Well, we're almost at the three month mark and we are enjoying Korea more and more. It was definitely a difficult transition at first, but we are starting to find our rhythm and settle nicely into the pace of life here. This "settling" hasn't always been easy, greatly due to our new environment, and equally as much to the cultural divide. We would like to highlight for you one example of this cultural difference, so that you can get a glimpse of the"Korean mentality." This example mostly highlights some negative aspects of Korean culture (there are many positive ones that we hope be come forth in other posts) and definitely does it share of generalizing, as any reflexion on an entire nation will tend to do. But we still think it paints a relatively good picture, so here it goes!
In short, Koreans seem to continually obsess about their health, and the H1N1 swine flu virus has only amplified this obsession. While swine flu, at least so far, has not shown itself to be more virulent that other forms of flu, Korea has gone berserk in an overblown, illogical, hypocritical, hopeless and at time racist effort to prevent its spread.
When we first arrived in early July, our temperature was taken as soon as we disembarked the plane. I'm not sure what would have happened if we had a fever, but thank God we didn't. We were then technically "quarantined" in our hotel for 4 days, which simply went that we were forced to take our own temperature twice a day, and email it to Chungdahm (our employer). After quarantine we went to training and were forced to wear masks all day while we studied and practiced teaching, and had to sanitize our hands every hour. We also had to take lunch in shifts and could not use the stairs, so as to not infect the other occupants in the building. Now, while we teach we have to sanitize our students' hands three times a class, and also have to take their temperatures.
Oh, and did I mention that every foreigner that came to Korea during the summer had to go through some kind of quarantine, but any Korean who came home after traveling abroad for any period of time was quarantine free!
Also, for being a highly developed country with a health obsession, Korea's general population still has many backwards views on disease prevention. For instance, it is always a gamble whether you will find soap in the bathroom (including at our school), and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze is definitely an unknown thing here. Further, we've been told by Koreans that you could not possibly catch swine flu in Hawaii because "it is hot there," or in Japan because it is in Asia. The notion here is that foreigners and western nations are more susceptible to this flu. Why?, who knows!
Perhaps the best example of Korea's unique stance on health would have to be "fan death." This episode occurred when a Korean air conditioning company, in a effort to boost sales, paid doctors to go on TV and say that fans kill people because they suck all the air out of a room, thereby slowly suffocating their victims. Some people here believed this, thinking that doctors could not lie to them, and fan sales dropped throughout Korea, or so we've heard. However, this scam was ultimately exposed and thankfully fan sales today are as strong as ever.
We hope this post showed how problems can be addressed over here, and why adapting to this culture has taken both time and a generous serving of patience. Overall, Koreans are a kind and wonderful people, and it is a joy to be around them, especially the younger generations. Just make sure if you come and visit us that you don't have the flu!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Another Slideshow
We've posted another slideshow to go along with this blog post. You just have to click on the slideshow, which will link you to Flickr. Then you need to click on the box that says "17 items" (it's on the right side of the pictures). Enjoy!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Biking, Parties and Musicals...
Fortunately, our boss and her boyfriend have been kind enough to take us under their wings and show us more of Seoul. They have shown us some of their favorite restaurants, bars, and outdoor activities. Since they will be leaving Seoul in February, they are trying to get all of their favorite outdoor activities done soon. So, the four of us ended up biking along the Han river.
The walking/biking route along the Han attracts thousands of Koreans each Summer weekend. There are even bike rental shops along the river, so we were able to rent bikes for 3,ooo Won each. Even though they were crappy bikes (my seat wouldn't raise and Ian's gears wouldn't move), they were cheap! We ended up biking about 14 miles and enjoyed every second of it. It was one of the first moments that we didn't feel completely surrounded by a gigantic city. However, the best part was that the Korean families didn't bring a typical blanket to sit on while enjoying the sun. Rather, they brought camping tents! They put in the effort to set up an entire tent just to get absolutely NO sun rays. Apparently, getting a sun tan is not as popular as it is in the states.
This past week, a couple who works at CDI took their vacation to get married in Hawaii. Since they didn't have a bachelorette/bachelor party, our co-workers decided to throw them one. Ian and the boys first went to a casino. Suprisingly, it is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so it was built just for the foreigners. Ian enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since you get free food and drinks while you're there! After loosing some money, they decided to experience a Korean arcade. Just imagine lots of bright lights, sounds, and some really weird video games, like firefighting and river-rafting games. After the arcade, they went to a couple of bars and ate some street food.
The ladies (myself and six other women) went to dinner to at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious and suprisingly not too expensive. We then made our way to a couple of bars. I think the bride had fun, which was the most important part.
The following day we went to the play RENT. It was the actual broadway cast, which was exciting. Ian and I really enjoyed just sitting and listening to people talk/sing English for an entire two and half hours. We felt right at home! The only aspect that brought us immediately back to reality was that Koreans get REALLY into broadway musicals. They basically act like they are at a concert. The audience clapped during most of the songs, screamed like little girls when the band started to play, and the front row even had RENT posters. It was definately something we were not expecting. But as we have now learned, you should never have set expectations in Korea because they will most likely always be different or the opposite from what actually happens! Korea has definately suprised us at times, from tents in a park to hooting and hollaring during a broadway show.
The walking/biking route along the Han attracts thousands of Koreans each Summer weekend. There are even bike rental shops along the river, so we were able to rent bikes for 3,ooo Won each. Even though they were crappy bikes (my seat wouldn't raise and Ian's gears wouldn't move), they were cheap! We ended up biking about 14 miles and enjoyed every second of it. It was one of the first moments that we didn't feel completely surrounded by a gigantic city. However, the best part was that the Korean families didn't bring a typical blanket to sit on while enjoying the sun. Rather, they brought camping tents! They put in the effort to set up an entire tent just to get absolutely NO sun rays. Apparently, getting a sun tan is not as popular as it is in the states.
This past week, a couple who works at CDI took their vacation to get married in Hawaii. Since they didn't have a bachelorette/bachelor party, our co-workers decided to throw them one. Ian and the boys first went to a casino. Suprisingly, it is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so it was built just for the foreigners. Ian enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since you get free food and drinks while you're there! After loosing some money, they decided to experience a Korean arcade. Just imagine lots of bright lights, sounds, and some really weird video games, like firefighting and river-rafting games. After the arcade, they went to a couple of bars and ate some street food.
The ladies (myself and six other women) went to dinner to at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious and suprisingly not too expensive. We then made our way to a couple of bars. I think the bride had fun, which was the most important part.
The following day we went to the play RENT. It was the actual broadway cast, which was exciting. Ian and I really enjoyed just sitting and listening to people talk/sing English for an entire two and half hours. We felt right at home! The only aspect that brought us immediately back to reality was that Koreans get REALLY into broadway musicals. They basically act like they are at a concert. The audience clapped during most of the songs, screamed like little girls when the band started to play, and the front row even had RENT posters. It was definately something we were not expecting. But as we have now learned, you should never have set expectations in Korea because they will most likely always be different or the opposite from what actually happens! Korea has definately suprised us at times, from tents in a park to hooting and hollaring during a broadway show.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
B-Ball Korea Style
Luckily for Leslie and I, we live within a five minute walk of Yonsei University, "The First and the Best" university in Korea, as the banners all over campus not so subtly point out. Especially lucky for me, this old and prestigious university has a set of outdoor basketball courts that pass no judgement on who pays tuition and who gets to play upon them.
So as you can probably imagine I've ventured over there quite often with some of my friends from work to shoot around and take on a few Koreans on their home turf. Now, you may think that basketball is basketball, regardless of your global location. You just bounce the orange ball and put in through hoop right? Well, not really. In many ways, Korean basketball can be a game unto itself.
As we've said before, Westerners are a rarity in Korea, so we sometimes get stared and pointed as we go down the street. This trend continues on the basketball court, where sometimes a small crowd of kids will gather to watch us play, cheering when we make a shot, booing when we miss, and yelling the usually few English words they know in know particular order.
Playing in Korea helps you practice your shots under pressure, as you feel like you need to give these kids their moneys worth.
My friends and I have scrimmaged with Koreans on multiple occasions and so far I've learned a few things about Korean pick-up basketball. First, I think Koreans divide basketball into two parts: "offense," and "the time when you're not playing offense." Us westerners call this time "defense" but Koreans seem to have no such notion. Okay, maybe its not quite that dramatic, but still a lot of Koreans won't start guarding you until you cross the free-throw line, and even then will not touch you in even the most delicate way, unless by accident. I do think though that this lack of physical contact might have more to do with the fact that Korean summers are hot and humid, and we westerners look more like displaced ocean mammals than basketball players. I mean, I wouldn't want a guard a panting, sticky, smelly, sweaty mess of a man either!
Finally, Korean ballers are extremely polite on the court. If I miss a shot, which happens most of the time, they often apologize and say it was their fault that I missed, not my poor skills. I had one incident that probably sums up best the Korean basketball mentality and the problems of a language barrier:
I was playing two on two with three Korean guys one afternoon. A man on the opposing team drove to the basket and I fouled him. Not much of a foul really, but I decided to give it to him anyway. He thanked me and then on the next play proceeded to drain a three pointer. Jokingly I told him: "Hey, I gave you the foul call, but you weren't supposed to do that." Then a worried look came over his face, and on the next play he instantly jacked up a wild three pointer that smacked hopelessly off the backboard. I tried to explain that he didn't need to do that, and that I wasn't serious, but it was no use. Koreans are just too nice when they play ball.
So as you can probably imagine I've ventured over there quite often with some of my friends from work to shoot around and take on a few Koreans on their home turf. Now, you may think that basketball is basketball, regardless of your global location. You just bounce the orange ball and put in through hoop right? Well, not really. In many ways, Korean basketball can be a game unto itself.
As we've said before, Westerners are a rarity in Korea, so we sometimes get stared and pointed as we go down the street. This trend continues on the basketball court, where sometimes a small crowd of kids will gather to watch us play, cheering when we make a shot, booing when we miss, and yelling the usually few English words they know in know particular order.
Playing in Korea helps you practice your shots under pressure, as you feel like you need to give these kids their moneys worth.
My friends and I have scrimmaged with Koreans on multiple occasions and so far I've learned a few things about Korean pick-up basketball. First, I think Koreans divide basketball into two parts: "offense," and "the time when you're not playing offense." Us westerners call this time "defense" but Koreans seem to have no such notion. Okay, maybe its not quite that dramatic, but still a lot of Koreans won't start guarding you until you cross the free-throw line, and even then will not touch you in even the most delicate way, unless by accident. I do think though that this lack of physical contact might have more to do with the fact that Korean summers are hot and humid, and we westerners look more like displaced ocean mammals than basketball players. I mean, I wouldn't want a guard a panting, sticky, smelly, sweaty mess of a man either!
Finally, Korean ballers are extremely polite on the court. If I miss a shot, which happens most of the time, they often apologize and say it was their fault that I missed, not my poor skills. I had one incident that probably sums up best the Korean basketball mentality and the problems of a language barrier:
I was playing two on two with three Korean guys one afternoon. A man on the opposing team drove to the basket and I fouled him. Not much of a foul really, but I decided to give it to him anyway. He thanked me and then on the next play proceeded to drain a three pointer. Jokingly I told him: "Hey, I gave you the foul call, but you weren't supposed to do that." Then a worried look came over his face, and on the next play he instantly jacked up a wild three pointer that smacked hopelessly off the backboard. I tried to explain that he didn't need to do that, and that I wasn't serious, but it was no use. Koreans are just too nice when they play ball.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Chungdahm Institute
We have officially started the new term. This means that we get new students, new material, and that we finally get to be on the same schedule! Ian and I were hoping to get the weekends off, but it turned out that our branch is at capacity, so we were given more hours than expected. That was both good and bad news. It just means that we will have to explore the rest of Korea later in the year. With this post we mainly want to explain our jobs and to let everyone know exactly what we will be doing here for the next year!
Our employer is called Chungdahm Institute (usually shortened to CDI). CDI is a private english institute and has branches throughout Korea. In fact it is the most popular English institute in Korea. Fortunately, Ian and I work at a franchise. This means that our boss bought a branch of CDI, making it so we teach CDI material and have CDI regulations, but she owns and runs the company herself. We have been told that franchises are the best situation because instructors don't have to deal with the nuances of headquarters.
There are several class levels that CDI offers. They include:
EC2, EC3, EC4, MM, MG, MT, Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albetrose, Masters
As you can probably guess EC2 is the lowest level and Masters is the highest. Fortunately, Ian and I were given pretty good classes this term. For being newbies we were very suprised! We are teaching:
Ian - EC3, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
Me - EC2, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
We each teach a total of 7 classes, so that about 80 students to remember!
Our schedules basically consist of half younger students (11 years old and younger) and half older students (12 and older). The material in EC consists of reading a few pages of a storybook, answers reading comprehension questions, playing some games, and completing a project or two. Par, on the other hand, is extremely fast paced. The students either have to listen to several story passages and complete questions, or have to read passages and complete the questions. Teaching par expects us to teach how to analyze a passage, find the topic, main idea, and details. We then discuss the topic and outline the ideas on the board. This week we read about stem cell research and the history of media. Even though it's a lot of work for the students, they keep up!
While our classes have been great so far, we are extremely busy! We are working 6 days a week, so we will be working over 40 hours a week. This week we had so many new classes to prep and seminars to attend that we arrived to work around 1:30 and left about 10:15 every day. We are absolutely exhausted, but it's definately worth it!
Even though we are busy, we can't even compare to our students. The younger students go to regular school all day and then attend CDI from 4pm-7pm (two days a week). The students usually attend other institutes, including history, math, chinese, or music. The older students attend school all day and then attend CDI from 7pm-10pm. They are lucky if they get home by 10:30pm. Korean students are constantly either attending school or a private institute, studying, or practicing an instrument! They have very little down time. Despite being ridiculously busy, most students are willing and even excited to be at CDI.
This doesn't explain everything about our jobs but it should give a little insight into our lives here in Korea. Pictures to come on Sunday!
Our employer is called Chungdahm Institute (usually shortened to CDI). CDI is a private english institute and has branches throughout Korea. In fact it is the most popular English institute in Korea. Fortunately, Ian and I work at a franchise. This means that our boss bought a branch of CDI, making it so we teach CDI material and have CDI regulations, but she owns and runs the company herself. We have been told that franchises are the best situation because instructors don't have to deal with the nuances of headquarters.
There are several class levels that CDI offers. They include:
EC2, EC3, EC4, MM, MG, MT, Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albetrose, Masters
As you can probably guess EC2 is the lowest level and Masters is the highest. Fortunately, Ian and I were given pretty good classes this term. For being newbies we were very suprised! We are teaching:
Ian - EC3, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
Me - EC2, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)
We each teach a total of 7 classes, so that about 80 students to remember!
Our schedules basically consist of half younger students (11 years old and younger) and half older students (12 and older). The material in EC consists of reading a few pages of a storybook, answers reading comprehension questions, playing some games, and completing a project or two. Par, on the other hand, is extremely fast paced. The students either have to listen to several story passages and complete questions, or have to read passages and complete the questions. Teaching par expects us to teach how to analyze a passage, find the topic, main idea, and details. We then discuss the topic and outline the ideas on the board. This week we read about stem cell research and the history of media. Even though it's a lot of work for the students, they keep up!
While our classes have been great so far, we are extremely busy! We are working 6 days a week, so we will be working over 40 hours a week. This week we had so many new classes to prep and seminars to attend that we arrived to work around 1:30 and left about 10:15 every day. We are absolutely exhausted, but it's definately worth it!
Even though we are busy, we can't even compare to our students. The younger students go to regular school all day and then attend CDI from 4pm-7pm (two days a week). The students usually attend other institutes, including history, math, chinese, or music. The older students attend school all day and then attend CDI from 7pm-10pm. They are lucky if they get home by 10:30pm. Korean students are constantly either attending school or a private institute, studying, or practicing an instrument! They have very little down time. Despite being ridiculously busy, most students are willing and even excited to be at CDI.
This doesn't explain everything about our jobs but it should give a little insight into our lives here in Korea. Pictures to come on Sunday!
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Gyeongbokgung Palace
Seoul's biggest palace and its historic seat of government.
Gangchon
Korean Corn Dog
Notice how much batter there is around the hot dog
Tom's Tacos
Minus sour cream we can get everything to make tacos!
The Completed Apartment
