The past few weeks have gone very well. I'm finally starting to get into a routine. I know what to expect from my different classes, and they seem to be more comfortable talking in English. My last two lessons were on "The Great Outdoors" and "English Music". The kids seem to really enjoy a break from the monotony of their other lectures, and are slowly learning that they can't memorize all the answers in my class. Some of the kids who are considered only average students in their other classes are actually doing better than their above average peers in mine. It is simply because they are somewhat creative, and can take a sentence they heard the week before and manipulate it to answer a totally new question today. Many of the "brightest" want to be given the answer before hand, so that they can memorize it. I've decided to begin teaching evening conversation classes a couple nights a week, and look forward to challenging the kids to speak in much less constraining way. At the moment, my class is most definitely a lecture.
After school, I've been staying busy at the gym and at a Korean language exchange on Tuesday nights. Christine and I are definitely ahead of most the teachers we came to Korea with, in terms of understanding the language. Unfortunately, that's not saying much. We know the Hangul (alphabet), and can pronounce the words we see, but 95% of the time, we've got no idea what we're actually saying. We each know the standard greetings and farewells, thank you, your welcome, don't worry about it, I'm sorry, can you please help me, where is the ___, 'I do not speak Korean well', etc. Like our students, however, we're stuck with what we've memorized. It's VERY difficult to get creative with what we say. There are a handful of ways to say a simple sentence, and the correct way changes depending on who you are speaking with (older, younger, friend, strangers, boss, etc.). There are several different words for the verb "to like". For instance, I would use a different word to say "I 'like' soccer." than if I were to say "I like 'pancakes'." Then you have to insert subject and object markers, use a verbal comma for multiple nouns, and remember that the sentence structure (the easiest part for me) is - subject, object, preposition, verb- ...and adjectives usually go before each noun. Needless to say Christine and I have our work cut out for it when it comes to learning the language. We are still looking for a more frequent/intensive class that is within striking distance on a weeknight.
Last weekend we went to a teachers conference in Suwon, the capital of our province. Before the conference we hiked around an ancient fortress, and walked through a rebuild of the royal village. These are the first pictures you see in this post. That night we went into downtown Suwon for dinner. We had bulgogi, which is a classic Korean beef dish. At the restaraunt, you sit down at your table, and there is a circular grill in the center. The waiter fills it with coals, brings you your meat, vegitables, rice, and side dishes, and you prepare the meal yourself. Essentially, you build a lettuce wrap of meat, mushrooms, vegis, rice, and spices, then eat away. I'm a pretty big fan of it, but the meat was a bit too marbly for Christine's taste. Accompanying our meal we ordered a couple bottles of mockoli, an alcoholic rice OR soy drink that tastes like champaigne mixed with beer (see picture). It says that it's only 6% alcohol, but it's the best 6% I've ever had. What a great drink. It's the happiest, clearest, most social drink that I've found. Anyway, when we had almost finished, a group of three Korean guys (in their upper 20's) sat down at the table next to us. We looked over to see what they were eating, and before we knew it, they were putting it on our plates. Sharing food is a very Korean thing to do, so to be polite we ate it (pork) and said thank you. To return the favor, I ordered a bottle of 'soju' (Korean moonshine 20%abv) which is also a very normal gesture. We poured eachother shots (never pour your own), and the night began. The next thing we knew, Christine and I were speaking broken Korean; they were speaking equally as broken English; and we were having a great time with our new found friends and our bottles of soju (see pictures). They bought our dinner, and clearly I needed to return the favor. I decided that the only place to take this party was to the noraebong. "Bong," in Korean, means 'room'...to all you hippies out there. "Norae", means 'to sing'. So to the 'singing room' we went. Karaoke to those of you who haven't peiced it together. Asians, not to generalize or anything, love karaoke. You can rent karaoke rooms by the hour, and they come fully equipted with thousands of preprogrammed songs, multiple bigscreen lcd's, disco/laser lights, and an assortment of random percussion instruments with which to party the night away. And party we did. I sang karaoke, and yes, I liked it (see picture). Alex Jensen, you were right all along. Karaoke is a damn good time........but only in Asia. You won't catch me dead singing karaoke at a bar in the states. Here, they always think I look like David Beckham, and sing like Paul McCartney...and that's before soju.
This Saturday we tamed it down, and went to an area in north Seoul that is close to the mountains. It cuddles up to some of the best hiking and climbing South Korea has to offer, a place we have already visited once, Bukhansan National Park (pictures can be seen in the first post). Our mission was to find a tent, so that we can travel on the cheap. Tent and cheap cannot be used in the same sentence here. Koreans simply do not camp, although most of the parks have camping areas. They buy high-end day-hiking gear, but tents are rare, and thus expensive. Think $400 for a basic two person. That quickly axed our intentions. We did, however, find a great outfitters where the prices (except on tents) were spectacular and the owners were highly knowledgable and experienced. I bought some climbing gear that I needed, and they let us use their climbing wall for free. We spent the better part of 2hrs climbing and chatting with the owner. Yesterday, we decided to save money and hike locally. There are little trails all over Korea. Every hill has a trail to the top, so we started with my backyard. There are many old graveyards and mini-shrines littering the hills, and they are always fun to look around. It appears that almost no one uses the trails near my apartment, and for the first time since we've been here, Christine and I were actually alone during a hike. We saw only one or two other people all afternoon. It was a great way to unwind. We were probably the first white people to ever have walked through many of the areas we visited yesterday.
This week we teach only today (Monday). From Tuesday to Thursday, we will go to another town for a new teachers' orientation. Friday begins the Chusok Harvest Holiday (Korean Thanksgiving), and we receive Monday off as well. Koreans spend the time indoors with their families, so I think we may try to meet some friends and enjoy what may be the relatively empty outdoors. I hope all is well. Take care, and keep in touch.
The final picture is of us and group of our friends that go out for Indian food every other weekend. Everyone you see is an English teacher.
