Sugar coating it

Dear Gillian Teacher,

Hello. My name is Wendy. Do you know my? I like to studying English with you. Your hair is curly. You are a nice and pretty teacher. Teacher, do you know my sister? I don't know English name. Maybe you know her? She is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ugly! Now do you know? She likes to study but I don't like. So then she is ugly and crazy. But mostly ugly. She is short hair and big face. Do you remember?
Teacher, am I pretty? Thank you teacher. Goodbye.

Kids can be harsh. Korean kids are just brutally honest. I remember from last year having my students point out the littlest flaws I tend to ignore about myself and as I stood in front of the class, having them judge me on my outfit of choice or my hairstyle that particular day. It got to a point where I found amusement out of it and just let them dashingly pick me to pieces. I suppose living and breathing homogeneity could account for their lack of acceptance or approval of the diverse. It's sometimes hard not to fall right in to their norms and visualizations. It's when I receive a diary like the one above or see my students covering up their pimples with little flesh colored bandages (which actually makes them look more obscene) I just thank god I'm an outsider - one of the few times you could probably say that in your life.

Being an outsider or a native English speaker, particularly in South Korea also means you are working even on your days off. For example, this past Saturday I was part of a foreigner group who got driven out to the beautiful countryside by Adam's Taekwondo Master. There were 5 of us, English teachers altogether so Mr. Taekwondo decided to capitalize and bring 2 of his Korean students along. Smart move muscle man!

Moreover, last week was quite an eventful week here in K-town. We celebrated Children's Day, Teacher's Day and my Birthday! I still find it humorous how Children's day even exists. I remember when I was young, I found it unfair that there was Mothers and Father's day, but noooo Children's day! Then my mom would so kindly remind me that, of course, everyday is Children's day. That never really held true for me until now. Children in Korea need a holiday from their everyday life. They are almost in a way, robbed of their childhood or at least by our Western standards. Going to school from 8am-4pm, then attending 3-4 hagwons (private schools) in the evening allows for very little spare time and the free time they do have is intended for homework, I'm sure. It differs greatly from our Western mentality and priorities. I recently had a conversation with my boss about how hard students in Korea work. When I told him that I used to finish school at 3:30pm for the day, he justified it by saying, "Well Canadians have naturally smart brains. Korean's need to study very, very hard to be smart like you". He actually believes this. Mind-blowing.

My birthday fell on a Friday this year so I had a delicious dinner after work with some friends and then rented out a karaoke room, here known as a noraebong. The room was double the size of my entire apartment and came fully equipped with a flat screen TV, microphone, tables, couches, food, soju and beer. It was a great night had by all... from what I can remember :s

It's hard to believe it's almost been 3 months since I've been out here. Time is flying by and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Unfortunately I have been a little ill for the past couple of weeks but I'm sure bar hopping on the weekends isn't exactly helping. Anyways I finally decided to make myself a doctors appointment so I cabbed down to the hospital early before work. I was already preparing myself for a challenging language barrier, but sometimes that makes the journey more rewarding. Let me compare and contrast my visualization of what I imagined would take place and what actually did occur over the course of my visit.

My visualization:
Gillian pays the taxi driver and walks happily into the hospital just in time for her 10am appointment.

Reality:
Cab driver misunderstood my request and took me to the hospital 4 blocks away making me then walk 20 minutes to my desired destination, tired, sweaty and 30 minutes late.

My visualization:
I walk up to the reception and let them know I have an appointment with Dr. Chin at 10am.

Reality:
I get budded by 3 different Koreans and finally get to the front desk where the woman looks at me and immediately runs to get another secretary either because a. she speaks no English or b. she's scared of my curly hair. But probably because she speaks no English.

My visualization:
I am told exactly where to wait and am then shortly after, am greeted by a friendly English speaking Doctor.

Reality:
A woman with the same level of English as my grade 3 students, attempts to take me on, gets my information and tells me "wait 20 hours" (clearly she meant to say 20 minutes...or at least I hoped).

My visualization:
The Doctor walks into the room and completes a basic physical, asking me questions about my medical history and checks my blood pressure, breathing, etc.

Reality:
The Doctor walks into the room, sits down and smiles. I begin to talk (since he doesn't) and inform him about my symptoms and medical history.
No response.
I slow down my speech (thinking maybe I was talking to fast, he couldn't understand me) and summarize what I had already said.
No response.

My visualization:
The doctor prescribes me some medication to help my cough and stuffy nose, then I praise him with a low bow and walk out the door feeling a bit more relieved.

Reality:
He finally opens his mouth and says, "drink warm water with sugar".
When he stopped talking after that, I realized that was the end of his sentence.
I was taken aback, but thought maybe after he checked my breathing he would see I am ill and need some medication.
I then ASKED HIM to check my breathing.
He smirked as if I had asked him something completely ridiculous and then responded with, "Oh no, no you must go to a different hospital to get breathing check".

Reality:
I travelled 15 minutes by cab and 20 minutes by foot to find out hospitals in Korea SUCK and I need to buy some sugar.

Hope your day was better than mine!

Some pics of the past week:

The beautiful countryside just an hour south of Gwangju

Exploring

A korean man took all of us on the back of this pick up to the top of the mountain

My birthday- with Adam and Katie

Doin some Kareokying

The room we rented for 2 hours and left a disaster. OOPS!

"The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway". ~Henry Boye

Signing off,

Gillian Teacha

Big Brother is Watching

My new and improved bedroom!

My living room and private back balcony

My much more spacious kitchen

My friend Ally took all of us out for a delicious authentic lunch in the middle of a beautiful forest

"Bondeggi" or better known as Silk Worms which each of them had a taste of

It's hard to believe my brother has already come and gone. The 4 days they spent in Gwangju were filled with traditional Korean meals, touring in and around the city, drinking Korean soju and mekju (beer) as well as a short visit to my workplace. It's almost ironic how my brother and his friends were tourists in such an unfamiliar place, yet they were able to live and act like locals. Whether it be through taking the busy subway in Seoul, driving around the city with my Korean friends, or trying a Korean delicacy known as silk worms all 3 of them had quite the unique experience.

I think they figured out quickly how different Korean mentality is than our Western outlook... on virtually everything! For example, the boys short visit to my school involved having students either stare obtrusively at them or say "hello" with a wave and immediately run in the opposite direction (fade out laugh). It was a great day for the boys to show up at work because instead of teaching classes, we had our monthly contest where each class performed their favorite American pop song. It was enough for my brother and his friends to fall in love with the little ones. Their brief encounter with my boss was started and concluded with how handsome each of them are. I believe they left my school with a higher ego and a new appreciation for Justin Bieber.

A couple of situations this past week were blatant reminders of how endearing it can be to live and work in Korea. First I should start with my adorable yet boisterous students. This year I'm teaching grades 2 to grade 10 which is a huge gap but helps to break up the mundane effect schooling can have. Since I've never taught in Canada or North America for that matter, I have nothing to compare my experiences as a teacher in South Korea with. However I am quite certain that back home in Toronto, students wouldn't be attending class in fully equipped taekwondo uniforms, holding metal swords or walking into class with t-shirts that read, "Sexy bunny", "Playboy" or "Bitches" on them. Last week was Easter and I was teaching a class about various religious holidays. That eventually lead to a brief conversation about religion and I tried my best to explain that I was Jewish and what exactly Judaism entails. My students asked me a couple of questions and I thought I was really making an impact... that was until later that day when I was marking the same student's diaries and read, "Jew teacher, Happy Easter!" Oh well, I tried.

The other day I asked a student of mine to make a photo copy of his workbook for another classmate who had forgotten his book at home. The student I asked seemed concerned by my request so I repeated myself hoping he would suddenly have a revelation and intrinsically follow my command. "C-O-P-Y", I said again and the student smiled and left the room. About 12 minutes later this poor little boy walked back into the classroom holding the same workbook in one hand and a coffee he happily offered to me in the other. "Copy"..."Coffee"... close enough.

Being an English teacher also means delving into ancient grammatical rules that I have grown to completely ignore and solely depend on Microsoft Word to correct. In the classroom, however, I am the one teaching these impressionable students right from wrong, verb from adverb and adjective from noun. Today in class I was attempting to teach a lesson on adjectives and thought it would be a creative and fun idea to have the students pull 3 objects out of their bags and describe them to the class. My North American mind assumed the standard objects carried around by 11 year olds would consist of pencil cases, erasers, crayons and maybe even scissors or a glue stick. I was horribly mistaken. I had students pull out a hamster (locked in a small plastic cube with only a hole at the top for air), a fish in a plastic bag (like what you would win at a fair) and some sort of 8 legged creature locked in a tube. It was probably the most bizarre class I have taught yet and will ever teach. Just another reminder that I am NOT in Canada anymore. Very far from it!

Last on the list is my apartment and living conditions. My new place is great - much bigger than my last apartment I so lovingly referred to as the "shoebox". I have not only a spare bedroom which allows me to be extra accommodating, but I also have a real shower and bathtub. If you can recall pictures I posted of my last makeshift bathroom, you might remember me complaining about the limited space I would tolerate, showering in between my toilet and my sink. It was far from ideal but I made it work.

This time around I also have a private balcony in the back of my apartment, a kitchen table and a 32 inch flat screen television. Things are looking up. However, this wonderful space doesn't come without its charms. And by 'charms' I mean a painfully loud Korean voice bellowing through my kitchen speakers at 8am almost every morning!!! Unfortunately I was not warned about this intercom so when I first woke up to a Korean man's voice yelling into my apartment on my second morning here, I thought I had personally done something wrong and was being lectured over a loud speaker! Thoughts of uncertainty ran through my head, "could this man see me?? Is he watching me RIGHT NOW?? Who is this man?? and most importantly, "What in the world is he saying???"

I thought your apartment was supposed to be your safe haven, a place where you can get away from the harsh realities of life. When living in a foreign country, it's sometimes nice to go home and not have to worry about the obvious language barrier you deal with at work everyday trying to teach Korean students English who can't even tell you what day of the week it is. Well, I still have no idea what "the voice" is saying to me over the speaker in my apartment, but all I can hope is that it's not very important because god forbid he orders everyone to vacate the premises, I will still be lying in bed with a pillow over my face and ipod speakers in my ear trying desperately to ignore the conspicuous voice in my kitchen.

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” 

Signing off,

Gillian Teacha