The semester, so far...

Well, I thought that I was back in the swing of things about a month ago. Once I got back in Korea, I expected that the jet lag would last a few days and then life would go back to normal, whatever it is normal looks like...

In my last post, I wrote that I would be teaching five, possibly six different courses.... It turns out that I'm teaching six different courses in two different departments. The amount of prep and paperwork is insane, much less adding in the grading on top of all of that. There have been some changes in the structure of our department this year. At first, we were all excited about the changes, because they included a rather significant pay raise.... But it has turned into a bit of a nightmare.

It's complicated to start with, because there are two different contract cycles in our department. One cycle starts in March, one cycle starts in August. We all sign one year contracts, but the start and end dates are different. I'm on the August cycle along with four other teachers. There are supposed to be 20 teachers in our department, so there should be 15 people on the March cycle. At the end of last semester, three teachers decided that they were going to move on to other things. The administration, in all of their wisdom, decided that it would be a good idea to only hire one new person instead of replacing all three. To further complicate matters, at the last minute, one of our teachers had to quit. So we went from 20 faculty members to only 17.

So now there are five of us on the August cycle and 12 on the March cycle. Most of the classes that we teach are mandatory Freshman classes. Because we were short staffed, and because the incoming Freshman class is apparently the biggest ever, all of our classes are huge. I have more than 40 students in almost all of my classes.

In the old contract, the one that the August cycle people are still one, we are supposed to teach at least 9 credit hours a semester, possibly up to 15 credits, which will be paid as overtime. In the new contract, it is at least 12 credit hours, then anything more is overtime. Everyone has to do 9 hours a week in their office to be available to students for meetings and such. This is the same for both contracts. What is new this semester is my boss has decided that we all have to do our office hours at the same time. So on Monday and Wednesday from 1-5:30, we all have to be in our offices.

This wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the second department that we are supposed to teach classes for. I don't know the official name, but we all call it the language center. They are non-credit classes that students who want to study abroad can take to help prepare them. I taught a language center class last semester, and they're generally quite fun. But because of the mandatory office hour times, we couldn't teach any classes in the language center on Monday and Wednesday. As you can imagine, that threw a bit of a wrench into the schedule. Also, because of the way the contracts are split up, most people on the March cycle contract aren't able to teach in the language center. So, that leaves the five of us to teach 10 extra classes. One of those five is pregnant, which exempts her from a lot of these things. So that leaves four of us to teach these classes.

One of the other things under the new contract is apparently we are going to be given more responsibility and expected to act more like tenure track professors. Which is kinda ridiculous, because none of us are actually on tenure track. But we are supposed to develop course proposals that will be added to the course catalog, develop new programs, and do research. Which would perhaps be ok if I were only teaching 12 hours, and were on the higher salary.... However, it has worked out that I'm still getting stuck with all of the new responsibilities of the new contract, picking up the classes that fall into the cracks, and getting paid the lower salary scale. It's been kinda ridiculous for everyone, but it's been especially hard for me and three of my colleagues who are on the old contract and not pregnant.

So. This semester, I'm teaching six different classes at six different levels in two different departments. I'm developing a course proposal with another professor. I'm developing a new program on my own. I'm testing a new methodology for teaching the department's reading and writing class. One other teacher and I are in charge of starting and running a new English Zone, and I have nearly 250 students to try and deal with. In the middle of the semester, the administration decided that it had perhaps made a mistake in not hiring three teachers to start this semester. So they decided to try to hire some teachers mid-semester so they could split up some of the larger classes. Somehow, I got stuck with making phone calls and screening teachers who were applying for these jobs, then doing a lot of the orientation stuff for the two teachers we actually hired.

I'm excited about a lot of what is going on, it's just pretty crazy. I'm teaching two reading and writing classes, both of which are testing out the new methodology for teaching this type of class. On top of that, one of the classes is full of music majors. They have historically been a problem for the department and other teachers. So the university asked me to try to create a program that would utilize music in teaching English to them. That class has like three levels of things to keep straight and record results for. It's fun. I'm teaching a speaking class, which is just a normal class. It's nice to have one class that is just an English class. I'm doing an advanced level class about understanding foreign cultures. This class is actually the one that we are doing as a course proposal for the university catalog. It's pretty cool, and the students like it quite a lot. Maybe I'll write more about it another day. But there is lots of paperwork associated with this class, because of the proposal.

Then on Thursday, I have to go on campus to teach my two classes in the other department. One is an upper level speaking class and one is an upper level writing class. Aside from the grading, there isn't a ton of prep involved in these classes. But one is from 9-12, and the other is from 3-6. So my entire Thursday is shot with these classes. Last semester, I only went on campus on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I hadn't realized just how important those off days were for staving off burnout, getting things done around my apartment, running errands and just generally living life. It is absolutely exhausting to be in an ESL environment for so many days a week.

So four days a week, I'm gone for about 12 hours a day. I spend most of my time in the office meeting with students, doing paperwork and other administrative things, or in meetings about various proposals. So when I come home, I realize that I haven't had the chance to do any marking or lesson planning for the next day. I spend a lot of the evening doing those sorts of things.

Basically, it's a crazy, crazy semester. I'm doing relatively well. I'm just always busy, and I don't have much time to go do stuff that is interesting to blog about. We are just over a month into the semester, so I don't know if things will calm down a bit now that the initial rush is over, or if it will stay like this until mid June when the semester ends. Either way, I'll try to post updates every now and then on here. I'm still alive, I'm still doing well. There weren't any problems with the Nuclear Security Summit a few weeks ago. I'm just really, really busy and don't do anything interesting anymore :)

Grades and Culture

I finished all of my grading yesterday. It was one of those crazy, crazy days. I was giving exams in the morning, attending meetings in the afternoon, and marking and inputting grades late into the night. But I'm finally done! We have to enter grades and attendance for each student individually, and by the end of the night, the online portal system was noticeably slower. I wonder if everyone was trying to get their grades entered last night?

It was a strange experience, actually entering the grades. I teach in the general education department, and my classes are required for graduation. The university has a policy that anything below a B- means you don't pass the class. If you miss more than 7 classes in the course of the semester, the computer will automatically fail you. My section of the department is also relatively new. We just finished our third year of existence. In the beginning of the program, lots of students were failed because they didn't come to class and didn't do any work. There are about 600 seniors who are going to graduate next year who still need their English credits. As you can imagine, this is causing lots of problems for the administration. So we were basically told to pass as many students as possible.

This is definitely a time when it is hard to know what to do with cultural differences. Where do you draw the lines between objective right and wrong, and differences in culture? Some things are part of Korean culture, but I would never, ever do them in an American context. Perhaps the most blatantly obvious thing in this category is bowing. In America, you just don't bow to people. It is generally considered a sign of subservience, and American culture doesn't really have a place for that. The only time I ever bowed in America was when I was on a stage and had just finished a performance. In Korea, you bow to say hello, goodbye, thank you, respect, friendliness, etc. I bow lots and lots of times every day, because it's just what you do.

In America, if a student missed a large number of classes with no reason, sat in the back corner of the classroom and never even made eye contact, missed quizzes, only completed 20% of the assigned homework and only managed to earn a 60% in the class, they would fail. They could try to appeal their grade, but it would be pretty clear to everyone involved that this student didn't deserve to pass this course. In Korea, at least in my department (I won't venture to speak for the entire higher education system), because that student basically went through the motions, because it will cause administrative difficulties to fail her, and because it makes the department and university lose face to have too many students fail, there is pressure to pass this student. In this particular class, you have to get a B- to pass.

I struggled with this. To me, it seems flat out wrong to pass this student. It isn't fair to the students who actually did the assigned work and earned a B- on their own merit. It isn't fair to future employers who look at her transcript and make assumptions about her study habits and English proficiency based on her grade. I even think it's not fair to the student. Yes, she passes the class and feels relief that she doesn't have to re-take it. But it is also sending the message that working hard and learning isn't the primary goal. The primary goal is just making sure that nobody's feathers get ruffled and harmony is maintained.

Maybe that is the primary goal. One of the aspects of Korea that has been the hardest for me to understand is the whole saving face and maintaining harmony thing. But if I was brought halfway around the world to expose students to other cultures and ideas, should I adapt my grading to a Confucian scale? I believe that there is a right and wrong that transcends culture, but I don't know if this kind of thing fits into that category. This is one of the harder things about living in Korea. I don't fully understand the hidden cultural values that Koreans operate under, and I don't know when I should "forget" my Americanness and when I should stick to it.

I suppose that marking papers gets rather monotonous after awhile, so I could be thankful for the chance to ponder something a little more philosophical than multiple choice exams and missing articles. But really, it just frustrated me. Because I don't know how to navigate this situation. And I know this isn't going to be the last time something like this happens.

For now, all of the grades are in. I passed my student, even though it made me kinda angry to do so. And I guess I'll continue to ponder what exactly culture is, and when it should apply and when it should give way.

Around the office

I had a morning full of exams, but in one class, it was a listening exam. The listening exam only takes about 30 minutes out of a 75 minute class period, so I found myself with some time to kill in the office. Really, I could have started grading the exams my students just finished, but instead, I decided to get lunch and have a moment of quiet.

This is my oh-so-inspiring lunch today. Strawberry yogurt, chocolate milk (it tastes more like dark chocolate and less like liquid pudding!) and a piece of sketchy cheddar cheese. 

This is what my office looks like. The desk with the map hanging above it is mine. We use the middle table as a general catch-all for student papers, a drop off/pick up point for our TAs, and anything else we happen to need. To my right sits Jonathan. He's from Wales, and he's been in Korea four or five years. Out of all of us in the office, he probably fits the absent-minded professor stereotype the best. He is always rushing around looking for things and  muttering under his breath. After we are done teaching for the day when we are all doing office hours and such, he tends to throw out the most random information. He's great fun. 

To my left is Ryan, from New Zealand. Ryan has been in Korea for about eight years. He and I teach a lot of the same classes, so we tend to collaborate a lot on lesson plans and extra activities. Also, he isn't very good with computers, so I fix things on his computer at least once a day. Out of all of my office mates, I probably know him the best. The other guys leave early on Wednesday, but Ryan and I have class until six, and some other stuff to do after. So we usually chat more about life in general on Wednesday night. 

The desk against the window belongs to John. He's also American, but he is significantly older than the rest of us in the office. He has been in and out of Korea for the past 20 years or so. He doesn't spend very much time in here on the days that I'm in, because he prefers to do his office hours alone. So he comes in on Tuesday and Thursday. I don't know him well at all. But he loves to talk about politics. Unfortunately, he is one of those people who assumes that everyone agrees with his political opinions (which I don't), so I often have to watch what I say around him. 

This is the view from the other side of the room. Jonathan's desk is on the left. The desk on the right belongs to Richard, from England. He has been here about six years, and he speaks quite good Korean. He tends to be the person that we go to when we have problems with the online system. He and I also spend quite a lot of time discussing linguistic differences between British and American English. This mostly happens when one of us says something that is idiomatic or culturally specific, without really thinking about it, and it doesn't quite compute. So then we have a discussion about meaning, regional variations and etymology. It's great fun. 

So this is where I spend my days. Or at least, some of my days. The boys are great fun, and they've been super helpful as I try to figure out what in the world I'm doing this semester. They also really appreciate chocolate chip cookies :)

Chatting with Carl

I received a phone call tonight that I want to share with you. But before I can share about the phone call, I have to give you a little bit of background information. 

Credit cards seem to work slightly differently here. First of all, they're rather hard to get if you're a foreigner. Which is actually probably true in just about every country. But credit cards in Korea come with all sorts of benefits. You can get discounts and points and rewards and gift cards and who knows what else... It is also significantly easier to shop online, which I've been doing more and more of lately. Basically, milk, bread, eggs and some meats and produce is about all I buy at the store anymore. I get the rest of it online. It's a major pain and a multi-day process to get money transferred into the correct accounts to shop online without a credit card. Debit cards generally don't work. 

About six weeks ago, a middle aged Korean man walked into my office. He worked for Citi Bank Korea, and he wanted to offer a credit card to the foreign professors. I was a little suspicious at first, but my office mates all knew him, so I went ahead and signed up. He was quite persistent. He had three credit cards he was offering, and he wanted me to sign up for all three of them. I was quite sure that I didn't want three credit cards. So then he suggested that I sign up for the highest level super platinum airline benefits card. I definitely didn't want that. There was a card that let you get discounts at the grocery store I shop at, and several restaurants and coffee shops. I was interested in that one. After a good 20 minutes of back and forth (and me getting very frustrated that the man wouldn't listen to me) we finally got everything taken care of. My card came in the mail, and it has made my life easier in all of the anticipated ways. I thought I had heard the last of Carl and his aggressive sales tactics. Then my phone rang. 

I normally don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the number, just because wrong numbers and telemarketers and such are SO stressful to try to deal with in Korean. But since it was 8:00 pm on Sunday night, I figured there was no possible way it could be someone who didn't personally know me. I was partially right. The conversation went something like this:

Sarah: Hello?

Carl: silence

S: Hello?

C: Hello. How are you Sarah? (said a Korean man's voice).

S: (A little freaked out because I don't recognize the voice, but it obviously knows me) I'm fine. 

C: This is Carl. 

S: (drawing a blank)...

C:Credit card.

S: (drawing a blank)...

C: From Citi.

S: (realization dawns, and with it a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach) Oh, hello.

C: I'm with Lotte* now. I can give you a Lotte card. 

Carl then proceeded to explain to me all of the benefits that came with a Lotte card and how they were so much better than a Citi credit card. I kept trying to explain to Carl that I was just fine with the Citi cards that I had, and I really didn't want another one. I really didn't want another three. I really didn't want any more credit cards at all, in Korea or America, actually. I finally managed to convince Carl that I wasn't going to bite, and we awkwardly said goodbye. The goodbyes were going quite well, until Carl said "Ok, I'll see you in your office" just before he hung up. Hopefully he'll come when I'm in class, or on a day I'm not there!

*For my readers not in Korea, Lotte (low-tay) is a rather large corporation here that does pretty much everything. Like Wal*Mart or Tesco times about 10. Apparently in addition to grocery stores, department stores, food manufacturing, fast food chains, and imports/exports, they offer credit cards. 

A Terrible, Horrible, Rotten, No-Good Kind of Day (With a Happy Ending!)

Do you ever have those days where nothing seems to go right? That happened to me this morning. The batteries in my alarm clock died, so I woke up 40 minutes late for work. I'd planned to get to work a little bit early, so I was still ok, although it was going to be close. I threw on some clothes and dashed out the door to catch the bus. The bus wasn't as crowded as it normally is, so I thought maybe things were going to go well! How wrong I was...

About 13 seconds after I get on the bus, we get stuck in a significant traffic jam. It lasted a good 20 minutes. Apparently, there is a good bit of difference in the traffic pattern between 7:30 and 8:15. I was really concerned that I was going to be late for my first class. It was at this point in the commute that I heard sirens. Lots and lots of sirens. There were 5 fire engines that were trying to work their way through the traffic and congestion of Jongno. Normally, the bus travels in it's own happy lane, and this helps the bus schedule remain fairly accurate. But the bus moved into normal traffic to accommodate the fire engines. Which was all well and good. However. The fire engines kept getting cut off by crazy taxi drivers who were dropping off and picking up passengers, so it still took them forever to get past where we were, as the bus driver is doing some serious braking/accelerating maneuvers in the rush hour traffic. 

I was standing in the bus, holding on for dear life, thinking about how to handle the potential lateness when I heard this sound and felt something warm on my leg. I looked down, and the old man who was sitting in front of me had decided to vomit all over everything. Including my leg and shoes. The bus was still fairly crowded, so I didn't have that many places to move to. The second spew mostly missed me, but I was caught in a little bit of splatter. By the third spew, I was able to move enough out of the way that I didn't get caught in anything.

At the next stop, a whole bunch of people got off the bus. I didn't have time to either go back and change clothes or to even get off of that bus and wait for the next one. So I had to spend the next 30 minutes on a bus that smelled of vomit, with wet and sticky pants legs, wondering what in the world I was going to do when I got to school.

I finally made it to school. I walked into my office building at 9:07, and my class was supposed to start at 9. I went to the nearest bathroom I could find and did my best to clean up. It looked much better, but I still smelled kinda funny. I dashed to my office, grabbed my books and ran to my first class. Normally, I really enjoy my Friday classes. The students are engaged and we have fun. But today they basically refused to talk. Both my writing and my speaking class remained painfully silent. Maybe it was the morose weather? Maybe it was the strange smell emanating from the front of the classroom... Who knows. But they were a most difficult lot to teach.

By the time noon rolled around, I was having a rather difficult time. I didn't have time to eat breakfast this morning, due to the unfortunate alarm clock incident, so I was rather hungry. I was getting a headache from the vomit odors that persistently clung to my pants and shoes. I had one more class that was supposed to go from 12-3, then I had a makeup Korean class from 3-5. I wasn't sure I could make it through all of them.

I went to my 12:00 class, and we went through some student presentations. After the presentations, I decided that the circumstances were extenuating enough that I was going to cancel the rest of the class and go home to change and shower. Thankfully, the bus ride home was uneventful, and I was able to rid myself of the lingering souvenirs of the morning.

I texted a couple of friends to see if anyone was interested in getting some dinner tonight, but they were all busy, so I was left to my own devices. I decided that I was going to be very brave and attempt to have a pizza delivered to my house. I went to the Pizza Hut website to see if I could figure it out. I found the place where you were supposed to register, but it didn't like my name and ID number. I'm not sure what was up with that. I got frustrated and decided to check out Papa John's. But there aren't any Papa John's around my apartment. Finally, I went to the Domino's website. Lo and behold, they had an English website! It was like the clouds had parted and revealed rays of sunshine.

I successfully registered for the website and downloaded the 11 (that isn't hyperbole, it was actually 11) pieces of software, plugins and add-ons that were required by the website to function (God bless Korean web design...) and placed my order. The website was in English, but the program that was necessary to pay with a credit card was all in Korean. I had to go through a long and complicated authentication process which involved secret words, text messages and emails, and I finally paid for my pizza.

A mere 25 minutes later, my doorbell rang and I was greeted by this:

Then I opened the box and saw this. It looked and smelled wonderful. I'm happy to report that it was just as delicious as it looked! I'd ordered it with extra cheese, so it was pretty similar to a real, American pizza!!

Of course, this was still a pizza order placed in Korea, so it came with garlic dipping sauce, two packets of hot sauce, and two containers of sweet pickle slices. All of which are still sitting on top of my oven awaiting a cold and lonely fate in my food recycling bin. 

All in all, it was a pretty trying day. I'm not entirely sure that I'm able to laugh about it just yet. But. I have officially added a new skill to my "living in Korea" list, and that's a pretty exciting thing!

Things I've Seen and Done

This last week has been quite busy. Midterms are approaching at school, and the number of student visits and faculty meetings increase proportionally to the number of days left until the exam. The international Korean TESOL conference was this weekend, and it was two full days of sessions, lectures and workshops. Some of it was really good, some of it was really bad. And of course, because I'm me, there has been lots of cooking, entertaining, and even a bit of crafting in the interim.

I've been thinking that I really should do more to show some of the random stuff that I see all the time around Seoul. I've decided to try a weekly feature called "Things I've Seen and Done". I'll take pictures of various things throughout the week to try to capture a bit more of the daily flavor of life in Korea and I'll do my best to post each Sunday night, Korean time. so without further ado, here are a few representative pictures from my week. 

These trucks that sell roasted chickens are quite common. I've never actually bought a chicken from one of them, but they're usually pretty cheap. I think this particular truck was two chickens for $10. There seems to be one for every neighborhood.

However, I was surprised to walk down the street a few nights ago and see this truck. I've never seen a truck selling anything other than chicken or produce. 

A close up for all of you seafood fans out there. The design was quite good. There were jets of hot steam blowing up from those metal shelves. I don't know if they were cooking, or just warming the crabs. But there we have it. It just goes to prove you never know what you'll find in the back of a truck around here. 

On the way to the conference, we found a really amazing hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that actually had decent prices! I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture. However, this soup place was just a few buildings down. If you can't read the caption, it says "Only the pure in heart can make a good soup". There are cute-ish English sentences that go with just about every restaurant here. This is one of the better examples, because it is actually grammatically correct!

I finally found the toothpaste I've been looking for all my life. If you notice on the left side of the box, this toothpaste is proudly Anti-Calculus! 

We had a lesson on writing process paragraphs in one of my writing classes. I showed them some clips from the movie, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and then we made our own list of things to do to lose a guy. 

This is an essay from one of my students. They were supposed to do some freewriting. Two of my students who sit next to each other decided to write about New York City. This student writes:

The New York City is dream for many people all over the world. 

There are many things. But among those things, most impressive aspect is people.

They are called New Yorker. And they walk New York streets, eat hot dog, take a taxi,

run to their office. That is real, not a movie. 

Her friend had a much longer paragraph, but my favorite section of it was:

New York is symbol of fashion, freedom and young, I think. So New York city is charming city. Maybe if I'm in New York, I wear trench coat, high hills (I think she means heels), and left hand bring newspapers or right hand hold Starbucks coffee. It's all woman's romance. Oh! and I will eat brunch in cafe - like sex and the city. 

Later on, I put them in groups or work on brainstorming topics and outlines for their homework assignment. One group of students decided to write about "How To Survive As A Foreigner In Korea". I asked them if they wanted any help, because I was a foreigner, but they said they had it covered. When I looked at their outline, I discovered that there were three simple steps to surviving as a foreigner here. 

1. Respect my elders.

2. Learn Korean drinking culture.

3. Make some friends in Itaewon.

As a side note, Itaewon is the foreigners district. Apparently the only part of Korean culture we are supposed to engage is drinking culture, but we should do it with other foreigners. ::sigh:: If only I would have know this a year ago :p

Finally, on a more domestic front, some girls came over and we made some cinnamon rolls. They turned out quite nicely!

And as a result of my trip to the Craft Market, I've taken up crocheting again. Yes, it's a little bit early, but it takes time to make snowflakes for Christmas. At least I don't (usually) listen to Christmas music while I make them!

Adventures from Monday

Today was a rather random and unusual day at school. For starters, Monday is my super, super long day. Like, I'm on campus a minimum of 13 hours kind of super, super long. I consider it a testament to how much my job situation has improved from last year when I actually don't mind the ridiculous Mondays, and still come home saying, "I love my job".

Normally on Monday, I teach two classes in the morning, then I do lesson planning, grading and administrative work from about noon until 6, and I teach a class from 6-9. Today, we started study groups. These study groups are extracurricular activities. They are open to the entire student body, and girls who want a chance to improve their English without actually taking an entire class can sign up for these groups.

The faculty was told that we could choose any topic we wanted for our study group. I wanted something that would be reasonably helpful, but wouldn't require tons and tons of prep on my part -- so naturally I offered a speech and debate study group. I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd been told horror stories about students who couldn't speak any English, or groups that were so mixed it was impossible to do anything with them. I'm happy to report I found myself in neither situation today.

I have 15 girls who signed up for my study group, and all of them speak excellent English. They are all political science, diplomacy, pre-law and economics majors. They all have a deep interest in politics, current events and giving speeches. They genuinely want to learn to be better speakers, and improve their technical knowledge of English. I was quite excited! Today, we practice introduction speeches. One of the questions I asked them to answer was why they signed up for this class.

There was a group of six girls who were obviously friends outside of class. It turns out they are all on the Model United Nations, which is where groups of students are assigned to a country, and they have to research that country's position on a given topic, and engage in mock UN sessions as if they were actually representing said country. My girls were assigned to America.

On Thursday, they have to do a presentation about nuclear proliferation in North Korea and the six party talks. They were very excited when they heard that I knew about giving speeches and I was American. After class, the whole group of them approached me. They had two requests to make of me. They wanted to know if they could take their picture with me and post it on facebook (which they did, although I didn't get a copy of it) and they wanted to know if I'd be willing to advise, strategize and coach them regarding the political position and culture of America. It's not exactly the debate team at Purdue, but it's close enough that I'll happily take it!

The other strange and unexpected thing that happened to me involved another student. One of my writing classes has their first assignment due soon, and they are very nervous about it. We've been doing all sorts of work in class together, but some of them wanted to come meet with me and talk about their specific assignment. One of these students dropped by during my office hours today for a writing consultation. I looked up from my desk, and I about fell out of my chair. She was wearing an Indiana Pacers hoodie.

I asked her if she liked basketball, and she said she didn't. So then I asked if she'd ever been to Indiana. She'd never heard of Indiana. I asked of she'd ever been to America (which she'd heard of) but she hasn't been there either. I told her that the team on her shirt belonged to the city where my parents lived, and she thought that was very strange. I don't think she even really knew the Pacers were a basketball team. I have no clue where she got a Pacers shirt in South Korea, especially without having any connection at all to Indiana... but there we have it.

As I was shuffling through my various folders to get all of the paperwork I needed for this writing consultation, the student fell in love with all of my folders. I hadn't thought about it too much. I went down to the campus bookstore and got folders for the various classes and admin things I need to do this semester, and just went from there. But when I started to think about it, I realized that some of them were pretty cute. Just to keep this from being a post with nothing but words, here is a sampling of the folders that are readily available in South Korea.

What folder set would be complete without Pooh and Tigger? I looked for Piglet and Eeyore, but alas! they didn't have any. Contrary to what these look like, they aren't fuzzy. That would have just been too awesome for my brain to handle. 

There's something about frogs and princes that this folder reminded me of....

I'm pretty sure that this isn't the officially licensed version of Minnie Mouse. After all, the folder was only $0.60. 

This one just makes me happy because I'm teaching a class about fairy tales this semester, and it seemed like it was strangely appropriate. 

Classes begin - again

I'm starting to prepare my students for the midterm, so the semester is well underway. However, I did start a new round of classes today. This time, I was a student, not a professor. I think that I've talked a little bit about starting a master's degree on this blog, but due to some extenuating circumstances, I've had to defer that for a year. So the class I started today wasn't related to that.

Today I started Korean class. I debated for a long time if I actually wanted to put in the effort to learn Korean while I'm here. I mean, I know enough to get around. I wasn't sure if I wanted to learn to do much more than that. I even contemplated finding a way to learn Chinese instead of Korean while I'm here. But in the end, I decided I was going to try to learn at least a little more Korean.

Having made this decision, I was excited when I heard that my department sponsors free Korean classes for the foreign faculty. It seemed like all of the pieces were falling into place. Then it appeared there were going to be scheduling conflicts, and I wouldn't get to take Korean classes after all. But we finally got everything straightened out, and today was our first class.

This is the second language I've formally studied in a classroom. I've dabbled in various languages by myself over the years, but that doesn't really count. When I started studying Italian at Purdue, I didn't really have any thoughts of coming to Asia to teach. By the time I had decided this was what I wanted to do, I knew enough Italian to carry on moderate conversations. Today was my first language classroom experience from a beginning level with the added perspective of a language teacher. It was most interesting.

I really don't know if our teacher speaks much English, or if she speaks any at all. The entire class, she didn't speak anything but Korean. Somehow, we managed to get through the lesson and actually understand everything that she said. It's interesting how much meaning can be conveyed through body language. I need to think through more carefully how I communicate with my students in non-verbal ways to try to help them.

It was also a little bit frustrating. My classmates and I have never studied Korean before. We've all picked up a bit here and there, but we don't really know much of anything in a systematic way. However, by the end of the lesson, we were able to pick up enough vocabulary and grammar to not only introduce ourselves, but to introduce a third party to the class. We were able to ask questions and understand grammar. Granted, it was ridiculously simple grammar and questions. We sounded like a class full of two year olds. But we were able to speak a little bit.

My students have been studying English for, on average, ten years. They know so much vocabulary and grammar, it's ridiculous. But for all their technical knowledge, they can't speak English. I simply don't understand how the system can be failing so dramatically that students who have studied a language for a decade struggle to make sentences such as, "Do we work together?" or, "I went to the doctor." Even when I model sentences for them and write the grammar structure on the board, students are still unable (or probably unwilling) to speak. It boggles my mind.

So. Hopefully, I will become more competent with the Korean language than I currently am. Hopefully I will be able to improve as a teacher through once again sitting through a classroom language learning environment. And hopefully I won't have to listen to more American politicians talking about how wonderful the Korean education system is, and how we need to adopt it in America, because then nobody would speak English ;)

A Disaster Averted!

It isn't often that I can say something like this, but today I rescued 35 girls from what was surely a fate worse than death. I base this statement not so much on the reality of the danger as I perceived it, but on the ferocity of reactions both during and after the event at hand.

You see, there was a disturbance in my classroom today. It was unexpected. I'm not entirely sure where he came from. He definitely wasn't there when we started class, but about 5 minutes into my warm up activity, there he was. At first, it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure many of my students didn't even notice him. He moved around the classroom a bit, but he wasn't bothering anyone.

Perhaps I should have taken action then, but I really didn't see the need for intervention. He started to become a bit more active, but again... It wasn't much of a disruption. Then, this unfortunate representative of his race decided that it would be ok for him to touch one of my girls. She froze and was completely unable to move, but I managed to make him leave her alone. Just as I returned to the front of the classroom, he went after the same girl again. Of course, all of my other students were freaking out. I was trying to calmly handle the situation. Naturally, it was a little difficult given the language barrier.

Lest you think I'm dealing with truly appalling situations in Korea, let me show you a picture of my unruly invader this morning.

That's right... There was a wasp in my classroom. And every single girl in it was freaking out. They were curled up in balls on their chairs. They were trying to cover themselves with their books. Chairs were scooting across the floor as far as they could from where he was flying. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

I decided that my only option was to show these city girls a thing or two about how we do things in the country. So I very calmly took my book, walked to the back door of the classroom near where the wasp was, and I whacked him out the door.

The girls cheered and applauded and spoke more English than I'd heard from them all day.

I went back to the front of the class, opened my book, and recommenced with the day's lesson. It was a good way to start the morning ;)

The Semester So Far

The last two weeks seem like they have absolutely flown by. I'm starting to feel a bit more settled in at my new apartment. I think I've finally figured out the best way to get to and from work. It's quite interesting. I can take a single bus to work, but I can't take that same bus home. It comes back to this same general area, but the bus stop is rather awkwardly placed. I can't walk to my apartment from it, because of the way all of the roads and such work. There just aren't sidewalks, and there are lots of highways with fast cars. So, I take a bus to work, and I take a bus, a subway and another bus back home.

Things seem to be going pretty well at work. There are some rather long days. On Monday, my first class starts at 9:00, and my last class finishes at 8:50. When you factor in that I usually get in a bit before my first class so I can collect my thoughts and materials (plus the whole public transportation issue) combined with going back to my office to return books and papers after the class, Monday is starting to look like a 13 hour day.

My office mates seem to be friendly so far. There are five of us in the office, although we all have our own computers. I'm the only woman in the office, which  has the potential to get interesting... There is one other American, although he doesn't seem to be in the office much. To my immediate left is a Kiwi, and then there are two Brits. I also have two TA's that I work with. One of them works for the whole department, and she is more of an administrative assistant. The second TA just works with me, and she will be helping me with grading and such during the semester.

I've met almost all of my students so far. Most of the classes meet twice a week, so I didn't meet all of them until yesterday. I'm going to try hard to learn their names, but I don't know if I'll actually be able to pull off 200 Korean names when I only see them twice a week... Some of them I only see once a week, for three hour classes. The girls all seem to be sweet. They have been a bit shy so far, but that's pretty normal in an English classroom in Korea. There are a few of them that seem like they will be characters in a good way, and there are also some that seem like they could be characters in a bad way.

Most of the classes I teach are just normal speaking and writing classes. I teach speaking level 1 (our current lesson focuses on "My name is ___________ and I'm from ___________") and writing 2 (we are focusing on four different types of paragraphs throughout the semester). I'm also teaching one section of writing through the Language Center. Those classes don't start for another few weeks, so I'm not entirely sure what they entail yet. I teach a one hour a week study group on speech and debate, facilitate a one hour a week book group, and my last thing is a level 4 English class.

The level 4 class is supposed to be a content class rather than a language class. They told me I could choose any topic I wanted, so I came to the first class with a few ideas, and the girls and I narrowed them down to make a class. We are doing a class on storytelling in English. It will have two primary parts. We will read different types of stories from all around the world, then we will focus on how to effectively tell stories. If you think about it, stories are something that we use every single day. If someone says, "How was your day?" they are inviting you to tell them a story. Jokes are stories. Some of our idioms are stories. When you tell a story, it uses a different kind of language than is found in a typical ESL textbook. Also, vocal inflection is one of the hardest things for my students to master, so this will give us a good chance to practice both. Plus, who doesn't love stories??

Basically, things have been quite busy, and I've been scattered all over the place. On Saturday, I was a guest professor at another women's university in Seoul, for a program for their English Education majors. On Sunday, I went up and spent the whole day at the DMZ. Monday was a crazy day at work, and today has been filled with sleeping, laundry and grocery shopping.

Tomorrow it's back to work for another day, although my teaching schedule is significantly lighter. I only have two classes tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a chance to work through all of my pictures from the DMZ and write up some stuff about that soon!

The Korean Internet

Oh, the Korean internet... Sometimes I feel like I can use it pretty well, and sometimes I'm certain that it is out to get me. I (generally) don't have any trouble with the internet. I use a wide variety of online resources in my teaching, as well as all of the other social networking, blogging, and emailing that is part of my life. 

Generally, the internet in Korea is quite nice. It's quite fast (unless you're trying to load a YouTube movie, for some reason), it is readily available at any number of the ubiquitous coffee shops that are scattered around the city. I can use data on my phone even when I'm underground on the subway. These things are all quite lovely. But they aren't really the Korean internet. 

You see, the Korean internet (aside from being in Korean) requires the use of Internet Explorer. Most websites simply refuse to load in any other browser. Internet Explorer is not my friend. We haven't been friends for at least 6 years. I'm a pretty devoted user of Chrome, although I sometimes dabble with Opera. So I often get irrationally angry with Internet Explorer when I have to use the Korean internet. 

Then there is the security. Don't get me wrong, the security is good. For my online banking, I have the usual user name and password, but there is also a digital certificate that I have to download so I can only do banking on certain computers that are registered with my bank. I can check my account balance using just the username, password and digital certificate. But if I want to transfer money, it is a completely different issue. In addition to those three things, I have to go through a three step confirmation process, and I have to enter specific numbers off of this little plastic card they gave me. This basically means that I have to have my wallet with me at all times when I transfer money. And I have several extra cards making said wallet very bulky.

I'm taking over the internet contract for the apartment that I moved into. Supposedly, you can go to the internet provider's website and transfer the account online. The Korean man who previously lived here tried to get everything ready. He called customer service, and was told that it was no problem to transfer to a foreigner. The Korean internet has a lot to do with the national ID numbers that everyone has here. Some Korean websites won't let me even register because my ID number marks me as a foreigner. Some websites let you register, but there are problems with your name.

You see, Korean names are three syllables long. All of them. And in Korean, each syllable represents one "character" made up of different letters. Western names can have a lot of syllables. My name has eight syllables. It has 21 letters, which is each counted as a "character" in the web registration systems. I can't shorten my name, or leave out my middle name, or even use my initials, because my name and ID number must exactly match what the government has on file. So even though I could use my ID number on this website, my name was too long, but one letter. I've always liked the fact that my first name was spelled with an h. But it would have made life much simpler in Korea if I were Sara instead of Sarah ;) We tried for almost three hours to figure out how to transfer the internet contract to my name. Eventually, the Korean internet even defeated the Korean man, and we gave up. I have to go to an internet store later this week to try to sort it out. 

Last night, I was trying to schedule the appointment to extend my visa for another year. I had to register with two different websites, both of which caused problems. I was eventually able to figure everything out, and schedule my appointment, but it took me far longer than it should have. When I finished, I had a headache and went straight to bed. 

Granted, at least some of these problems are my own fault, because I'm not anywhere near fluent in Korean. I also don't entirely understand the concept of the Korean internet, which seems to be more filled with homepages (think geo cities) and blogs that are really paid advertisements... Perhaps if I did, I'd have less trouble with the Korean internet. 

Given all of this history, perhaps you will understand how scared I was when I was told that SSWU does a great deal of things through their online portal. That I'd be expected to upload student assignments to their special education portal, do all of my attendance and grade keeping online, assign and monitor online homework, upload and download documents from a central drive for all the English teachers, and use the professor's portal to communicate with my students. Especially since all of these websites are in Korean. 

I went into the office today, even though I don't actually have to be there until Friday, to try to figure out how all of this worked, and see if I could succeed at my job without losing my sanity. I am happy to report that things went very well. Not only was I able to create class profiles, print attendance sheets and student lists, upload my syllabus, send textbook information to students, and print my syllabi for the first day of classes, I was even able to help some of the other new teachers figure it out too! This was a most unexpected blessing of the day, because I really did expect to be frustrated and leave the office with a headache. 

I still don't understand the Korean internet. I still chafe under the forced Internet Explorer usage. But at least I can upload a syllabus!

The End is the Beginning

Way back in the day when I was studying music history, I remember this little song. It is from the Medieval period, and it's called "Ma fin est mon commencement" which translates into "my end is my beginning". What made this song so unique was that it was a perfect mirror image, so it was like you listened to the first half of the song, then you listened to it backwards. It's a pretty cool little song -- check it out!

I kinda feel like that song right now. Things are winding down at KBU. I'm done teaching. My office is basically cleaned out. I have to make one more trip to drop off the keys to my apartment and print my plane ticket. It's been a rough year there. Hopefully we were able to help make things a little better, and it won't be that bad for the next group of people. Despite it all though, I did love my students.

KBU is a small school. I've had just over 10% of the total student body flow in and out of my classroom in the past year. Whenever I walk anywhere on campus, I see students that I know. Even the students I've never taught know me, and they generally try to speak some English. When I go to the cafeteria, there are students who will bring their lunch over and eat with me. I sometimes get texts or emails from students that are really sweet. I've definitely had a good group of kids this past year, and I will miss them a lot.

I'm moving to my new apartment in the morning, so I'm in the middle of packing and cleaning. I never thought I'd say it, but I've grown rather fond of my little shoebox apartment. It will be strange to come back from America to a new place. These four walls have seen a lot in the past year.

At the same time, I'm already gearing up for my new job when I get back. I've been getting a flurry of emails from my director, TAs and colleagues. I've had to learn how to navigate the online portal system that is entirely in Korean. I'm looking over textbooks and beginning to think about how I want to run my classroom.

I'm packing everything up, which reminds me of doing the exact same thing just about a year ago when I was preparing to come to Korea for the first time. It's so strange, because Korea is familiar now, and it's home. But when I come back, it will be to a new neighborhood and new job. I'll have to learn the finer points of public transportation all over again. I'll have to navigate a new set of office politics. Only it won't be as overwhelming as it was last year, because there is an underlying sense of familiarity to it.

So. In a few days, I'll fly back to America, and I'll spend time with friends and family, do a bit of road tripping, eat lots of good food and generally make merry. Then I'll get on a plane for a very long flight and come back to the Incheon International Airport. It will be a little bit of an end, and in all the same ways, it will be a little bit of a beginning.

Maybe I'll have more time to process the entirety of this year when I'm on the plane, or in America. Or maybe I won't. Because even though there are lots of ends and lots of beginnings, I'm still in the middle of this Korean adventure. But for now, I need to go finish packing so I can move to Haebangcheon in the morning.

The Adventure Continues

I found out today that the university I interviewed at last week has offered me a position! I'm quite excited about this new job and the new opportunities that it will provide.

There's quite a lot going on in the next two months. I have to finish my semester here, teach two summer courses, find a new apartment, move into said apartment, I'll be visiting America for a few weeks, and then coming back and starting the new job on August 25th.

Shortly after I settle into the new semester at the new university (henceforth known as SSWU), I will go back to the other side of the desk, and start an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL through the University of Portsmouth.

It's been quite a year here in Korea. I've definitely gone back and forth about if I wanted to stay for another year. In the end, I find that I'm not quite ready to leave this place. I'm just starting to feel like I'm settling into the rhythm of life here, and I'm excited to be able to experience it more fully next year!

The goal for this year was basically learning how to survive. The goal for next year is going to be exploring more of this massive, giant city I call home. Hopefully, there will be more adventures and other blog-worthy things coming up in the next round of things!