I'm on an airport limousine bus on the way to Incheon Airport and I'm committing the current headache to paper. It has been six months since my January Visa Run to Japan, the last time I left Korea.
Today was the day I was supposed to fly out for my very last-minute, impromptu vacation to Vietnam, a place taht I've been curious about and have studied since my senior year of high school. When I arrived at the travel agency in central Seoul to collect my passport, processed Visa, and airplane ticket, I was informed that there was some bad news. The new employee who had handled my business last week had made a mistake: My flight for tonight was full and so I would have to wait until tomorrow morning at 10:00am to fly out. Another mistake the worker had made was not to record my phone number so that no one at the agency could contact and inform me of this drastic change of plans.
I've never been a morning person, so there is a big difference to me between an 8:50pm flight and a 10:00am flight. Also, I would be coming to the airport from all the way down in Anyang, so the possibility of missing my flight again like I did in January was real. Also, I had just lugged three heavy bags of luggage for over an hour on the subway (two of mine, and one for Chun-sup, who, together with his mother, had helped me arrange a lot of the details for Vietnam) and I did not care to do it again the next morning. I asked to be put up in Incheon for the night and they immediately arranged it. My 40,000 won discount on the 685,000 won ticket/Visa business handled by the agency offered to due to their mistake rapidly became a 40,000 won payment for a hotel room in Incheon.
Even apart from all of the aforementioned inconveniences, this sudden change of plans without any warning had inadvertantly disrupted my day in other ways: Aiming to make it to Seoul by 4:00pm to collect my Visa and make my flight, I woke up earlier than I otherwise would have, skipped breakfast and lunch in favor of a better meal in Seoul if I had time, and there was still worse.
The night before, I had learned from Hye-seon that she was back from University down South for the summer and staying in Anyang to work at her uncle's hof. I hadn't seen her in a month and a half since early April. It seemed unrealistic (not yet knowing about the flight delay) that I could see her before I left the country but early this afternoon I called her up and asked if she wanted to have a quick lunch before I went to Seoul. Hye-seon's voice was extremely groggy, although it was around 2:30pm. After a few seconds of incoherent conversation with this attractive, sleep-deprived, non-native English-speaker, she hung up abruptly. I slumped down onto my bed; I guessed I wouldn't be talking to her again until I returned from Vietnam, let alone having lunch with her; and I felt bad for having been short with mom, who had called at about noon while I was still asleep and suffering acutely from the food poisoning that began on maybe Saturday.
Everything was ready to go so I was almost out of the door when Hye-seon texted me, saying "sorry mistake." I wondered if maybe she didn't want me to hear her groggy voice or possibly she just didn't feel like launching into a full-blown English conversation right upon waking up.
I texted back something along the lines of, "Want to grab some lunch in Anyang before I go to Incheon if you aren't too tired?"
"When you go to inchen?"
"4:30pm I go to Seoul so we'll have to eat within the hour if we do it."
"Ok see you bake!" (clearly, within the hour was not feasible in her state! I texted my goodbyes and she responded:
"bye I hope you have good trip!"
By this time, I had gotten into a taxi and was being dropped off at Pyeoncheon-Yok. No longer conflicted about whether I would be going West to Anyang-Yok or North-East to Seoul, I boarded a train.
If the travel company hadn't screwed up, I could have waited as long as Hye-seon needed in order to meet her for lunch. Now I'm in a nice-enough hotel room on Incheon Island for 40,000 won a night hoping that I wake up before 7:45am so that I can catch the shuttle back over to the airport.
I want some supper and a few hours at a PC Bang before I pass out, but already my consensus is that today was a waste. My life would be so much simpler if my boss Mr. Park had never even given me vacation time. On the plus side, I now have a Vietnam Visa sticker pasted into the pages of my passport, my first Visa for a Communist country. The adventure continues, starting tomorrow!
-6-24-2008.
p.s. - I shaved my goattee.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The 2008 Seoul Hakwon Speech Contest
Over the past month or so I have been in charge of basically coming up with everything for a Speech Contest for our 1st years middle school students. For the longest time, our boss wouldn't tell us the date when it was taking place, what prizes the kids could expect, where it would be taking place, if parents would be invited, etc...so I gave the kids minimal information about it and a few topics to start brainstorming for.
Finally, about a week-and-a-half ago, I got the go ahead to get the kids fully prepped because we were doing the speech contest June 9th and 10th (I had recommended doing the whole thing in one day instead of splitting it into two groups, but no one saw the wisdom in that.)
Suddenly urged on, I talked to one of the two sub-bosses, Kim Kyoung Suk, to try to nail down some of the crucial details: I asked her each question, and she would turn to her left and ask Mr. Park each question.
I gradually learned that the dates would be the 9th and 10th, parents would not be invited, that all four English teachers (myself, Justin, Jon, and Cathy) would be judging (although later this would be scrapped because they didn't want to take some of the teachers out of their regular classes, so alternatingly Mr. Park and another teacher who happened to be on hand but seemed to speak little English helped judge on Monday and then Tuesday respectively.
Finally I asked about the prizes; first, the idea had been floated (and I had already told the students weeks ago) that first prize would be an Mp3 player and that second prize would be an electronic dictionary, etc. Then, a week after that, the prize idea was changed once again, and I had to tell them that first prize would be 100,000won and second prize would be 50,000won, and so on. But that day when I asked officially what the final prize amounts would be, Kim Kyoung-Suk returned with the amount of oh-man-won (50,000won) for first prize. Discouraged and disappointed, I wrote the amount down on the paper where I was taking notes. I cautiously inquired then about what second prize might be. I could see Mr. Park was a little bit irritated about the existence of a second prize and he replied sam-man-won (30,000won.) Determined to at least guarantee 3 top prizes for the kids, I persisted in inquiring about the amount for third prize: visibly hesitant, Mr. Park breathed "Man-won" (10,000won.)
Having all of my information, I set to work on formatting the paper to distribute to any students who were interested in participating. That criteria was rapidly changed to, "The top three students who place in each of my classes, according to an unprepared speaking test that I had not yet made." So I also rapidly formatted and printed out a paper for the priliminary speaking qualification test and took it to each of my classes that week, administering it to each of the students, and from each class selecting three to move on to the actual competition.
...but! At the end of the week, after the winners had been notified, Mr. Park changed the rules again so that only the top two from each class would participate! So I had to notify those who were previously slated to compete about the new rules.
One particular class, full of extremely well-spoken higher-level students, complained excessively about the new rules because at least four of the students were very excited about the speaking competition and had already written speeches based on the topics I had given them a few weeks before. In yet another decision that mocked all sense of fairness, Mr. Park heard these students' cries and advised me to accept the TOP FOUR students from this one class, while continuing to take only the top two, from all other classes. I agreed, turned around, rolled my eyes, probably muttered something under my breath, and went back to work.
---------------
On Saturday, the 7th, T-minus two days before the speech competition would begin, Mr. Park called me less than an hour before I was scheduled to come in to work, right after I had ordered a cheeji-spaghetti bake from a Korean restuarant that also served "cheeji" spaghetti. He inquired about how early I could make it in to work ("Uh, I could probably be there in like a half-an-hour") because some of the students were there and had turned in rough drafts of their speeches for me to grade. Mr. Park wanted me to actually make grammatical corrections to every students' speech and return them to the students in time so that they could memorize them with my corrections, which all would have been possible if we had had more than one weekend to do it all before the competition! I told the ajuma to make my cheeji-spaghetti "Take-Out" instead and booked it over to the hakwon to start grading papers before my regularly-scheduled classes.
On Sunday as well, there were papers to be graded and returned.
--------------
On Monday, in our 3rd scheduled classtime, myself, Justin, and Mr. Park descended on the M-GL1 advanced class to give them (and apparently only them) their speaking test. I had already printed out enough of our grading papers, based on 9 criteria for a grand total of 100 points so we three, with those in hand sat at the back of the class and listened to the fours speeches. They were all pretty good and at the end, each student got a prize. Apparently, there were now four top places instead of only three! (50,000won; 30,000won; 10,000won; 5,000won) The children who participated were jubilant.
--------------
On Tuesday, three or four classes were adjourned so that the students could meet on the 5th floor for the larger half of the competition. Nine students would be competing and all of their classmates would be trying to goof around on their handphones or talk to their friends while pretending to be attentive and respectful. Myself, Jon Haase (the new guy), and a new Korean teacher whose name I don't know and whose English abilities I am not aware of, were to be the judges while Mr. Park observed the procedings with a large stick for hitting inattentive students (He didn't want to judge again this time) and Teacher Justin Choi would be the emcee (we had a real microphone hooked up this time and a large green banner proclaiming the Pyeoncheon Seoul Hakwon Speaking Competition in white letters; this banner surprised me more than anything about the competition because while I had believed that no one buy myself was taking the procedings very seriously, apparently Mr. Park had gone out and spent a good deal of money on this banner!)
The students spoke. I timed them. They talked about things like what they would do if they were the president of Korea, what the best method of learning English was, what they thought about racial discrimination, the potential reunification of North and South Korea, and a few other less impressive topics. Most of them were able to keep their speeches within the confines of 3-5 minutes that we had agreed would be ideal beforehand, except for Austin (nickname: "Space-God") who stopped speaking after about 30 seconds and relegated himself to last place in the scoring.
After they were all finished, Justin entertained them with lighthearted antics while myself, the two other graders, and Mr. Park frantically totalled each student's total points and put them in order. The order we democratically arrived at was as follows:
1st) Susan
2nd) Martin
3rd) Yeon Yeo-Yun
4th/5th) TIE: Song-Jae and An Jane.
6th) Su-Hyun
7th) Jung
8th) Lena
9th) Austin (Space-God)
Justin Choi came down from the podium area to review the selections and he and Mr. Park spoke to each other in their native tongue. We waited for our decisions to be announced, but Justin took us aside and said that Mr. Park didn't want Susan to have first place because he had noticed some problems in her speech. Also, he didn't really understand how Song-Jae and An Jane could have tied (if we'd had more judges to tally points from, a tie would have been less likely, but Mr. Park hadn't wanted to vote, although he had in the Monday competition!) Mr. Park had suggested a new winners list that looked like this (changes have been denoted in red):
1st) Martin
2nd) Susan
3rd) Yeon Yeo-Yun
4th) An Jane
5th) Song-Jae
6th) Su Hyun
7th) Jung
8th) Lena
9th) Austin (Space-God)
Jon Haase and myself were shocked. We didn't need Jimmy Carter's election monitoring organization to tell us that these results were dirty. The other Korean teacher didn't care one way or the other, Justin couldn't fathom resisting authority (and ultimately, in Korea, neither could we) so we let it go. There were more prizes awarded than Mr. Park had originally advertised. In fact, everyone except for Space-God received at least 5,000won, but I still felt terrible for the person who was robbed of her 1st place finish by the whims of our boss and Song-jae who had to take the monetarily inferior 5th place when he had received an equal number of points as An Jane (and when she had done a terrible job of translating her speech, using a computer program that rendered it basically incomprehensible in English and would have failed her if I hadn't sat down with her on Sunday at the last minute to try to figure out a better way to express her points paragraph by paragraph.)
Basically, at the end of the day, the 2008 Seoul Hakwon Speech Contest was revealed to be completely corrupt; hard work went unrewarded, the rules changed constantly and randomly, and the democratic and meritocratic method of choosing winners was hideously perverted in favor of deference to the prime authority figure. Sad to say, sometimes all of that feels like business as usual here in Korea.
Mr. Park took some pictures of the contestants for the Hakwon and had me take some, too. Enjoy!
Moment of truth...
Are you ready for the injustice?
Susan, 2nd (1st) Place!
Justin Choi with Martin, the "Winner!"
Our boss, Mr. Park, handing out prizes to Song-Jae and An Jane.
Su-Hyun.
Jong.
Lena.
Justin Choi and Yeon Yeo-Yun.
Song-Jae and An Jane.
Finally, about a week-and-a-half ago, I got the go ahead to get the kids fully prepped because we were doing the speech contest June 9th and 10th (I had recommended doing the whole thing in one day instead of splitting it into two groups, but no one saw the wisdom in that.)
Suddenly urged on, I talked to one of the two sub-bosses, Kim Kyoung Suk, to try to nail down some of the crucial details: I asked her each question, and she would turn to her left and ask Mr. Park each question.
I gradually learned that the dates would be the 9th and 10th, parents would not be invited, that all four English teachers (myself, Justin, Jon, and Cathy) would be judging (although later this would be scrapped because they didn't want to take some of the teachers out of their regular classes, so alternatingly Mr. Park and another teacher who happened to be on hand but seemed to speak little English helped judge on Monday and then Tuesday respectively.
Finally I asked about the prizes; first, the idea had been floated (and I had already told the students weeks ago) that first prize would be an Mp3 player and that second prize would be an electronic dictionary, etc. Then, a week after that, the prize idea was changed once again, and I had to tell them that first prize would be 100,000won and second prize would be 50,000won, and so on. But that day when I asked officially what the final prize amounts would be, Kim Kyoung-Suk returned with the amount of oh-man-won (50,000won) for first prize. Discouraged and disappointed, I wrote the amount down on the paper where I was taking notes. I cautiously inquired then about what second prize might be. I could see Mr. Park was a little bit irritated about the existence of a second prize and he replied sam-man-won (30,000won.) Determined to at least guarantee 3 top prizes for the kids, I persisted in inquiring about the amount for third prize: visibly hesitant, Mr. Park breathed "Man-won" (10,000won.)
Having all of my information, I set to work on formatting the paper to distribute to any students who were interested in participating. That criteria was rapidly changed to, "The top three students who place in each of my classes, according to an unprepared speaking test that I had not yet made." So I also rapidly formatted and printed out a paper for the priliminary speaking qualification test and took it to each of my classes that week, administering it to each of the students, and from each class selecting three to move on to the actual competition.
...but! At the end of the week, after the winners had been notified, Mr. Park changed the rules again so that only the top two from each class would participate! So I had to notify those who were previously slated to compete about the new rules.
One particular class, full of extremely well-spoken higher-level students, complained excessively about the new rules because at least four of the students were very excited about the speaking competition and had already written speeches based on the topics I had given them a few weeks before. In yet another decision that mocked all sense of fairness, Mr. Park heard these students' cries and advised me to accept the TOP FOUR students from this one class, while continuing to take only the top two, from all other classes. I agreed, turned around, rolled my eyes, probably muttered something under my breath, and went back to work.
---------------
On Saturday, the 7th, T-minus two days before the speech competition would begin, Mr. Park called me less than an hour before I was scheduled to come in to work, right after I had ordered a cheeji-spaghetti bake from a Korean restuarant that also served "cheeji" spaghetti. He inquired about how early I could make it in to work ("Uh, I could probably be there in like a half-an-hour") because some of the students were there and had turned in rough drafts of their speeches for me to grade. Mr. Park wanted me to actually make grammatical corrections to every students' speech and return them to the students in time so that they could memorize them with my corrections, which all would have been possible if we had had more than one weekend to do it all before the competition! I told the ajuma to make my cheeji-spaghetti "Take-Out" instead and booked it over to the hakwon to start grading papers before my regularly-scheduled classes.
On Sunday as well, there were papers to be graded and returned.
--------------
On Monday, in our 3rd scheduled classtime, myself, Justin, and Mr. Park descended on the M-GL1 advanced class to give them (and apparently only them) their speaking test. I had already printed out enough of our grading papers, based on 9 criteria for a grand total of 100 points so we three, with those in hand sat at the back of the class and listened to the fours speeches. They were all pretty good and at the end, each student got a prize. Apparently, there were now four top places instead of only three! (50,000won; 30,000won; 10,000won; 5,000won) The children who participated were jubilant.
--------------
On Tuesday, three or four classes were adjourned so that the students could meet on the 5th floor for the larger half of the competition. Nine students would be competing and all of their classmates would be trying to goof around on their handphones or talk to their friends while pretending to be attentive and respectful. Myself, Jon Haase (the new guy), and a new Korean teacher whose name I don't know and whose English abilities I am not aware of, were to be the judges while Mr. Park observed the procedings with a large stick for hitting inattentive students (He didn't want to judge again this time) and Teacher Justin Choi would be the emcee (we had a real microphone hooked up this time and a large green banner proclaiming the Pyeoncheon Seoul Hakwon Speaking Competition in white letters; this banner surprised me more than anything about the competition because while I had believed that no one buy myself was taking the procedings very seriously, apparently Mr. Park had gone out and spent a good deal of money on this banner!)
The students spoke. I timed them. They talked about things like what they would do if they were the president of Korea, what the best method of learning English was, what they thought about racial discrimination, the potential reunification of North and South Korea, and a few other less impressive topics. Most of them were able to keep their speeches within the confines of 3-5 minutes that we had agreed would be ideal beforehand, except for Austin (nickname: "Space-God") who stopped speaking after about 30 seconds and relegated himself to last place in the scoring.
After they were all finished, Justin entertained them with lighthearted antics while myself, the two other graders, and Mr. Park frantically totalled each student's total points and put them in order. The order we democratically arrived at was as follows:
1st) Susan
2nd) Martin
3rd) Yeon Yeo-Yun
4th/5th) TIE: Song-Jae and An Jane.
6th) Su-Hyun
7th) Jung
8th) Lena
9th) Austin (Space-God)
Justin Choi came down from the podium area to review the selections and he and Mr. Park spoke to each other in their native tongue. We waited for our decisions to be announced, but Justin took us aside and said that Mr. Park didn't want Susan to have first place because he had noticed some problems in her speech. Also, he didn't really understand how Song-Jae and An Jane could have tied (if we'd had more judges to tally points from, a tie would have been less likely, but Mr. Park hadn't wanted to vote, although he had in the Monday competition!) Mr. Park had suggested a new winners list that looked like this (changes have been denoted in red):
1st) Martin
2nd) Susan
3rd) Yeon Yeo-Yun
4th) An Jane
5th) Song-Jae
6th) Su Hyun
7th) Jung
8th) Lena
9th) Austin (Space-God)
Jon Haase and myself were shocked. We didn't need Jimmy Carter's election monitoring organization to tell us that these results were dirty. The other Korean teacher didn't care one way or the other, Justin couldn't fathom resisting authority (and ultimately, in Korea, neither could we) so we let it go. There were more prizes awarded than Mr. Park had originally advertised. In fact, everyone except for Space-God received at least 5,000won, but I still felt terrible for the person who was robbed of her 1st place finish by the whims of our boss and Song-jae who had to take the monetarily inferior 5th place when he had received an equal number of points as An Jane (and when she had done a terrible job of translating her speech, using a computer program that rendered it basically incomprehensible in English and would have failed her if I hadn't sat down with her on Sunday at the last minute to try to figure out a better way to express her points paragraph by paragraph.)
Basically, at the end of the day, the 2008 Seoul Hakwon Speech Contest was revealed to be completely corrupt; hard work went unrewarded, the rules changed constantly and randomly, and the democratic and meritocratic method of choosing winners was hideously perverted in favor of deference to the prime authority figure. Sad to say, sometimes all of that feels like business as usual here in Korea.
Mr. Park took some pictures of the contestants for the Hakwon and had me take some, too. Enjoy!
Moment of truth...
Are you ready for the injustice?
Susan, 2nd (1st) Place!
Justin Choi with Martin, the "Winner!"
Our boss, Mr. Park, handing out prizes to Song-Jae and An Jane.
Su-Hyun.
Jong.
Lena.
Justin Choi and Yeon Yeo-Yun.
Song-Jae and An Jane.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Anyang-si Picayune
It's been too long since I've posted anything, so I should give a few updates.
Sports Related Injury
The other night while I was out with some guys from the United Kingdom, all soccer buffs, we got around to kicking one of these:
It got pretty competitive and I kicked too low, hitting the metal bar that attaches the ball to the machine, and now my foot looks like this:
I've been walking like a zombie for a few days.
New Teacher Comes to Hakwon-ga
Our new teacher at the middle school, Jon Haase, is melting. Like they say, "If you can't stand the heat, then get the green pepper out of your mouth!"
A Wedding and a Firing
About a month ago, myself and several people from the hakwon went up to Seoul to attend the wedding of a middle-aged Korean coworker named Tim. I had to work, so I couldn't make it to the wedding in time, but I went to the reception afterwards and out with the new couple that evening. Brian, David, Lyn, Jane, and the bosses Sean and the wife of the hakwon all attended, too and brought gifts.
Sunny and Tim just after getting married!
Sunny, Brian, me, and I don't know the other ladie's name.
Anyways, after his wedding, Tim and his new wife flew to Thailand for a week or so of vacation. The very day he got back into Korea, our hakwon fired him due to student complaints! Most of us, including the boss, Sean, were quite shocked and outraged. Tim returned the gifts that had specifically come from superiors at the hakwon.
Study Bugs:
Taking a very important test is about the only time these kids will sit still enough for picture taking.
This guy is basically a genius, and a baseball fanatic.
That's a genius in the foreground and a crazyman in the background!
Delinquency Men:
After a rainy day, one of my students improvised this to warm/dry his feet!
The students like to set up booby-traps on the classroom doors. They usually involve only one board erasor dropping, but this one was very elaborate.
Sports Related Injury
The other night while I was out with some guys from the United Kingdom, all soccer buffs, we got around to kicking one of these:
It got pretty competitive and I kicked too low, hitting the metal bar that attaches the ball to the machine, and now my foot looks like this:
I've been walking like a zombie for a few days.
New Teacher Comes to Hakwon-ga
Our new teacher at the middle school, Jon Haase, is melting. Like they say, "If you can't stand the heat, then get the green pepper out of your mouth!"
A Wedding and a Firing
About a month ago, myself and several people from the hakwon went up to Seoul to attend the wedding of a middle-aged Korean coworker named Tim. I had to work, so I couldn't make it to the wedding in time, but I went to the reception afterwards and out with the new couple that evening. Brian, David, Lyn, Jane, and the bosses Sean and the wife of the hakwon all attended, too and brought gifts.
Sunny and Tim just after getting married!
Sunny, Brian, me, and I don't know the other ladie's name.
Anyways, after his wedding, Tim and his new wife flew to Thailand for a week or so of vacation. The very day he got back into Korea, our hakwon fired him due to student complaints! Most of us, including the boss, Sean, were quite shocked and outraged. Tim returned the gifts that had specifically come from superiors at the hakwon.
Study Bugs:
Taking a very important test is about the only time these kids will sit still enough for picture taking.
This guy is basically a genius, and a baseball fanatic.
That's a genius in the foreground and a crazyman in the background!
Delinquency Men:
After a rainy day, one of my students improvised this to warm/dry his feet!
The students like to set up booby-traps on the classroom doors. They usually involve only one board erasor dropping, but this one was very elaborate.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
"I Can't Believe Santa Clause!"
I Can't Believe Santa Clause!
by one of my Korean middle-school students, a.k.a the author of such works as "Study Bug and Delinquency Man."
Santa Clause! He is little ones's favorite man. because he gives presents to little ones in Christmas, most of chidren like him. To be sure, I had liked him, too. However, [hate him] don't like that benign, old man no more. Why? It has a clear reason.
When I was a little girl; little, innocent, and pure girl, I went to preschool. Up to that time, I believed existence of Santa Clause. At Christmas, Santa Clause visited my preschool for giving presents. I writed a letter for Santa Clause. After I took the present, I was too delightful so I forgot delivering my letter [with my true heart] to Santa Clause. [Unavoidable] I returned to preschool and then searched Santa Clause. That moment, unfortunately I looked Santa's real things! Santa was smoking. And he was calling to his friend. He said abusive languages [Don't listen to this words] (pure child must not listen to this words!) Added to this, he took off his a spurious beard.
I shocked at his speach and behavior. I became stiffened. After Santa's telephone conversation, he look me in the eye and he open his face, "Damn it! Why are you looking me?"
I dissolved in tears. then runaway from his field of vision. I was muttering and muttering, "I hate Santa! I don't believe him anymore..."
This event is my awful memory about false Santa Clause. Whether or no he is false, I was astonished at that time. Give me back the innocence of a child! [I'm so sorry, I'm too late]
by one of my Korean middle-school students, a.k.a the author of such works as "Study Bug and Delinquency Man."
Santa Clause! He is little ones's favorite man. because he gives presents to little ones in Christmas, most of chidren like him. To be sure, I had liked him, too. However, [hate him] don't like that benign, old man no more. Why? It has a clear reason.
When I was a little girl; little, innocent, and pure girl, I went to preschool. Up to that time, I believed existence of Santa Clause. At Christmas, Santa Clause visited my preschool for giving presents. I writed a letter for Santa Clause. After I took the present, I was too delightful so I forgot delivering my letter [with my true heart] to Santa Clause. [Unavoidable] I returned to preschool and then searched Santa Clause. That moment, unfortunately I looked Santa's real things! Santa was smoking. And he was calling to his friend. He said abusive languages [Don't listen to this words] (pure child must not listen to this words!) Added to this, he took off his a spurious beard.
I shocked at his speach and behavior. I became stiffened. After Santa's telephone conversation, he look me in the eye and he open his face, "Damn it! Why are you looking me?"
I dissolved in tears. then runaway from his field of vision. I was muttering and muttering, "I hate Santa! I don't believe him anymore..."
This event is my awful memory about false Santa Clause. Whether or no he is false, I was astonished at that time. Give me back the innocence of a child! [I'm so sorry, I'm too late]
보 신 탕
Today, after Brian and I arrived at work, but before we had gone out to eat lunch (the order is a little different here and it is perfectly expected that we will take care of some personal business like meals on company time) Teacher Justin forbade me from making my usual trip to the local Pizza Hut that happens to be on our hakwon's street, saying that he wanted to do something special.
I was vaguely aware that Koreans where rumored to eat dog meat before I came here and I decided around that time that if the opportunity arose, I should give the stuff a try. "When in Rome..." has become a kind of mantra since I've been here. At different times, I've talked to the kids about whether or not they have ever tried 보 신 탕 (Bo Shen Tang, a.k.a. "Protect-Body Tonic"...a.k.a.--Dog Meat Soup!) Some say that they have, some say that they haven't. Some say they liked it, others say it was gross. Quite a few, mostly the girls, say that it sounds too gross to try. Demographically speaking, older Korean men seem to enjoy the stuff the most. As with all things offputting to a Westerner, the excuse for eating it is that it is good for your health, stamina, and is a "wellbeing" food.
Anyways, Bo Shen Tang is precisely what our Korean coworker Justin was suggesting that we eat today! I had expressed an interest in it a few weeks ago, and so he did some quick research on it on the internet today, found a restaurant with a good reputation within walking distance, and after taking care of a few office-related things, we grabbed another Korean, Teacher Liz, and set out! Morale was high at this point.
Sadly, Brian's morale would be
considerably lower by the time
the meal was finished...ㅠ.ㅠ
There has been some controversy over eating dogs, aside from the obvious Western objections, because apparently the method of killing the animals isn't (or used to not be) very humane. The dogs are apparently flogged to death with some sort of stick or pole because the Koreans believe that it not only softens the muscles, but also releases adrenaline and related fear-chemicals into the dog's body, which only makes the meat that much more healthy when you eat it...! Although I've heard from one source that this practice is no longer in use, I haven't heard that verified anywhere else, so I had to do some rationalizing to overrule any moral objections I had left. All animals bred to be slaughtered for human consumption are treated terribly. Chickens have their beaks melted so that they aren't pointy and they can't peck at each other; cows are moved through execution plants that have more in common with Auschwitz than most people would care to admit; and dogs are (maybe still) beaten to death fully conscious. Rationalization complete, I was ready to eat!
I had wanted to order just dog-meat steak to eat with vegetables, but the cost was prohibitive. It was a difference between 20,000won and 8,000. At the restaurant, they brought out rice and side dishes first, but moments later, the still bubbling bowls of soup arrived. Excited and conflicted, Brian, Justin, Liz and I posed for several photos before digging in:
Liz has eaten Bo Shen Tang
once before with her father.
Justin had a dog when he was
a kid once for three days before
his family killed and ate it. He
continues to eat, and thoroughly
enjoy, dog meat to this day!
You ready?
Hmm...
Mmh?
MMM!!!!
Slightly disturbing was that
some pieces of meat had large
clumps of fat and pieces of dog
skin were also cooked in the soup.
Admittedly, I ate around all that,
but I ate all of the pieces of meat
that I could find.
In conclusion, the meal was pretty good; the meat was tender, it had a slightly sweet taste from a minty type of leaf that it was cooked with and I probably liked it better than some Korean seafood dishes I've had over here. I wouldn't be opposed to eating it again. Someday, I may still fork over the money and try dog meat steak. Brian tried several bites of it and drank a little bit of the broth, but ultimately he couldn't get past the fact that he was eating a dog. Liz, Justin, and I shared the remainder of his soup. On the way back to the hakwon, Liz asked us not to mention to the kids that she had eaten Bo Shen Tang. She also doesn't want them to know that she's a smoker because some things just aren't considered appropriate for a polite woman over here, so we didn't; but you can bet Brian and I were bragging to the kids plenty today!
I was vaguely aware that Koreans where rumored to eat dog meat before I came here and I decided around that time that if the opportunity arose, I should give the stuff a try. "When in Rome..." has become a kind of mantra since I've been here. At different times, I've talked to the kids about whether or not they have ever tried 보 신 탕 (Bo Shen Tang, a.k.a. "Protect-Body Tonic"...a.k.a.--Dog Meat Soup!) Some say that they have, some say that they haven't. Some say they liked it, others say it was gross. Quite a few, mostly the girls, say that it sounds too gross to try. Demographically speaking, older Korean men seem to enjoy the stuff the most. As with all things offputting to a Westerner, the excuse for eating it is that it is good for your health, stamina, and is a "wellbeing" food.
Anyways, Bo Shen Tang is precisely what our Korean coworker Justin was suggesting that we eat today! I had expressed an interest in it a few weeks ago, and so he did some quick research on it on the internet today, found a restaurant with a good reputation within walking distance, and after taking care of a few office-related things, we grabbed another Korean, Teacher Liz, and set out! Morale was high at this point.
Sadly, Brian's morale would be
considerably lower by the time
the meal was finished...ㅠ.ㅠ
There has been some controversy over eating dogs, aside from the obvious Western objections, because apparently the method of killing the animals isn't (or used to not be) very humane. The dogs are apparently flogged to death with some sort of stick or pole because the Koreans believe that it not only softens the muscles, but also releases adrenaline and related fear-chemicals into the dog's body, which only makes the meat that much more healthy when you eat it...! Although I've heard from one source that this practice is no longer in use, I haven't heard that verified anywhere else, so I had to do some rationalizing to overrule any moral objections I had left. All animals bred to be slaughtered for human consumption are treated terribly. Chickens have their beaks melted so that they aren't pointy and they can't peck at each other; cows are moved through execution plants that have more in common with Auschwitz than most people would care to admit; and dogs are (maybe still) beaten to death fully conscious. Rationalization complete, I was ready to eat!
I had wanted to order just dog-meat steak to eat with vegetables, but the cost was prohibitive. It was a difference between 20,000won and 8,000. At the restaurant, they brought out rice and side dishes first, but moments later, the still bubbling bowls of soup arrived. Excited and conflicted, Brian, Justin, Liz and I posed for several photos before digging in:
Liz has eaten Bo Shen Tang
once before with her father.
Justin had a dog when he was
a kid once for three days before
his family killed and ate it. He
continues to eat, and thoroughly
enjoy, dog meat to this day!
You ready?
Hmm...
Mmh?
MMM!!!!
Slightly disturbing was that
some pieces of meat had large
clumps of fat and pieces of dog
skin were also cooked in the soup.
Admittedly, I ate around all that,
but I ate all of the pieces of meat
that I could find.
In conclusion, the meal was pretty good; the meat was tender, it had a slightly sweet taste from a minty type of leaf that it was cooked with and I probably liked it better than some Korean seafood dishes I've had over here. I wouldn't be opposed to eating it again. Someday, I may still fork over the money and try dog meat steak. Brian tried several bites of it and drank a little bit of the broth, but ultimately he couldn't get past the fact that he was eating a dog. Liz, Justin, and I shared the remainder of his soup. On the way back to the hakwon, Liz asked us not to mention to the kids that she had eaten Bo Shen Tang. She also doesn't want them to know that she's a smoker because some things just aren't considered appropriate for a polite woman over here, so we didn't; but you can bet Brian and I were bragging to the kids plenty today!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
"The Ddakkboki Innovation"
As a $0.50 bribe of one of my middle school classes to get the girls to stay quiet, I proposed offering one randomly selected quiet student "oh bek won" ($0.50) at the end of the class if their name wasn't written on the board for talking. The students all want this money because it's exactly how much Ddakkboki, a popular spicy rice cake snack costs at the street food vendors.
One of the students quickly had her name on the board, although she had a warning or two beforehand. Instead of quietly accepting her ddakkboki-less fate, in between classes she wrote this on the board, lighting the fuse for what had come to be known as the "Ddakkboki Innovation:"
"It's a Ddakkboki Innovation.
The Ddakkboki Innovation is scary.
So I will go Brian's class.
Result will be shown next week.
I'm your father."
She had come to my class from Brian's class a week ago, and now, with the sudden promise of rice cake evaporating before her very eyes, she was threatening to go back! Although thus far it was to be only a one-woman "Innovation," I was still shocked to see such revolutionary zeal all over the chalkboard upon returning to the class.
I told her she probably meant "Revolution," not "Innovation. She asked me what the difference between the two words was and I told her that Revolution suggested a violent reordering of the establishment while Innovation suggested a new improvement over the old way. She thought about that, wrote Revolution on her paper, but ultimately drew a line through the word and changed it back to Innovation because, she said, "This WILL be an improvement!"
Her best friend was threatening to walk out next week with her, but I may have broken the back of the Ddakkboki "Innovation" when, after a tense and somewhat rigged round of Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Moe, it was her best friend who won the 500 won!
We will see the results next week, as she so ominously predicted.
When I returned to the teacher's lounge, there was a Ddakkboki Manifesto intricately folded on my desk. It read as follows:
"To. Jonathan
It will be recorded
'Ddakkboki Innovation began sacrifice of
friends and passions of 500 won.'"
That was all. Next week, we will see if the Revolution succeeds. I will keep you posted, assuming I survive with my neck!
One of the students quickly had her name on the board, although she had a warning or two beforehand. Instead of quietly accepting her ddakkboki-less fate, in between classes she wrote this on the board, lighting the fuse for what had come to be known as the "Ddakkboki Innovation:"
"It's a Ddakkboki Innovation.
The Ddakkboki Innovation is scary.
So I will go Brian's class.
Result will be shown next week.
I'm your father."
She had come to my class from Brian's class a week ago, and now, with the sudden promise of rice cake evaporating before her very eyes, she was threatening to go back! Although thus far it was to be only a one-woman "Innovation," I was still shocked to see such revolutionary zeal all over the chalkboard upon returning to the class.
I told her she probably meant "Revolution," not "Innovation. She asked me what the difference between the two words was and I told her that Revolution suggested a violent reordering of the establishment while Innovation suggested a new improvement over the old way. She thought about that, wrote Revolution on her paper, but ultimately drew a line through the word and changed it back to Innovation because, she said, "This WILL be an improvement!"
Her best friend was threatening to walk out next week with her, but I may have broken the back of the Ddakkboki "Innovation" when, after a tense and somewhat rigged round of Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Moe, it was her best friend who won the 500 won!
We will see the results next week, as she so ominously predicted.
When I returned to the teacher's lounge, there was a Ddakkboki Manifesto intricately folded on my desk. It read as follows:
"To. Jonathan
It will be recorded
'Ddakkboki Innovation began sacrifice of
friends and passions of 500 won.'"
That was all. Next week, we will see if the Revolution succeeds. I will keep you posted, assuming I survive with my neck!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Study Bug and Delinquency Man.
Study Bug and Delinquency Man
by one of my Korean middle-school students.
by Uu Ji Hyoon.
There are many study bugs and delinquency men. In everywhere, "Study Bug" means a person who know only studying and "Delinquency Man" means a depraved man, as you know.
These people have a lot of differences. First, when school lessons, Study Bugs always concentrate their lessons and their hands move in a hurry because of taking notes. But Delinquency Men is different. They never concentrate their lessons and their hands move under the desk because of sending a mobile phone message.
Second, when free time, Study Bugs review lessons or read a book. However, Delinquency Men is justly different. They never review lessons but sometime they read a book, too.
...To be sure, their book is a comic.
Except for these points, Study Bugs and Delinquency Men have many dissimilarity, but they are good friends for certain. These difference is just there characteristics.
by one of my Korean middle-school students.
by Uu Ji Hyoon.
There are many study bugs and delinquency men. In everywhere, "Study Bug" means a person who know only studying and "Delinquency Man" means a depraved man, as you know.
These people have a lot of differences. First, when school lessons, Study Bugs always concentrate their lessons and their hands move in a hurry because of taking notes. But Delinquency Men is different. They never concentrate their lessons and their hands move under the desk because of sending a mobile phone message.
Second, when free time, Study Bugs review lessons or read a book. However, Delinquency Men is justly different. They never review lessons but sometime they read a book, too.
...To be sure, their book is a comic.
Except for these points, Study Bugs and Delinquency Men have many dissimilarity, but they are good friends for certain. These difference is just there characteristics.
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