Today has been an interesting day. I started by working at home, trying to grade all the papers for mid-terms. I only got through one group’s presentation and I am nearly at the end of my rope, or the end of my day rather. Today has been a day of going back and forth between meetings and work. I thought I could get some work done tonight after all the events were over with but I ended up chatting online instead. Finally, I decided to go running after I had another frustrating conversation about the English service.
The first event of my day was meeting the guy for lunch that I met at the PC room last weekend. It turns out that he is a university student at another university in the same city where I work. I asked him why he wants to be friends with a foreigner and he gave the anwer I expected: I want to improve my English. I responded by saying, “So you want to use me for my English”. He didn’t like the way that sounded and I tried to get him to agree to it several times. I would say we had a half-way decent conversation. It was tiring though because of the language barrier. He insisted on walking with me to my home but I said there was no sense in going any further than the university where I work. As it were, he had to backtrack to the hair salon. He wanted to make sure I didn’t think he was trying to use me for my English. I said, “If that’s the case, let’s only speak in Korean from now on.” He agreed.
After that I went home for an hour to grade tests. I finished one group test but that was it. I arrived at the university about the time that my co-teacher suggested we meet. There was a staff person in the office where I met the Korean teachers (aka TAs) who does not speak much English. I had what seemed like a five-minute conversation with her, mostly in Korean, but it was probably only one minute. This made me feel good about my Korean ability which seems to be improving slowly but surely. But then there were other times today when people couldn’t understand my text messages which I typed in Korean.
My task at the university was to work with one of the Korean teachers, a university student, to teach English to a group of children. I can’t quite say that I taught them because the Korean teacher led them through the CCM songs that they will be presenting to their parents in a few weeks. I mostly engaged with the children during this time. A few of them tried to speak to me in Korean and I understood a little bit of what they were saying. Sometimes I was modeling the pronounciation for them and eventually we played the game, “Do you love your neighbor” and we finished with an airplane roleplay.
This was a lot of fun for me. It seemed that the students had a lot of fun and that they were very comfortable in the classroom. The other teacher and I seemed to work well together, too. The adventure continued as I went to dinner with the other Korean teacher (going together with both teachers would have been nice but one of them had to go to church). The meal cost less than 5 USD. We left earlier than we anticipated because it seemed that the people wanted to close the restaurant. I experienced this same phenomenon yesterday with a foreign professor. It was interesting how nobody came up to us to tell us they were closing but they sent us hints in other ways like closing the doors and turning off the air-conditioning (air-con in Konglish).
By the time I got home at 8pm I had a lot of excitement running through me. I thought this called for a celebration with some watermelon. I thought that after eating some watermelon I would have lots of motivation to work but this was not the case at all. I stared at my computer screen for several hours. I was thinking about going running but I didn’t want to leave my apartment so I was thinking of going to sleep. Then when someone called me to talk about the English service I got upset and then I knew I had to go running. So I went running and walking for what seemed to be an hour. Because of being angry, I probably ran harder at times than I have recently. After running I felt less stress, though I am still frustrated about what I should do.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Is Something Wrong?
I haven’t journaled for the last two nights. I made up for one of these times the next morning but I didn’t make it up in time to do that this morning. Interestingly, it was the nights that I didn’t exercised that I missed journaling. It is ironic that excercising actually gives me energy.
I was expecting to meet a student later tonight to give him some paperwork that he needs to apply to a university in Seoul. Unfortunately, he got caught in traffic so we are going to meet on Monday. This is unfortunate since that is my research day but perhaps that will be good because I can do some reading in the library or I can just take a break at that time and come back home for a few hours.
Today was a much better day than the last few Fridays have been. I still found my conversation class to be a struggle. Personally I want to step away from the book but I think there is some value to it in helping students learn English grammar. Unfortunately, most of the students today didn’t do their homework so they had to spend a good amount of classtime doing homework. Perhaps I should’ve just moved on to the next task. I was hoping to have people compare answers. I find myself trying to pattern the way I teach after the Greek classes that I took in college and seminary. Unfortunately this is an entirely different setting since I am not speaking to students in their native language. Sometimes they end up teaching me as much about Korean as I teach them about English. The more I study Korean the more interested I become.
When I went to chapel today, I tried writing down words that the speaker used but I didn’t find this as meaningful today as I did on Sunday when I did the same thing. I’m not sure if it was the fact that the sermon was shorter, that I didn’t understand as many words or if my mood was just different. Sometimes I think it is more relaxing knowing that I can’t understand what the speaker is saying and therefore I am more relaxed because I can’t complain about something I don’t understand. At the same time, I think it would be nice to at least understand what the other person is saying.
Lunch with one of my colleagues was interesting as usual. We talked about a plethora of subjects ranging from university politics to media literacy to writing in my journal. Of course this included other subjects like church and Korean culture. He is always telling me to write, write, write.
Eventually I returned to my office to work on the recommendation forms for the student I already mentioned. I was happy to get this done in a relatively short amount of time. After that was all said and done, I tried to contact the department chair of one of the departments I belong to. Since I was told the professor’s English-speaking abilities are limited, I attempted to write the e-mail in Korean and English. One of my Korean collegues whose English far outweighs my Korean (I can’t really have a conversation in Korean) told me my Korean is great. I thought she was being sarcastic but she didn’t seem to back down when I kept telling her I am not good at Korean. I guess she is saying that I am making progress which is an important thing in learning another language. I try to send text messages in Korean as much as possible. Sometimes I text in Korean and other people text me in English. I guess this gives all of us practice, though sometimes we can have misunderstandings if I don’t understand the Korean or vice versa.
During the afternoon time, I also had another Korean colleague visit my office. He expressed interest in visiting around the same time every Friday. He showed me the memory verses he has learned in English from the Bible. I was impressed at his intonation as he quoted the verses to me.
I didn’t meet with the Korean professor that I usually have dinner with on Friday nights. This was a nice break. I am usually worn out by Friday nights and we often have difficult conversations (because of language and cultural barriers). This enabled me to come home and make some dinner. For some reason, by the time I got home I was feeling really good. I suppose it may have had something to do with getting more sleep last night. It may also be because I am doing something with children tomorrow. It seems that I thrive on doing many things. Apparently it gives me something to look forward to. I would imagine that tomorrow night I will feel the letdown that I usually feel on Friday nights.
I’m wondering whether I should continue blogging as I have been or if I should change it slightly. I would imagine it is getting boring to read about the same types of events everyday. For me, being able to put this on a blog helps me to keep on track with doing this. At the same time, I am reticent to say everything because of a fear of offending someone. I worried about that with my last post since I addressed an issue that could be quite controversial.
I was expecting to meet a student later tonight to give him some paperwork that he needs to apply to a university in Seoul. Unfortunately, he got caught in traffic so we are going to meet on Monday. This is unfortunate since that is my research day but perhaps that will be good because I can do some reading in the library or I can just take a break at that time and come back home for a few hours.
Today was a much better day than the last few Fridays have been. I still found my conversation class to be a struggle. Personally I want to step away from the book but I think there is some value to it in helping students learn English grammar. Unfortunately, most of the students today didn’t do their homework so they had to spend a good amount of classtime doing homework. Perhaps I should’ve just moved on to the next task. I was hoping to have people compare answers. I find myself trying to pattern the way I teach after the Greek classes that I took in college and seminary. Unfortunately this is an entirely different setting since I am not speaking to students in their native language. Sometimes they end up teaching me as much about Korean as I teach them about English. The more I study Korean the more interested I become.
When I went to chapel today, I tried writing down words that the speaker used but I didn’t find this as meaningful today as I did on Sunday when I did the same thing. I’m not sure if it was the fact that the sermon was shorter, that I didn’t understand as many words or if my mood was just different. Sometimes I think it is more relaxing knowing that I can’t understand what the speaker is saying and therefore I am more relaxed because I can’t complain about something I don’t understand. At the same time, I think it would be nice to at least understand what the other person is saying.
Lunch with one of my colleagues was interesting as usual. We talked about a plethora of subjects ranging from university politics to media literacy to writing in my journal. Of course this included other subjects like church and Korean culture. He is always telling me to write, write, write.
Eventually I returned to my office to work on the recommendation forms for the student I already mentioned. I was happy to get this done in a relatively short amount of time. After that was all said and done, I tried to contact the department chair of one of the departments I belong to. Since I was told the professor’s English-speaking abilities are limited, I attempted to write the e-mail in Korean and English. One of my Korean collegues whose English far outweighs my Korean (I can’t really have a conversation in Korean) told me my Korean is great. I thought she was being sarcastic but she didn’t seem to back down when I kept telling her I am not good at Korean. I guess she is saying that I am making progress which is an important thing in learning another language. I try to send text messages in Korean as much as possible. Sometimes I text in Korean and other people text me in English. I guess this gives all of us practice, though sometimes we can have misunderstandings if I don’t understand the Korean or vice versa.
During the afternoon time, I also had another Korean colleague visit my office. He expressed interest in visiting around the same time every Friday. He showed me the memory verses he has learned in English from the Bible. I was impressed at his intonation as he quoted the verses to me.
I didn’t meet with the Korean professor that I usually have dinner with on Friday nights. This was a nice break. I am usually worn out by Friday nights and we often have difficult conversations (because of language and cultural barriers). This enabled me to come home and make some dinner. For some reason, by the time I got home I was feeling really good. I suppose it may have had something to do with getting more sleep last night. It may also be because I am doing something with children tomorrow. It seems that I thrive on doing many things. Apparently it gives me something to look forward to. I would imagine that tomorrow night I will feel the letdown that I usually feel on Friday nights.
I’m wondering whether I should continue blogging as I have been or if I should change it slightly. I would imagine it is getting boring to read about the same types of events everyday. For me, being able to put this on a blog helps me to keep on track with doing this. At the same time, I am reticent to say everything because of a fear of offending someone. I worried about that with my last post since I addressed an issue that could be quite controversial.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
A Typical Day With Some Questions
I am writing this on Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night because when I went home last night I was exhausted. I intended to stay up late to do some work for classes but I kept hearing voices telling me that I should get some sleep. I’ve been through enough sleep deprivation to know my own sleep cycle. I got four-and-a-half hours of sleep the night before last so I figured I better get some sleep last night and hopefully I can get by on less sleep tonight.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday. Well, I did have an interesting conversation with one student who missed the mid-term last week. One of my colleagues told me she wouldn’t let the student retake the mid-term if she missed it. But since the student was sick and since I myself have fallen upon the grace of professors, I decided to give her a break. Of course she will still have to prepare for the test and I am not the funnest person to take a test with (I like to ask difficult questions in case you forgot).
Yesterday was my free-talking only day. Of course it isn’t just free-talking because it also involves teaching the class at City Hall. This is always interesting, perhaps because of the maturity of the staff taking that class. Last night, the topic was about adoption. This is something I’ve been thinking about more since re-connecting with one of my cousins. I was surprised to hear people talk about the importance of bloodline in Korea. I thought that if Koreans adopted Koreans they wouldn’t be disrupting the bloodline but apparently that is not the case. One person wondered how difficult it would be to discipline children who are not one’s own children. It seemed to me she was referring to adopting children when they are ten years or older when they are adopted.
This conversation reminded me of three people: the first two are my cousins who were born in Korea, one of which I’ve been corresponding with lately (I love the look in peoples’ eyes when I tell them I have a Korean cousin). This has been interesting to talk to her about her home country. It seems ironic that I am in her home country and I am looking forward to telling her many more things when I go home in a month-and-a-half as well as hearing her own story. The third person is Janelle Matthews, a girl who disappeared about 33 years ago. I never knew her personally but I did know her family. I remember seeing the “Missing” posters when I first started going to Sunny View Church of the Nazarene in Greeley, Colorado. Eventually the family had a farewell service. They never found Janelle and it seemed possible that she might not be alive. Whether or not this was true, it was a way for the family to bring closure to this experience.
I think of adoption as a just cause and I still think it is. But I have more questions about the whole process. It seems like a good thing. As one of the staffpersons last night said, everybody should have a family. With globalization being what it is today, it makes one wonder if other countries will or have had people who adopt people from richer countries. What would it be like for a Korean family to adopt an American, where the American goes to live with the Korean family in Korea. How would that affect the person’s psyche? What might the differences be between adopting a toddler and a teenager?
Nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday. Well, I did have an interesting conversation with one student who missed the mid-term last week. One of my colleagues told me she wouldn’t let the student retake the mid-term if she missed it. But since the student was sick and since I myself have fallen upon the grace of professors, I decided to give her a break. Of course she will still have to prepare for the test and I am not the funnest person to take a test with (I like to ask difficult questions in case you forgot).
Yesterday was my free-talking only day. Of course it isn’t just free-talking because it also involves teaching the class at City Hall. This is always interesting, perhaps because of the maturity of the staff taking that class. Last night, the topic was about adoption. This is something I’ve been thinking about more since re-connecting with one of my cousins. I was surprised to hear people talk about the importance of bloodline in Korea. I thought that if Koreans adopted Koreans they wouldn’t be disrupting the bloodline but apparently that is not the case. One person wondered how difficult it would be to discipline children who are not one’s own children. It seemed to me she was referring to adopting children when they are ten years or older when they are adopted.
This conversation reminded me of three people: the first two are my cousins who were born in Korea, one of which I’ve been corresponding with lately (I love the look in peoples’ eyes when I tell them I have a Korean cousin). This has been interesting to talk to her about her home country. It seems ironic that I am in her home country and I am looking forward to telling her many more things when I go home in a month-and-a-half as well as hearing her own story. The third person is Janelle Matthews, a girl who disappeared about 33 years ago. I never knew her personally but I did know her family. I remember seeing the “Missing” posters when I first started going to Sunny View Church of the Nazarene in Greeley, Colorado. Eventually the family had a farewell service. They never found Janelle and it seemed possible that she might not be alive. Whether or not this was true, it was a way for the family to bring closure to this experience.
I think of adoption as a just cause and I still think it is. But I have more questions about the whole process. It seems like a good thing. As one of the staffpersons last night said, everybody should have a family. With globalization being what it is today, it makes one wonder if other countries will or have had people who adopt people from richer countries. What would it be like for a Korean family to adopt an American, where the American goes to live with the Korean family in Korea. How would that affect the person’s psyche? What might the differences be between adopting a toddler and a teenager?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
I bought a dress
Today ended up completely different than I anticipated last night. I decided to go to Seoul to shop for a hanbok (a Korean traditional dress) for my cousin. Since she was born in Korea this is something I really wanted to do for her. She said that I didn’t have to but when I insisted on it, she consented. I didn’t really insist, it’s just that she is a genuine Korean which means she was being modest (in my opinion). So I met my Korean teacher, who is also a friend, in Seoul. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as thoughtful as I could’ve been so I went with a low cell phone battery and I was an hour late. She was mad when I first told her where I was and she knew how long it would take me but by the time I got there she was cool. I bought her dinner which was intended to be part of my penance and I told her I’d buy her dinner at the Outback sometime.
I’m grateful that she was able to help me. We went to several different shops. The first was luxurious, the second was about the price I expected and the third had some really good deals. We decided to buy the third option. I was nervous about this because I didn’t want to buy her the “cheap” item but I also didn’t want to spend more of her money than necessary.
This was my first time shopping for a dress so I was quite uneasy about it. I was glad to do it for my cousin and I’d do anything for her or her brother who were born here, but buying something for someone else without having her right there or knowing exactly what her intentions are for using the dress were difficult. I almost went back and bought the more expensive one but I decided to hold on to this one because of the advice of my friend.
After we bought it, we had cold noodles (냉면). This was my friends request and I had no complaints because I also like this type of food. It is good especially when it is hot outside. When we walked in, we almost sat in chairs where it was really crowded. Usually Koreans like to eat on the floor (and this is more true the older people get, though there are exceptions) so I told her I was okay to sit on the floor. And that is what we did.
After that we went to the subway. We tried to catch a rapid transit train but our timing was off so we got back on a subway train and had some interesting conversation for the next hour or two. Then I decided to go grocery shopping after that (shop ‘til you drop, right?) so we got off at the same station.
When I got back I felt bad about not getting the dresses for my nieces that my sister-in-law requested. But I feel better now that I know it would’ve been way out of her price range (double what she wanted to spend). I still feel bad for not getting them since this might be something really special for them. It would give them an opportunity at a young age to be exposed to a different culture. I was thinking too much in terms of the price limit my sister-in-law gave me and not enough in terms of the gift. Since I had a broader range with my cousin it was easier to focus on getting the job done.
All in all, I’d say this has been a good Children’s Day. I think it was probably more eventful than the Children’s Day I had last year at this time. The mission for my nieces is not over. I just have to keep thinking.
I decided to take heed to my teacher/friend’s advice to keep writing Korean sentences. So I’m going to focus on this more than writing every Korean word down on a list. When I get on the plane to America I will have lots of time to study. Maybe I can also work in a Korean movie or ten. You gotta love those Korean movies. They are great stress relievers.
I’m grateful that she was able to help me. We went to several different shops. The first was luxurious, the second was about the price I expected and the third had some really good deals. We decided to buy the third option. I was nervous about this because I didn’t want to buy her the “cheap” item but I also didn’t want to spend more of her money than necessary.
This was my first time shopping for a dress so I was quite uneasy about it. I was glad to do it for my cousin and I’d do anything for her or her brother who were born here, but buying something for someone else without having her right there or knowing exactly what her intentions are for using the dress were difficult. I almost went back and bought the more expensive one but I decided to hold on to this one because of the advice of my friend.
After we bought it, we had cold noodles (냉면). This was my friends request and I had no complaints because I also like this type of food. It is good especially when it is hot outside. When we walked in, we almost sat in chairs where it was really crowded. Usually Koreans like to eat on the floor (and this is more true the older people get, though there are exceptions) so I told her I was okay to sit on the floor. And that is what we did.
After that we went to the subway. We tried to catch a rapid transit train but our timing was off so we got back on a subway train and had some interesting conversation for the next hour or two. Then I decided to go grocery shopping after that (shop ‘til you drop, right?) so we got off at the same station.
When I got back I felt bad about not getting the dresses for my nieces that my sister-in-law requested. But I feel better now that I know it would’ve been way out of her price range (double what she wanted to spend). I still feel bad for not getting them since this might be something really special for them. It would give them an opportunity at a young age to be exposed to a different culture. I was thinking too much in terms of the price limit my sister-in-law gave me and not enough in terms of the gift. Since I had a broader range with my cousin it was easier to focus on getting the job done.
All in all, I’d say this has been a good Children’s Day. I think it was probably more eventful than the Children’s Day I had last year at this time. The mission for my nieces is not over. I just have to keep thinking.
I decided to take heed to my teacher/friend’s advice to keep writing Korean sentences. So I’m going to focus on this more than writing every Korean word down on a list. When I get on the plane to America I will have lots of time to study. Maybe I can also work in a Korean movie or ten. You gotta love those Korean movies. They are great stress relievers.
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