Monthly Archives: December 2010

Still a Beginner …Leaving Seven Months Later

This morning, I’m leaving my guesthouse room in Seoul for the Incheon Seoul International Airport.

It’s the end of a 7.5 month stay here, and I’m happy to be going home.

It would be hard to summarize myexperience. I feel like the more I know about Korea, the less I can conclude. I am fortunate to have made some very wonderful friends here.

I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to spend so many hours in the company of wonderful, funny, open, caring Koreans who were my students. What a cool way to learn about a culture …not from generalizations but building my concepts from opinions, experiences and words of students …one by one, hour by hour, day by day.

I think I underestimated how difficult it would be to learn the language. And I’m still puzzling over the distance I felt in many relationships here. So unlike the feelings of Ghana, West Africa or Latin America.

I think there are many ways to live. And I never want to judge one way as better than another.

But, the facts about the suicide rate having tripled in the past 20 years, and the stress that I saw in many of my students’ lives, leaves me wondering. Will things change for the better?

When I learned about the suicide rate, I tried to teach that topic in any class that it would fit. If we teach about seatbelts, I think people should know about the risks and ways to prevent suicide.

What is the best way to respect a culture you know little about? Where you know that your friends and theirs are more stressed out and more at risk for suicide than we are, that previous generations of Koreans weren’t either.

What can I do? Speak honestly, optimistically, openly and humbly about what little I know. And hope and pray for the best.

Quiet Christmas Eve

Pretty funny going out to dinner when you can only whisper. Most people who know me would agree that if anything, I talk too much! So, only being able to whisper a little really cramped my style!  We laughed a lot.

My friend had wanted to take me to a fancy place in Haeundae but I wasn’t up to it. So, we ate at another traditional Korean food place in Seomyeon.  Here we had some kind of kimchi bap dish. So, again it’s kimchi, but in this dish the rice is already in the broth. It’s served boiling in individual hot pots.  In this case, they give you a small bowl to spoon out bites out so you can cool it down enough to eat it. So hot, nutritious, delicious! Yummy.

It was so cold! About 20F and windy! We enjoyed our dinner, briskly walked past the Christmas displays at Lotte Department store, and then I rode the subway back home.  I found out how to operate my floor heat, so my apartment is warm and cozy!

Visiting the doctor

Here, people don’t usually go to a general family doctor. They go to a specialist. So, today, I crossed the street and went into On Hospital. I asked to see an Ear Nose & Throat specialist. After about a 15-minute wait, they called my name. I went in and the doctor used a scope to examine my throat. Have you ever seen your vocal cords?  I got to and he said I had a condition called blahblahblah. What’s that? Your voice has changed. Right. That was my original complaint ….I lost my voice!

I also got to see inside my ears. Gross! Earwax, hair and ear canal.

I thought I was going to see inside my nose too but instead he suddenly started ‘irrigating’? my nose? Like at the dentist, when they spray water and suck it out at the same time. Wow, that was startling, and possibly refreshing! I could breathe clearly for awhile.

He said he was going to give me a prescription. Bye!  Oh, what type of medicine, I asked? Oh, it’s safe, he answered. Uhh, I mean, like what is the medicine? Oh, you know, anti ….   Antibiotics? I asked.  Yes, and analgesics and other things that will make you feel better. Oh, okay.

I paid $7 for the visit and $5 for the medicine (which has a list of seven items …unknown to me what they actually are.) And I hate to report, but you do feel better instantly when the doc gives you meds.

So, three times a day, I take an assortment of 5-6 pills, gargle with something else, and drink a liquid pouch of something else too.

Yeah! I tried to be a conscientious consumer, but I can’t even read the directions on the Tylenol package, so trust is all I got left.

How to use 6 hours of sick time

I’m not sure if it was the smoke at the Fuzzy Navel bar, singing our hearts out for a few hours at the Singing Room (noraebang), or if I picked up something, but over the past week, I gradually lost my voice.

By Tuesday night, I knew I was in trouble. I taught my 7 pm Conversation Class, and a 1-to-1 private student ending at 9 pm, and headed straight home.

I didn’t sleep well. I kept waking up trying to figure out how best to use my whopping 6 hours of sick time. Not 6 days. YBM gives us a whopping 6 hours of sick time per 12-month contract.

On Wednesdays this month, I teach 5 hours from 6:50 am to 1 pm, plus two more hours at night: Conversation Class and a new 1-to-1 student. If I called in sick tonight, I could skip the am but would still have to teach one hour at night and all day the following day.

On Thursdays, I teach 6 hours in the morning from 6:50 am straight to 1 pm. Plus another hour at night. Hmm  I could skip Thursday am, but would still have to teach all day Wednesday, and again Thursday night.

Is that possible?

I take great efforts to make sure I’m always loving being with my students. But it was really hard Wednesday teaching in a whisper. Luckily, my students know me by now, so we could laugh about it and they were really sweet to me, the English Whisperer. I made it somehow until 1 pm.

My director was able to reschedule my 1-to-1′s, got someone to teach at night for me, and someone else to do my two early am classes. So, I had Wednesday night off.  I had a massage and rested. I came to work on Thu at 10 am, taught one class, then we had our xmas party watching a video with my friend’s class …so that was a huge break. I still had to come back and whisper (I mean teach) another class. But because it was the day before xmas eve, we played games and drank tea. It was fun, but by the end of the day, my voice was totally gone.

The schools I’m looking at in Mexico have a concept called “substitute teachers”. HA HA. This is something I didn’t really ask about. Sick time. Substitutes. Not a common concept here.

I always thought, I never appreciated my health until I was sick. Now, I appreciate the ability to go home when I am sick. wow

Wonderful Amazing Korean Food

When you’re sick, there are so many wonderful, nutritious Korean foods to choose from. I’m in love with Korean Food (Korean food, saranhayeo!)

Wednesday morning on my hour break, I went into a little 24-hr Korean food place (think ‘diner’ Korean-style). I ordered 만두국 (mandu kuk), dumpling soup. (click link for photos)

Later, I picked up chicken salad cranberry croissant sandwiches from Paris Baguette. That and sweet bread filled with red bean paste and cream.

For lunch, I made myself a banana sandwich …a treat we learned from our old friend Ron in Australia.

For dinner on Thursday, I stopped at another favorite diner. On my way to teach my evening class, I had kimchi chigae. Now, like most Koreans, I think kimchi has some magical healing properties. It’s a vegetable (cabbage), fermented, with spicy red peppers…why wouldn’t it be magical! ha ha

Kimchi chigae (김치 찌개) is a stew served boiling, with kimchi, pork, green peppers, onions in a rich broth. Eat it with the side of rice, plus more kimchi and other side dishes. For 3500 won (about $3), it’s good, quick, very wonderful.

Sick in Korea

In the last 1.5 days, I picked up some kind of sore throat and cough. At home, if I was sick, I’d stay home from work for a day, rest and then return to work.

But in Korea, most people, don’t have that luxury. Me, for example. I have 6 hours of sick time every 12 months. And there’s no substitute teachers so most teachers just keep teaching when we’re sick. In the rare case when someone doesn’t teach, the other teachers have to cover the additional classes.

Students keep coming to class when they’re sick too. There doesn’t seem to be the same concept that we usually express so compassionately as, “Why did you come in? You’re so sick, you’re getting us all sick! Go home!”

In Korea, most workers need a doctor’s note that they were sick. So, if they go to the doctor, they usually go and get a vitamin drip…an intravenous (IV) injection of some combination of vitamins or nutrients?!? Antibiotics and other nearly recreational drugs are often also part of the remedy. Then, they usually return straight back to work.

Also, my students think it’s funny that we would eat chicken soup when we’re sick. Since I haven’t seen anything like Campbell’s chicken noodle soup in the local supermarkets, today I had Korean spicy seaweed ramen. Ooh, that was actually delicious and was just what I wanted (for 1000 won, or $1).

That and citron tea. The tea looks like a jar of lemon jam with lots of lemon peel slices in it. You put a spoonful or two in hot water and stir. It’s kinda like that lemon & honey or lemon & brandy remedy.

Are there singing rooms in the US?

Do we have singing rooms in the US? (Called Norae-bangs …norae – singing, bang /bong/ = room) This isn’t karaoke at a bar, it’s different. Friends get together and you pay for a singing room by the hour. You pay anywherefrom $10 to $30, depending on the size of the group and they usually give you two hours for the price of one hour. Then you hang out on cushioned seats or on the floor, you have tambourines, maybe stuffed animals or hats, a couple microphones, and a huge TV. You have books you can look thru for songs in Korean, English, Japanese, Indonesian, etc or you can use the computer and search by singer or song name. It’s ridiculously fun. Whether people are good singers or bad singers, it’s all fabulous!

Last night there were about ten of us to start with, singing everything from Spice Girls, Norah Jones, Beatles, Bon Jovi, Steppenwolf and lots of Korean and Indonesian songs. So great. This is my next business idea for the US…maybe

Brrrrrr

Today it was -6C (21F)

I have about a 15 minute walk to work so it’s not bad, but I’m pulling out the long underwear, winter jacket, hat, and gloves. Here, people wear big scarves and some kind of big knit neck warmer thingy (like a sweater but just around the neck). I bought another scarf and two turtleneck shirts to get thru the next couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I’ve been comforting myself thinking that I’m sure it’s colder in Colorado. Only to find out that there’s been record temperatures…70F. oh wow!

Learning Spanish in Korea

One thing I’ve absorbed from my students is the love of learning a language. Lately, I’ve been watching the Destinos spanish videos online. I’m perfectly happy to watch an episode and even sometimes do the practice.

When my students used to say they were going to study English in their free time, I guess I pitied them. How fun could that be??!!

But now, I get it. (Or have been brainwashed.) Either way, I love studying Spanish. And I learned at the conference, that listening is often the thing students need most. It’s the way we learn what ‘sounds right’. This series has 56 half-hour episodes, so it’s really great. I can pause and look up a word, or turn on the captions when I need to. I have the discipline to study now, maybe because it’s the video, but also because of the Korean study-machine culture!

But yesterday, when I passed a couple of the elderly men I regularly greet, I accidentally said “Buenos Dias”. But I did the standard head bow, so I don’t think they noticed.

When I mentioned it to my friend at work, he reminded me that maybe I’m not exactly in the moment!!! If I’m in Korea, using Spanish, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. oops

Can you make money teaching in Korea?

Can you make money teaching English abroad?In many parts of the world, English teachers do it for the experience…with their pay barely meeting expenses in country.  

Many people choose Korea because it has the best finances for someone with my qualifications: bachelor’s degree plus a TEFL (CELTA) certificate.

My goal was to have an extra $1,000 per month. In my previous travels to Ghana and taking a year off, I ‘pre-spent’ money so want to pay that off.

Can you make money teaching English abroad? In many parts of the world, the pay for English teachers barely meets their expenses in country.

Many people (like me!) choose Korea because it has the best finances for someone with my qualifications: bachelor’s degree plus a TEFL (CELTA) certificate.

My goal was to have an extra $1,000 per month. In my previous travels to Ghana and taking a year off, I ‘pre-spent’ money so want to pay that off. Compared to engineering salaries at home, it’s a modest salary but I wanted to break out of engineering and reprogram myself… you’re a teacher! you’re not an engineer! And, Asia is the only continent I hadn’t yet visited. So, beyond salary, I had other reasons to choose Korea.

But money is (always!) important. Was I able to do it? To save $1,000 per month? 

Most months, yes, barely! This came at the physical exhaustion price of working overtime. I never asked for overtime, but most months was assigned it. Also, I pretty much lived on the cheap. I didn’t buy clothes, go to movies, travel. I stayed local: hiked, went to the beach, and ate cheap Korean food…which was all very wonderful!

A few months, the answer was no, just given my teaching salary. But I did a few extra jobs for clients at home, for an extra $400 every few months. You can lose your visa if you do private tutoring, because your contract prohibits it.

Here’s how the economics work out for a typical month. October I worked 10 hours of overtime. I taught five courses, plus Saturday and some 1-to-1 classes. I netted $1,790. This is after all taxes and my apartment too. I didn’t realize when I came that the housing payment of 250,000 that the school does pays for only half the rent for the apt I ended up with. I have another $140 in monthly expenses for all my phone and utilities, leaving $1,350.

So, to save $1,000, leaves $350 to live on. You can actually live ok on $10 a day here, eating out once or twice for $3-$4. But coffee at a coffee shop also costs $4 so you have to be careful! No money is required for transportation usually, but when you take the subway it’s only $1 each way.

The biggest bonus though comes for those who last the whole 12 months. I didn’t! People that stay for a full year, get an extra month of pay and/or your return flight paid for, plus some other refunds. I’ll get my pension contribution returned, and maybe some of my income tax.

In summary, teaching English is a good way to experience another culture. Can you save $1,000 per month doing it in Korea? Maybe, but as a first year teacher, it’s a little optimistic.  If I had decided to stay, I think with more experience now and being in country for interviews, I could have gotten a position with a public school or university with more vacation for the same or better pay.

Overall, I’m thankful for the experience. But, it’s not exactly easy money! ha ha

  Oct-10
 Regular  2300000
 Overtime  190000
 GROSS PAY           2,490,000
 Income tax  49110
 Residence Tax  4910
 National Pension  72450
 Medical Insurance  61290
 Longterm Care Insurance  4010
 Housing Cost  250000
 TOTAL DEDUCTIONS              441,770
 NET PAY Korean Won  2048230
 NET PAY USD  $1790