The Best Lesson Plan (this week) 09/10/2009

Hey Guys and Dolls, I just loved this lesson plan so much this week that I had to share it with you. It is for EFL learners grades 1 - 6, and it wouldn't be from me if it didn't include examples on how to do it on YouTube. Enjoy!

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Wonju Weekend #1 of Many... 09/08/2009

Last weekend I embarked on my first weekend getaway to the city. I went to Wonju to meet up with Whitney, Angelina, and Tim – our ever-so gracious host. Though it took much longer than expected, Whitney and I arrived in Wonju as happy campers ready to get the party started. However, we had to find the party first. Just imagine Whitney and I at a random bus stop in downtown Wonju at night with no clue where to go from there. Not cool. But after a few confusing (and expensive) phone calls, we were soon trying to explain the concept of “middle school” to a very confused taxi driver. You would be very surprised how far talking in a slightly racist Asian accent can get you in a cab.

When finally reunited with Tim and Angelina we thought we were out of the metaphorical woods. However, it would seem that our friends were too drunk to remember where they had come from, and we proceeded to wonder the streets until help arrived. Needless to say, Whitney and I needed a drink after this experience. The rest of the night, for many reasons, shall stay only in the minds of those who lived it – and then again we don’t really even remember that well.

The next day we were slow to get started but did eventually get downtown to do some shopping. I finally got a cell phone (010 2470 5675) and Angelina got a giant comforter. Later, we ran into James and Adam and an impromptu basketball session commenced. Some nearby Korean guys were interested in getting in on a pickup game after we messed around with HORSE and whatnot. Let me tell you, those two Korean dudes just went at it! They were fouling each other left and right like Shaq and Rasheed Wallace in a finals game.

Later that night we went to the movie “Last House on the Left” which I do not suggest to anyone unless horribly deprived of American media like I am. Granted, it was better than the Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding I watched the other day, but not by much. (Another horror porn from the desperate Wes Craven who also brought you The Hills Have Eyes remake.) Walking out of the movie, I really realized how in love I am with the city of Wonju. It may not have any special tourist attractions or stunning scenery, but it has everything one needs to be happy and well taken care of - thus furthering my jealousy of Tim and all of the other lucky EPIK teachers living in and around the city.

We finished off the night with dinner, and a quiet evening piled on Tim’s couch. After watching yet more sub-par American media, we agreed to bring DVD’s the next time we come to visit including, my favorite, Marx Brothers movies. Something tells me it won’t be long before we are back at Tim’s. I hope they have air mattresses at Emart. :P

The next day, we had to keep taking the bus home on the forefront of our minds as all of the ladies live in Podunk, Gangwon, and the buses stop running from small town to small town at 7pm. So we took a trip to Emart fill a cart with all of the things unavailable to us in our small towns. We also visited an electronics store so that Tim could get another camera to break (like I should talk) and Whitney bought the same camera that I currently have. We had Dak Galbi for lunch which was good, but uber-spicy as well. Thus ended our trip to “Healthy Wonju” and we reluctantly boarded our respective busses for the cumbersome trip home. Waahh, I miss it already!

Drinking with Coworkers 09/07/2009

The other night, I went out for dinner and drinks with the faculty and staff of my home school. We were celebrating the Vice Principal’s first day of school, and this was my first foray into drinking with coworkers.

Now, for people who aren’t currently in Korea and/or don’t know much about the traditions, drinking with coworkers can be a tricky situation. Everyone has to deal with the tradition of drinking with coworkers in Korea. It doesn’t matter if alcohol makes you deathly ill, or if it is highly against your personal beliefs – you must, at least, receive alcohol from the people at your table.

Now, I know how to receive a drink in Korea; I have been practicing for a while now. And wouldn’t you know, with the very first nip I received, I forgot to hold my cup with both hands! So there I am, receiving my drink with only one arm hanging out like an oblivious stroke patient when, out of the corner of my eye, I see one of the office staff reach over to show me how, and I realized my faux pas. I whipped my other hand up to receive, and the precious fluid was jostled from my grip and dripped down on to the various Banchan (side dishes) below. I was so embarrassed!

Later in the evening, I worked on redeeming myself when dinner turned to drinks at the “bar.” Now, I’m not really sure if one large booth in a deserted room is really called a bar, but beer is beer right? Regardless, I impressed the crowd with my ability to drink plenty and still follow the social cues in a large group of people who speak, what could be, gibberish for all I know.

Though I could play along, there was one practice I was unfamiliar with, and still do not completely understand. When someone finished his beer (say, the VP), he handed his glass to someone else at the table. The person who received held the glass for the VP to fill. Then, the receiver had to drink whatever was poured. So, one person would end up with two beers and the other would end up with no beers. Though this does explain receiving an extra glass with the service of a pitcher at bars, I still have no idea why Koreans do this. I tried asking my “sisters of the same age” at the table and all I really got was that it is a sign of respect for others.

I also picked up on the fact that it is perfectly acceptable to cheat at this game. If you can fit the remainder of the beer from your second glass into your first, go ahead and consolidate. Then, you can give the empty glass to some poor unsuspecting co-worker. Also, when you receive the glass, you can push up on the pitcher with your glass to make the other person pour you less beer. Important note: I do not know the full ramifications of having less beer poured for you – it may have connections to being humble and/or others not having respect for you, so receive beer at your own risk!

It was a strange yet familiar feeling for me – this dinner. I felt like a fly on the wall, watching everything through a Kaleidoscope from a distance: learning by reading social cues and body language without understanding a single word. Familiarity came with feeling the same camaraderie I have felt drinking with my coworkers in the past. Through my experiences, there is almost nothing better than working next to someone that you just shared belly laughs with the night before.

Theresa, I know you're gonna hate my guts, so just don't read this... 08/29/2009

Do you want to eat dog soup?

My first full day in my placement town and already I have been asked this question. The landlord of my will-be apartment wanted to take the teacher I am replacing, Jason, out to lunch along with myself. We squeezed like sardines into a tiny car and drove down the road to another tiny town not far away. We sat down to lunch and after Jason conferred with the elders he turned to me and asked, “Do you want to eat dog soup?” As in, ‘this is what they’re ordering unless you object.’ I, of course, said that I was fine with eating whatever they ordered, and Jason was relieved.

There are not many places in Korea that serve dog as a meal, and many people will tell foreigners that they do not eat or like dog even though they really do. This is for many reasons. Dog is technically illegal to eat in Korea – the government outlawed it a while back as a gesture of goodwill to the Western world. Also, people do not want to be known as ‘the people who eat dog – so awful.’ And I can understand why. Eating dog is not what Korea should be known for –they have so many other wonderful things to offer. And yes, Korea is known for its great culinary prowess around the world. Koreans can take anything and make it healthy and delicious - this is where pork, cabbage, beef, turnips, chicken, and yes dog comes in.

So we received our dog soup in a family-style pot on a burner in the middle of the table and it boiled and bubbled away. I watched others carefully to see how I should approach it. First, we received small bowls in which we made a strange mixture. This mixture consisted mostly of some sort of roasted, crushed seeds that tasted nutty and rich – sort of like coffee and sesame seeds. We added oil, chili paste, and wasabi to make a sauce that was grainy like fancy mustard would be. This was also the moment I fell in love with mul kimchee – water kimchee. It is a simple fermented cabbage: no chili paste, no oysters – just pickled cabbage – yum!

Then, we started in on the soup. Along with various dog parts, there were greens like scallions and, I think, bok choy, and also some bamboo and/or mushrooms. It is hard to tell what the things are in a soup. Now, before I go any further, my official statement about the soup is that it was good. I learned to say delicious in Korean today and used it many times – mogi soom ni da! This is not my absolute favorite Korean dish so far (which is soft tofu soup), but it was truly and honestly a good dish (which I cannot say about some of the other things I’ve had so far).

The meaty pieces of the dog were very good; they tasted a lot like a beef roast – almost exactly in fact. The broth was quite good as well. I would use my chopsticks to pick up some meat and veg from the communal pot and carefully airlifted it to my little bowl where my food rolled around in the seedy sauce. They serve things so boiling hot in Korea that I had to blow on my food for a while and still came home with a semi-burned mouth. The skin, however, was not my favorite part. I did not mind the fattiness or chewiness – as I enjoy things like chicken skin back home. It was the slight roughness on the surface of the skin where the fur used to be that bothered me – and now I will stop grossing you out.

Jason and I were kind of forced to eat until we exploded. I thought I was done with my lunch and put my utensils neatly to the side as instructed the previous night, but the man who will be my landlord gave me more skin to try, and eventually dumped a bunch of food in my bowl. Then, the owner of the restaurant came over and turned the soup into a brand new dish by adding rice, greens, chilis, cabbage and other things. Of course we had to eat the soup all over again as a rice dish.

When we just could not bear to eat any more, the owner put the leftovers in a to-go bowl and the landlord told us they would be fed to the dog when they got home. Yeah. I will leave that for all of us to ponder for a while, and just not comment.

My Placement 08/29/2009

Yeah, so I live in the middle of nowhere. At first, they told me I would be in a town called Jeongseon, but it turns out that I am in a teeny-tiny town about half an hour from there called Yeoryang. Don’t bother looking for it on a map, because it is only made up of a few blocks. Check the satellite view on GoogleMaps. The scenery is breathtaking, and I am sure I will have some pics within the next week or so for you to marvel at. So it is not all bad, but I feel pretty isolated already.

Yesterday, I met most of my colleagues at the elementary school and we went out to dinner at a local restaurant. We had a family-style soup that was a bit spicy with cute little white mushrooms and various other stuff – not to be confused with the soup I had for lunch today (see next post). I was, again, complemented on my chopstick prowess, and it seems that they are genuinely excited about having me at their school.

I went to visit the school today, even though I am not technically required to work on the weekend. Jason, the teacher I am replacing, was nice enough to introduce me to the classes and show me some of the games he plays with the kids. He is pretty much fluent in Korean now, even though he did not speak a word of it a year ago. He is not a typical case though. He says I know and use more Korean now than many native teachers do after spending their entire year in Korea. However, I know I am going to have to learn much more very quickly, because almost no one in this town speaks any English. Some people at the school speak some English, but there are big gaps in their skills and they are reluctant to speak.

Yeoryang Elementary School is very, very nice considering that this is a tiny farming mountain town with only 68 kids in the entire school. I will have to show you the library sometime soon, because it is breathtaking. This school will be my home base, but I have 3 or 4 other places I will be teaching including the middle school here and schools in other nearby towns that I will have to travel to by bus. I am a little nervous about figuring that out without knowing much Korean, so I hope all goes well.

I am about 2 hours by bus away from the city of Wonju. I know it would seem I am closer, but mountain driving takes much longer. I am committed to taking the bus ride often, otherwise I will have no life whatsoever and that would not make for much enjoyment of Korea. You hear that Tim?! Us rural girls are coming to bug you often, so get ready!