Teaching: Week 6—Scheduling Nightmare!!!

Because of Chuseok this week, I only had two effective teaching days at the High School, Thursday and Friday. Even these turned out to be a bit of a surprise, however.

On Wednesday night, as I was attempting my blog update for September 26th (given their length, they are feats worthy of the word attempt), I received a call from Chongtae. I only risk mentioning his name regardless of the wrath I may incur from the Powers that Be as I so stupidly did not recognize it as the name of one of the English teachers. This was embarrassing when he called and introduced himself, and I owed him a great apology.

(In general, circumstances have not allowed me to get to know this English teacher. His office is in a different teacher’s lounge than mine, and he is one of the few co-teachers that will allow me to have completely full reign of the classroom, probably because his kids are so advanced. It is unfortunate because we share many common interests, our love for movies and animation for instance, and he is the only teacher who has showed interest in my academic research during my undergraduate years. If you remember the “Hello, Kitty” car post, it was his car that brought me so much levity.)

At any rate, Chongtae invited me to teachers’ Chuseok barbeque out by the teachers’ apartment. One of the other English teachers had graciously opened up his ample supply of meat products, and a few teachers were enjoying these as they cooked and charred over an open fire. This is a rarity in Korea, as most meat products are cooked either in soups or in a pan, so that open fire cooking is seen as “Western” style in some way. The teacher who supplied the meat informed me that he preferred meat cooked over charcoal rather than meat cooked in a pan without the extra smoky flavor. (I cannot believe that smoky is spelled correctly, but Word assures me it is. Heaven help us…)

It was at this barbeque that I casually dropped mention of the fact that there were no classes on Thursday morning (the next day) because of examinations. The other teachers who could understand me looked at me with surprise. “Really?” they asked. “Where did you hear that?” At this point, I begin to worry. My co-teacher had told me that on Thursday morning there would be no classes, I explained. We called her, and she said that she had meant that the next Thursday morning there would be no classes. In fact, I eventually discovered that the next week Monday-Thursday morning I would have no classes to teach at all! Mid-terms would be held Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday morning, and Wednesday was Founding Day, a national holiday in remembrance of Tangun (http://www.lifeinkorea.com/information/tangun.cfm), the mythical ancestor of the Korean people.

At this point, I begin to panic. I had not prepared any class plan for Thursday morning, intending to create that week’s lesson during that time so that it would be ready for the afternoon and Friday. After a quick phone call to a fellow ATE, Glypie G., I was a bit calmer. I asked her if she thought a brief Chuseok dialogue might go over well, and she told me that she thought that’d be ok. Well, if she says it’d be ok, it must be, right? Regardless, it did comfort me. The next morning, I hurriedly typed up a brief English dialogue between a foreigner and Korean explaining what Chuseok is. I then gave this lesson to my 1-1 Class in the afternoon.

The other reason I was worried was because the schedule change meant I would have to announce to my Beginning Adult class that class, which I canceled for this Thursday because of the exams, would also have to be cancelled for next week’s Thursday because I didn’t understand the schedule. I relayed this to them on Friday, at which point they graciously forgave me and offered to take me out to lunch that Thursday instead, to which I agreed without hesitation, though I think I should be taking them out to lunch to be honest.

The new schedule also meant I was faced with the embarrassing situation of telling my Advanced Adult class that there would be no class the next week for them as well despite the fact that we’d already not seen each other for a week and half. Now we’d be at over a full half-month without meeting. If they are paying for these classes, I hope the school will refund a portion of their money. At least their Plato assignment should be well-rehearsed for the week after next…

As for the lessons themselves, they were a bit chaotic. The breakdown was as follows:

Thursday 2-2 and 1-1 both practiced the Chuseok dialogue I had prepared. For a warm-up activity, I had them translate 화장실 어디에 있어요? (Where is the bathroom?) to English. Then, I followed the general lesson format of Jacob, two ATE’s back, who often did dialogues with his students, having them memorize each one by the end of class. (I was able to scrounge up his lessons and advice on the school computer’s hard drive thanks to the file path left by Dana. Thanks, Dana!)

On Friday, I explained to the Beginning Adult class the dilemma I was faced with scheduling, and afterwards we began our lesson from English through Teamwork, the text I’ve decided to work through to make sure everyone is on the same page with their speaking abilities. The first topic was predictably easy with them, but I was able to do some role play to make it fun for them. We practiced name introductions, and I even let one brave soul be the teacher for a while. For the second hour of class, we did the Chuseok dialogue I had prepared for my high school students. This constituted survival English for the day, which I think is appropriate. Being able to describe one’s own culture to inquiring souls is something I wish I could do on a daily basis living with my Korean family.

Friday afternoon I was supposed to have two high school classes, 1-4 and 2-3. I decided to forgo the Chuseok dialogue with 1-4 in favor of playing “Go Fish!” with them, an American card game usually taught to small children. They enjoyed this, and I enjoyed teaching it with my co-teacher as it allowed us to reinforce the “Do you have any ____?” expression. By the end of class, I was able to stop the game, and I had each student come up and ask me (acting as a store clerk) if I had different items. Usually, they asked for simple things like paper and pencil, but a few brave souls asked for things like knives and guns, with which they proceeded to rob me (creative little devils). One even asked for a knife, which I gave him, thanked me, gave me my money, and then stabbed me without taking his money back. Laughter ensued. Another more advanced student asked if I had any cigars and liquor. When I said he was too young, he said, “Oh, I left my I.D. in my car!” Fantastic English, and surprising! I showed everyone in class my driver’s license so they’d understand “I.D.” and told the student, “No I.D., no cigars and liquor.”

But why forgo the Chuseok dialogue? I need to keep lessons with 1-4 fairly active somehow. There is a mentally handicapped student in the class who can become bored and disruptive very easily if he isn’t occupied. For past ATEs, he was removed from the classroom, but I want to avoid this if possible. He has approached me on walks home to practice English and will always say, “Hello” to me, so I know he is anxious to learn. Still, I do not want the rest of the class to suffer from having “dumbed down” lessons. My challenge is to find a way to interest and challenge all with the same lesson at different levels. If I do have to remove him at some point (I hope I will not), I hope that I can still give him some sort of private instruction.

My final class, 2-3, would have done the Chuseok dialogue, however, if it were not for the usual teacher for that class. He requested to take the class from me because of the finals coming up next week. As soon as he requested it, I said to him, “It’s yours,” which got a laugh out of him. It was nice to leave school a little early as I had a bus to catch to Seoul for the weekend.

Now, I just need to figure out something to do for next week… Only two days of classes again. That M.A.S.H. lesson that’s floating around the ATE forums is looking mighty tempting…

Host Mother’s Birthday!

Friday morning, the family celebrated the host mother’s birthday. Unfortunately, I did not make it downstairs in time to sing with them, but I could hear the chorus from the bathroom upstairs, as well as the popping of party streamers. (They use the same Beatles birthday tune that we sing in America, though the words were Koreanized, of course.) In addition to the usual rice and fish soup, we had cake for breakfast. A winning combination, to be sure.

Host Family is Sick!

It turns out that the pink eye, which my host brother contracted from his uncle, has spread to the rest of the children in the family. I was advised to spend as little time as possible in the first floor’s common area. This actually made asking “permission” to go to Seoul this weekend all the easier. When the host father heard that I wanted to visit a friend there and go hiking, he said, “Yes! Go! Everyone’s sick, so get out of the house!” We all laughed at this. Hopefully they will be well again when I return.

(NOTE: About the “permission” – While I don’t actually ask permission to go places, I always try to check if the family is doing anything that they wanted me to attend with them. I don’t want to be rude, after all. They usually aren’t though, so I get my leave and go ashore, so to speak, by which I mean, I get to go to a city where they brew their coffee instead of mixing it from powder and have a beer selection beyond the Miller High Life-like domestic beers and Budweiser.)

Because of the sickness, my collegiate host sister stayed home from school a little past the Chuseok holiday. A bit of a blessing as she speaks at least decent English, and it made relaying my travel plans all the easier.

TKD: I am a Green Belt! Sorta…

I found out Thursday that I earned my green belt in TKD. I was a little worried because, after my rather poor performance on the test, I had never received a belt a no one even tried to tell me about it. I also ended up reviewing the second and third forms with a red-black belt all lesson, so that I thought I might need to test those forms again to advance.

To find out, I essentially walked up to the sabeonim after practice and said, “Noranti iaeyo?” (“Am I a yellow belt?”) He assured me that I had earned green belt, and that he would pass out the belts on Friday. I wouldn’t be there Friday, of course, but the knowledge was enough to assuage my fears.

I think that they must take other things into consideration when awarding belt—perhaps dedication, attitude, and willingness to learn. My performance certainly didn’t mean that I had earned the green belt, so it may be these other things that allowed for my success. In any case, I’ll have to be sure that for the next assessment, when I will attempt to earn a blue belt, there is no reason to doubt my receiving it.

Host Brother is Sick!

An unfortunate result of Chuseok was that, with all the family bonding and sharing of food, my host brother managed to contract pinkeye from one of his uncles. I have been told that I am not allowed to touch him or anything that he has touched. Thus, most of the toys in the house are now off limits, which does not matter at any rate because, more importantly, I have lost my playmate. Tear.*

Chess with Family

During her stay, Lydia H. was able to use her superior Korean skills to determine that my host brother really wants to learn how to play chess. Joy! So, I gave Rebecca H. a call, and she was gracious enough to purchase a chess set and bring it to me at the Hamlet.

I tried teaching my host brother how to play, but it turned out to be rather difficult so that, while I could get the basic moves down for him, he couldn’t necessarily use strategy, and I’m at a point where I have to think pretty hard to make it an even match between us. Luckily, his collegiate sister also developed an interest, and it wasn’t so bad playing against her. By now, host father also plays with great interest, and he has promised to teach me paduk (also known as go) in exchange. (For those who don’t know the game by either name, it’s in the movie “A Beautiful Mind”; it’s the game they play in the courtyard at Princeton (?). If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the movie. It’s well worth the viewing. Or go to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paduk.)

Video Games with Host Brother

One thing I learned about my host brother during Chuseok is that he’s absolutely crazy about video games. I suppose I should’ve realized this earlier. He is eight after all. Anyway, at the grandparents house, he was playing them like crazy with his cousins.

So, I finally broke down and showed him that I have an emulator on my computer with all of the Mario Bros. games. Let the chaos ensue. At any rate, he loves them, but I’m only let him play when I can supervise him. I worry about him breaking my rather expensive little Freya, who already probably needs a maintenance check, which is going to be hard to obtain in Korea. The country does not really cater to Macs.

Chuseok Festivities

And now, finally, we come to a description of what has kept me out of contact for so long: Chuseok. Chuseok is essentially a day in which Korean’s honor their ancestors by visiting their graves, presenting food, and bowing. This is mostly done for direct ancestor of the eldest patriarch (in most cases a great-grandfather), though in a Confucian hierarchy, other people besides this person may be honored. Koreans celebrate it on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, which fell on September 25th this year. This is also around the time of the rice harvest, and this fact combined with the fact that families consume a lot of food around this time lead Korean’s to translate this holiday as “Thanksgiving Day.” Unlike American Thanksgiving, though, Chuseok is apparently the biggest Korean holiday of the year, according to KBS Global (http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/zoom/1480466_11781.html).

Since the day’s surrounding the holiday are also national legal holidays, I did not have school on Monday through Wednesday. Instead, I spent time with the family which involved a lot of tomb visiting, eating, and sitting around watching television, though at one point, I did go fishing with a few of the children and one uncle. This largely involved the uncle using a small net trap to catch very small fish which we then released, while the children and I skipped stones. They were impressed with my abilities, though to be honest, I was surprised at them. How I got 11 skips out of one rock I’ll never know. I never used to be able to do even four!

One child in particular was a joy to meet. Her name is Nara, and she is actually a student at one of my fellow Entertaining Teachers from America’s schools, Stacey C. Unfortunately, she cannot take classes with Stacey because Stacey only teaches the lower grades and she is in the higher grades. At any rate, Nara (whose English name is Annika—some folks from Soul Purpose should appreciate that) speaks surprisingly good English for a student her age. She’s only 12 years old, Korean age, but already she can talk to me about literature. Granted, our conversation revolved mostly around Harry Potter, but her facility with the language was still impressive, and I’m sure she’ll probably do well in the Korean school system where knowledge of English language is the largest obstacle to advancement.

The first tomb visit, to the patriarch’s tomb, was fairly traditional from what I understand. There was food in front of the grassy mound that constituted the grave. The family members bowed in order of their rank from highest to lowest, getting on their knees, placing their hands in front of them horizontally so that they touched at the finger tips, and then lowering their foreheads to their hands. They performed this ritual twice. Then all (including me) helped eat the food given to the ancestors. (I am reminded of Peter’s and Paul’s discussions in Acts about whether certain foods are clean or unclean. I suppose I must take solace in the words of Christ that it is not what enters the body which is unclean, but that which comes out of it.) Then, my host father and one of his brother’s performed a smaller, but similar ritual for their great-grandmother, who apparently no one else was required to honor. It is also interesting that none of my host aunts nor my host mother accompanied us to the tomb. Also, only the eldest female daughter from each family came with us, while all of the sons were required to come.

After this, the grandmother gave out presents of socks to everyone, once again including me. They are my first pair of argyles, actually, and are quite comfortable. This is apparently a traditional Chuseok gift, or at least a common one, as many of my friends from the Program also received them.

Later on in the day we visited my host mother’s family tomb, this only with my nuclear host family, the others having gone back to Wonju. Her family tomb was quite a bit farther off the beaten path, and we had to walk through a couple of buckwheat fields to reach it. What was interesting here was that, though we presented food (a meager portion, but still an offering), instead of doing the traditional bowing, the family knelt and my youngest host sister prayed to Hananim, the Korean name for God. I think this was just a general prayer of thanks, like we would perform in America around our Thanksgiving. Whereas with the other service I had stood to the side and watched, I felt it would be appropriate for me to pray with the family now. And so, I listened politely until the prayer finished (as I do every Sunday for service), and said the “Amen” with them at the end.

Besides visiting family tombs, another Chuseok tradition is to offer a prayer to the moon. It is a tradition that if one offers a prayer to the full-moon, that prayer will come true. My family, however, just sat on the roof and looked up at it. Perhaps they offered a prayer, but if they did, it was silently. They did sing a traditional Chuseok song about the moon, and they were able to tell me about the image that Koreans see in the moon’s oceans. Whereas we see a face in the west, they see a rabbit at a ddeok (rice cake) churner with a frog hopping out from behind it. It’s a complex picture, and you have to use your imagination, but eventually you can see it. Kinda… (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Man_In_The_Moon.jpeg/300px-Man_In_The_Moon.jpeg)

Overall, a good experience. If you’re lucky enough to visit Korea, I hope you’ll be lucky enough to have it. The homestay has really been a blessing in allowing me to participate in these usually more private family cultural events.

Dinner with Pastor’s family and tutoring

Because of Rebecca H.’s visit on Sunday, H.W. and I decided to postpone my tutoring lesson until Monday evening when I’d be at her father’s house anyway because her mother had invited me over for dinner. Rebecca cautioned me about this. It could be that the mother is trying to set me up with her daughter, but we both agreed that’d be a little weird by Korean standards. For one thing, she’s older than me and more degreed than me, usually a no-no in the Korean dating culture. For another thing, she’s taller than me. This is mostly a no-no even in American culture, though there are always exceptions to the height “rule”, and I’ve had to make them with every girl I’ve dated save two.

However, given that all of the extended family has lived in America for about 30 years and given that H.W. wants to study 18th Century Western Music at a grad school in the states, I think it’s wise to keep my guard up.

Dinner was largely uneventful. It was shared between the Pastor, an elder, H.W. and I. (The mother stayed in the kitchen for some—undoubtedly Confucian holdover-like—reason.) I spoke a tiny bit of Korean. Even they spoke very little in any language. Monday is usually the pastor’s day off, and he was quite tired from Sunday’s services.

After the dinner we all shared some coffee and H.W. and I went into the “pastor’s study to study” (H.W.’s words). I actually learned a few phrases that turned out to be quite useful in my upcoming visit to Seoul, such as “I came by ____insert mode of transportation____,” and “Transfer to ____destination____.”

Friends Visit – Sunday: Lydia returns to Seoul and a Day with Rebecca

Sunday was fairly uneventful, but seeing as Saturday was so eventful, I didn’t mind so much. Lydia headed out fairly early to catch her bus to Seoul. Rebecca came to church with my host family and me and met my friend/tutor H.W. The whole experience lifted my spirits a bit as for a lot of the morning I had to translate for Rebecca. I did this poorly of course, but it made me realize that I was in fact learning Korean at a bit of an accelerated rate considering I’m not taking classes.

We ate lunch at the church and decided to pass on the afternoon service, opting to walk home through the traveling market instead. The host family, who usually stays home on Sundays, decided to keep the shop open because of the Chuseok holiday, which gave Rebecca and I some quiet time to just talk about our homestays and school and life since orientation in general. There is some concern about her adjustment here. She was a Chinese literature and language major in college (she’s quite proficient, and perhaps borderline fluent), and I think she would have been much happier spending the year there. The problem is that she wants to work with an NGO in rural China, but doesn’t have enough money to begin paying off her student loans. I guess she figured Korea would be close enough for now, but I think she’s finding that Korea is worlds away from China culturally speaking. She’s hoping to go to China for a conference in November over American Thanksgiving. I tried to encourage her as best I could, but I fear that it may not have been enough. She is a wonderful person who has a great outer strength, but I do worry about her sometimes.

I cooked some dinner for us (by which I mean I warmed up whatever was on the stove), and eventually the family came over… with the extended family as well. It was at this point, I believe that I was told by one of the uncles that I look like Russell Crowe. (YES!) I always wanted to look ruggedly handsome and like I had just gotten out of a fight. I think what he meant was that I have a small, flattish nose and can grow a beard, but I’ll take it!

Rebecca and I talked and watched T.V. with the family until it was time to sleep. The next day, Monday the twenty-fourth, the host family drove Rebecca and I to the bus terminal where we waited for her bus. I only put so much emphasis on the date as a way of apology. I forgot that Monday was her birthday and was a bit of a prick therefore in not wishing her a happy one.