3-31-2010
Day 24 of 365: I caught my first cold this weekend, so I did what anybody would do: I spent last Saturday at the movies. Turns out Korean colds are just like American colds; you get a sore throat for a day and then a stuffy face for four days after. No big deal. Anyway, I've got a 'To Watch' list, and I saw two of the movies on the list this weekend: Shutter Island and Solomon Kane. Shutter Island is a solid, 'Sixth Sense' type of thriller, and Solomon Kane is akin to Van Helsing, but more serious and with less personality. I give them an A- and B respectively. I'm not a critic, I just like movies. Anybody that knows me knows that it doesn't take much effort for me to go to the movies; I'm a RTF major (Radio, TV, Film). I enjoy going by myself as much as with others. However, since I began taking the Korean language course last week, I now have a new reason to go: To practice my reading with the Korean subtitles. Like I needed another reason to go to the movies...
Now that I've got 4 total hours of class time under my belt, I feel like I am qualified to speak on the subject. From what I'm told, the Korean language is very logical, and learning to read is easy. Supposedly, learning the grammar and speaking are the difficult parts. Obviously I'm at the reading stage right now. I've spent most of this week practicing the consonants and vowels that I've learned so far. One difficulty is that there are several characters that look like letters of the alphabet, but with totally different sounds. One example of this is "L", which has a "N" sound in Korea. Then there's a character that looks like a 7, but it has a "K" sound. It was hard at first to not see English letters when studying, but it's becoming easier. Also, the words read from left to right, just as in western languages, but many characters that are combined in a word are written from top to bottom. This can slow things down a bit when trying to sound out a word or phrase. For every word, there is usually one group of characters represented for each syllable or sound. So in the Solomon Kane movie poster at the top, there are three sounds - Sul, Lu and Mun; and two sounds combined to form Ke-Een. The English result sounds something like Sulumun Keen. Pretty cool.
So apart from proper names and other exceptions, the difficulty in learning to speak Korean is that knowing how to read a word is only the first step; the time consuming part is learning what the words mean. From here it just boils down to tons of memorization. I'm not even touching the grammar because I haven't learned any yet. The only thing I've inferred so far is that the subject comes first in a sentence. For example, "Have you eaten dinner?" may be phrased more like, "Dinner have you eaten?". I'm not an expert, so to any Koreans out there: Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I have class in an hour, so we'll see what they want to cram into my head tonight.
Speaking of class, I begin teaching my extra classes at school tomorrow. I had 22 classes when I started a few weeks ago. The principal has decided to bump me up to 28. They take place after school for the kids, but while I'm still on the clock; normally my office hours time (aka: Goof-off time). Three of the extra classes will be for the teachers and faculty, and the other three will be for 'advanced' students. Although the class is only available to 5th and 6th grade students, space was still limited, so I had to create an exam to test their listening, writing and speaking skills. Many students take private English lessons after school, but not every family can afford it. The importance of this class hit me when I realized that I was going to have to make the decision of who would get in and who wouldn't. What's worse is that this class is the only opportunity that some of these kids would have to be in an after-school English program like their peers. It didn't help that my co-teacher Sally told me to not make the exam too easy or too hard. Umm...ok. I guess she somehow forgot (again) that I've never taught before and have created exactly zero tests in my whole life. That being said, I think it was a pretty fair test. However, I was crushed during the written exam when one of the girls began to cry because she hadn't written anything for either of the essay questions. She's a bright student, but I found out that she didn't have the private lessons like many of the other kids, so her writing ability wasn't developed yet. There were a few similar cases. What's worse is that I couldn't console her because I didn't know how to say anything in Korean that would help. I felt miserable and useless. Sally stepped in and took care of her, but that experience made me realize that I want to work as hard as I can to make sure that the kids who are in the normal English class, especially the ones who tried but didn't make it into the extra class, have the best opportunity to learn during the time I have with them. It was a tough day for some of the kids and for me as well, but I'm excited to see where things go from here.
3-27-2010
Day 20 of 365: I haven't mentioned this yet, but I believe it's worth mentioning: Our school doesn't have any janitors. I don't know what the middle schools and high schools are like, but the elementary schools don't have them. What we have instead are hundreds of students who are each assigned an area to clean every day after school. They vacuum, they mop, they dust, they take out the trash, they do windows...they do it all. For my office, the school assigned two 5th grade girls. They arrive every day around 3pm, clean for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then play games on the chalkboard for another 20. The first day that they showed up was awkward. I tried to introduce myself but they were both so shy that they kept trying to hide behind one another. Then I tried to show them my sketchbook to 'break the ice' and one of them ran out of the room. They're not scared of me anymore. I often come back to my office in the afternoon to find pictures of flowers and animals on the chalkboard that they drew for me. They even wrote "Happy Birthday" on the board last week after they saw a birthday card on my desk. Now that I'm learning to speak Korean, they try to teach me a word or two every day. They're cute kids, and I'm glad to have them instead of a crotchety old man with a scowl and a mop.
So yes, I did have a birthday. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, especially since so many people have gone out of their way to help me get settled in and feel comfortable. I hadn't even told anyone, but my co-teacher, Sally, accidentally found out the day before while doing some paper work and basically told everybody. The next day when I walked into my classroom, a few of the teachers were there with birthday cards, gifts and a cheesecake with candles that spelled out "Birth Happy". Sally told me that Koreans traditionally eat seaweed soup for their birthdays, so I told her I was really happy that she went with the cheesecake. For dinner that night, some teachers took me to a place called O'Hill's Premium Seafood Buffet, which is one of the nicest restaurants in Ansan. Best. Buffet. Ever. It also happens to occupy the whole 2nd floor of my building, which is another reason why I love where I live. This isn't like the Chinese buffets that we have in the US; this is the kind of place where you better wear your nice shoes. The food was amazing. Note to anyone who comes to visit: You'll be my excuse to eat here again. Finally, I received a care package yesterday from my family in Austin. Some of the items included were a box of Lucky Charms (since my birthday is always on St. Patrick's Day), Wolf Band Chili and Fritos (a family tradition), my baseball glove (2nd most popular sport in Korea) and deodorant (it's tough to find here). This place feels a little more like home now. I had a great day. Thanks y'all.
3-25-2010
Day 18 of 365: As my third week in Ansan is soon to be complete, I am finally beginning to familiarize myself with my surroundings. Venturing out into the unknown has been a slow process for me. All of the exploring that I've done so far has been on foot, and I haven't walked more than 20 minutes from my apartment in any direction. Ansan, which is about the same size as Austin, has a substantial downtown/business district. This area doesn't have any tall buildings, but is instead crammed with 5-7 story buildings covered with neon lit signs on every level. Since I can't read many of the signs, I just see one big, glowing, multicolored spectacle at night, and my apartment building is on the doorstep of the awesomeness. Go figure, but I tend to gravitate toward any shop or business that has English somewhere in the title, and I almost always stay on the street level. The limitation is fine with me for now, but down the road it'll be exciting to go back to places I've been and explore further when I can read and understand a little more.
Hopefully my 'understanding' will come sooner rather than later since my Korean language course began last night. Fortunately for me, it is within the 20 minute radius. It's also free. The class was set up for any foreign English teachers in Ansan by the Korean Ministry of Education. There are 19 students in my class, most of whom are Americans. We have an interesting mix. There are students from LA, Detroit, NYC, Chicago and Austin (me), as well as a few from Canada and Ireland. I don't know where the rest are from yet because half of them didn't show up for the first class. Sounds familiar. Several of the students/teachers actually live in my building. I know this because I've seen them, even ridden the elevator with a few, but they ignore me for the most part; especially this one bearded guy who I've seen at least 3 times and he's never even acknowledged me. His aviator sunglasses and tweed hat help round out the douchiness. The guy from Canada is pretty cool. He told me about some rugby and baseball leagues around town that he thought I'd be interested in. Maybe I'll learn to play rugby.
Today in class I showed my kids what I had learned last night. They were thrilled as usual. I even let them teach me a few simple words. This really got the whole class interested and involved, which is not always easy to do. Oh yeah, they loved the shoes by the way (Blog entry - Say "Hello"). I put some hard scuffs in them on the very first day I wore them after doing a power slide (inspired by The Boss in the Super Bowl XLIII Halftime Show) while teaching a song to the kids. I don't know what came over me; I would have never done that in my boots or Nike Shox. Maybe it was the microphone in my hand that made me feel like a rock star, or maybe there's something to these shoes after all...
3-21-2010
Day 14 of 365: I finally did it. After one previous failed attempt, and in celebration of surviving 2 weeks without Texas BBQ, Mexican food, video games, my 2008 Honda Civic coupe, and Americans...I finally went to the movies yesterday to see Alice in Wonderland. I had tried last Saturday to see the film, but was stumped by the lack of English signs or instructions, so I walked back home easily defeated. Trying again yesterday wasn't any easier, but maybe I wanted it more this time. I walked up to the girl at the box office window only to get grouched at (in English) by an old Korean woman who told me that I needed to pull a number and wait until it was called. I grabbed my number and walked back up to the girl when it was my turn. She didn't speak English of course, so I just said 'Alice' and she understood. The movie was in 3D and cost 13,000 Won, which is around $11. After paying her, she turned her monitor toward me and motioned for me to point on the seating chart where I wanted to sit. The movie theaters here have seating charts?
Once you have your ticket, you wait in the lobby until 5 minutes before the showtime, then your theater is announced as 'ready' and you're allowed to enter. I just figured that part out by watching other people, because again, there is no English. However, the one place there was English was at the concessions stand. It was very general, but I inferred enough to order myself a large popcorn with no problems. I wasn't brave enough to try to order a hot dog, and they don't sell candy at the movies in Korea. They have nachos, popcorn, hot dogs, and sodas, but no candy. Instead they have Roasted Squid. Yup. Yellow package, cartoon squid on the front. Perfect for the little ones. I should add Sour Patch Kids and Reese's Pieces to the things I'm missing at the top of the page.
Upon entering the theater and finding my seat, the big mystery for me was the question of what language the movie would be in. Turns out it was in English with Korean Subtitles. From what I can tell, all American movies here are in that format, which is a nice discovery. Sitting in that theater made me feel like I was home for 2 hours. I may make this a regular thing. As for the movie itself, I thought it was imaginative and the special effects were great. I'd give it a B+. It's very different from Disney's cartoon version, and I'm wondering now if this version is more true to Louis Carroll's original story. I may try to find it, in English of course.
3-18-2010
Day 11 of 365: To all the nerds, geeks, dorks, yuppies, hippies, hipsters, scenesters, scene kids, cool kids, indie kids, emo kids, skinny jeans kids, SoCo kids, drag kids, drag rats (sans spikes and army surplus), and anyone who keeps Austin weird: Please say 'hello' again to someone that you all know and love - The Converse All Star. I officially bought my first ever pair of All Stars today after a life-long hold out. They will be used as my indoor shoes at the school where I teach from now on. The reason I'd never bought a pair before is basically because I didn't want to look like any of you. While, fundamentally, that feeling hasn't changed, there is something to be said for 'trying new things' in a country that is full of new things. Note to all the athletes, jocks, cowboys, kickers, muscle heads, meat heads, roid heads, and general category of person who beats up the people in the first category: I'm not converting; I'm just trying to have an open mind, plus there were actually a handful of reasons. For one thing, they were the first pair of shoes that I found that actually fit me, which is a major victory (Read my last blog entry, Keep 'Em Up, to understand why this is a big deal). Secondly, they are similar in style to what the kids wear at school, except that their shoes are slip-ons or Velcro. Lastly, I was looking for something familiar, which meant American, and it was either these or Crocs (I work in a school, not a hospital). So my options were pretty limited, but what can you do? Let's just look at it as something that happened and try to move on.
The kids haven't seen the new shoes yet, but they'll probably dig them. They are interested in everything I do, wear and say. I may be the first white guy that some of these kids have seen in person. I'm an alien to them. Even my hazel colored eyes freak them out. It started with one kid noticing and asking me to remove my glasses so he could see them better. Then all the kids at the table moved up close to get a better look, only to quickly jump back in surprise when they saw that my eyes weren't black like theirs. They're so curious about people and things that are different than them. I'm sure the novelty won't last forever, but in the meantime it's fine with me because they really pay attention when I'm teaching the lessons. Hopefully I'll actually learn how to be a teacher before the new car smell fades.
Speaking of things that are new, I learned something new on Day 11: Buttons can be pushed a second time on an elevator to cancel a floor or stop. I found this out by unknowingly pushing the 1st floor button twice on the way down from my apartment and ended up descending all the way down to B7, the bottom floor basement. Another time I missed my floor and went almost to the top of my building, but I think somebody pushed my button after me so that we wouldn't stop on my floor. I can't prove it, but I'm gonna be watching that old Korean lady a little closer from now on.
3-15-2010
Day 8 of 365: Since I've been in Korea, I feel like I've learned at least one new thing each day. For instance, on Day 5 I learned that officially, there is no 'r' sound in the Korean language, so all the jokes are actually true. I don't know if that makes them less funny or more funny. On Day 7 I learned that Koreans in general have a beef with the Japanese, which is why I've seen zero Toyotas, zero Nissans, and only one Honda on the road to date. This brings me to today's lesson. Today I learned that shoe stores and major department stores don't carry shoes larger than men's size 10. It's pointless to wear my boots to school because they make everyone remove their shoes at the entrance. Instead, everyone has 'indoor' shoes that they wear at school, which is what I was trying to buy when I learned the lesson of the day. As a result, I'm a size 12 stuck with size 9 house shoes at school for the time being. So my 'giant' feet, coupled with the fact that the guys here all want me to play Center in basketball (I'm barely 6'0 tall), officially makes me the Shaquille O'Neal of Ansan. I'm not saying I'm the tallest person in the city, but I'm definitely in the top 5. What sports are Koreans good at again? Oh yeah, Ping Pong and Starcraft.
Another thing I've noticed is that hardly anyone walks around with an iPod or headphones of any kind; not even Bluetooth headsets. How strange is that? Maybe they're technology is so advanced that they have evolved to the point where they don't need headphones or earbuds. Maybe they've got Nano-buds implanted in their ear canals and actual cell phones are now just for style or symbol of status. It could happen. We are, after all, 14 hours in the future.
As for the daily routine, I have to say that it has gotten better, but I think it's about to get worse. I've only been here a little over a week, but it feels like a month. My responsibilities as a teacher are ramping up quickly, and I may have made a mistake by agreeing to teach extra classes starting next month. Extra classes equals extra money, which is great, but I haven't even fully wrapped my head around the concept of being a teacher yet, and I'm about to get thrown into the deep end of the pool. In addition, I will begin taking Korean language classes in the evening starting next week, which will eat up much of my time. On the positive side, all the kids in school love me. They're always excited in class, and I hear them whispering my name in the halls as I walk by. The other day, I was walking home from school when a couple of kiddos (with mouths full and Mcdonald's chicken sandwiches in hand) ran up to me out in the street just to say 'hello'. Others just flash the 'Hook 'Em Horns' at me to get my attention. They call me Jacob Teacher, and learning to 'Hook 'Em' was lesson #1 in Jacob Teacher's class. If the school wanted it's kids to learn wussy English, they would have hired somebody from Canada or Illinois. 'Texas Fight' and 'The Eyes of Texas' are in future lesson plans.
3-10-2010
Day 3 of 365: After what is now being referred to as "Disaster Monday", Tuesday in contrast was much better. I actually didn't do any teaching whatsoever because of standardized testing throughout the whole school, and basically sat in my office (I have my own office. It has one chair. It's for me.) for 4 hours messing around on the internet and reading a book that I picked up in the states called, Korea: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture by Culture Smart! My goal is to not get arrested and/or beat up while I'm in South Korea, so if either of those 2 things happens while I'm here, I'm definitely taking the book back when I get home and asking for a refund.
After lunch I went to the hospital to get my health examination. (Note to self: Much like the bank, the hospital is another place that I would hate to go if I didn't have a translator with me) They checked height, weight, blood pressure, drew blood, urine, performed x-rays, etc. The exam was to make sure that I don't have any serious ailments or diseases like AIDS or Ebola. It takes a week to find out the results. It's funny how they made me jump through hoops to confirm that I wasn't a criminal before I entered the country, but they'll allow me to be around their kids for almost 2 weeks before they find out if I'm contagious with a life threatening illness or not.
I got home in the early evening after the examination, and decided to take a walk over to Lotte Mart to buy some groceries. It had been very cold and rainy all day, but when I exited my apartment, the rain started floating and quickly turned into snow! We don't get snow very often in Central Texas, so I was excited. Upon leaving the market, it was still snowing and there was already some accumulation on the ground. The walk home was much more difficult and my face was frozen by the time I made it back. When I got up to my apartment, I looked down on the city; everything was white.
When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I did was look out my window. It had snowed throughout the night and continued to snow as I watched. The first thing I thought of was, "SNOW DAAAY!!!". I got dressed and walked to school with hopes of cancellations and dreams of pegging children with snowballs in the park. It seemed like it might come true because there were significantly less cars on the road during rush hour, and even my recently adopted stepping stone path across the stream was covered in snow. Unfortunately, when I arrived I found a normal day of school waiting for me. However, the lesson for the day happened to be about the weather, and the kids were really into it, so it worked out pretty nice. I'll take a rain check on the snow day.
That evening I just wanted to stay home in my warm apartment (did I mention yet that they have heated floors here?), but my place doesn't have a phone, so I went and got a free cell phone since I can't use my iPhone here without racking up massive international charges. Much like the Korean pop culture, this phone is ridiculous in it's cuteness. I think it was meant for an 8 year old. What can I say? I feel a little more Korean now.
Where do I begin? I was homesick before I left Austin, but was too tired and rushed to realize it. Waiting for 3 hours in the San Francisco airport gave me a lot of time to actually consider what it was that I was about to do. Many people asked me why I was going, and I gave them some pretty good answers (fame, fortune, adventure, etc.), but when I was alone waiting for Singapore Airlines flight 015 to arrive at my gate, the first thing I thought of was...well...Lost actually. I mean, how cool would it be to crash land on a mysterious island and build huts out of salvaged airplane parts on the beach and fight polar bears in the jungle and...anyway. The second thing I thought about was how uncertain so many aspects of this move were, and when it came down to it, I really did not know what I was getting myself into. I started to wonder if I was so desperate for a change that I was about to get involved in something that was way over my head. Zero sleep in 2 days didn't help either. In the end, the question to go or to stay was overruled by the determination to not be a punk. I said I was going to do this thing, and people were counting on me, so I'm doing it. I got on the plane.
If you've never flown internationally before (it had been 4 years for me, so I had forgotten), let me just say that these airlines do their best to make you feel comfortable,and in my case, help you forget where you're leaving or going for 12 hours. I was initially dreading the long flight more than my destination, but I actually had a blast. We're not talking American Airlines here; Singapore Airlines doesn't charge you for meals or peanuts or air to breathe. They brought us pillows, blankets, headphones, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, 2 full meals, snacks...not to mention a tv for every seat with new movies (I watched Couples Retreat and Law Abiding Citizen), shows and video games. I probably only slept an hour during the whole flight.
When the plane landed I just followed the signs which were in English and Korean, passed through customs, grabbed my bags, changed some US dollars into Korean Wons so that I could call my ride from a payphone to pick me up, and off we went. It was so easy, I think I fooled myself into thinking this whole thing was going to be a piece of cake. I was driven to the apartment where I would be staying in Ansan, which is about 40 minutes from Seoul. I am in the middle of the city and everything I need is in walking distance. They have 2 Walmart/Costco type places near me called Lotte Mart and Home Plus (or Tetco). They are both 4 stories high and Lotte Mart has a movie theatre on the top floor. I might see Alice in Wonderland this weekend just to find out what the movies are like here. I also discovered a McDonald's near by. A Big Mac and fries over here tastes exactly the same as in the U.S. (Yes, I do like their food), plus they deliver! I had arrived on Saturday evening, and all day Sunday felt like I was on vacation. Then my first day of work happened.
Monday was a disaster. I realized that the reason I was so comfortable during the first few days was because I hadn't really been forced to talk to very many people. The few that I knew here spoke English well enough, but that's not the norm. It was a rude awakening for me when I found out that not only was I the only native English speaker in my school, but none of the teachers or faculty spoke english well, NOT even my co-teacher. I was freaking out. Then I was taken to the bank to open up an account and I almost lost my mind. The bank teller didn't speak english, and the forms that I filled out were all in Korean. If I hadn't had a makeshift interpreter there, I would have been screwed. I realized that I was going to be almost totally dependent on other people for much of my time here because of the language barrier. It was a horrible feeling.
Afterward, my co-teacher (her American name is Sally) could sense how frustrated I was, so she said she'd do her best to ease my transition. She's done a lot so far. She took me shopping, helped get my fridge fixed, she's taking care of my paperwork at the school, translates for me and the principal, and many other things as well. She's married with 2 kids by the way, so this is just the job for her, and I respect the effort she's making to get me settled in.
Day 1 of 365 is in the books.
Question: If you had one day left before leaving your home, family, friends, country...what would you do? Answer: Drive back to Houston and pray to God that today will be the day that the Korean Consulate decides to give you a visa, because otherwise you're not getting on your 6am flight to Seoul the next morning. Then, after that prayer has been answered, you book it back to Austin in time to have a nice dinner with your family and a few friends. Finally, you try to fit 2 days worth of moving, packing and errands into 5 hours, failing miserably, and eventually dashing out of your apartment (because you're late for your flight) for the last time with way more stuff than you intended to bring and half of your remaining belongings still in your former apartment.So now I'm sitting at a desk in my new apartment, ten minutes (walking) from the school I'll be teaching at. My building is the tallest in Ansan; 26 stories tall. It's hard to fathom the fact that last week I was delivering pizzas in Austin, and tomorrow I'll be teaching English in Ansan. From the beginning, roughly two and a half months ago, things have been moving so fast. It hasn't fully sunken in that I'm on the other side of the globe from my home. Just getting here was a challenge, but now it's completed. A new challenge begins tomorrow. I found out today that the Korean teacher I'll be working with has never taught English before. Well at least we have something in common. Should be fun. Bring on those 3rd graders.
