The closest I'll get to North Korea

The Hangul side of the bottle says "DE-EM-CHI" (the "Z" sound doesn't exist in their alphabet). When I asked my office mates about the meaning of the brand name they told me it must be gibberish. Obviously, Koreans don't call border the between North and South Korea "the demilitarized zone" so when I explained to them the English meaning of the acronym they were very surprised!

Alien babies for lunch?

Another note on weddings, octopi is a traditional wedding food. I found these lovely little specimens in the grocery store - they're marked at 9,623 won (about $8). Yum?

Why Korean Women are Awesome

When I get married, I'm totally going to drive around my hometown with my husband chained to the back of the car. I particularly love this photo because when the bride noticed me furiously chasing her down the street snapping photos, she popped her head out the back and flashed the ever so classic Asian peace sign. Priceless.

Apparently this tradition originated in 강릉 (Gangneugn), a coastal town in my province. You see it every once in awhile in my city, but its not particularly widespread in Korea - how disappointing!

Classy to Trashy

My apartment is in the middle of downtown Wonju. One of the perks is that I'm close to tons of shops, restaurants, and cafes. As an added bonus, there's a rose garden right behind my building! The weather is really nice so it's a great place to sit, read, and people watch. (Or to be watched considering that people are generally very interested in me...)



But what feels innocent and quaint by day miraculously transforms into a drunken Piccadilly Circus by night! Here's a pic of the street adjacent to mine that also borders the rose garden.



Some of the classiest establishment I've seen have to be the two right next to my building. On one side there's a "barber" shop and on the other there's a time defying pool hall.



I put barber shop in quotations because the double spinning wheels out front indicates that you get more than just a shave and a haircut. Seeing as most "hair stylists" are in their 60s, these places are only popular with old men.

More Apt Stuff

Not to complain, but if you thought doing laundry in college was hard, try doing it in Korean!



Every load is an adventure...

My Apartment

This next post is a bit boring and the only person who will probably care about it is my mother. Nevertheless, here is my lovely apartment building. (I live on the 9th floor.)



Inside of my apartment. (Pic taken from my bed. On the right is my desk, on the left is my wardrobe. Straight ahead is my kitchen /laundry room. The washing machine is below the stove. There is no oven or dryer.) No room for a table or chairs...but its Korean style to sit on the floor anyway.



View of Wonju from my window.

신발 or 십팔 ?

What are the odds that the Korean word for "shoes" and the Korean word for "go fuck yourself" are almost the same? I learned this the hard way today when I tried to compliment an administrator on her footwear. (It's shin-bal, NOT ship-pal!!!)



On that note, I should mention that Korean chicks are OBSESSED with wearing heels. Some of the heels they like to wear are amusingly ridiculous. I can't help but think "prostitute" every time I spot a woman walking down the street in six-inch, lace-up, leopard print, patent leather, stiletto boots. But to be fair, I'm sure that these women can't help but think "vagrant" every time I offend their stretch of sidewalk with my inferior flip-flops :)

Why I'm always the last to know whats going on...

At school, we have a nifty little instant messaging system for teachers. I generally get about 5 memos per day. These cryptic flashing messages used to bother me, but teachers get annoyed when I ask them to translate. I've just had to accept the fact that I'm always going to be "out of the loop". If something REALLY important is said, I have to trust that one of my colleagues will be kind enough to let me know. Having said that, they're usually so busy and so overworked that they forget (or can't be bothered) to say anything!



The message above, for example, may say something along the lines of "class schedules will be running 15 minutes behind schedule tomorrow due to a nationwide listening exam." Sam, however, won't figure this out until the next day when she shows up to her lesson extremely confused...

Nice to meet you...what is your blood type?

Being thrown into middle school without any teaching experience is a bit scary to say the least. Luckily, for my first week of classes all I had to do was introduce myself. As the only non-Korean in the entire school, I'm a bit of an enigma and students are dying to know about me. The funny thing is that they are absurdly shy. When I stood in front of a classroom and said, "ask me any question you like", I was met with dead silence. I decided to put students into groups and give them 10 minutes to write down 5 questions. Then, I walked around the room and selected groups at random to read their questions.

A question I got in several classes was, "What is your blood type?” From what I gather, this is equivalent to asking, “What is your star sign?” The myth that blood type is indicative of personality is a very popular in both Korea and Japan. In fact, blood type can be used for matchmaking! A Korean comedy made in 2005, B형 남자친구 ("My Boyfriend is Type B") explores blood type compatibility.

Other than that, some of my favorite questions were...

1. How much do you weigh? -This was the first question that was asked in one of my classes...you'd think they'd at least want to know my name!

2. Can I touch your nose? – Apparently my nose bridge is quite fascinating.

3. Do you like your face? - Initially thinking I should be offended by this one, I was later told that it was a student’s way of asking whether I knew I was beautiful. Along these lines, I also got, “Did you have plastic surgery?” and “Why is your face so small?”

4. What time is it in America? – The kids were amazed when I told them that America has multiple time zones. (China, crazy as it may sound, only has one.)

And this one was cute too...

( ㅊㅣ= chi)

치악중학교

My middle school.



Teachers' office - My desk is in the middle of the pic.



One of my classes...well more like half of it - I couldn't fit them all in the pic!

Pros of Middle School:

1. I'm basically a celebrity. As the only foreigner, I get a lot of attention. Students bow every time I walk down a hall (awesome) and as an added bonus, some of them will shout, "beautiful!" or "so pretty" then giggle and run away.

2. You don't have to wear shoes! Once you get into the building, you put on socks and slippers. Also, the school has ondol wooden flooring (underfloor heating). They only heat the floor in the winter time, but I'm really looking forward to warm toes.

3. I get to be a buffon in class. Students have a really low English level so when I'm speaking, I have to exaggerate and use every means possible to get them to understand. When I draw pictures on the board, use body language, put stresses on words, or change my intonation, kids think its hilarious. I'm legitimately not sure whether they understand that I'm just playing or if they assume that Westerners are ridiculous people.

Cons of my Middle School:

1. Of the 40 exhausted, overworked students in each of my classes, generally about half of them don't give a s*** about English, can't understand a word I'm saying, and would rather be doing anything other than be in my class. English in mandatory in the Korean school system from elementry school through high school. Inevitably, some students will stuggle and fall behind their peers. Unfortunately, there aren't remedial classes or classes divided by ability level so once students are lost, its very hard to catch them up or even recapture their interest. Because of the range in abilities, it's VERY difficult to engage everyone at the same time and I pretty much have to look the other way when the back rows of the class are sleeping or playing on their gameboys.

2. Lunch is generally unidentifiable but often has tentacles in it...On the bright side, I'm getting pro at eating with chopsticks and have developed a taste for kimchi.

3. Corporal Punishment. Teachers carry sticks with them and hit students in class. If the students are really bad, they get sent to the office where the teachers hit them more . It's a big awkward trying to act normal and plan a lesson when I can hear a student behind me yelping in pain.

안녕하세요!

Now that I've had a few weeks to settle into my new home, I figured it was time to share some of my experiences! For starters, I'll tell you what I'm doing...

I'm teaching English in South Korea through a program called EPIK. The program is sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Development. It is designed to foster English communication abilities in Korea children by placing native speaking English teachers in their schools.

Essentially, I'm a conversation teacher. Students attend regular English classes with their Korean teachers to learn grammar etc. Then, they have additional classes with me to practice their speaking skills. My job is to explain (or try to explain) the more nuanced facets of English that a Korean teacher won't necessarily understand, as well as to model and encourage speaking English with proper pronunciation, tone inclinations, etc. May sound easy, but the job is turning out to be harder than it looks! For the first time ever, I'm appreciating how utterly complex, idiomatic, and often unexplainable the English language really is!



EPIK has assigned me to teach in the city of Wonju in the Gangwon province. Gangwon is the most rural province in the country, but seeing as the population density of South Korea averages to 1,260 people/square mile, and in the US it's 80, rural hardly means the same thing! My city is full of busy streets and high rise buildings. It also has most of the comforts of a western city (and even a McDonalds, a Pizza Hut, and a Subway for the times when I get super homesick).

In Wonju, I teach at two schools. My main school is a public, co-ed middle school where I teach 18 classes a week (Monday - Friday) to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Then, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, I go to a public, co-ed elementary school and teach an additional 4 classes to 3rd and 4th graders.

My middle school has more than 1200 students. I see each of my 18 classes once per week and each class averages 40 students - aka I teach 700 kids and there's no way on earth I'm going to be able to remember their names!

My elementry school is the other extreme. It's a 45 minute bus ride out of the city and it has less than a 100 students. I teach one class of 3rd graders and one class of 4th graders and see each of them twice per week. Both have about 10 students. Instead of being moody teenager who loathe learning the English curriculum that their government requires, they're happy, utterly ADORABLE, and completely excited about a new language.

So I guess that sums up the basics...more to follow with my next post!