Korea Life Blog - Practice Rooms





I always wondered how bands could practice in this country as most homes are apartments and houses are very close to each other. Now I know. James found a place in Hongdae (click on the picture above to see the website). It makes sense as you often see guys walking around there carrying drum sticks and guitars and other gear. The rooms look great on the site. They come in A, B, C, and D, depending on the level of equipment you want to play with. The A room is 20,000 won ($18) for an hour and D is 12,000 won. We're going to get the C room at 15,000 which has everything we could want. All you need is your guitar or bass. James plays guitar and sings, I play rhythm and lead and another guy that's visiting from Japan where he teaches will be playing the drums. Julie's going to play the bass...heh, yeah right.

I'm not sure if they have these kind of places back in the states or other countries. I know in Syracuse where I'm from they have practice rooms but you have to bring all the equipment.

Since it's out first time together I'm envisioning two hours of ear splitting raucous noise. I'll bring my camera and have an update tomorrow.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Fireworks


I heard a bunch of loud explosions tonight. Honestly it flipped me out a little. Thanks to my mother, whenever I hear a loud noise I think of her comforting words: "Any day those North Koreans will come charging out of the mountains again and then it's over for you." Turns out it there was some kind of fireworks show going on somewhere off behind Walmart.












We have no idea what the event was but it was a pretty good show and went on for at least 15 minutes. I managed to get these decent shots from the roof. I left them as-is (sorry dial-up users) so you can click on them for full size.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Julie's Kindergarten


I should have brought my camera but I didn't think of it until it was already there.

I made a guest appearance at Julie's Kindergarten yesterday. Her boss wants to hire a foreigner to come in once a week and teach English (with Julie). I went once for a test run and it was a raving success. With a couple of exceptions the little runts were totally adorable.

Julie called me today and told me about little "Sarah" who is now in love with me. She ran upstairs early for class and almost broke into tears when Julie said I wasn't coming today. Julie had to send her outside to calm down.

Now there's only one problem: the boss. She wants a foreigner to bolster her school's image yet at the same time she doesn't want to spend the money. I ended up working the first day for free. In fact, the boss barely said two words to me and didn't even watch a class. I didn't mind so much because it was actually fun but I'm not about to do that every week.

The good thing is all the kids in the three classes really liked me. They kept shouting "Goodbye Shawn!" as I walked down the stairs (strategically by the boss's office). Now they're in the halls crying over my absence. Hey, wouldn't you? Julie's telling all the kids to tell their parents about the "wonderful foreign teacher"...heh. We'll see what happens.

Julie was really surprised. I usually tell people how I goof-off and read the newspaper when I'm supposed to be teaching. Though I sometimes do that, I'm not always such a slacker. When I actually teach in a proper setting I get into it and make the kids laugh a lot. I was running around like Jim Carry acting like a clown and teaching English. It's just when you have so many classes it's hard to maintain that energy.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Hollym


I heard back from Hollym today. If you forgot, I sent them a short sample from the Geoje-do story. Actually I had to call them back. They received my e-mail before but didn't bother to reply, no surprise. The long and short of it is they don't publish novels unless they are translated from Korean or based on historical content. "Publications include Korean language textbooks and dictionaries, Korean history, art, travel, cooking, "novels", folktale, politics, and children's books." This seems to hold true if you look at the books on their website, however I thought maybe they would take advantage of something a little different, something that might appeal to a different audience. When asked what publisher I should use, they said there was no specific one that has published such a book before and that I'd be better off self-publishing. Apparently there's a niche in the market waiting to be filled! Yeah, that's it...

Oh well, the more I looked into Hollym the more I realized they wouldn't be such a great option anyway. Do you see when you try to order a book from them on their website? The "preferred method" of ordering is to e-mail them your credit card info. Does anybody do that nowadays? Their website also says "Hollym Current Titles Last updated July 22, 2003". That's pretty current! Either they mean 2004 and updated it two days in the future or they're sorely in need of one. The main reason I liked them is because they publish in both Korean and other countries.

I guess in the end I'll end up going the self-publishing route. The downside is it's going to take a chunk of money I don't really have if I want to get it done right: copy-edited, professionally designed, listed on Amazon and all that. Another problem is that the book would be readily available only in the states, anyone in Korea would have to order it. I'm not sure anyone is willing to even buy the book (unless it's very cheap and staring them in the face in front of them at the local bookstore) much less pay shipping to here.

A plus with the self publishing route is that I'd actually own the book and if it showed signs of being popular later, maybe a real publisher would give it a go here in Korea or the states. And since copy-editing is available, it would end up a lot more professional than submitting manuscripts with errors/inconsistencies, etc, that comes with self-editing.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for the nice comments and especially all the e-mails of encouragement and suggestions I've been getting. If you want to send Hollym a letter encouraging them to change their mind, you can e-mail them here:


hollym2@optonline.net (America)

info@hollym.co.kr (Korea)



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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Free Printer!


We got our free Canon color printer today. It was one of the promo giveaways for signing up for a year with KT internet. The other choices were a computer desk, bicycle, webcam, and an iron - which Julie wanted to get until we saw one at Walmart for $6. We figured there was no way we'd find a printer for that much and we definitely needed one anyway. Here it is:



I checked and it sells around $100 or less on the net. A cheapy but not a bad deal for free seeing as we were told we can only get KT in this building anyway. I hope it can hadle the 200 page Geoje story draft as I want to read it over in phsyical copy form for a new perspective. Probably be able to pick up a lot more errors that way. Maybe I'll just change the font to an 8pt and use a magnifying glass....


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Kid's Herald Joondong Bucheon


This is typical. The owner of the Korea Herald school called me and claimed I'm supposed to work there starting tomorrow from 9AM -6PM, the vacation schedule for a month. He claims that I promised him when I only had told him that I'd think about it.

I told him again that schedule is ridiculous and that I'm not going to work there unless he wants to pay me 35,000 won/class - the going rate for part time work - since he also wanted to put off the E-2 visa trip for a month. He started to have a spasm attack demanding to talk to my "wife" (he thinks she's my fiance and kept urging her to marry me to make the visa easier for him, in other words so he doesn't have to pay for the trip to Japan). I told him this is her phone and he can talk to me. Even though I think he made the problem, I calmed down and apologized for his situation. He flipped out; "Sorry? How can you! I already made the schedule. Please put your wife on the phone now!" I replied, "No, I won't. You'd better find another teacher and don't call us again," then hung up. I feel bad for anyone that may work there...

It makes me laugh because he also didn't want to pay me any housing allowance for this month while he processes the E-2 - yet I'd be working full time. Anybody who works full time at a hagwon gets an apartment or housing allowance, it doesn't matter if they haven't processed the E-2 yet. In other words, he wants a part-time teacher for a month to teach 8 classes/day and pay the minimum full-time salary with no housing money. Anyone else would have to pay at least 25,000 won/class hour (that low because it's in a block schedule) for part time. That would equal 4 million for a month. I'm sorry that I'm not a naive fool, Mr. Hwang.

Please, anyone who is going to work in Korea - do not accept a job for more than 6, 40 min classes or 5, 50 min classes a day. No matter how awkward you may feel, be sure to clarify that up front. Otherwise you're just perpetuating crummy job offers because they know they can trick newbies. Believe me, anything more than 6 classes will leave your head spinning at the end of the first day. Imagine how you'd feel after a few months.

Update: The guy called me back three times begging me to work there. He even cut it down to 6 classes/day and "whatever you want, just work my school!" I told him he what he was offering was normal and should have offered that in the first place. I don't like the guy at all and I'm not going to work there. I found out more about the school. The cameras are hooked up to the internet as well so that parents can also watch you teach from home. A foreigner I met yesterday told me how a friend was fired at that Kid's Herald because a parent saw him using a cell phone in class. Not that I agree with chatting on the phone in class, but come on. Can you imagine the phone complaints: "He's not paying enough attention to my boy!" Forget that...


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - House-Husband


I feel like a house-husband. Today so far I've made breakfast, cleaned and vacuumed, washed and hung laundry, made rice, cooked dwen jang chigae for dinner later, and have been waiting for our free Canon color printer to come. (We got it as a promo for signing up with KT Internet).

What I haven't done: look for a job for more than 10 minutes. I will after this post, though. The hagwon job near my home, at Kids Herald, turned out to be not so great. I think the teacher who had been working there was trying to make his job sound better than it is not knowing I was going to attempt to apply. Turns out it's not 3-7:30 but rather 3-10:30, a whopping 8 40 minutes classes a day, 150 hours /month. That's 30 more than the norm. I told the owner as politely as I could that he must be out of his mind to think I would teach that schedule. He tried in vain to assure me this is the standard schedule these days and that it's not as hard as it sounds. I just sat there trying not to laugh. I said that it's impossible to be an effective teacher if I have to teach more than 6 (and even that's too many!). he said he couldn't make a special schedule just for me. That's OK, I already know I won't be working there...

The salary was also lower too, surprise. He tried to say he hires usually at 1.8 Mill, but for me, with my experience, 2.0. Again, BS! I wouldn't work that schedule for 3 Million. Keep in mind I was making 1.8 teaching 3 or 4, 40 min classes a day in Nowhere-dong. I may not be able to find such a sweet deal in Seoul, but no doubt I'll find a better job than the Kid's Herald in Songnae, Joong-dong (Bucheon City). I may even switch over to reading the Korean Times from now on I'm so disgusted!

On top of that when I went there it was a Saturday and the teachers were there preparing tests. I spoke briefly with a guy from the states who told me they were making him and his wife move out of their office-tel because it was too expensive. One last thing, to add insult to injury, there are cameras in every classroom so that you are constantly monitored.

What I hate most is imagining a new teacher coming here fresh off the plane and having no idea what is good and what isn't and finding themselves stuck in that kind of job for a year...I'm glad I already learned the ropes. I'd rather be jobless and poor for a little bit longer and take my time looking for the right job than get myself into that kind of situation again. There are good jobs out there, you just need to be patient and motivated to find them. Also, it helps that I have an English Education degree. I should put it to some kind of use this time.

In other news I sent a few sample sections from the Geoje-do story to Hollym, a publisher I stumbled across that specializes in a variety of books in English about Korea. They have an office here in Seoul and in New Jersey in America. They publish books simultaneously in both countries (and others) which is just perfect! Hopefully they will be interested, though I'm not sure what kind of deal they offer yet.

If anyone wants to send them a brief note expressing you're interest in seeing my book in published form, here's the addresses:

hollym2@optonline.net (America)

info@hollym.co.kr (Korea)

The tentative name of the novel to refer to is Geoje-do Foreigner. Speaking of that, I'm having the worst time trying to name the book. I want to use the name of the island because I know Koreans are curious about it and would spark interest. However, I'm not sure anyone unfamiliar with Korea would know how to pronounce it! (In case that's you, it sounds like Kaw Jay Doe). I welcome any suggestions for a title.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Walmart


Sad to say it because I hate their marketing and employment practices in the states, but Julie and I love the Walmart across the street - especially Julie. She went there yesterday and came back practically hysterical by the deals she got on a few things. "I can't believe how cheap it is!" I thought she was going to hyperventilate.

We love that it's not crowded and open 24 hours a day. We've been going there around 12AM, first stopping off to visit the pets and the extremely friendly cat I'm dying to buy but Julie won't let me, and just wandering all over checking out the mountains of stuff. Then going down to the gigantic grocery store on the bottom floor and picking up some late night munchies.

Yesterday, Julie bought a jar of spaghetti sauce. Here sauce is very expensive, at least 3,500 won ($3) for the generic cheapest. However, the jar she got rang up wrong: only 900 won (75 cents). Last night we went back and bought 5 more jars. We were a little nervous at the register. Julie put one jar down and bit her nails as the clerk rang it up. Again 900 won, not 3,500. I elbowed her and we bit our cheeks to keep from laughing as Julie put the rest of the jars on the check-out conveyor.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link

Korea Life Blog - Hwa Jang Shil (bathroom)


I've been getting a lot of e-mails with inquiries about where I live. Apparently Julie and I are getting a really good deal and several readers are interested in living here. I had a few requests for shots of the bathroom, which I forgot to include before. Here they are:



There it is, the throne. Nothing fancy. I want one of those water squirting seats. Notice the black and white tiling. Kind of weird at first but cool and modern looking.



There's the shower. There's no bathtub here but I never liked taking baths all that much anyway and it's just an extra thing to clean. If there was a bathtub here, likely it'd be too small for me anyway. They really went for the modern avantgarde artistic styling there again as you can see.



Huge mirror, more post modern styling. This is the first place I've ever lived in Korea where there's no hot water button. Like back in America, the hot water is always available and ready. The shower heats up in a few seconds. Makes it a lot easier to wash dishes in the kitchen too.


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written by shawn matthews   -|link