There are three types of people in Korea...

... men, women and Ajumas. Or so some people say. An Ajuma is a very specific type of woman. Some people say it is based on if a woman is married or not, or if she falls into a certain age range. Perhaps that is true in the generic sense of the word, but the Ajuma is a very specific type of woman.

I think there are perhaps three sides to the Ajuma. On the one hand, you have to respect them. Korea's recent history has been rather compressed when you stop and think about it. Think about the Korea represented in M*A*S*H.

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Yeah, it was a TV show. But the Korean war was no laughing matter. It was three years of brutal war. Like the American Civil War, it was one country fighting against itself. 

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The Korean war ended in 1953. That means that the children who were born in its aftermath, and grew up facing the effects of that war are still very much alive. 

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They are very much in power in Korea right now. When the generation that is currently shaping policy and culture were growing up, Korea was a third world, war torn refugee camp. 

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Now it looks like this. Stuff like this is supposed to take generations, not decades. Seoul has become a major international city, and Korea is an economic force to be reckoned with. You can't go from rice paddies to Samsung in 50 years without some serious determination, hard work, and some major sacrifice. 

I sometimes (perhaps even often) get annoyed with the Ajumas, and their male counterpart, the Ajoshis, but I can't even fathom what it must be like for them to walk around Seoul as it exists today. I don't understand the kind of work and sacrifice that it took for them to rebuild Korea the way they did. And for that, they deserve a TON of respect. 

However, there is a second side to the Ajuma. Naturally, not all women who fall in the 40-60 age range are true Ajumas. But it's really easy to tell if you're dealing with a true Ajuma, or just an ajuma wanna-be. Take a look at some of these examples. 

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A true Ajuma will be fearless in her curiosity, contempt, or any other feelings towards a Foreigner (or anyone else for that matter). You should also note the tightly permed hair helmet, loud print shirt, and wheeled tote bag that are good indicators of a true Ajuma. 

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True Ajumas have more important things to worry about than being fashionable. She is very conscious about protecting her skin from the Evil Rays of Death from the sun. Note the large, often plastic, usually rhinestone covered visor and the brightly colored long sleeve shirt she is wearing. Also note the conflicting patterns on her shirt and pants. There is also the ever-ubiquitous rolling tote bag. 

One other important note about the true Ajuma. For reasons unknown to me, the true Ajuma feels like she shouldn't have to wait in lines, make room on the sidewalk, or veer out of her way in the slightest to accommodate anyone else. I've lost count of how many times I've been elbowed by a true Ajuma on the subway. Check out this video, around the 0:42 mark for a prime example of what the true Ajuma will do. 

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Just this morning, I was on my way to work, and this exact situation happened to me. There are helpful signs, stickers, plaques and arrows to remind people which side of the stairs and halls to walk on, and to walk in a straight line. A true Ajuma doesn't notice such things. Instead, she meanders and darts her way through the sidewalks, subways and store aisles of Seoul. I'd never seen anything quite like this before. The true Ajuma walks so slowly that you want to pass her. You wait patiently, until you see an opening, then just as you start to speed up, she darts (with all the speed and agility of an Olympian) to the very space you were getting ready to pass through. Once her objective is accomplished, she slows back down to an appropriately geriatric pace. At least, that's how it often feels when one is dealing with the true Ajuma. 

It would be remiss of me to come this far in our tour of the Ajuma and not show you what many consider to be the most endearing aspect of the true Ajuma. The true Ajuma and Ajoshi have quite a bit of free time on their hands, comparatively speaking. They like to go on trips and tours. Of course, since we are talking about the true Ajuma, it takes something special to spice up her trip. I would like to introduce you to the Noraebus.

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This is a normal bus that you can charter for your trip. It has seats that are moderately uncomfortable and that special smell that seems to come part and parcel with tour buses. What sets a Noraebus apart is the Norae part of it. It comes equipped with its very own karaoke system. Koreans love to do karaoke, but it's quite different from what you're thinking. You and your friends go rent a private singing room, and you can live out your squelched rock star dreams to your heart's content! I've heard its quite the experience, although one I have managed to avoid thus far. The true Ajuma loves to sing and dance on the Noraebus. Technically, it is illegal to stand up and dance on the bus, but the true Ajuma isn't stopped by such details. 

I recently had the opportunity to interact with some true Ajumas at their very best. I wrote several days ago about my trip on the Wine Train. The Foreigners were all together on one car, and there were lots of Ajumas and Ajosshis on the next car over. We were on our way home from the winery when this all happened. The train stopped at several stations on our trip back to Seoul. There was a tiny compartment with stairs to get on and off of the train in between our cars. At one station, both of the doors opened at the same time, and one of the Foreigner girls dashed over to the Korean car. We were all confused, but continued our conversations. 

The next thing I know, she comes back and starts getting her friends and more and more people start going to the Korean car. When the doors opened, there was a lot of music and laughter coming from the Korean car, so my friends and I decided to go check it out. When we walked in, we discovered that the Koreans were having a lot more fun than the Foreigners... The car was FULL of dancing Ajumas and Ajoshis. There was one Ajuma in particular who was quite excited to see so many Foreigners all in one place, and she was quite insistent that we dance with her. Thankfully, the Ajuma dance isn't difficult, and somewhat resembles a 6th grader trying to dance. 

As the song came to an end, and I started to head back to my car, the Ajuma decided that we should have a picture together. And that, my friends, is how this picture of me with a true Ajuma at her best came into being. 

A Little Train Travel

A few weeks ago, some of my friends and I decided to go on a tour of the countryside. There is this guy who puts together trips for foreigners and he advertises them on facebook. When I went to the Bull Fight Festival, it was with his tour group. One of the trips that popped up on my newsfeed that sounded pretty awesome was something called the Wine Train Tour.

I started to check it out, and this train is a normal commuter train between Seoul and Busan (basically the northern part of the country to the southern part), but there are a few special cars attached to the end. There was a ginseng car, a white wine car and a red wine car. We were booked on the red wine car, I think.

The basic idea is you get on this train that's all decked out with wine themed decorations, and they do a wine tasting on the way to this winery in southern Korea. After we got to the winery, there was lunch and a wine spa treatment, then we went to a traditional music performance. On the train on the way back, they also gave us some more wine.

Korea is not known for it's great wine, so I definitely wasn't blown away on this trip, but it was definitely nice to get out of the city a little bit and try something new! The people on the train were really friendly, and I walked away with some new acquaintances!

I had two travel companions -- Steph

and Rachel!

They served some snacks with the initial wine tasting. It wasn't quite your normal snack selection for this kind of event. There were orange slices, some sort of strange fake cheese bread, saltine and ritz crackers, and small squares of American cheese, still in their plastic wrappers. 

Instead of normal seats, there were these velvet-esque sofas with tables set up. 

We rode past lots of rice paddies, but its too early in the season to clearly see the rice shoots. 

At lunch, there were four different kinds of wine you could sample. The wine was kept in these giant oak barrels with a spout on them, and you could fill up the tiny bottles to share with your table. 

These were like hot tubs, only they were filled with the liquid that's leftover from making wine instead of water. It felt lovely!

These were the overflow foot baths. 

The tour guide told us that if our legs didn't turn a little red from the wine soaking, we should immediately go to the hospital. Thankfully, we were all safe and red. 

There was a wine cannon!

and some baby pianos. 

There is a $50,000 bottle of wine in that locker. I love wine, but I can't imagine paying that much for a single bottle. 

They had these really cool tea pots, but they were like $150 each. So I contented myself with a picture of a tea pot instead of an actual tea pot. 

"It's time to get drink.
So as not to be the martyred
slaves of time,
Get drunk:
Get drunk without stopping!
On wine,
on poetry,
or on virtue as you wish."

Aside from the obvious moral problems with this, it was pretty funny. It was hanging above one of the walkways to the cellar.

At the musical instrument museum, there was a GIANT drum. Like, it was 20 feet tall and weighed 6 tons kind of giant drum. 

There was this statue of a really famous ancient musician, but I don't remember what he was famous for. I guess it's true what they say -- life imitates art ;)

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!

A Note To My Fellow Teachers

I love so many things about teaching. I love that moment when a light bulb comes on for a student and you can see them understand a new concept. I love reading the notes that they write to me and hearing their stories. I love the opportunity to build relationships with people, and hopefully influence them in positive ways as they prepare for this crazy thing called life.

Yes, there are times I wish I didn't have quite so many lessons to plan, or quite so many essays to grade. Sometimes I think I'm going to be buried with a red ink pen firmly in my hand. I have problems with my school administration (which I understand goes with the job) and that sometimes interferes with my relationship with my students. But it's still worth it, because I love teaching.

All of the relational aspects of this job make teaching one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done. But from time to time, something comes along and it just knocks the air out of me and leaves me unsure how to proceed. One of those things happened yesterday.

During the course of the day, a young woman came to my office. She seemed a little more shy than normal, but she came over to my desk and we started talking a little bit. After a few minutes, she told me that she was so excited, because over the weekend, she had made friends with a foreigner. She was so happy that this foreigner wanted to talk to her, even though her English is only middle level.

Of course, I think it is wonderful when students actually work to use English outside of the classroom, and I was happy for her. I started asking her questions about her new friend, and that's when I started to get that terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

This foreigner had found the young woman on facebook and tried to be friends with her. He then found her on a popular messenger service and started talking to her on there. She was having trouble understanding some of the messages, so she asked me to read them. This man was calling the young woman things like "dear", "cutie", and "honey". He was asking about her friends, and if she could introduce him to her friends. He wanted her to send pictures of herself and her friends. He was constantly asking her to call him so he could hear her voice. He was trying to get her to come to his apartment so he could cook her food from his home country. She came to me on a Tuesday, and he found her on facebook on Sunday.

I tried my best to explain to her why it was inappropriate for him to be calling her pet names, ask for pictures and introductions, and invite her to his apartment. I told her that she shouldn't talk to him anymore. I told her to come back and talk to me if he wouldn't leave her alone, and I would talk to him and make him understand. I told her that I would be happy to introduce her to other foreigners if she wanted to have some foreign friends. She seemed to understand everything I said, and she said that she wouldn't talk to him again.

This situation is so difficult. It seems like the culture between Korea and America is so different on this point. In America, I don't give my phone number to everyone I meet. I don't text people I don't know well. If someone friends me on facebook and I don't know them, I immediately ignore their request. It seems like people more readily give out their phone number and engage in relationships with people in Korea. It is normal for professors to put their cell phone number on the top of the syllabus. None of my students have ever abused that, but they do send me texts and call me when they have questions or need clarification. Maybe it has to do with individualism vs. collectivism, but I certainly don't understand any of that well enough to comment on it. What I do know for sure is that this was a terrible spot for this young woman to be put in, because she had absolutely no way of knowing that this man was trying to take advantage of her.

It is easy to complain about all of the strange things that happen to us as foreigners in Korea. I get really tired of the stares, the assumptions that I can't use chopsticks or I don't like spicy food. I often feel like I'm some sort of freak side show, rather than a real person with real thoughts and feelings. It's annoying and sometimes inconvenient for me. But there's a much more dangerous underside to this fetishization of the foreigner.

So many young people in Korea have grown up watching Western movies and TV shows. They see Western models on the subway ads. They listen to Western pop music. They get some very strange ideas about what Western culture is, and how it is supposed to work. They don't really understand how Western culture should work, which in normal circumstances would be more than ok. The vast majority of Westerners (myself included) don't really understand how Korean culture works. But every once in awhile, some creep comes along and preys on that cultural misunderstanding to try to  manipulate a situation to get what they want.

I know that lots of English teachers in Korea feel like they aren't "real" teachers. They feel like walking tape recorders, or a magician who is expected to conjure up games which a) entertain the kids, b) please the parents, and c) magically imbue English fluency. As we all know, every school in Korea is different. All of those things may be true for you. What I do know is, regardless of our lesson plan restrictions, we do have the opportunity to educate our students about other things.

Korea is rapidly becoming more multi-cultural. Yeah, it probably doesn't look like New York, London, Toronto or Sydney's multiculturalism. But it's coming. We have the opportunity to teach our students about our culture. About our interactions. About what is and isn't ok to read in text messages from a random businessman you've never met. We can equip our students with something more powerful than perfect English grammar. We can give them the tools to know when something isn't quite right with their interactions with a foreigner, and hopefully, we can help them realize that foreigners aren't all movie stars and don't all act like movie stars. Maybe, just maybe, we can teach our students to see past our small heads, big eyes and funny colored skin and see that we - the foreigners -- are no different from the Koreans. We are good and bad, selfish and selfless, and we need to be evaluated as people rather than a Hollywoodized phenomenon.

To my fellow teachers in Korea -- what do you think about all of this? How can we help our students learn the boundaries of culture so they can have some form of radar to detect creeps like this guy?

The Trick Art Museum

Last weekend, I went to the Trick Art Museum with my friend Moon. It is another great, interactive museum in Korea. The whole thing was full of optical illusions and interactive paintings. It's definitely someplace you need to go with a friend and a camera! We had so much fun playing with all of these different poses!

What a good way to take out some aggression after a busy day at work!

We always knew Van Gogh was crazy, right?

"The Blind Leading the Blind"

Moon is a Forensic Accountant, so this picture was particularly appropriate ;)

I guess the accounting police finally caught up with Moon. 

This has got to be the ultimate Wet Willy. 

30 Day Song Challenge -- in one day!

A bunch of my friends on facebook have been doing this 30 day song challenge. I'm not motivated enough to actually deal with it every day, plus I get really annoyed with how much it clutters up my newsfeed. But it seemed like an interesting idea, and I do love music. So, lovely readers, here goes a whirlwind tour through my iTunes library! 


All of the links go to youtube videos. Some of the videos are worth watching (specifically, the video for "Le Lion Est Mort Ce Soir". That is one worried hippo) and some of them are just nice music.


I thought it was only fair to do two versions of this list -- one for classical music and one for non-classical music. 


day 01 - your favorite song
Vitali - Chaconne
Sovereign Grance - To Live is Christ



day 02 - your least favorite song
Ravel - Bolero
Justin Bieber - Baby


day 03 - a song that makes you happy 
Rossini - Buona Sera, Mio Signore from Il Barbiere de Seviglia (start around the 5:00 mark to get to the part that makes me happy, although the whole thing is pretty awesome!)
Glee Cast - Blackbird


day 04 - a song that makes you sad
Rachmaninoff - Elegie from Op. 3
Ella Fitzgerald - Someone to Watch Over Me


day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone
Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps
Alexei Murdoch - Orange Sky


day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Camp Chazon - Matilda the Gorilla


day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event 
Bizet - Carmen Fantasy for Piano, 6 Hands
Coralie Clement - Mes Fenêtres Donnent Sur la Cour


day 08 - a song that you know all the words to (For the classical version, since I don't sing, I'm substituting notes for words)
Debussy - Clair de Lune
Keith and Kristen Getty - The Power of the Cross


day 09 - a song that you can dance to
Traditional English - Mr. Bevridge's Magot
The Wonder Girls - Nobody


day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep 
Tomas Luis de Victoria - Victoria - Tenebrae Responsories - O vos omnes
Secret Garden - Nocturne


day 11 - a song from your favorite band 
Bernstein - Overture from "Candide" by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Jarvi
Allison Kraus - Baby of Mine


day 12 - a song that makes you feel lonely

Paart - Spiegel im Spiegel
Beyonce - Learn to be Lonely


day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure 
Bach - Air on the G String
Alexander Rybak - Fairytale


day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love 
Khachaturian - Toccata in eb minor
Radiohead - No Surprises


day 15 - a song that describes you 
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
The Reading Rainbow - Theme


day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate 
Liszt - La Campanella
Josh Groban - You're Still You


day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio
Mozart - Eine Kleine Nacht Musik
Various - K-Pop


day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
Rachmaninoff - Suite No. 2 Op. 17 (Tarantella)
Barbara Hazelwood - At the Gray Havens


day 19 - a song from your favorite album
Massenet - Meditation from "Thais" by Yo Yo Ma and Kathryn Scott 
Annie Lennox - Into the West


day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry 
Beethoven - Sonata Op. 57 No. 23 "Appassionata"
Hans Zimmer - The Dark Knight


day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy
Debussy - Golliwog's Cakewalk
Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine


day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad
Mozart - Ach, Ich Fuhl's from "Die Zaberflote"
Impact Repertoire Theater - Raise it Up


day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
Barber - Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
Jekyll and Hyde - Take Me As I Am


day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
Mozart - Requiem Op. 626, Itroit and Kyrie
Jon Foreman - Learning How to Die


day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
Strauss - Adele's Laughing Song from "Die Fledermaus"
Unknown - Le Lion Est Mort Ce Soir


day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument
Liszt - Un Sospiro
Elton John - The Piano Man


day 27 - a song that you wish you could play
Franck - Prelude, Chorale et Fugue
Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind


day 28 - a song that makes you cry
Dvorak - Rusalka
Harry Nilsson - Over the Rainbow


day 29 - a song from your childhood 
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody performed by Victor Borge
Martha Mier - Camilla the Camel


day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year
Elgar - Cello Concerto in e minor, Op. 85
Kurt Nilsen - Hallelujah

A Typical Tuesday

Some of you have asked, "What do you do every day?" So, I thought I'd walk you through what a basic day looks like in the life of an English teacher in Korea.

I wake up between 6-6:30 most days. Long gone are the days when I could wake up at 7:45 to make it to an 8:00 class. I've discovered that I have to be much more awake to teach an 8:00 class than I did to sit in an 8:00 class. So I usually get ready, drink some tea and listen to some music before I head to school.

Once I'm ready to go, I head out the door to the subway. I usually leave sometime around 7:20 for the subway station, although I can leave as late as 7:37 and still catch a train to be on time for my class. Not that I've ever done that.... I live about a 5 minute walk from the subway station, then three stops on the train, plus a ten minute walk on the other end to get to my campus. The whole commute takes about 25-30 minutes. The train is always quite full, and I usually have to fight my way through crowds of people going up and down stairs in the stations.

I get to my classroom and turn on my computer and get all of my papers laid out for the day. My students usually start to trickle in around 7:50, so we make small talk until it's time to start class. My 8:00 class this semester is pretty advanced for my university. They are doing a significant amount of writing as well as normal conversation and grammar work. Today, the 8:00 class learned about idiomatic uses for the word "sick". We talked about being sick and tired of something, sick days, airsick, lovesick, etc. It can get quite confusing to explain how one word can be involved in so many different meanings.

Next up is my IT English class at 9:00. I have to move to a different building for this class. This is probably the most difficult class I teach. It is significantly larger than my normal classes. The students have widely varied levels of English. The biggest problem is that I can't find a way to get these kids to stop speaking Korean to each other. They all talk, all the time. I've had to turn into Scary Teacher Sarah several times with this group, and it just doesn't always work. Today they were supposed to be doing presentations, but shockingly, they weren't all as prepared as they should have been so it was pretty rough.

After I'm done teaching the normal morning classes, I have a few minutes to catch my breath and figure out the rest of my day. I typically use the rest of the morning hours for lesson planning, grading, advising meetings, staff/faculty meetings, or my Korean lesson, which is every Thursday morning. All of that is TERRIBLY exciting stuff, I assure you ;)

My co-worker Renae and I always go to lunch together. We often go to the school cafeteria to try to test our luck and see if there is anything edible there. The food is fairly typical cafeteria food, with a decidedly Asian twist. I'm working on collecting pictures of the various meals, so there will be a future post dedicated to cafeteria food. Sometimes, the food just doesn't look edible, so we will go out to lunch. Within walking distance of the school, there is a McDonald's, Pizza Hut, several random Korean restaurants, and lots of street food. There will probably be a future street food post too, now that I know what most of it is.

After lunch, I have two more classes to teach. One is at 1:20, and the other is at 2:45. Both of these classes are at the same level, and they are going through the same book, so I basically teach the same class back to back. In between these classes, I tend to have a lot of students in and out of my office with questions, or just wanting to practice their conversation skills.

After the last class is over, I have about an hour before I head home. I typically get all of my copies made for the next day's classes and finalize the details for my 8:00 and 9:00 classes, and make sure that my grade book and attendance books are all caught up from that day's work. I also tend to write many of my work-related emails during this time.

When 5:00 rolls around, I'm free to go, but I have had to stay late quite a few days this semester because the grading load is so heavy. By the time I do go home, the train going towards home is usually quite crowded again. I make it home, and I'm dead tired. I scrounge up some food for dinner, and spend the rest of the evening enjoying quiet pursuits. Sometimes I'll go out for dinner or coffee or whatever with friends. I go to Bible study once a week. But my life is pretty quiet.

That's the typical schedule. There really isn't much change from that. On Friday morning, I spend several hours reading English books and trying to make up lesson plans on the spot for 2-6 year old students. On Wednesday, I don't have my afternoon classes, so it is usually a day for meetings and catching up on grading/lesson planning. Saturday, I'm free to do what I want, but on Sunday morning I have to go back to my school and teach a class for elementary school students at the university church.

All in all, it's a glamorous life here in Seoul ;)