NEWS!!!!

News from Seoul.

Ok so on Saturday we went to the Zoo. It was one of my four allotted Saturdays that I have to work. Not so bad though as the sun was shining and I had a clear head for a change. No late Friday night, and early Saturday morning regrets. Anthony teacher, on the contrary, was a complete mess. He decided that this particular Friday night was going to be the biggest one to date. He was nearly sick on the school bus on the way to the Zoo. He survived, just. Anyway, the Zoo was pleasant in comparison to Beijing Zoo. In fact this Zoo was like walking around a gold plated chocolate factory in comparison to the hell hole that was, and probably still is, Beijing Zoo.

The sky was blue, the sun was beaming and the kids were in high spirits, as were the teachers and animals (again in comparison to Beijing’s depressed cattle). I’m not going to praise the Zoo too much though. In fact, lets be honest, it was a little pathetic and miniature. It was more like a tour of Pets World pet shop. The biggest animal they had was a donkey, whose attitude to the kids feeding them dried carrots was similar to that of Anthony’s attitude to the whole day “Is that much point to all of this?”

As the day drew on the kids got more and more tired. We had a photographer working with us. He was working on commission. So basically he would only get paid for the shots that the school bought after Zoo day. Therefore, he made it his mission to take as many photos as possible. Imagine, it’s 27 Celsius, we have around 50 kids, aged between 3-7, all pacing around a crowded Zoo, and our photographer wants to pair them off every five minutes for a shot in front of the monkey’s, crocodiles, fake wooden monkey’s, fake stone crocodiles and then at a busy intersection in the Zoo….. needless to say come 3 ‘o’ clock we were all ready to go home, including the kids.

A few choice pictures for you here.

Other news.

I have decided to stay on in Korea for another year. Why not? I’ll be coming home in July/August for three weeks. Then it’s back to Korea to start another year at my same school. I love the kids, I love the country, I love the food, I love my life right now….. so why should I stop now? Stop when I’m ready to stop…. I’m not ready…

Other news.

ESL class. I asked them to right a short few sentences on what they were like as a baby. This was Emily’s response. She’s 8 years old. That’s 7 in UK/US years.

“When I was a baby, all people said, “That baby looks like a pretty boy!” But I am a girl. I eat wines.

I have no idea what the wines thing is, but how great is the boy/girl confusion. Her picture do accompany the text was hilarious. It has a picture of her mother shouting “it’s a girl”. Amazing. Another girl drew a picture of herself drinking milk from her mothers breast. And then wrote.

“When I was a baby, I drink milk from my mother”.

All for now.

Time

I was reading ‘The Guardian Weekly’, whilst peddling on the exercise bike, as I usually do. I came across a headline that triggered some kind of wave through my mind, the result in that wave was that I should write a blog about it. The headline read “Five Years On”. It was in reference to the invasion of Iraq. It just made me think of other time frames. I then thought of when Diana died, when was that? I thought of the mobile phone, how long have we been dependant on an SMS reply or a returned missed call? When did Macdonald's first start trading?

It has been 7, nearly 8 years since 9.11. It has been 9 years since the Beckham’s got married. It’s nearly 30 years since Margaret Thatcher first took up the hot seat as the UK’s number one. How many years has it been since you passed your driving test? When was the last time you said ‘I love you?’ Can you remember when you last cried? Did you know that it has been 63 years since the first computer was invented? (and it was the size of a living room?). Did you also know that the English Premiership has been running for 16 years? The game of cricket was first played over 400 years ago, and that I have now been in Korea for 241 days.

Blog completed 21:25, 15.04.2008

A little bit of versatility

The small, compact but hugely versatile ‘blue van’, in Korea, is as common as seeing a red bus, black taxi or grey sky in London. It took me just a couple of months for the van to take its toll on my thinking cap, and it has done so much now that I thought it would be worthy of a mention.

Its colour is navy blue, its size is somewhere between a Ford Galaxy and the Post-Man Pat van. It sits two and I believe goes under the category of ‘dropside’, which I translates to ‘it doesn’t have a roof at the back and the sides drop down’. Its versatility in Korea, I’m sure, would seem somewhat freakish outside of Asia.

Something I hugely admire in Asia is their workman like ability to adapt things to suit their exact needs. They don’t go out and buy something just for convenience, they don’t say “oh that would be helpful, lets buy one of those”, they would more likely say “Why don’t we just use the tea crate to ferment our Kimchi?” or “I think this is fine, just take this bit off, put this here and weld this to that and that will be good enough”. Quite refreshing.

Just to cement the role of this vehicle in Korean society I will start my reel of examples with this.

Learner drivers in Korea come in their 3’s, 4’s or 5’s. Unlike at home, in England and I’m guessing most countries, you take your lessons with just you and your instructor. In Korea you will see a procession of yellow cars making their way down the 8 lane high street, all stopping now and then to bring up the tail. So, one day, to my shear delight, a procession of the ‘little versatile van’ came rumbling through Oryudong. How fantastic!! They’re so pivotal to the ‘to-ing and throwing’ of the country that they even have dedicated driving lessons/instructors for them.

I have seen an abundance of goods being transported around in these vans; washing machines, living room furniture, substantial kitchen appliances, a huge widescreen TV was once seen being hoisted upon the deck. I have also seen someone cramming their entire house onto the back (including the kitchen sink – no lies). Another function of Mr. Versatile is the collection of old computer parts. I have seen the same van working the area numerous times. He has a loud MC style speaker on the top of his van and he works his way down the street shouting out some enticing information to his local Oryudong-ians. On the same street I have seen another van, identical in colour, posture and presence, only this time the back is overflowing with cabbage, which is being delivered to the local Kimchi fermentation factory. Other goods that make their A-B journeys on the van are Soju, Beer, Cooking Oil and numerous others consumables.

The van also acts as a mobile shop. The van stops wherever it likes, the ‘dropside’ feature drops to the side and then the haggling can begin. Selling anything from mixed fruit, nuts, fish (living fish by the way, still swimming and bopping around in fish tanks), DVD’s (on the deck there are racks reminiscent of a DVD section in HMV) , socks, pants, herbs, dried fruits, just apples in huge gift sets, just oranges in huge gist sets and just pears in huge gift sets. You can also purchase cooking oil, gold painted piggy banks (horrific), rotary chickens (spinning and cooking before your eyes), etc etc. The list could and will go on another time.

The one thing that provoked me into writing this blog was the latest addition to the Mr. Versatile of a van. We had another election last week. I have noticed that the little blue van is also being used within the electoral campaigns. The standard cut of the blue van has been thrown through a ‘Pimp my Ride’ style car garage. It comes out with an overpowering sound system, light polluting jumbo vision TV and a small deck area for our local contingency to stand on and serenade the on-looking voting public.

The blue van. A truly versatile and remarkable piece of machinery. Images below.

Photo Time: Photoshop edits

A coffee cup. Picture taken at Yongsan Station.

There's a Korean bakery called 'Paris Baguette' - it has an amazing array of pastry goods. Has to be seen to be believed.

Patty and Hayoung. I taught these kids for about 6 months. Very funny girls. A lot of trouble, but oh so sweet. In my last class with them I made them design me a sign for my new Blue classroom.

Giovanna, Patrick, Elicia and I went on a walk last Saturday. A stream runs from West to East in Seoul, this was our walk. At the start of the stream we came across some street performers. It was very strange. This guy opened the show by unpacking some food and putting it into other packets.

Diaries of Leena and Sara.... (Mostly Leena)

Leena in background and Sara in pink.

I thought I would start a little corner dedicated to a couple of my best students. They go under the name of Leena and Sara. I have taught them from the day I arrived. They're Elementary students. I teach them for 30 minutes a day. I haven’t really noticed their raise in level until now. The thing with teaching Elementary level is that all the work is in the form of text books. My goal is to teach basic and general one liners. Examples. The giraffe is taller than the cat. What does she want to be? She wants to be a doctor. I can ride a bike, I can’t drive a car. There are a few lemons, they aren’t any apples.

The books come in a range of levels and each book last 2 months. So I have taken them through nearly 4 levels. Until now I have stuck to the book and just got them to work on the phrases provided. However, I have noticed their level rising. So, I have started asking Leena and Sara (Mostly Leena, as her level is MUCH higher) some more testing and diverse questions.

Today I had the following conversation with Leena. She’s 9 years old and being studying English for just a year and 7 months.

Toby Teacher: Would you marry an Englishmen?
Leena: No.
Toby Teacher: Why not?
Leena: Because I don’t like other. I don’t like together, Chinese, Japan and other countries. When they marry….
Toby Teacher: Who marry?
Leena: One person from one and another person from Korea. It’s not good and conversation is umm, umm….
Toby Teacher: Hard?
Leena: Yes and personality is different, which isn’t good.

Few moments later.

Toby Teacher: What age do you think you will get married.
Leena: 27
Toby Teacher: Why?
Leena: Mother and Father get married and they same age.

Few moments later.

Toby Teacher: Should I marry an English woman or a Korean woman?
ALL CLASS: English woman.
Toby Teacher: Why?
Leena: You can’t speak Korean.
Toby Teacher: So, what if she can speak English?
Leena: umm, yes then it’s OK. (BUT she had a big frown on her face – she doesn’t approve)

Few moments later, Leena feels she needs to explain herself further.

Leena: Korean woman ok, good. But you are in harmony?
Toby Teacher: I’m in harmony? What do you mean?
Leena: Umm, you and English woman combin, cimbin…..
Toby Teacher: Combin???
Leena: You and English combined.
Toby Teacher: What? You think I have a wife back home in England?
Leena: Yes, I think you are married to English woman.
Toby Teacher: No, I’m not.

Then they all started pointing at my ring and saying you're married. Then a co-teacher came in and I asked her...

Toby Teacher: Erin Teacher!! Am I married? (expecting her to say, No!)
Erin Teacher: Yes, yes you are.
ALL CLASS: Really??? Really?? Really???

Hysteria took over and they all thought that I was married. This is a big thing for them, for months I had said no and they thought I was. The class ended and they walked off shouting and screaming in Korean about me being married. Then, 5 minutes later, Leena called my mobile and asked me one more time if I was married....

Leena: Hi Teacher, It's Leena. Really??? Really??
Toby Teacher: No Leena, I'm not married.
Leena: OK Teacher, I believe you. (she really does believe me)

Very interesting points of view from the 9 year old speaking in her second language. I’m looking forward to many more chats with Leena.