Teacher's Day artwork

Teachers' Day or 스승의 날 fell on Saturday this year. This day is not a holiday but a day that is often marked by students giving presents to their teacher. I don't teach here for presents I teach here for money and am quite well paid. I don't expect to get things either but the absence, at certain times of the year of gifts continues to underline the impression and belief that we as ESL teachers are not real teachers. And to be fair most people here are just English language voices. Am I a real teacher here? Well no, that much is obvious. I don't work in a school I work in a private English language academy and the kids see me two or three days a week.

Friday came and went without event - no presents of course - except for one class of twelve girls and one boy drawing things on the whiteboard. They wanted me to take pictures of what they did but I didn't bring my camera so they said they'd repeat it all again on Monday. I forgot about this but yesterday when I got to the classroom I was set upon by the girls who took away all five of my markers and my board erasers. Those girls were really out of control but they had a good ten minutes or so of solid fun before we could start class. This was a lot better than a pair of socks or some cheap Korean chocolate. Here are some snaps of their artwork.

Happy day

Yesterday I received some great news at work. My worst student has quit. The boy who I have been referring to as The Jerk has left my academy, forever. Apparently my partner teacher joked about giving everyone in the class retest and he just got up and quit the class. So today is officially Happy Day because I teach his group and I can actually enjoy the class now. I have been trying for four months to either level him up or level him down but to no avail. This really is a champagne moment for me.

Very petty of me to celebrate this I admit but this kid (thirteen or fourteen) is a complete jerk. He seemed to think he was a twenty five year old but acted like a five year old. He constantly spoke Korean in class, disrupted others, didn't do his homework and did the opposite of whatever I asked him to do in class. I couldn't have given anyone any more chances than I gave him to change his ways but now I raise a mental glass of some rather expensive bubbly and celebrate his beautiful exit. Cheers!

Check up at a Korean hospital

Today I went to a local hospital - right across from where I work, less than ten minutes away from my apartment - for a mandatory health check. Every year or so you have a check-up as part of your health insurance and today was the day.

The whole thing took about an hour. This including blood and urine tests as well as weight checks, blood pressure checks, chest x-ray (I think), an eye test and a hearing test. Pretty extensive for an hour and I shudder to think of how long this would take back home in England. I anticipate the results will come in the next few weeks.

I couldn't opt out of the check-up because I have to pay for health insurance here. This costs me around £40-45 a month which sounds expensive but really its not too bad. It's been very useful and gives a deal of peace of mind in the event of something major happening to you. God bless the National Health Service but this healthcare is good.

Back home I have spent time in hospitals but this has been largely visiting very sick people but one experience I remember vividly was in my last year of school where I had an accident involving glass and my foot and lost what looked like, but probably wasn't, a lot of blood. I arrived at the local Accidents and Emergency ward and was left waiting for four hours before being able to leave. During that time I had one x-ray and just two stitches in my foot.

I've been to the doctor here many times and even to hospitals but it struck me today how different they are here to back home. Here they are well lit, are literally hospitable places with bizarrely to me a lot of smiling, helpful people. I'm not saying I want to go back but it's not as bleak as I find in England.

Casting my mind back to my experiences of back home where hospitals are sterile, depressing death cages I know where I would rather be now IF I was sick. Of course there is the language barrier but overall they are much better from my limited experiences. Even though I've been here for over four years I continue to see differences in culture every day.

End of my hapkio adventure?

Last night I went to see my hapkido master to invite him to a lunch I'm having with my wife and other people. I haven't gone to hapkido in some four months or so mainly due to circumstances - I now live with my wife and wish to spend as much time as possible with her while before I lived on my own and had the time and inclination to get off my backside and practice after work.

I hadn't contacted my master during my absence and have been studying taekwondo in the meantime. I didn't know how he'd react to seeing me because of the gap and also to me taking up taekwondo. I needn't have been worried. He seemed happy to see me and being a married man himself understood my reasons.

Hapkido has been one of the many great things I have got out of coming to Korea. I wish to return to hapkido in the future but can't make any promises and this felt like a goodbye rather than a hello, a rather sad feeling but you never know what the future has in store. I am just lucky to have studied under him for over two years and it's a pleasure to have been taught by someone so generous and knowledgeable.

South Korea's low birthrate solution?

During my last trip to Seoul I found the bathrooms in the train station littered with these cards. An answer to the low birth rate here?

Putting my foot in it

Me to student: "Sarah, how was your weekend?"
Student: "I went to Seoul"
Me to student (joking) "Oh, where's my present?!"
Student: "My Grandmother died"
--Abrupt end to conversation--

More tears in the classroom

Last night I caught one of my Middle school students chewing gum (eating in the classroom is forbidden), I calmly and nicely asked him what he was eating and as quick as a flash he said "Rice!". Everyone though this was funny, especially me and we all burst out laughing. And then he started crying. Doh!

Being Korean for a day

On Saturday I did the most Korean thing I've ever done or probably ever will do. I had some wedding pictures taken with my wife. To explain, my wife and I have been married for seven months but had no actual wedding due to circumstances. I thought it would be a good idea for my wife to have some kind of memento to remember our 'wedding time' and she thought it was a good idea too. Yes, this was my idea.

As the time came nearer I wasn't so sure if it was a great idea mainly because of some of these kind of photos I'd seen before but on the actual day of the shoot I ended up having some fun and the most important thing was my wife who seems to be very happy with the way things went. By the way it took four and a half hours which was a relief as I was told it might take seven.

The big worry for me was that I didn't know if a) the clothes we'd be using would fit me, b) the clothes would be ridiculous and c) the pictures would be too cheesy. Well the clothes did fit me (I had to wear four outfits) and they were a bit ridiculous - let's just say that Western fashion and Korean fashion differ SIGNIFICANTLY when it comes to men - and some photos were cheesy but looking at the photos afterwards things ended up OK.

It was an experience I will never go through again but it was painless and I did it for my wife. During the day I was told I look like Mel Gibson and later on in a store, Ironman - the things people will say when they are trying to get you to buy something. Some of the photos taken that we like will be turned into a wedding picture book and also a kind of collage picture. Two days after the event I still have some hairspray in my hair but it was worth it. I'm guessing like most Korean photographs our will be Photoshopped a great deal.