One Week Reflections

Well, one week in. It's been a long week, though in a good way. This post is a summary on my experiences so far in Seosan, Korea.

It is easy to say that Korea is culturally different from the USA. One of my most noticeable changes is how the accepted greeting is the bow. I really like this part, where in either the hello or goodbye, each party is expected to bend forward at the waist for the bow. At first I did a somewhat lazy head nod, but since I have gotten more comfortable with it. Another thing I like is how each place (except for stores, etc.) will have a lowered area where the shoes are expected to be placed at entry. For places such as my school, a pair of sandals is awaiting me.

My doorway.

Another huge difference between here and the states is cultural norms on the street. For one, people are generally not friendly to anybody on the street. It is not in a disrespectful way, it is just somewhat impolite to make eye contact with passersby. With me as a 6'4" white man, I of course am very noticeable. This means the people on the street really, really want to stare at me. If I look around, I can generally catch many people trying to stare at me out of the corner of their eye while facing directly ahead. It's amusing.

I do enjoy the city I am living in. With a population of about 140,000 (via wikipedia) Seosan is considered somewhat small for Korea. Within this populate, I gather that there are about 40 or 50 foreigners in the city from places such as the USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, and Australia. Many of these people are somewhat close knit, which I like, and I have made a bunch of friends. Generally, every time I venture out of my apartment I will run into someone.

There are also the foreigner hangouts. One place, Holly's Coffee is very close to my apartment. This place is OK, though the coffee is very overpriced. There are also some bars which the foreigners frequent, one is called 'Bike Bar.' From what I hear, foreigners are there almost every night. Another hangout similar to this is 'R&B Club,' which I also went to last Friday night. I met some nice people from New Zealand and UK there, as well as some nice Korean girls. My first night out at the bars on Friday, I ended up staying out until about 5! Bars here will stay open pretty much as late as they still have customers.

One last thing I like very much about Seosan is transportation. By far, the easiest way to get is around is via taxi. There are a few key spots which the cab drivers know in English, such as 'Bikee Bar' (Bike Bar), 'Dunkeen Donutsoo' (Dunkin Donuts), and the 'Bus Termeener' (Bus Terminal). I luckily live a block or two away from the bus terminal so I just say that when I want to get home. By cab, one can get anywhere for about $2 American.

Thoughts on Teaching:

The reason I am here in Korea is for this teaching job, after all, so I plan to get very good at it and improve this as a life skill. Teachers are in demand everywhere in the world, obviously.

At first I wasn't sure at all what to expect. My first day, I was allowed to sit in on three classes which the other foreign teacher, Chea (from Minnesota), taught. After this, I was expected to teach my first class that same day. Really pretty crazy. Luckily, this class was one which only had six students who were are advanced and very well behaved, and all I had to do was cover a few pages from the book.

The ages I teach range from kindergarten to late middle school. My mornings are filled with four kindergarten classes where I generally show videos and have them repeat sentences. Then, afternoon are the middle school kids, which is a whole different game. These classes are half and half, one half being about 6 kids, well behaved, and good listeners. The other half is much closer to hell with ten students. Not really hell, but I think it's easy to get what I mean. One of these classes is nine middle school boys who are all so loud, attention spans so short, and generally don't like to listen much. My first day with them was rough, but I am getting better to relating to them (and yelling). I also have two conversation classes with older kids. These are fun, but I didn't know the class was coming up each time so I had to fly by the seat of my pants. All I could really come up with was asking them what they want to be when they grow up, and then to talk about food (after that I killed a lot of time with games).

When the kids are good and there is extra time, I like to play Pictionary. The way I conduct this is I first draw a picture on the board, which the kids have to guess. Whoever guesses first gets to write the word on the board and then think of something to draw on their own. I feel that this is a good way to work on vocabulary and creativity, and for me I really like to doodle on the board so that works out.

My school administrator, Jay, is an extremely nice guy. My first day there he picked my up from the bus terminal, showed me where my apartment and the grocery store were, and then showed me around the school. He is very easy going and more than easy to get a long with. The school also provides a free lunch to me everyday which I usually spend with him. The other foreign teacher, Chae, was so helpful to me my first few days and also was nice enough to show me around the town on my first night there.

Overall, I enjoy teaching these Korean kids very much. Korean kids are ridiculously cute (sorry, American kids). My kindergarteners are all very affectional and like to give me hugs and high fives, while the older kids enjoy games and asking me questions and such. It turns out teaching is super exhausting, as I'm sure every teacher knows. I am really happy when class gets out everyday as I am sick of talking and yelling and watching kids. This really is no match for how overall rewarding I find this teaching experience, though. I am excited to see how the rest of this year turns out.

Some presents the students made me: