The South Korea Survival Guide

"Sara, do you have indoor plumbing in South Korea?” “Isn’t it really hot out there all the time?” It’s amazing what some people still don’t seem to understand about South Korea. After reminding my friends back home that Korea is not in Southeast Asia, they have Samsung phones and their parents drive KIAs, I started to wonder more about what people think. A great many of them pictured me as a kind of survivor in a mysterious land, where I have always felt that South Korea has been very welcoming and comfortable. However, it is still a different culture, and I do feel that I’ve had to adjust. While there are no wild animals to fend off, dangerous treks across minefields or a need to survive alone in the wilderness for weeks with limited supplies, there are still a number of strategies to employ in “surviving” South Korean culture today as a foreigner.

Essential Skills

The first key to successfully making it through your sojourn in South Korea is by obtaining and mastering a specific set of daily life skills. Some of these may come to you naturally, but some take practice.

1. Body language

This is the true language of the world. In my first month in Korea, it took me a few weeks to work up the courage to eat out or go shopping alone because I didn’t know how to speak the language. The day I successfully pointed out side dishes to be bagged and weighed from the grocery store counter instead of just opening another can of spicy tuna for breakfast was a milestone event; one that required no talking. Now, in my second year, with a moderate grasp of the language, I have still found that gestures often trump spoken language. The value of body language is also what will keep us from being replaced by English-speaking robots, so use it wisely.

2. Balance

Not all of us are men, and not all the toilets are meant to be sat upon. The rest I leave up to you.

2. Patience

There will be moments when you are asked to attend a meeting or a lunch, and it may seem as though you are forgotten. Chances are you haven’t been forgotten, it’s just that your co-workers feel more comfortable speaking Korean and are happy to see you actively there among them. Take this time to practice meditation.

4. Willpower

Maybe you like very fresh seafood, or perhaps you want a little less intimacy with your food. Whether it be chewing a still-wriggling squid, roasting pig intestines, or pulling tender meat off a hunk of spine, a lot of the food encounters require a little acclimation. I once was asked to point to the fish I wanted, then watch it be scooped from the tank and butchered up for me to eat raw. Two years ago I may have turned up my nose at a fish with bones still left in it.

5. Chopsticks

They’re flat and heavy, but you don’t want to be the only one at the table using a spoon. Embrace the chopsticks. The goal is to be among children and their parents, and seeing the parent point at you, the foreigner with the cutlery skills of a yangban aristocrat, and scold their child. Chopsticks are not without advantages. They are very useful for twirling noodles, picking apart fish or slicing through that extra large leaf of kimchi (using two hands), or skewering fruit. They are also perfect for stirring coffee.

6. Singing

It’s better to sing into a microphone with increased reverberation effect in a small room than into an empty soju bottle a cappella in front of fifty teachers. I’ve done both, and I strongly recommend you consent to the former before being hauled up without time to protest to the later. Maybe you can’t sing. As long as it’s in English, you can sing fine. I’m not sure if you’ve heard Korean “trot” pop music, but there should be nothing frightening you away from singing here. Also, it’s worth noting that you should always pick your own song. If you don’t be prepared to sing the most obscure song you’ve never heard of. I keep an emergency “noraebang song list” saved on my cell phone.

7. Sharing

Some of the best foods in Korea are large dishes meant for sharing. And, unless you plan to eat pork cutlet and fusion spaghetti whenever you eat out, you may need to grab some friends if you plan to eat Korean food. Make your mother proud; she’s been training you to share since you were an infant. I’m not ashamed to admit this, but I have relied on sharing in the past to avoid the things I’d rather not eat mixed in with the rest of the dish; to help adjust to the food. It’s natural, healthy, and recommended that you share your meals so you can continue to build your relationships with others.

Blending in

It’s hard not to stand out in Korea as a foreigner. This does come with a bit of excitement; sometimes feeling like a celebrity, with parents dragging their kids up to say “hello” to you. While living here though, you will most likely want to convince people that you’re not actually a tourist. For most of us it’s impossible to fully blend in without cosmetic surgery, but there are a few ways to clue others in that we live here.

1. Two hands

It’s polite to offer and accept things with two hands, from drinks to money. Although most Koreans will forgive a foreigner for forgetting this, you’ll notice that they almost always appropriate this respectful custom to you. It’s courteous to remember to do the same, both with those familiar to you and strangers. The same goes for bowing; hand-over-hand locked at the thumbs for a highly respectable bow, or even just a brief nod of the head.

2. Order food at hofs

It’s a foreign concept for most westerners to order food at a bar. Whereas in Korea, you sit down at a table and are handed a list of anju, a kind of appetizer list, along with the drink list. When I was new in town, my friends and I thought the whole food thing was mostly optional. This was until I realized it had some adverse effects on our reputation. Even drinking moderately, the people around you may start to worry you are an alcoholic.

3. Bring a toothbrush to work

I once told my students that it was funny for me, when I first came, to see a line of teachers waiting at the sink after lunch. My students replied, “Are Americans dirty?” It’s a good idea to be seen in the toothbrush line.

4. Hiking apparel

For those who really want to look the part. As soon as you start hiking up a mountain in your T-shirt and jeans, you’ll start to feel a little unprepared. Not that I’m ready to trade in my jeans for colorful spandex just yet, but I do confess to buying a name-brand hiking backpack.

Resources

Everyone embarking on survival in a foreign land needs to draw upon their resources. Outside of your EPIK coordinators, tourism offices and embassies, there are many more local options.

1. Co teacher

This is your first local friend; the first person who will help you familiarize yourself with your town and your students. Also, they are probably the only person who will see you properly to the hospital when you fear a miscommunication with your doctors. Your co teacher is also a potential source of homemade kimchi, or sweet potatoes in the morning when they predict, usually correctly, that you have again neglected to eat breakfast.

2. That old woman on your street

She might be collecting your packages for you. She might usher you into her home to eat fresh peaches and shikhye on a hot summer day. Don’t shy away from the opportunity to greet your neighbors.

3. Students

If you ever find yourself in doubt about what to teach, ask your students. My students are my endless source of information about pop culture, fashion, and how to connect to their age group.

4. Face masks and kimchi

You may never need to go to the hospital again.

5. Friends

There is a need to talk once in awhile, when we train ourselves to talk slowly and maintain a long vigil of silence in formal business settings. It’s imperative to make some friends you can talk to rapidly and relax with- especially at your experience level. It’s fun to explore with friends without being led around. Also, don’t forget to make Korean friends. As much as I love my friends from America, many of them probably think the best chicken place is the first one they walked into. Korean friends have a broader range of insight, and also are the best way to fully get in touch with the culture.

6. Saunas and jjimjilbangs

Our bathrooms are small and space-efficient, but sometimes it’s nice to relax in a big bathtub. Plus, there's no better way to start feeling comfortable around a bunch of strangers than finding yourself disrobed among them; it’s perfectly natural and they don’t judge you. The jjimjilbang also offers a locker and a cheap place to sleep when you don’t want to put up money for a hotel or motel.

Status Boosts

Not all aspects of survival are hinged on basic necessity. If you really want to be an active, thriving member of Korean culture, there are certain ways to gain an immediate boost in renown and acceptance.

1. Cell phone

Your cell phone is a big deal. My first year, I opted for the plain free phone because it was still far cooler than the one I had in America. But fate dealt me a new hand when my phone fell out of my pocket into the toilet of a public restroom. True story- that happened. My second choice was heavily influenced by the phone’s theme song I heard on TV every day, and it didn’t take me long to realize that I now possessed the same phone as a good number of my students (much to their delight). Every time my phone was sighted, it provided the perfect motivation for English conversation, and gave me an edge in popularity.

2. KPOP knowledge

I was reluctant at first, but once I finally committed some band names and song catch phrases to memory, it did wonders for my rapport with students. Mostly, they don’t expect you to know KPOP. This is an advantage. The shocked gasps when you can sing a few words or say definitively that “yeah, he’s so handsome!” then you cease to be such a stranger among your students. And any time you can refer to a popular song or singer in your lessons, it grabs their attention.

3. Cyworld

South Korea’s primary online social network. It’s so exclusive, that even the members have trouble trying to figure out how to make you an account. But once you’re in, you have achieved a very respectable status among young Koreans.

4. Immersion into a cultural tradition

You don’t need to dedicate yourself to the studies of Confucius, but it always earns a little bit of extra respect to actively engage in something cultural. I chose to start learning Hapkido, and some of my friends have taken Taekwondo, traditional painting classes, and learned to play the ajaeng, a traditional wooden string instrument. Maybe could just be really good at Yootnori, but it’s definitely worth your while to take up a Korean hobby.

5. Basic language

A lot of people are afraid to talk to you. Although basic English and body language can get you through most encounters, even a small knowledge of the language will help people warm to you. Especially reading Korea’s alphabet, Hangul. Once my fellow teachers learned I could read Korean, it was a kind of entertainment for awhile to point to things and have me read them. It also goes a long way in motivating Koreans to speak your language if you show them you are trying to learn some of theirs.

6. A plant

You may not want to be the only teacher in the school without a plant on their desk. It’s aesthetically pleasing and will draw out some approving nods from the other faculty.

7. Billiards

Four balls and no pockets. If you can learn and show off your prowess with four ball billiards, you may quickly gain a few new friends. The same goes for bowling, tennis, and volleyball. Any interest or ability in sports gives you a connection and something to do with other members of your school faculty; especially drawing out the ones who have limited English ability.

8. Foot volleyball

I used to think the tennis courts near my house were just marked incorrectly, until I finally watched people using them. It’s played in teams, kicking the ball or hitting it with your head. Like other more common sports, this is a great way to spend time with other people and pick up a new curious skill. I’ve been in a few of the smallest farm towns in South Korea that still had a foot volleyball court. To be sure, I’ve never met another foreigner to know about this game, so you can imagine how exciting it would be if you were to participate.

I no longer view South Korea as such a foreign place, and I’m not just here to pass through. I have not only survived, but I have adapted. While you may not be intending to spend a lifetime here, it still is important to accustom yourself during your stay; show the people here that you can learn from them as much as they can from you. You don’t want to be holed up in your apartment clinging to your computer and counting your days to return home. Surviving South Korea quite simply comes down to figuring out what you can do to enjoy yourself the most during your time here.

Transitions

Right before I left for America, I cleaned out my office, organized the English classroom, said goodbye to my classes, and made a farewell speech to the entire faculty. When I returned I was to make the switch from Gilju Elementary to Sung Hee Girl's High School, and was under the instruction from Taebun to head over there as soon as I returned. I shouldn't have been surprised then, when at noon the day before I was to go to my new school, I got a call from the Education Center supervisor and was told to return to Gilju for one month.

It made sense with my contract, which went from March 25-March 25, but we were all told months ago that because of the influx of people applying for EPIK, the late March orientation would be removed and all new teachers would come in February. Thus, Gilju was supposed to have a new teacher when I returned, and I could start at the beginning of the school year at my new school instead of a month into it. The supervisor explained that the move was probably now impossible because Gilju didn't get a teacher and they would expect me to return. She then called both of my schools to reverse all of the transition arrangements.

Thus, I returned to Gilju for the duration of this month, and everyone including the principal was confused as to why I was back. At first, between the jet lag and the confusion, I was really frustrated by this. Because teachers in Korean schools must change positions or schools every couple of years, I would have to adjust to an entire new staff of teachers (excepting Mrs. Shim who stayed on with 5th grade English) and confuse the students when I suddenly return for the new school year and am replaced by a new teacher in a month.

However!

Korea is Dynamic, and these inconveniences are both minor and irreversible anyway. After I let it soak in for a day, I found it relieving to come back. Gilju is comfortable for me, rather than jumping into an entirely new environment as soon as I returned. I know the classes, and I get to share my knowledge with the new Korean English teachers and help them adjust to co-teaching with someone who knows the ropes. I now also have more opportunities for advance communication with Sung Hee, which was difficult before because of their own faculty changing and my being in America. I'm also their first foreign teacher, so I think they aren't quite sure what to do with me yet. I've met some of the faculty twice so far, and I'm really excited because it seems like everyone is such a perfect fit to my personality.

There's also Yena. This year, Elementary English education added 2 hours a week for 3rd and 4th grade, which originally had been just 1 hour. Therefore, there are two new teachers for 3rd and 4th grade English, where last year Mrs. Im had done both. I've had a stroke of amazing good fortune as a result of my return and the reworking of the system, because the new 3rd grade English teacher is a kindred spirit. I'd not gotten close to many Koreans in the last year, because most of those that I knew were married with children. Yena, however, is exactly my age with the same college degree (English Literature) and has a passion for world travel, having done both mission trips and internships abroad. She also now lives only a few blocks away. When we first met and she asked me if she could find mozzarella cheese anywhere in Andong (not a chance), I knew we were destined to be friends forever.

What I had originally thought to be so inconvenient has turned out to be a complete blessing for my entire new year here.

Andong also recently has acquired a new set of Native Teachers, bringing our EPIK number up to 24. We can also now claim to be a multicultural set of EPIK foreigners, as we have added a pair of Canadians and a South African to our American mix. We are so progressive.

Because of our bigger number, we have formed groups for Elementary, Middle School, and High school teachers so we can keep ourselves organized and supported. Bonnie and I have taken up the chairwomen roles for the High School group, with Scott and Katie on Elementary, and Helen and Erin on Middle School. Andrew was appointed supreme leader by the supervisor because he still has seniority as being the first in Andong. My how our numbers have jumped in under 2 years.

Now that I'm aware of my ever-changing current schedule, I will return to my blog posts about the Southeast Asia trip. We did, in fact, make it past Ho Chi Minh.

Back in Korea

I'm back from Southeast Asia! With all my pictures now sorted through (over 10 gigs...it took a bit of time) I'll be posting on Vietnam tomorrow, followed by Cambodia and then Thailand.

As for this week (yes, guilty, I've been back since Monday), I made it through my last English camp in Elementary school. I'd say it was bittersweet, but I'm also glad it's over. Unlike the others, where the gender spread was equal and the student count was about 8-10, this week I was gifted with 11 extremely energetic boys and 2 shy girls from the 4th grade.

Like the other two English camps I had at my school this winter, I was alone without a co-teacher. Usually I find the freedom kind of liberating from the routine of the school year, so I don't mind being completely in charge. In this case, teaching was near impossible when the boys refused to go near the girls for circle or team work, and wanted to spend most of the time swiping mop handles from the supply closet and having sword fights.

Even though it was tempting to play movies all week, I resisted (limiting it to one- Home Alone, a popular choice for little boys) and added more race and guessing games to tire them out. Using newly taught vocabulary and words they already knew, a popular game was one where two students faced off with a bell between them. With hands on their heads and backs to the TV screen, I showed the other students pictures to act out, and the opposing students had to hit the bell and say the correct vocab word. I put the girls on separate teams so they could pair up in the face of time-consuming opposition from the boys. Another variation was to use the same team and bell format, but show them scrambled vocabulary words (after, as a warm up for the day, giving them a word worksheet so they were familiar with scrambled words). In this case their teammates weren't acting, they could look at the TV screen this time, it was just a race between the two students to figure out the answer first.

Another invaluable activity I found was Highlights (the magazine for kids) hidden pictures. The kind where a bunch of little pictures are hidden in a big one, with a picture and word key at the bottom. After a search online I found plenty of places to print them out. A great way to get them to speak in English without noticing (because in looking for the pictures they would say the English words when talking to their friends). Very fun and surprisingly challenging. Meanwhile, I could covertly hide the mops.

Now I can rest. I really will miss all those kids, no matter how difficult they are.

Abducted by the Landlord

A few days ago I came home to find our landlord (probably in his late 60's) shoveling out the apartment parking lot with his wife. As with most of our run-ins, he spoke in very rapid Korean for a good 2 minutes. He can't speak a word of English, not even "hello." My approach is always to nod and say 네 ("nay" which is like saying "yes" or an affirmation) until I caught the words 오리 ("ouri" meaning "we") and 가치 ("ga-chi" which means together). Oh no. I tried to catch where, when, or what he was trying to tell me. He motioned to his mouth, which I took to be eating, then he smiled, nodded, and waved me upstairs. I fled upstairs with the assumption that sometime we bay get together for dinner.

OK.

Scott was home before me and had a similar experience. About 15 minutes later our landlord knocks on our door and launches into the same speech as before. after 5 minutes we realized he had no intention of leaving. He made a driving motion with his hands, and waved us out the door.

We aren't completely hopeless at Korean, but when it comes at us so rapidly in a random scenario we have very little to latch on to. Between the two of us, these are the words (the English translation) that we had figured out:

apartment
English language speaking
room 201
two students
private academy (hagwon)
high school
mother (room 201 mother)
Gilju Elementary school
Gilju Elementary school teacher (I gathered he was referring to me there)
we will go to Andong hospital together
my car
nearby
today

We did get into his car, not knowing what else to do. I felt like a detective fed random clues without a big picture. All we knew definitively was that we were going to Andong hospital, but we didn't know why. I had a few theories, based on the current evidence:

A. The mother of two high school students were formerly students at Gilju Elementary school.

B. Someone who speaks English moved into room 201, but they were now in the hospital and needed someone to talk to.

C. Since we've been sick all week, the tennents of room 201 feel we need to go to the hospital. Perhaps they found out because one of their students said their English teacher (me) at the Gilju camp was sneezing and having trouble speaking.

D. Let's see how far we can take to foreign tenants before they start freaking out.

After a few failed phone calls to get assistance, I finally got ahold of Taebun and handed the phone over to our landlord just as we pulled up in front of the pharmacy next to the big Andong Hospital. Ahah! We missed the words "nearby" the hospital and "pharmacy" in the midst of his fast talking.

The landlord talked to Taebun for awhile then handed the phone back, and even Taebun is confused. He says "remember I told you about the two high school students living in room 201?" No. He must have forgotten that one. What are two high school kids doing living alone in our building anyway? "The ones that want to speak English with you." He left that out too. "I don't really know, but I think this is an arranged meeting to start English lessons. Their mother works at this pharmacy." Oh dear. "You know, talking is fine, but you can't take any money." That I did know, because any outside work or tutoring is a violation of our contract. So that makes this whole situation a bit difficult.

When the landlord was mentioning the Gilju Elementary teacher, he was referring to Taebun and not me, because apparently he thought this whole thing was pre-planned and discussed. But when the mother of the two high school students sits down with us and tells us that she is the one who wants English tutoring, and 3 days a week, I realized that this isn't just a Korean to English translation mix-up, this is also a lack of Korean communication.

All the while at the pharmacy when this was being worked out with the mother, our landlord sat silently in a chair, arms crossed, leaning back and looking down at us from his upturned head; much akin to a mafia don. He did, after all, take us to a small location far from home to meet with a drug dealer (pharmacist). It all started to feel like shady English dealing under the table.

So we were stuck in the arranged meeting, which already assumed our acceptance and was for the sole purpose of arranging the dates and times. It was clear we couldn't go home until a bargain was made and phone numbers were exchanged. We told her we couldn't accept any of her money, but if she wanted to meet up with us once or twice a week to practice English conversation over a cup of coffee then that would be OK. We can be her English friends, not her English tutors. At least we postponed it until after we get back from America in March, so we'll see how it goes.

My Schedule

Now might be a good time to talk a bit more about my schedule lately.

A few of the things I mention are in an article Bonnie (another fellow teacher and friend) and I wrote for Andong in the EPIK Newsletter. You can find it here (click on "Gyeongbuk" and Scroll down to "Andong Teacher's Give Back"):
http://epik.go.kr/boardnews/detail.epik?num=11
Unfortunately, they forgot to put Bonnie's name on the article, so it only has my name listed. She wrote the first part about the teacher's class, and I wrote about Korean class and martial arts.

Outside of school, which I'm at from 8:40-4:40, I have acquired a very active schedule in the evenings. Here is the breakdown:

Hapkido: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

(Above photo by Andrew, with Helen in the background and our Hapkido master on the left. Usually everyone's in uniform, but this was from a pretty laid back, small class day.)

Depending on what other things I have going on, I go from 6:45-7:45 or 8-9. It costs us 80,000 won a month (around $75). Scott and I joined up soon after our friends Andrew and Helen mentioned going about two months ago, though Andrew's knee incident put him on a month long hiatus. Hapkido is a form of martial arts that is sometimes referred to as kickboxing, developed in Korea (although they're most well known for Taekwondo). I love it, and it fills the empty hole that horseback riding filled in my weekly exercise routine. It's helping a lot more with my flexibility, which is nice after spending the second half of school cramped in a chair.


Our Hapkido studio is about a 10 minute bus ride from our home, and although we learned later there was one near my school, we wouldn't dream of switching. Not that it wouldn't be fun to spar with my students, but I would hate for a 4th grader to take me down. Plus, our Hapkido master is quite possibly one of the friendliest people in the country. He doesn't speak very much English, but it doesn't make a difference. As with most things in the country, we understand through body language, and this is the best example of that. We mimic him, and when we misunderstand a certain kick or take down move, he steps in and holds our leg or arm in the proper position, or shows us exactly which pressure point or sensitive area or the arm or leg we are aiming for. No further explanation needed. Ouch. A lot of the things that we do are in a line (rolls, flips, pad kicks, etc), so as long as we don't start, it's pretty easy to pick up on.

Poker: Wednesday, 8:30-12am.

Another hobby I picked up since I've been in Korea is poker. Ironic, considering how it's illegal for Koreans to gamble and I should choose to learn how to do it in their country. (picture taken on my phone- a bit blurry and dark)

After Hapkido we all meet up downtown and head to Andrew's apartment. He has a little side room, like a sun room with wall-sized windows, which is the perfect size for a table and chairs. We call our poker game "The Golden Pig" because we have a sparkly golden piggy bank that we all throw a 500 won coin into before each game. If anyone gets a royal flush, they win the pig. We don't have a backup plan for it when that inevitably never happens.

The usual group is Me, Scott (whose arm is pictured dealing), Andrew (on the right), Dave (on the left), and Helen (between them), although Alice and Katie come by sometimes if they don't go to their Taekwondo class. Katie is dangerous. We play with a 10,000 won buy in, winner takes all except second place, who gets their money back. Katie has never failed to get first or second whenever she comes. It's amazing. Recently we have picked up another two maybe-regulars, Miz, an Aussie from a nearby small down that scooters in to Andong, and Andre, another EPIKer from the September group with Helen. It's great to look forward to something in the middle of the week and be able to wind down and reconnect with my friends if I get too busy to see them otherwise.

Teacher's Class: Mondays at 6:15, once a month.


A big group of the EPIK teachers got together to teach a volunteer class on rotation every week, Monday and Wednesday. It turned out that so many people responded to help teach the class, that Scott and I only do it once every four weeks on Mondays. Because the classes change teachers every week, we took to using the schedule for "Survival English" on bogglesworldesl.com. It is very well planned, and we could use similar handouts and easily review the prior lessons to keep the whole class from falling into disorganized chaos.


Korean Class: Tuesday, 6:30-8:30


We tried a Korean class during the spring semester, but it wasn't a conversation class; there were about 8 Korean instructors to sit down with us and go over a textbook, but essentially no structure and a little tedious. Although it did give me practice in writing characters and their sounds, which has been invaluable. This new class has been much better suited to my personal learning style, with one instructor who talks with us. He asks us questions and we learn how to give answers based on our personal lives. What we learn is more from the impulse of the moment, which is fantastic.

Therefore, I leave every morning at 8:15 and get home at 7:45 on Monday (unless we teach the class, then 9), 9 on Tuesday, midnight on Wednesday, 5 on Thursday, and 7:45 on Friday. It's been harder for Scott, who teaches a 2 hour class after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays in addition to everything else.

In the rest of my free time I am constantly reading on my Kindle (I stopped biking so I could allocate the 20 minute walk to work each morning as reading time, in case I don't have time later on), hanging out with Scott and Po, playing some WoW here and there, or keeping up with my social life. Sometimes we'll meet up with our friends after Hapkido during the week, or since Thursday is the only day left unscheduled, we'll nominate that as a movie night (when a good English film comes through. Good meaning above 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, because we cant' be too picky).

All of it's fun and optional, of course, but sometimes I'm left feeling a little drained from it all. Monday morning always feels a little bit daunting.

Happy 빼빼로 Day!

Whoever thinks Valentine's Day is a holiday dominated by Hallmark and candy companies has never encountered 빼빼로 (Pepero) Day. It's named after a single brand of chocolate-coated biscuit sticks produced by the Lotte candy company, and on November 11 (11/11) because the date looks like the sticks. Nothing beats this kind of marketing.

Its nationally recognized too, and every grocery store and stationary shop has a big display devoted to Pepero. I went into one of my favorite stationary stores for a pencil case, and half the stock had been moved or put away so that the length of the store was covered in different styles of Pepero, as well as cards, bags and baskets, and decorating materials for dressing them up as gifts.

The idea is that couples will buy Pepero sticks for each other, but it's also turned into a gift giving day for friends and teachers too. Before each of my lessons today, I asked my students "What did you do yesterday?" (because we're learning several expressions using past tense), and in every class they were shouting "Pepero! buy/bought Pepero!" Do I think Lotte's an evil corporation turning children into consumer slaves? No. I'm not that melodramatic. The whole concept is actually pretty fun. I mean, you can get about 4 boxes for the equivilant of $1, less if you choose to give larger individual Pepero sticks.

It's mostly just the energetic spirit of giving, and as holidays go, this is by far the cheapest and most random. It also worked very well for English class, because shy students were given a catalyst to come up and speak to me personally using some simple English phrases ("Here you are," "This is for you!"). Adorable. It was a very good day to be a teacher. I think I shall be happily munching these sticks for a long time.

Kilju English Camp

I have made it to summer vacation.

The final stretch was English camp at my school this past week, which had me a little worried at first. Not only would my mother arrive in the country the weekend before so I'd have to prepare early, but I would have to plan to teach a mix of third and fourth grade students in three rotating groups of twenty at a time for 50 minutes each. I'd never taught the third grade before, and only see the fourth grade on Fridays (half of the fourth grade classes, alternating every other week). After asking about what to expect from the third grade, I was warned ahead of time that they were in the beginning stages of English- in fact only just learning the write the alphabet. Oh dear. Mrs. Shim was set to be there on Monday and Tuesday, Mrs. Im for the other days, so at least I wouldn't be without assistance. And my mom would be there to sit in for a couple of days which was really cool. The worrying went away after I got there and saw everyone all together.


It was great to finally be able to interact with the third grade (my English room shares their hallway but we only talk in passing) and spend more time with fourth. The younger kids seems more willing to speak up around their peers and play without being embarrassed. Plus, with two students writing "Voldemort" and "Barack Obama" on their name tags, the tone for the week was set to be very fun.

(Above: "Barack Obama")

This is the topic breakdown I settled on for the camp:

Day 1: Body parts.
Day 2: Letter games.
Day 3: Animals.
Day 4: Colors, Shapes, Numbers.
Day 5: Likes and dislikes.

On day one, I learned that they already seemed to know most of the basic body parts. Though a few of them still needed to be taught that we have two feet and not two foot. Mrs. Shim encouraged me to teach additional words upon pointing and asking me what things were, and I'm not sure which was more funny, having twenty little kids chanting "belly button" or "butt."

On day two, I found that the third grade had been misjudged. Not only could they write the alphabet, they could write several words and, on a worksheet I challenged them with, the letters that came before and after after other letters. I played two games that went over very well. For the first, I put magnetic letters on the whiteboard and made them form two lines. When I called out a letter (uppercase or lowercase- I had both sets up there), the pair at the front of the lines would have to find and circle the letter on the board. Each team had a different colored marker, and the winning team had the most circles in the end. For the second game they formed three lines. I showed the student in the back of each line a letter, and they had to draw the letter on the back of the student in front of them, which was then passed forward until the person at the front of a line could say the correct letter. The first game required more speed and quick thinking, while in the second the team that went the fastest seemed to make the most mistakes during the letter transfer.

Animals for day three started with a focus on plurals and basic articles since I found out quickly that many students had a vast animal vocabulary already. It can't just be "dog" in a sentence- drilling vocab is great until they start saying "I have dog" or "dog is pretty." We also talked about how animals move and put them into the categories: walk, run, fly, swim, hop, and climb. for the final activity, I made them choose three animals, mix them together, and make them into a new animal. Then they had to circle Yes/No questions (Can it climb? can it fly? etc).

Day four was my favorite. After counting to twenty and reviewing what they already knew about colors and shapes, I put all three things together. I brought a bunch of cut up shapes from various colors of poster paper. I told all the students to scatter them throughout the room, then when I called out a color (blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, and pink), they had to race around the room and find them, then place them around the corresponding color name card on the ground around the room. One student chose to put a blue triangle in Mrs. Im's hand, so she had to stand there in the same place holding it up until I called out blue- which of course I held out on for a few rounds. Once all of the shapes were found, I made them tell me the number of pink shapes, blue shapes, squares, triangles, animal shapes, etc.

Afterwards, they returned all of the shapes to me, and I called out other colors or shapes for them to find in classroom objects. The door was a rectangle, the computer a square, the clock a circle. My favorite was oval- one girl pointed to my face, another boy found a paper cup and squished the top of it down a bit.

Day five was shorter than the rest, because the start of the day was spent on surveys and the end on a quiz game and distribution of gifts to all of the students. The class was only thirty minutes, so I spent the time talking about likes and dislikes and what our favorite things are. I ended with a game where everyone sat on chairs in a big circle with one person in the middle to start by asking the question "Do you like _____?" If the seated students liked whatever they chose to say, they had to shout "yes I do!" and quickly run to a new chair. The person left standing without a seat left had to ask the next question. It wasn't a game of winners and losers, though in one class they deemed me the loser because I was the one left without a chair, well, "teacher, six times!"

The Classroom/Hallway Complex

Often times I face kids who won't listen to me or seem disinterested. I'm not talking about the shy kids, but the small percentage of the class that become a real upset in the effectiveness of my teaching. It feels like a battle some days in the classroom with these students. I've identified three main types:

Oh, were you talking? Some students will simply not pay attention to me. I walk up and ask them "Hello. How are you?" and they will look through me like I didn't speak at all; like they haven't heard that same phrase every day. No response, no words at all.

Endless Repeaters. They still try and repeat every word I say (But I've remedied most of this practice by calling out really big English words that they can't begin to pronounce- that usually gets their attention! "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!").

Alphas. Not only will these students ignore me, but they will talk loudly with their friends. Changing the groups around doesn't seem to help much. Their homeroom teachers rearrange their seating chart in their main classrooms so many times, that they always have someone to chatter away with. In some cases, they will try and talk over me. These kids are why my voice is gone on Friday. If I try to get their attention, often times they will roll their eyes or laugh at me and look at their friends. I'm like a monkey on display, and oh, isn't my language just so funny and foolish?

However, mostly it's these same kids who will wave wildly to me in the hallway between classes, or in the cafeteria and shout "Sara! Hello!" like they haven't seen me for years and can't contain their delight in seeing me again; big smiles on their faces. Sometimes, not twenty minutes after I saw them in class.

When I first came here, I felt like a celebrity. I wondered if that would ever fade, and now I'm not sure it will. I definitely feel like I'm reaching a good number of kids in my English classes, but even if I don't, I feel like I'm some sort of image to the others. I'm the foreigner in their school, and when the rest of the student body is present they want to act like they have a relationship with me; like a status symbol. I don't meant to sound self important or pretentious, but from my own observations about the contradictory behavior of some of my students, well, it's one conclusion I've drawn.

My Open Class

Last Wednesday was my grand debut to the teachers of Andong. I opened a 6th grade class up to about 25 other English teachers (and some from my school that wanted to watch), as a part of the TEE program ("Teaching English in English"). We had a banner and everything! Scott, Katie, and our other foreign friend Jin were there with their co-teachers among the spectators, so I did have a supportive cheering section.

The lesson was "What will you do this summer?" with an emphasis on the world "will" to express future planning. I actually wasn't worried about it at first. I love to teach these kids, and I always have a million ideas for making changes. Taebun suggested that we dismiss the book and completely revise the lesson, just keeping the same objectives.

The real worry came when Taebun showed up with a complete set of new materials that I suddenly had to fit in and keep track of for the lesson: puppets to use in demonstrations of speech, magnetic white boards for the students, 5 picture cards, and around 9 word cards and magnetic word cut-outs to make sentences with. All of these things were to have a specific order of placement. On top of these, and the fact that I'd only taught in my new English room a few times so far, I had to think up a game that would use more materials.

It's funny, I felt so over encumbered by so many new things, that I couldn't keep my head straight. They were great new resources, but to use all of them for the first time during an open class made me worry that my students would be struck clueless by sudden over stimulation. Taebun and I rehearsed the entire class about 4 times, so by then I felt a little more comfortable. That and I taped my scripts and direction cues to the back of my puppets' heads.

This is what we came up with, and how it panned out:

1. Warm-up/Greeting. Taebun asked the weather/day/date (on this he surprised me by turning to me and asking "is it right?" and I laughed and said "actually I don't know"...a good strong first words for all of the teachers. I did get some satisfaction though when he accidentally wrote "2008." We're a good team.)

2. Storytelling. Taebun and I put on a small puppet performance about "Mike" and his English teacher "Sara" discussing the upcoming summer vacation (to prep for the lesson theme). Although Sara said she would study Korean, Mike ran off when she asked if he would study English.


3. Statement of Objective. This was written down in briefly in Korean, so I'm not sure what it said. It was meant to help along those who might tune out because their English is low, so they need to know what it is they are meant to pay attention to in a completely English lesson.

I think the best part was when Taebun grabbed the magnetic sentence for the lesson title and read it aloud: "I will visit my uncle in London." I did my best not to giggle, but it didn't take long for him to realize that it was supposed to be the sentence that read "What will you do this summer?"

4. Look and Speak/ Listen and Repeat. We finally hit our stride after the few hiccups, and put on our second puppet performance with "Jinho" and "Peter" with the more direct summer planning dialogue. I questioned the class about what they heard, and we did it again. We then did a few repeat-after-me phrases for practice: "What will you do this summer?" "I will go hiking" "I will visit my grandmother"

5. Reading. Taebun asked me "What will you do this summer?" and I showed a picture card with a boy camping to the class, had them guess it, then had them guess each word in the sentence "[I] [will] [go] [camping]" and stuck it on the board.

6. Magnet board activity. Each group (tables of 4-5) had a magnetic white board and an envelope full of magnetic words. Taebun showed the students a picture card for a summer plan, stuck it to the board, and had them race to find the right words for the sentence. They had to hold it up and shout it out. They were "I will go swimming," "I will play soccer," "I will study English," and "I will visit my uncle in London." Taebun was very clever in his preparation on this one for the words, because he through in tricks like "visiting" and "playing." Many students got it pretty fast, but we did make sure all the groups had it before moving on.

7. KABOOM! I found a similar game for vocabulary review online awhile back, and decided to fit it for this lesson. I prepared cans (1 for each table) with sentences in it with about 12 different summer plans ("I will go to academy," "I will play the piano," etc). Mixed into the can were also papers that read "KABOOM!!!". I think I had it worked out to be 36 sentences and 10 Kabooms per can. I spoke, and we demonstrated (two times for clarity) that one at a time, each student would take a paper, read it, then hold on to it. If they pulled out a "Kaboom" everyone would have to shout it, and that person would have to put all of their papers back in the can. The first student to have 6 papers was the winner. It was great, because the more papers every student had the greater the chance it was of pulling out a Kaboom. Many groups started chanting "Kaboom! Kaboom!" when a person who was close to winner had their turn come up. Awesome.

8. Review. A Listen/Repeat exercise reviewing the sentences stuck to the board. Also a brief demonstration in substitution: "play soccer" can become "play tennis, " "study English" can be "study math," etc.

9. Short test. We passed out test papers for review of basics. First I said few sentences and they had to mark the right picture, and second they were shown pictures and had to choose the right sentence. After collecting them, we said thank you and goodbye, and sent our students home.

There was a TEE meeting afterward with all the teachers to discuss the class, but it was all in Korean so I'm not 100% sure exactly how it went. They did point at Taebun who stood up to speak after about 10 minutes, then pointed to me and said "Sara?" I looked at Taebun who said "say something," so I laughed and asked "what did you say?" It maybe seemed obvious to them, but I couldn't tell if they wanted me to explain my ideas for the lesson, gratitude for everyone being there, how I felt the lesson went, or if I like ponies (I do.). At the end, they did open it up to the foreigners who generated some English discussion about our teaching experiences.

The biggest thing I took away from the open class was that my students actually can understand a whole class run in English. We even finished 10 minutes ahead of schedule because they picked it up so fast. Usually I'm faced with students with discipline or listening issues, who fight us and demand "Korean!" as they tune out when I speak and find themselves not understanding the game until someone says something to them in Korean. This time, the students were great listeners because they were surrounded by so many strangers watching them. Even the most obstinate students were like angels speaking English as a beautiful and natural chorus, and the more shy among them spoke up. A frightful sight to behold, indeed, because I didn't know how to act with such a well behaved assembly. It was an eye opener for me. Now, if only every class could be an open class.

English Camp with Awesome Kids

These are the tales of Saturday- Part 1

(Because of how much happened on Saturday, I'm splitting this into two parts.)

1:30-5:30pm: English Camp

Andrew (the foreigner who works at Kilgu Middle school) asked me earlier in the week if I wanted to earn some extra cash by teaching an English camp at his school for 9th grade (which they call 3rd grade, for the 3rd year in middle school). I was really excited, because it meant: a) students that speak more English, and b) a curriculum-free lesson!

Another perk was that the class size was 10 students. There were two groups, with two lessons needed for each group. The first two hours were spent with one group, then the second two with the next group. This is what I ended up doing:

Lesson 1: Movies

Intro and handout: First, I discussed and gave them a handout about movie language ("Who's in it?" "What's it about?") along with plot, setting, genre, etc.

Movie: We watched the short animation "Oktapodi" on YouTube.

Discussion: We talked about the movie, using the elements on the handout. There were blanks for them to fill in, like "The movie was about ________" next to "plot".

Game: I separated them into three groups, assigning each group one of the following: characters, setting, or plot. I explained that we were going to come up with a movie, but they were not to talk with the other groups. After a short period of time, I asked them to tell me what they came up with and wrote each thing on the board. Once it was put together, we talked about what genres the movie might have. We did this three times, so each group had a turn at the different part, then voted on the best one.

These were a few:

Characters: A monkey and an ant
Setting: In space
Plot: Falling in love
-Possible Genres: Sci Fi, Romance, Comedy, Animation

Characters: Me, and two of the Korean teachers at their school
Setting: The middle of the desert
Plot: Playing soccer
-Possible Genres: Documentary, Comedy, Romance (when I asked why, one student explained that we were playing soccer waiting for men. Then another student added "but the men don't want anyone!")

Characters: A tall ugly woman, a short beautiful woman, a handsome beggar man, and an ugly rich man.
Setting: The white house
Plot: On vacation, then drowning while trying to swim
-Possible Genres: Horror, Action, Comedy

Lesson 2: Word games

Mad Libs: I wrote up some mad libs and had them tell me the words to write in, without knowing anything about the story. Then I read it back to them.

These were my two favorites:

1. My favorite animal is a (animal) dragon. My parents won't let me have one because they are too (adj) happy. Instead, they bought me a (animal) shark for a pet. He is very (adj) wonderful and likes to (v) chase (me) in the house.

2. Before I go to school, I eat (a food) jelly for breakfast. I make sure to put (n) the earth in my bag before I leave. I always (v) rush to school on warm days, and if it rains, I bring my (n) ant.My school is very (adj) terrible and has a lot of (pl n) tigers. I'm a very (adj) cute student, and I always raise my (body part) eye when I have a question.

Balderdash: I put students in pairs and then wrote a word on the board that they wouldn't know. As a pair, they had to write a definition for the word and then pass it to me. I wrote each definition on the board, including the real one, and they had to vote on which was the right definition.

I used these words:
ragamuffin
blubber
pizazz
footloose [my favorite student definition: "someone who is lame"]

Story Chains: This was awesome. I had no idea whether or not this would work, or if it would go way over their heads. In pairs, I had the students write three words that they want their story to be about (characters, objects, etc) at the bottom of the paper, and then write the numbers 1-5 (because there were 5 pairs) on each line starting at the top. Then, they had to write the first sentence of their story next to #1 and pass it to the right. Then, everyone had to write the next sentence in the story on line #2, then fold over the paper to cover the sentence on line #1 and pass it to the right. They were only able to see the most recent sentence, until the end when we read them aloud.

(these were from memory- I wrote them down quickly but I may have added some articles [the, an, a] that weren't there originally)

My favorite:

[The words at the bottom: hunter, rabbit, arrow]
1. The hunter shot the rabbit with an arrow
2. The rabbit was shot by the hunters arrow
3. The hunter went to take the arrow out of the dead rabbit
4. The arrow liked the rabbit so the rabbit was not dead
5. The hunter took a gun and shot the rabbit

THE END

Another good one:

[The words at the bottom: wizard, bishop, dragon]
1. A wizard turned a bishop into a dragon
2. The dragon bishop turned the wizard into a dragon
3. The wizard made the dragon a bishop
4. The bishop made the wizard a dragon
5. The dragon ate the bishop
THE END

I hope I get to go back and do another camp, because it was a ton of fun!

More On Teaching

First, regarding the 4th grade, I have to put in that my co-teacher Mrs. Im is brilliant. She has elevated discipline to an art form. When the class is getting loud, she'll say something to the effect of "freeze!" and then make a sound effect like "ba-dum!" to trigger movement again. She'll only allow them to move for a second or two, and repeat this two or three times. It becomes a game, because the students all try and see who can make and hold the most outrageous position while frozen (or in 4-8's case, the boys hold a mock-strangle-each-other pose). If the class is really rowdy, she'll use the freeze time to give instruction for the next activity, because it's the only moment of true silence.

I have reached an interesting crossroads in my lessons. The 4th grade just started a lesson that taught them "Can you help me, please?" and "Sure I can" but they don't learn prepositions like "under, behind, next to, etc" or directions "left, right, straight" until 5th grade. I know this because I just started teaching the 5th grade how to give directions. Ironically, we had to re-teach them "Can you help me, please?" because by then most of the students had forgotten it.

So now you might wonder, what else does the 4th grade learn over the course of that four-class lesson? Well, naturally, they learn "how old are you?" This is a pre-listening exercise the book wanted us to play:

1) Girl: Can you help me?

Man: Sure, I can.

2) Man: How old are you?

Tony: I'm eight

3) Man: How old are you?

Minsu: I'm ten

They are separated by numbers, unrelated in nature, but being strung up next to each other makes them feel like they are part of the same scenario if you're just listening. In the same lesson, this is a "Listen and Repeat" exercise, where the students listen to the dialogue, then repeat it:

1) Tony: Good Morning.

Can you help me?

Mom: Sure, I can.

2) Julie's mom: Wow! You're strong!

How old are you?

Girl: I'm eleven.

3) Teacher: How old are you?

Tony: I'm eight

Again, The can you help me/how old are you are right next to each other. I'm at a loss as to why they are in the same lesson. Luckily, Mrs. Im is open to cutting things out, which she did for these two even before I suggested it. Instead, we planned for counting practice from 1-100. I made a PowerPoint with numbers (and at 20 we started skipping by 10). The students already have been taught numbers, but since the lesson started focusing on asking age, we thought it was important to d a number lesson. At the end, the two of us made a PowerPoint where we showed pictures of people (Mrs. Im provided some famous Koreans) and the students had to guess their ages. If they guessed too high, we would say "lower" and if they guessed low we would say "higher." It was good number practice while also sticking to the required theme of age.