KLB - IOF Review


The Korea Times review of IOF has been delayed until next Saturday's edition. Apparently there was a little mix-up this week over who was actually doing the review and when it would appear.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Only in Korea



It's 12:34 AM on Friday night and Julie is at a job interview for a teaching position at a nearby hagwon.

Even though she makes pretty good money for a relatively easy job now, she wants to make more (who doesn't?) and work closer to our apartment. So she applied to 5 places and within a day had 5 interviews set up. In Korea, there is a shortage of jobs...unless you can teach English. She narrowed that down to one, a school which is literally across the street, one that pays very well - as much as an experienced foreigner would get. Apparently she is taking some kind of writing test because every once in a while my phone rings and Julie whispers: "Shawn...what does predicate mean?" then hangs up as if someone caught her. Being alert, I just plugged the word into a Korean - English translator and sent her back the Korean in a text message. Hope she does well.

[Update] She came back home, pissed off a little. Not really a surprise, but the job advertisement was much different than the actual job. Somehow, the salary was 1/4 less, and the schedule 2 hours longer. Instead of 2-9, as stated in the ad, it's actually 3-11. The owner raved about how his teachers are so diligent, that they never go home at 11, usually they stay until 12, sometimes later. He said this in such a way that implied these teachers are just that dedicated, that enthusiastic about their work. I find that pretty hard to believe. I imagine they stay that late because they don't want to leave before the boss goes home.

Anyway, subjecting Julie to a two hour interview full of questions like "describe your personality," she has realized that her job is pretty damn good, even if it does pay a little less (she only works 3-4 hours/day - like me.) She has one more interview lined up for tomorrow but is now incredulous about it.

At first I started to think how unfortunate those teachers who work at this hagwon are to have to work from 3 to 11 (and later). But then I thought about the poor students. These are middle school kids that are studying there that late. Can you imagine being 13 or 14 years old and going to school early in the morning and coming home finally at 11 or 12 at night? What a colossal waste of youth. I am very glad and lucky about for the freedom I had as a kid.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Brilliant


Check again now for a larger sample of KLB - Special Edition:


KLB - Special Edition Preview.


I kept the first few chapters in this preview for those who never read IOF and added a bunch of pages from the rest of the book.


Link to book:

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Thanksgiving Day


After a nice day off (the kids were on feild trip) it was back to "work" today. I feel kind of odd calling it work as I'm only there three hours. I had been feeling bad about my pay, as it is a wee bit less than others make working their butts off at hagwons (I can say this because I did that myself for years)...but with the strengthening won I'm actually making more than I used to, at least in US dollars, which has been a real bonus.

Something semi-eventful happened today. I have a student in my A class, let's call him Mixedupkid, who never does anything in class except roam around the back of the room and play with toys. He's usually pretty quiet about it and doesn't bother me. I often wonder about the runt as he has partially crossed eyes and appears a little off-balance. I've been told that he has some problems at home and his parents don't really care how he acts at school. In fact, we think they make him take my class as a cheap sort of baby-sitting, since it requires he be at the school a few hours more than usual (waiting for class and then the actual class). Cathy said he is like that in every class, and they punish him all the time to no avail.

Then, during open-house, his mother came to the school. She seemed perfectly normal to me, but who can tell. The fact that she actually came into the open-house was a surprise and got me thinking that I've been too lenient on him. She even scolded him when he didn't know any answers.

So today, as usual he did nothing again, flitting about the back of the room, playing with a toy when he was supposed to be copying words in his notebook. I walked over to him and decided I would take his toy. Bad move. He hid it under his shirt and started to act like a twerp. That made me angry, so I grabbed his arm and pulled out the toy. Another bad move. He flipped out of his mind, screaming and crying, stamping his foot and throwing things, then stormed out of the room and slammed the door. If this was America, I'd be worried he went to find his father's machine gun.

He never came back and Cathy told me not to worry about it. As it turns out, the principal found him and gave him some kind of punishment (this was a relief as I thought for sure I'd be the one blamed) then made him come back later in the day to apologize to me, which he did in tears. I told Cathy I feel really bad for the kid. I really do. It is obvious he either has a few mental problems or something bad is happening to him at home, or both. But what am I supposed to do as he roams around and plays with toys it distracts the other kids and makes them think they can do the same thing. Cathy said we just have to let him do what he wants. I suggested we refuse to keep him in the class and have the agency refund the money. Hahah, she scoffed at the absolute absurdity of the idea. Not in Korea - never.

I also got a little ticked off today about something else. Cathy, on her day off, called all the parents who came to the open-house. Fortunately, they all liked me and the class, BUT - of course there would be a BUT! - they complained that the students (A class especially - the youngest kids) spoke Korean in the classroom. Oh my God! It can't be! Little kids speaking their native tongue during the course of a 50 minute class! It never ceases to amaze me the naivete of some parents. Can you imagine how hard it would be as a little kid to not to speak naturally, especially when confused or unsure how to do something and have no idea how to ask in English?

It didn't surprise me though. It's pretty much par for the course when you teach in Korea that parents will complain about this. They must think their children know a lot more than they do. Instead of speaking Korean, I've been told to use body language and drawings to explain things. OK, sure..."Kids, what's this?" (now I magically use body language and drawings to show "this" is a verb). Now imagine how easy it would be for Cathy to tell the kids in Korean what verbs are, or what "ing" means at the end of one, or whatever.

Like I said, this was no real shocker and I kind of laughed it off. What did bother me about it is the effect it's having on Cathy. She's a nervous wreck now about the kids speaking Korean. She said "No Korean!" so many times today I thought I would strangle her if I heard it one more time! Now she writes all the students names on the board before class and says, for example, "Joe speaking Korean! No Korean! Minus one point!" and then puts a "-1" next to the name. This system, of course, was doomed to fail as there was no consequence other than the kind of comical "-1" next to their name and a little attention (laughter from the other kids). She has done this "minus one point" routine in the past, so the kids don't pay attention to it anymore, if they ever did - until now! I decided to make kids with minus points stay after class and write "I will never speak Korean again!" 20 times. Heheh. We'll see if this works.

Now for other things:

I realize I have been here much too long when I completely forgot today is Thanksgiving in America. It took an e-mail from my aunt to remind me. That e-mail got me thinking about Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, man...that is one thing I really miss. My grandfather always makes a HUGE dinner with all the works. I'm sure I'll hear all about it on Yahoo messenger later.

Here's what Julie and I had for Thanksgiving:


I'm sure some people, especially those back in America, are thinking how pathetic this looks - especially today. When I first saw Julie eat a meal like this at my apartment in Nowhere-dong, I also thought it was pitiful. Sure enough, as with most things in Korea, I tried it and I liked it. It's actually a very easy and healthy dinner. You just pop open a can of tuna, grab a few leaves (there are several kinds there) put some tuna on them, some garlic, onion, and kochujang (red pepper paste) sauce, roll up the leaves and chomp away - I put olives in with mine, which freaked Julie out.

I guess that's about it. Back to packaging up these books. Had quite a few orders today, which I was happy to find. I also spoke to the person at the Korea Times who has written the IOF book review already (not bad since I just gave it to him in person last weekend). He said the review will appear in this Saturday's edition (he hopes)...we'll see.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Special Edition



I wanted to hold off on doing this until closer to Christmas, but several things changed my mind:


1. Island of Fantasy will be live on Google within the next few days. Therefore, more people should come across the book while searching about Korea and be directed to the ordering page. It will be nice if people have a couple of options to choose from.


2. The Korea Times - and I'm biting my nails here - will be publishing a review of the book very soon (had a request for an image of the book by the reviewer today). Hopefully this will spark some more interest in the site/book.


3. The holiday season is approaching and shipping times may start to slow down. Perhaps I'm out of my mind, but a couple of people may want to order the book as a Christmas gift.


4. I'm really excited about this edition and I have no patience. When I received the first copy a few weeks ago I was overwhelmed by the quality of the printing.


So here it is: Korea Life Blog - Special Edition. It's over 300 pages and contains the complete Island of Fantasy (which will still be available separately) and over 100 pages of material from the blog, reader comments and bonus material.



............



It's a little more expensive than I hoped it would be, but it's big and I elected to have the photos printed in color. However, there is a cheaper black and white edition available at my store on the Lulu.com site in America. I also lowered the price there for Island of Fantasy (cutting my commission to next-to-zilch) for the holidays.



I'm hope you enjoy the book and thank you as always for your support.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Open-House


Well, I dreaded it, but it turned out a great success. I made it to work 30 minutes early and I didn't wear a gym suit, though ironically the principal, a woman, was wearing Puma-like jogging attire and her hair was wet and tightly curled as if she just got a perm. She only stayed in the room for the first few minutes of class, too. The vice principal never showed up. Only about 6-10 parents came for each class, and most of them came late. With only one exception (Adam!) the kids were just perfect. I basically taught like I usually do, played a few games, sang songs, a few minutes of writing, and in the end the parents, "Bonnie" and Cathy were all very happy. I was also happy when it was over, knowing I had the following day (today) off.

I woke up with Julie around 9:30 and have been just hanging around and chatting to James, who is obviously working very hard at the airport as usual. Made a quick run to the post office - didn't see the kitten - but I did see a few empty tuna cans. Looks like the cat is getting pretty popular.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Scamming the Scammer


I'll have an update about the "open-house" tomorrow, as I have the day off! For now, check out this funny story about a guy who pulled a great prank on a scammer.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - MSN Search


I tested the new MSN Google copycat search engine beta again today and this is what I got:

"We couldn't find any sites containing korealife.blogspot.com. Consider: korea life blogspot"

This is a week after I manually submitted my site here. Not a big deal, and it's still in the Beta phase, but obviously they have a long way to go if it can't even find blogspot blogs.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Sam Gye Tang



Look at what Julie is making for me now to help me feel better for tomorrow. It's sam gye tang, or sam gae tang, however you spell it. Korean ginseng chicken soup, the best chicken soup in the world.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Google Image Search


I was looking through my referral log for the first time in awhile and found that a great deal of hits are coming from Google image searches.

If only I actually named all my pictures something relevant, I'd probably be contending with the likes of Yahoo and MSN and making billions...something to keep in mind when uploading pictures to a blog.

Google image search for Korea Life Blog.

Note to self: rename all pictures things like "sexykoreangirl.jpg, asianporn.gif, swissjamesinthebuff.jpg, etc..."

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Sick

One of the joys of teaching children is that you get sick easily. I had a cold all last week. Then suddenly this morning I woke up and was sick to my stomach. Ugh. Julie ran down to the store and bought me soup and some healthy side dishes and gave me medicine...all before she ran off to work. That was nice of her.

Tomorrow is "open-house" day at work. All the parents (probably all the mothers), the principal, vice principal, agency boss, will stand in the back of the room and watch my classes all day. I hope I feel better by then, otherwise they'll be watching me blowing my nose all day, coughing and running to the bathroom repeatedly.

"Bonnie" came in on Friday last week by surprise for the birthday party routine. The surprise was on her because most of the kids were away on another field trip that day, so it was a big waste of cake. She also wanted to make sure I was ready for open-house and she advised me to be a little early and dress nicely (I was planning on showing up late wearing gym clothes).

She told me she was also going to video tape me so that I can review how effective my teaching is. Yeah whatever. That's where I drew the line. As if it's not going to be enough pressure with all the people there. I flatly refused and, eventually, she conceded. I won't be surprised to see a camera there tomorrow though.

I can't wait for this whole open-house thing to be over. Cathy has been obsessing and frantic about it for weeks now. Every day it's, "We have to ready for open-house! All the parents gonna be here, Shawn!" And every time I tell her, "Don't worry, I'm all ready." Then she replies, "But we have to practice the students," (which I've already done 3 times now. I snapped on her last week when she said, "Let's practice again Friday exactly open-house," And I said, "I've already done that three times now, the same lesson! The kids are going to start saying, 'no! not this again!' during the open house!"

"But Bonnie said..."

"I don't care what Bonnie said."

Her face flush. "What? Rearry?"

I apologized to her later. I think we're both stressed out about it. The whole affair is just another distraction from teaching and designed to make the agency more money with more students - which will mean nothing for me and Cathy except more kids to worry about and more noise. If they really want to attract more kids, they should provide an incentive for the teachers. More students = more pay. Then we'll all be jumping up and down to impress everyone. Pretty simple concept.

Tonight I stopped down to the post office again and on the way out heard the kitten meowing from the same spot. A moment later some little twerps stuck their heads in the bushes and then chased it off. Julie and I bought more o-daeng and waited, but the cat didn't come back, so we left it in the bushes.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Guitar





I recorded this last week using my cheap, 90,000 won ($80) Korean fender imitation guitar and some bootlegged software. I put it on the discussion forum, but I don't think anyone actually downloaded it. If you want to hear me playing the guitar, check it out.

There must be more to it than this.

(right click and "save target as" for best result.)

By the way, I'm trying out the blog without comments for awhile. I kind of like the idea of writing whatever I want without worrying about who will say what. Stay tuned.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

KLB - Kimchi Chigae Dinner




I made this Kimchi Chigae dinner for me and Julie. We got the side dishes at a local family-run shop. They make all of the side dishes you normally get a restaurants but can't seem to find at the regular marts. Delicious.

written by shawn matthews    -|link