I'm Lovin' It (as long as it is not from America)

In addition to the "I'm Lovin' it" campaign, McDonald's advertises that they use "Australian Beef" and that it is,"Clean & Safe" as opposed to American beef which is toxic crap. I understand why McDonald's does it, but it just irritates me that a great American brand does this to a safe American product. FYI, a cheeseburger is twice as expensive here as in the US.

Cleanin'

Our schools have no janitors. The students do all of the cleaning in the school including the bathrooms, classrooms, hallways, wiping my desk and moping the floor under my desk everyday. They are ridiculously cheerful as they do it. Not sure this would happen in the US.

FYI-Girls hate having their picture taken here, so the only way I can get it done is if I get in the picture with them.

Oh Roh!

Last Saturday the very controversial ex-President, Roh, took his own life. He was under investigation for corruption as every ex-President for a generation has been in Korea. People are understandably in shock and are morning his passing by visiting special temples and putting banners all over the country.

It is very difficult to discuss this matter because just as he was controversial in life, Roh is controversial in his death. His supporters blame overly zealous prosecutors and ultimately the current President for Roh's death. His detractors blame Roh himself and say the prosecutors were just doing their job. Arguments break out quite quickly and loudly. The emotions are running so high that the current government is struggling to find a way to memorialize Roh without having riots.

I think about it on a more personal level: how could he do this to his family? They will always suffer from his actions.

9 Wasted Years

The future of most students is determined by one test: the college entrance exam. Good scores=good university=good life. Their fate is determined by the few hours that they take this test and the students and teachers are well aware of this.

They need to be able to correct grammar mistakes and understand what English speakers are saying to get a good score on the exam for most universities. You do not need to write sentences or actually speak English on the exam. Consequently students do not focus on writing or speaking. Who can blame them?

Students study English for at least 9 years. For many of those years they study everyday. Most can barely write a sentence or utter a few words. Writing is easier than speaking. How am I supposed to teach conversation classes if the students can not write a sentence? Last night I was up for hours worrying about this.

If the goal is for the students to communicate in English (why study English if it is not), then the testing system is set up to fail them. It really is too bad because the kids are really smart and capable of much more.

Homeless Love

The only homeless guy I have seen in Korea chose a strange spot to rest

School Festival Day 2

Yesterday was the second day of the school festival. It was mostly about team sports including the tug of war and a ball passing game.

The students raised funds with a food sale and a game of toss the water ballon at the scared girls.

This boy came up to me and said, "Spa!". I was impressed that he knew the word and would wear cucumbers in front of girls.

There was a lot of cheering.

A few students tried to hide for a bit to get out of the heat and were caught and punished. They were given the traditional put your hands and feet on the hot pavement in front of a big crowd routine.

Some of the students wanted to win the raffle more than others.

Some students were ridiculously cheerful.

By the time that awards were handed out everyone was pretty worn out.

Another great day!

School Festival Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of our school festival. The kids sang and dance the day away. At night the clubs performed. Some of the performances were really good, others not so good. It did not matter the students went crazy for every performance.

My favorite was the salmunori performance. The first part of this is a little quiet, the second part is really good.

The most shocking to me was the way some of the girls danced. I am used to these sweet little cherubs and apparently they have another side.

Things finished with fireworks which were surprisingly professional. Overall a great day.

Costco

We made our way to Costco in Deague the other day. All was the same as in the US until I wanted to get some onions for my hot dog. There was a line of 5 people for onions... no big deal. The dude was filling up the onion dispenser and I would get my onions and be on my way. The first women started twirling the handle for the onions. When her platee was full, she added ketchup and mustard to mix together for a side dish. I could not believe she would do that until the next person did it, and the next person did it again. Apparently they do not use the onions for the hot dogs, they use them as a free side dish.

Thankfully I got mine prior to the machine running out again (2 more people got their side dishes prior to the dispenser being emptied).

What's the Beef?

Last year the government in Korea was decimated by a series of protests over, of all things, American beef. We just had the one year anniversary and I decided to have some discussions with colleagues on the topic. What I got out of it:

• Over the last 7 years, the US had a few cows with Mad Cow Disease (three out of hundreds of millions)
• The Korean and Japanese governments banned US beef because of a concern for public safety.
• A respected Korean TV show had a program which was highly critical of US Beef and pointed to many dangers of eating it. Later they admitted that it was full of inaccuracies and mistranslations.
• The people became outraged when the government allowed US beef to come to market again. Many thought the government was ignoring their concerns and was only worried about having a good relationship with the US.

The problem has been there are some legitimate concerns (there were a few cows sick) that got totally blow out of proportion by the TV show. Many people believe that there is a huge number of sick cows, that US sends beef to Korea which they would not eat themselves, and that Koreans are particularly susceptible to the humane variant of mad cow disease. From the research I have done (see wikipedia or the US embassy site for good info) this information is not true.

The bottom line to me is a safe product (nobody has ever gotten the human variant of Mad Cow disease from American Beef) has been decimated. Mothers have unnecessarily worried that they had fed unsafe food to their children. The US is seen in a bad light.

Poison Packs

Koreans are remarkably health conscious. They like to have vitamin fortified drinks most of which are ok. A salesperson came by today and I am pretty sure she was trying to poison me with this supposed vegetable extract which tasted like fermented feet.

Cute, Furry...delicious?

There are two extremes when it comes to dogs here. We saw a pampered little pooch wearing a sweater and little mittens on all four of its paws during winter. On the other hand, a few people- mostly older people- still eat dogs.

We were at a market the other day and saw some cute puppies in cages. Given the puppies are in a cage under the chickens, I am guessing these guys will not be wearing mittens anytime soon.  

Feelin' Festive

We went to a festival on Saturday which included some beautiful dancing.

Some dudes wearing traditional clothes and playing instruments.
There was a re-enactment of a guy being tortured.  They brought him through the square first. He spoke some English, so when he was brought by Sandy he yelled, "I forgot to take out the trash, BIG MISTAKE!"  Of course there came a time when the kids had to get into the whole torture the trash dude.

Being an idiot, I felt compelled to get into the act.

Another Sign We Are Not In Kansas

I found the best dressed parking attendant I have ever seen.

How do we compete?

The cost and commitment to education is enormous here.  

Parents pay about $1400 a year for tuition for public high schools.  In addition, they pay for extra classes at independent schools (called Hogwans).  The fees for these range between  $150-$350 a month.  These costs are on top of all of the usual expenses for child rearing.  

I asked colleagues why they do not have more children and many say it is impossible to afford more children. Consequently South Korea has one of the lowest birthrates in the world.

There are three things in the life of the students (particularly the seniors) school, study, sleep. 

Most of our students live in the dorm.  They get up, eat, go to class (starts around 8:30) continue in classes until 5 ish (some days later) eat dinner and study in the dormitory until 11 ish.  They have every Sunday and every other Saturday off.  This gives them time to go to their cram schools.

A colleague told me, "My daughter lives with us, but she really only sleeps at home.  She is gone from early in the morning until 11:30 at night every night." 

I am not sure this is the best lifestyle for a kid, but it is pretty effective for increasing student achievement scores. Korea is either number one or two in the standardized tests for a reason.  

Given the huge commitments by both parents and kids to education, I wonder how the US will be able to compete in the long run.

First Hike

I went for my first hike today and I was not alone; people here love to hike.  There are tons of trails so you are basically alone while hiking.  I was surprised at how much natural beauty (including two snakes) there was just 15 minutes away from my apartment.

Another nice surprise was a beautiful temple I happened upon.

Another New Friend

As I arrive for my bus home everyday my new friend comes running. She speaks about two sentences of English and uses them everyday with me while we wait for the bus.  She is pretty sweet except for this T-Shirt which reads, "BOYS ARE STUPID THROW ROCKS AT THEM."Unfortunately, Sandy agrees with this sentiment.