The hike was great (have pictures to post) and my trip to Gwangju yesterday was adorably Korean and full of fail. My goals for the trip:
1. Retrieve hoodie from the Gwangju International Center (GIC)
2. Buy Korean class textbook
3. Get more movie passes for my student
4. Buy a cardigan
The first and fourth objective were completed....and the fourth after at least 15 iterations of this exchange: "Cardigan, big size? [gesturing to indicate it's meant to fit me]" "Upsayeo. (doesn't exist here) Sorry!" As a wise man (Lacey) once said, "Nothing in Korea is a to-don't," haha. Which brings me to how the third objective failed. That was allll language barrier. I've gotten these passes before. They thought I was trying to get a specific movie ticket when really I wanted a free movie pass that wouldn't expire for a few months. After about 5 'upsayeo's I gave up and went back and got them today. Number two failed because I just didn't think to write down the name or author of my textbook and when I got to the store, I actually thought "well, there can't be that many Korean language textbooks at a KOREAN BOOKSTORE. I'll just browse about and grab the one that looks familiar." >_< Oh, silly Tamara. I grabbed that today, too.
So, the impetus for my writing. Because I don't live in a city, I'm worried about not making any really close friends. Which I shouldn't. My Korean classes start next week and I'll meet more people there. And I need to renew my efforts to attend more events...and artist collective meetings, haha. That being said, today was a rainy day (which seem to be rare here in Korea...except during the rainy season which was before I came, I think) and those can make one feel a bit dreary. I've been doing writing for the second chapter of my comic book (which I'm showing at the GAIA gallery in March! Yayhoo!), the content of which is pretty heavy and my emotions are a touch keyed up. I did what I needed to do after seeing the opening of that photo project (which I neglected to submit anything to) and found myself without much reason to stay in Gwangju at about 5:30, having only arrived at 3:30. I did watch some kids in an arcade, looked at a small gallery (which was AMAZING), and browsed a stationary store, but I really wanted company. And there it was. I was lonely.
But, I reminded myself that I had art to do! And that helped. And then I remembered I had a new show downloaded to watch. And that helped. And when I arrived in my neighborhood, I ate some traditional Korean food in the tiniest restaurant ever, run by a husband and wife. The service was amazing and the wife showed me how I was supposed to eat this oddly complicated soup. And they had the tiniest, cutest dog ever (which had slippers on... I detest animals in clothes, but this was just too funny) and it was just really nice. When I left dinner, that heavy sadness was gone and I felt warm and light.
And now to watch some Pushing Daisies and then maybe take a bath.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
I get to teach my students how to say "awesome" and "lol?" Chin cha?
So, to make sure that I get around to updating my blog ever, I compose an e-mail in my Gmail account and save it in the drafts folder and type a bit in it between classes or for a while when I get home. I do the same thing to make sure I reply to important e-mails from home, too. I keep my inbox empty and put everything into folders asap, so the bold number next to my draft box, currently (3), bothers me and reminds me to get writing. All of that being said, different sections are written days apart and not in chronological order, so it may get confusing. I thought explaining my methodology might alleviate that slightly.
I haven't really written on here for a month. Wow.
So, I was worried that I wasn't teaching the students enough new material at the middle school. After all, we can't play games every day that simply test their pre-existing vocabulary. So I talked to The Cha (my favourite co-teacher) and she gave me new ideas for content....slang and internet speak! The kids love it and the conversation really served to let me know I was doing just fine.
A few weeks ago, I had to teach a high school class in front of the board of education. It was a bit nerve racking but it went fine. And they made a suggestion that I be given my own office so that the kids will stop by and try to speak to me in English. And it works! I've been making drawings of Korean cartoon characters to lure them on in and make a talking point, too. Hurrah giant whiteboard.
I just learned last week that aesthetically, Koreans value small faces. It's really insulting if you say someone has a big face or head. Which means it's a /very/ good thing that I learned this remarking about another foreigner to the Cha.
And they're big fans of white skin. Like, bleach is just included in some skin care products here and some Korean women have a distinctly different color to their face (via make-up) than to their neck and arms. I don't understand or find it attractive, in large part because of the racial implications, but also because many of the women look sick to me...like they're about to get sick. In the next 20 seconds. And there's no gradual blending, either. There's a line where the white stops happening. I saw a lot more women with make-up like this when I was visiting Lacey in Daegu. I totally considered trying to "help" a Korean woman at my morning bus stop last week by telling her that she had a make-up line.... Thank G-d I decided against it! The office secretary, a young woman in her later 20s, put on some white-face on Wednesday and the teacher next to her asked me what I thought of her "new look." Neither of them speak much English and I'm not sure what I would have said even if they had...but I think I gave a weak thumbs up and said "oh, beautiful."
Oh, the students make jokes or comments on each others' skin color all the time, which actually varies quite a bit at my schools. They're kids and they weren't raised in the land of the politically correct like I was...so some of the things they say throw me off a bit. I don't always know how to reply or how my reply is understood, but I do my best to negate the comment. I need to be vigilant in my efforts to be caring/careful, however...I think I upset a student saying that he was short yesterday (Friday). I didn't mean it to be insulting, but I embarrassed him regardless. So I bowed very deeply and said that I was sorry and he seemed okay later. I can't believe they let humans be teachers....sigh
I had Oprah on while I was working/puttering around on the internet sometime last week and the episode was about beauty ideals in different countries. In the segment I caught, I learned that because an ideal in Japan is smooth skin (a pretty huge deal here in Korea, too) and they frequently drink collagen. You can go to a store and by drinks with it as an ingredient. I don't know if collagen actually works that way.
And speaking of beauty ideals, I seem to be wearing make-up at least once a week (The Cha FLIPS out with happy when I do, too. It's really cute) and I'm growing out my finger nails. This past weekend, I put on nail polish for the first time since I tried it once in 5th grade when no one was looking and immediately took it off. AND I bought a bottle of my own nail polish. That's never happened ever. I thought long nails just wouldn't look right on my hands...but since I've never found my hands attractive anyway, I gave it a whirl. And from the little progress I've made so far, I like it! Strange. Not biting my nails is a rough habit to break, but Koreans thinks it's super gross to put your hands in your mouth anyway, so being aware of that helps me knock it off.
I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Koreans don't seem to be big fans of the "heads up." Mrs. Cha, my primary co-teacher, is pretty good about letting me know about going to teaching demonstrations outside of the building a few days before, but any change in my schedule within school isn't mentioned. It's changed on the board in the teacher's room (which also changes throughout the day) and that's that. Wednesday, I taught an extra class and didn't know about it until I turned to leave after WHAT I THOUGHT WAS MY LAST CLASS.
(On Wednesday at 4pm) I was just informed by my co-teacher that I'd be going to dinner with the other teachers after work. Being included = good. Free dinner = good. Being TOLD, not asked, an hour* before hand = NOT GOOD.
* which, again, in this situation is a good deal of heads up for Koreans....it's not uncommon for this to happen quite literally on the way out the door.
This has happened and bothered me and other foreigners enough times that I realize it's culture shock. And I've seen Koreans do it to each other quite a few times now, so it's not forgetting to tell me things because I don't speak Korean as I originally suspected. As far as culture shock goes, it's not so bad. I know that it's not a matter of people being inconsiderate (because they're not coming from my frame of referencing where it would be) and I really don't always need to know about everything ahead of time. In fact, being able to accept life as it comes is an area in which I could use some practice. While it may annoy me, I really don't need to know that much of what's happening before it happens.
I need a cigarette. I don't smoke at school and I get pretty cranky around 4pm (oh, having to wait longer to have a cigarette until after dinner = annoying). And that's a whole 'nother basket of waffles... I don't smoke in front of children at home, so obviously, as a teacher, I would be out of sight of my students. But it's not ok for me to let my colleagues to know I'm going to leave the grounds for a bit to have a smoke, either. Because it's really frowned upon for women to smoke here. Women of ill repute are allowed (because, really, what else are you going to take from them?) but many other Korean women who smoke, at least that I've seen in the Gwangju area, skulk off and face a wall to smoke or do so in the bathroom.
A Korean woman, who was going to the same foreigner dinner I was, saw me step out of a group to smoke (to avoid blowing smoke at other people). She came over to me, confided in me that she smoked, but couldn't do so in public because that's what prostitutes do. I told her that if I were to be mistaken for a prostitute, I shouldn't be standing next to a Starbucks and ought to stick my leg out (and demonstrated, which I'm sure was hilarious in my cargo shorts). That made her laugh. At dinner, when I went outside with some other foreigners for a cigarette, the same woman whispered to me on my way out "ooh, jealous!" and I jokingly replied "it's not my fault you're Korean."
I've been trying to think about why this is the case. I mean, women being allowed to smoke or not has been a big thing in American history, too. Even now, it's "not lady-like." Why is that? Is it that smoking is purely for one's own pleasure? If so, then why have women been allowed to drink right alongside men? I don't understand what's inherently "unfeminine" about it. On the one hand, it's setting the tip of a phallic object on fire, but on the other, the phallic object is sucked. And is destroyed in the process. And while the smoke is taken in to the body, once it is also immediately and publicly expelled. And, as I've said before, boys get the convenient firehose and maybe someone else aiming their excretions is threatening. That's a weird sentence. Here's another: Something, something PENETRATION. Eh, maybe I should read this book I found on Google called Smoke Signals by Penny Tinkler.
Ah, so anyway, Wednesday's dinner was fun and I was glad that I was there, despite being grumpy about it.
Oh, like I mentioned incredibly briefly, I visited Lacey in Daegu for Halloween weekend. She was the Hamburglar and I was an homage to Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Good times with my number one cheengu (friend).
Yesterday, I did a lesson with my students on similes that leaded some pretty hilarious results.
I had no idea how complicated similes were until she was looking up the Korean for "exemplar" in class. My co-teacher didn't quite get it at first, either. Her English skills are quite good and when she was giving an example to the students, she made the two nouns equal. I had to explain to her that it's kind of a hyperbole and the second noun should be something known primarily for the trait being discussed. I showed the ... kids (who were my middle schoolers) the translation for exemplar just to see if anything would click. It didn't. I continued and said "Einstein is famous for smart. An elephant is famous for big..." usw. and that seemed to work. Explaining the concept to each student felt like...a very quick countdown from when my students are following and have an interest until when they're frustrated and give up and I have to leap around and explain any way that I can. It's panic and picture drawing and pulling out any parallels in the little Korean I know and the little English they know and desperation and fun. I love it.
Favourite Similes: His future was as dark as the night & My parents' minds are as wide as the universe.
That's all I've got for now. I'm going to go hiking then go to Gwangju to pick up my Korean textbook (lessons start next weekend!) and some more movie passes for my middle school students.
I haven't really written on here for a month. Wow.
So, I was worried that I wasn't teaching the students enough new material at the middle school. After all, we can't play games every day that simply test their pre-existing vocabulary. So I talked to The Cha (my favourite co-teacher) and she gave me new ideas for content....slang and internet speak! The kids love it and the conversation really served to let me know I was doing just fine.
A few weeks ago, I had to teach a high school class in front of the board of education. It was a bit nerve racking but it went fine. And they made a suggestion that I be given my own office so that the kids will stop by and try to speak to me in English. And it works! I've been making drawings of Korean cartoon characters to lure them on in and make a talking point, too. Hurrah giant whiteboard.
First drawing. It's Mashimaro [ http://www.mashimaro.com/korean/mashimaro/mashimaro.asp ]
G-Dragon Mashimaro. Less successful at attracting students. They saw I was copping out... I thought "a-pa" (what the bunny is thinking) meant "ouch" (referencing G-Dragon's song "Heartbreaker") but a student informed me that it meant "sick."
Mushroom dude from Maple Story [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_
I just learned last week that aesthetically, Koreans value small faces. It's really insulting if you say someone has a big face or head. Which means it's a /very/ good thing that I learned this remarking about another foreigner to the Cha.
And they're big fans of white skin. Like, bleach is just included in some skin care products here and some Korean women have a distinctly different color to their face (via make-up) than to their neck and arms. I don't understand or find it attractive, in large part because of the racial implications, but also because many of the women look sick to me...like they're about to get sick. In the next 20 seconds. And there's no gradual blending, either. There's a line where the white stops happening. I saw a lot more women with make-up like this when I was visiting Lacey in Daegu. I totally considered trying to "help" a Korean woman at my morning bus stop last week by telling her that she had a make-up line.... Thank G-d I decided against it! The office secretary, a young woman in her later 20s, put on some white-face on Wednesday and the teacher next to her asked me what I thought of her "new look." Neither of them speak much English and I'm not sure what I would have said even if they had...but I think I gave a weak thumbs up and said "oh, beautiful."
Oh, the students make jokes or comments on each others' skin color all the time, which actually varies quite a bit at my schools. They're kids and they weren't raised in the land of the politically correct like I was...so some of the things they say throw me off a bit. I don't always know how to reply or how my reply is understood, but I do my best to negate the comment. I need to be vigilant in my efforts to be caring/careful, however...I think I upset a student saying that he was short yesterday (Friday). I didn't mean it to be insulting, but I embarrassed him regardless. So I bowed very deeply and said that I was sorry and he seemed okay later. I can't believe they let humans be teachers....sigh
I had Oprah on while I was working/puttering around on the internet sometime last week and the episode was about beauty ideals in different countries. In the segment I caught, I learned that because an ideal in Japan is smooth skin (a pretty huge deal here in Korea, too) and they frequently drink collagen. You can go to a store and by drinks with it as an ingredient. I don't know if collagen actually works that way.
And speaking of beauty ideals, I seem to be wearing make-up at least once a week (The Cha FLIPS out with happy when I do, too. It's really cute) and I'm growing out my finger nails. This past weekend, I put on nail polish for the first time since I tried it once in 5th grade when no one was looking and immediately took it off. AND I bought a bottle of my own nail polish. That's never happened ever. I thought long nails just wouldn't look right on my hands...but since I've never found my hands attractive anyway, I gave it a whirl. And from the little progress I've made so far, I like it! Strange. Not biting my nails is a rough habit to break, but Koreans thinks it's super gross to put your hands in your mouth anyway, so being aware of that helps me knock it off.
I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Koreans don't seem to be big fans of the "heads up." Mrs. Cha, my primary co-teacher, is pretty good about letting me know about going to teaching demonstrations outside of the building a few days before, but any change in my schedule within school isn't mentioned. It's changed on the board in the teacher's room (which also changes throughout the day) and that's that. Wednesday, I taught an extra class and didn't know about it until I turned to leave after WHAT I THOUGHT WAS MY LAST CLASS.
(On Wednesday at 4pm) I was just informed by my co-teacher that I'd be going to dinner with the other teachers after work. Being included = good. Free dinner = good. Being TOLD, not asked, an hour* before hand = NOT GOOD.
* which, again, in this situation is a good deal of heads up for Koreans....it's not uncommon for this to happen quite literally on the way out the door.
This has happened and bothered me and other foreigners enough times that I realize it's culture shock. And I've seen Koreans do it to each other quite a few times now, so it's not forgetting to tell me things because I don't speak Korean as I originally suspected. As far as culture shock goes, it's not so bad. I know that it's not a matter of people being inconsiderate (because they're not coming from my frame of referencing where it would be) and I really don't always need to know about everything ahead of time. In fact, being able to accept life as it comes is an area in which I could use some practice. While it may annoy me, I really don't need to know that much of what's happening before it happens.
I need a cigarette. I don't smoke at school and I get pretty cranky around 4pm (oh, having to wait longer to have a cigarette until after dinner = annoying). And that's a whole 'nother basket of waffles... I don't smoke in front of children at home, so obviously, as a teacher, I would be out of sight of my students. But it's not ok for me to let my colleagues to know I'm going to leave the grounds for a bit to have a smoke, either. Because it's really frowned upon for women to smoke here. Women of ill repute are allowed (because, really, what else are you going to take from them?) but many other Korean women who smoke, at least that I've seen in the Gwangju area, skulk off and face a wall to smoke or do so in the bathroom.
A Korean woman, who was going to the same foreigner dinner I was, saw me step out of a group to smoke (to avoid blowing smoke at other people). She came over to me, confided in me that she smoked, but couldn't do so in public because that's what prostitutes do. I told her that if I were to be mistaken for a prostitute, I shouldn't be standing next to a Starbucks and ought to stick my leg out (and demonstrated, which I'm sure was hilarious in my cargo shorts). That made her laugh. At dinner, when I went outside with some other foreigners for a cigarette, the same woman whispered to me on my way out "ooh, jealous!" and I jokingly replied "it's not my fault you're Korean."
I've been trying to think about why this is the case. I mean, women being allowed to smoke or not has been a big thing in American history, too. Even now, it's "not lady-like." Why is that? Is it that smoking is purely for one's own pleasure? If so, then why have women been allowed to drink right alongside men? I don't understand what's inherently "unfeminine" about it. On the one hand, it's setting the tip of a phallic object on fire, but on the other, the phallic object is sucked. And is destroyed in the process. And while the smoke is taken in to the body, once it is also immediately and publicly expelled. And, as I've said before, boys get the convenient firehose and maybe someone else aiming their excretions is threatening. That's a weird sentence. Here's another: Something, something PENETRATION. Eh, maybe I should read this book I found on Google called Smoke Signals by Penny Tinkler.
Ah, so anyway, Wednesday's dinner was fun and I was glad that I was there, despite being grumpy about it.
Here's quick shot of the table at dinner with the Nampyeong Middle School teachers. That round hole in the middle of the table is a grill for cooking the meat. I asked what that dish in the center was and The Cha told me it was cow intestine and liver. I said "oh, I like liver!" and she said "RAW liver?!" I said "uh, I've only eaten it cooked." A few minutes later I tried it. And quickly ate as many vegetables as I could to keep from gagging at the table. Then Mrs. Cha turned to me and said "Did you just eat that raw? We eat that after roasting." I look terrified and she just said "No, it's ok. Senior persons like it that way, but I think it's better cooked."
The other funny point was that every time Mrs. Cha talked to me, she was rubbing my leg. As I've said before, there's a lot of same-sex touching here that isn't remotely sexual. It's taken me a bit to get used to female teachers linking my arm to escort me to lunch or touching my waist. So, while this was going on at dinner, I did find it strange, but not uncomfortable. More amusing than anything. And the next day, Thursday, I went to the hospital to see if I had the flu as I felt sick (obviously, there's a different approach to health care here). I just had a cold and I was given a vitamin shot in the rear. And while the shot was administered, the nurse was shaking my ass! I was telling my dad about this on Skype and he said it was so there wouldn't be any bubbles. I said it was hilarious how much "action" I've gotten from Korean women in the past 24 hours that wasn't action at all. Oh, Korea.
I was asked to wear a mask to school on Thursday and Friday, haha. And on Thursday, my co-teacher, Mr. Kim demanded that I rest in my office and taught all of my classes.
Oh, like I mentioned incredibly briefly, I visited Lacey in Daegu for Halloween weekend. She was the Hamburglar and I was an homage to Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Good times with my number one cheengu (friend).
Yesterday, I did a lesson with my students on similes that leaded some pretty hilarious results.
I had no idea how complicated similes were until she was looking up the Korean for "exemplar" in class. My co-teacher didn't quite get it at first, either. Her English skills are quite good and when she was giving an example to the students, she made the two nouns equal. I had to explain to her that it's kind of a hyperbole and the second noun should be something known primarily for the trait being discussed. I showed the ... kids (who were my middle schoolers) the translation for exemplar just to see if anything would click. It didn't. I continued and said "Einstein is famous for smart. An elephant is famous for big..." usw. and that seemed to work. Explaining the concept to each student felt like...a very quick countdown from when my students are following and have an interest until when they're frustrated and give up and I have to leap around and explain any way that I can. It's panic and picture drawing and pulling out any parallels in the little Korean I know and the little English they know and desperation and fun. I love it.
Favourite Similes: His future was as dark as the night & My parents' minds are as wide as the universe.
That's all I've got for now. I'm going to go hiking then go to Gwangju to pick up my Korean textbook (lessons start next weekend!) and some more movie passes for my middle school students.
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