Look- something shiny!

On Children's Day, May 5th (I know, I know I'm so behind), my mom and I went to Suwon to check out Hwaseong Fortress. I'd been to the wall surrounding the fortress a few months back but wasn't able to make it to the fortress itself before closing time. We wandered around Haenggung, which is the palace within the fortress, and then mom did  some more exploring while I scooted back to Incheon for work. I still haven't been able to do a full loop of the wall so hopefully I can accomplish that sometime this summer when it's still warm. 

On Children's Day kids get a much needed break from school for the day. A lot of hagwons close too but some, like ours, stay open and there are a few poor kids who end up having to come. Plus no mini-holiday for us teachers either, boo.

Damn, clowns are a bad idea no matter what country you're in.

There was a performance outside the entrance involving swords and archery and lots of straw slicing. My kind of performance.

 Behold the power and skill of the guards of Hwaseong Fortress.

 

And here's where I headed back to work so these are pictures my mom took in an area I haven't been to yet so these were new for me too.

Trivia of the Day: A gosu (고수, literally "drummer") is a drummer in performances of pansori (판소리), a form of traditional Korean narrative/theater that is usually performed by just two musicians: a solo singer and a drummer. The gosu supports the sorikkun, or singer, by providing rhythms with a soribuk (pansori drum), a shallow barrel drum with a pine body and two cowhide heads. Impromptu short verbal sounds made by the gosu, called chu-imsae, also play an important role.

Work stuff

Wednesday nights this term have very quickly become my night of the week to survive.

The day starts off pretty well with a 4:30 Reading Par class. I have only six students and they're all amazing. Five of them I taught last term and they all leveled-up from Bridge to Par. I was psyched to get them again for both Reading and Listening class. They're all bright and willing to do work and we have lots of fun. And since it's the exact same Par class I taught my very first term (the books only change every other term) and I have my old copy, it's completely prepped already which means I have little to do in order to teach that class besides print hand-outs and vocab tests.

My second class is a whole different story though. See within Level 1 and Level 2 all the classes are basically the same except for varying degrees of difficulty. So even if the highest level class in Level 2 has a few added components, the class structure is essentially the same as all the others so it's easy to adjust to. I'm teaching two Eagle classes this term (the order being Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatross, Albatross+) and it's the highest I've done so far but since the structure is the same it's not too bad. I knew I would be teaching Eagle since they had me observe an Eagle class last term and I was ready for it but then they threw me a curve-ball.

In addition to Level 1 and Level 2 classes, CDI also offers iBT courses- iBT being the Internet-Based Test for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). For students who want to study at American schools or universities they may have to take this exam and so many CDI students start preparing for it early. It's broken into Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking. Since we already cover those first two in our regular classes there is a separate course offered called iBT Speaking & Writing. The format of the S&W class is completely different from all the other classes and takes a while to get used to.

And Wednesday nights at 7:30 this term that's my class.

Last week, the first S&W class of the term, I could have accidentally set a student's hair on fire and it still would not have been any worse than I was already doing. I was totally unprepared for how different it would be and the sheer amount of paperwork involved. Like, multiple grading rubrics, all sorts of student evaluation forms, note-taking papers for speaking, note-taking papers for writing, hand-outs, syllabuses (shush, both plural forms are correct), essay sheets, homework papers, etc. etc. etc.

I had a stack of papers half a foot high and no way of organizing them yet. I'd been so concerned over the new Eagle class I was doing that I under-prepared for S&W and practically went in blind. Since the class I observed in week 13 was the last of the term, the format was different from week 1 of the new term and I was so confused about what I was supposed to be doing. The MP3 files for playing lectures wouldn't work and I had to read out a conversation in "Girl Voice" and "Guy Voice" so the students could differentiate. It probably doesn't sound so bad but really, when you are messing up left and right and making a fool of yourself it's frustrating and embarrassing. I was mad at myself for not being better prepared and mad at the administration for throwing me into this at the last minute without much guidance. I ended up crying in the break room and again when I was leaving for the night. Such a disaster.

So yesterday I prepped my Eagle class early and then before work hit up the stationary store on the first floor of our building for some much needed supplies. I got myself all organized last night and then went in early today to prepare. Two and half hours, a bulging accordion folder, a take-home-paper-grading folder, and two post-it-noted books later I was ready.

I wouldn't say the class went wonderfully but it wasn't the failure I produced last week. I was crazy organized and even had a little clipboard all set up like I was friggin Dolores Umbridge so I could walk around while the kids were responding to questions. The MP3 files worked and I didn't babble at them at 900mph which I'm pretty sure is what I was doing last week. I even got them to laugh a few times! Which is not unusual when you're teaching elementary kids but much less likely in a room of 15-year-olds (which it is).

I'm hoping that at some point this class will make sense to me and the kids will actually learn something but for now all I want is to survive each Wednesday night without another disaster class. That isn't asking too much right?

Here's to hoping that all potential future educators start off with baby steps.

Trivia of the Day:  Hanbok (South Korea) or Chosŏn-ot (North Korea) is the traditional Korean dress. It is often characterized by vibrant colors and simple lines without pockets. Although the term literally means "Korean clothing", hanbok today often refers specifically to hanbok of Joseon Dynasty and is worn as semi-formal or formal wear during traditional festivals and celebrations. Modern hanbok does not exactly follow the actual style as worn in Joseon dynasty since it went through some major changes during the 20th century for practical reasons. Throughout history, Korea had a dual clothing tradition, in which rulers and aristocrats adopted different kinds of mixed foreign-influenced indigenous styles, while the commoners continued to use a distinct style of indigenous clothing that today is known as Hanbok.

Happy June!

Tomorrow, June 6th, is Hyeonchung-il (현충일) or Memorial Day, in South Korea. During my mom's visit we went to the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan which is a both a memorial and museum and one of my absolute favorite places in Korea. The outdoor exhibition area is beautiful and has some really nice monuments as well as all sorts of military equipment. Inside there are various rooms and exhibitions covering all the different wars that South Korea has fought in. I have a huge interest in the Korean War, which my students tell me is called "625" or "625 War" here (they would say "yook-ee-oh jeonjaeng") since the war began on June 25th, and I learned a ton about it from this museum. There were wars that I didn't even know Korea was involved in until I saw some of the exhibits here and I think I have a better understanding now of their history and current relations with certain countries. If you're in Korea this is one place that I highly recommend checking out, it's well worth the visit.

The Statue of Brothers

I don't remember where I heard this from but in either an article or a documentary I remember someone discussing this statue and talking about the symbolism behind it. As the plaque says it's showing the reconciliation on the battlefield between an older, South Korean brother with his younger, North Korean brother. Notice though that they chose to make the brother from the South older and therefore depicted as much physically larger and stronger looking than his little brother from the North. The younger is practically clinging to the older, who we also see is wearing a helmet and a gun. It could be brothers reuniting or even a North Korean refugee fleeing into the safety of a South Korean soldier. 

I don't think it's surprising considering the conflict between the North and the South that the South would choose to show the Southern soldier as much stronger and the Northern soldier as weaker. But what the person discussing this statue also pointed out is that the depiction of the North Korean soldier as smaller than his Southern brother may not be entirely done for show but rather an accurate portrayal considering the malnutrition suffered in the North due to widespread food shortages. Just an interesting way of looking at it, I think. 

The Korean War Monument

We saw some groups of students on field trips and then these little pumpkins who were probably on a trip from the daycare. The outdoor exhibition is basically a kid's dream playground and we enjoyed seeing these wee'uns running around. I'll never get over the P.E. uniforms kids in Korea have to wear. They basically all look like this except in varying shades of ugliness. Believe it or not some of them are worse looking than these yellow ones.

The Monuments of Killed in Action

The Cheonan was the ship that sank in March of 2010 and caused a lot of tension on the Korean peninsula because the South was convinced that the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo and of course North Korea claimed they had nothing to do with it. I'm pretty sure that they did find solid evidence that the torpedo came from the North but fat chance ever getting the nutsos in charge up there of admitting it. 

Turtle ship!

Item number one on my Christmas list.

There is one section of the museum with displays of various countries that South Korea has had some sort of relations with. Here was the section for Spain.

 Check out that badass Spanish armor! This Christmas list is writing itself. 

One of my favorite sections of the museum looks like a recent addition and it's all about the women in the Korean forces. Since museums like this tend to overwhelmingly focus on men who traditionally are the ones involved, it's easy to forget women's contributions and that today women are much more active in armed forces than once upon a time. Since my picture came out blurry, here is the text regarding women in the Korean War:

"The first women's unit was the Women's Voluntary Army Training Corps that was founded on September 1, 1950. One thousand and seventy four female service members of the corps participated in the war. They carried out not only administrative work but also pacification activities, interrogation prisoner of war and special missions. 1, 257 nursing officers in total also participated in the war and concentrated on the evacuation and treatment of WIA (Wound in Action)."

So the War Memorial is awesome and if you're in Seoul make sure you don't miss it!

Trivia of the Day:  Joseon (July 1392 – October 1897), was a Korean sovereign state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo Kingdom at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul and the kingdom's northernmost borders were expanded to the natural boundaries at the Amnok and Duman rivers. Joseon was the last royal and later imperial dynasty of Korean history. It was the longest ruling Confucian dynasty. During its reign, Joseon consolidated its absolute rule over Korea, encouraged the entrenchment of Korean Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society, imported and adapted Chinese culture, and saw the height of classical Korean culture, trade, science, literature, and technology. The Joseon's rule has left a substantial legacy on the modern face of Korea; much of modern Korean etiquette, cultural norms, societal attitudes towards current issues, and even the modern Korean language and its dialects stem from the traditional thought pattern that originated from this period.

First week frazzles

It's week one of our summer term and things have been busy busy lately. I'm teaching three new classes including a class called Speaking and Writing that's specifically geared toward helping students prepare for taking the TOEFL exam someday. I honestly didn't even know that class existed until I found out during week 13 that I would be teaching it, so I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed. It will actually be a nice change since it's completely different from everything else I teach but since it's so new to me I'm already looking forward to getting that first class it of over and done with.

It's also that time when old teachers leave and new teachers arrive so there's been a lot of coworker get-togethers lately. Those tend to go well into the night so I've been pretty tired and just haven't had a chance to sit down and update much here. But things have been going well. The weather is amazing right now and for the past couple weekends a few of us went on trips with Adventure Korea, a group that basically organizes outings to different places in the country. So I have loads of pictures and things to share and hopefully once this first week is over I'll have some down time to take care of that. 

Last week was also a bit crazy because my boyfriend and I were finalizing vacation plans. Trying to decide on flights and hotels though while you're talking over Skype with a crummy connection really doesn't make for smooth planning. But we're all booked now! We have non-stop flights to and from Vietnam and just finished booking hotels for the week. We're starting the week in Hanoi, traveling down to Hue for a few days, and then coming back up to Hanoi to fly out. We also considered Ho Chi Minh which would have been awesome but I don't think a week would be enough to see all that and there's no point in rushing around to different cities just to say you saw them if you won't actually get to see much of them.

So that's what's been going on lately. Nothing crazy exciting, just keeping busy and enjoying the springtime and tackling new classes. Much more interesting updates to come soon!

Trivia of the Day: Park Chan-wook (박찬욱)) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Park is most known for his films Joint Security Area, Thirst and what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy in 2003 and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance in 2005. His films are noted for their immaculate framing and often brutal subject matter.Despite extreme violence in his films, Park is regarded as one of the most popular film directors in Korea, with three of his last five feature films (Joint Security Area, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) all drawing audiences of over 3 million. This makes Park the director of three films in the thirty all-time highest grossing films in South Korea. In addition to being a film director and screenwriter, Park is also a film critic with several published editions to his name. None have been translated into English as yet.