Category — Korea
First Day at Jang Ho
Today was not only our first days teaching but alsp our first days at our Friday schools! Big Day! My school has about 30 students and I am only teaching 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. My biggest class had 6 students. Amazing.
The third grade class was wonderful, 5 little girls who were amazing at English speaking. After class they dragged me to the floor with them to play a dice game (pictured above). You throw a dice up and grab others from the floor while the dice is in mid air. There are levels of each throwing and grabbing seqence. . . They are really good at it and I am not. It was nice to just play with the students. At our other school there are many more students (a whopping 120) so there is less playtime with the teachers. I loved it. I had friends at lunch. 
Friends that do things like count to three and chant “Teacher is beautiful.” I need to train Chad to do that. 
After the 3rd grade girl crew I had the 4th grade boys. They requested English names and due to their giggly manner I found it appropriate to name them after my Dad and his brothers. Tom, Bob, Dave and Jim. There was a problem with my Dad’s name. . . “Bob” sounds like “Bap” which means rice in Korean. So, the kid felt like he was the staple food group instead of a strapping young Korroch. Robert sounded too much like robot so we settled on John. I call him John Bob.
Finally I got semi-ditched by my co-teacher for my last class. I am training the 5th grade on Peter Piper. They actually liked it. I hope to get lots of tounge twisters into them.
Happy Weekend!
K
September 18, 2008 1 Comment
Indian Curry
We had Indian curry at school lunch today. It was amazing. We also had little fishies (whole) with the tails of shrimp and almonds. Needless to say – the former was much more delicious.
We’re busy planning and getting set for next week. ….Back to work…
Mmm curry.
-Chad
September 17, 2008 1 Comment
Sports Day and the Nore-Bang…
– Just wait, it was great. I’m writing about… what happened after Sports day….
Teacher Kim (our pseudo-co-teacher Loves Nore-bang!)
After Sports day All of the teachers and staff went out for a traditional Korean Meal. We ate lots of Samgyupsal (삼겹살) and had a great time. The meal is basically strips of pork that are grilled at the table with a few veggies, then wrapped in lettuce with a spicy pepper sauce, radishes, and other veggies. It’s very interactive and communal – like most other Korean food. Kate and I are veterans to this meal as we had it the first night we were in Samcheok. Many of you know that alcohol is a huge part of the Korean dinning experience and their general culture. In small doses this can be kind of fun and freeing. People who never even make eye contact with you normally are “empowered” and want to say every English work they know for you. As this was our first full gathering of the school since we arrived we were treated like the guests of honor and asked many questions about everything from the states to what we call noisy children. :o) I sat across from the principle which was very intimidating as he is known for being “the best with Soju”. Soju is a drink, a lot like vodka, but not quite as strong (but just a gross). So you can understand how sitting here made me weary. The tradition is that you never pour your own drink; someone hands you their glass and you take it – they pour soju into the cup and you drink it. Visa versa… in other words everyone uses everyone’s glass and it’s very jolly and scary. It’s not polite to refuse so you learn (quickly) to say just a little, and thank you quickly as they pour. Then pour it into the other glass you have and sip slowly… That’s my strategy at least. This is only important to understand how the next part of the post happens so naturally. But enough about that… (Hi grandma :o)
We ate and were merry, then decided to go to Nore-bang. (I’m leaving out a pretty important part about a shift in dynamic between the men and women that Kate and I were pretty happy with, but I’ll leave that also for her to explain.) So Nore-Bang… literally “Singing Room” – aka Korean Karaoke, only in a smaller room with just the people you are with… not a bunch of strangers. For those of you from IU – Think Japonai. So imagine what Kate and I were expecting – from our experiences with karaoke in the states… awkward fun. …. no……..
Crazyness!! Everyone just loves it… even our really quiet reserved Vice Principle.
Anyways… that was our Tuesday night last week.
We spent the rest of the week planning lessons for next week (our first week of teaching) and we spent this past weekend hiking in Taebaek with our friends Michael and Melanie for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). More on that later. Friday we’re having a Grilled Cheese party.. It’s the little things like cheese that you’d never think you’d miss so much….
-Adios Muchachos! (I also miss mexican food…)
September 17, 2008 2 Comments