Judith's Korean Escapades

Judy Teacha

2009-03-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right, I am now Judy Teacha. I make the older students call me Miss Brummer..but that comes out sounding like Miss Blummah. So most of the time it's just "Teacha!! Teacha!!" I guess whatever works, right? Anyway, I'm sure you all want to know how the teaching has been going...since that is what I came here to do after all.

So before I started teaching, I had the chance to observe another teacher who works at a different elementary school, but was hired through the same agency as me. He was a pretty cool guy. He was from Canada and has been teaching off and on in South Korea since 2001. Also, he looked like Borat, which I thought was funny. Anyway, the day that I observed, my agent was supposed to pick me up and bring me to the school…but of course my agent flaked on me last minute (very typical) and said that he was too busy to bring me to the school. So instead, he e-mailed me a map to the school that was completely in Korean and told me that I would just have to walk there! I was so disgusted! In the first place, I don’t even have a printer, and secondly, even if I did, I couldn’t even understand the map because it was written in Korean! Well…I’m a stubborn person, so I figured I could at least try to get there, and if I got lost I could always just turn around and walk home. So I took out a marker and a piece of paper and TRACED the map from my computer screen.

I then set out…and of course it was raining that day. So I walked through Seoul with my umbrella and my lame excuse for a map…and guess what? I MADE it all the way to the school!! And I was even early! Anyway, so I started observing, and I must say….I was horrified! The students were yelling and screaming in Korean and not listening to the teacher at all. He had very little control over his class, and not very much learning took place. I had this idea in my head that Korean students were all very studious and polite and well-behaved…so I was not at all expecting the mess that I saw at that school. The teacher kept trying to tell me that the kids were really coming along and that they used to be even worse. Hearing that was not at all consoling. And then he told me that my students probably just wouldn’t respect me because they only behave for the Korean teachers. Needless to say, I was terrified for my first day after that.

On Sunday I went to church and told the girls in my small group how nervous I was about teaching. They all prayed for me and gave me lots of great advice, and on Monday….I headed to my first day of school. And guess what? It was GREAT! My students listened and were well-behaved. And what’s even more, I realized that I LOVE teaching! It’s so great to be working a job that I can truly say that I love. My students are cute and funny, and I learn almost as much from them as they learn from me. They try to teach me Korean words and then they laugh SO hard when I try to say them…but then they all clap for me and say good job.

My teaching set-up is really great. The elementary school where I work is a public school, and the English program is an after-school program that is optional. This is the first year that my school has worked with my agency, so the program is still pretty small. I am the only foreign teacher at the school. I teach 6 40-minute classes, ranging from 7-14 students per class. Each class spends 40 minutes doing conversation and vocabulary with me, and then 40 minutes doing reading and phonics with my Korean co-teacher who is in the classroom next door. We don’t ever teach together, but we teach all the same kids, so she is always there to help me if I am having a serious communication problem with any of my students. I really like her, and she lives kind of close to me, so we ride the bus together everyday.

I think that teaching will be a really great fit for me. Every day is different, and every student is different. The kids never fail to surprise me. I am constantly kept on my toes. I guess that's what makes it fun.

There are the students that are always excited to see me and have fun with the class.

Then there are the students who are really sweet and also work really hard and getting better at English.

And of course the students who are super shy and self conscious about speaking English and I'm never quite sure how much of what I say they are actually getting.

And then there are the kids who I have NO clue about....sometimes they sit there and look as of they don't know what's going on, and then the next minute they wow me. I love it.

The students are all so unique and already I love them so much!

The teaching is really fun too. It's all very repetitive...but it has to be in order for the kids to really get it. It also makes it easy for me. I keep saying things and demonstrating over and over, and eventually, they all start catching on. It's really exciting to see the kids expand their abilities every day.

A lot of my textbooks use songs to teach new vocabulary. Last week we did a segment on The Pet Store....and here is one of my classes singing, "I Want a Fish" The girls were SO excited to learn the actions (which I made up myself), but the boys (as I'm sure you will see) were NOT happy about singing, dancing, OR being filmed!

Enjoy!

Bongeunsa Temple -- 3/7/09

2009-03-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

So I guess it's been a while since I've updated this thing, huh? Well...you know me...I have always been a procrastinator, and moving to Korea didn't change that. Sorry folks....the procrastination is here to stay. So for all of you still waiting for me to e-mail you back, thanks for your patience, and if you want me to write back soon, you'll prolly have to start pestering me about it.

Anyway, things are going great here. Seoul is an incredible place to be. The city is freakin HUGE. I have been able to see so many awesome things already, but I still haven't even scratched the surface.

2 weekends ago Cassandra (she's the one I met at church that got here a week before me and is also from Minnesota) went and visited one of the biggest Buddhist Temples in Korea. It was called Bongeunsa Temple, and it's right in the middle of Seoul. The temple grounds were pretty big, and there were several different temples within the grounds.

The detailed painting on all of the temple buildings was quite stunning.

People could go into each of the temples where different meditation services we being held. Cassandra and I didn't go in, but we could hear some chanting of sorts.

The Bongeunsa Temple is famous for its statue of Buddha, because it is the biggest statue of Buddha in all of Korea.

Despite being in the midst of a huge, crazy city, the temple grounds are quiet and peaceful.

These cool paper lanterns were everywhere. There must have been thousands of them. I'm sure they look sweet at night!

There were also other statues of Buddha, and of course some elephants and dragons too!

Overall, it was a neat experience, and I enjoyed seeing the temple, but I was left feeling kind of sad, because there was a certain emptiness about the place. I felt sad for all the people who were going to that temple hoping to receive hope and peace and not knowing that true hope and peace is found only in Jesus Christ. I pray that Jesus will shine his truth into their lives and give them the true hope and joy that they long for.

You can check out more of the temple pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040604&id=51600217&l=a1989da341

Culture Shock

2009-03-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

I wish I could say that at this point I am really starting to adjust to things in Korea….but I would be lying. The fact is. That my body is having a rough time with the adjustment, and I am not feeling well, so that past couple of days I have been laying low, sleeping a lot, and catching up on my favorite American television shows. I feel like a terrible person. I feel like I’m supposed to be running all over Seoul and exploring everything and meeting more people, and instead here I am clinging to the comfort of the internet because it makes me feel so much closer to Western culture. Maybe I should be grateful for this time because tomorrow I start observing and then next week I get to start teaching and when that kicks in I won’t have time to veg around like this.

Despite my feeling crummy, it has still been a good past few days. On Sunday at church I met a girl named Cassandra who came to Korea only a week before I did, and she is also from Minnesota! We of course hit it off right away and were put in the same Bible study and everything. After Bible study everyone went over to Pastor John’s (this Canadian dude who has been teaching English at a Korean seminary for like 5 years now) for a spaghetti dinner. At the spaghetti dinner a bunch of the Korean girls were trying to tell Cassandra and I what kinds of Korean food we still have to try…… and they were getting so excited telling us about all these different Korean foods, that we just decided we’ll have to go out every week to try something new. So now every Monday night is “Seoul Food” night…haha. We started it off on Monday night with a dish called Donkatsu, which is actually a Japanese food, but was delicious. It’s basically deep fried pork cutlets and you dip them in a sweet sesame sauce. Yum!

Donkatsu

It’s so great to have Korean friends to teach me all these new things, and American friends to experience it with!

Jenn, Cassandra, Lucy, and Janice.

Me and Katelynn.

Today I was quite proud of myself because I found an E-mart (Korea’s version of Wal-Mart) close my house by looking it up online and I took the subway there all by myself and made it back in one piece with no problems all. It is very overwhelming to be in a huge crowded store where nothing is in English and everyone stares at you, but I managed to get most if the stuff I needed: a hair straightener (mine doesn’t work here because of the different voltage) peanut butter (it was like $5 for one jar though!!), tea, noodles, crackers, and spaghetti sauce (which even though is says is mushroom flavor is still surprisingly SPICY!)

As far as the whole “Culture Shock” thing , maybe I don’t know what exactly it is, but so far here are a few things that have shocked me:

• The Ridiculous Shopping
When I first got here I people would ask me where I was from and I would say Minnesota and tell them that I live really close to Mall of America, but I was surprised when people were not at all familiar with the Mall of America. Then Lucy took me to a mall here, and now I realize why no one here has heard of mall of America. The Malls here are HUGE!! And they are EVERYWHERE, and they are open like ALL NIGHT. There are like skyscrapers full of stores. I will never again bring up Mall of America….because it is like an ant compared to the malls here. Also, they are open at all hours of the night and day…people here are crazy about the shopping! And everyone here is so stylish too! I feel a bit out of style back home, but here it is like out of style times 10!

This is a shopping area in Meyong-dong that was pretty big. It was really cool to see it at night because every single corner looks like Times Square in New York! There are a lot of American stores here like Calvin Klein, Forever21, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, KFC, and McDonalds:

This is the McDonald's that is closest to my house. It is open 24 hours.....AND it has something that I don't know WHY we don't have in the states: MCDELIVERY!! Ohh yeah!

There are also stores here that can only be Korean...such as this one, called BANG BANG!

My neighborhood at night.

• Competition
Koreans are super competitive! The kids go to regular school from like 9-4, and then after that they go to a different school for more lessons in English or another subject. There is huge pressure to do really, really well in school.

• Plastic Surgery/Botox
As you may have gathered from the bit about the shopping, Koreans are very into their looks. A HUGE percentage of Koreans get plastic surgery to make their eyes look bigger and their noses have more of a bridge. Some parents will even offer their children plastic surgery for their birthday. A lot of people do Botox too. Koreans are very concerned about staying young, and so they use umbrellas all year round to stay out of the sun and the rain. They also don’t make very many facial expressions because they think that they will get more wrinkles if they do.

• Food
Dog meat, Pig’s feet, and live octopus are three things I have been told I should try so far that I especially do NOT want to try. And out of those three, live Octopus sounds the worst because I was told about a guy who died eating it because the octopus was still alive when he ate it so it suctioned onto his esophagus and wouldn’t let go, so the guy choked to death. Isn’t that terrible?

I have tried some very good food here too:

Mandu Guk (Dumpling Soup)

Kimchi (Spicy sour cabbage which is served with EVERYTHING...but it's good..I like it!)

Kalbi or Galbi which is marinated pork or beef that cooks right in front of you at your table and then there all kinds of various sauces an toppings to eat with it. This is probably my favorite so far.

• Age
Koreans calculate your age differently. They count the time you are in the womb as part of your life, so when you are born, you are already 1. And then everyone turns a year older every January 1st. So if you were born on December 31st, you would be 2 years old on January 1st, even though your were really only 2 days old. Anyway, my Korean age is 24.

• Electronics
Koreans are definitely more high-tech than Americans. One thing that I see all the time on the Subway is these little tiny hand held TVs that have little tiny antennas. And people just stand there on the subway watching TV completely blocking out everything else.

Well, that's all I have for now, so I'll leave you with this inspiring quote that I found (of all places) on my waste basket:

"Little Flower - But if I could understand what you are, root an all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is"

I made it!

2009-02-27T19:08:00.000-08:00

After a over a year of dreaming about it, and about 4 months of ridiculous hoops to jump through, I am finally here in Seoul, South Korea!

I left Minnesota at 7:57 am on Wednesday, February 25th, and I arrived in Seoul at 4:20 pm on Thursday, February 26th. I've been meaning to start writing this blog ever since I got here...but I've been so busy already that I haven't had time. and now so much has happened already that I don't even know which parts to tell you. I guess I'll just highlight a few things for you:

My Apartment:
The apartment I'm in right now is very "cozy". It's really small and they are trying to find a bigger one for me soon, but I guess it's hard for them to find open apartments in the winter.

View from the front door. I feel like I'm living in a dorm room again, so it's really not hard to get used to.

Table and chairs and matching couch. I decided that my mom would love the color of the floors and couch!

Microwave, sink, and "stove" (it's just a single burner)

The bathroom. It has a washing machine in it but I can't understand it because there's like 50 buttons on it and they are all in Korean. I will need to get a translator in just to do my laundry!

This is my "shower". It's just a little hose thingy attached to the wall. The whole bathroom gets wet when I shower. It's weird, but I'm getting used to it.

This is what keeps the toilet paper from getting when when I shower.

This is my bed. I brought my own sheets, but then when I got here, my employer had bought sheets for me and put them on my bed for me. I tried not to laugh when I saw all the butterflies on them.

And Lauren, I thought you would enjoy the brand name of my bedding!

The School:
The name of my school is Jang-wi elementary school in Seoul. I will be teaching from 1-6 everyday (I get to sleeeeeep in wahoo!), and I will be teaching English to 1-6 graders. I don't actually start until Monday, March 9th. This week I have orientation and I will be observing another American teacher at a different school. I met my principal on Friday and learned that she speaks very little English at all. It was a very awkward first meeting. I sat around a table with 7 of my Korean "bosses" while they all just talked about me in Korean. I had no idea what they sad. They did tell me though that I should be a model.

My Name:
I have started to introduce myself as Judy here because it is very hard for Koreans to say Judith. Is comes out as Judees or Judas...and I decided that I would rather be called Judy than Judas. It's weird tho.

The Subway:
The subway here is awesome. It's very fast and easy to use. It's crowded all the time and people are really pushy to get a seat...so I usually stand.

My Friends:
When I first got here my friend Kyle from Carthage was still here and he introduced me a bunch of his friends. I am so grateful to Kyle and Chip, because if it weren't for them I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have met all the awesome people that I have met here. One of my friends, Lucy took me too her English speaking church on Sunday. It was so great! The body of Christ is very alive in Korea and it is so awesome to get to be a part of it. After church there is a college age bible study that I also went to and then everyone usually goes out to dinner or something afterwards. I'm getting really excited to get to know everyone better.

I guess that's all I have for now. I am going to try and make some sort of video diary while I am here, but for now you'll just have to be content with all my old ones from back home! I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well! MUCH LOVE FROM KOREA! ~judith (haha...or judy)