Caveat: Talmudic Citation

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / The Wonders of Work

When a Korean teenager quotes the Talmud in his writing assignment, I suspect this indicates nothing more than a strong set of internet-search skills.  However, the fact that he used the quote meaningfully and in an appropriate context shows some talent with language, too, I would say.  Always little stunning things like this, to keep me motivated.

Ever since my crisis last month with my T2's, I've been getting happier and happier with my students.  But, balancing that is an increasing discomfort with my coworkers.  Part of that is, undoubtedly, the transfer-of-power taking place as the independently owned-and-operated School of Tomorrow becomes transformed into a small branch campus of LinguaForum Academy, Inc.  But I also feel that my way of coping with my teenagers' recalcitrance (i.e. backing way off, ending arguments about whether homework gets done, etc.) probably isn't in accord with the do-more-sooner and work-harder philosophy of the other teachers.

My feeling is that I'll get more accomplished exposing them to English in a relaxed, informal and pleasant atmosphere than cowing them into compliant tasks of mindless memorization.   But it's hard to quantify results, which is what parents want.  So I'm not sure how this will go… of course, with a new curriculum coming soon, it's all moot.

Meanwhile, one thing certain to happen with the new owners / managers is that I will probably end up working more hours, at least at first.  It's already started to happen – I had to come to work early yesterday and today for these long, tedious presentations to parents about the changes in the school (tedious for me, anyway, since they're conducted in Korean, and I can do little but be a nice American-looking spokesmodel standing around).

So I'm exhausted, and feeling like the flu is trying to make a comeback.  And I'll be working Christmas day… well, not exactly working, but interacting with coworkers at an obligatory Christmas party.  I don't really resent this at all – I look forward to it, as I might get to know some of the new people associated with the new corporate parent of our little hagwon.

Walking home, I had an ecstatic moment when I understand not one, but two words in a row in an overheard fragment of conversation between two people walking the opposite direction.  You have to understand, this is a milestone, as such overheard conversations of passing pedestrians are quite challenging for a language-learner.   I understood, exactly:  "blah blah blah … my younger sister… blah blah blah"  I have no idea as to context, etc.  But it was cool to hear it and know for certain what it meant.   We take our victories, however small, right?

Caveat: Casino Problem

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Nothing can be more enlightening than having a political discussion with a pair of 13 year old boys.  Obviously, what they say is, likely, a reflection of the views of their parents – but they tend to be more frank and up front – especially if they have limited language skills in the language in which the discussion is taking place.

On the subject of South Korea's just-this-instant elected president, 이명박, Tom explained to me that he was "crazy man," and when I asked him to elaborate, he said he was "a robber" and that he had a "casino problem."  I'm going to guess that Tom's parents voted for one of the other guys. 

It is true that the presumed president-elect will be facing a criminal probe by the national legislature, before even being sworn in next month, for his association with a corporate fraud case.  Ah well, politics is politics, everywhere, right?

I had a good day at school today.  All the students were relatively pleasant and at least moderately motivated.  Several, including normally silent Mona in my T2 class, are stunning me with unforeseeable founts of interest and actual work.

Cindy, in the brilliant T1 class, has the flu, and she and I were chatting before class about how everyone has the flu, these days, including me, just now beginning to recover (knock on wood).  Then she said something very funny:  "Your voice is much nicer when you're sick."  I guess she was referring to that raspy, slightly lower sound it has.  But… I didn't know what to say.  Should I have said, "Oh.  I'll try to stay sick, then"?  But I think she was joking.  Sometimes I can't tell.

Caveat: Vote?

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Tomorrow is election day.  South Koreans will vote for president.  이명박 (reformed romanization I-Myeong-Bak / conventional romanization Lee Myung Park) is the far-ahead leader in all polls, member of the conservative Grand National Party, which would then replace the slightly less conservative current ruling coalition.  Most people here are voting their pocketbooks, as there has been a lot of inflation of e.g. land prices.  Most of the leading candidates seem to have similar views of such controversial issues as the North Korean rapprochement (i.e. they favor it), as best I have been able to determine (though I haven't researched extensively).

So tomorrow night, we'll know who will be president for the next 5 year term.  Like Mexico, presidents may only serve one term. 

Caveat: Incentives and U.S. Healthcare

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I heard a part of a speech by Mike Huckabee, with whom I was certain I would find very little in common, and was stunned to hear a compelling and cogent argument about the core problem with healthcare in the U.S.

It comes down to an MBA-style incentives analysis:  why do insurance companies prefer paying for major healthcare interventions when prevention would be cheaper, in the long run?  Because, from a strictly actuarial standpoint, they have almost zero interest in the long run, since the average person is covered by a single given healthcare provider only for a short or medium run (i.e. a person keeps a given job at a given company for, say, 5 years, when prevention-oriented healthcare requires much wider windows of 8 or 10 years, at the least).  Thus, to pay for prevention-oriented healthcare for covered workers is only to subsidize a competitor, who would be the next insurance provider down the line in a given worker's career track.

One can question the accuracy of the individual bits of fact or statistic in the above analysis, and I didn't get a chance to hear what he thought the solution might be, but I was nevertheless pleased by the argument's underlying clarity and logic – it had an almost marxist-dialectic appeal.

No doubt, someone's been writing Huckabee's policies and speeches, but that he would sign on to such an assumption-challenging exposition speaks well of his intellectual integrity.  I'm not saying I would vote for him – he is, after all, the current favorite of a fundamentally intolerant Christian right – the all-American Jihad, made-in-Arkansas.  But, he's been condemned more than once as a new example of something that might be called an "evangelical liberal," and this example may provide some support to that categorization.

Caveat: Here and There

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Life in Korea / My Photos

I felt I really needed to get out of the apartment.
I took the subway two stops to Baekseok, to look around. I found where the new frequently advertised Costco store is being built. I walked around and enjoyed the late afternoon illumination on the clouds.
I then took the subway two more stops to Hwajeong. I found a few department stores. Walked around some more.
Then I got on the subway and went to Anguk, and strolled around Insadong. I found things to buy, maybe they would be good xmas presents for my nephews, if I can get it together to mail them. Soon.
picture
picture

Caveat: Xmas Specials

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

I watched a really depressing xmas movie today… I was going to do something productive like go to my Korean language hagwon, but I decided I was still under the influence of the influenza virus I've been combating.  But kinda depressing… I watched a rather grim-seeming xmas special on my TV, that I didn't catch the title of (it had dialog in English, which made it the most compelling programming available to my currently muddled mind). 

I took a nap and dreampt I was in some alternate-universe Humboldt County, unable to find my home.  Drifting around, sometimes driving, sometimes walking, like a shade. 

Caveat: fluff

Banalities & Journaling

I emerged from work at 10.20 this evening into driving, fluffy snow.  I hadn't even realized it was snowing.  I walked home smiling to myself.  Maybe that was because I may have finally begun shaking the flu thing I've been struggling against, though. 

The snow accumulated in tiny drifts in the rumples of my thick overcoat, and the sound of rushing buses and mopeds was muffled. 

Caveat: What if zombies took over Ilsan?

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

I don't know the answer.  Just something to wonder about, I guess.

So it's been a bit hush-hush, but I think it's common knowledge now, and thus I will blog it (since they're installing a new sign on the building, after all).  The School of Tomorrow Language academy has been sold by its owners, Danny and Diana, to a big conglomerate academy business, and will become the new "RingGuAPoReomEoHagWon."  The company is trying to break into the specialized English-only academy biz, and this is their opportunity.

Thus I get to work for both a small, independent "mom and pop" academy, as well as a big corporate academy, all under a single one-year contract.  There will be a lot of changes, not least will be a radically different curriculum.  I still don't really know what to expect.  But the "hippie school" ambiance that I rather liked does seem endangered.  On the other hand, I may get some more "professional" management/feedback, which might help me feel more comfortable about where I stand as far as performance.

Caveat: long time ago, men were best

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I was walking to work along "Broadway" this afternoon, and happened past this temporary store selling Xmas decorations, and blasting from some loudspeakers was that latter-day American Xmas-music standy, "Feliz Navidad," sung earnestly in a charming Korean accent.  This was culturally disorienting.  The sun was a lovely blurry gold in a hazy winter sky.

Earlier, I had enjoyed watching an episode of Spongebob Squarepants on my television, dubbed into Korean.  The fact that I didn't understand anything he said really didn't interfere with my ability to understand the plot, although there's some pretty clever word-play in those cartoons that I obviously missed out on.  As I watched, I had some sweet instant coffee, and ate a pre-made sandwich of indeterminate content bought from the "Orange" (e.g. 7-11 type) store downstairs.  The sandwich was made with an eerie green-tinted bread.  It tasted pretty good, in a wonder-bread sort of way.

When I got to work, I was correcting some writing books, and ran across the following passage, written by Julia, age  13.  Note the oddly-phrased demonstration of her strong awareness of Korea's rapidly evolving gender-roles:  "I think test is garbage.  Test has no existence, cause if I know who make test, I curse him (or her, but I think him, because long time ago, men were best)."

I played a game with the T2 class today, and for the first time in over two months, every single student participated and even showed glimmers of enthusiasm.  Of course, we didn't touch the curriculum.  Ah well.

I also had recently given a "꼬치 challenge" to my 수능 and T1 cohorts.  The challenge involved the following:  if they could get a class average of above 75% on a context-based vocabulary quiz for the current chapter in the text, I would buy them all 꼬치 (skewered barbecue chicken, see entry of a week or so ago).  Well, it never rains but it pours – both groups made the grade today, and I paid out 21,000 won to treat them all to 꼬치 from the corner stand.  But it was worth it to see them work hard at it… bribery gets you everywhere, as they say.  And the stomach is the key to these youngsters' minds.

Caveat: No free lunch

Banalities & Journaling / Food & Drink / Life in Korea

Honestly, when I got here, I wasn't expecting a free lunch.  But for the last three months, one of my favorite "perks" of my teaching job has been the free lunch (or, really, dinner) they give us every day.  Not only do I get to sample a wide range of Korean cuisine, since it's generally "eat whatever we give you," but also, of course, I could make it my main meal of the day and it essentially supplemented my income.

But now, change of policy:  the free lunches are over.  I don't really resent it.  But I will miss it, I'm certain, if for not other reason than for the adventurousness of eating something I have no idea what it is two or three times a week.  Having to bring/buy my own will cause me to tend to a more conservative "order what I know" strategy, I'm certain. 

Ah well.  I did learn some delicious things.

Caveat: Learning 한자

Banalities & Journaling / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

I have this book on 한자 (hanja) for learners of Korean.   These are Chinese characters, which are widely used in Korea, but do not form an indispensable part of the written language, unlike e.g. Japanese, where you cannot learn the written language without learning the Chinese characters too.  Nevertheless, it has seemed to me that true literacy in Korean requires knowing these Chinese characters, much as an ability to understand Latin and Greek roots can aid in being well-educated in English.  In fact, I have sometimes explained to my students that Latin and Greek roots are the English language's hanja.

Therefore, I'm going to try to learn some.  But at the moment, I can't even figure out how to type them – I know there should be some kind of "type in hangeul and look up appropriate hanja" functionality on my Korean keyboard gadget on my laptop, but I can't get it to work.  So, I'll let you know when I get it to work.

Meanwhile, we're having some freezing rain, and, knock-on-wood, the flu I've had seems to be getting a little better.

Caveat: flu

Banalities & Journaling

I have no idea what to say.  I had a very bad day, battling the flu.  I skipped my Korean language class.

Caveat: Cake’s existence is have eat cake

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Language & Linguistics / Quotable

My students have to keep writing journals, where they are supposed to make diary entries and/or respond to little pithy quotes with something reflective.  One of my lower-level students, but still quite intelligent and talented, when confronted with a request to reflect on the idea of "to have one's cake and eat it too," wrote "cake's existence is have eat cake."  This seemed truly profound to me.  But that might just be the cold medicine, acting up.

Caveat: Public arrogance

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I had the opportunity to hear on the radio this morning (CBC via MPR via internet) an interview with John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.  I always suspected this man was a nutjob, but I was nevertheless stunned by the degree of condescension and arrogance he managed to express in this short interview.  If he's at all typical of the people in the Bush administration who have been creating and conducting foreign policy, it's no wonder we're where we are.  Of course, I knew that… but it just got brought home categorically, I guess.

It's 2 degrees C and raining.   I have the flu.

Caveat: Chicken bombs and the end of science

Banalities & Journaling / Food & Drink / Life in Korea / Teaching & Methodology

Well, my science class that I've been doing suffered a setback, today.  We've been requested to adopt a simpler curriculum… some of the students were feeling left behind.  Danny, my boss, had explicitly said to me, when I started this biology unit, a little over a month ago, that he wanted me to "teach to the top students."    And that's what I've been doing.  But, because this is an after-school academy, the curriculum tends to be pretty flexible, and will respond to parental requests fairly rapidly.  This makes for a shifting platform for the teachers.  I'm not really upset.  It's just interesting.

Some of the students – the "top" mentioned above, of course – were disappointed in the change, however.   And we had a long in-class conversation on Monday about all kinds of things, including some "meta" talk about the nature of Korean private English language academies and how they seem to work.

In this same class, today, some students came in eating some chicken "skewer bombs" (폭탄꼬치).  These are barbecued fillets of chicken-on-a-stick sold by street vendors, the "bomb" part of the name indicating that they are very highly spiced.   The Koreans justifiably pride themselves on their very spicy food, and they seem to be singularly fascinated by the prospect of freaking out foreigners by feeding them the most dangerous parts of their diet.  So it was no surprise that one of my students offered me a taste of his "skewer bomb," and then they all waited with fascination and eager silence to see my reaction.  They wanted to see steam come out of my ears, or something.

But they hadn't reckoned with the fact that I happen to be not just a gringo, but a gringo achilangado.  Which is to say, I have deep familiarity with (and love for) a cuisine even spicier than theirs:  ie. Mexican.  I said, "oh, that's very good."  Meanwhile two of the others who'd had some ran from the room to get a drink of water.

End result was, we decided to celebrate the "end of science" (ie. the end of the advanced biology I was teaching) by having "skewer bombs" – I gave Jason and Danny 11,000 won to run down to the corner and get some for everyone.  We had a little feast and discussed the vocabulary for the much simpler unit we'd be tackling next.  And I ate a whole one, and it was very spicy, but not as spicy as my famous mole poblano, nor even as spicy as my mother's famous chile verde.

Caveat: Traveling to Siberia; Staying Put

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

Each winter, Siberia comes to Korea.  Or rather, the air-mass does.  So despite the latitude (37 30, same as Washington DC or Seville, Spain), despite proximity to the sea, despite the endless cloudless days, despite the lack of snow (and thus none of the albedo phenomenon that helps cool e.g. Minnesota in the winter)… despite all these things, the air starts to push down from Siberia and Korea suddenly gets very cold.   Actually, still not as cold as Minnesota, this time of year.  But cold enough.  And it would be nice if there was snow, too.   It was about -5 C (about 23 F) when I walked to work today.  And colder, walking home. 

Caveat: surreptitious haggle

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Internet & Blogging
I receive quite a bit of spam.  Like most people, I'm sure.  But I received one this evening that seems exceptional. 

First of all, like some of the best spam, it is clearly the output of some random word generation/selection algorithm, and ends up seeming like a fragment of avant garde poetry. 

But what really stands out about it, is that it doesn't appear to be selling anything at all.  There were no attachments.  There's no embedded plea for financial help for a Nigerian, nor is there any recommendation for any "hot" stock or link to any enhancement-drug-selling website.

So… is this spam-for-spam's-sake?  Spam-as-a-public-service, like the poetry they put on city buses some places?  Spam-as-occult-message-from-another-dimension?  Should I try to decipher it and discover the hidden meaning of life?  It's begging me to.  Is it the work of the Azerbaijani tourist bureau (note the dead links on the word "baku")?

Here is the complete text of spam:

surreptitious haggle 

suppressible coachmen baku flathead dissuade cutthroat

precinct cutthroat dissuade idiosyncratic idiosyncratic middleweight
individualism drop brazilian idiosyncratic articulatory harshen dutiable haul summit dutiable purl 
pogo guidance articulatory drop articulatory precinct handout baku botch thee remorseful 
homage coachmen dowager botch middleweight summit

Caveat: Quotes

Quotable

"Oprah is transcendent;  she is a cultural treasure."  — David Letterman.

"when the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done."  — J. M. Keynes.

"Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."  — Mark Twain.

"With only 300 bits, you could assign a unique barcode to each of the ten-to-the-ninetieth elementary particles in the universe." — Seth Lloyd.

Caveat: Three Months

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

So I'm closing in on the end of my third month here.   Three months ago tomorrow, on a Saturday afternoon, I arrived in Korea.  And I'm having feelings of ambiguity, as in most things in life, I suppose.

On the one hand, despite all the frustrations, I still like my current job better than my last one – it's easier to look forward to, and less stressful, and sometimes downright fun.  And I have moments when I really enjoy where I am and the bits of the language I'm acquiring and all that.

On the other hand, I haven't felt like a particularly good teacher, at least lately.  Perhaps a bit of a crisis of self-confidence – these are not uncommon, for me, are they?  And although I often enjoy solitude and definitely require a great deal of it, I confess to feeling some loneliness, of late. 

Caveat: Ephesians 6:12-19

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

One of my coworkers has the following posted prominently at his desk:

12 우리의 씨름은 혈과 육에 대한 것이 아니요 정사와 권세와 이 어두움의 세상 주관자들과 하늘에 있는 악의 영들에게 대함이라   
13 그러므로 하나님의 전신 갑주를 취하라 이는 악한 날에 너희가 능히 대적하고 모든 일을 행한 후에 서기 위함이라   
14 그런즉 서서 진리로 너희 허리띠를 띠고 의의 흉배를 붙이고   
15 평안의 복음의 예비한 것으로 신을 신고   
16 모든 것 위에 믿음의 방패를 가지고 이로써 능히 악한 자의 모든 화전을 소멸하고   
17 구원의 투구와 성령의 검 곧 하나님의 말씀을 가지라   
18 모든 기도와 간구로 하되 무시로 성령 안에서 기도하고 이를 위하여 깨어 구하기를 항상 힘쓰며 여러 성도를 위하여 구하고   
19 또 나를 위하여 구할 것은 내게 말씀을 주사 나로 입을 벌려 복음의 비밀을 담대히 알리게 하옵소서 할 것이니   

This is from Ephesians, chapter 6 – I used the amazing world wide web, to figure this out.  The same section of King James begins this way:

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.   
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
….

I'm going to come straight out and say: looks like more apocalypse, to me.

I have been feeling a bit under the weather, again.  But hardly apocalyptic.

Caveat: Twisted discourse and green giraffes

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / My Drawings & Paintings / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

I was telling a few of my students about some tongue-twisters today, and they particularly liked the one about woodchucks.  But then they surprised me by teaching me a Korean tongue-twister, that I actually was able to understand with a minimal amount of parsing:
“내가 그린 기린 그림은 잘 그린 기린 그림이고 니가 그린 기린 그림은 잘 못 그린 기린 그림이다.”
Since it’s a tongue-twister, for the full effect, here is a transliteration:  “Naega geurin girin geurimeun chal girin geurim-igo, niga geurin girin geurimeun chal mot girin geurim-ida.”
And, for your reading pleasure, here is a rough translation:  “My picture of a giraffe is a good picture, [but] your picture of a giraffe is not a good picture.”
pictureHowever, there is the additional confusion that 그린 could be a Konglish rendering of “green,” which makes me think of green giraffes.
I really, really like this phrase.  I think it’ll be my motto for the month!  Boy is it hard to say, though.
picture

Caveat: It was foggy

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

It was foggy today around noon when I left my building.  The ground was damp, and it felt like Minnesota does sometimes in early Spring after an unexpected thaw.

I walked to the Starbucks at Juyeop (which is indirectly on the way to work) and had a 4 dollar latte.  The recent descent of the dollar has brought up prices of things that are tied to the dollar and the global economy, here.  But I suppose on the good side, this means I'm earning my wages in won at a good time relative to the global economy.

I read my Economist magazine, and tried to study my giant-and-always-growing list of Korean vocab items, and stared out the window.  About 40 minutes later, I walked the rest of the way to work, and watched a street sweeping machine snorting up the orange leaves from the street gutters.  The sun came out. 

Caveat: No caveats

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

Totally lazy day… reading, listening to the radio.  I decided to take a little one day break from doing anything at all.  So… this is a very peremptory entry, I guess.  Just to be consistent.

An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I`ll turn into a beautiful princess".

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I`ll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want."

Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I`ve told you I`m a beautiful princess, that I`ll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won`t you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look I`m an engineer. I don`t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that`s cool."

Caveat: A better bookstore

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I found an even better bookstore, and very conveniently located next to my Saturday hagwon.  I spent a few hours there, bought some magazines and a philosophy book (a collection of essays by Deleuze), and a matching pair of manga books:  volume one of "Deathnote" (which I learned about based on seeing a graffiti on a desk at my work), in both English and Korean translations – I've been thinking for some time that reading a manga in Korean might be a good way to work on my skills – especially having access to the English version too.  Manga are very popular here (they're called Manhwa) – there are whole sections in bookstores devoted to them.

Caveat: More thanks

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

These last two days, I have gone all-out to approach my teaching and my world with a sort of broad gentleness, and an attitude of thankfulness and kindness.   Partly in the spirit of the holidays.  Partly in the spirit of the kindness of my employers, who, despite their recent criticisms of my abilities, remain genuinely decent, fair-minded people, whose foremost concern is the kids – in this respect, I seem to have lucked out over the more mass-production language hagwons that seem to predominate here.

But mostly, because I have become more and more convinced that my best personal cure to episodes of anger and frustration is simply to "think" myself out of it.  That's the cognitive behavioral therapy thing, right?  So…

And the honest truth, the last two days have been much happier and less stressful days at work.  Not perfect… no, those T2's are still… well, no comment. 

But the T1's – wow, what a smart group of kids.  We're doing a unit on biology.  I put together a lecture on the Monerans for Wednesday, and we kept on it today, answering quiz questions via discussion and reading more material.  I got to talk about stuff I'd long forgotten and have been reading furiously to remember from my almost-minor in botany back as an undergrad at Minnesota:  prokaryotes vs eukaryotes, the symbiotic origins of chloroplasts and mitochondria, the carbon cycle, taxonomic systems and phylogenetics.  And for the most part, at least half are keeping up with me. 

And though not quite the same level, academically, the Monday/Friday 수능 cohort, are just plain pleasant and fun, as we talk about democratic movements being suppressed in Egypt and Korean Presidential politics (they'll have elections in December) – I got them to make a prediction that 이명박 would be the winner.  We'll see if this pans out – I have this vague recollection of reading somewhere that, in the U.S. anyway, polling teenagers is a better predictor of presidential race outcomes than polling adults.    Perhaps because they know what their parents are thinking and saying, and report more sincerely than adults self report in polls?

And then I came home to a wonderful, entertaining, uplifting email from my best friend Bob, demonstrating again why he's my best friend.   And now I'm watching David Letterman on my TV, eating some delicious ramyeon with mystery vegetables (and chopped tomato and way too much chili paste added), and writing my blog.

It was suddenly a bit warmer today – maybe 15 C.  And raining earlier, and now foggy.  I'll go to my Korean class tomorrow.   I've actually begun to remember some bits of vocabulary, too.  Maybe there's hope for that impossible project (ie. actually learning this baroque, beautiful, convoluted language), too!

Caveat: Thanks

Banalities & Journaling

Today is Thanksgiving.  But… I'm in Korea, and that's one U.S. holiday that simply hasn't made it over here.  I was realizing that this is the first Thanksgiving that I haven't commemorated in any way in my entire life.  So I bought some chocolates and gave them away to my students, spending a few minutes in each class discussing the holiday and tossing them candy.  This seemed to go over well.  Food is the key to most people's souls, isn't it?

So.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Caveat: Unfunness

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Welcome to my world:  the unfunness.

Today, I asked for, and got, some critical feedback on my teaching.  Not really a positive review.  My own fault for asking, right?

Primary concern:  I am unfun.  Too serious….  I always have been too serious.  I was too serious as a child.  As a student.   And certainly, I am too serious as a teacher.  Still… I have trouble reconciling this with how much fun some of my classes can be, especially the younger kids, on the one hand, and the most highly motivated advanced classes, on the other.  But the criticism is certainly compelling in light of those recalcitrant T2's.

Secondary:  classroom management.  I don't really control my classrooms.  That's the uber-democratic hippy-quaker thing showing through.  I'm not a disciplinarian, at heart.  And I resist being urged to take more control… and have trouble reconciling the idea of being more "fun" on the one hand with being more controlling on the other, though I recognize, intellectually, that it's possible and even necessary with some groups.

Next:  I speak too fast.  I know this is true, and have no argument here – it's the hardest single thing to remember, as I teach – that I'm working with language learners, and even when they nod and pretend (quite convincingly) that they understand, they aren't necessarily getting much of what I'm saying.

Next:  I give the kids too many choices.  They're not supposed to have opinions about what they should be studying.  This is, again, my countercultural background showing through.  And is certainly even less popular a viewpoint, here in Korea, than it would be in the U.S., though even there it would be a less than universal approach.

No defense, no excuses.  I will keep trying to improve.

Some general observations, however.  I'm an introverted person – perhaps not best suited, in some ways, to being a school teacher.

But on the other hand, I am really pretty good at "teaching" – but only in the context of highly motivated learners.  I am not, at least constitutionally, a motivational speaker – not by any stretch of the imagination.  Thus, I do fine interacting with those who bring a desire to learn to the classroom, regardless of their level of innate intelligence or degree of preparation.  But, when it comes to the motivationally challenged, I am clueless and incapable of pulling them along.  Perhaps this is because that's my own internal demon?  Not sure….

Caveat: Chat

Banalities & Journaling / Internet & Blogging

At this instant, I'm chatting online in a weird mixture of Korean and Spanish – I signed up at this website called hanglingo.com to try to meet people for "language exchange" and just got an instant message from someone.   This will be interesting…

Caveat: First Snow

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I left work this evening and it was snowing.  It was a hard-falling slushy snow.  But by the time I got to my apateu it had fizzled to a weak drizzle. 

I bought some vegetables yesterday.  I don't know what they are… green shoot thingies.  I often buy vegetables I am unable to identify… just for the adventure I guess.   When I decided to chop some of it into my ramyeon this evening, I found a label:  "Product of China."

This is stunning, for some reason.  More stunning than the zillions of dollars worth of electronics and plastic crap and everything else China exports.  Because it's so easy to remember that within my lifetime, people were starving in China.  And now they export fresh vegetables to their neighbors.  I suppose this doesn't mean people aren't starving there, any more – after all, people starve in places like Guatemala, while bananas are exported.  But it's just weird, I guess.

Most fruits and vegetables in Korea are grown locally – even tropical varieties and even out-of-season – they have bazillions of acres covered in greenhouses.  It's weird to think that South Korea is almost self-sufficient in food, yet one of the most densely populated countries on earth – more densely populated than any other "large" country except Bangladesh.   Into an area of just under 100,000 km sq. (about the size of Kentucky, and similar topography), they cram 50 million.

I love snow.

I wish they would give me some kind of performance review or even the vaguest fragment of feedback at work.  I'm in the dark.  It's… frustrating.

Caveat: A Sunday Walk

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Life in Korea / My Photos

It was the first day that the high temperature was below freezing, I think, since I’ve been here.  And a strong wind from the northwest.
So I thought, today I’ll take my camera and take a walk around my neighborhood.  I took almost 100 pictures, and here are some I particularly like.  All these pictures were taken within about a kilometer of my apartment, as I walked a roundabout route past the subway, up through the park with the little hill, around past near where the Tomorrow School is.  They’re shown in the order I saw them, roughly.
This is a street about 4 blocks east.
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This is the entrance to the Jeongbalsan subway station.
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This is a government office near the subway station.
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This is the same office from the other side, and a flower on a trellis.
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This is a path up the hill.
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This is a view looking northeast from near the top of the hill.
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This is a friendly dog I saw in someone’s yard.
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This is a rather posh American-looking house.
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This is a backhoe and a tree.
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And finally, proof that my students have opportunities to apply their hard-earned English skills out in the real world, right in their neighborhood.
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