A Tour of Andong

My school employees 5 teachers, all of whom are Korean. I don’t know the math teachers’ name, but Teacher Gum, Teacher Young and Teacher Kim I see regularly and occasionally eat with in the break room. They’ve all been really friendly and inviting, but we’ve never spent time together outside of work. Teacher Kim had mentioned wanting to go on a bus tour of Andong, so I took her up on the offer and went earlier this month.

Quick note, calling a teacher, ‘Teacher so-and-so’ is a sign of respect. Mr. Shin calls to all Korean teachers by his/her title, so I’ve taken his lead and do the same. He doesn’t refer to me this way, probably because he knows that’s a little weird, but whenever a teacher refers to me, it’s always as Teacher Alex. It’s like addressing a priest with Father, you would never not do so.

I go by Alex here because Alexis is a tricky name to say, the ‘x’ and ‘s’ right next to each other is difficult to pronounce even for a native speaker, so I am Teacher Alex. Often times my students will shorten it to Teacher, and I have a few kids who just call me Alex and giggle.

Back to the tour, so Teacher Kim and I agreed to meet in front of the Andong bus station on Sunday morning. Whenever we don’t have students around I call her by the English name she acquired while studying in Canada, Lindsay. As an added bonus, Lindsay’s mother joined us and it was oh so great!

Lindsay is an only-child, like many Koreans, and her father passed away nearly 10 years ago, so she stepped up and looks after her mother now. Her mom, whose name I never did catch, is an uber cute woman and super friendly. She doesn't speak a lick of English, and my limited offensive Korean hardly seemed appropriate, but we quickly became best o' friends. Her mom has a physical handicap called hyphosis, but the likelihood of anyone knowing what that is is slim, so I’ll venture into the politically incorrect arena for a time and just say hunch back.

**Funny side note, when I first wrote this part of the blog, I incorrectly called it a hump back and was unable to google any official diagnosis unrelated to whales, so originally this passage read like:

and for the life of me I can’t seem to find a politically correct way to say ‘hump back,’ and feel really bad about that, but it’s in the middle of the night and Sheena’s asleep and I don’t know who else I would ask such questions.

Well my yia-yia is also shorter than I, and I haven’t had the opportunity to be affectionate with her since I moved, so I just dolled it out on this little yia-yia (lovingly called azuma.) Luckily she was game and reciprocated all the love and affection I felt for her.

When Lindsay invited me on the tour, I figured it would last a few hours, so you can imagine my surprised to learn it was 8 hours long! Who would have thought there was that much to see in Andong! The tour was entirely in Korean, so Lindsay served as my translator, when we weren’t chatting it up ourselves.

Our first stop was over the Andong River, through a village and into the folk museum.

Apparently Andong is the largest state of Korea, though not all the land can be cultivated because it’s so mountainous. The village we walked through is the site for many Korean television drama shows, but not having watched any, I didn’t experience the same aw I did when I saw the sites of Harry Potter in England.

The folk museum was based on how Koreans had lived their lives prior to industrialization. There were displays of wedding dresses and hair decorations, traditional weaving and men’s hats, pretty much anything that was uniquely Korean. One of my favorite displays was a rock pregnant women went to worship in the hope of having a male child. I couldn’t help it, I had to take a picture. I mean, really? A gigantic wiener rock? Where else will I find this?

Every exhibit had a Korean, English and Japanese description, and there was another tour guild for the Japanese gentlemen who joined us. It was quite the international fest.

Speaking of international splendour, Lindsay informed me she will be moving to Canada next month to marry her betrothed. So she’s Korean, and he’s Persian (from Iran) and they will establish their matrimony in Canada. You just gotta adore that love story.

After the museum we went to the surrounding country and took a tour of an ancient school. It seemed more like a temple than a school, but I suppose the two are synonymous here. The school was located between a river and a mountain, and it was oh so sweet to smell the freshness of dirt and pine trees. Besides being a place full of peace, I also got some lovely photos.

The bus route twisted and turned on narrow dirt roads reminded me of the harrowing bus ventures in Greece, and that combined with my unfettered motion sickness made it an interesting journey. I just focused on keeping down my hearty breakfast, an orange and banana bought fresh from the fruit vendor I’ve been favoring lately, and looked straight ahead. Lindsay noticed the cold sweat I had broken into and commented that she was surprised to learn that anything frightened me. I didn’t bother to correct her, but quickly ate the snickers bar she offered me, and rather obscenely I should add.

The next stop was definitely one of the highlights... lunch! Lindsay’s sweet mom wanted to treat me, and remembering my Greek upbringing, I knew that not accepting would be an insult, so bring it on! And we had one of the most delectable dishes I’ve ever had. Period. It’s an Andong specialty called Jimdak, and makes my mouth water just thinking about it. It’s a spicy chicken dish mixed with rice noodles, peppers, lettuce, and countless other ingredients I’m completely ignorant about. I’m still an utter novice with Korean chopsticks. I tell you, I used to think I could handle chopstick more or less okay, but make them a little thinner, and metal, and I may as well be one of my parents trying to coax the food into my mouth. Seeing my struggle both Lindsay and her mom said it’s okay if I ate this delicious meal with my hands. What a relief.

Half way through the meal, Lindsay’s mama asked me if I drink alcohol. As a general rule I don’t, not because I’m a prude, because I’m a wimp, but it was clear she wanted some and was looking to me to be her excuse. Well, considering she missed church to come on this tour with us (apparently she never misses church) I felt compelled to say yes, so we got a vat of some kind of rice wine. It was strong and not all that pleasant, but again, remembering my Greek heritage, I felt obliged to drink at least one cup with my hosts. It was oddly intense and subtle and the same time, sweet and bitter. And as foreign as the experience was, it was also a familiar ritual I’ve participated in countless times, which made it especially welcoming.

After the rich meal, we stumbled to bus and made our way to the ancient village of Hawhei. Throughout Korea there’s the symbol of a wooden mask, kinda like a mascot. Its origins are traced to Andong, to the village of Hawhei. Andong is often referred to as the spirit of Korea, rich with cultural history and tradition. The mask is used in a traditional dance that tells the tale of Korean society.

The Mask Dance was fabulous! It was a really inviting storytelling process, and although entirely in Korean, I experienced the same emotions as my fellow Korean watchers. It was performed in an open-air theatre, and besides a few white people, there was an entire school of Japanese students. An ensemble of percussionists, and some sort of screeching trumpet, supplied the music. The dancers represented a person or group of pre-industrialized Korea. There were farmers of crops and animals, the slaying of a cow (that peed on the audience), the town fool, a beggar woman, and the aristocrats of the village. I was surprised by how funny it was, I laughed harder than I thought possible. When the beggar woman was asking for money, she refused coins, only bills. This amused everyone.

After the dance we walked about Hawhei village. In the beginning I got lost amongst the myriad of totems, which are remarkable by themselves, but then add the countless renditions of penises, and I was in a photographers heaven! If you look close, even this bloke has a penis for a nose!

Getting my fill of totem shots, we meandered about this 600 year old village, taking in the historical buildings, some of which still have residents. We saw schools and farmhouses, servant’s quarters and the like. The city was surrounded by a river, which is what Hawhei means in Chinese. When Hawhei was at it’s peak, it was under Chinese rule, hence the Chinese influence. This village was particularly wealthy and it was thought that the source of this prosperity came from the central tree in town. We made our way to pay respects to this tree. There is a custom to write your desire or dream on a piece of white rice paper, then attach it either to the tree itself or the fence surrounding the tree. Naturally, I participated, but I’m not sure about the details, so I’m not going to tell you what I wished for, you know, just in case...

The walk about the village was really pleasant. It was a nice sunny day with a cool breeze. On the outside of the town was a grove of trees that were refreshing to see. When we walked down the steep slope to the sandy beach, I grabbed azuma’s hand as an instinct. Lindsay was pleased that we had already become friends. We played on the beach some, and returned to the bus for our final destination.

It turns out there’s a cliff that looks over Hawhei. We hiked to the top of it to see a complete different perspective of where we'd just been. It was invigorating to hike again, but I was worried for my new azuma friend. My worries where misplaces however, she carried herself like a champ.

When we got to the top, the guide was speaking more Korean gibberish, so I took it upon myself to get a few of the photos I wanted, which required me to lie on my stomach at the edge of the cliff. No one knew my demean (animal soul) is actually a goat, so there was a lot of needless anxious waving of the hands, but I let them do what they had to so I could get the shots I had to get. When I returned to the group, I swatted the dirt off my hoodie and looked questioningly to everyone, and you were worried? HA! We made our decent back to the bus and away from the country.

This was the first time Lindsay and I met outside work and it was great. Her fiancé called while we were walking and spoke to me. He apologizing we never got to meet each other when he came for Christmas, but made sure to say I am always welcome to Canada if my travels bring me their way. He seems a fine man, and although I’m theoretically tolerant of people and their religious beliefs, I was relieved to learn he isn’t Muslim, and so I heartily give my stamp of approval!

I learned a few things about the school and Mr. Shin from Lindsay that are useful to know. In addition, I learned Mr. Shin likes me, which I would have more or less surmised, it’s just trixy trying to read him, though I imagine I'm just as foreign to him as he is to me. I had made a commitment not to worry about things I have no control over, such as, what does Mr. Shin think of me? But it's always nice to be well received. I guess he told Lindsay that I’m a fine teacher, bla bla bla, but what was particularly reassuring to hear was that he thinks I have a warm heart. Aww, my own little warm fuzzy! I was a little surprised by that and Lindsay mentioned not many strangers holds her mothers’ hand and directly asks her questions despite a language barrier. So, mom, dad, nouna, Kristen, you done somethin’ right, because my boss says I'm warm hearted and my new friend agrees, and I’m stickin to that story!

Korean Students vs. American Students

Right now my kids are completely frazzled! The middle school kids have midterms in a week and have been worrying about their exams for the entire month. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard, ‘Teacher! I so stressed!’ And they look it too.

So I’m writing this blog in my classroom with students who decided to stay late and get some extra studying in. I don’t mind staying late or coming in early for this, my classroom is so big and it’s way more quiet in here than in the designated study area, so...

It’s during test time that it becomes quite clear just how different American students are from Koreans. First of all, most middle school Koreans are in some kind of lesson from 8am to 11pm. Recently the President of Korea, Lee Myung-bak, decided to extend school hours to 5pm and there's been a resurgence of distain towards him. After school, some kids may go home for a snack, and then they all go straight to academy.

I’ve mentioned before that every student is in an English Academy, and normally at least 2 or 3 other academies. I’d guess about 80% of the students go to a science and math academy. Mr. Shin’s daughter, Julia, has English (of course) math, science, history, Korean, art and an instrument. Occasionally she’ll be signed up for a quick 1 month course on how to read Korean fast or something like that. This is typical for middle school students.

I work for Sky English Academy, and we have lessons from 1pm to midnight. My schedule is from 3pm to 9pm most nights, but I stay until 11pm on Thursdays. Apparently it’s ‘illegal’ to have academy lessons past 10pm, but I’m told that’s a recent law that isn’t enforced. It’s not uncommon for me to see a 12 year old kid waiting for the bus at midnight on a school night, which is slightly disturbing.

On top of this, these kids go to school every other Saturday. Oh, and did I mention, there is no recess either.

Beyond just schedule differences, American and Korean students are different in other ways. When I ask the standard patronizing question, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ 9 out of 10 kids will say scientists. Within the first month of my arrival, my sixth graders were giving 10-minute reports on D.N.A. in English. We spent a lesson or two practicing the difficult vocabulary and presentation styles. It’s really impressive how science-based this country is.

I’m not sure if it’s just my kids who are interested in science because I’m exposed to kids from wealthy backgrounds. I was aware that a lot of my kids look like they come from well-to-do parents, but it wasn’t until I took a tour with a co-worker that I found out most our kids come from a lot of money.

For example, I asked Nick what his father does and he told me he sells meat. I just thought that meant his father was a butcher or maybe a whole-seller, which surprised me because he definitely seems like he comes from wealth. I’m not sure how to explain it. He’s not snotty or anything, he’s humble and very talented, but he always exudes this air of being well cared for. I later found out that his dad owns 3 very successful restaurants in Andong and supplies the meat for most all other restaurants in town.

Many fathers are engineers here, either chemical or mechanical, and I have a fair few students who have lived in Canada or the U.S. with their families while their father’s participated in a work exchange program. I also have the children of professors, countless doctors and lawyers. I once asked a student what his father did and he used the nifty electronic dictionary every student has regardless of age, and pointed to ‘civil servant.’ I later learned he was a lawyer.

I’ve also taught kids who’ve lived abroad on their own under the age of 14. The level of commitment these parents show to their children’s education is frighteningly overwhelming.

I didn’t realize Mr. Shin owns Sky English Academy, I thought he was just the director. He has his Ph.D. in Management and Marketing, and I dare say he found a good niche with catering to affluent parents. It’s evident that economic problems are not limited to the United States, and we have experienced a drop in enrolment, but on a whole, parents are more likely keep their child in an English academy and cut back on other subjects if they are unable to maintain the cost of tuition. Sky also has a math academy, but Mr. Shin doesn’t own that portion.

This also explains why my salary is substantially higher than some of the other teachers in nearby academies. I know a handful of other foreign teachers now and I work less and make more than all of them. Who’d a thunk? I guess I lucked out.

I will say that, although luck does have a part in my tale, I turned down a number of job offers that were below my minimum requirement, and am oh so glad I did.

The academic year is also different here. It starts in March, and the kids get 3 weeks off in August and January. They still go to academy though. The little kids don’t have the same academic expectations their older siblings do. Most little boys take Taekwondo and I have a few students who take piano, violin, clarinet and ballet.

As you can imagine, this schedule doesn’t leave much free time, but on the rare occasion they have a moment to themselves, every boy will spend it in P.C. rooms. That’s where I went while my computer was sick, and besides being the only foreigner, I was often the only girl there too. It’s the primary way boys interact with their peers – they go to cyber cafes and play violent, linked video games with each other. That is their socialization. It’s a little disconcerting.

Most Koreans don’t enter the workforce until they’ve finished college, which helps explain why the average family only has 2 children. Only-children are also very common, though I do have a student who has 5 siblings. Just a couple of generations ago, Koreans had many children, because there was a greater need for manual labor, but as the country has industrialized, that need has reduced.

I’m not sure I would say one system is better than the other. As an American, I feel I received a fine education and am more or less prepared for the domestic workforce, but it’s clear American children (on a whole) are not being taught to contend against global competition. It’s obvious there’s no need for the U.S. to have the summer holiday it does. We are no longer an agrarian nation, there is no need to have more helping hands in the fields during the summer. But I’m not so sure the Korean way of educating is without flaw. Something I haven’t mentioned is the suicide rate amongst children, particularly during exam time. I have heard more than one story of children, no older than 15, jumping off a balcony together. The pressure these kids feel is very real and inescapable. But I suppose if they survive the gruelling challenge of puberty and high school, then they are destined to be the world leaders in science and technology.

On a completely unrelated note, one of my neighbors is playing music rather loudly (it’s nearly 3 am) and the person upstairs is expressing his/her displeasure by pounding on the floor. It’s oddly comforting since it reminds me of living with my dad. Awww, crazy Korean neighbors...

6 Months Already?!

Can you believe I’ve been here for six months already?! I sure can’t, and I’m the one who’s here. Over Easter I called home and my Nouna asked me what I thought about my experience so far, am I glad I came?

There was no hesitation in my reply. Yes. Absolutely. I had to come. I can’t imagine my life any other way, and that’s saying something since that’s never been the case.

It’s experiences like these that teach you a lot about yourself. One thing I’ve learned is that I’m quick to laugh and slow to anger. I also didn’t know how patient I am, not simply with loud and rambunctious kids, but also with basic human interactions and the daily experience of being misunderstood.

I also didn’t know I like kids. I knew I like the kids I’m related to, but they’re so little and cute, what’s not to love about a 3 year-old and 3 month old? But I love pretending and imagining and singing and dancing, I love being silly and uninhibited, and that’s what little kids do best.

I’ve always known I enjoy English. Words are way cooler than numbers, so I’m not surprised I enjoy teaching the subject. I even enjoy the tedious grammar lessons, although by the end of the day I normally want to pull out my hair.

The winter was a little rough, but just yesterday I took a two-hour walk around the city to see the blossoming cherry trees and people excited to be outside. My life in South Korea is great, and for this blog I thought I’d post the pictures I took yesterday and relay a few of the funny things my kids have said in these last six months.

We all know kids are hilarious, but then add a language barrier and my quirky ways to that mix, and I tell ya... I wish I had kept a record of the funny situations/predicaments/sayings, but here’s some of the more memorable ones:

Joel and Nick are really funny. Joel loves to whistle and always pretends to die when I sing along with him. The songs he whistles crack me up, and I just HAVE to break into song. Their response is to cover their ears and say, ‘No teacher, no!’ He’s whistled the theme song to Titanic, Hey Jude, the Mission Impossible theme song. Sometimes we act out a movie and the boys like to start by singing the 20^th Century Fox theme. It always surprises me how much American influence they’ve been exposed to in just the 10 years they’ve been alive. They even know Singing in the Rain.

Matthew asked me, ‘teacher drink beer?’ I was so surprised with this question all I could say was ‘why do you think that?’ ‘Face red’ and it promptly got even more red. ‘No I don’t drink beer, I just walked to work and it’s cold outside.’

I asked Joel what his birthday was and his asked, ‘Why? You try to hack my account?’ I dare you not to laugh at that.

My students always comment on my green eyes and ‘golden hair’ though of course we all know it’s just a mousey brown, but i suppose when you compare it to Korean hair it might look golden. When Nick and Joel said something about my hair I told them that I have quite a bit of grey (and it’s gotten considerably more grey since I’ve moved here.) They didn’t believe me so I showed them. They quickly screamed the word ‘Azuma’ and Joel drew an old lady with a walking cane pulling one hair out, and Nick drew a thought bubble that said ‘Oh damn!’ It was classic.

One student was making fun of another student and told him, ‘shut-up made in China.’ The other student responded by saying he was made in Japan.

I laughed when a student called a skyscraper a sky-crapper. Honest mistake, how could he have known what crap was?

One day Katie, a 15 year-old student in my advanced class, came early to ask me what a condom was. I turned various shades of red before I settled on the answer that it has to do with sex. “I know teacher, but what?’ I don’t duck the hard questions, but this was clearly one of those ‘grey’ questions, if not ‘completely-over-the-line’ questions. I hemmed and hawed and started by saying boys have penises, and she says, ‘peanut?’ and drew a peanut on the board. ‘Uh, no, not peanut.’ So I drew a stick figure of a non-gendered person, then I made a big circle around the nether-regions. ‘Boys.’ Then I drew a balloon, ‘condom.’ Luckily for me the light came on and she said in an embarrassed, but also glad to know voice, ‘oh, it covers.’ ‘Yep, it covers.' And I thought, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t ask me any other question like this, because I feel compelled to answer, but I’m just not made to teach sex-ed.

Apparently she was sent as an ambassador of sorts, because the other girls in class wanted to know what it meant too. I asked them where they heard this and they told me it was in a reading in Mr. Shin’s class. I could only wonder, what the hell he was teaching them? The girls asked Katie the meaning, but she was too shy to say it aloud, so she wrote it down on a piece of paper and I watched that paper get passed around the whole class followed my giggles.

I don't know what this window display was trying to sell, but it seemed fitting to place the image here, after the condom story :)

One lesson I asked a discussion question, have you ever had anything stolen from you? The class was silent, then a single voice range through, ‘ya, my soul.’

We were working on two-word verbs, like pull out, pick up, drop off etc. and which verbs can be separated with possessive pronouns. Joel, smart as a whip, says, ‘oh, like knock it off - that’s what you say to us sometimes.’ It’s true, I just had smile and agree. ‘Yep, just like that.’

It’s funny the things kids pick up on. Sometimes Joel is a little moody and I ask him why he’s cranky. One day a new student in class, John, was upset about something so Joel asks, ‘why are you cranky?’ And then preceded to sing the party pooper song I taught them.

‘Every party has a pooper and that’s why we invited you. Party pooper, party pooper.’

I have a student named Tyson, and he could very well be the loudest student on the face of the planet, but he's also funny and smart so... Anyway, he asked how I like Korea and I told him it's great, I love it here. He told me he doesn't like to travel because foreign food makes his stomach itchy. Yeah, my stomach gets itchy too.

Well, I’ll keep a better record of the funny things that happen in the classroom, but until then, see ya. Oh, and thank goodness it’s spring!