Monthly Archives: June 2011

Singalong, on the boardwalk

Work is pretty hectic, but I quickly relax on the half hour walk home. As I leave the main road and head into Samyang, I begin to smell the ocean ahead. Then, it’s a tiny 25m detour for me to walk along the ocean for the last 200 m, rather than the most direct way home. So, I head directly to the beach or a bit further along, walk along the ‘boardwalk’. It’s a concrete and stone path along the shore …is boardwalk the right nme?

As summer unfolds, the path is busier day by day (when it’s not rainy!) People gather in pairs or groups, with small picnics of kimbap and sometimes a little grill. Or packs of cooked meat and beer. Or couple sit side by side, chatting and looking out to the ocean. Dads chase toddlers, and little girls skip. It’s a great dose of health on my way home.

Last night,  a friend and I had worked late preparing report cards. So it was midnight, when I made it to the boardwalk. As I passed a group of eight, they asked me to stop, sit and join them. With a few guitars, a ukelele, a small 2-drum set, they were sitting roughly in a circle with beer, water, fried chicken, and chips, in the center. It felt like that casual sing-around-the-campfire atmosphere.

So, from midnight to 1 am, I hung out with friendly Koreans from Jeju and others from the mainland of Korea (Daegu, Seoul and elsewhere). Music, the universal language, was a much more effective means of communication than their lack of English and my more drastic lack of Korean. Clapping, singing and enjoying.

I’m always stunned by the sweet centering power of things that happen in the moment, spontaneously, …like a sing-along on the boardwalk.

Korean listening practice …television dramas

Even though I’m living in Korea, most of my day is filled with English language, not Korean. I pick up bits of phrases like: Write, Listen, Speak, Draw, etc from my students, but very little.

So, when I get home I try to watch one hour of Korean television. Last year in Busan, I didn’t watch TV, but I watch it ‘religiously’. It’s taken me some time to get over my aversion to TV as a complete waste of time, so I now see it as really useful.

There’s really nothing like Korean dramas on American TV …at least that I know of.

The shows I’m watching now “Best Love” and other random shows don’t have subtitles. For the most part, I can understand what’s going on. If it’s important to know, I can google a summary of that episode. So far, I haven’t cared that much!

After listening to my students’ accents, hearing some presentations, and from my own experience, I have a healthy respect for learning a language first from watching and listening. In addition, we can use grammar to boost our skills but the melody and rhythm of language are really important for communication.

I also watch channels that have subtitles in Korean and try to keep up reading it as fast as they speak it. I can’t yet!

Learning more grammar and vocab in a structured way would be helpful too and I have some self-study tools for doing that. But I haven’t found a Korean language class that fits my schedule, but I’m looking!

Songs of the week

This week I tried adding in some songs with varying success:

  • Itsy Bitsy Spider – thumbs up
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It – thumbs up
  • Do You Have – passing game – thumbs up
  • A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea – thumbs up
  • Herman the Word – thumbs down (this is the one where he gets bigger and bigger because he eats bigger animals each verse, then suddenly shrinks. What happened? I burped!)

My 5-year olds also taught me the motions to a new song: One Little Finger. It’s not exactly a hand jive but it took me a few times to learn it! Pretty awesome!

Plenty of water

Colorado qualifies as nearly a desert with only 10-12 inches of rain a year, so this is very different here!

When I wake up, I can see the ocean in front of me (less than 100m away). When I walk home from work, I walk along the coast the last block or two.

It is technically monsoon season now, so it rains part of nearly every day. So far, it hasn’t been bad walking as long as I have an umbrella. If I’m at home, I can hear the rain out my front and back windows.  When I hear voices of kids playing or people walking along the coastal path or down my street, I know it’s stopped again.

 

When I leave, I often leave my laundry hanging out since it usually takes a couple days to dry. It’s indoors inside my patio, but if I leave the sliding door open, about half the time the laundry is wetter than when I left it due to rain that comes through the screen!

It’s even tricky to know if the clothes are actually dry. The humidity is so high here that everything feels a little damp!

My shower and bathroom are all one in the same. So after a shower, everything in there is wet for about a day! Thus, it’s almost always wet. It’s not a bad system. It’s only when I’m wearing socks in my room and the bathroom flip-flops are wet that I end up with wet socks! I need one more pair of slippers for that case, I guess. But also, if I forget to turn the sink control from shower to sink, when I turn on the bathroom faucet, the shower sprays! oops!

In my kitchen sink, there is high pressure and an old nozzle. Result is fine spray in various unpredictable directions if I turn it on too high!

I’m figuring it all out little by little. And mostly thankful that I have plenty of water for drinking, showers and enjoying every day!

I wanna remember your name!

I’m glad that at our school kids go by their Korean names. I thought it was strange last year to call people David, Charlie, and Julie when their real names are so different.

But wow is it hard for me to remember all my students’ names! I used to pride myself on remembering everyone’s names (and would amaze my students by doing it the first class!) but it’s difficult this time.

I teach ten classes and a total of about 70 students. Korean names are usually three syllables with the first being the surname. So in class, they go by their ‘first name’ which is the second two syllables. Many names are just one letter or one sound away from another, or a reverse of another name (think Ann-Marie, Mary-Ann, Jo-Ann, Joan, Mary, Terry, Kari …we’re used to these!)

Here are some examples of student names:

Girls: EunYoung, EunJung, YoungRun,  JiYoung,  EunJin, YeJin, YeWon, EunBi, YuBin, YuSeon, EunSeo, Garam, Geon, Yeseo, Seoyeon, Minseo, Minsun, ChaeEun, SuBin, YunJu, YeonJi

Boys: SungHo, SeongHwan, GyungGil, HyunSeok, HyungGil, JaeHoon, JaeWon, JuHong, HanJang, JiWoo, WooGeun, KyeongWook, TaeYoung, HyukJae, JaeHyuk, HyunMin, HanHong

Singing in Samyang

So, tonight we tried out the local Noraebang (Singing room) in our little town of Samyang. It’s pretty basic. For 10,000 won/$10 you rent a room for nominally one hour (but you always seem to get  longer).

The microphones and acoustics are so bad in the room, it’s impossible to sound very good. And that’s actually liberating.

So whether they were songs we actually knew or those that you just think you can sing, it sounds pretty much the same.

Don’t Know Why (Norah Jones), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), Dios Le Pido (Juanes), Loner (CN Blue – Korean/English), Unchained Melody, Unbreak My Heart, Kiss Me, I’m Yours …and many many more! We sang our hearts out, and were completely exhausted. It was great!

Making Pajeon

On weekdays, I don’t do much cooking. I’m gone from about 10 am until 8 pm or later, so there’s not much time. And I haven’t been motivated to cook dinner either first thing in the am or later at night.

So today, Sunday, I wanted to cook! I had lots of veggies and bought the mix for  Korean veggie pancakes. I know them as ‘pajeon’. But I noticed the mix said ‘bujeon’. I found out that ‘jeon’ means pancake. ‘pa’ means green onions. ‘bu’ means leeks. There are also yachejeon, ‘yache’ means veggies.

Anyhow, you can find the recipe online. Search for Korean vegetable pancakes. Or you an buy the mix. Then just add whatever veggies you want! Usually it has either green onions, leeks or garlic chives. That’s enough! Or you can choose to add veggies like zucchini, shredded carrots and red pepper, for a nice colorful mix. I added what I had: green onions, spinach, and zucchini.

For dipping sauce, use soy sauce with some slices of the green onion. (I was lucky that the former teacher left soy sauce in the apartment!) Add sesame seeds if you like …but I didn’t because I don’t have any yet!

Here in Korea, most apartments don’t have an oven for baking. So, the other great thing about this recipe is that it works on a stovetop!

Try it. I think you’ll love it!

Classroom Management: 1st Grade Girls and Boys

In my younger classes, there’s such a marked difference between the girls and boys’ behavior. It’s actually funny.

Girls in my class really can sit and they do well with a little bit of activity. They can sing a song, clap, turn around, do hand motions, then just sit down and work. The boys, on the other hand, just can’t! You’re asking for trouble if you start the class with a song that has much motion if you have boys in the class.

I made the mistake of doing London Bridge with them one day. The girls loved it. The boys were diving under the ‘bridge’, crashing into the ‘bridge’ holders, refusing to hold hands with anyone.

So, when we went to a performance at the Jeju Arts Center, I was struck by a similar scene.

There were six women on stage in flowing dresses moving gently, twirling and swooping sweetly to and fro. In contrast, there were four male performers. The guys were bare chested mostly, with frilly shoulder things and some straps across front and back of chest. One or two at a time, they would come out on stage, doing back handsprings and flips. Then they would show up with swords or nunchuks (two sticks connected by a chain) and be moving them about wildly and noisily.

Ahhh… this reminds me of my first MWF class!

My new apartment

Sunday night I moved one block from my temporary spot to my ‘permanent’ apartment. The new place is THE closest building to the water at this point in the road. I measured …it’s 90 steps from my door (at the rear of the building) to the front and on to the water’s edge. There’s a stone wall and small harbor there.

My place has a refrigerator, washing machine, TV, internet, double/queen bed, a chest of drawers, two small tables, and two chairs. It has plenty of dishes, cooking pans, and a big rice cooker. The bathroom has a wall-mounted shower head and tile everything, so the room kinda doubles as the shower.

I’m still new at being a single person so I still feel like I’m getting away with something to have the whole place to myself… small, but perfectly fine!

The funny thing is that I just barely have a view of the ocean, as there’s a pine tree and roof of a little outdoor patio area in front of me. Of course, I can always the 90 steps outside and just be at the ocean, so I’m not gonna complain about that!

 

 

Hamdeok Beach …15-minute bus ride to heaven

June 6th Monday was a day off for Korean Memorial Day.

We celebrated by taking the bus to Hamdeok Beach. Wow! Nice clear water. Not really warm enough weather or water for swimming, but that didn’t stop us! There were several people in the water and playing on the shore, but we were the only two actually wearing swimming suits!

It’s great seeing the kids playing too …catching and heaping seaweed in a pile, pouring water over it, all for no apparent reason. Just for fun!

 

Flipping through the channels

Last year, I think I turned the TV on a handful of times and watched a bit of a music show here and there. But in the past few months, I’ve gained a new respect for the power of watching and listening as a way to learn a new language. So I was glad to have a TV in my temp and permanent apartments here on Jeju.

I took a cruise through the TV channels and captured some images to share with you!

Did you know there is a Buddhist and a Christian channel? Shopping channels. Lots of dramas. Korean and Japanese anime. Programs teaching English. Dancing with the Stars Korea. I’ve seen both priests and monks teaching math on a green chalk board. Lots of pop and more traditional singing. Lots of baseball. Talk shows. Game shows. Something where people are sitting in bathrobes maybe in a Jinjilbang, …between a talk show and game show.

Take a look for yourself…

A new landscape ‘painting’ every day

It’s so dynamic living by the ocean. At times, I’ve lived so removed from nature, that I’m still amazed that it is still so strong, willful and beautiful.
This week, I’ve been treated to landscape paintings::

  • Blue skies with a shining white passenger cruise ship floating on a green sea.
  • Mixed sun and cloudy day, a perfect for the boys on their bicycles, who peer over the dock wall at fish in the clear seaweed laced waters.
  • Rainy blustery skies whose grey melts into the sea, so you can’t tell where one starts and the other stops. You know that time is passing only from the bright yellow jacket of an ajuuma (elderly lady …like me) scurrying by .
  • Foggy morning where the familiar shape of the shoreline’s black volcanic rocks are the only hint that the sea is nearby
  • Still warm nights, perfect for evening strolls. A man stands at the bottom of the steps near the stone walkway. He cajoles his daughter, come down. She sits, solid as the stones, on the top step not budging. Arms out, pick me up!
  • Walking home from school, almost needing that forgotten jacket, the sky is clear. Along the horizon four stops of bright white light are shining. Fishing trawlers that had been faint dots on the horizon two days ago are suddenly hovering near the coast.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

At my new school there is a very well developed plan for which books you use for which classes. But I got a ‘bye’ to take the first day with each class to go off the curriculum and do a fun day.

I learned that one class had been studying comparatives (-er) and superlatives (-est). Aha! I have the perfect song for this…

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better (1950 Annie Get Your Gun)

My 13-year-old students loved it. “Can we learn this song?”

Soon, the four had been divided into two. Two students were ‘Annie’ and the other two were ‘Frank’.

The lyrics just beg to be said, yelled, whispered, or sung. It wasn’t long before the director heard a ruckus. She headed down the hall to check it out, then realized that it was us ‘singing’. hahaha   good times!

Anything you can do,
I can do better.
I can do anything
Better than you.

No, you can’t. 
Yes, I can. No, you can’t.
Yes, I can. No, you can’t.
Yes, I can,
Yes, I can!

Anything you can be
I can be greater.
Sooner or later,
I’m greater than you.

No, you’re not. Yes, I am.
No, you’re not. Yes, I am.
No, you’re NOT!. Yes, I am.
Yes, I am!

I can shoot a partridge
With a single cartridge.
I can get a sparrow
With a bow and arrow.
I can live on bread and cheese.
And only on that?
Yes.
So can a rat!

The rest of the lyrics are singable too, with competitions for who can sing longer, higher, softer, sweeter.

So funny. Okay maybe not for your mp3, but yeah, for English class.