Campin' Part 2

I spent the last two weeks teaching an English Camp in the elementary school next door. It is the first time I have taught small kids and things went pretty well. The kids were really cute and mostly well behaved.

One standout moment was when the boy below, who only speaks a few words of English, was running down the hall and when he saw the railing was missing from the stairs, he slide to a stop and says, "What the hell!" Is there anything that the movies can't teach kids?

Me trying to shake things up a bit.

We studied phonics and played games to reinforce them.

I think the kids had a good time and I enjoyed myself as well.

A Great Class

I want to teach kids English, but I also want them to think about the world and how lucky they are.

Today we used Skype and made a video call to a good friend of mine in Thailand. She is a wonderful woman from Burma who happens to be a refugee. The kids asked her about her life and some volunteer projects she works on. My friend, as always, was very funny and thoughtful...she gave the kids plenty to think about. I was really proud of the kids and thankful for my friend.

Killing Them Buggers

The trucks go by our apartment spraying their lovely gas to kill whatever a few nights a week. Some times I see the kids running around in the smoke as I quickly shut our windows to avoid the fumes wafting their way up to our apartment on the 14th floor.

I made a lame video, but I found this video which I like much better. It reminds me of my friend laughing and waving her third arm around telling me about how she would chase after the trucks with her friends when they were children (the third arm part is a joke the rest is true).

Busan

Busan is the second largest city in Korea and we finally went there on Sunday. The trip included a stop at Beomeosa, a 1300 year old temple.

The next pic isn't a convention center, it is Jalgachi, an incredibly big fish market. The interior is filled with dozens of shops all selling live fish. All of the streets surrounding the building are full of shops selling fish also.

Excellent T-Shirt 2

I was walking by a construction site and the supervisors T-Shirt read "My mother warned me about California boys". Excellent

PS-Yes I did distort his face so as not to embarrass him.

It's Great Being a Teacher

I am really loving teaching right now.

Sandy and I have been a bit sick and Bitna, the student I wrote in the previous post, gave me a get well bag with some health drinks. Of course there is no way possible that any drink could make me feel better than the bag itself.

She also wrote a beautiful letter with her favorite poem. Somehow I have become a sentimental fool and the letters I have gotten from students have become the most cherished keepsakes in my life. I must find a special place for hers.

The Speech Contest

For the last couple of months I have been working with Bitna, a student at my high school, on a speech for a contest she participated in Seoul yesterday. She wanted to improve her English and to get an advantage in entering a good university.

Bitna is a special girl because she is one of the most idylistic and funny people I have met. Yesterday she made pancakes at home to give homeless men in Seoul.

The contest was held in a big hall with three judges who would rate the pronunciation and delivery of the speech. Bitna was really nervous of course. She began her speech and 10 seconds into it, one of the administrators yelled, stop. Oops...they said her name correctly, but gave the wrong contestent number. Either way, she had written a great speech and did a good job delivering it. I was proud of her.

There were several participants who had lived in English speaking countries, so their pronunciation was perfect. I told her prior to the speech that this would be the case and she should not worry about getting a prize because it would not be a fair competition.

The results are going to be mailed later, but they gave us the judges notes yesterday. To our great surprise, when the woman returned with the notes she told Bitna that she had either won the competition or came in second. Her joy was a priceless moment for me.

Sometimes it is great to be a teacher.

Camping

We attended Sandy's middle school English camp this week. English camps are supposed to be fun ways for students to use and enjoy English in a more casual setting. The kids spent two days and one night at camp.

We had some lessons where the students had to write and read stories. Given that the students are in their 1st year of middle school (7th grade), I was surprised how well most of the kids did.

We played a lot of games. This one was balloon pass game where the kids had to pass a balloon between their legs to one another and say a sentence in English. The kids were not keen on doing this between boys and girls, but one pair had no choice. It was pretty impressive that they were able to do it without touching each other in any way.

They played a game where one of the students had to do push ups...clearly she enjoyed herself.

This game the students had to hit the word we were saying with a fly swatter.

Most kids have no chores at home and never cook for themselves, so it was fun for them to make meals with instructions in English.

Sandy's middle school is brand new, so we were able to take advantage of the boob shaking chairs (OK they are really massage chairs but it had the same effect). Looking at this picture, I always thought I had a chin...quite a disappointment to learn otherwise.

The new school is like a resort. The auditorium and bathrooms are beautiful.

Graves

You can find Korean personal burial grounds tucked away all over the mountain sides here. It is strange to find the generally well mainted grounds tucked away in the most remote areas.

This seemed like an ok idea until yesterday when I happened upon a mound which an animal had gotten into.

What are you selling?

Most large grocery stores are loud places, especially on weekends. They are filled with demonstration girls who wear short cheerleader outfits with thick socks. They are usually tall and beautiful and call everyone to their display...except for me. I get a weird uneasy smile from most of them...pretty much the same as I get when any beautiful girl sees me anywhere in the world, but here I think it is because they do not speak English.

There are lots of guys yelling in the fish market, but the pic was not nearly as interesting.

Businesses hire promotional dancers to attract attention to big sales or new store openings. I got to admit the loud music and the dancing catches my eye.

Inconsistent

Korea has some of the most inconsistent laws when it comes to sexuality.

Students are not allowed to date. If students are caught hugging, the punishment can be somewhat serious. On the other hand, an issue of the Korea Times last week reports:

"In Korea, a person is not guilty of any crime for having sex with a minor aged 13 and over unless it is paid for or forced. Sex with those under the age of 13 is punishable even if it is carried out under mutual consent."

This was part of a story of a 46 year old man and a 16 year old girl. It is just messed up.

Since 2008 the government has been trying to block pornography on the internet. According toWikipedia, "Internet search engines are required to verify age for some keywords deemed inappropriate for minors. For such keywords, age verificatioin using national identity number is required. For foreigners, a copy of passport must be faxed to verify the age...All major Korean search engines including Yahoo Korea have complied with this. Only Google has not gone along with this."

There is no over the air TV in our area and the only cable TV package carries movies with topless women and simulated sex all night and morning when I leave at 7:50. They blur the genetalia, but I think they would probably get an NC-17 rating in the US.

I could care less what the laws are, I just do not get the inconsistency.

Best of Old and New Korea

On Sunday we went to Haeinsa, an ancient Korean temple. We also went to Deagu and saw a fantastic fountain/light/laser show with a couple of Korean friends.

The temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, was founded in 802 AD and is a repository (big word eh) of 81,258 printing blocks of Buddhist scriptures. The scriptures were carved in the 900's on both sides of wooden blocks that are about 1' x 2 1/2'. There are 3 beautiful buildings and the combination of their beauty and the nearby smells of incense was wonderful. No pics inside, so I took this from the Internet.

There is a maze where people walk and pray. I have not seen this elsewhere.

At night we had a great dinner at our friend's house and then we rushed to a show on the lake. The show used fountains, lasers, loud music and some sort of projector to show a videos on the mist from the fountains. It is hard to describe, but great to see. It is hard to get the scale of things (the dancers are a few stories tall) but the video is still cool.

Barrel of fun

I was sitting at my table last night at the New York Pizzeria in Daegu and the barrel next to the table had an interesting saying on it.

I will let you decide for yourself if they were referring to Angiosperm (a type of flowering plant) or anglo sperm.

Goodbye Old Friend

One thing that truly sucks about our life is that we have so many people you feel close to and we know that we will likely never see them again. Fernando was in the army in Ecuador and he hadbeen stationed places where he has not had internet access for a year, but I still felt especially close to him even though we did not talk often. I always thought I would see him again.

Last January I had been thinking about Fernando so I sent him this picture from a night we were out to dinner. He wrote back and with his usual good humor and imploring me to come visit. I really planned on it. Three weeks later, it is too late.

I was just on the phone with a friend of mine, Guillo, and he told me the bad news. Fernando's unit had been transporting captured munitions from a FARC camp. FARC is a terrorist group that is based in Colombia that has a few bases in Ecuador. Either way, they were transporting munitions and there was an accident and he died.

I feel terrible .

One of the Group

A couple of years ago one of my Japanese students and a friend of hers visited us in Thailand. We went to an orphanage where there was a boy of mixed lineage...Japanese and Thai. The next morning both the girls looked like hell. They said they were up all night talking about the child. They both said, "I feel a lot of shame" and "how could a Japanese man do this". Their culture had taught them that there was some shared responsibility...what a contrast to American individualism. At the time it seemed quite strange to me.

There is an American nearby who has done some very foolish things. Sandy and I both feel a certain amount of shame and have offered to help those affected in anyway they want. After living in Asia for 5 1/2 years (wow!) I suppose we have adapted by assuming some of the traits...not a bad thing.