Culture Shock: Korean Sign Language

As I wandered around Tongyeong, I saw poster demonstrating sign language of the Korean alphabet. I thought the below sign was interesting. In Korean, it makes the "K" sound, but in America it means something completely different.

Tongyeong: The Naples of Korea

While Gohyeon is a a reasonably sized town, it has only one movie theatres, no megastore(yet), and I was beginning to feel a little stuck here. I was looking forward seeing an American movie, buying a jar of peanut butter that was less than $10, and get some beautiful pictures of the harbors. So, I got up my courage to leave the island and visit Geoje's connection to the Korean peninsula, a place the Koreans call the "Napoli of Korea."

I was a little apprehensive because I couldn't find a sign for a direct bus to Tongyeong. However, I knew that the highway to both Masan and Busan passes through Tongyeong, so I figured that there would probably be a stop. I got a ticket and made the short ride to Tongyeong with no problems.
Upon arrival, I dropped off my backpack at a locker at the Lottemart. There are three main megastores in Korea: Lottemart, Homeplus, and Emart. These stores are like a combination of a Wal-mart or Target supercenter and a department store like Sears. Up until July, Wal-mart had a large presence in Korea, but pulled out because they were losing too much money. I am excited to report that Gohyeon is getting a Homeplus, that is supposed to open this coming week. I have heard that it will also include a movie theatre.

So I set out from Lotte Mart to find my beautiful views, and maybe an American movie. After walking for about a half hour, I realized that I much have been going away from the sea. So I turned back and wandered my way back to Lottemart. Along the way, I found an Italian restaurant called Pastoli. I haven't had Italian food since I was considering transferring to a theater in Illinois--before I decided to come to Korea. It was quite good, and a welcome relief from the still foreign Korean food.

I headed back in to Lottemart, but was unable to find my peanut butter, couldn't find an alarm clock, but I did find some microwavable popcorn, so my trip wasn't completely a waste. I explored the store some more and found that a parking garage made up the top two floors. I took the escalator up and from the top, I was able to find the ocean. I headed out to take a few pictures.
Then, on the way back to the bus station, I ran into a some of guy students from Jisepo Middle School. They were in town for the wedding of one of their teachers. They were heading back at the same time I was, so we went together. It was nice to see them out of class and in street clothes--I still haven't gotten use to the school uniforms. All of the students where uniforms pretty much all day during the week, and then every other week when they have classes on Saturday. After school, students usually stay out on the town with their friends and don't change. So, it really is rare to see students in street clothes ever.
I have to say that overall, was a little disappointed. I remember when I came through Tongyeon three weeks ago on my way to Geoje, I saw a breathtaking view that did remind me of Naples. However, on foot, I was unable to find this view. I also was unable to find the movie theater--although the one advertisement I found showed the same Korean movies that are here in Gohyeon. However, knowing that I can get off the island and find my way back by myself gives me the feeling of a little more freedom. I think next time, I will return to Tongyeong as a tourist and not a peanut butter-movie seeker.

Links:
My gallery of pictures from Tongyong
Tongyeong at Wikipedia
Tongyeong Government Website (in English)

You Went Where?

Wednesdays, I am at Seong Po M.S. teaching the conversation and listening sections out of the textbooks. In preparation for class, I was looking over the book. I came to this part and rolled my eyes. These poor kids. No wonder they are having a hard time with English. This conversation is all over the book with different places filled in: "I went to ___," "You went where?" "I went to ____."

There is absolutely no explanation for why they repeat themselves every single time. I find these kids are stumped if you deviate from the standard script. For example, when greeting, if you say, "How are you?" they will ALWAYS respond either "Fine thanks, and you?" or "So so." Even though my three schools all use different textbooks, the student script seems to be very similar. I try to mix it up by saying, "How's it going?" or "What's up?" Or, I ask the big one; they say "Fine..." and I say, "Why just fine?" or "Why so so?"

Last week, at Jisepo, I taught them about twenty different things they could say when asked, "How are you." I was excited to get in there and have them be using these compound, complex sentences telling me how their weeks had been. Today when I asked, almost all of the responses were, "Fine thanks."

Culture Shock: Cleaning Time

Built into every Korean school schedule is twenty minutes--usually in the afternoon--devoted to cleaning. The students get out brooms, dust pans, rags, and trashbags and clean their school. Now, remember these are teenagers. They don't do a great job. And of course there are those students that skirt responsiblity by hanging out in the back of the school, or walking over to the store next to the school. However, most of the students stay busy cleaning up.

This was a big shock on my first day of school. My co-teacher told me it was cleaning time. I looked really confused.
I said, "We don't have cleaning time in America."
She said, "Well, who cleans your school?"
I said, "Well, we have janitors that clean the buildings and fix things."
She said, "Oh, you must have a lot of money."

I thought about this for a bit. The school is not big--only about forty-five students in each grade--but they have a pretty good computer/TV system. Each classroom has a computer hooked up to a big screen TV. The teacher's workroom is also very nice--their computers are better than the high school I student taught and substituted at in Columbia. However, they don't have a custodial staff.

Now things fall through the cracks so to speak. There are corners that haven't been swept in a long time. I'm not quite sure who or when they clean the windows or the scuffed walls. However, these kids are at school about 9 hours a day--and many of them hang out before and after school. While I think there is always a need for a professional cleaning staff, having the students clean the place gives them a sense of ownership in their school.

Judgement: "Eh, its just different."

Typhoon Update

I have found it terribly difficult to find any info on Typhoon ShanShan. I was able to find a tracking map that shows its path. It obviously didn't make landfall on Korea, or I would have known (I think). In the top right of the map, Japan is that island to the far right, and then Korea is to its west. Geoje is right about where that latitude line crosses through Korea.


My disconnect from Korean news may soon be remedied: I subscribed to the Korea Herald, the largest English newspaper.

What if they threw a typhoon and nobody came?

I feel pretty dumb. I just found out that rain all weekend and the wind last night was actually a typhoon. The Korean Herald has a pretty good article on Typhoon ShanShan. I remember thinking last night, man its awful windy. I think my view was somewhat limited because I am on the leeward side of the building, and only a few blocks away from a mountain.

No wonder those rice paddies were flattened and those drainage canals were full. The below image of Typhoon ShanShan is from NASA.

My first Korean joke...

Back in February/March of 2005, I was in Odessa, Ukraine and was immersed with Ukrainians. More so than when I spent a whole summer there, I was forced to learn some Russian. Below is an account of my first Russian pun.

I live with a guy who speaks no more than maybe twenty
English words, and cannot make a complete sentence. I am learning
just enough Russian to make puns!!! Yeah!!! I'll teach you one. The
word for "it is going" is idyut (very similar to idiot). Snow is
"sneg." The Russian word for idiot is "dura." So instead of "Sneg
idyut" for "It is snowing," I said, "Sneg dura."

--e-mail to friends, February 2005

Okay, so I'm learning a bit of Korean, and actually made this joke back on Thursday when I learned how to read. Warning, this is a preschool-level joke, so please remember that I am at an infant's speaking level for Korean. The Korean word for "cow" is soo (that is based on the Friel Romanization of Korean). When my co-teacher was helping me review through my workbook, I said "Moo soo" when I came to cow. She laughed and then repeated the phrase. Although the onomatopoeia for cows is the same in American and Korea, I guess they don't usually combine them like we do in America for little kids "moo cow." So, I guess you know some Korean now, and at least one--albeit a bad one--bilingual joke.

Also this weekend, I was rewatching my collection of Arrested Development. I had almost forgot about this storlyine. The mother in the show adopts a Korean boy. He says, "Annyong," which is short for hello. However, they think its his name, so they go around calling him annyong. Quite funny.

Diner-saur

Today, when teaching my ill-fated lesson on words that end with "er" I had a funny response shouted by a student. I asked the students which words they didn't understand. One student said, "dinner." I only had "diner" on the sheet. I wrote both dinner and diner on the board to explain. When one student, who was barely paying attention, saw "diner" on the board, he immediately shouted, "Dinersaur!." He was so sure that he had the correct answer (even though I hadn't yet asked a question.) I had to chuckle.

A Case of the Mondays

The weekend was rainy. Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday. All of it. I got out a few times and got wet every time. I'm talking strip-off-the-clothes-and-hand-them-up wet. I slept in so long on Saturday that my teacher's sleeping schedule got thrown off and I couldn't fall to sleep until late Saturday and Sunday night. Which mean that Monday morning came very early.

Despite my grogginess, it was a nice morning today. As I rode to the school on the bus, I noticed how my city had changed slightly from the rain. The rice paddies that line the highway to the school looked a more vibrant green. Also, there were many patches that were flattened--by the rain or the wind I suppose. The spillways that drain the streets and the streams from the mountains were full of water and gushing into the sea. The air was cleaner (almost 50 hours of rainfall will do that you know).

I got off at the correct stop with no incident (small victories). It was mostly downhill from there--including the walk up the hill. The area of Seong Po where the school is located can be described in three levels. The bottom level is the small shipyard and some ports. The second level, higher in elevation, is where most of the town is. A narrow two-lane road winds around the contours of the landscape and through the town. It is a little scary to ride a bus through this area as cars are often parked on the side of the road which forces the bus across the solid line into the oncoming lane of traffic. The third and highest level is where the school is located.

The distance between the first and second levels is filled with small homes, walled gardens and steep concrete paths that connect the levels. The space between second and third levels is much the same except with only to paths. Since there are only a couple homes (as in two) a story and a school up on the hill, so travel up and down is not essential to most. Besides, the school is serviced on the other side by an exit to the highway, so most people take that route as opposed to the footpaths.

The two previous paragraphs are setup for this: I have a heckofa walk up this hill. I think the incline is about 45 degrees. The path is paved in concrete. Now I've been to many seasides in my day and all of the ones with this steep of an incline have had stairs--this is just a long, curvy ramp. So, by the time I get to the top, my calves are mooing, I'm huffing, puffing and sweating. Most of that I'm sure will go away as I walk this hill more and more. To help this, I've resolved to take the stairs up to my sixth floor apartment at least once a day.

Okay, so after my hike from the bus stop to the school, I had my first class about twenty minutes later. I had this lesson planned, printed, and felt ready to go. Then, I tried the lesson. The moment that immediately comes to my mind was my African geography lesson during my fall 2004 student teaching.

Long story short, I had assigned my students to learn all of the countries of Africa, but had forgot the refresh myself and looked like a fool in front of them. This time, I wasn't "unprepared" per se, I just hadn't prepared to their level. I had a worksheet that was designed to have them practice words that end in "er" and their different meanings. For example, while teacher means someone who teaches, rubber doesn't usually mean someone who rubs.

These students had now clue what the words meant--much less their nuanced meanings.

I think I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board. It is hard to plan units or a series of lessons because I have most of these students only once a week. That makes any continuity between lessons difficult. So, I think I may just move to short conversation-only classes. Maybe its bit of a cop out. Its certainly easier to teach some vocab for a thematic topic, some phrases, and have some sample dialogue than it is to attempt to teach new concepts.

Why I'm not where you are...

Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has a series of chapters titled, "Why I'm not where you are." One of the chapters begins: "I lost my love and my punctuation in the firestorm of Dresden." the chapters are letters that a man writes to his wife trying to explain why he left her, the women he loves. This story is paralleled with the story of a nine-year old son of a 9/11 victim. I highly recommend the book.

I was chatting with a friend the other night about Foe'rs writing, and it made me think of this. I wonder if this blog isn't my way of trying to explain why I left. I don't know if I'm doing a good job.

I left a lot of things unsettled back in America. There's this whole thing with my dad and his new wife. And between my mom and my brother. And friends.

Life here in Korea has its ups and downs--mostly ups. I'm adapting well, and am looking forward to the rest of the year.

However, there is still nagging attempt at explanation: Why I'm not where you are.