Scenes From a Korean Life

Perhaps it's a sign that I'm settling in when the days all start running together. I can't keep track of what happened which day as well as I used to, so that tells me everything's become business as usual. I still feel somewhat like "the new guy," but less so than I did before. I'm getting more comfortable running classes and dealing with the kids, and I think this job just might work out.

For this post I thought I'd do a bunch of random themed segments that can stand alone. Perhaps this format will work, perhaps it'll be awkward and I'll try to ignore this embarrassing chapter from my blog in the future. Let me know what you think, OK?

Kindergarten

Right now I would have to say my favorite class is the kindergarten class I teach every morning. There are several reasons for this: 1) You basically get to be a big kid for 40 minutes, 2) the stuff you teach is simple and straightforward, and 3) the kids are still at the age where they'll behave. The older kids don't ever want to shut up. You can yell at them to stop talking, and they'll literally go right back to talking once you're done uttering the command. Kindergarteners though? They still respect you and even think you're cool (because hey, someone besides me has to think it).

We sing a song in class every day, and the song we were assigned for this unit is called "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." At the end of the song the protagonists actually encounter the ursine beast in question, so I instituted a tradition where I yell "It's a bear!" and start chasing them around the room. It works especially well given my size. The kids have started anticipating it and running away before I can yell "It's a bear!" though, which ruins the effect. Pavlov would be proud.

We start out each class with "How Are You?" (not the Cheap Trick song, though that'd be awesome), wherein the kids tell me how they are and ask for a high ten, five or zero (a zero is a fist-bump, and it's the most popular). There are also some different variations on them that they learned before I got there and that they've had to teach me. Once I've asked all the kids "how are you?" they ask me how I am, and I have to give an answer and ask for something of my own. I've taken to asking for high eights, high twos, high nines and the like, because it'll help them practice their numbers and of course, I just like to be different. One girl now often asks for unusual-numbered high finger counts when it's her turn. Ian's the name, inspiring creativity's the game.

The high zero once led to a funny moment. Since I'm so tall I often get asked for a "high jumping zero," where I'll have to stand up and let the kids jump for it. One boy always makes me put my fists as high as I can get them (which none of those kids are realistically tall enough to reach), and in his attempt to bump my fists he ended up punching me in the chest. The teacher made him apologize, but it didn't really hurt, since he's just a little kid. I was laughing more than I was experiencing pain.

There was one time I made a girl cry (unintentionally, of course). The kids had to pick their favorite parts from the book we read and draw them, and since they have to present their pictures later, none of them are allowed to pick the same part. Since the person who goes last gets the slimmest pickings, the girl who brought up the rear started crying when it was her turn. I felt like such a jerk, even though I knew I hadn't really done anything wrong. She got over it, as people do, but I still felt bad. I'm such a big softie. I guess it's no mystery why girls are able to wrap guys around their finger; we can't stand it when they cry.

As difficult as my other classes can be sometimes, Kindergarten makes it all feel worth it.

Talk to the Sox Hat

Everytime I see someone wearing a White Sox hat I've made it a habit to recognize it in some way. Call it an attempt to connect. A while back I was at Nantapizza 5000 (you know, home of the Large and the XXXL), and while I was waiting for my pizza a guy came in who was wearing a White Sox hat. I pointed out the hat and to my great fortune the guy spoke English fairly well.

He said the hat was actually his friend's and that his team is the L.A. Dodgers. I didn't bother bringing up the 1959 World Series. It's surprising to see a fan of a National League team around here, because as I mentioned before, American League team merchandise seems a lot more common.

Whenever they see someone who clearly isn't Korean they ask if you teach English, so of course, I told him that I worked down the street at the hagwon. You frequently get asked your age when someone meets you, and people are often surprised to learn I'm 29 because of my youthful appearance. The guy told me he was 33.

Not that the guy sounded like a native speaker or anything, but I found it interesting that some random guy who seemed like he was stopping to pick up a pizza after an evening at the bar spoke better English than many of the other people I've encountered around town. Maybe his parents sent him to the hagwon in his younger days.

Who Let the Dogs In?

As I mentioned in a previous post, the health codes when it comes to animals seem to be a lot less strict here. You think it's bad that a woman's bringing her dog behind the counter at a pizza place? What would you say if I told you a woman brought her dog into a grocery store? It's a strange experience to be looking for food and suddenly notice a dog walking around the aisles. As far as I can tell, the dog didn't cause any problems. Still, I can't imagine a dog being allowed into an American supermarket unless it was some sort of seeing-eye dog (that reminds me of a certain unpurchased sitcom pilot co-starring Conan O'Brien and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog).

Pease Porridge Hot

Some of you may have heard that I was sick last week. I went out to eat on Thursday night and felt sick before I even got home. My theory is that some of the meat I ate was undercooked. Anyway, it didn't go away with simple rest, so it took all my strength to get through my Friday classes. I spent the weekend cooped up in my apartment trying to recover. I stayed in bed well into the afternoon just because I wanted as much rest as I could get. I even turned on the TV and listened to some sort of trot concert for a while.

On Monday I got worried, so I visited the doctor (which was within a short walking distance of the school) and he gave me two days' worth of medication to take. He also recommended that I only drink water and eat non-spicy, non-salty foods for the two days. It just so happened that next door there was a place that served non-salty, non-spicy porridge. I ate there for every meal, and while I wasn't a big fan of spending a little more on food, I was thankful for the delicious treat and the fact that it did help my stomach out. Even though I'm no longer required to eat there, I went back for lunch on Friday just to relieve my stomach from the ramen I'd eaten the day before (ramen here is extremely spicy, and I've realized that using the full spice packet is murder on your insides).

Hopefully I won't have another sick experience anytime soon. In a job where you have to be in front of people for long periods of time, you don't get much time to recuperate.

Song and Dance Man

I love music, and one reason K-Pop is so much fun is because it's given me a new subset to discover and have my life enriched by. My minor familiarities with it have allowed me to connect with Korea in small ways.

I've already gone on about my favorite girl group, Secret, and how much fun they are. I have a mental tally of all the Secret references I've made or heard since I've been here, and it looks something like this:

I heard Ji Eun's solo track "Going Crazy" playing when I walked past a shop.

A woman who came into the office had "Shy Boy" as her ringtone.

When I was doing "how are you?" with one of my classes a girl answered "it's a secret." Secret? Here was my opening. "Secret? Shy Boy?" It got a small laugh from the girl.

One of the Korean teachers was singing "Starlight, Moonlight" in the office, and we had a brief conversation about Secret. She said "pretty girls." I said "Yeah, they are, and the music's good too."

A kid in one of my classes was singing a bunch of random songs, and I suddenly heard the "du-bap, du-bap, du-bap" intro to "Shy Boy" and I said "Hey, I love that song!" He was surprised I knew as much about Korean music as I did.

I saw Hyo Sung and Sun Hwa on some quiz show while I was waiting for my pizza last time I went to Nantapizza 5000.

There's more to my musical involvement than Secret, though. In another class a girl told me during "how are you?" that she was going to the aquarium. I asked her what her favorite fish was and she said "jellyfish." Jellyfish? Here was my opening. I said "Jellyfish is also a great rock 'n roll band," and sang them a few parts from "Baby's Coming Back" and "New Mistake." For some reason the kids could only laugh. Their loss if they don't like great music.

I also have to mention that one of my classes has only three students, all boys around the age of 11. Whenever they have to make sentences their favorite verb is "kill." Yes, even in Korea boys have an innate warrior mentality, and considering the fact that all men are required to serve in the military for two years, that might not be altogether a bad thing. I have to mention though, that one boy in that class apparently knows the song "You Raise Me Up" (I don't think any link is necessary). The only problem is that he doesn't know much past the title. He'll randomly sing it in class and fill in the gaps with whatever enters his mind. So how does his version go? "You raise me up, so I can kill you..." I told him that the next line is "so I can stand on mountains," and he occasionally sings it the right way now, but his original version is funnier.

Another of my classes is only one girl. I have a Korean co-teacher in that class, so there won't be any student revolts happening on our watch, as we outnumber them. We were discussing how Korean has some subtleties in its pronunciations that non-speakers don't pick up on very easily, and I mentioned "Eun" vs. "Yoon." When trying to think of an example for "Yoon" I mentioned the singer Jang Yoon Jung, and they thought it was funny I knew her. I said I liked her music and the Korean co-teacher said "Can you sing for us?" I went "Eomeona!" and got a laugh.

I'm glad I got into K-Pop. Some of it's really good, and I feel like it gives me a small bit of credibility just to be familiar with it.

Things'll Be Great When You're...

Saturday (today) was the most eventful day I've had in a while (non-school division, that is). First there was an important errand I had to run: getting my first haircut in Korea. My last haircut was in early May, and my bushy hair was really starting to become unbearable. I ended up choosing a small place run by an older man. I showed him the picture on my Alien Registration Card to give him an idea of how I wanted it to look, and he did a pretty good job. Interestingly, he didn't use clippers at all. He did the whole thing with just scissors and a comb. He's a crafty veteran of the haircut business, he is. He also had the TV on and I saw Hyo Sung from Secret on some show, so that was a nice bonus. After the haircut he took me over to the sink to give me a shampoo and let me rinse off my head and face. He may work out of a tiny old room, but he treats his customers great. It only cost about eight bucks, too. I know I'll be keeping that place in mind next time I need my ears lowered.

On Monday one of my fellow English teachers took me downtown in the morning to help me mail a package, and the area around the post office looked to be worth exploring. Since I didn't have time that day, I decided I'd go back on the weekend and look around. Well, it's the weekend now, and that's just what I did.

We took the train on Monday, but I decided to walk it today. Of course, I second-guessed the route I was taking and ended up getting lost. Fortunately, I have a relatively good sense of direction, and somehow, miraculously, I found my way to the area near the post office and got to walk around and see all the shops in this tightly-packed mall-neighborhood hybrid.

I stopped in a music store and found Secret's latest album (only 10,000 Won, too!). It was right next to some creepy-looking Lady Gaga disc, and you could practically see the musical quality of Secret dwarfing it. I wanted to buy it (Secret, not Lady Gag-gag), but I decided to wait until I get my first paycheck before I buy anything too frivolous. It'll probably still be there in two weeks, or whenever I decide to go back for it. I'll probably have to buy a CD player too, since the disc drive on my computer wasn't working very well last I tried it. I need a Korean music collection! They had a bunch of Western music too, but no Cheap Trick for some weird reason. They did have two of Warrant's later albums (Dog Eat Dog and Belly to Belly), which surprised me, as those didn't sell too well and are probably long out of print.

Another store I stopped in was a place that sold baseball caps. I was wearing my retro-logo White Sox cap while I was out, and I saw a girl in the store trying on a stylized Sox cap. Of course, I had to tell her "Chicago White Sox! Good choice!" and point to my own cap. She was confused at first, but a girl who worked there seemed to understand what I was saying and explained it to her. Gotta rep the Sox brand.

Speaking of baseball caps, I think that downtown area is where all the National League team caps went. I've mentioned that you mostly see American League caps around here (the Phillies and Pirates are the only NL teams I can recall seeing before today), but downtown I saw the Giants, the Brewers, the Padres, the Mets, the Braves, and the Pirates again.

One of my goals while I was there was to find a postcard to send to my friend, but I wasn't able to find one. I'm told that because Gwangju isn't really a very tourist-y area, postcards are hard to come by. I'm sure there has to be one somewhere though, and I won't rest until I find it!

Around 5:00 I stumbled across a Kentucky Fried Chicken and stopped in for a bite. I decided to go with the shrimp burger, which for some reason meant I had to wait longer than everyone else for my order. I'm not sure what the deal with that was, but when I finally got my food I enjoyed it. I'd enjoy eating out more if I knew how to order more specifically and didn't always have to pick something simple to make it easy on both sides.

Oh, and I heard two more Secret songs while I was downtown: "Starlight, Moonlight" and "Oh! Honey." Before long I'll have heard every one in a public place!

I took the train back home just for simplicity's sake, but after I'd already entered the terminal area I realized it was a different train than the one we'd taken on Monday. Miraculously though, I didn't get lost, because the train I ended up on was going in the right direction. What a day it was.