Fan Death

My favorite myth here is that sleeping in a sealed room (i.e. windows and doors closed) at night with a fan on will kill you. People will point to newspaper stories and reports on TV.  More educated people may say that their doctors tell them this (which they often do) or even point to a 2006 Korean Consumer Protection Board report which says:

"If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes [the] bodies to lose water and [causes] hypothermia. If directly in contact with [air current from] a fan, this could lead to death from [an] increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration [sic] and decrease of oxygen concentration. The risks are higher for the elderly and patients with respiratory problems. From 2003 [to] 2005, a total of 20 cases were reported through the CISS involving asphyxiations caused by leaving electric fans and air conditioners on while sleeping. To prevent asphyxiation, timers should be set, wind direction should be rotated and doors should be left open."

This seems really silly to me except when I read that the  EPA actually says to not sleep in a room with a fan pointed at you.  In case your wondering, it does seem a bit strange that EPA has a publication on this. Best I can tell, it does not mention the likelihood of death.  

Given that I have never heard of any other country believing in the dangers of sleep with a fan, I will mark this one down as a myth.

Costco Part 2

The Korean kids thirst for reading is most graphically displayed at Costco.  Every time we go, the kids are sitting on whatever displays there are around and reading.  I think there is more than one reason why the Koreans are far ahead of the US on test scores.

The Two Steve's

Being a foreigner, many, but far from all, people try to manipulate you for their own purposes. In developing countries, it is often for money or influence. In developed countries, people sometimes befriend you solely to practice their English. I have become so leery of, well, everything.

Yesterday we were out in an area really popular with high school and university students when we happened upon this enormous display of photos with text to never forget the enormous sacrifice that 68 countries made to help South Korea in the Korean war. The pictures and text were both touching and informative. I left the exhibit feeling in awe of these men.

Then, the other Steve came to visit. The guy who questions why he has never seen a display of any sort of appreciation for the sacrifice of foreigners to protect this country, not even at the DMZ, but now there is a prominent one. There are some displays, but I have not seen them even though I have looked.  The guy who wonders about the timing since there is no celebration or remembrance of the Korean war on this weekend. The guy who feels compelled to research the group and finds no site, no mention of them. The guy who notices a bunch of US military walking around. The guy who realizes that there are a lot US military walking around because of the joint operations being held in the seas around Korea.

The first guy wants to believe the timing of the show is a coincidence or killing two birds with one stone..a genuine effort to educate the young. The second one feels it is an effort to manipulate the rank and file US military that people in Korea are really thankful for the sacrifice US men made in the past, and may be asked to do again. BTW this feeling, while true for the elderly, is absent from the young I have asked about it.

It depends on the day which Steve is the one in control...today it is the less jaded one.

Mushrooms Galore

It rained like hell the other day, so I found the most remarkable mix of mushrooms while hiking.

This last one was huge, but nasty...like an weeping wound.

Good Marketing?

In a change to the usual tall hot girl pouring free samples marketing program, Cass beer went for the whole dorks walking around the store singing a promotional song to the tune "Mary Had A Little Lamb".   I hate to admit it, but I found it pretty funny (as did all the other people taking pictures), but I still prefer the tall hot girls.

Cooking with Kids

Sandy had an English camp this weekend.  An English camp is a chance for the kids to spend have two days of interesting activities and spend the night at school.  A colleague spent the night and Sandy and I taught the lessons.

We thought it would be fun to have the kids prepare Fajitas.  I love them and taught students in Japan to prepare them.  I thought it would be a good experience for the kids to learn a little about a foreign culture and food since most have never had guacamole or cheddar cheese.

Because I taught cooking classes before, I was pretty relaxed going into this.  Things started pretty well, but it quickly became apparent that some of the kids had never done anything in the kitchen.  A couple did not even know how to handle a knife properly. Then the big problems: the onions.  Nearly half of the kids needed to leave the area because they said the onions that other people were cutting were bothering their eyes.  I think it was a mass hysteria thing, but I am not sure.

We finished cooking and, surprisingly, the food turned out really good. Unfortunately, the kids were mostly unwilling to try the guacamole or cheese.

Home stay = Bad stay

In the effort to get their kids to master English, parents from Asia send them to the US, Canada and Australia for home stays. This, in my opinion, is a terrible, terrible idea.

A few student experiences we have personally witnessed.

• Sandy had a student in Japan who had stayed in America for a year. He told his friends of his sex and marijuana exploits. He was cool, mixed up, and no longer fit into Japanese society. 
• Last year a girl returned to my school after living abroad for a year.  She told me how she just didn't fit in and wanted to leave the country again...she is now studying in Australia.  
• Another student said the same thing and is now studying abroad also. 
• I have boys in my school who are really, really good kids. I really like them a lot, but the transition back into Korean society has been difficult for them too.

Now there is a story in the Canadian press about a study done on East Asian kids who have home stays in Vancouver, BC. It says:

Compared to immigrant or Canadian-born East Asian teens, they found that homestay students were twice as likely to be sexually active, and 23 per cent of homestay girls reported sexual abuse compared to nine per cent of their female peers.

Home stay students were also two to six times more likely to report using cocaine, half skipped school in the month before the survey — compared to a quarter of peers — and 20 per cent were smokers compared to five to nine per cent of peers.

The study says that most programs require hosts to not discuss health or sex matters.  Schools are responsible for the kids until the bell rings...3 pm. Immigration is not responsible for the kids behavior.  In short, nobody is responsible for the kids and they are finding their own way.

I think that often times the kids who participate in these programs are ones who want more freedom and may not completely fit into their current culture. These are precisely the kids who need more guidance instead of no guidance.

I think that spending a month or two in a homestay could be beneficial to teach the kids about another culture and improve their English, but these year (or more) away programs are dangerous. Parents, who are trying to help their children are making a big mistake.It is a shame.

Falling in Love with Joseph

I thought it would be fun to have a class of girls have a video chat with my family.  The screen opened up and there was my nephew, Joseph.  Suddenly the door was open and the hormones of 30 high school girls came out.  The screaming and yelling of "handsome" was pretty impressive.

The students were supposed to ask questions of both my nieces and my nephew, but with their hormones raging, there was no interest in my nieces.  They questioned Joseph about girlfriends, dating, school and the WWE.

Joseph is a nice boy, but I have not seen him smile that much in my entire life. I am guessing he has already began pestering his mother for tickets to come visit me after today's performance.

I have been waiting for the perfect time to post this picture of a shop in Daegu, and I think it is now.

Love, Sex, and the Generations

Korean society is generally much more conservative than the West, so it is really difficult to get a reading on what dating is like.

We chatted with some friends about dating.  Those in their 40's and 50's told us that they were expected to marry anyone they dated for more than a few months.  Those in their twenties said that is not the case anymore, but women start to get desperate to get married as they get around 30, so at that point they would not date anyone for months unless they expected it to lead to marriage.

All of the teachers said that they are normally "set-up" on dates by friends, so they already know about the other persons character and history.  They need to know if they find the person attractive and if they are compatible.

Because of the conservative nature of the culture, there is no way anyone can discuss sex with us, so I have been doing some research.


When you walk around college campuses, you always see signs for DVD rooms.  Apparently they are private rooms to watch DVD's and whatever else you might want to do in a private room with sofa's.

Coming of age day was while a ago and there was an article in the paper saying that many kids celebrate by going to love hotels.  These are hotels that charge by the hour.  They are not sleazy and have theme rooms. In our town of 50,000 there are 4 of these hotels that I know of.  I am told that these are popular with the young, and people who are having affairs. If you are interested, there is a blog with lots of pictures (one of which is below) that tells you more.

But how common is the premarital sex? According to an article about sex education in university students, 50.3% of boys said they have had sex while only 17.6% girls said they have had it.This does not make sense to me because of the enormous difference in the male/female ratio.  Prostitution is very common here, but I am sure the pro's will force the boys to wear condoms and other articles put the rate of condom use very low for first sexual partners suggests that the boys did not gain their sexual experience that way.

I read a study, again about sexual education, which cited two studies which had much higher numbers.  On page 204 it talked about a study from 2000:

"Moreover, with reference to the issue of sexual intercourse among adolescents in Korea, Kim
(2000, p. 10) reported that 13.4% of boys and 7.0% of girls from grades 7 to 9, and 32.5% of
boys and 14.15% of girls from grades 10 to 12, have experienced sexual intercourse.

The second study they cite is from 2003:

According to Lee et al. (2003), however, 59.3% of male students and 46.6% of female students from grade11 engaged in sexual intercourse, while the percentage of first sexual intercourse was 47.5% for 15~16 year olds, 22.8% for those under 13, and 11.5% for those over 17.

So what is the truth?  I am guessing that things are not so different here then in the west, it is just that people do not talk about it. 

Two Remarkably Embarrassing Moments

Imagine 350 kids standing around a field watching the relay race.  It is my turn to take the baton for the teachers leg.  Got it. Now the easy part...run 200 yards. 50 yards down and I barely barely touch another teacher and I take a big spill.  Damn I was proud of myself.  I quickly got up and continued to run with blood flowing from my forearm.  I laughed when I got done, but it was embarrassing.

One sweet thing that came from this was a couple of the students were crying because they thought I was hurt. Nice.

My second entry into the embarrassing category happened at my desk. The Daily Beast had a story about operations that you never knew existed (yes I have too much free time).  As it turns out, there is something called gummy bear breast implants. I do not know what they are, but the Daily Beast decided to have this picture for the story:

Just as the picture came on the screen (it is a slide show of  various operations) a very sweet girl was coming to say hello. She said, "Hello tea....oooohhhh" and quickly walked away. I closed the picture, but she was already gone.  For the next day I could just imagine her saying to her friends, "Steve seems nice, but I saw him looking at boobies in the office".

I caught up with her the next day and figured I would just show her the web site and she would understand, instead she just laughed at my being all freaked. She figured out that I would not be looking at anything naughty with an office full of people, so she just made a joke of it by leaving. Damn she got me good.

Oral Tests

This week I had oral tests with all of my students... 340 of them.  It was an interesting view into the human psyche.

The low level boys knew little and could have cared less.  The girls knew much more and cared much more.  I am not sure why this is always the case, but the girls are always much more diligent in English.

What was fascinating was the "cool" girls who pretend not to care.  When they were taking the oral test they were squirming and desperately trying to figure out the right answer and were upset when they couldn't...just like any other kid.  As soon as they got out the door, they were laughing like it was not a big deal.  It is an interesting peek into their psyche because now I know that the "cool" part is an act and I should not give up on them.

The boys on the other hand....not sure what to do with them.

Destablizing?

China condemned the US for having military exercises with the South Korean navy because it may be "destabilizing". Apparently sinking a ship and killing 47 men is not destabilizing, but running drills is.  What a joke!