Koreans are great lovers of beauty. A couple weeks ago I was flipping through the channels on Korean television and came across an arts channel featuring traditional Korean dance. Dance after dance came on and I was glued to the screen, impressed with the dancers’ strength, grace, and commitment to each physical moment. Folk dances were woven seamlessly into the performance so that the dance took on a life of its own, neither folk dance nor classical dance (I’m thinking of ballet).
One dance in particular blew me away. The set was a cool summer night: dark blue background, bare stage, a bright moon projected onto the upper corner of the backdrop. The dancers came on stage, a young man and woman, dressed in traditional Korean clothes. The man and woman were lovers and spent the entire dance innocently flirting with each other, sometimes doing modest dances for each other, building to moments when the lovers would flash secret smiles to the audience and innocently kiss behind a paper hand fan. There was no plot to this story, but there was a story nonetheless, the story of two lovers sharing their love for each other and how they perform this for the audience, using cool passion and well placed moments (such as the kiss behind the fan) where you could swear to see a twinkle in their eyes, as if the lovers are pleased with how subtle they can be in front of an audience. My favorite moments were when the couple broke the fourth wall.
While visiting a palace in Seoul, I observed that Western palaces are decorated with art that copies nature, through statues, paintings, fountains, highly organized and planned out gardens, etc (I’m thinking of my visit to Versailles). But here in Korea nature seems to stand for itself. So I wonder what place beauty, art, and nature have in Korean culture.
I’m tremendously interested in the concept of beauty in Korean culture. I think Koreans are in love with beauty. Looking young and being healthy are very important things to this culture and you see this played out from TV commercials and boardwalk ads down to ordinary routines (I constantly see women applying make-up in even the smallest of moments).
When I first arrived in Korea, I condemned this all as fake. The barrage of advertisements, the importance of being well dressed at all time, the obsession with health and beauty products – I wonder if this was how I dealt with the culture shock, by condemning it in order to distance myself from it. I was most shocked upon my first day of teaching when upon meeting the director’s wife she pronounced “O good, he’s very handsome!” I thought, clearly they don’t get for my teaching abilities, as long as I’m good looking that’s good enough. I had a very negative reaction to this initial encounter with the Asian obsession with the outer.
Even today I was treated like a rock star by girls working at a McDonalds. After teaching for seven hours straight today I wanted to reward myself with a good meal of fast food. The moment I stepped up to the counter to place my order, all the workers, even the men, stopped what they were doing to stare at me. The girls all became very giggly, clumsy, giving me furtive, quick glances. I took it all very quietly, giving them a modest performance, smiling a lot, wondering what on earth I have done to deserve rock star treatment??? Meanwhile, I could hear the girls behind the counter calling for my order: “Where are burger and fries for handsome guy?” “Order for handsome guy!”
I think over time I’ve grown to accept this attitude. I get stared at everyday on the streets and once or twice random Koreans come up to my, shake my hand, and rant on and on about how handsome I am. Actually, back in September, an older man chased after me on my way to work just so he could stop me and tell me how handsome I was!
I think I’ve learned there’s nothing wrong with being healthy and looking your best. Only a year ago I was in college, where I could walk into a dining hall unshaven, messy hair, and in sweat clothes, and no one would care. I focused an awful lot on work, especially during my first two years at Hamilton, so my physical health and appearance took a back seat. Living here in Korea has reminded me to live a more balanced life.
Back to the idea of beauty -- What occurs to me is that America and Korea have different ideas of beauty. I’m curious to know what Korean women would think if shown a picture of Marlon Brando as Stanley in “Street Car named Desire.” Are sweaty muscley dark tanned-skin men beautiful? Are they sexy? Or do they prefer a clean cut, simple, innocent, fair skinned young man, as often portrayed in the media (and in the dance performance discussed above). Perhaps, in America we put beauty and sex together, whereas in Korea they are separate. Thoughts?
29.1.11
18.1.11
Water Update
An update on the water issue:
I just got back from work and everything's working (I was praying and saying positive things like "It WILL be working" on the entire walk back from work). Sink is fine, shower is fine, toilet is flush-able (Thank God, because the odors were starting to get to me, and it looks like I'll be doing an overdue load of laundry tonight.
I asked my director about my water situation today and he gave me a quick answer: talk to your landlady. I spent my free time today thinking about all the Korean I will need to say in order to speak to her: pipes, cold, freeze, kitchen, toilet, shower, days of the week, repairman, phone number....the list could go on forever. On a side note, I realized just how useless my Introduction to Korean Language book is! It's supposed to provide me with a beginner's introduction to the Korean language, but I've learned it's useless to know how to say "The mouse is under the refrigerator". What should I be learning? Numbers, colors, months, days, how to say the date, how to say how I feel, etc.
Anyway, I started each of my advanced classes today describing my home situation and asked if anyone had similar problems at their homes. Many students had no water yesterday and a couple still have no water. I felt better knowing this was a common problem with Korean families over the past few days. And I should count myself lucky. One student told me that a pipe burst! No flooding, fortunately, and all will be repaired this weekend.
I was curious about my own pipe situation last night. There is no access to the pipes inside the house (or any electrical boxes - not that I would know how any of that works anyway). But there is a creepy metal door that leads out from my bathroom into a sort of courtyard. After five months, I decided to explore this door last night and see if it would give me clues toward solving my water problem.
The door does indeed lead out into a kind of courtyard, certainly not the kind you where you would want to sunbathe. It's pretty narrow and there's a ragged tarp serving as a roof, lots of high walls, in short, a great place to get murdered (in fact, this courtyard/alley has served as the stage for all the cat fights I've heard outside my bedroom window for the past five months!) Attached to the wall are dozens of pipes and tubes going into and out of the wall. As far as I could tell, nothing looked frozen, but then the water inside the pipes could be frozen, as all the pipes are fully exposed to the outside elements. I went back inside after my mini adventure, none the wiser.
Ex-pats have let out their grief on ESL message boards all over the place, most notably Dave's ESL Cafe. I keep seeing the same rumor again and again - Korean's don't insulate their pipes for winter. I agree with most of the posts - Korean buildings aren't built for winter (my classroom certainly attests to that statement!). Again, these winters aren't exactly the Nor'Easters I get in upstate New York; it rarely snows here! And while it rarely gets below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, temperatures below freezing are not unusual.
So all quiet on the eastern front right now. I'll remember to leave a trickle of water in the sink every night until winter ends. I still haven't found the reason for this weekend's madness, but my hunch is that the water companies turned the water off to keep families' pipes from freezing. That explains why this water problem has affected so many people.
Goodness, I was so eager for the oppressive summer heat and humidity to end, and here I am wishing an end to winter, Ha!
I just got back from work and everything's working (I was praying and saying positive things like "It WILL be working" on the entire walk back from work). Sink is fine, shower is fine, toilet is flush-able (Thank God, because the odors were starting to get to me, and it looks like I'll be doing an overdue load of laundry tonight.
I asked my director about my water situation today and he gave me a quick answer: talk to your landlady. I spent my free time today thinking about all the Korean I will need to say in order to speak to her: pipes, cold, freeze, kitchen, toilet, shower, days of the week, repairman, phone number....the list could go on forever. On a side note, I realized just how useless my Introduction to Korean Language book is! It's supposed to provide me with a beginner's introduction to the Korean language, but I've learned it's useless to know how to say "The mouse is under the refrigerator". What should I be learning? Numbers, colors, months, days, how to say the date, how to say how I feel, etc.
Anyway, I started each of my advanced classes today describing my home situation and asked if anyone had similar problems at their homes. Many students had no water yesterday and a couple still have no water. I felt better knowing this was a common problem with Korean families over the past few days. And I should count myself lucky. One student told me that a pipe burst! No flooding, fortunately, and all will be repaired this weekend.
I was curious about my own pipe situation last night. There is no access to the pipes inside the house (or any electrical boxes - not that I would know how any of that works anyway). But there is a creepy metal door that leads out from my bathroom into a sort of courtyard. After five months, I decided to explore this door last night and see if it would give me clues toward solving my water problem.
The door does indeed lead out into a kind of courtyard, certainly not the kind you where you would want to sunbathe. It's pretty narrow and there's a ragged tarp serving as a roof, lots of high walls, in short, a great place to get murdered (in fact, this courtyard/alley has served as the stage for all the cat fights I've heard outside my bedroom window for the past five months!) Attached to the wall are dozens of pipes and tubes going into and out of the wall. As far as I could tell, nothing looked frozen, but then the water inside the pipes could be frozen, as all the pipes are fully exposed to the outside elements. I went back inside after my mini adventure, none the wiser.
Ex-pats have let out their grief on ESL message boards all over the place, most notably Dave's ESL Cafe. I keep seeing the same rumor again and again - Korean's don't insulate their pipes for winter. I agree with most of the posts - Korean buildings aren't built for winter (my classroom certainly attests to that statement!). Again, these winters aren't exactly the Nor'Easters I get in upstate New York; it rarely snows here! And while it rarely gets below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, temperatures below freezing are not unusual.
So all quiet on the eastern front right now. I'll remember to leave a trickle of water in the sink every night until winter ends. I still haven't found the reason for this weekend's madness, but my hunch is that the water companies turned the water off to keep families' pipes from freezing. That explains why this water problem has affected so many people.
Goodness, I was so eager for the oppressive summer heat and humidity to end, and here I am wishing an end to winter, Ha!
17.1.11
That's NOT really hot!
IT'S COLD!
Well, not that cold. This weekend it reached 18 degrees Fahrenheit, a record low, especially for a coastal city like Masan. I always feel a bit smug when I hear Koreans complain about the cold. This ain't nothin'! Back at my home in New York it drops to -16 degrees Fahrenheit, and that's with several feet of snow and ice piled on top.
It's been an experiment finding out how my heater works. My thermostat has several buttons and knobs, all labeled in Korean. Although I translated everything and have a line of post-it notes lined up on the adjacent wall for reference, I still don't know what anything does. I figured out how to turn the hot water on for the shower long ago, but everything else has been a mystery. Either I'm not waiting long enough for things to heat up, or I'm pressing the wrong button, or something's broke.
The shower's not always reliable however. Usually I have to wait 10-15 minutes for the water to heat up, and even then, it's sometimes the luck of the draw. Most of the time the water fluctuates between cold and lukewarm, so you get these nasty flashes of ice-cold water shooting over your body. And then there have been several times this winter where the shower has failed to produce any hot water at all.
Then this weekend, this unusually cold weekend, the water stopped all together. No sink, no shower, no washing machine, no toilet. Everything has come to a halt here and I've had to rely on bottled water for showers (if you can call them that)and washing dishes. This has happened two times before over the past month, but things usually go back to normal after a couple hours. I'm going on 36 hours here with no hot water.
If things aren't back to normal tomorrow, I'm going to alert my boss. I've considered asking for help from the lady who owns the building, and I know enough Korean to get my point across, but I fear she'll end up asking me questions I won't be able to answer due to the language barrier. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
I'm not sure why this has happened. I haven't seen any activity in the apartments on either side of mine, and after reading a foreign teacher's blog post, it may be possible that the water company shut the water off for a couple days to avoid frozen pipes. This might explain why my neighbors have seemed to desert their homes. But I haven't been alerted by anyone--no phone calls, no messages on the door from the water company.
My other fear is that there's some sort of problem requiring repair (and my huge fear is that I'll have to pay for a repairman). After some searching today on Google, I found that it's not common to insulate pipes during winter in Korea. If this is true, it seems very silly to me. Apparently you are supposed to leave your heat on at night to keep the pipes from freezing, and at the same time leave a trickle of water coming out of your faucets. I don't know what to believe; no one has told me anything about living in Korea during the winter.
I'll admit I've been a bit of a Scrooge about money. The cold is cheap. Koreans mainly heat their homes using the ondol system, a heating system that heats the floor under your feet. It makes sense because most Koreans sleep on the floor, and it's a custom to take your shoes off before entering anyone's house.
I haven't really used the ondol system, and to be honest, I don't even know how to turn it on. I've stuck to the space heater. SO far it's been very effective, and I'm not complaining about the heat. I just worry that my frugality hasn't hurt the water pipes and cost me a fortune..
SO until this problem is solved, I'm taking showers using 2L bottles of water bought from the store. Gets the job done. Can't say it's pleasant.
Well, not that cold. This weekend it reached 18 degrees Fahrenheit, a record low, especially for a coastal city like Masan. I always feel a bit smug when I hear Koreans complain about the cold. This ain't nothin'! Back at my home in New York it drops to -16 degrees Fahrenheit, and that's with several feet of snow and ice piled on top.
It's been an experiment finding out how my heater works. My thermostat has several buttons and knobs, all labeled in Korean. Although I translated everything and have a line of post-it notes lined up on the adjacent wall for reference, I still don't know what anything does. I figured out how to turn the hot water on for the shower long ago, but everything else has been a mystery. Either I'm not waiting long enough for things to heat up, or I'm pressing the wrong button, or something's broke.
The shower's not always reliable however. Usually I have to wait 10-15 minutes for the water to heat up, and even then, it's sometimes the luck of the draw. Most of the time the water fluctuates between cold and lukewarm, so you get these nasty flashes of ice-cold water shooting over your body. And then there have been several times this winter where the shower has failed to produce any hot water at all.
Then this weekend, this unusually cold weekend, the water stopped all together. No sink, no shower, no washing machine, no toilet. Everything has come to a halt here and I've had to rely on bottled water for showers (if you can call them that)and washing dishes. This has happened two times before over the past month, but things usually go back to normal after a couple hours. I'm going on 36 hours here with no hot water.
If things aren't back to normal tomorrow, I'm going to alert my boss. I've considered asking for help from the lady who owns the building, and I know enough Korean to get my point across, but I fear she'll end up asking me questions I won't be able to answer due to the language barrier. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
I'm not sure why this has happened. I haven't seen any activity in the apartments on either side of mine, and after reading a foreign teacher's blog post, it may be possible that the water company shut the water off for a couple days to avoid frozen pipes. This might explain why my neighbors have seemed to desert their homes. But I haven't been alerted by anyone--no phone calls, no messages on the door from the water company.
My other fear is that there's some sort of problem requiring repair (and my huge fear is that I'll have to pay for a repairman). After some searching today on Google, I found that it's not common to insulate pipes during winter in Korea. If this is true, it seems very silly to me. Apparently you are supposed to leave your heat on at night to keep the pipes from freezing, and at the same time leave a trickle of water coming out of your faucets. I don't know what to believe; no one has told me anything about living in Korea during the winter.
I'll admit I've been a bit of a Scrooge about money. The cold is cheap. Koreans mainly heat their homes using the ondol system, a heating system that heats the floor under your feet. It makes sense because most Koreans sleep on the floor, and it's a custom to take your shoes off before entering anyone's house.
I haven't really used the ondol system, and to be honest, I don't even know how to turn it on. I've stuck to the space heater. SO far it's been very effective, and I'm not complaining about the heat. I just worry that my frugality hasn't hurt the water pipes and cost me a fortune..
SO until this problem is solved, I'm taking showers using 2L bottles of water bought from the store. Gets the job done. Can't say it's pleasant.
4.1.11
Cheating and Plagiarism in Korea
What is considered cheating in a Korean classroom? I don’t know. I can only speak for my classes, and I can only speak from my experiences at this private academy, but I have seen some behavior that surely would not be tolerated in America.
To clarify exactly what my job is: I teach almost 200 students throughout the week, ranging in ages 8-16. There are five Koreans teachers that each have about six classes they regularly teach every day. Once a week the kids come to my class so they can practice applying what they’ve learned through writing, reading, and conversation. I see these kids once a week for 50 minutes, so it’s important to form a relationship with the students and be as immediate in the lesson as possible.
The students have tests every day. Sometimes they have Translation Tests in which they have to translate about ten sentences from Korean into English, but usually they have spelling tests. Surprisingly, the words in these tests are not grouped into any category. Recalling my experiences learning Spanish in high school, we learned words in a category (colors, numbers, clothes, zoo animals, etc), then had a spelling test. But these tests in Korea are filled with seemingly random words. I gave a spelling test to a class of 12 years olds today that included the words ‘microphone’, ‘party’, ‘consideration’, and ‘wrench’. There may be reasoning behind this, but I haven’t found it yet.
But that’s neither here nor there. The point is the handling of cheating. When I first started teaching four months ago, I noticed how much students talked amoungst each other during the test. I lashed out at them, threatening to rip up their test if they wouldn’t be quiet. But gradually, after seeing other Korean teacher deliver tests, I realized that this behavior was normal in all their other classes. One Korean teacher actually sits down and has conversations with her students while they are taking a test. I guess there is something to be learned here – it creates a relaxed atmosphere, which the students could use considering all the tests, classes, and homework pressures they have. And after test after test, day after day, the students become a little immune to the pressure. A couple weeks ago I blew up at a student who barged in late and disturbed the class during the test in such a disrespectful way, I felt I needed to remove her from the class, even after giving her several warnings…But that student deserves a blog post for herself.
But I can’t help but wonder if it’s ok to be this informal with students.
Last week the students in my advanced class asked me a question –Describe the typical woman you go for. I’m almost certain this question would be taboo in classrooms in America, but the Korean teacher actually facilitated this discussion between the students and me, so I guess it was ok. I didn’t feel comfortable. I pushed myself to be open about the whole thing, but it was going into a place I didn’t think was appropriate for the classroom. Later in the class the students wanted to know my monthly salary. This I would not tell them. I decided to be open about my feelings about women because it may create a more relaxed relationship with the students (and, based on my observations, teachers seem to be more open about their private lives here in Korea), but my salary was neither necessary for them to know, nor productive exchange for a better relationship. I guess that’s where I drew the line. And of course, or course, sexual habits are completely off limits for discussion, although to my surprise, I did have a teenager ask me about mine during class. I ignored the question.
So I got used to the talking during tests. Occasionally you’ll hear the students say the Korean definition for a word out loud, thinking I don’t know enough Korean to hear them cheat. True, I have only a small Korean vocabulary, but I know the alphabet well enough, and have the answers before me, that I can usually call the students out. If I catch them cheating, I give them a warning, and if they continue, I threaten to rip their test paper up – that really keeps them quiet!
Sometimes the students will whisper the answers in English. Why they try this I don’t know; it’s very stupid. If you’re going to cheat, don’t do it in English with me standing right there!
Turning this post toward the question of plagiarism, I have witnessed, on a couple occasions, teachers ordering students to copy the answers into their workbooks when the students get behind with their work. I have many students that miss class a couple weeks in a row, come back, and find they are pages behind everyone else, and of course, they have no idea how to do anything. When pressed for time, one Korean teacher took another student’s completed workbook, gave it to the troubled student, and ordered him to copy the other student’s answers into his own book. This is plagiarism, hardcore.
In this system, you must keep everyone on the same page, and when it’s time to move on to the next workbook, it doesn’t matter if they’ve learned anything, as long as their workbook is complete.
So I feel bad for my students. In the situation above, that one student (his name is Edward), is a very sweet kid. He has a learning disability, without any doubt, so he gets behind A LOT. There are no special education classes here in the private academy, so students who have learning disabilities have to fend for themselves like everyone else. As a teacher, you have to try and look out for these students and give them the help and encouragement they need. Edward is a great kid, a little weird, a great artist, and always talks to me and says hi. He’s not stupid and I feel bad that he’s getting pushed through this system at a pace he can’t keep up with, and all I can do is look on in disgust when another teacher chooses to deal with his problems by forcing him to plagiarize another student’s answers into his book just so he can move on to the next level.
Anyway, I was thinking about all of this today when I came across an article in the New York Time from 2002 about a high school biology teacher who gave 0s to 28 students after they plagiarized their semester long project. After listening to plenty of angry phone calls, the school board overrode her decision and the teacher resigned in disgust. The article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/14/us/school-cheating-scandal-tests-a-town-s-values.html. This is an entirely different scenario than what I’m facing here in Korea, but it does make me wonder about the differences between education in Korea and the USA.
To clarify exactly what my job is: I teach almost 200 students throughout the week, ranging in ages 8-16. There are five Koreans teachers that each have about six classes they regularly teach every day. Once a week the kids come to my class so they can practice applying what they’ve learned through writing, reading, and conversation. I see these kids once a week for 50 minutes, so it’s important to form a relationship with the students and be as immediate in the lesson as possible.
The students have tests every day. Sometimes they have Translation Tests in which they have to translate about ten sentences from Korean into English, but usually they have spelling tests. Surprisingly, the words in these tests are not grouped into any category. Recalling my experiences learning Spanish in high school, we learned words in a category (colors, numbers, clothes, zoo animals, etc), then had a spelling test. But these tests in Korea are filled with seemingly random words. I gave a spelling test to a class of 12 years olds today that included the words ‘microphone’, ‘party’, ‘consideration’, and ‘wrench’. There may be reasoning behind this, but I haven’t found it yet.
But that’s neither here nor there. The point is the handling of cheating. When I first started teaching four months ago, I noticed how much students talked amoungst each other during the test. I lashed out at them, threatening to rip up their test if they wouldn’t be quiet. But gradually, after seeing other Korean teacher deliver tests, I realized that this behavior was normal in all their other classes. One Korean teacher actually sits down and has conversations with her students while they are taking a test. I guess there is something to be learned here – it creates a relaxed atmosphere, which the students could use considering all the tests, classes, and homework pressures they have. And after test after test, day after day, the students become a little immune to the pressure. A couple weeks ago I blew up at a student who barged in late and disturbed the class during the test in such a disrespectful way, I felt I needed to remove her from the class, even after giving her several warnings…But that student deserves a blog post for herself.
But I can’t help but wonder if it’s ok to be this informal with students.
Last week the students in my advanced class asked me a question –Describe the typical woman you go for. I’m almost certain this question would be taboo in classrooms in America, but the Korean teacher actually facilitated this discussion between the students and me, so I guess it was ok. I didn’t feel comfortable. I pushed myself to be open about the whole thing, but it was going into a place I didn’t think was appropriate for the classroom. Later in the class the students wanted to know my monthly salary. This I would not tell them. I decided to be open about my feelings about women because it may create a more relaxed relationship with the students (and, based on my observations, teachers seem to be more open about their private lives here in Korea), but my salary was neither necessary for them to know, nor productive exchange for a better relationship. I guess that’s where I drew the line. And of course, or course, sexual habits are completely off limits for discussion, although to my surprise, I did have a teenager ask me about mine during class. I ignored the question.
So I got used to the talking during tests. Occasionally you’ll hear the students say the Korean definition for a word out loud, thinking I don’t know enough Korean to hear them cheat. True, I have only a small Korean vocabulary, but I know the alphabet well enough, and have the answers before me, that I can usually call the students out. If I catch them cheating, I give them a warning, and if they continue, I threaten to rip their test paper up – that really keeps them quiet!
Sometimes the students will whisper the answers in English. Why they try this I don’t know; it’s very stupid. If you’re going to cheat, don’t do it in English with me standing right there!
Turning this post toward the question of plagiarism, I have witnessed, on a couple occasions, teachers ordering students to copy the answers into their workbooks when the students get behind with their work. I have many students that miss class a couple weeks in a row, come back, and find they are pages behind everyone else, and of course, they have no idea how to do anything. When pressed for time, one Korean teacher took another student’s completed workbook, gave it to the troubled student, and ordered him to copy the other student’s answers into his own book. This is plagiarism, hardcore.
In this system, you must keep everyone on the same page, and when it’s time to move on to the next workbook, it doesn’t matter if they’ve learned anything, as long as their workbook is complete.
So I feel bad for my students. In the situation above, that one student (his name is Edward), is a very sweet kid. He has a learning disability, without any doubt, so he gets behind A LOT. There are no special education classes here in the private academy, so students who have learning disabilities have to fend for themselves like everyone else. As a teacher, you have to try and look out for these students and give them the help and encouragement they need. Edward is a great kid, a little weird, a great artist, and always talks to me and says hi. He’s not stupid and I feel bad that he’s getting pushed through this system at a pace he can’t keep up with, and all I can do is look on in disgust when another teacher chooses to deal with his problems by forcing him to plagiarize another student’s answers into his book just so he can move on to the next level.
Anyway, I was thinking about all of this today when I came across an article in the New York Time from 2002 about a high school biology teacher who gave 0s to 28 students after they plagiarized their semester long project. After listening to plenty of angry phone calls, the school board overrode her decision and the teacher resigned in disgust. The article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/14/us/school-cheating-scandal-tests-a-town-s-values.html. This is an entirely different scenario than what I’m facing here in Korea, but it does make me wonder about the differences between education in Korea and the USA.
1.1.11
Student Behavior in Korea
Perhaps the hardest thing about teaching in Korea is keeping the kids in line. Months ago I attended the 2010 Gyeongsangnam-do Foreign Language Instructor's Seminar where classroom discipline was a hot topic, at least among the students. I think this seminar is mandatory of all foreign language teachers, at least for this in the hagwons (private academies). Our speaker was an English professor from Gyeongsang National University. His lecture was divided into two parts: culture and classroom. Much of what he presented were basics things I already knew (some teachers in the audience had been in Korea for years), but we all listened respectfully.
But during his lectures on the classroom, students began to raise their hands when it became clear classroom discipline was not going to be covered. The professor had advised us not to hit our students, and to treat them with kindness. Well of course, that all goes without saying. But how on earth do you keep them in line? He couldn't give a straight answer and I over a matter of minutes I saw him crumble under the pressure from the student's questions. I walked out of the auditorium annoyed, but a little comforted in that I was not the only teacher who had difficult students.
In my classroom my students have:
+screamed at me
+kicked me in the shins
+taken off their shoes and beat me
+ran their fingernails over my arms
+refused to move to another seat
+beat their heads against the desk or wall
+ddungchimed me or other students (explanation below)
+spat into my hand when I give them a high five
+grab my fingers and suck onto them
+hurl desks across the room
+throw workbook pages out a third floor window
+refuse to speak in English and make fun of me in Korean to my face, with an evil smile
+bring exacto knives and/or box cutters to class in their pencil cases. On one occasion a student threatened another with an exacto knife, hidden in his pocket
...That might be about it, or at least the most outrageous things I can remember. That's not to say there aren't any good kids. There are plenty of really wonderful students here. And I even have affection for the crazy one that beat me with her shoe. But this would never happen in America, that's for sure.
In my first few weeks here I was having trouble with a young student, Ella, who always kicked me in the shins whenever I asked her to read out of her book. One day after I tried to get her to move to another seat, she took off her shoe, let out an Indian war-whelp and attacked me with her shoe. I wasn't going to stand for this; I fetched the director's wife (another teacher here) immediately. What happened? Ella got yelled at. She cried. I felt a little bad. Ella moved to another seat. Class continued.
What would have happened in America? Certainly a call home. Perhaps suspension. Perhaps a parent-teacher conference. But here the students just get a tongue lashing, and it's over. Not that that tongue lashing isn't scary - the director's wife scares the crap out of me with her presence! I guess the problem is that the students keep repeating their offense, and I've learned it's best to find my own solutions to the problems rather than run to the director every time. I want the students to see me as the person in control of my classroom, not someone else, and definitely not a student.
This is an on going struggle and I'm glad to say I hardly have any of the problems listed above anymore. But everyday has its own unique problems and you have to improv your way through it. More on this later.....
But before I finish writing, I must explain the ddungchim. Ddungchim comes from two Korean words, and translates as "shit needle". Like a twisted game of cowboys and Indians, Korean children will chase each other around the room, or more commonly, sneak up behind, and stick their fingers, shaped in a gun, up your ass. Hence the name--a syringe of poison, stuck up your ass.
Pleasant, yes?
This has only happened to me two times, thank god, and with only two students. It's not exactly painful, but very embarrassing. As with most things in the classroom, I haven't brought it to the attention of the director because I don't believe it would solve anything (perhaps I'm wrong). But when the students have done this to me, I usually turn around, give them a cold look, squat down in front of them with a firm grip on their hands, and tell them in a quiet, firm voice not to ever do that again. Sometimes I even tell them that it makes me sad--they seem to understand that and I've usually gotten sincere looks and even an apology.
But during his lectures on the classroom, students began to raise their hands when it became clear classroom discipline was not going to be covered. The professor had advised us not to hit our students, and to treat them with kindness. Well of course, that all goes without saying. But how on earth do you keep them in line? He couldn't give a straight answer and I over a matter of minutes I saw him crumble under the pressure from the student's questions. I walked out of the auditorium annoyed, but a little comforted in that I was not the only teacher who had difficult students.
In my classroom my students have:
+screamed at me
+kicked me in the shins
+taken off their shoes and beat me
+ran their fingernails over my arms
+refused to move to another seat
+beat their heads against the desk or wall
+ddungchimed me or other students (explanation below)
+spat into my hand when I give them a high five
+grab my fingers and suck onto them
+hurl desks across the room
+throw workbook pages out a third floor window
+refuse to speak in English and make fun of me in Korean to my face, with an evil smile
+bring exacto knives and/or box cutters to class in their pencil cases. On one occasion a student threatened another with an exacto knife, hidden in his pocket
...That might be about it, or at least the most outrageous things I can remember. That's not to say there aren't any good kids. There are plenty of really wonderful students here. And I even have affection for the crazy one that beat me with her shoe. But this would never happen in America, that's for sure.
In my first few weeks here I was having trouble with a young student, Ella, who always kicked me in the shins whenever I asked her to read out of her book. One day after I tried to get her to move to another seat, she took off her shoe, let out an Indian war-whelp and attacked me with her shoe. I wasn't going to stand for this; I fetched the director's wife (another teacher here) immediately. What happened? Ella got yelled at. She cried. I felt a little bad. Ella moved to another seat. Class continued.
What would have happened in America? Certainly a call home. Perhaps suspension. Perhaps a parent-teacher conference. But here the students just get a tongue lashing, and it's over. Not that that tongue lashing isn't scary - the director's wife scares the crap out of me with her presence! I guess the problem is that the students keep repeating their offense, and I've learned it's best to find my own solutions to the problems rather than run to the director every time. I want the students to see me as the person in control of my classroom, not someone else, and definitely not a student.
This is an on going struggle and I'm glad to say I hardly have any of the problems listed above anymore. But everyday has its own unique problems and you have to improv your way through it. More on this later.....
But before I finish writing, I must explain the ddungchim. Ddungchim comes from two Korean words, and translates as "shit needle". Like a twisted game of cowboys and Indians, Korean children will chase each other around the room, or more commonly, sneak up behind, and stick their fingers, shaped in a gun, up your ass. Hence the name--a syringe of poison, stuck up your ass.
Pleasant, yes?
This has only happened to me two times, thank god, and with only two students. It's not exactly painful, but very embarrassing. As with most things in the classroom, I haven't brought it to the attention of the director because I don't believe it would solve anything (perhaps I'm wrong). But when the students have done this to me, I usually turn around, give them a cold look, squat down in front of them with a firm grip on their hands, and tell them in a quiet, firm voice not to ever do that again. Sometimes I even tell them that it makes me sad--they seem to understand that and I've usually gotten sincere looks and even an apology.
1/3 Complete , 0 Blogs Since in Korea
I created this blog over five months ago, pledging to express how I've changed as a person during my time in Korea. As far as this blog goes, I've failed at recording anything at all. That's not to say I haven't been writing anything down. I've kept two journals over the past four months: a personal journal where I record my thoughts, feelings, and adventures, and a teaching journal, where I record my daily wins and losses in the classroom. So far I've kept a diligent record of most of adventures.
I think I prefer keeping a written journal to writing a blog. Writing in a journal seems more time consuming, but it feels more personal, and surely more private, than a blog. I feel like an explorer, picking up my leather bound book every night before bed, scratching away with my quill pen by candlelight.....
So as it's a new year (And I'm running out of room in my journal), I hope to keep a more up-to-date blog, writing a blog post at least once week. We'll see how this goes.
I think I prefer keeping a written journal to writing a blog. Writing in a journal seems more time consuming, but it feels more personal, and surely more private, than a blog. I feel like an explorer, picking up my leather bound book every night before bed, scratching away with my quill pen by candlelight.....
So as it's a new year (And I'm running out of room in my journal), I hope to keep a more up-to-date blog, writing a blog post at least once week. We'll see how this goes.
10.8.10
A week left in NY...
Just a week from now I will be a plane for the third time in my life to a land I know very little about. I've been sulking at home trying to keep myself occupied for the past two months, and with the adventure so close at hand, all I can think about is: KOREA.
No matter how close I get to the date of departure, it still doesn't seem real. I suppose I won't start believing until I actually set foot in Asia. That's how it felt right before I went to London. The plane ride felt like a dream, a fuzzy, unreal place acting as a medium between two realities, a place for reflection. This might sound silly, but then, I've only been in a plane twice in my life. I hold a lot of appreciation for the simplest of things.
I'm very glad I've found things to do with this time I've had over the summer. Despite the flurry of VISA activities at the beginning of the summer, it was an exciting time. I now know the process behind getting a work VISA, assuming I ever have to do it again, I'll know better. Between then and now it's been a long month and a half at home. Not enough time for a job, or to get my driver's license. Luckily I came across an online class where I could conveniently obtain a TEFL certificate. Together with Habitat for Humanity and the many trips I have taken, this has been a very worthwile summer.
Now if only I could get myself to spend more time studying Korean!
No matter how close I get to the date of departure, it still doesn't seem real. I suppose I won't start believing until I actually set foot in Asia. That's how it felt right before I went to London. The plane ride felt like a dream, a fuzzy, unreal place acting as a medium between two realities, a place for reflection. This might sound silly, but then, I've only been in a plane twice in my life. I hold a lot of appreciation for the simplest of things.
I'm very glad I've found things to do with this time I've had over the summer. Despite the flurry of VISA activities at the beginning of the summer, it was an exciting time. I now know the process behind getting a work VISA, assuming I ever have to do it again, I'll know better. Between then and now it's been a long month and a half at home. Not enough time for a job, or to get my driver's license. Luckily I came across an online class where I could conveniently obtain a TEFL certificate. Together with Habitat for Humanity and the many trips I have taken, this has been a very worthwile summer.
Now if only I could get myself to spend more time studying Korean!
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