Cute mistakes and other Wednesday things.

So things at our school are a bit crazy since they decided to create some new classes but the foreign teachers they lined up to teach them are having visa issues. This is getting pretty common out here now that they have changed a lot of the visa requirements and a lot of people are confused. Plus it sounds like some of the requirements are getting a bit ridiculous. Anyway, this is why I am marking essays for the B4 level classes this month along with my regular marking responsibilities. It's been a nice change from marking A1 essays which include a lot of "I like my Dad. My Dad is very very good.~". Yesterday I was marking a fresh batch of B4 essays and a couple of mistakes actually made me laugh out loud.

The essay topic was about creating a new holiday. The students had to say what they would honor and why. One student wrote about a holiday for parents (here there is one but I guess the students interpreted holiday to mean a day off from work and school) and then this one wrote about a holiday for teachers. The essay overall was incredibly well written and super impressive but there were two small and hilarious mistakes. When explaining the important role teachers play they stated, "They helped us glow up to be a great person." But my favorite was this line expressing how much they appreciate teachers: "I want to gave them the claps.....!!!!!". Man, it was a good thing I was alone in my room when I read that! I didn't stop giggling for a few minutes. I'm just glad they didn't confuse the r and l on that word. Or maybe they are talking about giving them the clap?! ^^

Besides marking essays, yesterday was filled with scorching weather accompanied with suffocating humidity. We took a short walk outside and both got a bit of a tan as a result! I have to say, there are some lovely things in our area. Jamsil certainly isn't as green as Gimpo was but it has its charms. Like this house next to our apartment building.

Isn't it lovely?

We wandered around and actually saw a few other foreigners. Even though there are tons of schools in this area we rarely see foreigners that we don't work with. Possibly we're all on opposite schedules though.

So we ate some sushi and then we retreated to the coffee shop next to our place so we could use their air con for free. It's such an adorable place and I tried a new drink which I loved so that's good since the other things I've had their were only mediocre. I love how they serve water in measuring cups though.

What's this? Matt got a present?

Well lookie here! A shiny gold gift bag for Matt. Could it be? Did he get a present today? What majestic wares lay inside? And who is his admirer?



Poor Matt- it's full of prescription medication! Only in Korea does the pharmacy pack your medicine in a gift bag for you to take home. I suppose it's therapeutic to pretend someone gave you a present though.


Here, I'll show you what a real present looks like:
A weird soft cheesy sausage and a box of Mok Candies (sort of like Korean Halls). The kicker? They both came from children who are NOT students of mine. Yep, I'm a rockstar. The sausage did come from a former student but the Mok Candies are from a kid I don't even know. She wasn't just randomly handing them out either- she saw me, grabbed me and fumbled through her bag to find them. I think I will have to learn her name. Man I like teaching the elementary students. Middle school kids just don't love people as much. Their hearts are full of puberty and K-Pop. Alas.

Fun and Funny Stuff

To continue about our great weekend- on Sunday we met with our book club. First we had an awesome Western breakfast at Big Rock. You can't beat a $10 buffet that includes bacon! Then we moved to Smoothie King for dessert and to discuss the book. Very enjoyable, as always and we got some new members so that was really exciting. It will be nice having some more testosterone in the group. Matt was getting a bit overpowered.

After we parted ways with our book club I did a little bit of shopping. I got some awesome earrings that I adore. I'd been coveting them for awhile but I found them at a cheaper price. Bingo!



Also, I saw this shirt which totally cracked me up. I think it's so pretty and it looks like it should say something really deep and philosophical. Well, laundry is meaningful too I suppose. It was a truly excellent weekend that will probably only be matched by next weekend (when we see Cirque du Soleil) and the weekend after that (when we go to Beijing).

Gimpo Slide Show

So I made a slide show of my favorite pictures from Saturday. Yes, you're probably sick of looking at them but too bad. *insert evil laugh* I can't get enough of them!

Return to Gimpo aka Baby Reunion

I am going to warn everyone before I start- if you don't like pictures of adorable Korean children then you are going to have a hard time with this entry because there are A LOT. On Wednesday Margot called me up and asked if I would be interested in coming to Gimpo on Saturday to see my old kindergarten students. I have to say, dumbest question EVER! Of course I was interested! In fact, I just about peed my pants at the prospect.

This was all Paige's doing and I'm so glad she made the effort to call all the mommies. Everyone couldn't make it but I saw 7 out of my 10 babies (Kate stopped by really briefly at the beginning but I didn't get a picture of her). The only ones missing were Cathy, Alexa and Sara. So early Saturday morning Matt and I made the trek to Gimpo. We were pretty tired since we went out for John's birthday the night before and also because I was really excited to see the kids and couldn't sleep well.

We met up with Paige and helped her wrap presents for the kids in her car while we waited for Pizza Hut to open up. I've never been so anxious for a restaurant to open in my life. Then Grace and her mom arrived! Grace has gotten so much taller and she's totally lost her baby fat! I was amazed at how much older she looks in just a few months! Then Jake came barging in and I just about died. First words out of his mouth? "Amber Teacher! Long time, no see!" I kid you not. Elly must have taught him that.

Once the other kids had trickled in (Will, Andy, Janet, and Lily) we all sat down and ordered and the mommies slyly slipped away. It was so much fun eating pizza with them- it reminded me of lunch time at Little Brown except Andy was totally scarfing down his food instead of picking at it. It cracked me up that somehow Andy is still exactly the same size as when he started at school. Why are all Korean Andys short? Jake was hilarious and insisted that we share a drink together. He kept pointing at the pink straw and saying "This is YOUR straw and the yellow one is MY straw." His English is getting so good! We got a lot of interesting looks in Pizza Hut since we were so loud and we had a pack of Korean six year olds eating with a bunch of foreigners and speaking only in English.

After we finished eating the kids were getting pretty restless in the restaurant so we lined them up and marched them outside to this little park area. It was sweltering and we were all sweating buckets. It didn't stop us from playing a few rounds of the Monster game and the ever popular Sharks and Fish (basically both are tag derivatives). At one point Jake fell down and the waterworks started. He was fine (I actually expected a scraped knee or two since he fell on pavement but he just had a tiny cut on his hand) but it took awhile to convince him that he was fine. Some funny faces and a bandaid solved that and then it was playtime again.
Then it was time for Margot to go and Paige, Matt, the kids and I decided to move the party to a nearby indoor playground.

Apparently the kids came here on a field trip with Little Brown after Matt and I left. It was a really neat place actually, complete with comic books, computers, a climbing wall and an awesome jungle gym. We spent a couple hours chasing the kids around and playing with them and taking a million pictures. Will's sister Lisa showed up which was exciting for Matt since he used to teach her when she was in kindergarten. I also taught her elementary class. She seems to be growing up into a really lovely young girl and she got such a kick out of Matt saying Korean words. I was also surprised that we randomly ran into Edward who was Lion Brian's older brother. He was just in Canada for a few month and man his English is impeccable!

It occurred to me about halfway through our time at the indoor playground that the moms were getting an awesome deal here- free English babysitting! Hahah! It was so wonderful seeing the kids though. Janet's mom said that she was so excited the night before that she couldn't sleep. I really hope we get to do this again soon. I gave out my card to the moms and Lisa so hopefully we'll get some calls soon. I didn't want to say good bye. (T T)

Afterwards we had coffee and then dinner with Paige. It was great to catch up with her and it's been way too long since we hung out. We also had dinner at our favorite shabu shabu restaurant with Paige and it was so delicious. I'm sure Stephie and Alison remember the one I'm talking about. With full hearts and bellies Matt and I made our way back to Seoul. We both agree that we things were never perfect when we lived in Gimpo but we have so many fond memories of our time there. The relationships I made with my students are something I will never forget as long as I live. In case you missed the link for the pictures the first time, here it is again. Yes, I took almost 200 pictures but who knows when or if I will see these kids again!

John's Birthday at Monkey Beach

Friday was our friend John's birthday and so after work we made our way out to Apujeong to celebrate with him. I'd never been to Apujeong before and I think I need to go and explore there a bit. Apparently it's the Beverly Hills of Seoul. I'd heard about this bar from friends and honestly, when I walked in I couldn't understand what the big deal was. However, we ended up having a great time and the drink prices alone were reason enough to go back there.
It was great seeing John and Elaine again and we always have fun with Dana and Curtis. It turned out to be a night of dancing and lots of laughs. We didn't party too hard though since Saturday we had exciting, early morning plans- Paige Teacher arranged a lunch and playdate with my babies!!! Anyway, I will make that a separate post. If you want to see more pictures of Scottish John's Fourth of July birthday extravaganza you can go here. And yes, you can tell summer is here because I look like white Diana Ross in every picture.

Another Present!!!

This time it came from Damon who was in my A3 class but graduated to the next level. It's ginseng candy! I haven't tried any yet but I'm excited to have it anyway. Yuni told me that it's gross. Hmm... I might make Matt eat it first.

Like I mentioned, a couple classes changed levels for July. This was a little sad since I really liked both of the classes. Damon's A3 class may have been my favorite class I've taught this year (shhh! Don't tell anyone!) and the A1's were a lot of work but they had a great sense of humor and worked hard. I just had them "trained" and used to everything so classes were running really smoothly and now I'm no longer their teacher. Damn!

Here's a picture I took of my A1 kids- they were my biggest class (eleven students). See the boy wearing the baseball cap? That's David. One day he told us his Dad's name and I replied "What?! That's my Dad's name too!" (I'm joking of course) and from then on I said he was my little brother. I was really proud on this day of John (white shirt next to David with yellow backpack) and Kevin (purple shirt, behind John) because both of them scored 100% on the reading section of their last test. I had to be really strict with these kids but it worked out well since they made a lot of progress overall. I forgot to take a picture of Damon's class unfortunately but I have a couple random pictures of that class so it's okay.

Summer is here and I want to die.

I know I have been slacking with the updates lately and I blame this on the weather. In case you don't live in Korea and/or don't remember me talking about summer here, well, it's disgusting. I kind of hate it, actually. The temperature isn't that bad but when it's combined with 100% humidity then it's pretty much unbearable. It makes me want to go to work because I can sit in my classroom and crank the air conditioner without having to worry about the financial consequences. Our apartment is crazy hot. We have an air conditioner but we use it sparingly so that we're not slammed with a huge bill. I wish I had a fan, but again, I'm too cheap to buy something that I'll only use for a month and a half. Maybe if our electricity bill is really outrageous after this month I can justify the cost and later try to sell it or something.

Anyway, before this turns into the most boring post ever I'm going to talk about something I'm really happy about lately- I've been making closer friendships with people at work. Hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch with most of them (because 3 of them are no longer working at my school as of July). Not long ago I hung out with Mi Eun (who is the receptionist and still works at KNC) and Kyeong Hwa (with the short hair). I should have mentioned Kyeong before since she's extremely adorable and has been so friendly towards me at work. She worked in the Homework Room and even though her English isn't the greatest she always tried to talk to me and brought me little gifts. It was incredibly sweet and I'm still unsure why she was so eager to befriend me but I'm glad that she did because she's lovely. Something that I enjoy about her is that she is really direct (probably since she doesn't know lots of complex English yet) so there is no beating around the bush. One of my first encounters with Kyeong was when she literally grabbed my arm at work, looked me straight in the eye and announced, "I like you!".

We didn't do anything too special but I had a great time eating a delicious meal with them and then chit chatting and window shopping for a few hours. Mi Eun is totally awesome- she has great taste in music and has been recommending some Korean bands that I'm really enjoying. Also she lived in India! I mean, how cool is that? We're planning to meet up again- go to Kyeong's house and have dinner and meet her Mom and Mi Eun promised to take me to Hongdae to listen to some live music sometime soon. Yay for new friends!

Happy Canada Day!

In the future it's already Canada Day and I'm jealous of everyone that has a day off back home. I hear the weather has been amazing and I know more than one person that is spending time at the lake while I'm stuck in a classroom teaching. I might get to go to a Canadian pub tonight after work and raise a glass to my favorite country so I'm crossing my fingers. Cheers to Canada! Happy Birthday!

Women's Status in Korea... My Perspective.

I'm not really looking to make a deep social commentary but one of my readers expressed interest on the social status of women here in Korea. I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination so the best I can do is talk about what I've experienced and what my Korean friends, coworkers and neighbors have told me. Before I say much I want to put a disclaimer that this is merely my opinion and that I love Korea and Korean people and that no country or culture is perfect. So here is my take on things- I tried to keep it brief but it's a really complex subject.

In Korea, status is important. Status is determined by a number of things- your age, your job, your race and yes, your gender. Are women lower on the totem pole here? Without a doubt. Generally speaking, in Korea an ideal woman is thin, pretty, well dressed and on the meek side. The Confucian mentality has lingered and men are considered to be the head of the household, which really isn't too different from most other places in the world. There is a clear hierarchy in a Confucian society and this is reflected in the Korean language. You use different terms and speak differently to people who hold a higher status. You have to use a higher or more polite form of words in these circumstances and this is extremely important in order to show the appropriate amount of respect for their status. This is all well and good for the most part (respect your elders isn't that bad of an idea) but it does extend beyond that.

A great virtue in Confucianism is filial piety. What does that mean? Well basically you need to show respect to people higher than you and there are five basic relationships where this applies, only one that is considered an equal relationship:

1. Sovereign to subject
2. Parent to child
3. Husband to wife
4. Elder to younger sibling
5. Friend to friend (The members of this relationship are equal to one another) (from Wikipedia)

What does this mean for modern Korea? Well I've seen a lot of sexism. Women are not equal here and they make no effort to hide this. This year in particular I've been dealing with a lot of sexism. I don't want to talk too much about work but let's just say that it's no coincidence that I am the only foreign woman working at my school and that in the other branches the male foreign teachers clearly outnumber the females. I've heard remarks made that they don't like women, don't like hiring women and that women are difficult, complain too much and are bitchy. What that really means is that foreign women expect to be treated equally so when they bring something up they are seen as being difficult even if in reality the foreign guys are just as "difficult". It's okay for the guys though because they have the right equipment.

Things like smoking in public- this is completely frowned upon for women. I can't condone the habit (it's nasty) but I don't like double standards. Smoking is extremely common here and it's a bit ridiculous for women to be hiding in bathrooms and ducking behind parked cars to smoke. Just the other day a friend told me about the double standards she faces in her family because she's female. Her grandmother and father clearly favor her brother and treat him like a prince which is really hurtful for her. This is not an uncommon situation.

Like I mentioned, women are expected to be thin and beautiful here. You think the pressure is bad in North America? Try going shopping in Asia. Maybe models and celebrities are shoved down our throats back home but at least they make clothing in a range of sizes. The majority of women's clothing here comes in one size- it's called free size and it is one size fits tiny. I'd estimate that the largest size it would accommodate comfortably would be a size 6/8. Think about that. And this even extends to shoes, which really blows my mind and is reminiscent of Chinese foot binding. Unless you are buying expensive shoes or ordering from the internet you can't find women's shoes larger than a size 250 (which is about a size 8). This truly leaves me scratching my head since Koreans are much taller than other Asian people. I have lots of Korean girlfriends that are 5'6 and up. They can't buy shoes in their own country because their feet are too big. I mean, you could lose weight to squeeze into the clothes but no matter what you do, your feet aren't going to shrink. It's bizarre.

One could argue that this doesn't seem that serious compared to what women face in other countries. Oh so the clothes are small, women can't smoke in public and by default women are the primary caregiver and in charge of domestic duties? Big deal! At least they're not forced to wear a burqa or subjected to female castration. Sure, you'd be right. There are lots of countries that are worse but does that make the inequality in Korea acceptable? Shouldn't we all be working to change things for the better everywhere? I would argue that if Korea wants to continue growing globally (which they claim) then they need to make some cultural changes and social equality for women is an area they need to work on.

I could keep going but it would be much of the same. Bottom line? Women have a lower status and this is not masked at all. So I try to keep this in mind every time an ajumma (older woman- generally middle age) elbows me in the subway and takes the last available seat. Yeah, it's annoying but after years of getting no respect, doing all the household tasks, taking care of children without thanks she has finally aged enough and by default has managed to move up on the status ladder. As for me? Every time sexism rears its ugly head I keep in mind that I'm not living here forever and that the best way to combat ignorance is to prove them wrong and work a little harder.