Hello Everyone!
Guess what? I'm currently experiencing my first typhoon! Typhoon Bolaven is accosting us with wind and rain at this very moment, and other than the water leaking in under my window sills, I'm no worse for the wear. We did end up getting an entire day off for this storm, so I truly can't complain. I'm very curious to see how this plays out over the day. If anything major happens, I'll let you know about it next time.
I've been back here for about 3 weeks so far and keeping as busy as ever. I'm quickly getting back into the swing of things at work. Over the past 3 weeks, because students were still on vacation from their schools, we offered some extra classes at Oedae. This meant that some of the foreign (and native) teachers came to Oedae earlier in the day to teach these groups of kids. These classes focused on conversation more than anything else, so with my group of 5 kids, we talked about their daily routines, what their rooms looked, their favorite places and other common topics. I did have a couple frustrating kids that caused more stress than they should have, but otherwise it was an interesting change of pace.
Additionally, because of that extra class, my schedule at Haba has been different for the past 3 weeks as well. This week I will begin teaching my 4-year-olds again (another teacher has been covering for me), which will be fun. I've stopped by their room from time to time, and they're just as cute and excitable as ever. Now in this second half of the year, I'll be switching gears a bit; for the past months I have been trying to just have fun with the kids and increase their vocabulary. From this point onward, however, I want to set them up for being the best 5-year-olds they can be. I currently have my 5-year-old class that's doing really well, which primarily comes from the students' own abilities (and some of my teaching style). If I can help these younger kids end up like my current 5-year-olds were at the beginning of the year, I will consider it a job well done. And expect thanks from the next teacher to have them. haha.
In the 5-year-old classroom I'm going through the same kind of shift -- moving closer to a "prepare for the next year" mindset. I'm hoping, truly hoping, that these kids will be able to read and write simply sentences by the end of the year. Typically that's what we focus on with 6-year-olds, but this group of kids is great, and I think they can do it. Since I've been back, we've worked on some phonics things together that usually go over well. For example, one day we simply went through the alphabet and listed an animal whose name begins with the letter in question. I began by asking "What's the first letter of the alphabet?" They responded with "A." "What sound does 'A' make?" "Ah, ah …" "Good. Now what animal begins with 'ah, ah'?" "Alligator." Then we all made large mouthes with our arms and pretended to eat things. And we proceeded this way through nearly all of the alphabet (we ran out of time, so W, X, Y and Z didn't get the same attention). Beyond this exercise, we've started reading the same storybook a few times a week, The Hole in the Tub, by Joy Cowley. This story features our ever-vigilant heroine Mrs. Wishy-Washy and the nefarious Cow, Duck and Pig who constantly get muddy and need a good scrubbing (or wishy-washying, if you know the stories). We're going through this book very slowly and carefully, call and repeat style one or two word(s) at a time. After we read the story, I then ask them either how to spell a word (like Cow) or after writing the word on the board, which word it is. In either case, we hit hard the phonics, and as far as I can tell, the kids are picking it up. Granted, I have a few students (approximately 3 or 4 of my 12) who do much better than others, but across the board they have been steadily improving.
Now when it comes to my 7-year-olds and Oedae students, we just keep going with what we're doing. We study basic grammar concepts, add more vocabulary as it comes up and try to tie in various everyday topics with anything we learn. Here's one thing that's been on my mind recently (and it came up again just last night with my older kids): I think that any sense I've had of how quickly students develop and learn things has been entirely skewed since coming here and working with all these kids. For example, last night in my 14-year-old class (and I'll remind you that these kids are 12 and 13 in American age), we had the topic of "Internet Anonymity" in our debate book. At first, all the students believed that the it's good for their to be no anonymity online, which is an opinion that I don't know if I can easily or readily support. The first rationale given by one girl focused on famous people who've committed suicide (or gone into depression or something of the like) because of online attacks from anonymous sources. I asked if having names attached to comments would really decrease the stress that comes from these kinds of comments, and they said no, but hopefully if people had to own up to their words, they would be more careful about what they're writing. Point well taken. I wanted the students, though, to think about censorship and freedom to speak (criticize) in regards to politics. Sometimes, if an oppressive government exists, the fear of negative repercussions stifles open disapproval and change. Explaining this concept, or rather, leading the students to this idea proved to be an insurmountable challenge in our 1 hour together last night. And part of the problem came from this: the students explained that some of these concepts they didn't know in Korean, so they simply couldn't express them in English (this came in response to some specific questions that I asked). This gave me pause and reminded me that I am working with young kids, and I really don't know what they ought to know by this point in time … let alone even what they currently do know. So as a request to any of my teacher friends back home, I would love to see any academic benchmark information that you have for American students -- what they should be able to do and at which grades/ages. I tried searching online, but I apparently didn't use the right keywords because nothing productive came up.
Not only have the past 3 weeks been full of work, but I've had a lot of cool playtime as well. My first weekend back, I spent my first weekend (overnight, really) in Seoul. One of my coworkers had a sister in town, so 4 of us went up to see some sights. We ended up seeing one palace (Chang Gyeong Gung Palace) that had been destroyed and restored a couple (few?) times between its original build and now. Because I'm not a sightseer nor have I gone to any places like this before, it was very interesting to see the convergence of old and new: it was most striking when we walked along one long sidewalk (outside the palace) where to our right was the restored outer wall and to our left was a multi-lane road. Inside the palace, nothing specifically took my breath away (that's probably why I don't sightsee very often), but the idea that I was standing in a now-vacant seat of power still felt weighty. In addition to that palace, we did walk inside another one, but I don't remember the name (I think it was actually Namdaemoon, which is a large, old gate in the city). Again, it offered about the same kind of feelings to me. Beyond those places, we visited a couple markets (Insadong and Namdaemoon Market). The latter felt a little bit like a Korean Gatlinburg with all the shops on each side, but you could definitely find lots of different things here. Lots of traditional, random things. I think the coolest thing was something I saw in both places (and check out the youtube link at the bottom of this message to see it for yourself). There's one traditional Korean dessert/snack that's made of 16,000 strands of honey wrapped around nuts. It's pretty delicious. And pretty amazing. I took a video of the second stand that we came across, and the vendors explained what was happening in both English and Korean. Here's the funny part: this show was oh, so similar to the first one I saw. It's as if all those guys had been trained in their stage performance by the same person.
My second weekend back, I got to go rafting for the first time here. One of my friends recently invited/introduced me to a group that does various volunteering/service projects in the area. This group also has a big outreach to foreigners in the area, offering them classes (Korean, Taekwondo, K-Pop dancing, etc) and doing some weekend excursions. This particular Saturday we took a bus about an hour and a half away and spent a few hours on the water. Now, because of the rain that we've had recently and because no one had helmets we didn't get the "white water rafting" experience that some had hoped for, but it was really enjoyable nonetheless. I have to say that my raft was pretty much the best. We lazily (at times) and speedily (at others) went down a stretch of the river and splashed water at other rafts and swam and generally had a relaxed time. After that, we went to a nearby observatory to look at the sun and watch a couple videos about the moon. Again, it was great. While at the observatory we played a game of elimination in which each person received a paper wristband in one of a few different colors, and our objective was simply to tear off the bands from opposing colors. I valiantly slayed many an opponent, but at the end, just as a was going back on the bus, one insidious woman (whose band I had taken earlier, haha), barred the doorway and just managed to snag mine. This group was fun and playful, and I look forward to doing more with them as I can/have time. Also, you'll see another video link at the bottom for "Karaoke on the Bus." Karaoke is a readily-available pastime here, and as you'll see, it even can be done on a bus. haha. Now, upon watching the video after taking, I realized that the singing is pretty terrible, but meh, that's the way it goes. haha.
Just this past weekend, a couple fun things happened. First, we again had our large Spelling Bee for Oedae's elementary students on Friday. At this event, we split up by grade levels and administered a spelling test for all the students. With teaching lots of lower-level students, I didn't have many in the running from the get-go, but even my strong students were knocked out before the final rounds. The spelling bee part of the afternoon felt very long and boring (even to me … let alone all those kids who were knocked out early and spent the better portion of the ensuing hour being hushed and shushed until the rest were finished), but afterward we spent a little time playing a game and eating snacks. Below I've included links for some other videos -- not of the students, but of my fellow staff members. At first the kids had done this game, but just before completely finishing, Don decided to throw a curve and have the teachers try it. It was a lot of fun. Then, on Saturday, I ended up spending the better part of the day with a few other teachers going to a Jjim-jil-bang (찜질방). This is a my second time going to such an establishment, and I don't think I described it last time. You can do a wikipedia search for more information, but it's basically a place people go to relax that includes a large, gender-segregated public bath, rooms of varying temperatures and textures, massage areas and a bunch of other relaxing things. In the public bath area, you'll find locker room showers (for everyone to clean before and after entering the pools) and many pools of water with different temperatures. In this specific place, there was a large pool of comfortable water with lots of jets. There was also a smaller pool of frigid water with a couple jets, and then the middle of the room had 3 more large hot tubs (essentially). Going there for the day was fantastic. The one I had visited before wasn't quite as nice, but it still left me feeling refreshed and exhausted at the same time. If ever you come to visit me … or just make a trip to Korea … you should definitely try one of these, even (especially) if it pushes you a bit out of your comfort zone. This was a little funny: most neighborhoods have their own Jjim-jil-bang (or more than one, for that matter), but we went to one a little ways away to avoid running into students (because these are places where families and people of all ages go), and low and behold, Matt still ended up seeing one of his kids at this place. The little 5-year-old was with his dad, and he came over to say hi to Matt teacher a few different times. haha. After that, we wrapped up the night with some Pho Bay and Matt and I played a game. All in all, it was a well-spent Saturday.
Alright. I think that's about it for now. This typhoon is still in full swing here, and I assume it'll be this way for a while yet. As always, I'd love to hear about things on your side of the world, so hit me up with a reply whenever you're able.
Lots of love to you all,
pfn,
bg
Korean Traditional Honey/Nut Dessert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbxyIscP8k4&feature=youtu.be
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Ben's Korean Adventures- Edition 21
Hello everyone!
I am currently sitting in the plane, getting ready to take off from Grand Rapids and make my way back to Korea. Woo hoo!
Over the past two weeks I've gotten to visit with so many friends and family members; it's been great. I will admit, I am pretty excited to head back to Korea, but right now that's primarily because I'm truly ready to sleep in my own bed again. haha.
I am hoping that this time around things will progress a little better than they have the last few times I flew, and maybe that will be the case. Already I was upgraded to first class for my initial flight, although I did have to drop some weight at the baggage check.
Ok. Checking in again while in the air heading toward San Francisco. So that last flight ended up leaving about 35 minutes late because somehow it hadn't been refueled before we needed to go. And then the refueling truck ran out of fuel. haha. That's the way it goes. I made my flight with just enough time to stop and grab some breakfast before boarding. While sitting on this plane I watched some guys loading up luggage, and I actually saw them put one of my suitcases in the hold, but I didn't catch the other one. Here's hoping that it was just loaded before I started watching, although considering my track record (0 for 2 in the " luggage arriving on time at final destination" category) I'm already anticipating it to not be there on time. I would very gladly be wrong about this expectation though.
Let's see ... how about a little catch up? Just before leaving the country to come visit, my main class of 7 year olds finished their big English performance. Everything went really well with the show. The kids had a song/play/dance called "The Ox and the Frog" as well as a full play called "The Farting Contest". Both of these are funny little productions, and they went off without difficulty. Only two little glitches happened. As the first student gave his personal introduction and started to say, "When I grow up I want to be a ...", he froze. He simply stood there and looked a little unsure about what came next. Probably only 30 seconds or so passed before he picked up his lines again and finished off the sentence he had missed, but it seemed to last forever in that moment. You should know, whenever the kids step up to say some lines, our homeroom teacher will usually mouth the lines to help the students along. When I later asked Ji Hye about this student, she confessed that as he had said his lines, she had actually mouthed the wrong word to him, so he had had a moment of complete doubt and uncertainty; should he say "scientist" as he had practiced for the past weeks, or should he say "champion" as his teacher had mouthed. Haha. So instead of either he had just frozen.
During the whole performance series I controlled the CD player, so it was naturally my responsibility to make sure that everything was cued at the right time. I have had a paper copy of the script from the very beginning of our practices that lists all the track numbers and when they come up in the play. Now, as you can imagine, after going through these plays as many times as we have, I had pretty much memorized the order and timing of all the tracks, yet on that night, I had still kept the paper by my side just to make sure that all would go smoothly. We had used a CD earlier in the day that skipped or did some other unacceptable thing in the dress rehearsal, so come the real deal, we had even opted for a different CD that we thought had been burned pretty recently. During the performance the kids finished the first parts and cleared the stage to change costumes and prepare for the main play. I was supposed to start track 16 once I saw all the kids on the edge of the stage. The kids stood there, poised for action, so I pushed play. The kids didn't move onto the stage. They merely stood there and gave me the "deer in the headlights look." I could practically here some of them saying, "Ben teacher, what in the world are you doing?!" So I immediately paused the track thinking that maybe they weren't actually ready. I looked to the teacher helping them get ready for reassurance, and she motioned for them to start, so I clicked play once more. This time, Ji Hye peeked around the front row of parents to stare me down and once again give the "What's going on?" look. I then double checked the CD player and my paper script, and sure enough, both said "16." So I just raised my hands in the classic "Well I don't know" pose, and the kids came onto the stage. That's when I realized this important fact: my new CD, chosen to ensure that things went without difficulty, actually just didn't have the track that was supposed to be there. Haha. Go figure. The kids and Ji Hye had both known this immediately, but I hadn't realized until after it played a bit longer because I didn't recognize the song it actually was playing (the track formerly known as "17"). As it turns out, that CD had been made a long while ago because in some classes the teachers don't use that one song. Haha. Joke's on me. I think that's one of the few times that I've turned all shades of pink and red around the parents and kids since being here ... even if the embarrassment stemmed from something seemingly beyond my control. Lesson learned: always preview everything before the big day.
Checking in again. I'm now on my flight over the Pacific. Oh, yeah. So this is my first long flight in which there are not tv screens for each of the seats. This does throw a baby wrench in the gears, but I'll just have to make the best of it for the next 11 hours. (a bit later) Yet again, I have no fortune when it comes to sleeping on the plane (boo). As has been the case before, I feel the fatigue, but I don't feel sleepy at all ... even if I block out light and sound to the best of my abilities and try to lay back for a while. I'm so jealous of all those who can accomplish this amazing feat (ie- both of the guys sitting next to me. haha).
I'm in Korea! A couple hours ago by now I arrived in the Incheon Airport and placed my feet again on Korean soil. I went through Immigration, retrieved all my luggage and passed by Customs with no difficulty, and I am presently waiting to catch my bus back to Gwangju, which leaves within the hour. And I just ate my first Korean food since being back (mmm … delicious). I am still so excited to get home and go to sleep tonight. Whew. It will be great. I think that I'll wrap up this message now. We'll see how my readjustment and catching up on sleep go this week (because starting tomorrow I jump right back into the busy schedule that I left 2 weeks ago … plus there's a little extra through the end of this month), but I'm hoping to go through pictures and videos from the past month and get some things posted. This upcoming weekend I'll be traveling around a bit with some friends here, so I have a feeling that there won't be another big update for a week or so, but that's ok, right? Right. haha.
I am so glad that I got to catch up with a bunch of you during my time back in the States, and if we didn't connect this time, next time I will be around for longer … so we'll see one another face-to-face then. And as always, there's always Skype. I can usually make plenty of time for video chats or even just phone calls.
Lots of love,
bg
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