"Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering?
And shall it be said my eve was in truth my dawn?
And what shall I give unto him who has left his plough in midfurrow, or to him who has stopped the wheel of his winepress?
Shall my heart become a tree heavy-laden with fruit that I may gather and give unto them?
And shall my desires flow like a fountain that I may fill their cups?
Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me?
A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?
If this is my day of harvest, in what fields have I sowed the seed, and in what unremembered seasons?
If this indeed be the hour in which I lift up my lantern, it is not my flame that shall burn therein."
That's a quote by Kahlil Gibran, from his 1923 book The Prophet.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
I'm here and it's weird and I like it.
Korea! Wow. It took a couple weeks for the novelty to wear off. Many, many things are very, very different.
First off, apologies to all who thirsted for news/photos/assurance that Ryan and I are still alive. Our internet access was pretty spotty for a while there, but now we have incredibly fast access in our apartment, so staying in touch should be a lot easier. If anyone is so inclined, my Skype handle is "swiftestranger" - don't hate on my LOTR reference. Keep in mind that if you want to chat, you're going to have to pick a time that might be pretty weird for you. I think the time difference is about 11 hours.
Ryan and I made the trip in about 24 hours of travel time, start to finish. It was exhausting and it's taken us quite a while to get our bodies adjusted to the change of place. We're pretty well settled in now. Speaking of settled, I should mention that we're very happy with the apartment that our employer has set us up with. It's about a 5 minute walk from the school where we're teaching, and actually is much bigger than I suspected it might be. It's a two bedroom apartment, with one MASSIVE bedroom and one much smaller one. Rock paper scissors, best 2 out of 3, decided who would get the big'un: yours truly. You might think it's stange to decide that kind of thing this way, but it's how Korean kids decide EVERYTHING. The results are never argued about. Rock paper scissors is IT. Anyways, after figuring out the heating system by way of a helpful visit from our landlord, Mr. Yang, I have to say I quite enjoy the ondol setup. Ondol is the Korean style of heating. Pipes are laid out underneath the floor, and hot water is run through them, which means that the floor is radiating warmth at all times. It keeps the place pretty cozy.
Adjusting to the culture has been more or less easy, since American English teachers are fairly well respected. Americans in general are treated well here, though the US soldiers stationed at the Yongsan base enjoy a somewhat less savory reputation. Korean isn't really required to get along in Korea. Many people speak enough English to complete basic transactions, like buying things at the grocery store and ordering food at restaurants. Koreans are generally friendly in these kinds of situations and will work hard to please guests and customers. I'm trying to learn Korean anyways, but it's slow going, largely because I am easily distracted from spending my personal time in constructive ways. Now that we've gotten more settled in and my schedule is starting to solidify, I'm hoping to make some headway on the language. I feel like it'll give me that much more opportunity to enjoy my time here.
Of course, many people asked me about my knowledge of the Korean language, (or lack thereof), as it pertains to my job, which is teaching English to Korean kids. Well, I don't need it at work, because the way language is taught here differs from the high school spanish/french/whatever classes you might be familiar with. Rather than translating everything from Korean into English, the idea is to create an immersive environment wherein the kids are obligated to speak only English from the moment they step in the building, to the moment they leave. In the early levels, this is hard, but over time the kids really pick things up. In my higher level classes - 10 to 12 year olds - the speaking abilities of my students are high enough that I can just sit there and converse with them. Of course, in the lower level classes I'm frequently just having them repeat after me, but you've gotta start somewhere.
My school (or English hagwon, as these things are sometimes called,) is the Pyungchon branch of SLP, the Sogang University Language Program. Basically, a highly regarded university here in Korea, Sogang, decided to get into the hagwon market by creating curriculum materials and starting up franchises. I think the business arrangements might be more complicated than that, but that's the gist. I use the books they write to teach English to the kids. This is a great deal more structured than it is at many hagwons, many of which do not have any kind of structured curriculum whatsoever. Of course, it's not perfect, but it helps, and I still have a lot of latitude to cover what I think the kids need to know. You might think that only experienced teachers could make those kinds of decisions, but when you're dealing with basic English, it becomes obvious pretty quickly as to what the kids need to be working on.
The kids themselves are an interesting lot. Going to a hagwon, which is basically a private afterschool program, is expensive, so we get our share of what seem to be spoiled rich kids. We also have a bunch of really sweet kids, though not as many as I'd like. I teach preschool in the mornings and elementary school aged kids in the afternoons. My preschool class is a group of 9 hellions that can be pretty bad, but the older kids tend to be much easier to control. Control is the operative word here. If you can't keep them quiet, you can't get anything done, so I tend to rule my classes with an iron fist. I goof around a lot, and make a lot of jokes, to keep the kids interested, but they all know by now that I can turn on the mean teacher juice at the drop of a hat, so I don't have to exert myself as much to keep them in line. All that projection and vocal control that I practiced as a theatre major is paying off in big ways now - in these small classrooms, I can pretty much deafen whole groups of kids without even trying. All that aside, it's pretty rewarding to actually see the kids learn things. It seems so hopeless for some of them at first, but they really start to pick it up. I've only been teaching for a few weeks, but already I'm seeing improvement in many of the students. I cling to this thought when the preschoolers make me want to throw them out the window.
Outside of the office/school, life stays interesting. I haven't found a Taekwondo school I'd like to train in yet, but I have found a Hapkido master who I like a lot. Actually, two of my coworkers, Ashley and Selina, started studying at this dojang a little while ago, and that's how I found out about it. The master doesn't have a lot of English, so the language barrier can be tough here. However, my previous experience in Taekwondo has really helped me in the beginning stages at least. Not to brag, but I am much more comfortable with the things that I'm learning than the other white belts are in the class. It only makes sense though - practicing one martial art is going to make it easier to learn others. Hapkido is quite different from Taekwondo in many ways, and after the stress of my black belt test, it's nice to take a few weeks off from training TKD every day and try something new.
Basic living here is easy. Ryan and I have discovered places to watch movies, buy electronics, get food from just about anywhere in the world, play putt putt golf, you name it, it's probably around Seoul somewhere. People are nice and prices are generally very fair. I like my job, my apartment, and my roommate. It ain't perfect, but I feel good about where I am. Plus, Koreans celebrate St. Patrick's day! I'll have some pictures up Irish folks parading (literally) through downtown Seoul very soon...
First off, apologies to all who thirsted for news/photos/assurance that Ryan and I are still alive. Our internet access was pretty spotty for a while there, but now we have incredibly fast access in our apartment, so staying in touch should be a lot easier. If anyone is so inclined, my Skype handle is "swiftestranger" - don't hate on my LOTR reference. Keep in mind that if you want to chat, you're going to have to pick a time that might be pretty weird for you. I think the time difference is about 11 hours.
Ryan and I made the trip in about 24 hours of travel time, start to finish. It was exhausting and it's taken us quite a while to get our bodies adjusted to the change of place. We're pretty well settled in now. Speaking of settled, I should mention that we're very happy with the apartment that our employer has set us up with. It's about a 5 minute walk from the school where we're teaching, and actually is much bigger than I suspected it might be. It's a two bedroom apartment, with one MASSIVE bedroom and one much smaller one. Rock paper scissors, best 2 out of 3, decided who would get the big'un: yours truly. You might think it's stange to decide that kind of thing this way, but it's how Korean kids decide EVERYTHING. The results are never argued about. Rock paper scissors is IT. Anyways, after figuring out the heating system by way of a helpful visit from our landlord, Mr. Yang, I have to say I quite enjoy the ondol setup. Ondol is the Korean style of heating. Pipes are laid out underneath the floor, and hot water is run through them, which means that the floor is radiating warmth at all times. It keeps the place pretty cozy.
Adjusting to the culture has been more or less easy, since American English teachers are fairly well respected. Americans in general are treated well here, though the US soldiers stationed at the Yongsan base enjoy a somewhat less savory reputation. Korean isn't really required to get along in Korea. Many people speak enough English to complete basic transactions, like buying things at the grocery store and ordering food at restaurants. Koreans are generally friendly in these kinds of situations and will work hard to please guests and customers. I'm trying to learn Korean anyways, but it's slow going, largely because I am easily distracted from spending my personal time in constructive ways. Now that we've gotten more settled in and my schedule is starting to solidify, I'm hoping to make some headway on the language. I feel like it'll give me that much more opportunity to enjoy my time here.
Of course, many people asked me about my knowledge of the Korean language, (or lack thereof), as it pertains to my job, which is teaching English to Korean kids. Well, I don't need it at work, because the way language is taught here differs from the high school spanish/french/whatever classes you might be familiar with. Rather than translating everything from Korean into English, the idea is to create an immersive environment wherein the kids are obligated to speak only English from the moment they step in the building, to the moment they leave. In the early levels, this is hard, but over time the kids really pick things up. In my higher level classes - 10 to 12 year olds - the speaking abilities of my students are high enough that I can just sit there and converse with them. Of course, in the lower level classes I'm frequently just having them repeat after me, but you've gotta start somewhere.
My school (or English hagwon, as these things are sometimes called,) is the Pyungchon branch of SLP, the Sogang University Language Program. Basically, a highly regarded university here in Korea, Sogang, decided to get into the hagwon market by creating curriculum materials and starting up franchises. I think the business arrangements might be more complicated than that, but that's the gist. I use the books they write to teach English to the kids. This is a great deal more structured than it is at many hagwons, many of which do not have any kind of structured curriculum whatsoever. Of course, it's not perfect, but it helps, and I still have a lot of latitude to cover what I think the kids need to know. You might think that only experienced teachers could make those kinds of decisions, but when you're dealing with basic English, it becomes obvious pretty quickly as to what the kids need to be working on.
The kids themselves are an interesting lot. Going to a hagwon, which is basically a private afterschool program, is expensive, so we get our share of what seem to be spoiled rich kids. We also have a bunch of really sweet kids, though not as many as I'd like. I teach preschool in the mornings and elementary school aged kids in the afternoons. My preschool class is a group of 9 hellions that can be pretty bad, but the older kids tend to be much easier to control. Control is the operative word here. If you can't keep them quiet, you can't get anything done, so I tend to rule my classes with an iron fist. I goof around a lot, and make a lot of jokes, to keep the kids interested, but they all know by now that I can turn on the mean teacher juice at the drop of a hat, so I don't have to exert myself as much to keep them in line. All that projection and vocal control that I practiced as a theatre major is paying off in big ways now - in these small classrooms, I can pretty much deafen whole groups of kids without even trying. All that aside, it's pretty rewarding to actually see the kids learn things. It seems so hopeless for some of them at first, but they really start to pick it up. I've only been teaching for a few weeks, but already I'm seeing improvement in many of the students. I cling to this thought when the preschoolers make me want to throw them out the window.
Outside of the office/school, life stays interesting. I haven't found a Taekwondo school I'd like to train in yet, but I have found a Hapkido master who I like a lot. Actually, two of my coworkers, Ashley and Selina, started studying at this dojang a little while ago, and that's how I found out about it. The master doesn't have a lot of English, so the language barrier can be tough here. However, my previous experience in Taekwondo has really helped me in the beginning stages at least. Not to brag, but I am much more comfortable with the things that I'm learning than the other white belts are in the class. It only makes sense though - practicing one martial art is going to make it easier to learn others. Hapkido is quite different from Taekwondo in many ways, and after the stress of my black belt test, it's nice to take a few weeks off from training TKD every day and try something new.
Basic living here is easy. Ryan and I have discovered places to watch movies, buy electronics, get food from just about anywhere in the world, play putt putt golf, you name it, it's probably around Seoul somewhere. People are nice and prices are generally very fair. I like my job, my apartment, and my roommate. It ain't perfect, but I feel good about where I am. Plus, Koreans celebrate St. Patrick's day! I'll have some pictures up Irish folks parading (literally) through downtown Seoul very soon...
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