This morning I was told that the problem student I mentioned two postings ago has been expelled from our school. Evidently there is no where else for her to go, so she will likely roam the neighborhood and cause more trouble. It's not that this country lacks the resources to handle such cases, but the knowledge and the will. It appears from the outside to be a case of "we've always done it this way," an attitude that is poison to any large organization. I agree that when a single student requires this much of the school's attention a change needs to be made, but merely turning a "wild" student loose into society seems like not the best solution either. There needs to be an in-between solution somewhere.

As if that weren't enough, immediately after the class where I was given this information, I was on my way back to my desk when I started down the main stairs just in time to see a teacher thwap a girl on the head with a thin stick. It was the same teacher I had seen hit a student last week. He backed the girl into a corner, reared back and hit her again as the girl cowered and tried to protect herself with her hands. This time I shouted out, "Hey!" completely spontaneously, the way I would had I come upon one student bullying another. My protest failed to even register with the teacher however. I briefly considered getting into the situation, but fearing an escalation finally walked away, throwing the papers in my hand aside in disgust. The teacher saw me pass. This all happened in a split second.

I felt powerless and frustrated as I walked back to my desk. I'm an outsider, and must do a considerable amount of biting my tongue. It's a different culture and it's not my job to tell Koreans how to discipline their children. On the other hand, what I've seen this teacher do is not discipline in my view, but child abuse.

It's not just about the students either. I happen to really like the teacher in question. I'd hate for him to be caught in the act of losing his temper by a student's camera phone and possibly lose his job.

At lunch today the teacher in question sat directly across from me, which freaked me out more than a little. He began talking in Korean to the Korean English teacher to my right, whom I had spoken about the situation with, but hadn't named any names. As he spoke he made gestures towards me, and the few words I understood seemed to suggest he was talking about what I had witnessed earlier. The English teacher also didn't explain what they were talking about, which was unusual. After quite some time had passed she finally offered awkwardly, "we are talking about the best places to see the cherry blossoms."

"I see," was my only response.

After lunch, the teacher tarried outside the lunch hall and seemed to want to spend a moment with me. He just asked how I was doing, and I told him how I had succumbed to temptation and smoked a cigarette, my first since January, and only my fourth since I quit smoking regularly last August. Our conversation was friendly and easy, though I was uncomfortable and really didn't want to talk to him. I made my excuses and came back to my desk to finish my lunch break.

I suppose I'll have to leave it like that. At least I've made someone aware of the situation. Though he's definitely crossing the line I guess he's not truly causing serious injury to these students. The next time I see something though, it will be harder to just walk away.

Labels: life in Korea, The life of Brian

For some reason my eyes have been opened recently to the level of violence that exists in my school. On one day last week, just as I was entering the building I witnessed a teacher smack a 15-year old boy across the forehead because he wore his street shoes into the school building. I also found out about a girl-gang in the local area, the leader of which is an eighth-grade student at my school. Apparently she has a group of underlings who regularly go to the elementary schools nearby and shake down the sixth-graders for pocket change. She's like the Tony Soprano of the Buk-bu school district.

Just a couple of days ago, a kid in one of my classes was sporting an eye patch. I asked if he had pink eye because I'd heard it was going around. He answered, through my co-teacher, that he'd been hit by an older boy. He said he didn't know why, it was just a random attack. Most people I've told that story to doubt it was really that random. I only have his word to go by, but I have no reason to doubt him. He was embarrassed to have to admit in class that he'd been beat up, which made me feel bad. I apologized for embarrassing him, but I'm not sure if he understood.

Finally, last night I spoke with a young Korean-American guy I met recently, who spent his early childhood in the Korean school system. He corroborated the stories of violence, and added the importance of the hierarchy factor. i.e. a lower grade student who disrespects an upper grade student will likely be made to regret it.

These are just the things I've witnessed personally. I have read and heard stories of even worse incidents from around the country, gang violence, sexual assault, the occasional teacher who loses his shit and pummels a student. Violence begets violence. The kids are certainly getting an education, but one that is found nowhere in the code of the National Curriculum. The quality of public education is a hot topic in this country, as it is just about anywhere. Almost anyone you ask inside the system or out would agree that Korean education is in need of a major overhaul, but if the school itself is not a safe place, haven't the schools failed at an even more basic level than that?

Labels: life in Korea

Itaewon is getting a second Starbucks. There is a big banner up announcing it on a building at the lower end of the street, where all the cheap tailors hang out. Some people might get uptight about yet another Starbucks, but I'm fine with it. Maybe some people like Itaewon's grunginess. I am not one of them. It's not like 'cool' grungy, just dirty grungy. Within the next five to eight years the US Army will no longer be at Itaewon's front door to provide customers for its knock-off sportswear and souvenir schlock. I expect upscale retailers will replace the old shops one bye one over the next few years as rents are raised, leases expire, and yes, as tenants die. Within a decade I predict the Won will be unrecognizable from its former, inglorious self.

On the other hand, does Itaewon really need another Starbucks? Probably not. Personally, I was hoping one of their competitors would set up shop. No doubt the Bucks' move is meant at least partially as a preemptive measure. If they saturate the coffee market, no one else will dare move in.

That reminds me, a friend of mine who speaks better Korean than I could ever hope to, tells me the hip kids are calling it 별다방 (byeol ta-bang) these days. Byeol means "Star" and ta-bang is the old school Korean word for coffee shop. What's most striking about that little piece of argot is that Korea has managed to Koreanize America's coffee behemoth just a little.

Though as for that, I recently learned that Starbucks franchises in Korea are at least 50 percent owned by the Sinsaegae group. Buying a grande latte from Starbucks and buying a liter of milk from E-mart are essentially the same activity. The money basically goes to the same place is what I'm saying. Because of Korean laws regulating foreigners doing business, that same situation exists pretty much anytime you see a foreign company doing business here. Like, if you have spent any amount of time in Korea you have no doubt met a couple where the husband (who is almost always from Canada) owns a hakwon. He may be the manager and handle all the day-to-day operations and it's "his" business in every sense, except his wife must be the titular owner because a foreigner can't own a business in Korea. The deal with Starbucks is basically the same.

These are just some random thoughts...and looking over this, I feel I should mention that nobody has paid me anything so say this. Normally I try not to mention product or business names at all, but this was a special case. Blogging for hire is a growing problem, and I would never engage in that filthy practice....unless the money were really good.

Labels: life in Korea

Sae hae bok manni baddu saeyo!
Gung Hay fat choy!
Happy new year!

As I think most people have heard by now, according to Chinese astrology, this is year of the pig. Some people thought it was the year of the Golden pig, and that it was a huge deal that only comes around only every 600 years or so. Then it came out that it wasn't the Golden pig at all. This is the year of the fire pig. (mmm...barbecued pig!) The latest I hear is that the whole golden pig rumor was started by "the government" (whose government they didn't say) in an effort to boost declining birth rates. You knew there had to be a government conspiracy in there somewhere.

I don't know about any of that. But I will say the golden pig has had an auspicious effect on my blog statistics. See, way back in September 2005 I wrote a short entry about some bankers who came into our school office and left some golden piggy banks as a sales promotion. I snapped a picture of one with my camera phone and put it up on the blog. Well, now if you do a Google image search on the phrase "Golden Pig" the third image that appears is my glittered little piggy bank. I daresay it's the most famous golden damn pig on the Internet! Over the past few months I've noticed my daily hit count steadily increasing, and almost all of them were courtesy of the gold pig. Yesterday I had 32 hits, which is a record for me. I know some blogs get more hits in one day than mine has had in its entire lifespan, but still...

2008 is the year of the rat, Wikipedia says the elements associated with it are earth and fire, so I guess I'll have to start now taking pictures of rats. Eww.

Labels: life in Korea, Meta-blogging

Last night I was on a line 4 train (the light blue line). I was at the end of a row with my right side pressed up against the end of the bench, which is really the best place to sit since it leaves my left hand free for iPod operations.

At one stop a whole group of people exited the train and left the bench directly across from unoccupied. The man seated immediately to my left got up and moved so he was now seated facing me. The place where I was seated also had plenty of free spaces. If he felt crowded he could easily have scooted over a little. I assumed he moved because he didn't want to sit next to the foreigner, and took immediate offense. Now, it must be said that I have no basis for that conclusion other than the fact that I am a foreigner, and he moved. Nevertheless, that's where I went.

A few moments later I detected some movement from his direction in my peripheral vision. I glanced up and caught him trying to stealthily snap my picture with his camera phone. When I saw him he quickly snapped his phone shut and looked at me sheepishly, like he'd been caught doing something he knew he shouldn't.

I was incensed.

All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind about confronting the man, really telling him off, never mind the fact he probably wouldn't understand a word I said. But then, I remembered how once on a Portland city bus I had seen a woman go off on a total stranger whom she accused of spying on her. Whether justified or not, causing scenes on public transportation is generally not a sign of good mental health.

In the end, I did nothing, which was the right choice. Still, the incident brings up two larger issues. One is that my imminent psychotic break might be getting closer. The other is that Koreans treat me like something less than human. It happens everyday. The subway paparazzo is just the latest example. I could give plenty of specific examples, but to avoid the appearance of victimizing myself, I'm going to refrain from it.

Western style is to kind of look out for other people, even total strangers. You know, hold doors open and stuff like that. The Korean way is to look out for yourself and not worry about other people except for your family and friends. I get that. I'm ok with that. I can adapt to going about life fending for myself. But in Korea I find people doing things to actively dehumanize me.

Call me ethno-centric, but I'm not ok with that.

Labels: life in Korea

We had some snow in Seoul over Saturday night and Sunday morning. Unfortunately, by the time I got outside it had mostly gone away. However, I did manage to get a few wintery like pictures.



This woman was selling all kinds of snacks outside my apartment building. Besides the air-puffed goodies, she sells walnuts, chestnuts, and steamed sweet potatoes.



I kept rotating this picture to try and straighten out the street lamp, until I realized my picture was just fine. It was the lamp that is out of whack. Sheesh!



A view of Namsan (South Mountain) as seen from a pedestrian overpass over the Hannam roadway.



From the same overpass looking back toward Itaewon. The mosque is visible on the left.

Labels: life in Korea

We're already a third of the way into December, and I have yet to write anything on this page this month. Bad blogger! Sadly, today's entry will not be any great shakes either. It's not there is nothing interesting happening in my life, it's just, I don't know...maybe it's a winter thing.

For the sake of tying off loose ends, I did not in fact write a novel last month. I got as far as 14,000 words and stopped. Oh well. I'll try again next year. It's too bad really. My story was finally starting to go somewhere, but by that time it was too late to get to the finish, and I had mentally moved on to other things. I guess I wrote about that already.

The seventh and eighth graders in my school started their final exams yesterday. They will continue through next Wednesday. For the ninth graders I've been showing Mr. Bean videos and playing word Bingo. Hey, at least I bother showing up for class. Yesterday I passed by one classroom where Misery was playing on the wide-screen TV, virtually every kid in class was either sleeping or playing with their mobile, and the teacher was nowhere to be found. Now there's some quality education.

After finals are done, virtually no learning will take place in the whole school for the rest of the semester. They will most likely shorten classes to 40 minutes, and in nearly every class the teacher will show videos or just let the kids do whatever. At the end of Last semester I noticed one teacher had made three large Sudoku puzzles on the blackboard. That's fine. At least it uses your brain a little. The only thing is, it was an art class. Oh well.

Labels: EFL teaching, life in Korea

Last night I was on a line one train on my way home from the Itaewon area. I take line six to Seokgye, then change to line one for the rest of the journey. It takes from 45 minutes to an hour to go from where I live to anywhere in central Seoul. Anyplace south of the river takes at least 90 minutes. I live really effing far from anyplace interesting.

So, the train pulled into Seongbuk station and sat for a couple of minutes. Just as the doors were closing five youngish (college-aged) guys ran into the train. It was one of those deals where one or two of them got caught in the doors, so the doors opened again and waited a couple of seconds before trying to close again. In the time that took, one of the boys asked a question of another passenger. Then just as quickly as they had dashed in, they all tried to dash out again. Three of the crew made it, but this time the doors held fast, cleaving the party in two. As the train pulled away from the station it became apparent that one of the unfortunates had got his jacket caught in the door and he was tugging at it frantically. I checked the faces of the other passengers around me for signs of Schadenfreude. Everyone was watching the spectacle, but most sat stony-faced. I did find one girl though, sitting directly across from the boys, hiding her giggles behind a paperback book.

The boy managed to pull his jacket free from the door, they got out at the next station, and I've no doubt they all met up again and got to the destination without too much delay. Little unplanned adventures like that from time to time are a useful thing. If you take the right attitude, they are fun. They are even more fun when they happen to other people.

Labels: life in Korea

My ninth graders begin their final exams today. The distribution of my schedule is such that I have more seventh grade classes at the beginning of the week, more ninth grade classes at the end of the week, and eighth graders sprinkled evenly throughout. On Fridays, four of my five classes are with ninth graders. Ergo, I'm sitting on my ass most of the day today.

If I lived in Korea until my retirement, I would never understand why they have final exams, and then continue to have classes for more than a month before the semester ends. A teacher explained once that it's because they need time for the students to lodge any protests (which there are always are) in their attempts to eke out an extra percentage point or two. I get that ninth grade final are pretty important, and that Korean teacher are also overworked and might need some extra time to fend off the gang of angry zombie teenagers. But six weeks? This is a time when I have to step back and say, "You know what? Not my country. Also, not my problem, and not my job to worry about it."

The only reason I mention this at all is that, once their finals are over, the third graders are impossible. They know that nothing counts for the rest of the semester. They are literally too cool for school. On the other hand, it is one of the very few breaks these kids will ever get in their young lives, so I can put up with it I guess.

If you're reading this on the day of posting, you can see my word count badge hasn't moved in a couple of days. Yeah, don't know what to say about that. I'm out of excuses. I'm just not writing is all, and maybe I've decided not to care...again, and maybe I won't be able to do that...again. The problem is nothing is happening. If you played The Sims for a few hours, and then wrote down everything your virtual people did, you'd have something close to the first 12 pages of my nano-novel. "I woke up. I went to the kitchen. I ate breakfast. I went to the bathroom. I took a..." You get the idea. God, how boring. In fact, I bet if I did exactly that, my story would probably end up a damn sight more interesting than it is now. Sigh! Wake me up when November ends.

Oh, by the way. Democracy is alive after all. Yay!

Labels: EFL teaching, life in Korea, Nanowrimo

If I'm being completely honest, I'd have to say the days when I can't stand my job outnumber the days when I can. If I'm being really and truly completely honest, I'd have to admit that condition has more to do with me than with the job itself.

But then something happens like yesterday when a girl came to the front of my classroom after I'd dismissed class with a friend for moral support. She read haltingly from notes she had written on a piece of paper, "Have you ever been to Los Angeles?" I said I had, and held a miniature conversation on the subject of Los Angeles and Disneyland. When the two girls left to go to lunch, the one who had spoken to me was so proud of herself she was literally jumping. I was proud of her too. Hardly anyone in my school attempts even the most basic of sentences like that.

Today another student caught me in the hallway and announced she'd been accepted into a foreign language high school. I don't pretend I had anything to do with that, but I was touched that she felt it was important enough to tell me about.

So maybe my efforts around here don't go completely unnoticed. That's something I guess.

***

I'm off to a slow start on the novel thing. In fact I almost gave up yesterday. I had written about 300 words, and I hated every single one of them. Fiction is hard. These self-indulgent musing about my own life come much easier.

Despite my misgivings, I plowed on ahead last night, and it did get easier. Word wars are the key. That's how I got my novel written last year and it looks like it will be the same story this time too. I just need something to make me write like hell without thinking too much. Maybe I'll even get caught up before the weekend is over.

Labels: EFL teaching, life in Korea, Nanowrimo

This morning I decided to get out and get some errands done that I have been putting off for some time. I decided it would be a good day to come down to COEX mall in southeastern Seoul. The trouble is, so did about 8 million other people. I don't do well in crowds. This makes living in Asia an extra special challenge. I have gotten a lot better. I'm the Dalai, friggin' Lama compared to how I used to be, but I still get twitchy now and again.

Today's missions included getting a haircut, having my watch repaired, getting new lenses for my glasses, browsing for materials to use in my classes, shopping for shoes, investigating depilitation options (yes really), and one other thing. I'll get to that in a minute.

Right now I'm at Starbucks, not in COEX itself, but under the ASEM Tower, or whatever the building is called. It's less busy here. I'm writing this while I wait for my glasses to be repaired. It looks like I'll have to finish my errands tomorrow, if I finish them at all.

The other thing I mentioned earlier? 8 gigabyte iPod nano. What? Did you really think I was going to wait 'till December? If you did, then you don't know me very well. Ok. Even I'm disappointed with myself for breaking down. I feel it was a reasoned, judicious decision however. The old mini I had laying around turned out to be unwieldy when I tried to use it at the gym. I found myself avoiding going to the gym because of it. Obviously that wouldn't do. Does that sound like bullshit reasoning? Yeah, it does to me too. Oh well, too late. Le Pod est a moi.

Besides, I have been smoke free for about 70 days now, and that ain't nothin'. I know you'll understand.

Labels: life in Korea

Labels: life in Korea, North Korea, Nuclear crisis

You know how everyone sometimes has those moments where you hyperlink from one thought to another, and before long end up way out in left field, and you can barely even remember the original thought that got you there? Yeah, those moments can be fun, but they can also be dangerous.

The other day on the way to work, I had the ipod on shuffle and a Japanese pop song came up. I’m not really into Jpop, by the way. I just had these remixes of songs by Ayumi Hamasaki that I (ahem) acquired, and I liked some of them so I kept them around. This particular remix I didn’t recall ever hearing before, but I really liked it. When it finished I backed it up and listened again, then did it again, and again.

Listening to Japanese music got me to thinking about Japan, and the fact that I have a three day weekend coming up next week. (Our principal gave the whole school a random day off next Monday. No one is sure exactly why, but no one is arguing either.) That thought sent me to the last-minute deals sections of the Korean air website, scouting out fares to Tokyo.

I’ve been to Japan once before. In December, 2002 I took the ferry from Busan to Fukuoka, then traveled to Hiroshima, Osaka, and Kyoto by Shinkansen. I’ve never been to Tokyo however, and have never been to Japan in decent weather (and have also never been there when I wasn’t hammered, but that’s another story). The bad news is, even at a deep discount, Seoul to Tokyo is just a fucking expensive ticket. For just a little more money I could seriously go to Bangkok for the weekend. Hey, now, there’s a thought…

…Wait. Stop. Stop. Stop. So anyway, thinking about Japan got me to thinking about how I’d always hoped to spend more time in there before I go back to live in the States. One thing led to another, and by the evening, I was looking up information about applying for the JET program. (The program I’m in now is modeled, poorly, on the JET program.)

I learned JETS make more than the average teacher in Japan, and their housing is comparatively more subsidized. My salary would work out roughly the same, or a little less than what I earn now, but of course Japan is psychotically more expensive than Korea. Also, JET doesn’t give you a lot of choice about where they place you, or what kind of school you teach at. None of those things are deal-breakers, but it turns out you have to attend an interview in your home country. So I’d have to fly from Korea to the United States to interview for a job in Japan that there’s no guarantee I’d get anyway. Not gonna happen.

In the past day I’ve done more research, just to satisfy my curiosity, about possibly making the transition across that body of water with those rocks that some people seem to care a lot about. Sadly, the numbers just don’t add up. I guess what that really means is, the only way I could see living in Japan is if I were really committed to living in Japan, which clearly I’m not. In fact for me, like a lot of other people, living in Asia is the means to a different end, not the end itself. Maybe that’s the wrong way to go about it. It must be said though, that Korea makes it very easy to live in Korea without being committed to Korea. It might even be that Korea wants it that way.

The same thing happened when I went to Russia two years ago. I approached moving to Russia the way you might approach changing your hair color. In time I realized the other foreigners around me who were having successful lives either had a Russian background or they had studied Russian in college. Maybe they had some special fascination with Russian history and culture, or maybe they were neo-bolshevists (I seriously knew someone like that). The point is, they had a reason to be there, and I didn’t. I only went because I wanted to leave Korea, and that’s where I got a job. I thought I could live a detached life in Moscow the way I had in Seoul. It was a disaster. By the way, I think that speaks well of Moscow. Moscow, for all the difficulties I had there, was more real. Life should be like that. It’s entirely possible to live in Korea without really living in Korea. The more I think about it, it just feels wrong. Any teacher, business person, or other ex-pat who makes an effort to integrate theirselves into Korean life, and who gains acceptance into Korean society, totally has my respect. By the way, I should also say that, I also don’t regret going to Moscow. It was an important turning point in my life, and finally, I did make some important relationships there that are still with me to this day (Hi Masha!)

But there I go again. See how easy it is to get off on a tangent? I was talking about Japan. The Japan idea is not totally dead, but I’d say it’s in its last throes, like the Iraqi insurgency. I very much doubt I will actually move to Japan. In the end, what I really need to do is accept the fact that I will most likely live in Korea for at least two more years before I can move back home. I’m just getting that familiar itch again. Eventually it’ll pass.

But I am still thinking about going to Japan next weekend. Thinking that is.

Here’s a video clip of Ayumi Hamasaki performing “A song for XX,” the song that started this whole thought process. This is the original version, not the remix I really liked. I couldn’t find a source to link to for that.

Labels: japan, jpop, life in Korea, Video

Greg of Not Another EFL Blog recently posted an essay on what events led him to live and work in Thailand. Today is the anniversary of an important event in my life’s journey, so if Greg will pardon me for borrowing his idea, I thought it would be a good time to tell my own story.

Five years ago today, October 10, 2001, my life took a dramatic turn. Events were set into motion that brought me to where I am right now. Five years ago today I was fired from my job.

It was my first day back to work after a short vacation. When I entered the office building in downtown Portland where I worked, I found the call center manager and the human resources director sitting in the coffee shop downstairs, which seemed unusual. I had been friends with the manager and I made a joke about how she had resorted to hanging out with the HR guy in my absence. They didn’t laugh.

Losing your job sucks. It sucks anytime, but things were especially uncertain around this time. The American economy was in a deep freeze, and it was extremely difficult to find work. More importantly though, I was no longer interested in doing the kind of work I had been doing. My liberal arts degree wasn’t serving me so well. French majors aren’t so much in demand, especially ones that weren’t that good. With few exceptions, the only jobs I had ever done were customer service related. Nearly all my jobs since college were in call centers, the Mcjobs of the new economy.

For the next nine months I collected unemployment from the state of Oregon, worked temp jobs here and there, watched TV, ate too much, drank my 401k, and generally wondered what the hell I was going to do with my life.

Along the way I hatched numerous plots and schemes, looking for a way out of my funk. For a short time I considered working as a professional French to English translator, until I discovered most people who do that sort of thing are native bilinguals, or at the very least better French speakers than I was. An addiction to late-night re-runs of ER got me thinking about going to nursing school. That fantasy ended when a friend who was an actual nurse asked me whether I’d be able to catheterize an elderly female patient. A passing obsession with baking bread had me considering baking as a vocation. Deciding that more education was the answer, I applied to Oregon State, where I intended to get a second bachelors degree (political science this time) and go on to law school, the idea being fueled by West Wing this time, if I remember correctly. It turned out I was maxed out on my student loans, so there was no way I could get any funding to go back to college. I did however get my acceptance letter after I’d been in Korea for a month already.

In June of 2002 I went to a bridal shower. Yes, you read that right. I went to a bridal shower for my friend Cyndy, the same friend whose wedding I performed the day before I left for Korea later that summer.

At the shower, I asked Christine, one of Cyndy’s roommates, about some other friends of theirs who had recently left for Korea. They were doing fine, she said, having a good time and saving their money. She then suggested that maybe I should think about doing the Korea thing as well. Although teaching in Korea had been suggested to me before, I had never seriously considered. I assumed you had to be a qualified to get a job. Silly me. She assured me it was amazingly easy to get employment in Korea, with all kinds of perks like an apartment, airfare, and bonuses that I have now come to take for granted as part of a standard contract, but which seemed pretty cool at the time. She said if I wanted to know more I should look at a certain website. (If you know anything at all about EFL, then you know which site I’m talking about.)

Even then I didn’t think I was serious about it. It was just a new idea to entertain, like any of the other hundred other career paths I considered. I knew how these things worked. I’d toy with the idea, maybe even get mildly obsessed with it for a time, then eventually lose interest and move on to something else.

Later that night though, as I looked over the ruins of the past several months, and faced the bleak prospects of the months ahead, I reached a mental breaking point. It’s impossible to describe what it’s like to look into the black abyss that is your life and think, “well, anything has got to be better than this.”

Can I just stop here to editorialize for a minute? Many in the EFL community are very sensitive about dispelling the notion that English teachers in Asia are losers who came here as a last resort because they were unable to find work in their own countries. I would totally be sensitive about that too, except that when I came here I was a loser who couldn’t find a job in my own country. English teaching was a last resort for me, at the time, and I’m not ashamed of that. EFL gave me a second chance to do something useful with my life, as I hope you’ll see. Anyway, on with our story…

Around 2am I fired up the computer, typed in the address Christine had given me, and began browsing for jobs. I applied for four jobs I found in the listings, and within a day had received offers for three of them. Few questions were asked. None of them wanted to interview me. The most pressing question on their minds seemed to be, “How soon can you get here?”

I didn’t jump at any of those first offers, but continued to apply for positions for the next few weeks. Then one day a job in the town of Gimcheon that offered a motorcycle as part of the package caught my eye. Though I had never once ridden a motorcycle in my life to that point, the offer seemed just kooky enough to suit my style. I first arrived in Korea on August 12, 2002.

As a teacher that first year, I sucked. I had no idea what I was doing, but gradually, I began to realize the hogwon was also clueless. As far as they were concerned, I was doing a great job. To them, I was fulfilling my main contractual obligations, which seemed to be show up, be foreign (read: white), and speak English. My role as a teacher and they way I’m perceived by my employers and students is an issue I continue to struggle with, even now. Back then though, I just knew that I was dissatisfied. My job was extremely frustrating at times, but I really enjoyed the relationship I was developing with my students, and liked teaching just enough to know that I wanted to be better at it.

It was not romance but economics that led me to take my CELTA course in Bangkok. The course is simply cheaper there than in other places where it is offered. The others in the group may not know this, but I was scared to death for most of the course. Ok so it wasn’t a semester at MIT. It was still one of the most intense things I’d ever done to that point in my life. We had a really good group though. We pulled together and got each other through it. That isn’t to say we were the best CELTA group ever or anything, but I’ve since heard stories of training groups that broke out in fistfights and stuff like that, so I think were did pretty well over all.

Since that time I returned to Korea for another year, then fled to Russia, where at least my training would be appreciated. It was. I’m a much better teacher for having taught in Moscow, but at the end of the contract I finally decided to return to Korea yet again.

Now I’m in a public middle school in Seoul. Some things in my life could be better, but over all it’s going quite well. A lot of other things have happened along the way that have gotten me to this point, but I do believe the fundamental shift that put me on this path happened five years ago today in that coffee shop in Portland.

Labels: EFL teaching, life in Korea, personal history

There’s just really nothing exciting going on that I feel the need to say anything about. Here’s a collection of minor updates instead.


My new vertical blinds will be installed this Saturday. The guy came the other day to measure and show me some samples. If you’re really into beige, then Korea is your kind of country.

I’m using a Mr. Bean video in my lessons this week. The kids love it. I’m doing a couple of different activities with it and most of them are good, but I made a short worksheet to use for the second viewing (CELTA veterans will know this as the Minimal Response Task or MRT). My MRT is way too hard.

My usual lesson planning pattern seems to be plan the lesson I want to do, then make it easier, then make it easier again. Debut the lesson on Monday, decide it’s still too hard, then modify it yet again. That’s not an exaggeration.


It’s now 39 days since my last cigarette. Today I used the last of my “step 2” 14mg nicotine patches so that means tomorrow I start using the “step 3” 7mg ones. I’m a little worried about that. At least I don’t have any classes tomorrow, so my students won’t have to feel the wrath of my disease. On the other hand, I’ll be sitting around in the teachers’ room all day, and that might not be the best thing. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.


Because of my foot thing I skipped going to the gym on Monday, but I’ll hit it tonight. I’ll spend a few minutes on the cross-trainer, and maybe [grumble, grumble] walk on the treadmill for a while.

There’s more to my disastrous workout last Saturday that I haven’t even mentioned. Besides rendering myself incapable of walking for a day, it looks like I may have toasted my iPod. Maybe “drowned” is a better word. See, I have this headphone-lanyard thing that holds the iPod around my neck, and it’s the neatest thing ever, except on Saturday it was kind of hot in the gym and of course I was exercising, so I worked up quite a sweat. This next part is kind of gross, but what happened I guess is the sweat ran from my neck down the lanyard and directly into the ipod. Oops. About 15 minutes into my workout the sound started cutting out. I looked down at the iPod and saw the battery indicator flashing back and forth between fully charged and nearly empty.

Of course I immediately removed the soaking wet iPod and tried to shut it down. As soon as I let go of the button it sprang back to life and resumed its manic rapid cycling. Crap! Over the next few days I let it dry out completely and did all four R’s of trouble shooting. Even a complete restoration didn’t fix the problem. It operates perfectly now, except that it won’t turn off, so the battery runs down. Now it constantly shows that little plug symbol whether it’s on the charger or not. This does not please me, as you might imagine. This gym thing is turning into a costly venture.

Labels: EFL teaching, iPod, life in Korea, quitting smoking