Korea Life Blog - Update


In case you didn't notice, I added section 21 to Geoje-do Part 6 last night and since added several pics of the Geoje-do beaches. There is a surprising lack of quality photos on the web and the island really needs a new website. Then again, it's nice that the island is a semi-secret, though it does get much too crowded the first few weeks in August when everyone is on vacation. At the time I lived down there I had a regular camera, not digital. All those photos are in a shoe box back at my grandfather's place in New York State. One of these days I'll get down to the island with my digital camera and hopefully capture some of the true beauty.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Korean English Story Books



It's time to see what the Korean teachers are teaching at the hagwon again. It's story time. Let's have a look:




A little bully (with the ever prevalent runny nose) gets a taste of his own medicine when he runs into this dubious gang of thugs. The gang looks more like an 80's glamour band than bunch of tough street kids. So that's what happened to Warrant! The weirdo with the pink hair, earring and preppie Polo-ish shirt looks oh so tough.



The Greedy Baker. He's afraid. He's very afraid. His fever won't go down and he's got to make donuts in the morning. SARS!



Here's a friendly old grandmother cooking up some nice fresh wolf soup for dinner. There's some confusion about who is smart. Neither one of them looks too smart to me.



Lovely artwork. Another ugly kid with a mucus problem. I love how the old bowl has been stitched up. Even though the water has bug-eyed worms in it, the kid drinks it and gets sick. You can guess the lines: The boy is sick. The boy is very sick. All these books use the same sentence structure causing the students to say things all day like, "Teacher, I am hungry. Very hungry. Very, very, very hungry. Teacher you are bad. Very, very, very bad teacher. Game, teacher. Very, very very, let's game."

All the books are published of course by the hagwon franchise I work for. Every month the parents have to pay 5 -10,000 won ($4-8) for a new one. "Thank you, Mom! Very thank you Mom. Good book. Very good book. Very hungry mom. Very, very food please."

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Children's Day (Eorini Nal)


Tomorrow is Children's Day in Korea and it is, believe it or not, a national holiday. While the idea of the holiday is as the name suggests, to celebrate the wonderful(?) gift of children, in reality the celebration is about having the day off. Thanks, kids! Julie's coming over and we're going to practice making children. Practice, practice, practice, for that far, far, far off day...



Yay, tomorrow's a holiday. Let's play game. Let's run around and scream and drive the foreign teacher bonkers. The little girl to the left is Windy's daughter, "Gina." She's really cute and just loves to call me ajushi (older man). The girl in the front never leaves me alone. She loves to grab my stomach and call me ddong bae (pot belly) teacher right before she jumps on me and/or punches me as hard as possible. The girl in he glasses is adorable, but her parents need to control her sugar intake. She can't sit still for a minute.



Well, with it being Children's day and all the boss's wife spends the day cooking up deok-boki (how can I explain what this is to somebody who doesn't know...impossible!).



Take a look for yourself. Now that I'm looking at it, I can only imagine what I would have thought of it had I never been to Korea and tasted it. It would look disgusting probably...yet now it looks so normal. Actually I never really liked dokbokki all that much. I mean, I enjoy it and it's pretty good, I just don't see what the national craze is. You can buy this outside at the street vendors pretty much anywhere. The boss's wife makes it exceptionally well and I ate quite a bit along with the kids.




Two little nightmares. You'd think it would be the one on the left, but it's the one on the right who has the biggest mouth in Korea. His voice screeches like nails across a chalkboard. He always comes from the kum-do (martial art form) school 30 minutes before class and loves to run around the halls and classrooms yelling and whacking people with that weapon in his hand. You'd think the Korean teachers would force him to leave that at the doorway, yet they just look on smiling as if he is so cute whacking the foreign teacher in the back. Hurray for kids, whoo hoo!



I'm a softy for little girls. I love the one in front. I was going to say the one in the ugly green outfit, but then I noticed four or five of them are wearing the same outfits. In fact, I've seen almost every kid one time or another wearing them and I'm not at all sure why. It must have something to do with elementary school. Anyway, back to the girl in front. Her English name is Bonnie. She's taken Fiona's place as my favorite student. The Korean teachers think Bonnie is ugly because of her nose which is a little flat. Sometimes I can't understand their thinking. To me she is utterly adorable and has increased my belief in people cloning.



These kids are pretty good. They are quiet. The one in the "perfect" shirt is a "perfect attendant". He's been so sick, practically gagging to death for the past week, yet he still comes, coughing all over me and the other kids. Of course, that's a societal problem. Either his parents don't want him to miss even a day of studying, or they have full time jobs in which, like most jobs in Korea, they can't miss work under any circumstance and they have nobody to watch their children. The girl to the right (in the ugly green outfit again) needs some help. She's too thin and always wanders off in daydreams sometimes to the point of drooling. I asked the Korean teachers about it, but they just shrug cluelessly. She attends several hagwons, so maybe she's stressed out from too much studying.


Anyway, that's it about Children's Day! Hey kids - thanks for existing. I have the day off because of you. Hurray!

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Student Types



I did this post awhile back on one of the discussion forums but I thought I'd bring it here for my readers.






There are these types of students in a hagwon.

1. The Window Watcher - this student has arrived early and hangs out in the hallway staring into your classroom window and distracting your students. This student is always there and will not go away.


2. Late Jake - this student arrives late everyday and pops in just after you've painstakingly explained the days lesson/activity using konglish and all kinds of outrageous body language.


3. The Fastest Student in Korea - this student finishes everything you give him in record time no matter what it is, anywhere from 5-20 minutes before the other kids have finished. He has no idea what he's just done, his sole purpose was to finish and shout "da haeseyo!" (finished everything) Then he's bored and roams around the room causing trouble.


4. "I don't know" Joe - no matter how hard you try, this student nevers knows what you're saying, what you mean, how to do anything, how to breathe on his own...


5. The Perfect Attendant - this student comes to school no matter how sick he/she is. He/she also shows up when no other students do, i.e, public school picnic days, day before a major holiday, etc.


Some other people contributed with these types:


The questioner. Can't just sit quietly and wait for all to be revealed in good time--has to ask about everything imaginable. As soon as you hand him a paper, he asks, "What's this? What are we supposed to do? Do I start now? I don't understand how to do this. Do I start at the top? Do I have to write my name? In Korean, or in English? Teacher, I don't know how to write my name in English! *has a panic attack* Does anyone else know how to write their name in English? Can I start now? Should I use my pencil or a pen? Is it time to start yet?" ...usually all these questions are asked before you've even finished passing out the paper. Sometimes he asks some of them twice or three times for good measure.


The gamer - brings a game or toy to every class and will cry to the director if you try to take it away, refuses to do anything but play with his game.


Today I had each of these student types and is what reminded me of the topic. I'll post a few more later.

written by shawn matthews    -|link