I would have never believed that in August 2010 I'd be living in Seoul--alone. I'd also realllly never have guessed that I'd be teaching myself Korean.
Learning a new language is such a 알름다운 (beautiful) experience. I'm eager to try to read every sign that I see- it's like a whole new world is opening up to me. What once looked like beautiful art is now becoming words. Yes, it is a 어려운 (difficult) task, but it's worth every bit of effort. For having spent such a short period of time here and having no Korean teacher I am quite 만족스러운 (pleased) with my progress.
It's amazing what a 긍정적인 (positive) mindset can do for a person!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
사랑
My students are obsessed with asking me if I have a boyfriend. Daily I have to go through the questioning and explaining.
"No teacher does NOT have a boyfriend"
"Yes, I think you have"
"No I do not have"
"Why you no have??? You are very pretty"
So finally today I took it upon myself to learn the phrase to answer their questions: 우리 헤허졌어 "Uri heeojyeosseo" -- 'We split up'. Funny enough my favorite student replied "Yes I know, he lives in England" LOL. I asked him how he knew that and he said that he asked me on the first day and I told him that. Made me giggle that he remembered... this is why he's my favorite!
Of course the questions then came as to why I don't have a new boyfriend to which I replied 복삽해요-- complicated. How do you explain the perils of relationships to 11 year olds?? You don't. All of these kids still have parents that are married, and it seems that they all think their families are perfect. They always write papers about how nice their dads are and how they play with them and what great cooks their stay-at-home moms are. It really is so sweet. Who am I to tell them that the real world is a little more complex than that and that some people remain single for a very long time?! Instead I explained that I'm very happy to not have a boyfriend as it allows me time to myself to do the things I want, like coming to Korea :)
Have to admit though, one of the first words I wanted to learn was love (사랑). Beneath the layers of reinforced walls and armor, I'm a hopeless romantic at heart :)
"No teacher does NOT have a boyfriend"
"Yes, I think you have"
"No I do not have"
"Why you no have??? You are very pretty"
So finally today I took it upon myself to learn the phrase to answer their questions: 우리 헤허졌어 "Uri heeojyeosseo" -- 'We split up'. Funny enough my favorite student replied "Yes I know, he lives in England" LOL. I asked him how he knew that and he said that he asked me on the first day and I told him that. Made me giggle that he remembered... this is why he's my favorite!
Of course the questions then came as to why I don't have a new boyfriend to which I replied 복삽해요-- complicated. How do you explain the perils of relationships to 11 year olds?? You don't. All of these kids still have parents that are married, and it seems that they all think their families are perfect. They always write papers about how nice their dads are and how they play with them and what great cooks their stay-at-home moms are. It really is so sweet. Who am I to tell them that the real world is a little more complex than that and that some people remain single for a very long time?! Instead I explained that I'm very happy to not have a boyfriend as it allows me time to myself to do the things I want, like coming to Korea :)
Have to admit though, one of the first words I wanted to learn was love (사랑). Beneath the layers of reinforced walls and armor, I'm a hopeless romantic at heart :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
난 슬퍼요 (I am sad)
I can't believe the halfway mark has come and gone. There were times when a month in a foreign country seemed daunting, and now I'm wishing I had far more than two weeks remaining. Spent yesterday in bed feeling absolutely exhausted and ill. I was so upset as I only have one more Sunday left. The following week I fly out on Sunday so will not have that day to enjoy the city :(
One of my students gave me this in class wishing me a speedy recovery. I thought it was the sweetest thing!
One of my students gave me this in class wishing me a speedy recovery. I thought it was the sweetest thing!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
If You Wanna Learn Somethin Bring Your Mother
Last night I decided to treat myself to a couple sojutinis and hang out with the boys for a bit. I was back home by 7 and as I came in I saw Amber and some of the Korean guys from our building in the main kitchen. I went over to join them for a quick chat... which turned into more sojutinis (the Korean guys laugh hysterically at this word as apparently no one here says it) and an impromtu Korean session. It was really quite fun. I wrote my name in Korean for them and they were shocked that I knew how to do so. Then I asked them their names and proceeded to write both of them as well-- they gasped and laughed and said it was very good which obviously made me smile too :) I then proceeded to write any other words that they said-- asking for help on certain letters. It was a fun exercise and made me feel like my night of studying the alphabet had been worth it. Definitely also wrote "love sojutinis forever" in Korean just for fun, haha.
Today I wrote a couple of Korean words on the board and my students loved it as well. I wish that I could take these kids home to tutor me at night! They're so sweet when teaching me new words. It's a nice exercise to do during break as it allows them to be the teacher and me to be the student.
It's funny, in life the line is blurred as to where the learning ends and teaching begins. I like to think we are all forever learning and forever evolving, and if we're lucky enough forever teaching.
Today I wrote a couple of Korean words on the board and my students loved it as well. I wish that I could take these kids home to tutor me at night! They're so sweet when teaching me new words. It's a nice exercise to do during break as it allows them to be the teacher and me to be the student.
It's funny, in life the line is blurred as to where the learning ends and teaching begins. I like to think we are all forever learning and forever evolving, and if we're lucky enough forever teaching.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Sojutini Anyone?!
Two hours of grocery shopping, 20 minutes of carrying the world's heaviest box, and a potentially disastrous cab ride later I mixed up quite possibly the tastiest drink I've had while in South Korea... the mango sojutini. Will definitely be drinking some more of these stateside :)
Also I have to say that a sojutini is the perfect companion while studying the Korean alphabet. Made me feel slightly less dorky for being locked up studying while the others were out playing.
Will definitely be joining the others for the Wednesday night festivities. This girl needs a little break from dorkin it up. Teaching during the day and learning at night can be quite taxing. Especially when all my learning is self taught!
The teacher, I like to think, is more important than what she teaches.
Also I have to say that a sojutini is the perfect companion while studying the Korean alphabet. Made me feel slightly less dorky for being locked up studying while the others were out playing.
Will definitely be joining the others for the Wednesday night festivities. This girl needs a little break from dorkin it up. Teaching during the day and learning at night can be quite taxing. Especially when all my learning is self taught!
The teacher, I like to think, is more important than what she teaches.
A Day In The Life of an English Teacher
All the girls in my science class were absent and I had so much fun with the boys. I taught them to say 'yo', 'worrrrrrrd', and 'what it do' :) They are soooooooo cute! I taught them to lean their head back when they say yo, and seriously everytime one of them does it to me in the hall I just die. Cutest kids alive, seriously!!! When I wrote "what it do" on the board, one of my students asked "do you mean 'what does IT do?" LOL I had to explain that even though it makes no sense to say it, people will understand what it means.
In other news, several students in my class find the work to be too difficult, yet none of them seem to move down a level. Apparently this is because no parents want to admit that their child needs to be 'demoted'. You know the whole 'the customer is always right' thing, well here the Korean parents are the customers. What they say goes, even if it is detrimental to their child academically.
Today I had my first parent-teacher conference... think it went surprisingly well. The manager of the school is quite pleased as I convinced the father to allow his son to return to the program-- he was concerned that it was too difficult (finally a parent who is concerned in the right direction!). Yaaay for talking to the dad rather than the mom, men typically seem easier to deal with.
In other news, several students in my class find the work to be too difficult, yet none of them seem to move down a level. Apparently this is because no parents want to admit that their child needs to be 'demoted'. You know the whole 'the customer is always right' thing, well here the Korean parents are the customers. What they say goes, even if it is detrimental to their child academically.
Today I had my first parent-teacher conference... think it went surprisingly well. The manager of the school is quite pleased as I convinced the father to allow his son to return to the program-- he was concerned that it was too difficult (finally a parent who is concerned in the right direction!). Yaaay for talking to the dad rather than the mom, men typically seem easier to deal with.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
ABC It's Easy As 1-2-3
While the others were out to dinner & drinks last night I decided to hit up the internet cafe to work on my Korean. For whatever reason I decided that I wanted to look at the alphabet so that I could decipher letters. Honestly, I'm so glad that I did! I spent the whole evening writing my name and other western words. I came to school today with a notebook full of scribbles which the Korean teachers thought was so cute. They told me that I have really good Korean writing which I was sooooo happy to hear! One of my main concerns was that my Korean writing would be crap and make me look like an idiot. I'm blessed to have good penmanship in Romanized writing, soooooo I'm a bit accustomed to being able to write nicely and would have been heartbroken to have poor Korean writing. Dorky, I know.
Anyway, I was having this problem with deciphering why a certain Korean letter is sometimes placed in odd areas and is occasionally silent-- think I successfully deciphered why this is. A small win, but for some reason it makes me quite pleased. The unfortunate bit is that even though I'm learning the alphabet and am starting to be able to decipher words-- I don't speak Korean so I don't know what the words mean! Atleast I feel productive :) For now I'm content with writing as many western words as possible with my newly formed Korean writing skills.
Bogosipda & saranghamnida all!
Anyway, I was having this problem with deciphering why a certain Korean letter is sometimes placed in odd areas and is occasionally silent-- think I successfully deciphered why this is. A small win, but for some reason it makes me quite pleased. The unfortunate bit is that even though I'm learning the alphabet and am starting to be able to decipher words-- I don't speak Korean so I don't know what the words mean! Atleast I feel productive :) For now I'm content with writing as many western words as possible with my newly formed Korean writing skills.
Bogosipda & saranghamnida all!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Korean Music
Ever since arriving I've found myself completely enamored with Korean pop music-- even though I can't understand a word they're saying I constantly find myself in shops just loving what I'm hearing. I always ask the shop attendant to write down the song for me (I usually do this by pointing to the speaker and using my hands to do a writing motion since we can't communicate verbally), he/she typically writes it in Korean and then I take it to my TA or another Korean speaker to translate into English and then I search it online. Quite the process, but totally worth it. My latest love is Supreme Team 'Dang Dang Dang' --Korean hiphop.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Night Out in Seoul
On Saturday night the boys and I decided to go out in Seoul for a night on the town... we didn't get out until about 11:30 and thus it was quite a late night-- 6am home arrival, anyone? We went in without a plan which typically turns out to be brilliant or a complete disaster. Fortunately, it leaned more towards the former, though at times I was starting to feel it was the latter. I was mostly concerned with people watching, etc so I enjoyed hopping from spot to spot. The boys got a bit tired of this though and started to get ansy. But seriously, what is the point of staying in one place all night?
At the end of the night we actually went to a bar that had a sign posted saying NO US MILITARY ALLOWED. I almost didn't go in based on the sign alone, but the boys powered right through so I had no option but to follow. Upon entering I noticed that several guys were obviously in the military-- the haircut always gives it away. This place had the strongest US presence of all the ones we went to that night, and of course it is where we found trouble. I guess the sign is to discourage the Army guys, but once inside obviously they aren't going to be turned away. And of course, it was an Army guy who was giving us the issues. My friend had told me a bit earlier that he saw the guy calling him gay (he isn't), and to be fair he does dress in a way that would make people question him... but still it's no reason to say anything. Also due to the aforementioned fact that we are all Americans, it was just absolutely uncalled for and childish. A bit later he still had not stopped and was being so loud that everyone in the bar could hear him-- we weren't even NEAR him and I could hear him. I just wanted to say to him "we are ALL Americans here in a bar in Seoul and you seriously want to start a fight?? With your fellow country men who you are in the service to fight FOR and protect?! Reallllllllllllllllllllllllly?" Unfortunately, I fear that logic is lost on such individuals so I kept it short and direct "You're a douchebag, stop being a douchebag, you're seriously pissing me off because you are SUCH a douchebag, I'm ready to go"
I wanted to tell the dbag that there have been several studies conducted that have concluded that people with the most homophobic actions are the ones with the most homosexual tendencies... something to marinate on, soldier. Made me realize why so many people here have negative impressions of the US military men.
Anyway, the night was a success otherwise. Though I often think the boys are more dramatic than girls. They started whining about the walking, about the fact that we couldn't just stay in one place, etc. Grh. The girls though don't drink. Soooooo, I'm stuck with the boys I fear.
At the end of the night we actually went to a bar that had a sign posted saying NO US MILITARY ALLOWED. I almost didn't go in based on the sign alone, but the boys powered right through so I had no option but to follow. Upon entering I noticed that several guys were obviously in the military-- the haircut always gives it away. This place had the strongest US presence of all the ones we went to that night, and of course it is where we found trouble. I guess the sign is to discourage the Army guys, but once inside obviously they aren't going to be turned away. And of course, it was an Army guy who was giving us the issues. My friend had told me a bit earlier that he saw the guy calling him gay (he isn't), and to be fair he does dress in a way that would make people question him... but still it's no reason to say anything. Also due to the aforementioned fact that we are all Americans, it was just absolutely uncalled for and childish. A bit later he still had not stopped and was being so loud that everyone in the bar could hear him-- we weren't even NEAR him and I could hear him. I just wanted to say to him "we are ALL Americans here in a bar in Seoul and you seriously want to start a fight?? With your fellow country men who you are in the service to fight FOR and protect?! Reallllllllllllllllllllllllly?" Unfortunately, I fear that logic is lost on such individuals so I kept it short and direct "You're a douchebag, stop being a douchebag, you're seriously pissing me off because you are SUCH a douchebag, I'm ready to go"
I wanted to tell the dbag that there have been several studies conducted that have concluded that people with the most homophobic actions are the ones with the most homosexual tendencies... something to marinate on, soldier. Made me realize why so many people here have negative impressions of the US military men.
Anyway, the night was a success otherwise. Though I often think the boys are more dramatic than girls. They started whining about the walking, about the fact that we couldn't just stay in one place, etc. Grh. The girls though don't drink. Soooooo, I'm stuck with the boys I fear.
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