Showing posts with label Déjà vu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Déjà vu. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Déjà vu. Again
Today at work I taught 6 classes. Two of those classes were double periods - there are eight periods on Wednesdays, each consisting of thirty five minutes. Out of the eights periods, I taught the same lesson plan for the first six periods. I found myself teaching material that I could swear I've taught thirty times before in my twenty months at this workplace. The pictures for the classes looked the same as the ones I've been supplied with for twenty percent of all previous Wednesday lessons. This was not really a case of déjà vu, but more 'can I keep teaching this again and again without wanting to shoot myself?'. I feel a little like Dr. Sam Beckett in the TV series Quantum Leap, lost in time wondering if and when I will make the leap home. At the end of the day it was a relief to leave the building but I know I will go down this path again some time soon. Tomorrow is another day, with much more positives in store. This weekend should be fun too.
Monday, 8 September 2008
Déjà vu. All over again
An insight into some of my time in Korea right now.
A common theme in my life these days, here in Korea, is repetition. Or repetition, repetition, repetition. Most weekends my girlfriend and I tend to do the same things, more or less. go to the same few places to eat or drink (more enjoyable than I'm making it sound). On weekdays I wake up, read the newspapers online, drink some tea and do others things I usually do most normal days. I go to work, and here most of the classes are repeated over the course of the week, sometimes 3/4 times. I later go to Hapkido where I usually repeat the manoeuvres I have already learned to iron out mistakes and improve technique. And then I get home. Here I usually read again more stuff on the Internet and chat to my girlfriend online. After that I turn on the TV.
I watch some TV most nights as it helps me sleep. I'm a late sleeper and its often 3/4/5 am before I'm out for the night. Here are my choices - first Korean TV, which seems to be endless repeats of unbelievably UNFUNNY people doing UNFUNNY things. RIDICULOUS Korean dramas where the same themes are repeated over and over again with predictable results and also the worst acting you'll probably ever come across. Also there are a myriad of Entertainment shows, singing shows and reality TV programmes and some dedicated sports channels.
As for English speaking channels, I have CNN for news (American politics right now), OnStyle which is a women-based channel with mainly reality TV programmes as well as fashion shows and popular American dramas. And the 6 or 7 channels that show films in English. I'm over-simplifying things but that's pretty much it. It's is an OK selection. I can't grumble, I don't live in England right now so I shouldn't expect too much. But as always we have repetition.
Last night for at least the 25th time (to my knowledge - I'm not keeping score) Korean TV showed Starship Troopers. A horrible film. Terrible really. I've seen it before and there is NO reason why I would watch it twice. It's just I did, well at least some of it. At least 10 minutes. And every time its on I seem to watch a little of it. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.
Over the years I've been here you can add to the list of films repeated ad infinitum, such titles as Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2. The Punisher, The Mummy 2, Transporter 1 & 2, Resident Evil 1 & 2, Drunken Master (I'm missing out so many) and a whole slew of Japanese/Korean films that I try to follow but don't really understand. Films that seem to be on every day every week every year. And I seem to watch 5 or 10 minutes of them every time. What am I doing? It's almost certainly because there is little else on at the time and I need to hear some English speaking.
A common theme in my life these days, here in Korea, is repetition. Or repetition, repetition, repetition. Most weekends my girlfriend and I tend to do the same things, more or less. go to the same few places to eat or drink (more enjoyable than I'm making it sound). On weekdays I wake up, read the newspapers online, drink some tea and do others things I usually do most normal days. I go to work, and here most of the classes are repeated over the course of the week, sometimes 3/4 times. I later go to Hapkido where I usually repeat the manoeuvres I have already learned to iron out mistakes and improve technique. And then I get home. Here I usually read again more stuff on the Internet and chat to my girlfriend online. After that I turn on the TV.
I watch some TV most nights as it helps me sleep. I'm a late sleeper and its often 3/4/5 am before I'm out for the night. Here are my choices - first Korean TV, which seems to be endless repeats of unbelievably UNFUNNY people doing UNFUNNY things. RIDICULOUS Korean dramas where the same themes are repeated over and over again with predictable results and also the worst acting you'll probably ever come across. Also there are a myriad of Entertainment shows, singing shows and reality TV programmes and some dedicated sports channels.
As for English speaking channels, I have CNN for news (American politics right now), OnStyle which is a women-based channel with mainly reality TV programmes as well as fashion shows and popular American dramas. And the 6 or 7 channels that show films in English. I'm over-simplifying things but that's pretty much it. It's is an OK selection. I can't grumble, I don't live in England right now so I shouldn't expect too much. But as always we have repetition.
Last night for at least the 25th time (to my knowledge - I'm not keeping score) Korean TV showed Starship Troopers. A horrible film. Terrible really. I've seen it before and there is NO reason why I would watch it twice. It's just I did, well at least some of it. At least 10 minutes. And every time its on I seem to watch a little of it. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.
Over the years I've been here you can add to the list of films repeated ad infinitum, such titles as Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2. The Punisher, The Mummy 2, Transporter 1 & 2, Resident Evil 1 & 2, Drunken Master (I'm missing out so many) and a whole slew of Japanese/Korean films that I try to follow but don't really understand. Films that seem to be on every day every week every year. And I seem to watch 5 or 10 minutes of them every time. What am I doing? It's almost certainly because there is little else on at the time and I need to hear some English speaking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
