An outing to Hongchon
Myself, the director and his family and two other English teachers at the hagwon, Gregg and Sarah, taken May 18, after a long ride up the mountain in a small tram at a nearby ski resort, Hongchon.
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Friday, May 23, 2003
thursday | 05.22.03 | korea | year 2 overseas | day 18
Toothless, bug-eyed boy
My kindergarten portrait I believe, taken too many years ago. Specifically, that would make it 1974 or 1975. I know the flag is the common backdrop for these kinds of pictures but it also echoes the patriotic memories of my elementary school days. Good times.
friday | 05.23.03 | korea | year 2 overseas | day 19
A language or a cultural problem
I'll admit upfront it's a little unfair to characterize the growing problem at the academy as a language problem. That gives the impression there is a difficult situation arising out of the differences in the native languages spoken by the English and Korean teachers. It would be more accurate to say the rift, which appears to be stagnant if not growing, is a symptom of the cultural differences between the two groups of teachers.
Since I returned from the States a mere 3 weeks ago, there is a difference in the air at our charming little language academy. The Korean teachers have their clique and the foreign teachers have their clique and "never the twain shall meet." I would argue that I have made attempts to reach out and I imagine some of the Korean teachers would argue likewise but beyond polite salutations, there is little in the way of meaningful interaction.
One might ask, "Why do you care?" and I would proceed to call that person foul names. After I had dispensed with such a foolish person, I might realize he may have had a valid point. I care because I'm tired of reaching out only to never receive reciprocal gestures. I'm tired of being nice and patient with the Koreans' moderatly good English. I'm tired of feeling like a minority (ooh, that's rich with potential material to analyze).
Mostly I think I've grown tired of the living overseas experience and I'm worried I'm going to stay tired unless I can deal with the problem and move beyond it. I still enjoy teaching and I can still see myself doing this long term but for the short term, I've suddenly grown weary of working at this particular academy in this particular country.
Thursday, May 22, 2003
thursday | 05.22.03 | korea | year 2 overseas | day 18
Toothless, bug-eyed boy
My kindergarten portrait I believe, taken too many years ago. Specifically, that would make it 1974 or 1975. I know the flag is the common backdrop for these kinds of pictures but it also echoes the patriotic memories of my elementary school days. Good times.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Saturday, March 01, 2003
Sunday, February 23, 2003
A brief visit to a Communist country
sunday | 02.23.03 | korea | day 345
Taken on my recent visit to Panmunjom in the DMZ between North Korea and South Korean. I am standing next to a South Korean soldier in the North Korean portion of a simple but important conference room which straddles the DMZ. The expression on my face reflects what I felt was the sobering reality of the room.
Taken on my recent visit to Panmunjom in the DMZ between North Korea and South Korean. I am standing next to a South Korean soldier in the North Korean portion of a simple but important conference room which straddles the DMZ. The expression on my face reflects what I felt was the sobering reality of the room.
sunday | 02.23.03 | korea | day 345
A brief visit to Communist North Korea
Taken on my recent visit to Panmunjom in the DMZ between North Korea and South Korean. I am standing next to a South Korean soldier in the North Korean portion of a simple but important conference room which straddles the DMZ. The expression on my face reflects what I felt was the sobering reality of the room.
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
monday | 02.18.03 | korea | day 340
An epiphany
Since making the decision ( a mere five days ago!) to return to Korea after my March - April vacation to the states, several thoughts have fallen into place alongside several events which have confirmed, for me, the wisdom of said decision. Read the full post
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Sunday, January 26, 2003
sunday | 01.26.03 | korea | day 327
S.Korea Races to Erase Web Worm Ahead of Work Week
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean systems engineers raced on Sunday to repair Internet networks ahead of the start of the working week, after the country was hit hard during a global attack by a fast-spreading computer worm.
In what experts called the most damaging attack on the Internet in 18 months, the worm known as "SQL" ("sequel") Slammer targeted a known weakness in Microsoft Corp's software to shut down powerful server computers -- clogging the pipelines of the worldwide network.
South Korea, the world's most wired country, said its Internet companies would boost security spending to try to prevent a repeat of the outage that paralyzed broadband and mobile services on Saturday afternoon.
"It's not clear why Korea was targeted but the damage was huge -- partly because Korea has a huge Internet population and this helped the rapid spread of the worm," said an official at KT Corp, Korea's largest Internet service provider.
(By Kim Miyoung, Sunday, January 26, 2003, 02:14 AM ET )
Hence the bruises on my forehead: I spent Saturday afternoon and evening banging my head against the wall trying in vain to get online. If only my internet provider, KT, had been kind enough to call me and tell me about the problem, I might have avoided having a near-meltdown!
Saturday, January 25, 2003
Friday, January 24, 2003
friday | 01.24.03 | korea | day 325
Respect breeds respect
An brief encounter last night changed my philosophy of the role that should exist between the teachers of children and their parents. First the experience, then the epiphany.
I teach an intermediate writing class for Korean students with advanced English language skills. The class is small (four students, two girls and two boys, 11-15 years old) and they've each lived for an extended period in Canada or the United States. We meet twice a week for two hours. I learned earlier in the day that the father of a 15 year old boy in the class had expressed a desire to meet me. This particular student possesses great speaking skills and has always been eager and well-behaved in class so I was more than anxious to meet his father.
As it happened, he was waiting at the front desk to meet me after the writing class last night. Apparently he is an English teacher himeself at a high school in Chunchon so we had no trouble communicating. He did nothing more than bow courteously, shake my hand, thank me for teaching his son, and express a desire for me to join his family for dinner in the near future.
Dinner with one's family is not to be casually dismissed but it was this man's other actions that I found so deferential. This isn't the first time I've found respect as a simple teacher but it reinforced the personal satisfaction I already take in being a teacher. Upon further reflection, I recognized the wisdom of a parent taking the initiative to establish a cordial relationship with his child's teacher early, before problems can or do arise.
Without uttering the words, the parent's plea is, "Please teach my child well." And a responsible teacher will, in the course of teaching, heed that plea by focusing on that child. A student may act as if he or she doesn't care about learning but if a teacher knows the parent of such a child cares, that teacher can more easily fight the discouragement and despair even the best of us often feel.
I feel bound now to work harder to fulfill what I view as my duties as a teacher. It's a great feeling.
Saturday, January 18, 2003
Friday, January 17, 2003
friday | 01.17.03 | korea | day 318
The "famous" Haeundae Beach
From my visit to Busan in December. It may have been a cold, blustery day, fit for "neither fish nor fowl," but the crashing waves and the flocks of seagulls had a charm all their own.
Wait a minute. By their presence, it must have been fit enough for the fowls and since they're cold-blooded and aquatic, it's hard to believe the fish were all that put out. On second thought, it must have been a sunny, pleasant day.
Friday, January 03, 2003
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