So i have come to realize that I really like teaching. I know for a while I was on that whole I hate kids thing but as of the past few months my feelings have been changing ever so slowly. Don't get me wrong I still do not know that I would ever want one but other peoples children can be tolerable at times. Also all of the Korean children have been very respectful and better behaved than most American children I have met. It is only the first week of school so my assumption is that I make them nervous and as soon as they get a bit more comfortable they may act up a bit more, but so far so good.
Though I do like teaching so far, dealing with the company I am working for is an entirely different story. Obviously, half way across the world people think about things differently which has led to some frustration on my end. I have never worked for a company or business that is more unorganized than Olympiad. I, by nature, am a very unorganized person, however I like my goals that I need to accomplish to be set in stone and I will then easily accomplish those goals in my own unorganized fashion. When I don't even have set goals I have no idea where to begin and I become very stressed out and that is how this business has been working thus far.
For example I started teaching this Monday, so last week I had two days of training. The first day of training they tell us that at 5pm we will receive the books we will be using to teach this semester. So around 5pm books do arrive, however we come to find out they are not actually we will be using. So we began training, which includes making lesson plans, using books that we probably will not be using in class. Seems pointless right? Well the next day, of course, the right books are supposed to arrive, they do not. We then get told we need to make a syllabus for the semester. Though we don't know what books we are supposed to be using or even what classes we will be teaching. So they are giving us tasks that need to be accomplished with out giving us the material needed to accomplish them. We finally end up getting the correct books the day we begin teaching. Everything turned out fine because we had a couple hours to make the lesson plans but the whole process was completely stressful. This is just one example, things like this happen ever day, multiple times a day. Today before I even go to work I have someone from my job ask me for my diploma, which I sent to the school from America a month before I left and have not seen since. Then they look at me all confused like I am making this up when it is a well known fact that the Korean government has to see your diploma before they give you a work visa. So now today when I get to work, instead of working on my lesson plans I am going to have to call multiple individuals and try to figure out where my diploma is.
Sorry that this blog is just filled with bitching but I needed to vent. Don't get me wrong I love Korea, and if this is the biggest obstacle I am going to have to overcome while being here I know that I will still be overly happy most of the time. Just a little stressed out every once in a while. Well I have to go to work now. Love you and miss you all.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Korean Fuzz
I actually wrote this a few days ago and had it on myspace but have decided to change to blogspot for future blog happenings. So if you already read it, my bad.
I am sitting on the subway coming back from my second and final day of training to teach English and there are hundreds of people surrounding me, talking, laughing and just staring at each other as I am. Their conversations are so foreign to me that all I hear is fuzz. To my western ear the only thing that comes to mind when I hear the woman on the subway speaker is the movie Battle Royal. For anyone that has seen this movie, they know it is this incredible Japanese film about elementary children being forced to kill each other by the government in order to win a yearly competition. This competition began to keep Japanese youth in line. The children are told the rules of the competition by an ecstatic Japanese woman on a television and the woman on the speaker in the subway sounds very similar. I wanted to emphasize that I only think this because I am hearing it with my western ear. Japanese and Korean people speak different languages, have different accents, and different customs, etc, but to me it is the only relation that I can make at this time. The woman on this speaker is the only thing that I can relate some sort of familiarity too when trying to listen to the Korean people speak. It's not that I recognize any words, or even that I should be making this comparison but it is all that I have to go on right now. In the three and a half days I have been here I have learned about 6 phrases which include: Can I have a beer please (maekju juseyo; that's how it sounds phonetically I have no idea how this or any words look in Korean script), Thank You (com sa ni da), Hello (Anyeong ha say oh), etc.
So, to say the least everything is different, but very exciting. Though I feel lost most of the time it is refreshing to not have any idea what is going on around me. I am an alien here but I am an alien that everyone around me wants to learn about. It is a very odd feeling to be the minority especially in a place like this. Since being here I have only seen two Caucasian people walking on the street. (I have seen other Caucasian people but they were my friends or fellow teachers). Besides that every single person I have seen has been Asian. So, obviously I stick out like a sore thumb. Every where I go people stare at me. Not in a bad or good way but in a curios way. It is a very odd feeling since in America in most physical aspects I would be considered average looking, or for lack of a better term, normal. Therefore, I never received too many glances or attention and was able to fit in with a crowd. When I walk down the street here, heads turn and people that know even the slightest bit of English want to talk to you because you are respected because you are white and can speak the English language. Don't get me wrong I am no stranger to white privilege I have grown up having more opportunities only because the color of my skin. But it is interesting to realize the great privilege I have in an international sense because I am a native English speaker from America. The company that hired me is no longer hiring teachers from any country but the United States, not even Canada.
So though at times I feel very lost and alone I know that I am very privileged to be hear in the first place. The people here could not be any more polite or respectful and that is making my slow immersion in to this culture an easier journey. I have encountered some obstacles in being here, I am sure some of which I will bitch about later but as for now the good completely out ways the bad and I am having the most wonderful time of my life. Well good bye for now I need to get ready so I can go to Itaewon, supposedly the foreign district, so maybe I will find some familiarity to home there. I miss you all.
I am sitting on the subway coming back from my second and final day of training to teach English and there are hundreds of people surrounding me, talking, laughing and just staring at each other as I am. Their conversations are so foreign to me that all I hear is fuzz. To my western ear the only thing that comes to mind when I hear the woman on the subway speaker is the movie Battle Royal. For anyone that has seen this movie, they know it is this incredible Japanese film about elementary children being forced to kill each other by the government in order to win a yearly competition. This competition began to keep Japanese youth in line. The children are told the rules of the competition by an ecstatic Japanese woman on a television and the woman on the speaker in the subway sounds very similar. I wanted to emphasize that I only think this because I am hearing it with my western ear. Japanese and Korean people speak different languages, have different accents, and different customs, etc, but to me it is the only relation that I can make at this time. The woman on this speaker is the only thing that I can relate some sort of familiarity too when trying to listen to the Korean people speak. It's not that I recognize any words, or even that I should be making this comparison but it is all that I have to go on right now. In the three and a half days I have been here I have learned about 6 phrases which include: Can I have a beer please (maekju juseyo; that's how it sounds phonetically I have no idea how this or any words look in Korean script), Thank You (com sa ni da), Hello (Anyeong ha say oh), etc.
So, to say the least everything is different, but very exciting. Though I feel lost most of the time it is refreshing to not have any idea what is going on around me. I am an alien here but I am an alien that everyone around me wants to learn about. It is a very odd feeling to be the minority especially in a place like this. Since being here I have only seen two Caucasian people walking on the street. (I have seen other Caucasian people but they were my friends or fellow teachers). Besides that every single person I have seen has been Asian. So, obviously I stick out like a sore thumb. Every where I go people stare at me. Not in a bad or good way but in a curios way. It is a very odd feeling since in America in most physical aspects I would be considered average looking, or for lack of a better term, normal. Therefore, I never received too many glances or attention and was able to fit in with a crowd. When I walk down the street here, heads turn and people that know even the slightest bit of English want to talk to you because you are respected because you are white and can speak the English language. Don't get me wrong I am no stranger to white privilege I have grown up having more opportunities only because the color of my skin. But it is interesting to realize the great privilege I have in an international sense because I am a native English speaker from America. The company that hired me is no longer hiring teachers from any country but the United States, not even Canada.
So though at times I feel very lost and alone I know that I am very privileged to be hear in the first place. The people here could not be any more polite or respectful and that is making my slow immersion in to this culture an easier journey. I have encountered some obstacles in being here, I am sure some of which I will bitch about later but as for now the good completely out ways the bad and I am having the most wonderful time of my life. Well good bye for now I need to get ready so I can go to Itaewon, supposedly the foreign district, so maybe I will find some familiarity to home there. I miss you all.
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