Friday, 22 October 2010
Occupational hazard
Another day another cold. What is it with this place of late? I just can't stay 100% healthy. I look at my diet and think, OK no great but not bad so it's not that. I've been here long enough to build up a decent immune system and I take vitamin C as well as drink orange juice. I am getting enough sleep and have little to no stress. Oh yeah, I work in Korea. In an academy. With kids. Who always have colds. Because they get them off the people they are surrounded by. Because when they cough they don't cover their hands or face so spread germs around. And also they tend to have a habit of not washing their hands. Mind you, there's no soap in the bathroom where I work. I love being here, just not when I am sick - which feels like an occupational hazard at times here.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Office picture of the day
Didn't get the chance to ask him if he knew what his top meant. Bravo if he did though.
Keep fit mission
Today my wife and I joined a gym. We've talked about it for a bit and we both need and want to lose some weight and be in better shape. Although I do taekwondo it's only three days a week and it is not always as strenuous as I need. Given the luxury of a surplus of time it makes sense to do something else.
We scoped out a few places and chose one that I went to over four years ago. It's not big but clean, has enough machines to do what we want, is only fifteen minutes walk from our home, and is crucially is not busy at the time we want to go - around 8:30am. We paid 100,000won for four months. At todays exchange rate it works out at about £14 a month. Pretty cheap I think compared to gyms back home.
Today we took it lightly as we will do for the first month. We both really enjoyed it and felt great afterwards. One downer for me was the machine we used for checking our weight, height and age to figure out how out of shape we are. The machine claims that I have the body of a thirty six year old - four years older than I really am. It gave a figure of how much body fat I have and I have far too much. It also gave me levels to aim for or what I should be. Something to go for but I need to watch what I eat a bit more and drink less beer.
We scoped out a few places and chose one that I went to over four years ago. It's not big but clean, has enough machines to do what we want, is only fifteen minutes walk from our home, and is crucially is not busy at the time we want to go - around 8:30am. We paid 100,000won for four months. At todays exchange rate it works out at about £14 a month. Pretty cheap I think compared to gyms back home.
Today we took it lightly as we will do for the first month. We both really enjoyed it and felt great afterwards. One downer for me was the machine we used for checking our weight, height and age to figure out how out of shape we are. The machine claims that I have the body of a thirty six year old - four years older than I really am. It gave a figure of how much body fat I have and I have far too much. It also gave me levels to aim for or what I should be. Something to go for but I need to watch what I eat a bit more and drink less beer.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Christmas not cancelled
My Christmas fears have been assuaged. I've received an email from work about the recent rumours. It appears that there has been a bit of miscommunication, misunderstanding and something has been lost in translation. For us, the foreign teachers attendance at the Christmas Day party is not mandatory. Encouraged but not mandatory.
That's a weight off my mind. Christmas is sacrosanct for many a Westerner (as the most important day of the year), especially those living away from their family and these days I treasure my weekends away from the workplace. Who knows I may even go but I really doubt it. I want to spend the day with my wife with nothing work related in my mind. I bet the Korean staff still have to go though.
That's a weight off my mind. Christmas is sacrosanct for many a Westerner (as the most important day of the year), especially those living away from their family and these days I treasure my weekends away from the workplace. Who knows I may even go but I really doubt it. I want to spend the day with my wife with nothing work related in my mind. I bet the Korean staff still have to go though.
Friday, 15 October 2010
What you get when you pass a taekwondo black belt test
Last week I picked up my taekwondo black belt certificate. I've had my actual belt for a while but it was good to collect the rest. I had to wait about three months to get my hands on this up due to the insane amount of people who take the test and the backlog of processing them all. It made me feel that the whole things was a little more legitimate.
As with hapkido, included, in English and Korean in the folder is documentation from the Korean Taekwondo Association and my Dan certification card proving rank and date of test passed. The picture of me on the card is mortifying but I'll have to live with it. As I say to anyone who asks me, learning hapkido and taekwondo has taught me a lot, helped me and given me a lot of pleasure in Korea and I'd recommend either to anyone interested in taking up a martial art.
Training for the next test, which is in June has started in earnest. Of course I won't be here but that's the direction we're headed in. Training is a bit more intense and we all agree that's for the best. I already feel like I will have everything prepared by January. I have most of the movements already fixed in my head and it's just a matter of honing technique, which of course is not so easy, especially the kicks. My motivation for the remaining months is this - I want to leave with everyone in the dojang knowing that if I took the test I would pass.
As with hapkido, included, in English and Korean in the folder is documentation from the Korean Taekwondo Association and my Dan certification card proving rank and date of test passed. The picture of me on the card is mortifying but I'll have to live with it. As I say to anyone who asks me, learning hapkido and taekwondo has taught me a lot, helped me and given me a lot of pleasure in Korea and I'd recommend either to anyone interested in taking up a martial art.
Training for the next test, which is in June has started in earnest. Of course I won't be here but that's the direction we're headed in. Training is a bit more intense and we all agree that's for the best. I already feel like I will have everything prepared by January. I have most of the movements already fixed in my head and it's just a matter of honing technique, which of course is not so easy, especially the kicks. My motivation for the remaining months is this - I want to leave with everyone in the dojang knowing that if I took the test I would pass.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Christmas with the devil
Yesterday we got proof in writing. When I say we, I mean the Koreans and not the 'foreign' teachers at my academy. And it was in Korean and not English so us foreigners do not totally know what is going on. Proof of what? Well there has been a rumour going around for some time that my academy is having a Christmas Day party and that all employees must attend - my academy has several branches and employs many people. Oh, and Christmas Day is on a Saturday this year. I'm told that people going stand to be in the running for various prizes, cash I think.
As of yet 'we' have received no letter or email so talk of going being mandatory is presumptuous so I don't want to jump the gun with my views but some of my Korean co-workers have been told they have to go and they believe that everyone else is going too. I feel this is of course totally and utterly unworkable, unreasonable and unenforceable. I just don't know how they would expect to pull it off. If the owner tried to pull a stunt like this at Chuseok or Korean New Year and said everyone had to attend then there is no way people would put up with it.
The only way round it, in my opinion would be to give everyone Christmas Eve off (Friday) and say, OK, we're giving you this day off but please come to the party and we can celebrate together. I think most people would attend and try to have a good time. It wouldn't be impinging on our most important holiday or even our weekend time, where we are not contracted to work. I am very interested in the wording of any email I get on this matter.
I cast my mind back to 2007 and the Christmas party that people 'had to go to'. Again, this was on a Saturday though not Christmas Day. We had to first watch our owner play football for about sixty minutes. Then we went to some place were we watched various branches perform acts of varying degrees of mediocrity. I refused to participate in any performance related matters and wasn't alone. Then we were treated to a lot of talking (90% in Korean) and prize giving - mostly to branch managers and not teachers. We were told that those who did not attend and won a prize forfeited their prize. Bah humbug!
There was no Christmas food, a key component of what makes Christmas Christmas. It could have been any given day of the year. Oh, and by the way the free pitchers of beer given to every table were open when we arrived and had been obviously spiked with something I presume to have been soju.
I know Christmas is not massively important here and don't expect Korea to bend to my point of view but, as this day is a public holiday here, to be able to be free to choose what I do then. I like my academy, I like working there and the people too. I have no issues with who I work for as they've always been fair, but please don't tell people what they have to do at Christmas. I look forward to getting an email some time soon.
As of yet 'we' have received no letter or email so talk of going being mandatory is presumptuous so I don't want to jump the gun with my views but some of my Korean co-workers have been told they have to go and they believe that everyone else is going too. I feel this is of course totally and utterly unworkable, unreasonable and unenforceable. I just don't know how they would expect to pull it off. If the owner tried to pull a stunt like this at Chuseok or Korean New Year and said everyone had to attend then there is no way people would put up with it.
The only way round it, in my opinion would be to give everyone Christmas Eve off (Friday) and say, OK, we're giving you this day off but please come to the party and we can celebrate together. I think most people would attend and try to have a good time. It wouldn't be impinging on our most important holiday or even our weekend time, where we are not contracted to work. I am very interested in the wording of any email I get on this matter.
I cast my mind back to 2007 and the Christmas party that people 'had to go to'. Again, this was on a Saturday though not Christmas Day. We had to first watch our owner play football for about sixty minutes. Then we went to some place were we watched various branches perform acts of varying degrees of mediocrity. I refused to participate in any performance related matters and wasn't alone. Then we were treated to a lot of talking (90% in Korean) and prize giving - mostly to branch managers and not teachers. We were told that those who did not attend and won a prize forfeited their prize. Bah humbug!
There was no Christmas food, a key component of what makes Christmas Christmas. It could have been any given day of the year. Oh, and by the way the free pitchers of beer given to every table were open when we arrived and had been obviously spiked with something I presume to have been soju.
I know Christmas is not massively important here and don't expect Korea to bend to my point of view but, as this day is a public holiday here, to be able to be free to choose what I do then. I like my academy, I like working there and the people too. I have no issues with who I work for as they've always been fair, but please don't tell people what they have to do at Christmas. I look forward to getting an email some time soon.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
The Guardian brings us more North Korean pictures
Once again The Guardian brings us some interesting pictures of North Korea. Highlights include various soldiers, police officers, flowers named after Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il, and propaganda from 'the North'. The excellent pictures by Dan Chung (including the ones below) can be found here. North Korea continues to prove more and more interesting to me and perhaps one day we will all be able to see things there for ourselves.
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