LATENIGHT - KOREA

Saturday, August 31, 2002

Sleeping in Light...

Okay. Indulge me while I drift off topic for a paragraph or two. Tonight I just downloaded and watched the final episode of Babylon 5, "Sleeping In Light". I never watched it when it was on TV (I didn't have the right channels) but for the last three months or so, I've been rewarding myself by coming home and now watching the whole series (110 episodes), one by one, as fast as I can download them. I really looked forward to following the story. The characters are fantastic, dynamic, developed, epic, and tragic. Anybody around me knows that I was entranced by this show (unfortunately for them since I tend to go on and on about it... which can be a problem if you're Korean and have NO IDEA what B5 is). Hmm... maybe I'm giving myself a hint so that's all I'll say-- other than that I am really going to feel sorry that it's over for me.

Related to science fiction, I almost forgot to mention that I received my first submission to Sci-Fi Dot CA which can be viewed in the library. It's the first chapter of the CD Graphic novel, Robo Trek, by Jeff McCluskey in Moncton. In other website news, www.ianteacher.com is officially under construction as well.

On a side note, I finally have positive news from work and a cool story about interpersonal dynamics... but the downside is that if I wrote about it, it would be considered gloating. So rather than tarnish the experience, you'll have to take me at my word that I had a good day today.

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Seoul as seen by my disposable camera through a 1cm X 1cm opening in a window grating on the 10th floor of Freyatown in Dongdaemun-- believe it or not

[Note: This was originally going to be reply to comments on the last posting... but it turns out that YACCS has a 2500 character limit. So voila... it's a blog posting.]

I have to admit, Korea has more justification than just about anybody for maintaining cultural isolationism. At any given time in the last thousand years, Korea has suffered due to foreigners, either by being occupied or kept as a vassal state-- never really free or self-determining. First there was the Chinese (temporarily at Shilla's bequest)... then the Mongols... then the Chinese again... then the Japanese... then the Chinese a third time (aiding North Korea). In contrast, Koreans have only fought in one foreign war (Vietnam). Mostly, Koreans are a peaceful people who just wanted to be left alone... but never were.

In response, whenever it was in their power to do so, Korea closed the gates to non-Asians. A couple dozen Dutchmen were shipwrecked here in the mid 17th century (and had to escape)-- and there was a period of about 10 years (around the 1870's/80's) when Chosun opened the doors to Westerners before having it closed again abruptly. That was basically the sum total of their experience with the West.

But the crux is that Korea is now industrialized and seeking to globalize. The whole concept is rapidly dismantling 4300 years of history as the Hermit Kingdom. Isolationism and Globalization can not coexist. One of the examples that comes to mind is the debate over the East Sea. Korea just finally realized that after being silent for so long, the world just went right on ahead without them-- and named it the Sea of Japan. It's been that way for four centuries and all of a sudden they become a world player overnight and want it changed BALLEE.

There's a million wonderful things about Korea. I've been here two years now and for the foreseeable future, I am staying. I've had ups and downs and I've tried to balance the good with the bad. I live in the third largest city in the world and it still feels like a quiet, cozy town. Small business (which we in the West have killed) thrives here unabated and there's at least a half-dozen store owners I get to greet everyday on my way to work. In Changwon for gosh sakes, I could leave my apartment door unlocked when I went out. I love the food (though I'd kill for a Greek restaurant right about now). I'm afraid of the grapes and only drink bottled water, but in most respects the food is healthier... I dropped 20kg when I moved here and aside from the black phlegm in my lungs that I cough up everyday... I am in better shape than I've been for the better part of a decade. Oh yeah, and how many countries in the West will let you sit at a table in public and eat raw garlic 'til your heart's content? I love garlic.

These posts are getting long. Anyone interested in moving this to my discussion board?

Note to TorgoDevil: Glad to see you here. I'd been reading your blog daily and am looking forward to your return to Korea to start posting again. Keep up the good work and good luck when you start at your new school. If you make it up to Seoul again, let's meet and grab a coffee.

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Posters and Notices -- Seoul

There's not much fit to report, but a number of days have gone on since my last entry. I was looking for something fun and positive to tell about, but the weekend has been average at best and less than average at worst. Friday I had two brand new classes for students who want to pick up some extra activities. The first was a newspaper class. Now, I spent 4 years in publishing before coming here so newspapers are not a problem yet the kids seemed to think it would be a much better idea if I wrote all the stories and drew comics. They didn't seem to clue in to the fact that the reason they were there was so that they could write.

***SERIOUS ISSUE ALERT***
My second class is a drama class but the students vary in age. There are two boys and four girls. Two of the girls however, come from the "less than enthusiastic" category and they happen to be the two oldest. There's NO way I am going to get them into a joint production with their energetic and younger classmates. I tried to think of a story we could do as a play that would be okay for the number of students I had. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" was out because it takes too many people. "Hansel and Gretel", conversely, has too few. None of the kids knew "Little Red Riding Hood". Then I came up with "Cinderella" but that didn't go so well either. I asked them some leading questions to help them tell me the story, but it faltered.

Me: Cinderella lived with who?
Them: Two bad sisters and a bad mother.
Me: Her father?
Them: He's dead!
Me: Cinderella was... ?
Them: Beautiful.
Me: But what did she have to do?
Them: She had to clean the house.
Me: Until one day, when all of a sudden...?
Them: A witch came.
Me: Um, a "fairy godmother" came, yes. What did she do?
Them: Gave her a dress... oh! and changed a pumpkin.
Me: Right... so now Cinderella has Gongju-byung and a pumpkin that looks like a Samsung SM5. Where does she go?
Them: *giggle*... To the party.
Me: Whose party is it?
Them: The prince's party.
Me: ...and the prince is?
Them: Rich.
Me: ...and?
Them: Ugly.
Me: UGLY?!

Apparently, one of my students has a video of "Cinderella", and in this video the prince is black-- and they weren't talking about the 14th century Duke of Cornwall. This is a problem for Korean kids who have probably never seen a black person outside of a movie theatre or TV. In class, the kids invariably point to any picture of an African-American and say, "ugly". When it's a photograph in question, I can look at it and say, "Oh! I think she's really pretty/he's really handsome... you're silly," but how do you argue with 10-year-old kids talking about a home video they watched outside of class. At this point, the students were still excited about doing "Cinderella", but neither of the boys wanted to be the prince... and none of the girls would be Cinderella since, in falling in love with the black prince, she was undoubtedly a "crazy girl". There was a fight to play the wicked step-sisters and both the boys wanted to be mice. In short order, the issue was deflected into another embarrassment I had to defend myself from-- the suggestion that *I* play the prince and that the new Korean teacher would play Cinderella.

This problem has come up on a couple of EFL discussion boards lately and it's certainly not the first time I have encountered it. To be honest, I am not entirely free of guilt. I accepted a job here, which was more attributable to me being white than it was to me having any qualifications-- hence the reason why you are asked to submit a photo with your resume. Most teachers in Korea will tell you similar stories. I figured that since it was a recent topic of discussion, and it happened to me again just recently, I'd post about it here and open the floor to comments. Would someone tell me what I am supposed to do in cases like this? Most of me just wants to avoid it. If I was really interested in politically re-educating the kids against things they've had passed on by their parents, I'd be at it all day, out of a job, and then criticized for not respecting Korean culture. So I keep my mouth shut. Advice?

There. I said it. And now you know the reason why I didn't post anything since Friday. Racism is the issue that has been tossing around in my head on the tail of another parallel incident. I was flamed last week on an email group-- by a pair of radical left-wing cannibals, because I said two things in regard to the attack on the Korean ESL student, May 27th, in Stanley Park, Vancouver. I had posted a response to a comparison that had already been drawn up between this attack, and an attack on the Seoul subway, of admittedly lesser severity, against a foreign teacher. I repeat that I did NOT start the thread. A person had chimed in amusedly that the two events only showed how funny it was that "the shoe was on the other foot". I first pointed out that in Seoul, the foreigner was laughed at, hit on by police, and threatened with deportation had she stood up for herself and swung back-- while in Vancouver, citizens banded together to raise $80,000 for the Korean girl to cover her medical expenses. Secondly, I offhandedly mentioned that the attack on the girl in Vancouver was random while the attack on the foreigner here was racially motivated. This was deemed offensive by a couple of posters on the list and the mail began to fly.

You see, regardless of the fact that the Vancouver Police Department had listed the crime as "random"-- some people are of the belief that any attack against a non-white is racially motivated by definition (while race-based attacks against whites are apparently whimsical and/or justified). In case any of you don't already know, the victim had happened to be jogging when she was attacked. It wasn't a case of stalking, nor was it a case where the victim knew her assailant. In Vancouver of late, there have been several race-related threats against Koreans (beginning in July), but those events are separate from the one that was being discussed on-list. The attacker of May 27th is already behind bars and couldn't be responsible for the more recent cases. (The Korean man in Seoul, who had attacked the foreign girl, was allowed to go free almost immediately). What I said was factually correct and my goal was to praise the generosity of Vancouverites while certainly not demeaning the victim-- but in light of the severity, someone judged my post to be "offensive" and it was a short hop, skip, and a jump to saying it was racist.

So here's the dilemma that underlies the problem I asked you about, above:

--There is no firm doubt in my mind that Korea practices racism. If I agree with it, or some would say that if I stay quiet and do not "disagree" with it, then I am complicit in this-- and that makes me a racist too.

--If I disagree with it and attempt to point out or, worse yet, combat injustices here, then I will be accused of being insensitive to Korean culture-- ergo I am a racist.

It's so hot in the apartment right now that sweat is flowing down my forehead into my eyes, making it hard to see what I am typing anymore. I should take a lesson. Possibly the only course of action I have is to point fingers at other whites and scream out louder against them to say that they are racists, and in so doing, deflect the Inquisition's attention from myself. This is what others have done, at my expense, and it seems to work for them.

Thursday, August 22, 2002

Apartments in Junggye Dong at sunset

Last night, I ate bugs. Being a bachelor who doesn't know how to cook, and coming from a rural family for whom wasting any food you have is a sin tantamount to knitting a pair of socks for the devil, I generally prided myself on being able to eat whatever food I was given (the exception being dog for cultural and quasi religious reasons). So what happened is that as soon as I arrived home, I got a call from my school. It was my director (who's English is really improving, I might add). The school was having a "late dinner" in honour of one of our teachers who was departing and to welcome a couple of new members to the staff (two new teachers and two new front desk persons). We met behind one of the buildings in our district at a ��ġ�ʹ� restaurant (ChamChi ChoBap -- Tuna sushi/sashimi). I think the owners may be related to our new manager as the family resemblance with an old ajashi at the other side of the counter was remarkable. Anyway... to make a long story short, I tried �� (BuhnDegi) for the first time-- which are silk worm larvae, in this case with chili pepper paste. The aftertaste is a tad overpowering and musty (but they smell like that to begin with and you can always catch the aroma from street venders 20 feet away). The actual flavour however? Strangely enough, they tasted like soggy corn chips.

Afterwards we hit a �뷡�� (noraebang) where I actually got a partial chance to realize another goal in absorbing Korean culture-- the new manager and I sang together on a Korean song and, although the verses were pretty fast, I actually managed to read the chorus (in hangol) fast enough to sing along, I didn't really understand it much-- something about love and the future, etc. but I kept pace... and broke quite a sweat being on the spot like that too, I might add.

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

A farmer's field with the national flowers of Korea -- ��ȭ (Mugoonghwa)

Misanthropy for fun and prophet(sic)...
Getting back to working nights is nice. With luck, I should be able to find some peace and quiet and get a few more things done in the evenings when I get home. My bedtime is slowly reverting back to it's 6am normalcy. Lately I've been in the mood to just withdraw. A lot of people seem to be going out of their way to pester me with nonsense these days. This happens from time to time in Korea. Sometimes it's Koreans who want a token foreigner to agree with them as some sort of status symbol, or agree with them out of some some twisted semblance of proving that what they are saying is more global or cosmopolitan. They usually miss the point and when you decline to agree with them, they get defensive or even hostile. Sometimes it's foreigners who are so used to voicing social and political concerns back home (especially foreign teachers who are fresh out of a liberal arts college and haven't held a job before), they seem starved for targets in a country that is actually overtly racist, insular, and lawless-- yet no one speaks English well enough to entertain their bleeding heart complaints. You can see the frustration.

I have a strong suspicion that it's the summer weather that has put me in this mood. The heat in Korea has lasted since April and I am just not used to long summers. These last couple of weeks have been more tolerable but it's really taken it's toll on me. Every breath I take is stuffy and smoggy. My whole body feels like a sponge, saturated by drinking so many fluids for so long. It's not like this back home. I have been trying to avoid all this misanthropy. I think I've only gone out to one foreigner bar since the spring, and that was at the invitation of one of my friends from back home (who is one of an increasingly tiny cabal of people whose company I enjoy but who has since left Korea for the time-being). What I'd really like is to just take the time to sit down with no disturbances for an evening, and work away on some of my projects-- quietly at home... at night...

Only 4 classes today, starting at 6pm and going straight through. I'm going to breeze in, breeze out, avoid any ripples, and come home to a cup of tea.

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Jamsil Olympic Stadium - lining up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Well, I missed the Cranberries concert last night. We actually had tickets and had to return them, not knowing until midway through last week that regular hours would be back in effect as of yesterday. I worked a little bit beyond the legal limit for hagwons but it's only for this week. My students reminded me about the law that states that classes must be finished by 10pm. I am training them well *cackle*. Someday, a whole generation of Koreans may grow up who are actually concerned with things like legality.

The class changes have also taken effect, without any of my concerns being addressed whatsoever. This has led to a reduction in talking around the office between myself and the orchestrator (why bother, I say, when nothing you communicate will be taken into consideration). It's about as bad as it could be. Remember that low-level class that I mentioned? Well, most of the students have been kept together but a number of students have been brought down to their level-- which is going to mean a class full of bored faces and questions today. But one of the students in the class has been mysteriously leveled up, not just by 4 levels but now by 5. When the suggestion came for that class to study the ridiculously higher level textbook, I joked and suggested we make them study the advanced conversation books (these kids don't know present tense verbs). Lo and behold, this girl is now in a conversation class.

Part of the problem seems to be this teacher's blatant favouritism of female students going against the face of reality. Every time I walked in to teach that class, I noticed papers on the wall upon which the teacher attached stickers for good behaviour and ability. The boys in the class had about 3 or 4 stickers while the girls pages are almost full. This sexism has continued on to another class. One class had finished their book but most of the students were new so we opted to re-teach the same book. That's fine. Three of the students in that class who had been there since the beginning were expected to level up and change classes. There were two boys and a girl. It was insisted to me that the girl has better speaking ability and should be moved up, while the boys are going to be forced to stay in the class and do the textbook again. The problem is that the boys speak quite well... and the girl never talks at all. We're gonna get phone calls over this.

The silver lining? For some ominous reason, my class load is down to 22 classes a week.

Saturday, August 17, 2002

Kun-bok (Military Uniform)

So this week is the 57th anniversary of Japan's surrender, their pull-out from Korea, and most of the other events that marked the end of World War II in the Pacific. Although lately, you gotta admit, there's a big spin trend going on. You see, Japan came under fire last year for a number of textbooks which, although they looked about to be buried, are now finding acceptance in school curricula. The gist of the message that was originally found so offensive was that Japan's war of expansion was done as an effort to protect other Asian countries (such as Korea) from the danger of U.S. imperialism in the Pacific. What with Paliro being this week in Korea, news stations like MBC in Korea were publicizing a few polls that showed that Anti-Americanism was on the rise and Anti-Japan sentiments were on the decline. Several incidents are exacerbating this. The accident that resulted in the death of the two middle-school girls has also resulted in a rather hasty departure of Maj. Gen. Honore, the commander of the US Army 2nd Infantry Division. As a going away present, soldiers on parade continued the grand American tradition of mis-flying flags of allied nations-- in this case displaying the flag of Korea backwards.

So my question is this: Is Japan, in some nefarious way, attempting to capitalize on the growing anti-U.S. movements in Asia (and around the world) to advance its own standing in the Pacific? The U.S. actually started the ball rolling by getting the Japanese to help out in Afghanistan-- requiring revisions to Japan's constitution that forbids the use of military solutions to diplomatic problems. Some believe that Japan is preparing itself for a return to war. Like sharks at a feeding frenzy, Afghanistan may just be the door opener that they need to go after some of their own objectives. In November, the Japanese are preparing to launch their own military spy satellite network against the overt wishes of the U.S. Presently, they are taking a shot at U.S. credibility in the region, with the release of a video, originating in Pyongyang, North Korea, that is said to conclusively prove that the U.S. used Germ Warfare during the Korean War.

In other news, chronicling the rearming of Asia, it looks like South Korea is all set, possibly by next month, to receive $2 Billion in Russian weapons as an alternative way for Russia to begin paying off some of its debts. Boy, that's gonna look weird-- not to mention confusing if the two Koreas ever resume the war.

A street at night, Gundae

I feel so lethargic on Saturdays but I had to get up early again anyway-- regardless of the fact that I'd love a nice, quiet day at home for a change. A water delivery man came by this morning which was the reason for my early rising. It was figured out that I could rent a water dispenser (with regular service to provide water and filter checks) for about the same price I spend on bottled water and without the need to dispose of recyclables. We can only actually take down recyclables on Fridays in this building, which is a bit of a hassle, and when you take regular garbage down, the ajashi thinks nothing of ripping open your bags at the bottom to check for plastic or glass. He reminds me of a five-foot tall raccoon.

Next, after a quick shower, is to revisit the LG store and try to find someone who will send my cell phone away to be fixed... and after that will be the hunt for a new vacuum cleaner. It's raining again today so I had better pack an umbrella.

Friday, August 16, 2002

Why came I hither but to that intent?
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puff'd up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a fariner's fire?
Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs.

-Petruchio, The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene II.

Largely, it was a quiet day with little interaction. I breezed in, taught my two classes, marked a couple papers, and then breezed out for sushi. The rest of the week had been more taxing so today's respite was welcome. I worked the holiday yesterday with one less class on a modified schedule-- and I had a break in the morning instead of afternoon. On Monday we will begin regular hours again but of course I don't have a schedule for them yet. They told me that my first class on Monday was at 5pm but I think it best if I am ready to teach at 4 o'clock. The tentative schedule that I saw for a split second, will no doubt be changed tomorrow. This is all destined to pose a problem since summer classes were advertised as running 5 weeks and not 4 as they have gone.

If I take any benefit from the last month it is the extra literary energy I have felt after teaching my writing classes. I will miss them now that I will be going back to 100% conversation. With luck, I'll be able to maintain the enthusiasm long enough to complete some projects that I am already working on. That's the plan for this afternoon actually. I am using this blog post as a warm up before I descend into my word processor for a couple hours.

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

On the walk home, Nowon

Excerpted from Ian's Korean-English dictionary:
KOREAN: I would like your suggestion on this.
TRANSLATION: I have already spoken with the boss about what I think you should be doing, even though I have no authority and it doesn't concern me. I want to arbitrarily change things and am requesting your consent so that when my idea backfires, they will blame you. If you don't agree with me, I will talk behind your back with everyone in the office about how uncooperative foreign teachers are and then tell the boss, in Korean, that you don't want do any work whatsoever.

The broken pieces of the Oak float down the stream, and to the ocean, while the flexible Willow snaps back with violent elasticity...
So I have this class... the students are somewhat young and have virtually no English ability. They never study and because of that, have forgotten everything they have ever been taught. I have conducted the lesson on prepositions 10 times (on, in, under...) and they still won't remember. The normal recourse would be for the foreign teacher to not teach the class until the students can achieve at least a basic level of comprehension. All they do now is talk to each other in Korean. I've tried playing games but most English games require using at least a few English words (apple, for example) to which they have had no success in learning. I mentioned this problem several times and one of the teachers has taken it upon herself to solve it. My solution is to find a simpler textbook (they are at Level 3 in their series) and try to convince the mothers to make their children study. Apparently my idea is ludicrous. Instead, it was first suggested for me to just play games with them and forget the textbook... but of course I was to choose a text book anyway since all classes have textbooks. So I picked out a textbook for them to let gather dust. Later on in the afternoon I find that there is a new solution suggested by my self-appointed overseer. We are going to merge the class with another, older, class-- one that has already successfully completed Level 6 in the same series and has moved on to another book-- and at the same time play more games with all of them. Foreigners planning on coming to Korea should note that it is a time-honoured Korean tradition that a problem is NOT viewed as a problem. Instead, a problem should be viewed as a means by which to create more problems.

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Pond at Sungjusa temple, Kyungsangnam-do

Today was a day throughout which brimstone plummeted from the heavens. Reading yesterday's post, you must already be aware of some simmering issues at school. Well, I was greeted this morning, after my first class, by the manager who was proudly displaying a deduction of about $150 CAD off my pay cheque-- for health insurance. You see, my health insurance that should have been filed when I got here-- but was actually filed in May-- was already paid up for six months in advance, or so I thought, until I received another bill last week. I brought it in to school and expected them to set things straight. As best I can figure, the insurance company called immigration and found out that I actually began working for this school in February. They decided that since I was expected to have health insurance as soon as I began work, as a condition for my visa, that they would retroactively bill me to that time... and then bill me again for the next 6 months as soon as my application cleared. Of course I HAD NO HEALTH INSURANCE for my first 5 months of employment. No insurance company would have paid for me to go to the hospital if a situation arose... they didn't even know I existed until May or June. They basically wanted money for months that I wasn't covered. To further complicate things, my manager had deducted twice the amount of the bill I brought in to show him-- even though my contract says I only pay 50% (not %200 his miscalculations entailed).

I hadn't eaten breakfast yet at that point and anyone who knows me, knows what I am like on an empty stomach. I won't go into details but the Korean teachers spent much of the rest of the day trying to shield the children. The manager spent much of it looking Hell in the face. I have been good. In Korea, one is not expected to lose one's temper... I didn't lose mine per se, I knew EXACTLY where it was and in which direction the hailstorm was flying. This is the same manager whose lax paperwork caused me to overstay my visa and be detained at Incheon airport. This is the same manager who can't make a schedule to save himself (literally), and the same manager who can't even communicate a schedule to me competently enough once he's devised one. I found out today, for instance, that we revert to regular hours next week and not the week after as previously leaked... meaning the tickets to the Cranberries concert that we paid for today are useless.

As I said, Korean-style means staying calm in the face of overwhelming incompetence and petty greed. I guess you kind of have to here or you'd go crazy. A few Koreans were taken aback when I sat down to explain to them how different our cultures were in this regard. They especially seemed shocked when I mentioned the fine art of resolving labour disputes with a baseball bat.

The Oak breaks while the Willow bends...
So I sat down with my boss tonight to resolve this... of course he is my boss so I made sure that I tucked my ol' blood 'n' guts persona under wraps and gave him the respect due. I had to be generous with the holiday thing though unfortunately. In the end, the school will pick up the extra insurance fees (rather than fight the insurance company (?)). I will work the holiday Thursday. My boss belives it is important for reasons he explained and I understand his position enough that begrudgingly I will do it. In exchange, they'll tack an extra vacation day or two onto the end of my contract.

There's just one more thing that I'm gonna fix...

...to be continued...

I am 52% Tortured Artist

Art is significant in my life, people are scum but I have the capicity to deal with it. Give it a few more years and I will either forget about art or hate the world.

Take the Tortured Artist Test at fuali.com

Monday, August 12, 2002

Apartments in Nowon

So it's one of those times again when everything breaks at once. I had to get some drain cleaner for the drain near the washing machine Sunday night. Around the same time, the vacuum stopped charging (which likely means I will be shopping for a new one very soon). Finally, my cell phone needs some major repairs. One of the batteries is toast and as is, the display has a short in it. It cuts out when I am using it and the only way to get it lit back up is to dangerously press the flip top back further than it normally wants to go. Oh yeah, and it also had a "user-interface problem" similar to that which befell my laptop last year. No one seems to want to be a service centre either, which ended up making me waste cab fare after work tonight. I have no idea where to take it now. We called on Saturday and the company told us the location of the service center but that place insists I have to go clear across town to another location. Maybe if somebody in this country actually did their job, Korea could finally join the rest of the world and move to a 5-day work week. Heck, they have already brought it down to 4 days in France, so the rest of us have some catching up to do.

Speaking of 4-day work weeks, mine (this week) is in jeopardy. Thursday is a national holiday in Korea, and on the heels of my school's success in dismissing the World Cup and the Election Day holidays we were supposed to get, rumour has it that we are supposed to work through this one as well. Thursday is Liberation Day, also known as Palilro (meaning 8-1-5). It commemorates the expulsion of the occupying Japanese forces from Korea in 1945. Apparently that's not such an important celebration anymore since all my Korean coworkers, bless their little lemming hearts, are dutifully accepting this obscene nickel and diming by my school, and have resigned themselves to teaching. I have 8 classes on Thursdays so you can guess how much the submissive approach holds water for me. All I can say is that if I don't get Thursday off, I will gladly welcome the Japs back. The Japanese may have been ruthless, psychotic overlords... but they have a much better reputation when it comes to following contracts.

Sunday, August 11, 2002

Kwan-bok (Formal attire of civil officials)

So I realize that I have a very addictive personality. Whether it's the usual vices or not, it bears little impact. Folkmusic fits into one of those addictive categories, as does purchasing domain names. On that front, I have, of late, become the owner of two new domains. The first is www.IanTeacher.com which I am planning to use to stock activities and fun things for my students. The name might sound awkward but remember that Korean children will attach your title after your name, hence I become," Ian Teacher! Ian Teacher!" incessantly throughout the day. It should be easy enough for my students to remember. Many of them have already found their way here (which is why I usually don't use any swear words that aren't found in the Bible or Shakespeare... "Damn" or "Damned" is okay and so is "a pox unto you!". Most of my kids would be looking for the 'F' word if they wanted something nasty, and that word or its derivatives do not grace my page.

The second address I picked up, www.Waegook.com, will simply redirect here for now-- at least tentatively. For those of you not in the know by now, Waegook is used either an adjective in Korean that means, "foreign" or as a noun which means, "foreign country". In force of habit, myself and a lot of others here use it to mean, "foreigner" also-- though technically, we are Waegookin. Of course you could just use a spell checker to change them to something more common in the west. According to mine, Waegook should be "Waterloo" and Waegookin should be "Algonquin".

So there you have it. Tomorrow I need to pick up another account at my local provider, and starting soon, I will begin creating a site of exercises and activities in English. My students begin at about age 9 or 10-- so expect to see some weird stuff in the near future.

P.S. Please send Red Rose Tea.

Friday, August 09, 2002

Awaiting the chef... fish outside a Hweh restaurant in Daecheon

The weekend is here. The clouds are back but yesterday's speck of sun was enough to regenerate the heat and humidity of last week. I selected this photo for today partly to dilute the verdant hue that was settling on this web page, after the previous picture selections of the last few days, but also to ease my caloric concerns and pyshosomatically dismiss the stifling temperature with subtle tones of icy and refreshing cerulean. Ah.. sweet heaven. In case you are wondering, I *did* Photoshop this image too, but the residual blurriness that I was unable to exorcise (caused by a deluge of condensation on the tank) should serve as an apt indicator of what summer in Korea entails.

Today I taught my two classes (a total of only nine students believe it or not), stayed an extra hour to mark writing assignments for my middle/high school writing classes, and then trotted off for a few morsels of saeng-sun chobap (Sushi). That should explain my uncommonly pleasant demeanour, my plunge into hyperbolic pedantics, and my choice of photo, respectively.

NOTE: This post is best enjoyed while being read aloud ( and you ARE allowed to read loudly aloud) in a fake English accent-- preferably one from Dover, Coventry, or Upper Tidmarsh.

Thursday, August 08, 2002

Yongji Park in Changwon

The sun came out today but more rain is expected. Korea is drenched and workers are taking the break to clean mud off the roads and areas that flooded. The news has showed some shots of serious damage and people having been rescued when flood waters got too high.

Classes are going well this week with the students and I settling in to the new routine. Tomorrow's lax schedule will make for a nice start to the weekend. Today's funniest moment came this morning when I was trying to explain to one class the meaning of he word "progress". I decided to use school as an example so I asked them what they learned in elementary school to which one student replied, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G... ". The idea was to show that as they moved up in grades they learned more and bigger things. So I asked the same student, "What do you study in middle school?" and he replied, "H, I, J, K..."

I spent a couple minutes tonight housecleaning the Discussion Board. Some postings on this weblog lately have been well responded to with comments but since this blog is updated several times a week (well.. I try), some of the threads disappear quickly down the line. I'd also like to encourage people involved or interested in EFL teaching in Korea to consider posting notes about their experiences or concerns. I've sent the same emails of advice out to several different people lately, but if a collection of topics could be generated on the discussion list, there's the hope that the same information could be available 24-7 to anyone surfing past. I also plan on designing a fancier link button to it and that will be a project for tomorrow's blessed free time.

Wednesday, August 07, 2002

On the Walk Home -- Nowon

The thunderstorms have been continuing-- at least in the mornings-- starting around 3 or 4am and going on until around lunch time. The rain is also affecting moods still. It seems that about half as many taxis are on the roads on any rainy day. My students are still moping around and trying to doze through their 50 minutes without talking, but a couple classes have broken the pathos and made the transition to relentless harassers and wiseguys. We still didn't get much work done in those classes but at least they were talking to me and we certainly had some fun teasing each other.

I've spent far too much time lurking on foreign teacher discussion boards lately. I added a new link to KoreanESL's board and of course Dave's ESL Cafe is already on my links sidebar, and remains the central online meeting place for foreigners to discuss their jobs. The comments are getting a bit out of hand. I suppose the ignorami generally come to monopolize any discussion but in Korea they have a lot more ammunition. Foreigners post about criminal working conditions, racism (as both target and perpetrator), sexual harassment, living conditions and culture (including one post that said Koreans have over 2 Million abortions each year, largely as an attempt to prevent giving birth to female children). Koreans are posting a lot of anti-American/Foreigner posts, attacks on the credentials of foreign teachers (accusing them of being in Korea only to escape having to work at McDonald's), racism (target and perpetrator) and of course the omnipresent, "Don't touch our women!" posts. To make matters worse, the censorship went down two nights ago on Dave's and the profanity, blatant racism, and general repressed frustration turned the place into a furnace of hate in less than 24 hours. (The moderators have wisely put the censors back up). Of course anyone who wishes to project their verbosity toward a possible cash result may want to check out the Essay Contest at the Korea Herald.

It's a good reminder that my school isn't so bad. I might be all alone as a foreign teacher there, but that guarantees me a lot of peace and quiet. To date, I seem to getting along well enough with my coworkers and boss, so I don't see any problems arising that I can't solve-- at least until my contract negotiations for next year begin, in which case it's anyone's guess how receptive they'll be. For now it's all quiet on the Eastern front.

For those of you anticipating more trouble, I noticed one post that mentioned the beginning of a foreign teacher's union.

Monday, August 05, 2002

Protest sign in Gundae

There have been some developments of late in the affair over the two middle school girls killed in an accident last June by the U.S. Army. Most importantly, the Korean courts have finally been able to question the two soldiers directly involved in the incident. Furthermore, expressions of regret have come down not just from commanding officers but also from Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

As the above photo alludes to, Anti-American protest has continued to build up. As far as I am concerned, the furor over Ohno at the Olympics was childish and the fuss over Jay Leno's dog-eating joke was bi-polar in the least (Koreans lately have been taking a great amount of pride in a delicacy that no one wants the world to admit they eat). There is a significant criticism to be leveled however,with the prosecution of crimes committed by U.S. troops protected by the over-reaching SOFA agreement. It has been released lately that only 5.5% of crimes committed by U.S. forces personnel , stationed in Korea between 1999 and 2001, ever even reached the Korean legal system. Considering that this represents only 69 cases out of a reported 1,246 offences during that period... that means that roughly 1 in 25 American soldiers have committed a crime to which they have gone unpunished. Since 24-34% of these crimes were listed as violent... the number of soldiers committing these types of crimes represents 1 in 90.

The latest incident was on the weekend when two corporals assaulted a lone Korean at around 4am outside of a bar on the weekend. They soon found themselves chased into another bar by a mob of 30 Koreans who had all witnessed the 'fight'. Also, on Friday, AFKN reported that a group of Korean demonstrators (17, I think) actually broke through the gates at one of the U.S. bases and made it 15 metres inside before they were halted. [Note: The military proudly stated that the students belonged to a group activist group whose organization was outlawed by the South Korean government. That struck me as a bit fishy since I am used to having 'Freedom of Assembly' as a constitutional right-- but I guess in some cases there are groups of students who foster strong ties to North Korea and those groups are indeed outlawed for national security.]

Today I noticed a more believably compassionate public service announcement on AFKN calling for donations to help set up a memorial in honour of the two fallen students. Donations can be made in their names at any branch of your local Korean bank. Maybe the U.S. State Department should consider making a donation.

I know I am getting my money's worth out of the Korea Herald today (again!) BUT in the effort of fairness-- please read the letter to the editor by Mr. Derek Ball. He mentions a number of incidents in which U.S. forces have been victimized lately and he justly complains that these stories have slipped through the cracks of Korean media. They include several recent attacks on U.S. personnel and property-- but he also brings to light some examples of U.S. compassion and service to the Korean people.

The issue however, should not be to point fingers. What needs to happen is that all criminals regardless of nationality or ethnicity, be brought to appropriate justice. The Korean-American partnership in defence has vastly benefited Korea, if only in providing international presence during North-South negotiations or in the offering of technology by which South Korea is able to maintain its sovereignty. Sure a Korean pilot may have accidently fired a missile into the Yellow Sea as Mr. Ball reports--I got a chuckle out of that one-- but it should also remind Koreans that both the missile and fighter that the pilot was in, were designed in the U.S.A. and that cooperation is vital to Korea's security. It's quite a pickle.

Chajokwonsam (Red ceremonial robe of the queen and crown princess)

Okay... this is a blatant filler post so that I can rerun this picture after a minor shuffle. If I just deleted it from Sunday's post and then tried to run it as a fresh photo in a week or two-- nobody will be fooled. So let me take this time and space to tell you about my day...

...it rained. When it rains, as I have said before, teaching English is like trying to train slugs to fetch your slippers. My first two classes were semi-comatose and it was several hours before any of my students actually volunteered to answer questions. All in all however, Monday's not a bad day. My class schedule has me down for two on, one off, two on, one off, and then one final class and I finish at 4pm. I took the extra time to mark some writing assignments and then dropped by the photo shop to pick up my latest pictures. That's why I am reshuffling this picture. I wanted to back track and run a few of the beach shots I took on Friday and Saturday in the preceding post where I actually talked about my trip to Taechun (or Daechun depending on how you want to spell it). I also think I managed to replenish my photo stock at least a bit. I took some chances with my camera lately, taking shots through glass windows or at night and with a bit of colour manipulation and cropping with Photoshop, they look good. Maybe it will encourage me to get back to blogging semi-daily again, instead of bi-weekly.

Sunday, August 04, 2002

Taechon Beach
Summer vacation 2002...

Since it was vacation, Friday afternoon we grabbed the bus and decided to head to the beach. We headed down to Taechun (which was about 3 hours away, on the west coast). I thought the beach was a bad idea. You see, the news has been showing pictures from Korea's beaches lately (especially in Kangwon-Do) and they are crowded! Every ounce of space is taken up by beach blankets or umbrellas and I assumed that every room in the yagwons would be also.My suggestion was to visit a nice temple or something-- but I was overruled. My biggest concern was that we didn't have reservations but my travelling companion assured me somewhat unsatisfyingly that this would be no problem.

So we arrived around supper time with the plan to stay the night and enjoy the surf the next day. We walked for about an hour and a half. The only places that had rooms vacant were the hotels which were charging anywhere from 170,000 to 200,000. Coincidently, a friend told us that KBS News was running a story on price-hiking at the same time... and they based their story on Taechon beach. What eventually happened was that we were called over by an old ajumah who was renting rooms in her house. She offered it to us, her last one, at 100,000 Won-- no discounts. The room itself was clean and had a TV and fan... but the washrooms consisted of one of the squat toilets in a building across the courtyard and the shower had nothing but a hose offering cold, heavily calcified water. We took it.

The short walk back to the beach was much better with the absence of carrying the travelling pack. For about a kilometer along the beach, there were restaurants, tents, game booths, and even come small night clubs. We walked the stretch and eventually found a tented restaurant roast pig on a spit. After a mean of the roast pork, we picked up some beer and made our way down to the beach. It was busy but not nearly as crowded as it could have been. It was still Friday night and most people would be arriving on Saturday.

Down on the beach, as is usual, people were wading in the water and launching fireworks. They are legal in Korea, however an ajashi was on the loud speaker trying to get people to stop on account of the danger with so many people around. I said that in Canada they are against the law, since people have a tendency of blowing their face off with them. The guy on the loudspeaker was getting very persistent and frustrated- so much so that I was told he was drifting into dialect and it was getting hard to understand him. Sure enough, during the middle of an announcement, and right in front of us no less, this one Korean guy showed up with a roman candle. Instead of holding it in the air to set it off, he wanted to stick it in the ground. He then bent low over it, I guess to see if it was working, and POW-- it got him in the eye. I felt bad for him. He was obviously in great pain. But it was one of those moments like when you stick your tongue to a frozen lamppost. It's something that's supposed to be too stupid for people to do-- yet they do anyway-- and from time to time you witness it happening. They were able to lead him away about a half hour later, and when they led him past us (we were only about 15 feet away when it happened with no one between us), I noticed he at least still had his eyelid-- easy to notice since it was the size of a peach. Poor guy. Poor stupid guy.

Police started showing up around this time to quiet down the people with fireworks-- but they had their jobs cut out for them. Even after the accident, people would just wait for the police to turn their backs and then light up some more. It was getting really stupid. Add this to the fact that toddlers were out wading in the ocean unattended, with the tide coming in. This was all happening with relatively sober people too... so as the drinking around us picked up, I thought it would be a better idea to head back to the room now, rather than wait for the real accidents.

Another weird thing to mention is that Korean girls insist on wearing full make up and in many cases high heels on the beach? With the bikinis it looked like an auto show.

We picked up some water and snacks on the way back when something else caught me eye. I think I mentioned how sexually conservative Korea is on the surface but as we reached the main intersection leading from the beach, I ran face to face with a 6 foot high, black and white, animated ~~clit~~ piece of female anatomy being ~~finge~~ manipulated on a projection screen while a narrator guided an equally large pair of fingers, in Korean, on the proper forms of stimulation. My shock not withstanding, I was quickly ushered away.

We got back, brushed our teeth, and went to sleep.

The next day, I made sure we picked up our bus tickets early-- mind you they didn't sell them with assigned seating so you still had to arrive early for the bus or risk sitting on the floor (the trip home being an hour and a half longer than the trip to the beach for some reason). We hit the beach, waded in the water for a bit, and then went up to another tent restaurant for a HUGE meal of Taechun's famous clams and shellfish. The beach on Saturday was quickly filling up. I have some photos that I should be able to publish come Monday when I get them developed.

We caught the bus at 3:40pm and made our way back to Seoul, arriving around 8 o'clock. Turns out that we planned the trip rightly, as today it has been thundering almost non-stop since early morning and the TV is showing footage from flooding in and around Seoul. Seems like a good day to stay inside.

Thursday, August 01, 2002

Pusan, from atop the tower at Yongdusan

My keyboard is melting. It is the first day of my vacation and I considered leaving my apartment but it was a scene out of a firefighter's training video. I touched the door handle and felt the heat-- so I shirked back into my darkened cave and sat with a wet towel draped around my neck, in front of the fan, waiting for the cursed sun to scorch the moisture from the air before extinguishing itself behind the hills. Sol's fury is unabating. Prometheus has become Judas.

Tomorrow I will try again. Soon, my stockpiles of bottled spring water will run dry. Unless I can create an effective means to condense water from the wicked saturation that surrounds me, then my fate, yea the legacy of my existence, shall... I am far from the ocean yet Coleridge is being quoted in the recesses of my simmering brain. Should the old mariner smirk and and torment me from within our torturous and parching union... remind him that I have popsicles.

NOTE to Sympatico users. I can't send you email for some reason. I will keep trying but to date, all my letters are being returned. This problem has been with a few addresses in that domain. In case the bug is on my end (maybe some interface problem between my Korean servers and yours), I am going to keep trying again with Hotmail.