This week is going to be an easy week for me since there are midterms at my school and Friday marks the beginning of the Chuseok holiday - the Korean version of Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to it because I'm going to Seoul that weekend... it will be pretty void of native Koreans (all traveling to small villages/towns to visit their families), but a ton of EPIK teachers that I met at orientation are planning to head over there. I'm looking forward to seeing what cultural events they have lined up, and if the stores will be open at all on Saturday.
Since I have no classes this week and no need to plan any lessons (if I were smart, I'd be planning future lessons anyway...), I guess it's about that time to do some reflecting on my time here.
Culture shock?
It exists... I don't know if it's had much of an impact on me, though. I want to say I've settled in nicely. Honestly, living abroad in Greece may have prepared me. Greece and Korea are totally different countries but it's surprising how many things here remind me of Thessaloniki. For example, the showers? I'm used to showering in a 4x4 bathroom with no shower curtain and the mirror and sink right next to me. Small apartments? I shared one with another person. Foreign languages, signs, miscommunication... it's probably easier for me to adapt here because, well... everything's Asian. It doesn't necessarily look foreign to me, and more importantly, I don't look foreign to them. It's interesting when Koreans realize I am in fact, not Korean... they get a kick out of it, I think. I had been curious to see what they think of the fact that I'm of Chinese descent, but overall, everyone has been super nice and friendly... and they enjoy it when I practice my Korean with them.
One thing I have thought about here is how my fellow, non-Asian friends are adapting to Korea. Because I don't get stares or people pointing to me, I feel pretty inconspicuous at times. If I did, would I be adapting as well as I am now?
Teaching
For the people who knew me at Northeastern, I would say that planning lessons is a lot like planning workshops. Except I'm planning them every week. And instead of the very organized breakdown (I'll be in charge of this part, and it will take about 8 minutes, you be in charge of this..), it's very touch and go here. I am becoming very flexible with changing my lessons at the last minute, or putting something together 10 minutes before my class. I don't know if these lessons are helping my students, honestly. I'm torn between planning a "fun" lesson, and actually teaching them something. I think I've been able to incorporate both but it's been hard to determine the students' level of understanding. Most of the time, they just pretend to understand. This makes me wish I saw them more than once a week.... and that I wasn't hindered so much by school curriculums and co-teachers.
My co-teachers are great, but that's another interesting part of lesson planning. I work with so many of them, and they all have different styles. One will be on top of it all, e-mailing me frequently, checking to see we're on the same page. One will give me the lesson that morning, and I'll just wing it until I get the hang of it. One will just defer to me so I'll have to put the entire thing together. Throw in a language barrier and it makes for an interesting work environment.
Friends
I'm very happy with the group of friends I've made here. Honestly, without that type of network and support system, I can see people here having a hard time. Not only do we share school stories, lesson plan ideas, and meals... but we're sharing this new experience together (not to sound corny, haha). Again, makes me think of my last experience abroad, and how much the people around me impacted it. As much as I wish my friends and family back home could share this with me... at the end of the day, I can say one word to a friend here and they'll know what I mean.
K-pop
I don't know if I expected this to happen, but I am actually getting into K-pop!! Haha, it is just toooo catchy. A co-worker at my school gave me some popular songs, and I've been hearing them everywhere I go, and thinking, "Oh! I know this song!" Before you know it, I'll be able to belt out these tunes at noraebong... just you wait.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
eleven days in
Hello friends and family =)
So, it has been eleven days since I arrived in Daejeon. I didn't count the time I was in Jeonju for Orientation because honestly, we were all coddled during that time - everything was done for us and it didn't really FEEL like I was in Korea. Since then, however, I have moved into my new apartment, I have begun teaching, and I have been exploring Daejeon whenever I can.
All in all, I am extremely happy with my city and my schools. I have a great social network of fellow teachers that I hang out with most weekends, either going to dinner or trying new things (more about that later). I have SIX co-teachers (seven if you include the Japanese language teacher I work with), which makes lesson planning a little difficult, but we are working it out, slowly. As for my students, it varies throughout the day. Once day I will have a difficult class, but the next time I have them, they're different. I've only had most of my classes once or twice so far, so I'm keeping an open mind. They way I feel about it, is that for these students, they see new English teachers every year, and they won't warm up to a new one right away. After a few weeks, they might start to open up more, after seeing me every day and interacting with me. Already, I've noticed that every day is better than the day before, in terms of interacting with students. I'd have to say that at Sungduk, my most difficult classes are two 2nd years, and at Jaun, its the 3rd years. Which makes sense, as the older they get, the less likely they are to care about learning a language they barely use anyway.
I've put up photos of my apartment on facebook, so you can check that out there. It's not very big, but it's big enough for me. When I first moved in, it was a MESS, but after an entire day of cleaning and supply shopping, its definitely become more home-y. I am obsessed with keeping the floor clean (because Koreans sit on the floor all the time, and my only table is a "floor table" that's only about a foot off the ground, so I'm always on the floor), so I vacuum my floor at least once a day.
This past weekend was a very Korean weekend, haha. On Saturday, I went shopping downtown for some random house things with a friend, and that night, we met up with the "Daejeon crew" (this is what I'm going to call everyone I met at Orientation because we had "classes" together and now try to get together every once in a while) and went to this places called News.. its basically a booking club I guess? What you do is the guys and girls come in separately and you have to order these expensive drinks and snacks and the waiters come around and take the girls to other tables to chat up with guys... and you can decide if you want to stay or go back to your own table. It's almost like speed dating, except the waiters take care of everything.... haha. Very interesting and awkward. Don't worry Mom and Dad - I did not participate in this part of the evening ;-) However, on stage there were these crazy performers, sometimes a DJ, or a solo singer, or this crazy dancer with this huge bobblehead on. Yeah, kind of hard to explain - you really had to be there!!
To try and give you a glimpse of what this place was like, here are some pictures: (ALL photos in this post courtesy of Melissa P. - I did not break out my camera at all this weekend!)
On Sunday, about the same group of people (a little less than the night before) met up for lunch, and we went to a jjimjilbang!! A jjimjilbang basically translates to "hot room" and its a Korean spa... you walk in to the girls or guys' locker rooms and everyone's basically just hanging out, walking around naked (gender segregated, of course). At this particular jjimjilbang, it cost us 6000 won (under $6), and there is no time limit. Inside, there was a public bath area, with showers and steam rooms, and jacuzzis of different temperatures, with about a hundred women just showering together, including children and grandmothers!! It was a little awkward at first, and we sidestepped the public bath. We were all given the same shirt and shorts to wear, and walking into the unisex common area, there is this big open space where u can grab a mat and sit and hang out, maybe watch the movie on the projector, take a nap, eat some snacks, etc. They had a game room, gym, restaurant, massage room, manicures/pedicures, snack bar, pc room, and areas with human sized cubbies that I guess you crawled in to nap. And there were about five or six different saunas with different themes and temperatures. One smelled like cinnamon, which I enjoyed a lot. Another was the "salt" room, and the floor was littered with rock salt and had a huge blanket over it. Another was just for women, and it had these heating lamps on the floor that I guess you laid on to relieve cramps. They also had the "ice room," where you could go to cool off, and lastly, they had this SUPER HOT sauna, that was - I'm not kidding - 109 degrees celsius!! I couldn't believe how hot it was in there, I was only in it for about five minutes and I started to get a headache. Meanwhile, we overheard some of the ajummas and ajossis (old ladies and men) complaining that it WASN'T hot enough!!
A really cool thing we did at this spa was something called "doctor fish." Basically there was this pool with tiny fish in it, and you dip your feet in and the fish eat the dead skin off your feet. It was so weird!! I couldn't stop twitching the first five minutes, cause I could feel their tiny mouths on my skin... after a while it just felt like the tingling you get when your feet fall asleep. We paid 3000 won for half an hour (a little under $3), and my feet actually felt pretty smooth afterwards!
Finally, after hearing that our guy friends explored the public bathing area in their locker room (I actually had a random laughing fit in the middle of one of the saunas, thinking about our friends frolicking in the nude - "we weren't frolicking!!"), the girls decided that we must try it as well. After getting over the initial awkwardness of being naked in a room with a hundred other naked women, we explored the different jacuzzis and steam rooms, including this one that would shoot a strong jetstream of water on your back (kind of like water massage), another room where you could rub bath salts on yourself, a room for foot baths, and an area with cold water - including a section where the water was literally as cold as ice!! It was definitely an interesting experience, and four hours later, we all emerged feeling completely relaxed and refreshed.
However, now that the weekend is over, it's back to work! Tonight I am signing up for Korean language classes at Chungnam National University, one of the schools close to where I live. This will give me even less time to unwind after teaching during the week, but I'm really excited to improve my Korean!
Peace&Love,
Katherine
So, it has been eleven days since I arrived in Daejeon. I didn't count the time I was in Jeonju for Orientation because honestly, we were all coddled during that time - everything was done for us and it didn't really FEEL like I was in Korea. Since then, however, I have moved into my new apartment, I have begun teaching, and I have been exploring Daejeon whenever I can.
All in all, I am extremely happy with my city and my schools. I have a great social network of fellow teachers that I hang out with most weekends, either going to dinner or trying new things (more about that later). I have SIX co-teachers (seven if you include the Japanese language teacher I work with), which makes lesson planning a little difficult, but we are working it out, slowly. As for my students, it varies throughout the day. Once day I will have a difficult class, but the next time I have them, they're different. I've only had most of my classes once or twice so far, so I'm keeping an open mind. They way I feel about it, is that for these students, they see new English teachers every year, and they won't warm up to a new one right away. After a few weeks, they might start to open up more, after seeing me every day and interacting with me. Already, I've noticed that every day is better than the day before, in terms of interacting with students. I'd have to say that at Sungduk, my most difficult classes are two 2nd years, and at Jaun, its the 3rd years. Which makes sense, as the older they get, the less likely they are to care about learning a language they barely use anyway.
I've put up photos of my apartment on facebook, so you can check that out there. It's not very big, but it's big enough for me. When I first moved in, it was a MESS, but after an entire day of cleaning and supply shopping, its definitely become more home-y. I am obsessed with keeping the floor clean (because Koreans sit on the floor all the time, and my only table is a "floor table" that's only about a foot off the ground, so I'm always on the floor), so I vacuum my floor at least once a day.
This past weekend was a very Korean weekend, haha. On Saturday, I went shopping downtown for some random house things with a friend, and that night, we met up with the "Daejeon crew" (this is what I'm going to call everyone I met at Orientation because we had "classes" together and now try to get together every once in a while) and went to this places called News.. its basically a booking club I guess? What you do is the guys and girls come in separately and you have to order these expensive drinks and snacks and the waiters come around and take the girls to other tables to chat up with guys... and you can decide if you want to stay or go back to your own table. It's almost like speed dating, except the waiters take care of everything.... haha. Very interesting and awkward. Don't worry Mom and Dad - I did not participate in this part of the evening ;-) However, on stage there were these crazy performers, sometimes a DJ, or a solo singer, or this crazy dancer with this huge bobblehead on. Yeah, kind of hard to explain - you really had to be there!!
To try and give you a glimpse of what this place was like, here are some pictures: (ALL photos in this post courtesy of Melissa P. - I did not break out my camera at all this weekend!)
On Sunday, about the same group of people (a little less than the night before) met up for lunch, and we went to a jjimjilbang!! A jjimjilbang basically translates to "hot room" and its a Korean spa... you walk in to the girls or guys' locker rooms and everyone's basically just hanging out, walking around naked (gender segregated, of course). At this particular jjimjilbang, it cost us 6000 won (under $6), and there is no time limit. Inside, there was a public bath area, with showers and steam rooms, and jacuzzis of different temperatures, with about a hundred women just showering together, including children and grandmothers!! It was a little awkward at first, and we sidestepped the public bath. We were all given the same shirt and shorts to wear, and walking into the unisex common area, there is this big open space where u can grab a mat and sit and hang out, maybe watch the movie on the projector, take a nap, eat some snacks, etc. They had a game room, gym, restaurant, massage room, manicures/pedicures, snack bar, pc room, and areas with human sized cubbies that I guess you crawled in to nap. And there were about five or six different saunas with different themes and temperatures. One smelled like cinnamon, which I enjoyed a lot. Another was the "salt" room, and the floor was littered with rock salt and had a huge blanket over it. Another was just for women, and it had these heating lamps on the floor that I guess you laid on to relieve cramps. They also had the "ice room," where you could go to cool off, and lastly, they had this SUPER HOT sauna, that was - I'm not kidding - 109 degrees celsius!! I couldn't believe how hot it was in there, I was only in it for about five minutes and I started to get a headache. Meanwhile, we overheard some of the ajummas and ajossis (old ladies and men) complaining that it WASN'T hot enough!!
A really cool thing we did at this spa was something called "doctor fish." Basically there was this pool with tiny fish in it, and you dip your feet in and the fish eat the dead skin off your feet. It was so weird!! I couldn't stop twitching the first five minutes, cause I could feel their tiny mouths on my skin... after a while it just felt like the tingling you get when your feet fall asleep. We paid 3000 won for half an hour (a little under $3), and my feet actually felt pretty smooth afterwards!
Finally, after hearing that our guy friends explored the public bathing area in their locker room (I actually had a random laughing fit in the middle of one of the saunas, thinking about our friends frolicking in the nude - "we weren't frolicking!!"), the girls decided that we must try it as well. After getting over the initial awkwardness of being naked in a room with a hundred other naked women, we explored the different jacuzzis and steam rooms, including this one that would shoot a strong jetstream of water on your back (kind of like water massage), another room where you could rub bath salts on yourself, a room for foot baths, and an area with cold water - including a section where the water was literally as cold as ice!! It was definitely an interesting experience, and four hours later, we all emerged feeling completely relaxed and refreshed.
However, now that the weekend is over, it's back to work! Tonight I am signing up for Korean language classes at Chungnam National University, one of the schools close to where I live. This will give me even less time to unwind after teaching during the week, but I'm really excited to improve my Korean!
Peace&Love,
Katherine
Friday, September 4, 2009
My schools
I've got some downtime so I thought I'd write about the schools I'm teaching at.
I'm teaching at two different middle schools, Sungduk Middle School, and Jaun Middle School. They are both very close to where I'm living, which is called Sinseong-dong. Sungduk is only a 10 minute walk away from me, and Jaun is a 10 minute drive, or 15 minute bus ride. I haven't ridden the bus to Jaun yet, I've gotten picked up and dropped off the only time I've been there.
I'll be working at Sungduk on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, with five classes each day. I'm teaching the 1st and 2nd grade in the middle school (which translates to the 7th and 8th grade), seeing the second grade once a week, and the first grade twice a week. At Jaun, I'm teaching four 3rd grade classes on Wednesday, and three 2nd grade classes on Friday. Each class is 45 minutes long, and there are about 30-40 students in teach class.
Sungduk is an older school, at the top of a hill, and is currently under construction. I officially start teaching on Monday, even though I've been to the school already. The interior looks like a cross between modern and traditional design. For example, the wooden floor and sliding wooden doors look like the interior of an old Asian house... but on the fourth floor there is a brand new English Lab complete with a touch screen blackboard, and virtual studio (which I cannot wait to use!!). I am so baffled by the breadth of technology that is offered in Korea, and especially in its schools. Jaun Middle School is actually near a military base, so the school is for children of families working for the military, or government. Jaun also has an English Center, but it's not as pimped out as Sungduk. However, it makes up for it by being basically, a brand new building, with huge hallways and all new furniture, desks, etc... and a super friendly and outgoing staff.
Onto the staff...the teachers at Sungduk are a lot older than me, there is only one teacher who is close to my age, and she's a year older. Most do not speak English well, or are just afraid to speak to me. There are three teacher offices, and the one I'm in has three out of the four co-teachers I'll be working with. They're really nice and friendly, but they're also very, very busy. At Jaun, I think there are three teacher offices as well. The two co-teachers I work with are in my office, as well as four or five extremely friendly, enthusiastic, young, outgoing teachers. Their English is very impressive, and they take every opportunity they can get to speak to me. When my co-teachers are busy, there's always one or two other teachers in the office that want to chat. I've noticed they've even started speaking English to each other in the office, in an effort to include me. I can't wait to get to know these teachers better.
All in all, I'm very happy with my schools. I haven't begun teaching in Sungduk yet, so I'll hold off on an update about classes and students.
I'm teaching at two different middle schools, Sungduk Middle School, and Jaun Middle School. They are both very close to where I'm living, which is called Sinseong-dong. Sungduk is only a 10 minute walk away from me, and Jaun is a 10 minute drive, or 15 minute bus ride. I haven't ridden the bus to Jaun yet, I've gotten picked up and dropped off the only time I've been there.
I'll be working at Sungduk on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, with five classes each day. I'm teaching the 1st and 2nd grade in the middle school (which translates to the 7th and 8th grade), seeing the second grade once a week, and the first grade twice a week. At Jaun, I'm teaching four 3rd grade classes on Wednesday, and three 2nd grade classes on Friday. Each class is 45 minutes long, and there are about 30-40 students in teach class.
Sungduk is an older school, at the top of a hill, and is currently under construction. I officially start teaching on Monday, even though I've been to the school already. The interior looks like a cross between modern and traditional design. For example, the wooden floor and sliding wooden doors look like the interior of an old Asian house... but on the fourth floor there is a brand new English Lab complete with a touch screen blackboard, and virtual studio (which I cannot wait to use!!). I am so baffled by the breadth of technology that is offered in Korea, and especially in its schools. Jaun Middle School is actually near a military base, so the school is for children of families working for the military, or government. Jaun also has an English Center, but it's not as pimped out as Sungduk. However, it makes up for it by being basically, a brand new building, with huge hallways and all new furniture, desks, etc... and a super friendly and outgoing staff.
Onto the staff...the teachers at Sungduk are a lot older than me, there is only one teacher who is close to my age, and she's a year older. Most do not speak English well, or are just afraid to speak to me. There are three teacher offices, and the one I'm in has three out of the four co-teachers I'll be working with. They're really nice and friendly, but they're also very, very busy. At Jaun, I think there are three teacher offices as well. The two co-teachers I work with are in my office, as well as four or five extremely friendly, enthusiastic, young, outgoing teachers. Their English is very impressive, and they take every opportunity they can get to speak to me. When my co-teachers are busy, there's always one or two other teachers in the office that want to chat. I've noticed they've even started speaking English to each other in the office, in an effort to include me. I can't wait to get to know these teachers better.
All in all, I'm very happy with my schools. I haven't begun teaching in Sungduk yet, so I'll hold off on an update about classes and students.
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