LATENIGHT - KOREA

Thursday, May 29, 2003

The pleading of students for mercy...

I've got a bit of time before class so I guess I'll venture a midweek post. I haven't been going out much lately, except for my trip to Immigration on Saturday. That went better than I had hoped so since it was still early enough in the day, I made a detour to Itaewon on my way home. I stopped in at Ali Baba's again for Egyptian food and then did a little souvenir shopping.

Things are changing a bit locally. An oddly-shaped building seems to be going up at one of the street corners (though right now it's just scaffolding and barriers). The street widening is mostly done around work and they've even installed guard rails along the sidewalk and a garbage can or two. I'm sure the whole area is getting prepped for some major expansions.

It's a lot noisier lately though. The last couple of nights, workman were labouring away on a new pipe under the road near my building. I guess they don't want to disrupt daytime traffic so instead, they work through the night hammering with jack-hammers, smashing piledrivers, and what not. One of my neighbours also seemed to have bought a new puppy which yapped and yapped all through the night when they left it outside. I heard a brief argument between a man and a woman over the thing and then a few moments later, the dog went, "...yap, yap, yap, yawk." This was followed by the sound of a metal pipe hitting the floor and after that, no more dog.

...and there's some kind of demonstration just about every second day. The one yesterday surprised me though. Protestors usually play the old style Korean pop music, bongjak, but I swear that the music I heard yesterday could have been mistaken for Morris Dancing tunes. That's all I need to be woken up by.

Things should be slackening off at work next week. There are some big changes. About forty of our Grade 6 students are being elevated to middle school classes (likely spurred by a bit of low attendance at the middle school level of late). This will bring my total of elementary classes down to 20 hours a week. No more are being added yet since I will be going away on vacation next month anyway and it's easier to manage if I have fewer classes to miss. I love that logic. Of course, the flip side is that I might end up with more middle school classes that I don't know about. One of the middle school teachers started to mention some changes in the schedule but it never progressed to the point that he told me what those changes were.

Oh well. Two more days this week. It seems that the weather today is a bit cooler but cloudy/hazy weather can be deceiving. Saturday was quite hot for instance, yet through the smog, I couldn't even see across the Han River from Yeuoido to the Northside. In Halifax terms for those back home, the distance is about the same as trying to see McNabb's Island from Point Pleasant. Completely obscured. Who am I kidding? Every day has been hot and especially so in the last week. It's almost time to break out the popsicles and frozen towels around the neck.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Looking across rooves in Suwon

*THE KYUNGNAM TO KYUNGGI JOURNAL -- NOW BANNED IN CHINA !!!*

Sorry, but I couldn't resist. I got a couple email messages from someone who had recently gone to China and could no longer access the site. The suspicion rested with it being a general ban on all Blogspot weblogs but for a while I felt pretty special and radical.

I have a few minutes while I'm waiting for some things to download. I'm hoping to start another cartoon soon too, but the inspiration hasn't fully formed so I'm taking a mental detour and stopping by here. I thought I'd get up to my old habits and post some current news from Korea. A lot of foreigners have been bracing for the "summer protest season". Me: I'm still planning on taking a plane out of the country for a couple weeks around the time that it's likely to kick into high gear-- that time being the anniversary of the deaths of the two schoolgirls last year. If things look out of hand, I know I'll be tempted to just say anyoung hee gye-seyo and repatriate myself safely.

Some funny things have been happening though in regard to insurgent groups. There was a bit of a dry run last week in Kwangju to protest against the U.S.A. for the deaths of countless democracy-demanding civilians at the hands of the Korean government twenty years ago. In most countries, people would protest the government that pulled the trigger but not in South Korea. They protest the U.S.A.

It's a great example of Korean frugality. No matter what the cause, you just have to recycle your "F*cking U.S.A." signs. Korean government kills civilians; blame the Yanks. North Korea threatens to nuke you into a day-glow wasteland; blame the Yanks. Korea loses in the Olympics; blame the Yanks. A new student asked me the other day, "Teacher, do you know who Ohno is?" The short track Olympic incident occurred well over a year ago but it's only been in the last few weeks that I've been able to go through a single day without hearing the American skater's name being villainized. I simply stared at my student and said, "Yes, I do... turn to page 10, NOW!". I swear that if this Ohno thing starts again, I am going to pin the student to the wall and exorcise the demons from his head with prayers to St. Michael and the aggressive shouting of "Agma Na Ga! Agma Na Ga!"

But back to Kwangju. Somebody will have to explain this to me. At the commemoration protests, student activists blocked President Roh from attending the ceremony. Roh responded by stating that it was against the memory of the protestors who had been killed by the government, to ban the current administration from joining in (under some pretense of democracy). Now some people have noted that the original demonstrators, since they were killed by the government and all, might actually be a bit anti-government and allowing the president to join the commemoration might be perceived as being against the wishes of those souls who had died. Hmm... this is a tough one to resolve. From reports of what eventually transpired, it would seem the the sides came to an agreement in honouring the memory of the event. The student demonstrators continued to protest the government, and the government cracked down on them again. The demonstrators were arrested.

Okay... Okay... I'm colouring the facts a bit. The protestors were allegedly members of Hanchongryun which is supposedly a pro-Communist, North Korean-sponsored student organisation which has been outlawed in South Korea. Furthermore, Roh's recent trip to the U.S. to forge a partnership with Bush, has REALLY gotten their hackles up.

Regardless of their illegality, membership seems to be large and the group is a kind of in-thing for radical leftist/America-hating Korean college kids before they grow up, get a job, and immigrate to the U.S.A. Rumours about them abound. Not in the least is that it was their pro-Communist membership rolls that spawned and swelled the nationalistic "Red Devils" who you will remember are the official fans of the Korean national soccer team. People have suggested that once they had been mobilized for harmless soccer games, the organization turned it's mob to the political issues of American troop withdrawals, S.O.F.A. revisions, and the sponsorship of certain political candidates *ahem*. After the election, Roh cracked down on a lot of the anti-Americanism but as I stated, his recent trip to the U.S. has invoked a bit of a flare up.) Strangely enough, American-based activists weren't too happy either.)

One thing that allowed such protest organisations to form such huge, rapid-reacting groups, has been the internet. It's noteworthy that the Ministry of Information and Communication is now looking at banning the use of internet pseudonyms on private sites (already the case on government and public organisation sites). Soon, to post messages on any major Korean site, you will be required to log in with your real name and your Korean citizen number.

This is already the case on such commonly used sites as Daum.net which limits people like me from joining in on anything uniquely Korean since I lack a citizen number. My students often ask me to stop by one of their Daum "cafes", and most seem to have them instead of homepages, but I have to decline. Apparently it's easy enough to get a forged ID number but so far I have said no. When asked this week by one of my students why I don't opt for the illegal number, I guess my harder edge of late came through a bit when I answered, "I've decided I don't want to go to places where I'm not wanted."

If I've learned anything from my time in Korea, that'll be it.

*That and the spelling mistake that Mark pointed out, thanks.

*Another update to this post: Jun posted that Daum would work if I simply typed "캐나다" as my country instead of Korea. It worked. I'm not taking blame for this mistake though (I already admitted to and changed the typo Mark found and feel enough like an idiot). Daum is entirely written in Korean, so it's always been other people helping me to log in. I guess that in the numerous times I tried, they just automatically typed "Korea" and didn't think about it. When it failed, I was told repeatedly that it was "impossible" for me to set up an account. For those interested, you can now send me a mail here, if you want to test it out. Thanks, Jun.

Saturday, May 17, 2003

*I think the guy on the right is the one who was
trying to break into the U.S. Embassy last year...

I was planning a trip to Muckdong again today. I shouldn't complain since the warmer weather we have now would make it a much more pleasant trip. I have only gone there to the Immigration Office for contract stuff up until now-- and that's taken care off in the middle of winter. The wind blows across that area and freezes you to the bone. Today's weather is hot, however. But I still succumbed to sleep and figured I'd go next weekend.

Why did I have to go? My vacation has come through. I think this has to do with keep morale up after the take-over-- but also, the guy who's taking care of our affairs at the school is one of the teachers that I get along well with. It looks like I'll be getting my two weeks after all, and will be boarding a plane to Canada on Midsummer's Day. That means I have to upgrade my visa with a multi-entry permit and so... it's to Muckdong I go. (He also mentioned something about a raise in salary).

The week went peaceably. Thursday was Teachers Day and the staff went out after work.

The weather is getting very hot now. To make matters worse-- one of our problem students jumped on and broke the air conditioner in one of the main classrooms. The same kid has caused at least two fights a week (he's here three times a week), has zero respect, and has caused a couple of students to leave already. At what point our head teacher plans on kicking him out, I don't know. Calling his parents is of no use. They won't do anything (and his older brother is also just as bad). I expel him from class. I give him lines. Nothing works. The second I turn my back, he lunges after the youngest girl in the class and tries to hit her for no reason other than to make her cry. Worse yet, he's starting to corrupt the only other two boys in the class-- who used to be good students.

My free time is still being spent with a sketchpad. I've almost finished Tuesday's cartoon-- but the deadline for Friday comes quick so I had better get back to reading the local election coverage.

Saturday, May 10, 2003

At Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon...

Okay... I'm cheating now. I'm actually posting this note into the past. Last week went as well as could be hoped. Things were quiet. Monday was a day off (Children's Day) and so was Thursday (which was a combination of Parents' Day and Buddha's Birthday, which are calculated according to different calendars but coincide this year). It turns out that our new overseer is keeping a low profile. One of the older middle school teachers is handling most of the decision-making for our school now and for the foreseeable future. We should be left on our own to run things.

Why am I so busy I can't even write once a week? Well... that's a good question. I suppose I could find the time if I tried very hard, but I've had something new added to my plate. I mentioned it in the last post that I have been brought onboard as the editorial cartoonist for the Miramichi Leader and Miramichi Weekend. Every Tuesday and Friday, respectively, the plan is for me to have cartoons published and I've been spending a lot of my off hours planning out cartoons, refreshing myself on hometown politics, and of course, drawing the cartoons. The first one went out on Friday, May 2. Number 4 should be in print by Tuesday. It's absorbing my free time but it's a worthwhile pursuit.

Speaking of which... that's all you get for this post. Saturday, May 10th (the false date of this post), the New Brunswick legislature dissolved and an election has been called for June 9th. For the most part, that's going to occupy me for the next month-- save for a cartoon I am getting ready to do up for the weekend paper in which I am planning on approaching the other expect news story of the week-- the tabling of Marijuana decriminalization in Ottawa, on Thursday, after eight decades of cannabis prohibition in Canada. Should be fun to draw. *smirk*

Saturday, May 03, 2003

On the field of battle...

The week in review...
It's been quite an action-packed week, but I've held back on the writing until now. Given a few moments, maybe I can fill everyone in on what's been going on. I'll start with last weekend. It's certainly been a rollercoaster of karma.

Last Friday (April 25th) was the final day for one of our Korean teachers. She had been at our school almost as long as I had. However, there's a new crop of teachers that are dominating the scene and the time came for her to be shown her way out the door. I went out for some tuna and drinks to bid farewell. I'm sorry to see her go. She was the only person around me, at work, that both enjoyed speaking English (the others resent it and view it as work) and who also tried to understand my point of view. The coworkers who remain are now of the mind that I must bend to Korean thinking in all matters, since I am the only foreigner there... though no matter how Korean I approach things, they would never include me or ackowledge me. I'm simply missing a crucial bit of Kimchi-eating DNA as far as they are concerned.

Good luck, bad luck
At some point during the weekend, I discovered that I had forgotten my cap at one of the bars. Bad luck. It's lost forever.

But then there was good luck. On that weekend, while I lost my cap, I gained back some other things I thought I had lost. A while ago, I had recorded some of the songs I wrote here at home. I converted them to MP3 and had them on my hard drive, but when the drive crashed, I lost them. Lo and behold, friends back home (between a couple of them) had an almost complete collection. Good luck for me. I had them sent over right away, and now I have them back.

Flip back to bad luck, or more appropriately-- annoyance. I went in to work on Monday and met the remaining coworkers (all very good friends with each other, I might add). The first thing I was asked was, "You didn't know we have no class?". The person who asked me this was coincidentally the person whose job it is to tell me about changes in the schedule. I chalked it up as rhetorical and left. I did some shopping and enjoyed the afternoon, which was warm and sunny, like most of this week has been.

Tuesday, I lost my patience. This time, the three crones in my department greeted me by saying that some parents had complained. Now the complaint was over something I know I never do, so it's either them or the parents that trumped up the charge. I knew the girls whose mothers had complained so I suspect it was the parents getting together. The complaints coincided with the issuing of monthly report cards. The students are relatively new and the mothers must have wondered why they didn't get perfect scores. In case you're reading this, Moms: Your daughters ARE crazy and apparently proud of it; they DON'T behave in class; they DON'T speak any significant degree of English; AND... the marks I gave were a lot higher than the marks I SHOULD have given them... but I was too lazy to reach for the liquid paper.

This whole situation really bugged me though. I take my job seriously and I put a lot of effort into teaching. For the most part, my students learn-- and I feel like I have done a good job. From time to time, there are students who really just don't want to be there. I only get complaints from the mothers of new students. In all those cases so far, the students in question had been pushed into going to the hagwon and were looking for an excuse to get out of it. To my memory, I've never had a complaint from a student's parents when the child had been enrolled for *more* than a month. I'd normally chalk this up to parental quirks but what really bugged me was the way that my coworkers triple-teamed me when I came in the door. With the other coworker gone, I guess they felt a spontaneous burst of bravery and decided they'd go after me next. That lasted about as long as any other attempt to try my patience ever has. They became a lot more polite throughout the rest of the week, especially after the news hit that we were being bought out and everyone's jobs went into question.

Temporary Despair
But boy oh boy did I feel like throwing in the whole Korean towel. I'm really sick of it all. At this point it's a job and a paycheque-- nothing more. I am no longer in the mood to "win over the hearts and minds" of Koreans. It's their country. They can have it. So long as the pay me on time, I'll stay. Cross me and I'll gladly hop on the next SARS-free plane home. As it is, there's only one reason I would stay in this country past the end of my contract in January. It's pretty much the same reason I stayed for this one. Anyone who knows me deeper than my blog permits, knows full well what the reason is-- but after discussing it, decision time was moved forward by quite a few notches when I got home from work on Tuesday.

The simple fact is that I am no longer benefiting by being here. So what if I spend 3 years, 4 years, 5 years... here? Eventually I will go home and I've already come up across the barrier point. Living in Korea is no longer a mind-broadening, cultural experience that people back home will respect. Tell someone that you spent a couple years here and they'll say, "Wow. That's really cool. You must have some different perspectives on things." Hang out in Korea for 4 years and people will treat you like you've forgotten how to use North American utensils and flush toilets. Anything over the time I have already spent here is effectively just slumming.

So that's been weighing on my mind also. My thirtieth birthday will have been crossed in Korea should I choose to stay another year, too. For God's sake, I'm going to have to get on with my life... and my life is not going to be here. It was while thinking these things that karma kicked in. I got a phone call at 7am Wednesday morning.

Yoboseyo... What the HELL do you want?
My good friend, Dan called me up from Miramichi. Dan and I have had a lot of good times together. Most memorable, I'd have to say, was the catfishing incident (which didn't involved fish at all, so much as it involved cats and a fourth floor window. Don't worry, we didn't catch anything-- the cats outsmarted us-- but we did manage to distract a couple of people long enough to break up a fight rather creatively). So anyway, he called me up and he didn't really have a clue as to what time it was here, I don't think. But, after spending a few minutes on the phone, he was forgiven for waking me up.

Here's a little background info. My hometown newspaper, where I actually had my start in the business, used to have an editorial cartoonist, named Bill Hogan. A couple years ago, Bill passed away. Now the paper went without having a dedicated cartoonist after that, but the topic finally came around at a recent editorial meeting. Even though I was half a world away in Korea-- my name came up. They called me here at home, I sent in a couple of old cartoons from my portfolio... then they offered me the job. I accepted it and will now be emailing in editorial cartoons, twice weekly (which is as often as they print). My first cartoon ran on Friday and my second is due to run Tuesday. (If all goes well, this second cartoon will be the first colour editorial cartoon in New Brunswick history.) After about seven years absence, I'll be staff there again.

You all know that I've had my hopes on this field for a while. I even made that New Year's resolution to do a cartoon each week here (that has since fallen by the wayside as my posts became weekly in and of themselves). Now it looks like I will be doubly keeping the resolution and will even be paid to do it. Better yet, is my frame of mind. Now it doesn't matter so much if I am slumming in Asia because I am accomplishing something while I do it. Any leaky holes in my resume due to time away from home, are plugged.

Back to the Karmic flip
That made my Wednesday feel pretty good-- but even better yet was the next morning, since I spent the night successfully completing my first assignment. If anyone has been reading this blog though, they know one major theme of life in Korea is that stability is not guaranteed. Ironically after showing my former coworker the door, Thursday turned out to be my director's last day also. The school has been sold. The new manager will show up on Tuesday when we resume classes. How this will play out, I have no idea. Our part time foreign teacher noticed an ad for our school on the internet, seeking a full time foreigner. That sounds like I might get a permanent coworker but for all I know, they could be planning on replacing me. Maybe they want to try to find someone cheaper (though I am already close to working under par). Maybe they might feel threatened by the fact that in the whole school, only one person has been there as long as I have (and he looks about ready to spread his wings). This new manager is of the business above education type, and he also does not speak English. This is a bad combination so I fear the worst going into this week. Still most of the Korean teachers seem to think that my job is the most secure at the school-- rather jealously I might add.

Even in a worse case scenario, the positive news from Wednesday will keep me from floating adrift. If I happen to find myself in Canada next week, I know that I have a home to go to, and most probably steady employment. I also know that people care about me and remember me. The contrast between home and here is becoming overwhelming. There was a really nice welcome and introduction in the paper, which constituted the bulk of the editorial for that day. Part of the introduction that the editor published reads, "Welcome back, figuratively speaking, Ian Ross. We like your sense of humour and your artwork and we hope to have both around here for a long time." In some sense, it's like I'm already home...

...And it's a nice feeling to belong someplace.

Holidays throughout the week
Coming into this week, we finally have some time off. Monday is Children's Day here in Korea. Thursday is Buddha's Birthday. Both are cause for celebration and a well-needed chance to take a break. I'm going to spend my extra time packing non-essential things for shipment to Canada. It's not a promise that I'm leaving yet-- but I know it'd make me feel better.