The bartender at the foreigners' bar is helping me learn Korean - so anytime I stop by for a beer it involves the two of us testing each other on vocabulary from last time and then chatting and giving each other new vocabulary, as it comes out of the conversation...)
5- I have been given a Korean name and I quite like it... the guys and Ellie have christened me Bae Ka-Yeon. I have been told by many (well, the four Koreans that I've told) that it's a really beautiful name... I think so too... woohooo!
I should note that I've been given Korean names before, but this one seems to fit the best - it's like my English name, and I think it's pretty...
6- In case you were wondering, it IS possible to study Korean for 5 hours straight, 3 days in a row. Without your head exploding.
7- Korean cookouts rock - for one, it's tradition that the guys do all the cooking. Second, um, can anyone say FRESH SHELLFISH and yummy-yummy galbi? That sure beats spidey-dogs and marshmallows!
8- When building a fire, all that technique I learned in my youth (you know, strategically placing newspaper, smaller branches and larger pieces of wood) is not important if you have a blowtorch.
9- Don't stand downwind of the person using the blowtorch. Unless you want to be covered in ash and other sooty particles. If that is the case, DO stand downwind.
10- The Korean card game Go Stop is much more complicated than I had ever suspected. Gah!
11- I suck at poker.
12- I really just have bad gambling luck. Any time there's money involved, I WILL lose.
13- After a long weekend, I'm SO happy to see my students!!
I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be standing with someone when you're both rendered mute by lack of language skills, but you want to communicate... so it's back to the Korean studying for me! But first, I'm going to take a quick nap.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
who knew...
This week is a week for me scratching my head, smiling with wonder and saying "Who Knew??"
1- For example, who knew that when left alone with about 8 random teachers at my school, any and all communication with the other teachers would be done in Korean, English or Konglish (with absolutely NO assistance from the 2 English teachers here whatsoever...)
The who-knew in this case has nothing to do with the English teachers. It has everything to do with the amount of effort the other teachers have been making to communicate with me ~ and me with them ~ especially considering most of them speak very little English and my Korean is pretty sketchy :-) I think they're a bit surprised by the whole thing, too. I'm just happy that I understand what's going on!!
2- Who knew that there was another dong further north of Hogye, that I could accidentally find myself lost in at 10pm at night. When will I ever learn that shortcuts are usually not shortcuts and winding roads are not a good idea in unfamiliar and dark surroundings... I think I'll go back in the daylight...
3- Who knew how much fun it is just to screw around on my bike and tear up and down the local streets and trails etc... sometimes I get so into the fun of riding distances or commuting that I forget just to screw around and have a blast hotdogging, practicing technique or whatever else.
Really, it's been a quiet week - no kids - and I miss teaching. Long weekend starts tomorrow (that's right, Thursday and Friday off work.) All of the kids are on a field trip right now.
So lesson planning and Korean-learning and documentary-watching it's been!
1- For example, who knew that when left alone with about 8 random teachers at my school, any and all communication with the other teachers would be done in Korean, English or Konglish (with absolutely NO assistance from the 2 English teachers here whatsoever...)
The who-knew in this case has nothing to do with the English teachers. It has everything to do with the amount of effort the other teachers have been making to communicate with me ~ and me with them ~ especially considering most of them speak very little English and my Korean is pretty sketchy :-) I think they're a bit surprised by the whole thing, too. I'm just happy that I understand what's going on!!
2- Who knew that there was another dong further north of Hogye, that I could accidentally find myself lost in at 10pm at night. When will I ever learn that shortcuts are usually not shortcuts and winding roads are not a good idea in unfamiliar and dark surroundings... I think I'll go back in the daylight...
3- Who knew how much fun it is just to screw around on my bike and tear up and down the local streets and trails etc... sometimes I get so into the fun of riding distances or commuting that I forget just to screw around and have a blast hotdogging, practicing technique or whatever else.
Really, it's been a quiet week - no kids - and I miss teaching. Long weekend starts tomorrow (that's right, Thursday and Friday off work.) All of the kids are on a field trip right now.
So lesson planning and Korean-learning and documentary-watching it's been!
Monday, May 21, 2007
a funny thing happened on the way to wherever...
Yesterday was a beautiful day, so of course I was itching to get on my bike and ride far, far away. With a friend, I set out to explore Ulsan a bit more - this time, to NamGu we went. (That's the southern section of the city). We pulled out the ol' Korean map and pinpointed our destination - a tiny symbol of a tree and a bench, chosen because it was the only remotely interesting/understandable thing in the area.
Now, I'm a bit of an optimist. One of those annoying "I see beauty in everything, really!" people. However, NamGu held little beauty. It was heavily, heavily industrialized. A coal plant, petrochemical plants, chemical processing plants and any other manner of heavy-polluting, ugly-looking, completely suspect complexes lined the roads on the way to the harbour. Ulsan has become such a successful little city by totally whoring itself to some of the biggest polluters in Asia, I suspect.
Needless to say, we bailed on the ride, and headed back into the city, more familiar turf. Back in the core of the city, we paused at a street corner to decide on a direction for our ride. I was just pulling out the map when a helpful Korean in his car explained to us in terrific English - "Go straight and then turn right!"
Korea rocks. I mean, how random is that. We don't even know what direction we want to go in, but a stranger in a car rolls on by, proactively solving our problem with complete confidence AND in English!
Clearly, we went straight and then right. Which took us to, well, a building with blaring K-pop and a whole bunch of Korean suits who started at us while we waited for the light to change. We really couldn't find what the helpful man thought we were looking for. Or, we didn't see anything that looked like it would be something we were looking for. So back across the river (towards home!) for some Indian food (!) and that oh-so-fun summer sport of boywatching on an outdoor patio...
Sigh. And another Sunday in Ulsan passes by... Friday will be further adventures in NamGu - I'm determined to find something pretty in that quarter of the city. Even if it kills me. Which, with that air quality, it just may.
One last note: my students are everywhere. As in, I am in the downtown for 1 hour, and see at least 25 of them. The downtown is NOT close to my little Hogye-dong. Yet, I walk down the street and hear "Oh! Katrina-teacher! Katrina-teacher, hello!" or "Oh! Katrina-seng! Katrina-seng, hello!" (same thing, but in Korean).
BUT for the next three days - ALL of the students in my middle school (all 1800 of them) are out of town on a field trip! That is three whole days of going wherever I want, doing whatever I please, and not having random behaviours and sightings reported back to me by my students in class or in the hallways... example: "Teacher! Shinae! What? Boy! Hat! Boyfriend?" - which translates to "Teacher, I saw you in Shinae? What were you doing? The boy wearing a hat (that you were with) - is he your boyfriend?"
Now, I'm a bit of an optimist. One of those annoying "I see beauty in everything, really!" people. However, NamGu held little beauty. It was heavily, heavily industrialized. A coal plant, petrochemical plants, chemical processing plants and any other manner of heavy-polluting, ugly-looking, completely suspect complexes lined the roads on the way to the harbour. Ulsan has become such a successful little city by totally whoring itself to some of the biggest polluters in Asia, I suspect.
Needless to say, we bailed on the ride, and headed back into the city, more familiar turf. Back in the core of the city, we paused at a street corner to decide on a direction for our ride. I was just pulling out the map when a helpful Korean in his car explained to us in terrific English - "Go straight and then turn right!"
Korea rocks. I mean, how random is that. We don't even know what direction we want to go in, but a stranger in a car rolls on by, proactively solving our problem with complete confidence AND in English!
Clearly, we went straight and then right. Which took us to, well, a building with blaring K-pop and a whole bunch of Korean suits who started at us while we waited for the light to change. We really couldn't find what the helpful man thought we were looking for. Or, we didn't see anything that looked like it would be something we were looking for. So back across the river (towards home!) for some Indian food (!) and that oh-so-fun summer sport of boywatching on an outdoor patio...
Sigh. And another Sunday in Ulsan passes by... Friday will be further adventures in NamGu - I'm determined to find something pretty in that quarter of the city. Even if it kills me. Which, with that air quality, it just may.
One last note: my students are everywhere. As in, I am in the downtown for 1 hour, and see at least 25 of them. The downtown is NOT close to my little Hogye-dong. Yet, I walk down the street and hear "Oh! Katrina-teacher! Katrina-teacher, hello!" or "Oh! Katrina-seng! Katrina-seng, hello!" (same thing, but in Korean).
BUT for the next three days - ALL of the students in my middle school (all 1800 of them) are out of town on a field trip! That is three whole days of going wherever I want, doing whatever I please, and not having random behaviours and sightings reported back to me by my students in class or in the hallways... example: "Teacher! Shinae! What? Boy! Hat! Boyfriend?" - which translates to "Teacher, I saw you in Shinae? What were you doing? The boy wearing a hat (that you were with) - is he your boyfriend?"
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Thong update
This is a quickie. The thong guy (as written about sometime in February?) has just gotten married! No one even knew he had a girlfriend. Hi-larity! I wonder if he did give his girlfriend a thong after all... and I really wonder why he was asking ME about it all. But whatevs.
By the way, he's the school administrator, and the conversation was taking place in his car, in LotteMart as well as in my apartment, as we were shopping for (of all things) a toaster oven and a vacuum cleaner.
Today I will introduce the kids to Peter Bjorn and John by way of the "English Radio Show" at my school. I expect it to go over like a lead balloon.
UPDATE: As expected, lead balloon. Pulled the song before we went to air and replaced with some Usher song, because the kids said (and I quote): "well, the teachers will like that song, but..."
It is official. I am old.
By the way, he's the school administrator, and the conversation was taking place in his car, in LotteMart as well as in my apartment, as we were shopping for (of all things) a toaster oven and a vacuum cleaner.
Today I will introduce the kids to Peter Bjorn and John by way of the "English Radio Show" at my school. I expect it to go over like a lead balloon.
UPDATE: As expected, lead balloon. Pulled the song before we went to air and replaced with some Usher song, because the kids said (and I quote): "well, the teachers will like that song, but..."
It is official. I am old.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
one more thing - about the korean language learnin'
See below for the long thingy I posted about 20 minutes ago.
But one more thing - about Korean language learnin'.
The new school year has brought many a new thing. New classes (I heart my new classes!), new lesson plans (mostly successful) and many, many new teachers.
About 1/3rd of the teachers in my school transfered in a couple of months ago. And can I just say, I'm loving it. I now actually hang out with the teachers! None of them are English teachers, and that's ok. We get by. Through my efforts in learning Korean, and their efforts in dredging up the English that they learned in school (they surprise themselves at their ability, I think, sometimes!), we manage to have fun. There's one teacher in particular who is an active learner and more fluent in English than the others (rest assured, dictionaries are still necessary!) that has been a real catalyst to this.
But all that stuff I said about not wanting to learn Korean for the teachers I work with, that's only applying to the 2/3rds that were at my school before, who made little effort to communicate with me. These new teachers, I want to learn Korean even more now than ever before, because I enjoy hanging out with them, and wish I could understand everything being said without pauses for summary, or shifts into English conversation... I know it's hokey, but there's something so nice and so normal about socializing with people from my workplace (in non-contrived situations.) I'm studying for a beginner proficiency test in October... I need to have a working vocab of approximately 800 (level 1) to 2000 (level 2) words. I think I can do it. I am aiming for level 2, but will be happy with level 1.
So. Other than wondering why the English teachers still (with the exception of 2) won't talk to me with other people around, the school situation is terrific, the Korean situation is terrific (if not still too slow!). But back to the English teachers. Why won't they talk to me if others are around to hear, when the non-English teachers, who have lower skill levels, will? If anyone can explain this to me, I'd like to know.
And, after being at my school for 8 months, the girl who studied in Australia has finally gathered the confidence to talk to me -- I've heard from her hagwon teachers that she's in my school but afraid to approach me (I'm scary, I know!), and today, she came by to visit with two of her friends. WOOOO! I think they'll come by to see me again soon. Progress is small, but one day, one day, people will not be afraid of speaking to me. (And conversely, I will not be afraid to speak to them in Korean!)
That is all for now. Really.
But one more thing - about Korean language learnin'.
The new school year has brought many a new thing. New classes (I heart my new classes!), new lesson plans (mostly successful) and many, many new teachers.
About 1/3rd of the teachers in my school transfered in a couple of months ago. And can I just say, I'm loving it. I now actually hang out with the teachers! None of them are English teachers, and that's ok. We get by. Through my efforts in learning Korean, and their efforts in dredging up the English that they learned in school (they surprise themselves at their ability, I think, sometimes!), we manage to have fun. There's one teacher in particular who is an active learner and more fluent in English than the others (rest assured, dictionaries are still necessary!) that has been a real catalyst to this.
But all that stuff I said about not wanting to learn Korean for the teachers I work with, that's only applying to the 2/3rds that were at my school before, who made little effort to communicate with me. These new teachers, I want to learn Korean even more now than ever before, because I enjoy hanging out with them, and wish I could understand everything being said without pauses for summary, or shifts into English conversation... I know it's hokey, but there's something so nice and so normal about socializing with people from my workplace (in non-contrived situations.) I'm studying for a beginner proficiency test in October... I need to have a working vocab of approximately 800 (level 1) to 2000 (level 2) words. I think I can do it. I am aiming for level 2, but will be happy with level 1.
So. Other than wondering why the English teachers still (with the exception of 2) won't talk to me with other people around, the school situation is terrific, the Korean situation is terrific (if not still too slow!). But back to the English teachers. Why won't they talk to me if others are around to hear, when the non-English teachers, who have lower skill levels, will? If anyone can explain this to me, I'd like to know.
And, after being at my school for 8 months, the girl who studied in Australia has finally gathered the confidence to talk to me -- I've heard from her hagwon teachers that she's in my school but afraid to approach me (I'm scary, I know!), and today, she came by to visit with two of her friends. WOOOO! I think they'll come by to see me again soon. Progress is small, but one day, one day, people will not be afraid of speaking to me. (And conversely, I will not be afraid to speak to them in Korean!)
That is all for now. Really.
it's been a long time, but melbine inspired me to post
sorry it's been so long. I'm not even sure if anyone's still checking my blog. I blame facebook (and thanks for joining, mom, it does make things easier, even if you do have to see some pretty sketch photos of me)
this is a reprint of a comment that I posted on Melbine's blog (a patch of blue). Read her original post here: http://melbine.blogspot.com/
Comment starts here:
I'm going to be verbose here, sorry. It just struck a chord.
My own personal theory on bullies is to push back or to just ignore them... I'm far to stubborn to back down but it's just not worth my time to engage, so I tend to diffuse and walk away... in my past I worked with a fierce bully. I went head to head with her on issues that I felt warranted the confrontation, but on the smaller stuff, I walked away. She may not have liked me (at all), but she did respect me.
Trying to explain this kind of strategy to the kids (at my school, and kids I knew in Canada) though, who are bullied, that's not so easy.
Funny you wrote about this at this time - today I had two different kids talking to me about their bullying problems (being bullied).
One of the kids is a prime target in that he's really really small for his age - seriously tiny. His strategy is avoidance, he just avoids situations where he may be bullied. This means that some lunchtimes (when bullying is of course most common), he's hanging out in the teachers room with me or with other teachers... I understand that and although it's not always convenient, he's always welcome.
Surprisingly, the other kid is an incredibly popular young guy, athletic, an excellent student, super nice, classroom president and very popular with the ladies. These factors seem to make him a prime target for bullying - kids that are tough and jealous I think.
Bullying seems to be more about either group-think or self-confidence issues - and until the self-confidence of the "leading" bully is fixed, the bullying behaviour will continue (most likely into adulthood).
I don't know how to fix this with the kids, I wish I did. But in both cases, I think standing up to the bullies wouldn't really help so much, it would probably just aggravate the situation. And as the kids are dealing with each other on a daily basis, aggravation is the last thing that's needed.
In my mind, it all comes down to the parents' responsibilities in raising their kids. If you instill a healthy sense of self and develop healthy sense of confidence in your child then they're better able to deal with bully situations, and are less likely to be bullies. Both of these kids seem to have both, and have developed coping mechanisms, but it still hurts.
So I guess this goes out to all those korean parents with kids at my middle school reading your blog -- stop defining your kids' accomplishments (and self-worth) by comparison to other kids - while it's the easiest thing to do (ie. good job, you're at the top of your class - or bad job, there were other soccer players who were better) be a bit more creative. If kids are taught to value themselves through comparisons, they'll always bully, so they'll win by comparison or humiliate the opposition. And once they learn that they can get people to roll over by bullying them, they'll keep bullying - again, the easiest way, not the most creative way - to get things done.
Thanks for letting me vent. It's apples and oranges, but...
disclaimer 1 - I have no children
disclaimer 2 - I was not really ever bullied as a child, I would have none of that kind of bulls**t from a young age, and being from a small town, that kind of stuck.
disclaimer 3 - I _absolutely_ failed kid number 2 today, I had no idea what to say or do to make him feel better or help him resolve his problem. And I feel horribly about it. Any suggestions are really welcome. I'm out of my depth, in part because of disclaimer 2.
END COMMENT
Am I right? Am I wrong? And furthermore, as an adult in a world of kids, how can I help?
Seeing kids cry (or look like they're going to cry) sucks. It really, really, really sucks. And as someone who wears her emotions on her face, I know how vulnerable it feels to know you're showing that something hurt you - when that's the last thing you want to be doing. Please advise.
this is a reprint of a comment that I posted on Melbine's blog (a patch of blue). Read her original post here: http://melbine.blogspot.com/
Comment starts here:
I'm going to be verbose here, sorry. It just struck a chord.
My own personal theory on bullies is to push back or to just ignore them... I'm far to stubborn to back down but it's just not worth my time to engage, so I tend to diffuse and walk away... in my past I worked with a fierce bully. I went head to head with her on issues that I felt warranted the confrontation, but on the smaller stuff, I walked away. She may not have liked me (at all), but she did respect me.
Trying to explain this kind of strategy to the kids (at my school, and kids I knew in Canada) though, who are bullied, that's not so easy.
Funny you wrote about this at this time - today I had two different kids talking to me about their bullying problems (being bullied).
One of the kids is a prime target in that he's really really small for his age - seriously tiny. His strategy is avoidance, he just avoids situations where he may be bullied. This means that some lunchtimes (when bullying is of course most common), he's hanging out in the teachers room with me or with other teachers... I understand that and although it's not always convenient, he's always welcome.
Surprisingly, the other kid is an incredibly popular young guy, athletic, an excellent student, super nice, classroom president and very popular with the ladies. These factors seem to make him a prime target for bullying - kids that are tough and jealous I think.
Bullying seems to be more about either group-think or self-confidence issues - and until the self-confidence of the "leading" bully is fixed, the bullying behaviour will continue (most likely into adulthood).
I don't know how to fix this with the kids, I wish I did. But in both cases, I think standing up to the bullies wouldn't really help so much, it would probably just aggravate the situation. And as the kids are dealing with each other on a daily basis, aggravation is the last thing that's needed.
In my mind, it all comes down to the parents' responsibilities in raising their kids. If you instill a healthy sense of self and develop healthy sense of confidence in your child then they're better able to deal with bully situations, and are less likely to be bullies. Both of these kids seem to have both, and have developed coping mechanisms, but it still hurts.
So I guess this goes out to all those korean parents with kids at my middle school reading your blog -- stop defining your kids' accomplishments (and self-worth) by comparison to other kids - while it's the easiest thing to do (ie. good job, you're at the top of your class - or bad job, there were other soccer players who were better) be a bit more creative. If kids are taught to value themselves through comparisons, they'll always bully, so they'll win by comparison or humiliate the opposition. And once they learn that they can get people to roll over by bullying them, they'll keep bullying - again, the easiest way, not the most creative way - to get things done.
Thanks for letting me vent. It's apples and oranges, but...
disclaimer 1 - I have no children
disclaimer 2 - I was not really ever bullied as a child, I would have none of that kind of bulls**t from a young age, and being from a small town, that kind of stuck.
disclaimer 3 - I _absolutely_ failed kid number 2 today, I had no idea what to say or do to make him feel better or help him resolve his problem. And I feel horribly about it. Any suggestions are really welcome. I'm out of my depth, in part because of disclaimer 2.
END COMMENT
Am I right? Am I wrong? And furthermore, as an adult in a world of kids, how can I help?
Seeing kids cry (or look like they're going to cry) sucks. It really, really, really sucks. And as someone who wears her emotions on her face, I know how vulnerable it feels to know you're showing that something hurt you - when that's the last thing you want to be doing. Please advise.
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