Hello again,
Ok, I actually wrote this a little while back, but I wanted to do some better spacing, so I didn't send it until … now. It's got some things from the past monthish, and the last paragraph I just added now. Following the time gap shouldn't be too much work for you, I assume.
So in Korea, 2 New Years are celebrated -- the solar (that I've always been accustomed to recognizing) and the lunar. I didn't really experience any traditional Korean activities for this past Lunar New Year other than what happened in school. As with a few other Korean holidays, all the kids wore their colorful traditional clothing (the hanboks) to school, and we shared a meal together, and we were given gifts from the Director and the Owner of our schools. It was very interesting participating in this little ceremony with the students because all the kids went down to the gym, knelt before those two, and bowed to show respect. Those 2, in turn, wished a blessed year upon all of us and gave gifts. Beyond this small activity, the holiday did give us some time off from work, so 5 of us teachers went traveling. We went to a northern part of the country, specifically to a city called Chuncheon.
We went up to this are for a few reasons. First of all, Chuncheon is known for a specific kind of food: "dak galbi", which is basically a spicy chicken stir fry. The other teachers all really like this dish, and actually they ended up having it once a day for all 3 days we spent up there, although I, a first timer, must admit that it wasn't as magical for me. haha. I only ate it one of those times, since this was about the time that my cold began to kick in and my general well-being was in question over our stay there. Next, we wanted to use this city as a home base for our trips to other places in the area. Chuncheon itself houses a small island called Gang Won Do that we visited on our first full day there.
It just so happened that the ferry to the island docks right next to the hotel where we stayed, so on Sunday morning we got up and walked over to catch a ride to the island. This part of our trip turned into a bittersweet amusing time because as it turned out, Gang Won Do is a beautiful little island, but it's really meant for the summertime and not the winter. All around the island we saw sports spots (like a volleyball court or soccer field or pool) that really couldn't be used at the time when we went there. Even as we stepped off the ferry, we realized that something was a little odd. It looked like a completely deserted place. As it turned out, there were maybe a dozen and a half other people around the island, such that the return trip on the ferry was much more lively than it had been the first time coming over (when it was just 7 of us -- 5 teachers and 2 crew). So … stop one of our vacation was a little underwhelming … that's the way it goes sometimes, right? Right.
That same day we jumped in a bus and made our way to Hwacheon. Now, this for this stop, we had done a little more research collectively and had a better idea of what to expect. Hwacheon is home to a huge winter festival during that time of the year with all sorts of wintery activities and displays. It's supposed to be one of the top 3 festivals in all of Korea, so it's a big deal. The area has a large river that completely freezes over, such that on this long stretch of frozen water people can ice fish in one area and use ATVs in another and have some sweet sledding in yet another spot. As we went along this river, there were easily 8-12 distinct sections of the ice that we used for varying activities. I had never really thought about all the things one could do on the ice before, and each one seemed pretty cool. I, myself, only went sledding on one part, and it was a blast.
Because the ice fishing remains at the forefront, we saw lots of fish-related artwork around the city. There was one spot where, apparently, students or others had made papier-mâché fish and all these were lined up on a fence with awards attached. Nearby rested other, much large fish of a similar sort, and perhaps the most impressive of these fish displays, didn't really become so interesting until evening set in. Along one stretch of street, essentially a fish net had been strung up, and up and down the net were tons of small fish and other sea creatures that had been caught. As the sun set, this net was lit up with strands and strands of lights. It was pretty gorgeous.
2 other ares of the city really caught my attention. In one outdoor part, people had made huge snow sculptures. Most of them had some connection to a popular figure or movie (like Shrek or Pororo), but a few were just other things (like a house). All were really big and really sweet. In another part of the city, and this was my favorite thing by far, we got to see an indoor ice sculpture area. It was wicked sweet. This building was basically a huge freezer to keep all the sculptures cold, and it was just so impressive. A few of the sculptures were intended for human interaction (like a big bus or another car in either of which one or a few people could sit and pose), while others were meant just to amaze (like a giant ship or building model). Within this area, I had two favorite sculptures. The first one was just a big ice slide. haha. I used one of the gunny sacks provided and surfed down … almost wiping out at the bottom. Ah … it was great. The second was a little more intense and intricate. At one end of a room, you could see just a huge wall of ice that went to the ceiling, and toward each end, there was a single doorway leading into the ice wall. Behind the wall existed a little ice bar. unfortunately, no drinks were being served at this bar, but it pretty much looked like a small, functioning, literally hole-in-the-wall establishment complete with tables, booths, a bar and even a shelf behind the bar for bottles, and it was all made of ice. It was sweet.
Our final day, we made a trip to Naminara Island. This place was simply gorgeous. This island has become a big touristy spot, but it's still pretty sweet. We saw so many random/arbitrary things, and some of them made no sense at all, but here they were … right on this island. We found a small music museum. That was my first time going to a Korean museum, and I quickly realized something that I hadn't considered before; museums become a little less appealing when all the descriptions of things are in a language that I can't read. haha. I think that some of the names of things were in English, but otherwise I ended up just looking at a lot of old instruments and thinking, "Oh, that's kind of cool … even if I don't know what it's for." Naminara also had a bunch of ostriches running around. This was, perhaps, the most ridiculous thing that we encountered on the island. I haven't yet looked into how the ostriches came to be on the island, but I've decided that if I know, perhaps some of the mystery would dissolve away, and who wants that? I don't. haha. There was also a UNICEF village near the center of the island and a few other seemingly unexplainable things. I look forward to visiting this place again, though, when it's warmer.
So after our few days, we came back home. As I've mentioned a few times by now, it was during this trip that I caught the worst cold of my life. Whew. It was terrible, lasting just over 3 weeks, and it definitely gave me more sympathy for others who have long sicknesses. Especially in Hwacheon, it was frigid during our trip, and we just spent too much time outside. But it was a blast, and I realized during out first day up there, that that was my first time away from my apartment overnight since I'd come to Korea. Woohoo. Maybe I'll become a traveling fiend yet. Probably not, but maybe. haha.
That sickness really made me disinclined to do much of anything after work beyond coming home and crawling into bed, so there's been little to report since that Lunar New Year vacation save one thing -- our final English festivals at work. During the school year, Haba students put on 2 big performances for their parents. I came here only a little after the first one had happened, so I really didn't know what we were getting into, but since the beginning of January, we've been prepping hard and heavy for this festival. Now the activities involved are determined by the age group as well as the level of our class, so while some groups of students only sing, dance and recite lines, other have to do those things plus some more. In Edison Class, my students prepared a play (a watered down version of "The Wizard of Oz"), a song with dance and a short presentation on Community Helpers (ie- firefighters, mail carriers, etc). This took a lot of time and effort and energy, and it all came to fruition last Wednesday. My class did their performance, and it went pretty well. At this point we now have one more week together before they more on to a new class and new teachers.
[Insert about a week]
By now my classes have finished. Woo hoo! I've finished off one school year, even though I only started halfway through. This time around, I get to start from the beginning and see it through to the end. I'm pretty excited for it. Just this past Saturday, we had a large meeting with parents and some students and all the teachers. It was at this time that we learned of all our classes and co-teachers and things like that, and we were also presented to the attending parents and students. It was neat to see everyone in the gym at the same time because sometimes I forget that we do have a pretty large staff. I found out that … da da da … I'll be teaching students who are 7, 5 and 4 years old, thus I will have a lot of new material to learn and present to the students. Today and yesterday we spent time mapping out a lot of our textbooks for the next year, which is something that didn't happen last year. I think that planning on this macro scale will be a huge help … at least to hopefully alleviate some of the pressure during the end of the year crunch time. And one more thing that I'll sneak in here for those of you who diligently read all the way to the end, I did just talk with my director today about extending for a second year, so consider this a heads up; I'll be here for a little while yet.
Let's see. I think that's about it for now. I hope that you're keeping it real.
Much love to you all.
pfn,
bg
ps- if you want to see photos from the trip, visit here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.697487103244.2140210.15300236&type=1&aft=710431442684&l=40b2c70a5b
if you want to see videos of the icy things in Hwacheon, visit here:
http://youtu.be/dgB65hmVZgU (Ice Tunnel)
http://youtu.be/tAG-sBJOR7s (Sledding)
http://youtu.be/13x4sST5kgM (Fish Net Street)
http://youtu.be/pTFyO0gW3ok (Ice Sliding)
if you want to see videos from the play, visit here:
http://youtu.be/07kf85JZjIo (Funny Intro)
http://youtu.be/ynt_alRchK0 (I am the Queen song … with mistake)
http://youtu.be/kqul2_N-5ZA (Don't Give Up You Can Do It song … with odd lyrics)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Ben's Korean Adventures, Edition 18
Hello everyone!
This time around, I want to focus only on what an average day could look like for me. Right now, we're actually in the transition time between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, so this general day will be changing a bit for me in just a couple weeks, but this is what it's been like for the past few months at least.
Most days I will get up around 7:30 or 8am and maybe shower or make breakfast or do anything else during those precious first minutes awake. Lately breakfast has been great, and I usually indulge in banana pancakes or fried egg sandwiches or an omelet or some other delicious thing like that. And then, sometime around 8:50-55, I head out for the kindergarten (Haba). Living 4 minutes and 30 seconds (by foot) away from work really has its perks. It reminds me of when I lived in the dorms during college; I always knew exactly how long it took to go from my doorway to my classroom seat, and I would hardly allow more time than that for the trip. So also, I get to the kindergarten usually only minutes before my student shows up, but that's ok because usually the first students are a minute or two late as well.
4 days a week I've been meeting with one of two students at 9am to work on specific things for that student. We practice pronunciation or listening comprehension or something along those lines. These meetings usually go really well, and I enjoy starting off the days when talking with just one kid at a time. Then, around 9:30, the bulk of our students begin to arrive. Students come to school in our school buses (which are actually just larger vans -- I think that seeing an American-sized school bus navigate the tiny streets in my city would be a terrifying, yet awe-inspiring sight) or with their parents. I think that most of the kids arrive by van, but I'm not wholly sure.
9:40 marks the actual beginning of our class time. Once the kids get settled down and ready to work, it usually ends up being closer to 9:45-50, but it's somewhere in that first 10 minutes that we'll get down to business. Our school day is broken up into 6 periods, with breaks after every 2 of them. I spend periods 1 & 2 with my 6 year-old students (Edison Class), have a 20-minute break, and go on to spend periods 3 & 4 with my younger kids. On Mondays and Fridays, I teach both 3 year-olds (Angel Class) and 5-year-olds (Rainbow or Sun Classes), while on the other days, I only meet with the 2 5-year-old classes. Next comes lunch time. All of the kids eat lunch in their respective classes with their homeroom teachers, and the English teachers are served lunch in our room.
Our school lunches usually consist of something like this: white rice, kimchi, soup and other things. The rice and kimchi and soup all appear every single day, since these are Korean staples. I would guess that any of you could imagine rice or kimchi (assuming you've had and/or encountered it before) and think of what I'm talking about. The soup, however, may be a little different. Most of the time, the soup is more like "broth with a few things in it" than what I'd typically expect as my kind of soup because frankly, when I make soup … I often leave hardly enough room for broth or other liquids (for better or worse). There are some days when lunch isn't as tasty as others, but I think that I've only really not wanted to eat it once since being here. I will say this: it is what it is … a mass produced school meal, and as such, it's not as great as a restaurant meal, but I think it's still pretty solid.
After lunch, at 1:20, I go back to Edison Class and spend the remaining 2 periods (5th and 6th) with them. Our main school day ends at 2:40, and then come all the exciting after school things. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I teach an Speaking Class to a group of 6-10 6 year-olds at 3:00. These kids all come from classes that I don't teach during the day, and I have to say, it's one of the most refreshing classes that I have. Because it's not one of the regularly-scheduled classes, we have lots of flexibility with the curriculum. We do use a textbook and complete activities in that book, but we spend a lot of time just doing things that get the kids to use English, and use it well. These kids have memorized Shel Silverstein's "Boa Constrictor" and love singing/moving to "The Hokey Pokey" and "London Bridge" (and in the latter, we use 4-5 different verses that many of you have probably never heard before). I'm a firm believer that language associated with songs and games (essentially just fun things) will stick better than words memorized in a rote manner. I'm reminded of this idea each year when Christmas comes around; it's been years and years since I studied French as a student, yet I still remember so many French carols with such clarity. I'm hoping that these kids will be able to recite that poem years and years from now.
Once I've finished at Haba, it's time for the afternoon Academy, Oedae (sounds like "Way Day"). On Monday, Wednesday, Friday I have 3 classes, at 3:50, 4:30 and 6:00, while on Tuesday and Thursday I only have the 4:30 class. In all of these classes I teach students who are between 10 and 12 years old. Their English is generally pretty good, so we go through exercises focusing on grammar and usage and just practice, practice, practice. Just to give you a taste, here are the grammar points we've covered recently for each of the classes (numbers corresponding to the order of classes): 1. reporting what someone had said. Let's say that 2 people are talking about something, and if I want to tell you what one person said, I would say something like "Mrs. Webster said that blah blah blah." This learning focuses on paying attention to a conversation between 2 people and repeating the information while giving credit to the appropriate person. 2. frequency of activities. How often do you study? I study every day. or I study 5 times a week. or I study on Mondays. or I always study. You get the drift. 3. reflexive pronouns. I can do this myself. The dog licks itself. They go to the store by themselves.
These last three classes have had their ups and downs. Lately it's been on an upswing with all of them. Some of the students I like a lot and have so much potential, while some others apparently would have much better lives if I weren't their teacher (which they will soon get to put to the test). So on those later days, I finish teaching by 6:40, and then I have the evening open to do as I will. Last semester, I had been meeting with some friends to study Korean or teach English about 3-4 nights a week, so as you can imagine, I was pretty busy during that time. Since Christmas, though, that schedule has been completely changed, and it's now been a few weeks since we've met at all. Lately also I had been sicker than I've been in a long time (or possibly ever), so having more time to rest and relax was a great thing. Once things get settled with the new school year, we'll see how it gears up again. Additionally, as you imagine, there are always lots of things to do no matter where you are, so I've ended up filling empty time with games and podcasts and writing and reading and sleeping and eating and cooking and doing all those things that I liked to do in the States. Life here feels pretty normal -- minus the fact that still everyone speaks a language that I don't readily understand. haha.
Now, here's my final note about the daily schedule: since I began writing this message, I've found out more about my classes for the new year (coming into effect at Oedae tomorrow and at Haba in 2 weeks). As it turns out, I will obviously have a bunch of new students at Haba, but a little to my surprise, I will also have a wholly new schedule at Oedae as well. I will now have 4 classes after the kindergarten, and most of those kids will be 8 year-olds, fresh from the kindergarten. I'm also gaining a later night class that'll meet only on Wednesday and Friday, but it'll last until 8:30. These students are apparently the highest level the Academy teaches, so really, just as I was getting pretty comfortable with the 10-12 year-olds, I will now be switching students to both considerably younger and those considerably older. We'll see how this goes.
Alright. I hope this finds you well. As always, drop me a line, letting me know how you and yours are. I just got caught up on my emails today, so it's about time I get some new ones. haha.
Much love to you all.
pfn,
bg
This time around, I want to focus only on what an average day could look like for me. Right now, we're actually in the transition time between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, so this general day will be changing a bit for me in just a couple weeks, but this is what it's been like for the past few months at least.
Most days I will get up around 7:30 or 8am and maybe shower or make breakfast or do anything else during those precious first minutes awake. Lately breakfast has been great, and I usually indulge in banana pancakes or fried egg sandwiches or an omelet or some other delicious thing like that. And then, sometime around 8:50-55, I head out for the kindergarten (Haba). Living 4 minutes and 30 seconds (by foot) away from work really has its perks. It reminds me of when I lived in the dorms during college; I always knew exactly how long it took to go from my doorway to my classroom seat, and I would hardly allow more time than that for the trip. So also, I get to the kindergarten usually only minutes before my student shows up, but that's ok because usually the first students are a minute or two late as well.
4 days a week I've been meeting with one of two students at 9am to work on specific things for that student. We practice pronunciation or listening comprehension or something along those lines. These meetings usually go really well, and I enjoy starting off the days when talking with just one kid at a time. Then, around 9:30, the bulk of our students begin to arrive. Students come to school in our school buses (which are actually just larger vans -- I think that seeing an American-sized school bus navigate the tiny streets in my city would be a terrifying, yet awe-inspiring sight) or with their parents. I think that most of the kids arrive by van, but I'm not wholly sure.
9:40 marks the actual beginning of our class time. Once the kids get settled down and ready to work, it usually ends up being closer to 9:45-50, but it's somewhere in that first 10 minutes that we'll get down to business. Our school day is broken up into 6 periods, with breaks after every 2 of them. I spend periods 1 & 2 with my 6 year-old students (Edison Class), have a 20-minute break, and go on to spend periods 3 & 4 with my younger kids. On Mondays and Fridays, I teach both 3 year-olds (Angel Class) and 5-year-olds (Rainbow or Sun Classes), while on the other days, I only meet with the 2 5-year-old classes. Next comes lunch time. All of the kids eat lunch in their respective classes with their homeroom teachers, and the English teachers are served lunch in our room.
Our school lunches usually consist of something like this: white rice, kimchi, soup and other things. The rice and kimchi and soup all appear every single day, since these are Korean staples. I would guess that any of you could imagine rice or kimchi (assuming you've had and/or encountered it before) and think of what I'm talking about. The soup, however, may be a little different. Most of the time, the soup is more like "broth with a few things in it" than what I'd typically expect as my kind of soup because frankly, when I make soup … I often leave hardly enough room for broth or other liquids (for better or worse). There are some days when lunch isn't as tasty as others, but I think that I've only really not wanted to eat it once since being here. I will say this: it is what it is … a mass produced school meal, and as such, it's not as great as a restaurant meal, but I think it's still pretty solid.
After lunch, at 1:20, I go back to Edison Class and spend the remaining 2 periods (5th and 6th) with them. Our main school day ends at 2:40, and then come all the exciting after school things. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I teach an Speaking Class to a group of 6-10 6 year-olds at 3:00. These kids all come from classes that I don't teach during the day, and I have to say, it's one of the most refreshing classes that I have. Because it's not one of the regularly-scheduled classes, we have lots of flexibility with the curriculum. We do use a textbook and complete activities in that book, but we spend a lot of time just doing things that get the kids to use English, and use it well. These kids have memorized Shel Silverstein's "Boa Constrictor" and love singing/moving to "The Hokey Pokey" and "London Bridge" (and in the latter, we use 4-5 different verses that many of you have probably never heard before). I'm a firm believer that language associated with songs and games (essentially just fun things) will stick better than words memorized in a rote manner. I'm reminded of this idea each year when Christmas comes around; it's been years and years since I studied French as a student, yet I still remember so many French carols with such clarity. I'm hoping that these kids will be able to recite that poem years and years from now.
Once I've finished at Haba, it's time for the afternoon Academy, Oedae (sounds like "Way Day"). On Monday, Wednesday, Friday I have 3 classes, at 3:50, 4:30 and 6:00, while on Tuesday and Thursday I only have the 4:30 class. In all of these classes I teach students who are between 10 and 12 years old. Their English is generally pretty good, so we go through exercises focusing on grammar and usage and just practice, practice, practice. Just to give you a taste, here are the grammar points we've covered recently for each of the classes (numbers corresponding to the order of classes): 1. reporting what someone had said. Let's say that 2 people are talking about something, and if I want to tell you what one person said, I would say something like "Mrs. Webster said that blah blah blah." This learning focuses on paying attention to a conversation between 2 people and repeating the information while giving credit to the appropriate person. 2. frequency of activities. How often do you study? I study every day. or I study 5 times a week. or I study on Mondays. or I always study. You get the drift. 3. reflexive pronouns. I can do this myself. The dog licks itself. They go to the store by themselves.
These last three classes have had their ups and downs. Lately it's been on an upswing with all of them. Some of the students I like a lot and have so much potential, while some others apparently would have much better lives if I weren't their teacher (which they will soon get to put to the test). So on those later days, I finish teaching by 6:40, and then I have the evening open to do as I will. Last semester, I had been meeting with some friends to study Korean or teach English about 3-4 nights a week, so as you can imagine, I was pretty busy during that time. Since Christmas, though, that schedule has been completely changed, and it's now been a few weeks since we've met at all. Lately also I had been sicker than I've been in a long time (or possibly ever), so having more time to rest and relax was a great thing. Once things get settled with the new school year, we'll see how it gears up again. Additionally, as you imagine, there are always lots of things to do no matter where you are, so I've ended up filling empty time with games and podcasts and writing and reading and sleeping and eating and cooking and doing all those things that I liked to do in the States. Life here feels pretty normal -- minus the fact that still everyone speaks a language that I don't readily understand. haha.
Now, here's my final note about the daily schedule: since I began writing this message, I've found out more about my classes for the new year (coming into effect at Oedae tomorrow and at Haba in 2 weeks). As it turns out, I will obviously have a bunch of new students at Haba, but a little to my surprise, I will also have a wholly new schedule at Oedae as well. I will now have 4 classes after the kindergarten, and most of those kids will be 8 year-olds, fresh from the kindergarten. I'm also gaining a later night class that'll meet only on Wednesday and Friday, but it'll last until 8:30. These students are apparently the highest level the Academy teaches, so really, just as I was getting pretty comfortable with the 10-12 year-olds, I will now be switching students to both considerably younger and those considerably older. We'll see how this goes.
Alright. I hope this finds you well. As always, drop me a line, letting me know how you and yours are. I just got caught up on my emails today, so it's about time I get some new ones. haha.
Much love to you all.
pfn,
bg
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