Very rushed catchup

Yes, I know it's been criminally long since I updated this. I'm tired a lot of the time. And this won't be the reflective and detailed blog entry I'd like to write.

What has happened? My hood in Bonggok-dong is now familiar to me; a big change from when I first arrived and went out for walks exploring in cautious, expanding circles so as not to get myself hopelessly lost. I've been to Busan and Daegu, and next week I'm off to Daejeon, which will complete my tour of South Korea's four largest cities, and will mean that I have been on all of Korea's subways. In Busan I went swimming at Heyundae Beach, which is Korea's most famous beach. It's prettier than Bondi, and the water is warmer. Similarly full of tourists, but Busan was a lovely city, one I'll get back to again soon. The next day Katie and I went to the fish markets and picked a fish from a tank that was being fried for us minutes later. Daegu's main attraction is shopping, but it's been two months since any of us earned money, so we mostly wandered around and looked for things to do. We went to an arcade, sat in a park which had chipmunks in a cage, had a long lunch, long coffee, and samgyeopsal - my favourite Korean food - for dinner. Daejeon next week for the big reunion of my group from Kyung Hee and orientation, for Rosa's 21st birthday - haven't seen most of them in a month, and am really looking forward to it. We get our first month's pay on Friday, so it should be a fun night.

The teaching is exhausting, frustrating, rewarding. Although the teaching itself doesn't take up much time, the "exhausting" part, combined with the need to make lesson plans, is probably most of why I haven't updated much on here. When I get the chance soon I'll write some stuff about my favourite kids, although most of them are lovely in different ways. 1/2 class know nothing, but they're as cute as anything. They like to climb on me. 3/4 class is full of boys who don't want to learn and girls who are serious and very keen to learn, but who spend most of the time before classes trying to teach me Korean so they don't have to speak to me in English. Two people on Monday (including the regular 3rd grade teacher) told me these kids really like me and like my classes, so that felt good. 5/6 was my Waterloo for a while, until I worked them out, and then they became my favourite class. They're mostly sixth grade girls, and mostly what I do now is talk to them, try to teach them something, and banter with them about whether we are going to learn lessons or play games. Teaching English by conversation and stealth, but I get happy every time they want to say something so badly that they get out their mobile phones to look up a word. (Mobile phones, by the way, are called han-deh-pones here, which is an example of "Konglish", a subject of frequent discussion, and which is the only part of Korean language in which I am becoming fluent.)

Anyway, that was true of 5/6 until I committed what my mentor teacher immediately identified as "big mistake". Due to a timetabling problem I have one class a week in which I assist in teaching her grade 5 class. So, I was talking to them - the noisiest bunch of kids I've ever seen, and I said - "Why don't you come to my after school class?" Ten immediately said they would. Disastrous, because the grade 5 boys are noisy, childish and competitive. They don't want to sit around being social and talking about movies and travel like the grade six girls. So if I try to deal with them and their noisy distraction, the grade 6 girls immediately turn their backs and start talking amongst themselves and playing with their mobile phones. It really is a huge problem - my mentor teacher and I are trying to solve it. The grade 5 boys are fine in their own way, but they need noisy, energetic games to keep their attention, which is what the grade 6 girls hated beyond belief. And they're ruining my relaxing last class of the day.

Once a week I have dinner with my mentor teacher and the special needs teacher in a sort of informal English/Korean lesson. I had a really good time last week - we went to an amazing Buddhist temple in Gimcheon called Jikju, then had a great meal. Tonight, much simpler - cafe food in Bonggok. But better, in many ways. We're all of similar age, they're lovely people, and I laughed a lot. The language thing is a bit tricky, but part of the reason we're doing it, as well, so it works OK. My mentor teacher is also the ethics teacher - yes, that's a class - and I have been trying to understand from her the nature of Korean ethics. It's hard, because although her English is strong, it doesn't translate properly. But today she got to something that I've been coming to understand, about the way generousity in Korea is linked to face, pride, and also shyness and embarrassment. It is hard to explain, but I'm starting to get it. But briefly - I've been the recipient of extraordinary generousity from everyone, to the extent I am uncomfortable with it. And it can be hard to get past that to something natural and warm, although I'm getting there with my mentor teacher and special needs teacher. (Kang Eun Ju and Kang Chon Hee - but even the name thing is fraught with formality and potential over-familiarity. As a foreigner all my transgressions are overlooked, but you try.)

This has been a horrible update, very rushed, and only scratches the surface of what I've been doing and experiencing. Topics for future blog entries - Korean manners, generousity, and reticence; my favourite kids; the joys of Konglish. Sorry. I really will try to update more often, but it is hard.

My address

Go ahead and try to stalk me.

[redacted]

I have landed

Sorry for the lack of updates - at the moment lesson planning and school is taking up all my time. But I'm getting the hang of it, and should be able to have more free time once I catch the knack of lesson planning and no longer have to spend an hour and a half preparing a forty minute class.

Briefly: I'm safely landed on the outskirts of Gumi in a lovely inner-city suburb called Bonggok which is filled with parks, restaraunts and trees. My flat is new, clean, and while not large is not ridiculously cramped, either. Ten minutes by bus to school, ten minutes to downtown Gumi, which is a really fun and lively city centre. The downtown centres on Gumi Station. Gumi Station is on the Gyeongbu line, which goes from one end of South Korea to the other, passing through all the biggest cities - Seoul, Daegu, Busan. By high-speed train, if you want to pay for that. Very lucky for me.

I teach three classes - Grades 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. 1/2 are sweet, good and shy. 3/4 are noisy and competitive and go crazy for games. 5/6 cause me problems - they are too cool for school and just want to talk to each other and use their mobile phones. I gave up halfway through today's attempt at a lesson plan with them, and instead sat down with them and got them to ask me questions, and I asked them questions. Trying to figure out what they were interested in learning, and teach English by natural conversation. That went better, so I'll try that for ten minutes in each class with them. They're almost teenagers and have that attitude - pseudo-tough, but in fact very young. They all want to travel overseas and none of them have been anywhere, so I think I'll concentrate on functional, travel English and see if they're interested in that.

They're all really likable in different ways. I just want to figure out how to get through to the 5/6ers.

Here are the 3/4 kids going crazy before class today. They come running in twenty minutes before the lesson starts and start playing with everything - powerpoint presentations, the furniture, my camera. They jabber at me in Korean. Then when class starts they sit quietly down in their seats. At least for a couple of minutes, until they start getting bored again. How insanely great is the English room where I teach? Actually two rooms, class room and fun room. This video doesn't even show the "cafeteria" section of the fun room.



And some photos I like:








More on my week and landing in Gumi soon, I promise.