I went along with the teachers at my school on an excursion last Friday to celebrate the start of the Summer vacation. We boarded the Everland bus and zipped down to the other end of the country for the day (it took 3 hours to get there). Clever clogs here forgot to take his camera so this blog will be unillustrated. Originally I thought this was fine because I had so much to say about what I observed, but the passing of only 48 hours since Friday afternoon has caused me to forget the details.
As a result this entry will be both unillustrated and sparse on detail.
It was nice to see some of my best students before I left. If you stick to the formula and use the phrases that were in the text then you can have a short conversation with some of them. It's good to see how some of them have the confidence to approach foreigners. Admittedly the standards are different in this area of Korea because many students attend private academies which employ people from all over the USA. And the orthodoxy, I think, is that making errors in front of strangers is still very embarrassing. This is really frustrating for me because it can still be difficult to elicit responses even in the classes of higher ability. I often say to them "I know you can do this" but it's not nearly as effective as candy or at least points for their team.
I remember the last day of school as a student: your teacher didn't seem so bad on that day. Most of them won't see me for 5 weeks (which could partially explain their happiness) but I still have a further 2 weeks to work with the low ability students during Summer Camp. I've just looked over the material and fear it will go clean over their heads, but if that's the case then I have 2 weeks to dumb it down. On the last day we make chocolate sodas together then I fly to Thailand without them. So I don't care.
Now, Friday turned out to be a good day overall, though it took a while to break the ice with some of the teachers. We travelled to North Jeolla Province, to the towns of Buan and to Byeonsanbando National Park in particular. The attractions were, in this order, lunch, a walk to some famous rocks, a temple, another temple, dinner. For lunch I ate raw fermented crab, not something I would ever order myself, but it wasn't going to eat itself. During the walk over rocks the principal, vice principal and grandpa teacher argued all the way about something or other. Nobody had told me we would be walking after lunch so I left my umbrella in the bus. Seongsuk shared her brolly with me and we tried to be positive and joke about stuff as it continue to rain and were obliged to follow the old men further and further from where the bus was parked, and my umbrella.
Temples in Korea all look similar and I won't be hurrying to see anymore. The one on the east coast, Naksansa, was unique and very beautiful because of its location. Otherwise, I don't find them terribly exciting. So when I heard we were visiting two before eating I felt a mild case of panic. The settings of each of these temples was beautiful however. The first one had a dramatic mountain backdrop. At the second, we walked beside a river and some very tranquil "bushland" for roughly 500 metres before entering the temple. Pansu bought me a cup of fresh blackberry juice as we walked. Seongsuk and Pansu, who are usually in my staffroom, have been the two most important figures responsible for my ease of transition into Korea. Pansu also did me the kindness of pointing out that I was gaining weight too fast and that I don't exercise enough, bless him. As if I hadn't already noticed it.
At dinner we got stuck into the soju and blackberry wine and I finally got talking to some of the other staff members. I felt as if we were only just getting settled at the tables before the order was given to move on once again. I would much prefer to do a few things and take my time rather than quickly and superficially do a lot of things. And when it comes to eating and drinking I hate being made to rush. No one can superficially appreciate drunkenness anyway. Fortunately we were permitted enough time for the sexy 5-2 homeroom teacher to stumble over and ask me a few questions (after she spent the first 5 minutes giggling behind her hand). Good on her for her efforts though.
This week I begin Summer School and a weight loss program. Then I go on holidays. Perhaps I should put it off for when I return. Ok, I will.
Cheerio!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Purple Sneakers
I'm sure Tim Rogers sings about the walk to school on 1995's Hi Fi Way. It was 15 years ago when I first listened to that. I'd just gotten into coffee, I had a most unsuitable girlfriend who found me far too polite, and I walked to school as a student. Now, in 2010, I'm in Korea, walking to school again - this time as the native English teacher. I can't find a decent coffee anywhere, and the women find my non-Confucian behaviour uncouth and irrational. There's a certain sense in this: in Korea, if you allow a stranger to move on ahead of you, you will find yourself waiting all day. I am learning to push and shove. Either this means I am assimilating or I am simply being recast as a rude foreigner instead of an insignificant one. I clearly have no desire to become Korean or even to work for a conglomerate, meaning that I would make for a poor husband to the status-conscious, surgically-enhanced women of Bundang. But I am singing as I write these words - do you need somebody to feel somebody?
Right, all in readiness then. Undersized Korean shirt: check; bachelor-bright gleam in my eyes: check; Australian sense of humour: long may it live.
The first step is to make it to the end of the lengthy and rather grim corridor waiting just outside of my door. If I make a left it will take me to HomePlus, the subway, and the bright lights of Yatap. A right-hand turn (pictured here) takes me down to the river (Springsteen-style) for exercise or the walk to school. School is 3.3 km south from my apartment and I walk beside the river all of the way.
Does it get any zanier than this? A self-portrait in an elevator, with the reflection in the background? Maybe if I'd had a spinning bowtie...
It just so happened that the day I'd designated as picture taking day was also clear and sunny - only the fourth time this has happened since my arrival. In the left of the picture you will see a zebra crossing. I am yet to figure out why Korean councils bother painting these stripes on the road as the cars have right of way in the case of pedestrians using it. Pedestrians stop cars by walking into the traffic and holding a palm towards the windshield of the oncoming vehicle. I assume this is where the oriental belief in chi comes from - "it is invisible energy originating from combination of old woman's palm and giant hat causing driver to brake so as not to interrupt flow of noble Korean life." Personally I am a rationalist who wants to get to work on time and so waits to cross with noble Korean. But in many ways I feel as if being a pedestrian here consititutes an extreme sport.
That's the outside of my building, this shot having been taken after I had made it across the road. As you can see, there are retailers on the first and second floors including a pool hall. In fact the entire first floor is made up of restaurants. I have made pals with the gimbap people just down from here. Maybe twice a week I eat at their fine establishment for a $3 dinner. Not bad eh?
Now, this is just before I walk down the stairs to the Tancheon. "Cheon" means stream, so technically it is the "Tan Stream." But coming from Australia, where we actually have water police due to water's scarcity, this looks very much like a river to me. Tancheon empties into "Hangang" in Seoul. Now "gang" means river, so technically it is the Han River. But to me, of course, it is an ocean.
The sign says "Bundang Cha Byeongwon." Byeongwon means hospital. This is where I get a mad deal on brand name medications - if I would only be so patient as to wait for all of the locals to be served before me.
If you look to the left you will see the Yatap stream. This originates in the hills beyond Bundang. I often walk past this point just as my good friend Stephen rounds the corner on his bike. He works at the next school down the line. It takes only 20 seconds to reach by car from mine and also has over 800 students, giving you an indication of the population density of this area.
This bridge over Tancheon dates back to the Lee Myung Bak era...
The apartment buildings are often named after the conglomerates. That one on the left is Chinese. Regardless, they all look pretty Soviet-like to me. Sometimes, at work, when no one else is in the staffroom, I look at illicit pictures of European, American and Australian buildings on my computer. Phwoar look at those curves! What a beauty! etc etc
The buildings in the distance are of Seohyun, which has a reasonable foreigners' scene, and a Korean busker with a pretty bloody good voice who loves his Britpop: "half a world away..."
Bundang is surrounded by low hills. Excellent for hiking. Most of Korea is hilly and they have only really developed the places of low altitude. But because they seem to love living close together, man have they developed it!
And then I duck into this subway 25 minutes after leaving home and become...
...Noble Teacher Slippers-Don't-Fit!
Right, all in readiness then. Undersized Korean shirt: check; bachelor-bright gleam in my eyes: check; Australian sense of humour: long may it live.
The first step is to make it to the end of the lengthy and rather grim corridor waiting just outside of my door. If I make a left it will take me to HomePlus, the subway, and the bright lights of Yatap. A right-hand turn (pictured here) takes me down to the river (Springsteen-style) for exercise or the walk to school. School is 3.3 km south from my apartment and I walk beside the river all of the way.
Does it get any zanier than this? A self-portrait in an elevator, with the reflection in the background? Maybe if I'd had a spinning bowtie...
It just so happened that the day I'd designated as picture taking day was also clear and sunny - only the fourth time this has happened since my arrival. In the left of the picture you will see a zebra crossing. I am yet to figure out why Korean councils bother painting these stripes on the road as the cars have right of way in the case of pedestrians using it. Pedestrians stop cars by walking into the traffic and holding a palm towards the windshield of the oncoming vehicle. I assume this is where the oriental belief in chi comes from - "it is invisible energy originating from combination of old woman's palm and giant hat causing driver to brake so as not to interrupt flow of noble Korean life." Personally I am a rationalist who wants to get to work on time and so waits to cross with noble Korean. But in many ways I feel as if being a pedestrian here consititutes an extreme sport.
That's the outside of my building, this shot having been taken after I had made it across the road. As you can see, there are retailers on the first and second floors including a pool hall. In fact the entire first floor is made up of restaurants. I have made pals with the gimbap people just down from here. Maybe twice a week I eat at their fine establishment for a $3 dinner. Not bad eh?
Now, this is just before I walk down the stairs to the Tancheon. "Cheon" means stream, so technically it is the "Tan Stream." But coming from Australia, where we actually have water police due to water's scarcity, this looks very much like a river to me. Tancheon empties into "Hangang" in Seoul. Now "gang" means river, so technically it is the Han River. But to me, of course, it is an ocean.
The sign says "Bundang Cha Byeongwon." Byeongwon means hospital. This is where I get a mad deal on brand name medications - if I would only be so patient as to wait for all of the locals to be served before me.
If you look to the left you will see the Yatap stream. This originates in the hills beyond Bundang. I often walk past this point just as my good friend Stephen rounds the corner on his bike. He works at the next school down the line. It takes only 20 seconds to reach by car from mine and also has over 800 students, giving you an indication of the population density of this area.
This bridge over Tancheon dates back to the Lee Myung Bak era...
The apartment buildings are often named after the conglomerates. That one on the left is Chinese. Regardless, they all look pretty Soviet-like to me. Sometimes, at work, when no one else is in the staffroom, I look at illicit pictures of European, American and Australian buildings on my computer. Phwoar look at those curves! What a beauty! etc etc
The buildings in the distance are of Seohyun, which has a reasonable foreigners' scene, and a Korean busker with a pretty bloody good voice who loves his Britpop: "half a world away..."
Bundang is surrounded by low hills. Excellent for hiking. Most of Korea is hilly and they have only really developed the places of low altitude. But because they seem to love living close together, man have they developed it!
And then I duck into this subway 25 minutes after leaving home and become...
...Noble Teacher Slippers-Don't-Fit!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saving Face
It's Sunday evening, and the end of another slow weekend here in Bundang. My first 3 months in Korea have involved a good mixture of tourist-based activities and good old-fashioned bar hopping with with newfound friends. What can I say? You take your culture with you when you travel. Last night I spent a very relaxing time with Matt and West (both laid-back Oregonians) down by the Tancheon. It was a warm evening and there was just us and a large bottle of soju, along with our free flowing English conversations about work and expat life punctuating the sounds of the river.
I am going into my final week of semester at school. I finished teaching classes a week ago and have since been putting together a program for the unlucky few students who get handpicked by their homeroom teacher to join me for a further 2 weeks of schooling during summer. And at the end of this week I am joining the other teachers to go on "teacher camp." I will be bussed to the city of Cheongju (or Jeonju, I didn't hear Lucy properly) on Friday for an evening of God knows what with the rest of the Imae Elementary staff who weren't fast enough to think of a good excuse to avoid it. I am not exactly looking forward to this, but experience tells me these things are about attitude and if I attempt conversation with some staff members then the evening might whizz by quicker than I imagined. The problem is, I've been super grumpy for the last 4 weeks and it's obviously showing on my face: even the sandwich girl told me I need to smile. You make concessions away from home: if anyone ever told me that in Australia, I made a mental note to avoid them for the remainder of my life. However, Korea isn't the place to stage a little tanty. Expressing opinion equals making yourself look arrogant and is foolish. Lying in order to preserve the status quo and prevent disharmony, on the other hand, are values that Koreans regard very highly. Fortunately, I am just passing through the Hermit Kingdom on my way to cultures which came out of their metaphorical shell years ago.
A Doosan batter prepares to belt the Kia pitcher out of the park
Remember Stephen? You may remember him from earlier blog entries including that one where we went to Seoraksan National Park or the one where we watched Korea play Ecuador in Seoul just before the team left for South Africa. Well, we still hang out from time to time, but I think we've found our own groups of friends that are closer to our respective ages and with whom we have more in common in life. Anyway, it was his birthday on Thursday so a group of us went to Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul to watch the Doosan Bears play against the Kia Tigers. The baseball teams here in Korea are all named after (and owned by, I think) the major conglomerates of the country. The conglomerates are the mega-businesses like LG, Samsung and Lotte who diversify time and time again and so often own all parts of the production and shipping and sale and maintenance of a product. Lotte are primarily a department store like David Jones. They also make a lot of foods which you can find in convenience stores, they run a chain of fast food stores called Lotteria, and they have their own amusement park called Lotte World. Doosan is a construction company but I'm not sure if they have their own fun park.
The author poses with the Doosan team mascot.
I am going into my final week of semester at school. I finished teaching classes a week ago and have since been putting together a program for the unlucky few students who get handpicked by their homeroom teacher to join me for a further 2 weeks of schooling during summer. And at the end of this week I am joining the other teachers to go on "teacher camp." I will be bussed to the city of Cheongju (or Jeonju, I didn't hear Lucy properly) on Friday for an evening of God knows what with the rest of the Imae Elementary staff who weren't fast enough to think of a good excuse to avoid it. I am not exactly looking forward to this, but experience tells me these things are about attitude and if I attempt conversation with some staff members then the evening might whizz by quicker than I imagined. The problem is, I've been super grumpy for the last 4 weeks and it's obviously showing on my face: even the sandwich girl told me I need to smile. You make concessions away from home: if anyone ever told me that in Australia, I made a mental note to avoid them for the remainder of my life. However, Korea isn't the place to stage a little tanty. Expressing opinion equals making yourself look arrogant and is foolish. Lying in order to preserve the status quo and prevent disharmony, on the other hand, are values that Koreans regard very highly. Fortunately, I am just passing through the Hermit Kingdom on my way to cultures which came out of their metaphorical shell years ago.
A Doosan batter prepares to belt the Kia pitcher out of the park
Remember Stephen? You may remember him from earlier blog entries including that one where we went to Seoraksan National Park or the one where we watched Korea play Ecuador in Seoul just before the team left for South Africa. Well, we still hang out from time to time, but I think we've found our own groups of friends that are closer to our respective ages and with whom we have more in common in life. Anyway, it was his birthday on Thursday so a group of us went to Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul to watch the Doosan Bears play against the Kia Tigers. The baseball teams here in Korea are all named after (and owned by, I think) the major conglomerates of the country. The conglomerates are the mega-businesses like LG, Samsung and Lotte who diversify time and time again and so often own all parts of the production and shipping and sale and maintenance of a product. Lotte are primarily a department store like David Jones. They also make a lot of foods which you can find in convenience stores, they run a chain of fast food stores called Lotteria, and they have their own amusement park called Lotte World. Doosan is a construction company but I'm not sure if they have their own fun park.
The author poses with the Doosan team mascot.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
A Most Interesting Post About Air Conditioners
The humidity in Seoul today is at 84%. I've not experienced this before. There were days when I was younger, playing cricket near Penrith somewhere, where the mercury rose to somewhere beyond 40 celsius, and the coaches from each team agreed we would have a waterfight at lunch. In those days, in the dry heat of the southern half of Australia, cool water on our skin brought relief. Actually it washed away the sweat which also would have helped in time but I think you'll agree that it's far more enjoyable to dump an esky full of iced water on your wicket-keeper than to sit around keeping still and hoping to catch a breeze.
Here the relief is obtained primarily through air conditioners that draw the humidity from the air. In this country I tend towards sweating like the metaphorical blind lesbian at a fish market, then arrive at school after my morning walk along the Tancheon stream looking I've been swimming in it with my clothes on. So when they told me the other week that I now had permission to crank up the LG, I was making a beeline for it every morning without even the most perfunctory nod of the head to my fellow staff members and drying out underneath it for the first 5-10 minutes of my day. Early on in my residency, however, I have learned through anecdote and experience not to overuse them. Why? Primarily because the extremes of temperature and atmosphere one experiences between the air-conditioned room and the greater outdoors of Seoul are enough to cause respiratory problems. Maybe that's not a common thing and has only affected me because I am deeply sensitive by nature ;-) I don't know, but whatever the reason, I find it better to go a/c moderately and short term only. Koreans mostly set their a/c on 18 degrees celsius, the lowest they will go. That's too freakin' cold for me and I won't go that low.
And I never thought I'd use those particular words.
Many superstitious Koreans believe in a phenomenon dubbed "fan-death." They hold that if one is to fall asleep in a room with no windows open and a fan trained on their face, they will suffocate in their sleep. This conclusion was reached by scientists of this country who found that if there is no fresh supply of oxygen entering the room (through the open window), the blades of the fan will then chop up the existing supply and leave the slumberer with no oxygen to inhale. A friend of mine recently attempted a Buddhist temple stay. She did the harry during the night however, because the grandmothers of the group adhered to the notion of fan death and kept getting up to turn off her fan in the unreasonably hot dormitory. Koreans. I love them. I love this country. My cab driver watches tv. He does this while he does a u-turn across 8 lanes of traffic. That won't kill you. He has luck you see? But fans. Kill you? Yes, they will. Watch fans. Death traps. Korea knows. No luck there. It's science. Korean science. The same kind as this:
http://technology.newsplurk.com/2010/06/south-korea-rocket-explodes-in-blow-to.html
Now I'm not suggesting anything so calm down. So before you fill up my inbox with all kinds of accusations of hatred and opposing land rights for gay whales know that some of my best friends are gay Korean whales currently fighting for their government over the issue of - yep, you guessed it - land rights. Ha!
Here the relief is obtained primarily through air conditioners that draw the humidity from the air. In this country I tend towards sweating like the metaphorical blind lesbian at a fish market, then arrive at school after my morning walk along the Tancheon stream looking I've been swimming in it with my clothes on. So when they told me the other week that I now had permission to crank up the LG, I was making a beeline for it every morning without even the most perfunctory nod of the head to my fellow staff members and drying out underneath it for the first 5-10 minutes of my day. Early on in my residency, however, I have learned through anecdote and experience not to overuse them. Why? Primarily because the extremes of temperature and atmosphere one experiences between the air-conditioned room and the greater outdoors of Seoul are enough to cause respiratory problems. Maybe that's not a common thing and has only affected me because I am deeply sensitive by nature ;-) I don't know, but whatever the reason, I find it better to go a/c moderately and short term only. Koreans mostly set their a/c on 18 degrees celsius, the lowest they will go. That's too freakin' cold for me and I won't go that low.
And I never thought I'd use those particular words.
Many superstitious Koreans believe in a phenomenon dubbed "fan-death." They hold that if one is to fall asleep in a room with no windows open and a fan trained on their face, they will suffocate in their sleep. This conclusion was reached by scientists of this country who found that if there is no fresh supply of oxygen entering the room (through the open window), the blades of the fan will then chop up the existing supply and leave the slumberer with no oxygen to inhale. A friend of mine recently attempted a Buddhist temple stay. She did the harry during the night however, because the grandmothers of the group adhered to the notion of fan death and kept getting up to turn off her fan in the unreasonably hot dormitory. Koreans. I love them. I love this country. My cab driver watches tv. He does this while he does a u-turn across 8 lanes of traffic. That won't kill you. He has luck you see? But fans. Kill you? Yes, they will. Watch fans. Death traps. Korea knows. No luck there. It's science. Korean science. The same kind as this:
http://technology.newsplurk.com/2010/06/south-korea-rocket-explodes-in-blow-to.html
Now I'm not suggesting anything so calm down. So before you fill up my inbox with all kinds of accusations of hatred and opposing land rights for gay whales know that some of my best friends are gay Korean whales currently fighting for their government over the issue of - yep, you guessed it - land rights. Ha!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Heat of Seoul
It's hot and humid here in Seoul, though the famed monsoon rains haven't started yet. Personally I am excited by the prospect of witnessing these heavy downpours but friends who have been here in previous summers say they are no fun at all. They say the force of the downpour is like an assault and that the back splash goes all the way up to your knees. So far this Summer we've had the one evening of heavy rain on the weekend of June 12 and 13 but nothing else to speak of: we must have some catching up to do once the rains actually do begin.
At school everyone in my staffroom is stressed out and cranky as they do the jobs of 3 people while attempting not to upset the demands of anyone higher up on the food chain. The kids have gone apeshit on cue as I was warned they do in Summer and I last saw my co-teacher a week ago while waiting in the queue for rice rations in the canteen. She's broken out with that skin irritation she gets when she's doing too much again and even the usually placid and calm and Christian Seon Ah is beginning to bring the kids back to the staffroom and snap at them in rapid-fire Korean. Paradoxically, it only adds to her allure. I must piss her off tomorrow.
Everyone needs a break. More to the point they need a better working culture; one that's more efficient and flexible, but I'm not about to start proselytising here because it's too hot. I have an analytical mind up until 30 degrees celsius after which the only thing I'm analysing is how best to avoid noisy and crowded places. Which perhaps makes a primary school in Seoul an odd place for an extended stopover.
Meanwhile I'm sitting around drinking Maxim and checking Facebook every hour. Lunch time was nice because I got to see some human people but now I'm back to the virtual kind again. I'm starting to consider Lady Gaga and the fat prick from Masterchef as my closest friends. Ninemsn has followed me here you see. For every part of your culture that you think is tremendously valuable and you don't want it ever to change, like ABC Classic FM, there is something like Ninemsn that has you claiming you are actually a Kiwi.
The big difference around here is that suddenly no one is interested in the World Cup due to South Korea's timely departure on Saturday night. I was interested to see how many football fans Korea has as opposed to the myriads who went out and bought Manchester United shirts, Spice Girls cds and gelled their hair like David "Pepsi" Beckham after the Korean team captain Park Jisung made headway at Old Trafford in the last few years. True, Koreans go kimchi for their national team, but now that they have been knocked out, the bubble has burst. The Korean media shall now return to doing what it does best. And I haven't got a clue what that is because I only ever look at the pictures. It's quite "CNN" in style, which I don't favour, but at least this isn't the North: this afternoon I saw a media clipping from North Korea which trumpeted their victory over Brazil in the World Cup. I can't believe how close this society is to me. Geographically, I mean.
Just a bit earlier today, I was revising the ideas in George Orwell's 1984. One of the memorable quotes was something like (I can't be exactly sure - my memory's not that great), "If everyone believes something to be true, does that make it real?" If, therefore, the mind is convinced - indeed if all minds are convinced - then does it follow that reality no longer matters? Being away from home has made me more keenly aware than ever before of the philosophical traditions of the west and its theoretical commitment to truth. I think it was Tolstoy who, when urged to convert back to the church shortly before his death paraphrased the Old Testament as follows: "even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six."
And can I just rather arrogantly claim that it was a similar sentiment that I felt when deciding whether or not to leave Sweden earlier this year. I mean, I'm no Tolstoy, but I can't accept convenience over what I believe to be true.
And I don't really know how that started. If my Dad is still reading then I'm Kim Jong-Il.
It is predicted to cool down a little tomorrow.
At school everyone in my staffroom is stressed out and cranky as they do the jobs of 3 people while attempting not to upset the demands of anyone higher up on the food chain. The kids have gone apeshit on cue as I was warned they do in Summer and I last saw my co-teacher a week ago while waiting in the queue for rice rations in the canteen. She's broken out with that skin irritation she gets when she's doing too much again and even the usually placid and calm and Christian Seon Ah is beginning to bring the kids back to the staffroom and snap at them in rapid-fire Korean. Paradoxically, it only adds to her allure. I must piss her off tomorrow.
Everyone needs a break. More to the point they need a better working culture; one that's more efficient and flexible, but I'm not about to start proselytising here because it's too hot. I have an analytical mind up until 30 degrees celsius after which the only thing I'm analysing is how best to avoid noisy and crowded places. Which perhaps makes a primary school in Seoul an odd place for an extended stopover.
Meanwhile I'm sitting around drinking Maxim and checking Facebook every hour. Lunch time was nice because I got to see some human people but now I'm back to the virtual kind again. I'm starting to consider Lady Gaga and the fat prick from Masterchef as my closest friends. Ninemsn has followed me here you see. For every part of your culture that you think is tremendously valuable and you don't want it ever to change, like ABC Classic FM, there is something like Ninemsn that has you claiming you are actually a Kiwi.
The big difference around here is that suddenly no one is interested in the World Cup due to South Korea's timely departure on Saturday night. I was interested to see how many football fans Korea has as opposed to the myriads who went out and bought Manchester United shirts, Spice Girls cds and gelled their hair like David "Pepsi" Beckham after the Korean team captain Park Jisung made headway at Old Trafford in the last few years. True, Koreans go kimchi for their national team, but now that they have been knocked out, the bubble has burst. The Korean media shall now return to doing what it does best. And I haven't got a clue what that is because I only ever look at the pictures. It's quite "CNN" in style, which I don't favour, but at least this isn't the North: this afternoon I saw a media clipping from North Korea which trumpeted their victory over Brazil in the World Cup. I can't believe how close this society is to me. Geographically, I mean.
Just a bit earlier today, I was revising the ideas in George Orwell's 1984. One of the memorable quotes was something like (I can't be exactly sure - my memory's not that great), "If everyone believes something to be true, does that make it real?" If, therefore, the mind is convinced - indeed if all minds are convinced - then does it follow that reality no longer matters? Being away from home has made me more keenly aware than ever before of the philosophical traditions of the west and its theoretical commitment to truth. I think it was Tolstoy who, when urged to convert back to the church shortly before his death paraphrased the Old Testament as follows: "even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six."
And can I just rather arrogantly claim that it was a similar sentiment that I felt when deciding whether or not to leave Sweden earlier this year. I mean, I'm no Tolstoy, but I can't accept convenience over what I believe to be true.
And I don't really know how that started. If my Dad is still reading then I'm Kim Jong-Il.
It is predicted to cool down a little tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
In Which Lachlan Begins to Dump on His Host Culture
I'm losing him. That Korean "pulse" I referred to a few weeks ago has grown faint and I am left to make and move to my own rhythm. I won't bother with metaphorical CPR - Korea hasn't changed of course. I'm not that egocentric, after all. But life here suddenly appears dull, conservative, rigid, patriarchal. There are ways to do things in Korea and you do the same or you are criticised or ostracised. It is a nation struggling to make the decision of what to accept from "the West" and what to discourage, or flat out deny the existence of. The posing and the gestures and the manufactured cool from the pop musicians are all identical to those at home for instance, but there is no way these performers could ever corrupt the youth, whereas at home, however uncool it may be, it has briefly crossed my mind that they might. Here, they just have the images.
The path beside the Tancheon River which I take to school every morning. this was a particularly clear day. (I have seen two since my arrival.)
The change is within me. I go along with the suggestion that personality is a fluid thing, no matter how frequently I strive to appear consistent. The part of me that felt a strong Korean pulse two weeks ago is on leave. Consequently I am dreaming of other places that have a soul that speaks straight back to mine, whilst living in a land of proud, rigid citizens, who make for truly awful pedestrians. Yes, as my friend West has stated, "for a nation of people whose primary mode of transportation is walking, they're not very good at it!!!" It's the old people, mostly. They get on a line on the path down by the river, and they are not moving. You are. Or you will land in the river and get carried away to the Hangang and Seoul itself.
The school yard and school building. Each lunchtime, this yard fills with 700 screaming Korean kiddies.
I can excuse this behaviour to an extent: space is a luxury here, and Koreans are so used to being shoulder to shoulder with each other that minor bumps on public transport or in markets (or by the river) doesn't even warrant an apology. Consequently they're not used to moving for you. Trains during peak hour are like those images you've seen of Tokyo. No one talks yet they communicate somehow. The old shuffle and nod. Men fall asleep and dribble on you. Women hold their handbags against their arses as they exit the subway so their meagre skirts don't treat the younger men, also dribbling, to a free show of Korean panties. There is no chewing gum and absolutely no graffiti. Trains always stop at precisely the same spot and run every 3 minutes apart during peak hour. I've never run for a train over here. The government combats the growing problem of youth suicide at subway stations by constructing massive transparent screens with sliding doors that correspond exactly to the doors of the arriving train. If you want to kill yourself, you'll have to go elsewhere.
My eye was just captured by vision of a young couple fighting in an apartment across from my window. She got so worked up that her loose-fitting shirt nearly fell down. Talking about free shows... Regardless, I cannot look indiscreetly now: my blinds are open and lights are on. Ah, now they've closed their blinds and will conduct their Korean imperfections the usual way: out of sight of the foreigner. I have heard stories of guys fighting like polecats in an alleyway, only to stop and grin as the foreigner suddenly comes into view. Everything is perfect here you see. Divorce happens though. Or people don't get married. Or God forbid, they are homosexual. There are just a number of standardised fictions to explain these situations without having to face them. I wonder how many Koreans know that it is futile to try to set my Korean co-teacher up with anyone because she is already in a relationship with a man 15 years her senior? She keeps it silent because she doesn't want to marry him. I wonder if he knows that? I hope so.
The view from my staffroom.
The fiction I particularly can't stand is the one about Korean students being amongst the most respectful young learners in the world. We were told this before we arrived here and I can only assume it was made up to encourage us to sign up. I don't think a Korean student will call me names or hit me or challenge me unless it is about the material, but the endless talking amongst each other, the fighting and the general unruliness of my little mites is highly disrespectful in the classroom. I am currently struggling with the question of how much control I want to exercise over them. I know I can introduce routines and act like the successful Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, once he'd imposed the self-regulating system on his class, but my instinct, which was to go with treating the students as if they had maturity and to use persuasion, is still the one I use now. My instincts were wrong. Individually, I've got some great kids in my classes, but put together they become a herd, and I am forever herding cats. I approach a table to put out a fire and 6 more break out behind me, Then I've lost the class and I'm telling them to put their hands on their heads. Then I'm explaining how their behaviour is unacceptable. I'm thinking of making this routine into a powerpoint presentation. They love the slideshows, and they rightly assume that computers have greater authority than teachers from strange, non-American countries. In fact there is grumbling in the ranks that my accent is too difficult for the little mites to understand. So it seems as if semester 2 is going to involve:
a) Me using fewer words (bloody words - they interfere with the audio/visual output anyway, who needs them?);
b) More powerpoint slideshows (I didn't actually think this were possible);
c) Less learning (research shows that when students are learning their teachers aren't perceived as being cool);
d) Less English (the students already know it anyway: they just pick out the keyword and shout it over and over. And over.
Anyway, this is my view, from the pulpit:
The classes I take usually have 35 students each. Capturing the attention of these little mites for 40 minutes at a stretch is a struggle and if I get 2 or 3 more students talking other than the "hagwon" kids (private academies) then I consider it a decent class.
If on the other hand, Audrey Tautou, suspended on angel wings, flies through the window halfway through class and says to me, "Will you follow me?" then I consider all of my lesson objectives to have been met at once.
I go to Thailand in 39 days. Yes. Then it's just a hop skip and jump until the Chuseok holiday. I rather think I can do this.
The path beside the Tancheon River which I take to school every morning. this was a particularly clear day. (I have seen two since my arrival.)
The change is within me. I go along with the suggestion that personality is a fluid thing, no matter how frequently I strive to appear consistent. The part of me that felt a strong Korean pulse two weeks ago is on leave. Consequently I am dreaming of other places that have a soul that speaks straight back to mine, whilst living in a land of proud, rigid citizens, who make for truly awful pedestrians. Yes, as my friend West has stated, "for a nation of people whose primary mode of transportation is walking, they're not very good at it!!!" It's the old people, mostly. They get on a line on the path down by the river, and they are not moving. You are. Or you will land in the river and get carried away to the Hangang and Seoul itself.
The school yard and school building. Each lunchtime, this yard fills with 700 screaming Korean kiddies.
I can excuse this behaviour to an extent: space is a luxury here, and Koreans are so used to being shoulder to shoulder with each other that minor bumps on public transport or in markets (or by the river) doesn't even warrant an apology. Consequently they're not used to moving for you. Trains during peak hour are like those images you've seen of Tokyo. No one talks yet they communicate somehow. The old shuffle and nod. Men fall asleep and dribble on you. Women hold their handbags against their arses as they exit the subway so their meagre skirts don't treat the younger men, also dribbling, to a free show of Korean panties. There is no chewing gum and absolutely no graffiti. Trains always stop at precisely the same spot and run every 3 minutes apart during peak hour. I've never run for a train over here. The government combats the growing problem of youth suicide at subway stations by constructing massive transparent screens with sliding doors that correspond exactly to the doors of the arriving train. If you want to kill yourself, you'll have to go elsewhere.
My eye was just captured by vision of a young couple fighting in an apartment across from my window. She got so worked up that her loose-fitting shirt nearly fell down. Talking about free shows... Regardless, I cannot look indiscreetly now: my blinds are open and lights are on. Ah, now they've closed their blinds and will conduct their Korean imperfections the usual way: out of sight of the foreigner. I have heard stories of guys fighting like polecats in an alleyway, only to stop and grin as the foreigner suddenly comes into view. Everything is perfect here you see. Divorce happens though. Or people don't get married. Or God forbid, they are homosexual. There are just a number of standardised fictions to explain these situations without having to face them. I wonder how many Koreans know that it is futile to try to set my Korean co-teacher up with anyone because she is already in a relationship with a man 15 years her senior? She keeps it silent because she doesn't want to marry him. I wonder if he knows that? I hope so.
The view from my staffroom.
The fiction I particularly can't stand is the one about Korean students being amongst the most respectful young learners in the world. We were told this before we arrived here and I can only assume it was made up to encourage us to sign up. I don't think a Korean student will call me names or hit me or challenge me unless it is about the material, but the endless talking amongst each other, the fighting and the general unruliness of my little mites is highly disrespectful in the classroom. I am currently struggling with the question of how much control I want to exercise over them. I know I can introduce routines and act like the successful Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, once he'd imposed the self-regulating system on his class, but my instinct, which was to go with treating the students as if they had maturity and to use persuasion, is still the one I use now. My instincts were wrong. Individually, I've got some great kids in my classes, but put together they become a herd, and I am forever herding cats. I approach a table to put out a fire and 6 more break out behind me, Then I've lost the class and I'm telling them to put their hands on their heads. Then I'm explaining how their behaviour is unacceptable. I'm thinking of making this routine into a powerpoint presentation. They love the slideshows, and they rightly assume that computers have greater authority than teachers from strange, non-American countries. In fact there is grumbling in the ranks that my accent is too difficult for the little mites to understand. So it seems as if semester 2 is going to involve:
a) Me using fewer words (bloody words - they interfere with the audio/visual output anyway, who needs them?);
b) More powerpoint slideshows (I didn't actually think this were possible);
c) Less learning (research shows that when students are learning their teachers aren't perceived as being cool);
d) Less English (the students already know it anyway: they just pick out the keyword and shout it over and over. And over.
Anyway, this is my view, from the pulpit:
The classes I take usually have 35 students each. Capturing the attention of these little mites for 40 minutes at a stretch is a struggle and if I get 2 or 3 more students talking other than the "hagwon" kids (private academies) then I consider it a decent class.
If on the other hand, Audrey Tautou, suspended on angel wings, flies through the window halfway through class and says to me, "Will you follow me?" then I consider all of my lesson objectives to have been met at once.
I go to Thailand in 39 days. Yes. Then it's just a hop skip and jump until the Chuseok holiday. I rather think I can do this.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Creatus Hiatus
I haven't forgotten about my blog. In fact I wrote for 2 hours on Wednesday afternoon and decided I didn't want to publish after I'd finished ranting and raving. I was having a bad day you see...
In part though the reason for not posting anything new is that I don't have any good photos to put up. How it is that I go to watch the first Korean match of the World Cup in Seoul Plaza in which 100 000 people show up in the pouring rain and don't get a single noteworthy photograph I can't explain, except to say it might have been hazardous to get my camera out amidst dodging all of that traffic while perched on the median strip in the middle of the 6 lane road halfway to heading back to the Family Mart for the third time to get more beer. Yeah - Family Mart - I know. They sell soju by the truckload! Perhaps this is how many of the families begin? "Darling, it might be the soju talking, or the way your eyes are reflecting the moonlight..." Maybe they should give away free prophylactics with every bottle sold? Then it would be the Family Planning Mart I suppose? So many questions...
That's your blooming lot. You are not getting any gossip out of me in this brief installment (I'd have to make it up anyway). I leave for Thailand in 41 days and am finally getting excited about it, particularly now that my first semester classes are finishing. But, I'm most excited about the trip to China in the Winter which I have just started to plan with my new friend Kristin. I work in Korea in order to get out of it in my time off. I suppose this reflects my biggest shift of heart since I last wrote: the effort has gone out of trying to like the culture here so I'm not really concerned about fitting in either. I'll probably pack my bags after 12months here as well, and it is exciting once more to plan where I will go next!
In part though the reason for not posting anything new is that I don't have any good photos to put up. How it is that I go to watch the first Korean match of the World Cup in Seoul Plaza in which 100 000 people show up in the pouring rain and don't get a single noteworthy photograph I can't explain, except to say it might have been hazardous to get my camera out amidst dodging all of that traffic while perched on the median strip in the middle of the 6 lane road halfway to heading back to the Family Mart for the third time to get more beer. Yeah - Family Mart - I know. They sell soju by the truckload! Perhaps this is how many of the families begin? "Darling, it might be the soju talking, or the way your eyes are reflecting the moonlight..." Maybe they should give away free prophylactics with every bottle sold? Then it would be the Family Planning Mart I suppose? So many questions...
That's your blooming lot. You are not getting any gossip out of me in this brief installment (I'd have to make it up anyway). I leave for Thailand in 41 days and am finally getting excited about it, particularly now that my first semester classes are finishing. But, I'm most excited about the trip to China in the Winter which I have just started to plan with my new friend Kristin. I work in Korea in order to get out of it in my time off. I suppose this reflects my biggest shift of heart since I last wrote: the effort has gone out of trying to like the culture here so I'm not really concerned about fitting in either. I'll probably pack my bags after 12months here as well, and it is exciting once more to plan where I will go next!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
