July 18 - 25

So I just completed my first week of teaching English and it was a blast. I taught twenty 9-12 year old children who were considered intermediate-high level which meant they were considered the top level from their elementary school. I had about 20 of them and after spending eight hours a day with them I got to know them pretty well.

My class and my team teacher Andy "ND"

So our class consists of 4 different lessons. "Let's listen" usually has us listening to songs or movies and filling in the missing English words, this can be easy for some but very difficult for others, especially if there are different accents involved. Another lesson is "Let's talk" which has us just working on the pronunciation of words, sentences and speaking more clearly. The third is is an hour where I work on sentences, grammar, and we also apply the lessons learned from "Let's listen" to paper. Finally I teach a lesson on reading where I pick out a short story for us to read in class. To check for understanding I have questions during and after the story and we also go over the words that are new to them from the text. In addition to my teaching I have a Korean teacher come in for about 20-25 minutes per hour to drill them and to play games which they love.

Let's listen!

Campus

I also have been eating some really good for while here. There isn't much sugar or processed food where I am living so I feel like I'm eating much better then in the states and I think I have already lost 10 pounds! Here is some pictures of some of the food I had with friends Kee and Carol down in our local town. It was chicken, potatoes, and other veggies cooked in the middle of our table.

Before the food was cooked

Our cook and proprietor of the restaurant
The Final product.... delicious!

Friday night after a long week we decided to unwind and kinda let loose. During the week here things are pretty intense here so you kinda have to. I started with a soju and orange juice. For those of you who don't know what soju is just look it up on google, its pretty good. We then made our way into town for some chicken for dinner which was delicious. Our second stop was the Noraebang which has private Karaoke lounges which is AMAZING! As someone who appreciates good karaoke it is a blast.

Our Screen

Me in action

Sandy, who works at the school. He's really cool.


Meeting Koreans!

July 14-18th First full week in Korea

I am running out the door for the rest of the day so no time to correct this...Will do later but I wanted to post all the information today.



So I know it has been almost a week since my last post for my friends back in the States but it was a pretty busy workweek filled with all kinds of fun and exciting things going on. Even though we are located up the hill from the nearest town taxi’s here are extremely cheap here so a ride into the town will only cost you $2-3, so we have been going in quite often for meals and also just to get away from the school campus atmosphere. I have also had some more chances to meet some really cool people but will get to them later.

Last time I was able to post up here I had mentioned that I would be working with Carol on proctoring an English exam, well turns out I was incorrect, and instead Carol and I will be the voices that the kids will hear when they take their exams here. I guess they felt we had the most American sounding voices but it was quite fun and took about an hour to do. I have not had a chance to listen to the finished product but from what I have heard it wasn’t half bad and we don’t have to do it again. So as Carl Spackler would say, I got that going for me.... which is nice.

Carol and I in the recording studio

After teaching on Monday of last week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent just observing to get me ready for teaching full time starting tomorrow. Classes here are divided classes which are strictly English instruction and then each student takes 2 ‘theme classes’ which are fun classes where activities are done, or things are created with the object being that they students are able to both learn new vocabulary and to understand directions but at the same time still have fun at the same time. Classes include fitness, learning American dances, science activities, and cooking, which I will be teaching daily for the next 4 weeks or so. Most days we will be making crepes, cookies, or pretzels and from my observations it will be pretty fun.

Video of a class game I observed

Since being here I have not yet had an ‘American style meal’ but I have found a couple really delicious things including gimbap, which is similar to sushi and quite good. Another is a desert called papingsu, which is shaved ice topped with black beans, ice cream and a few other things, I guess it would be the equivalent to an ice cream sundae in the USA, the one pictured below is a family size that a group of us split. I got both of the dishes mentioned above twice during the week and it will most likely not be the last. For the past week I have been hanging out and going into town with this girl Megan from Indiana who just finished her year up here and is moving on in a few days to another job on the other side of Seoul. I was glad I got to meet her before she left the village because many of the residents here are pretty quiet and are not nearly as outgoing as the two of us. I am sure she will get another mention later on. Papingsu

Gimbap

Papingsu

When Friday came around I was done with my observations and stuck back into the classroom with a Korean teacher from Seoul named Michelle, (who’s English is so good I thought she was from the United States when I first met her) for a Science based theme class. We taught the class three times to elementary students who had very little English knowledge but they were really a fun bunch and had a great time. The idea of the class was to write a secret message on paper using vitamin C water and then later on have a friend take Iodine over the message to reveal. We then the students write their messages on the board to close out the activity. As you can tell our students liked us a lot, haha.




Since we are still in monsoon season it has been raining every day and often times with great force and at first we thought it would ruin our Friday night in Seoul but with the rain still pouring down on us myself, Megan, and our Korean friend Robin took the train into the capital city to see where the night would take us. Before grabbing the train I had some food from a street vendor but I don’t remember what it was called!

Street Vendor in Yongmun

Getting into Seoul at around 10:30 Friday night we headed into the university area known as Hongik Daehakgyo, aka Hongdae, an area that is very popular for Americans and has a good selection of bars, restaurants, and other fun activities.

Bar in Hongdae

As the night continued we went to several bars that were free for foreigners but Robin had to pay which was kind of weird. Staying out till about 3:30 am we had to decide on what to do till the morning train back to our home in Yongmun. Our first option was to take a taxi to a hotel, which would have ran us about $40 but then Robin had an even better idea that we should to watch a movie at a private theater. So instead of a hotel we ended up spending about $15 between the three of us and getting a private movie room with about a 120-inch screen and these huge comfortable couches. We chose Lord of the Rings, only because it was so long but I don’t think any of us lasted more then 10 minutes into the movie. After we woke up at around 6:30 we had soup for breakfast before catching the morning train back. It really was quite the night.

The rest of my Sunday was pretty lazy as we just kind of hung out till I ordered some Pizza and we watched the 1987 Best Picture “The Last Emperor” on iTunes which was a biopic on the Chinese Emperor Puyi. It was my first time seeing it in quite some time and I highly recommend it.
Today as I write this I have about 30 minutes to get ready as I need to be at the front gate as I have been designated to be the official greeter for all parents and students as they arrive for their 1 week, 2 week, or 4 week classes. I will be teaching a 1 week power speaking class with students who are considered Intermediate-High level, which is the highest level we do here. Expect an update on how it goes by Tuesday or so…

Till then Ahnyong-hi kasayo !

July 17

So I will type something new when I get a chance....Been kinda busy with class and other such things but I promise to have a good weeks worth of stuff on Saturday ! -- Jeff :)

July 13, First day of class

So I woke up today at about 5 am and thank god the rain had finally stopped and since this was the first day I had to report to work I was quite relieved. Our daily morning meeting at 8:30 where all teachers come together to discuss the day's activities went quite well. I had to stand up and introduce myself for a few minutes and I was met with a warm welcome and I have found that everyone here is super nice. Originally I was supposed to only be observing a class on my first day but I was instead thrown into a class with a Korean teaching partner Jasmine (Kim Ji-Hyang). Although English is not used at the school for instruction many of the classes will have both a native Korean and English speaking teacher in the classroom in order to make the younger children more comfertable. Today we were paired up with students who were only coming to the village for a one day field trip, although some (mostly university students or adults) are here for as long as a month.

The class we were assigned to teach for the day was titled Internet Mission, which emphasized the use of using English while surfing the internet and we stressed avoiding all use of Korean in completing the assignment. Throughout a four hour period we would be working with three different groups of students which rotated around the other 'theme' classes. Working mostly with google we taught students various ways to use English keywords in finding out information, images, and locations, and shopping with Amazon on the internet. We taught the same class three times and by the third class I had taken over the class as the lead teacher as I felt very comfortable in doing so. Below is a picture of the computer lab we worked in.



The kids we had we a riot and many of them were very scared to talk to me as they mostly would only say hi and giggle at me, which was hilarious, but they were always ready for a picture.



Before they left I was told each group wanted to take a picture with me so I had to oblidge. On the right was one of the other foreign teachers from South Africa.



Tomorrow I am not totally sure what I will be doing in the morning but I have already been told I will be proctoring a listening exam in the afternoon with a Korean-American girl from San Jose I have met named Carrol.

Till next time...

July 12, Rain Rain Rain

I woke up Sunday morning to non-stop pouring rain, it continued the entire day and who knows when it will stop. Today was spent basically catching up on sleep as I am not yet totally adjusted to the time change. To give you an example when it Sunday 6:45 AM here it is Saturday at 2:45 PM back on the west coast.

The best news so far, I can watch the Giants on the internet!!! I missed the Sanchez no-hitter but I saw the 2-1 victory that followed! Go Pablo!

This was my Korean lunch. Rice, kimchi, salad, unknown protein on right side of plate, and soup. I also have found that they use metal chopsticks everywhere instead of the wood ones we are used to back in California.

I relaxed and took a nap the rest of the day as the rain really kinda makes you want to stay inside. More to come from my first day of teaching on Monday

July 11, Seoul

Today I woke to my first full day in Korea and I decided since I had a totally free day I should head into Seoul and check out the capital city. Before leaving I knew my friend Brianna was in town so we decided that morning that we would get together that afternoon for lunch. Leaving town with my roommate John we got on the 10:30 train bound for Cheongnyangni Station in eastern section of Seoul. The ride was very pleasant and it gave us a good chance to check out some of the country side and suburbs as we continued into Seoul. I even spoke a few words to the Korean man next to me who knew zero English as he helped me with where we would be getting off in the city. Arriving without a printed guide to the city we just decided to walk along the main street as we exited the station just to see where it would take us. I don't know if it was because it was Saturday or not but the sidewalk was covered with vendors selling things from shirts, vegetables, various meats, and it was really was a cool site to see.


Calling Brianna at about 1 we took a cab over to her hotel which took about 25 minutes with traffic but only cost 10,000 won, which is roughly $7.75 so the conversion is not too difficult and the cabs are not that expensive. On a side note here is a picture of what their currency looks like, although recently this past month a 50,000 won bill note was released which they desperately needed as before the 10,000 note ~ ($7.75) has been their largest denomination.


Arriving at the Ritz Carlton I met Brianna and I was finally able exchange some of my smaller notes for 4 of their 50,000 so it was nice getting a bill bigger than ~ $8! She brought along her friend from work for lunch as we headed down the street for some Korean BBQ. Our meal consisted of several plates of kimchi, salad, rice, other appetizers which I can not name and also huge plate of various meets, bell peppers, and mushrooms in the center of the table on the grill. Everything was delightful as both the food, the company, and service were great. After lunch Brianna took us on a small tour of the area surrounding her hotel which had some cool hangout spots on the ally you can see below.
Continuing our tour of Seoul we again crossed the Han River via the subway and headed towards the Anguk station and the district Jongno-gu, an area which houses many of the old palaces that can be found inside the city limits. My main goal was to take a tour of Changdeokgung palace but since we missed the last English tour (the only way you can see it) at 3:30 we walked over to Gyeonbokgung palace instead, just down the street, and just walked the palace grounds and from the pictures and video of the tour below you can see it was really quite impressive. After the palace we went to the neighboring National Folk Museum of Korea, but we were so tired we only did the first floor.

The front gate of Changdeokgung (I will return a different date)

Geunjeongmun (Gate) and Yeongjegyo (Bridge) of Gyeongbokgung

Throne room

Me in traditional Korean palace garb

Gyeonghoeru (Royal Banquet Hall) and surrounding moat

National Folk Museum of Korea
We saw this group on the street and they were all yelling something. I am pretty sure they were protesting for the rights of dogs based on the picture and most of them had dogs with them on leashes.

Here is a video I took of a tour, I hope it works

We started to head home after our visit to the palace as we were exhausted from our first full day. As we arrived back at the train station is started to rain, but it was a hot rain as the tempature was still in the low 80s. Below was a pic i took on the train ride home. It is a driving range inside the city and it seems there are a lot of them as playing golf in Korea is insanely expensive with the average round costing $200. Shortly after taking this picture I slept till we got back to Yongmun station.

Before heading up to the English Village I stopped in a small take out restaurant for some chicken on a stick on some vegetable tempura. It was a good meal before passing out a short while later.


I have to say that I did a good job and got a lot done for only day 2 in Korea, stay tuned for more to come soon.

July 10th Arrival in Korea

Warning: I have never done this before, so we will see how it goes. I hope to put things up every day or every other day, so please enjoy. -- Jeff


After deciding that I would be going to Korea on July 6th I had a few things to prepare before leaving just three short days later. The purpose of my trip will be to assist Korean's of all ages to better their English speaking, writing, and listening skills at the English Village near the city of Yangpyeong, an hour east of Seoul.
http://www.yea.or.kr/english/

Before leaving I had to apply and receive a C-4 Visa at the Korean Consulate in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, which surprisingly took me only a few hours to get approved. After getting my last minute travel items and exchanging my dollars for Korean Won I was ready to depart.
On Thursday afternoon I departed on Asiana Airlines, Korea's 2nd largest airline, which had also recently been awarded one of the best airlines in the world for 2009 by SKYTRAX and after spending 12 hours with them I could see why. Notice that none of the US Airlines made it. http://www.worldairlineawards.com/main/aoy-2009-release.htm


Before the captain left the gate in San Francisco all crew-members bowed to us, which really impressed me and after arriving in Korean I found it to be common practice all over. They continued their extreme kindness and assistance for the entire flight. Upon check-in at SFO I requested an aisle seat and I got even luckier when no one was seated in the seat next to me. This really made the flight nice and even enabled me to get a few hours of sleep Flying over the Aleutian Islands of Alaska we continued across the International Date Line and began back south towards our destination and I began to think, with Seoul being so close to the North Korean border if we continue flying on this path we would most definitely enter their airspace and with current tensions so high I began to wonder if we would continue on that path. Some of you might find that boring but as a politics and geography buff it really interested me. Anyways we started to turn even more South and eventually crossed Japan before making another turn for our descent into Incheon International Airport, located on an island on the edge of the Yellow Sea 40 minutes to the west from Seoul. I found out later that until recently airlines regularly still flew over North Korea (DPRK) but for the safety of all adjustments have been made, even though it has added an hour to the flight time.


Getting through customs and passport control was a breeze with only one catch. As we got off the plane a few men asked us about our health and proceeded to put something against our neck that took a reading. Even after I passed I was still confused about what they had done but I later heard it had something to do with swine flu.



After grabbing a much-needed double espresso from the Coffee Bean (for you Drew) I met John, another Bay Area resident who was joining me for the 7 weeks and our driver Hyun-joong, aka Sandy who works at the English Village. The two-hour drive to the English Village (located one hour east of Seoul) was great as Sandy and I discussed Korean politics, the various towns we passed along the way, and Korean and American professional sports. It didn't take long for him to invite me to watch a baseball game in Seoul during the coming week. There are three teams in Seoul and I hope I get a chance to see them all before my return home.

Arriving at the village at around 9:30 PM the rest of the night was spent unpacking, settling in, and checking email before getting a few hours of sleep to be ready for our first actual day in Korea. Below are a few pics of the sudio I will live in for the next 7 weeks.