Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Pure Race

In my textbook, in every chapter, there is a cartoon about a dog. The dog – named Sujae - learns English by context. Sujae writes a letter and mails it to his friend’s web address; he gets confused when all the other dogs play hide-and-seek; he shows up to a potluck dinner expecting a pot of gold. (He’s a bit dim.) In the current chapter we’re studying, he’s walking through a park and meets another dog wearing a funny hat. “Oh, he’s from Nigeria,” says Sujae. This bubble is followed by another that is filled with “!#@$#%$@^%#^,” which, to me, looks like he’s swearing at the other dog. But, the other dog speaks, saying, “What did you say? Do you speak English?” Sujae is surprised that the other dog speaks English better than he does, even though the other dog is from Nigeria.

So, what do the kids learn from this comic strip? My coworker faithfully explains it every time, “people in Africa speak English better than people in Korea.” Interesting. Then, she goes on to explain that people in South East Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) speak English better than people in East Asia (China, Korea, Japan). When we returned to the office after class, she proudly told me that Korean people speak English better than the Japanese – and then she emphasized that it was an American reporter who said so. (I’ll let Paul discuss that one.)

Last week, in my teacher’s class (both Paul and I teach classes to our coworkers as well as our students), we read a piece on foreigners in Korea. For a long time, the only foreigners living in Korea were the American soldiers; but in recent years, in the midst of Korea’s economic boom, more foreigners have come – not just native English teachers, but Thais and other internationals who come to work in factories for low wages and poor working conditions. My coworker explained to me that though many foreigners come here and marry Koreans, none of our students had a foreign parent. “How do you know?” I asked. I wondered if it was a question on their admissions application.

“Thais have dark skin, large eyes, are short, and speak English very well,” she explained. “Koreans have light skin and smaller eyes, and big noses,” (I think she meant flat noses). “But some of our students have dark skin,” I said, quickly clarifying that they had darker skin than she. “Yes, but Thais are very dark,” she said.

We continued our conversation, and while I was intrigued, I also felt like I was walking on eggshells. I asked about some of the problems Koreans face regarding foreigners. “They come to Korea, and marry Korean men.” Korean women then have a problem finding husbands. But intermarriage points to a much larger problem in a Korean’s mind.

Koreans believe that they – along with the Jews – are the only pure race in the world. How this fits with the fact that the Chinese and Japanese have raped women in Korea – and occupied the country - throughout history, I’m not really sure. But the Koreans are sure, and I suppose that’s what’s important. Intermarrying with other races will put an end to their racial purity. When our married friends Kevin and Brenda explain that not all of their parents were born in Germany, the students proclaim, “mixed blood!!”

Pure race. Mixed blood. Just the words are enough to make us feel uneasy, and yet, they’re so proud…

Monday, November 26, 2007

Fan Death

For the past several weeks, Paul and I have been shocked at how dreadfully cold our schools have been. In late October, while fall was changing into winter, we didnt yet have the heat on in our apartment. Our coworkers would ask us both regularly if we had turned the heat on, how it was working, etc. and we would both have to answer that we hadnt yet felt it to be cold enough to turn the heat on. And though the heat was not on at school, the windows were closed.

So, when the first few days of real cold came, we were both surprised to find the windows at our schools wide open. I began to wear more and more layers; I brought a large wrap to school to wear over my shoulders or on my legs to keep me warm. I wore my scarf to class. I was confused. The people who wanted me to turn on the heat a few weeks ago were now trying to freeze me out. I caught a cold, and was quite miserable. I tried to explain that perhaps I was sick because of the cold air. My coworker laughed.

Last week, Paul walked to work in -8C/17F. When he arrived at work, all of the windows in his school were open. A half-hour later, they turned the heat on. Fortunately, Pauls coworker opened all the windows in the classroom so that the students wouldnt feel too warm. Paul, the Canadian, spent his day teaching in a winter coat.

At my school, things were a bit better. My office was a warm 24C/75F. The windows were open in the rest of the school. I began to wonder if it was a way to conserve electricity or gas, so I decided to ask the teachers I teach. The outdoor air is very good for you. The indoor air is very bad. If you dont change the air in a room open the windows every two hours you will get a very bad cough. I explained that where I come from, we dont usually open the windows when its cold outside. My student was very concerned. You need to make sure you open the windows in your apartment. You can get very, very sick.

I was very polite, and Ive even opened the door to our enclosed porch-thing once; but I havent opened our windows - even for ten minutes. Our windows are not insulated, and the doors leading to the porch where our windows are, are also not well-insulated. So, we usually have some flow of air from the outside coming into our house. But I can still hear some of you saying, maybe hes not crazy; maybe the Koreans know whats best for you. To that statement, I have some arguments.

First of all, our apartment which is on the first floor looks out on a parking lot. The exhaust fumes are disgusting in this country. There are no regulations on the junk your car or truck can put in the air. And everyone drives. In our first three weeks here, I had four asthma attacks more than I would have during a whole summer in smoggy Toronto.

Second, nothing can induce me to believe that it is beneficial to children or to adults to have all the windows open in the winter or to have them open in the hallways while the classrooms are heated. There is a ten-degree (Celsius) difference between my office and the bathroom. I know this isnt good.

And, most importantly, I cant really believe the Koreans on this one because they believe in fan death. If I told the Koreans that Paul and I sleep with a fan on every night with the doors and windows closed they would gasp at the mortal danger we put ourselves in. When we first came, we wanted to buy a few more fans for our apartment, but they were all at least $40. We couldnt figure out why they were so expensive. But now we know: every fan in Korea has a timer, so that you can make sure that it doesnt run all night; its a safety feature to prevent fan death.

Koreans arent quite sure how the fan kills you. It might be suffocation (the fan creates a vortex sucking the air from the room), poisoning (the fan creates high levels of carbon dioxide), or hypothermia (the fan lowers your body temperature so much that you die). Whatever it is, I think Ill continue to take my chances with closed windows to preserve heat and a fan for noise. I think Im in more danger crossing the street.

(If youd like to read more about fan death, visit www.fandeath.net, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death.)

Thursday, November 22, 2007

What Do You Call Turkey Day If There's No Turkey?

Since my wife has decided to abandon our blog after only a couple of months I suppose it is up to me to give you a reason to keep visiting.

As I write this I am looking out the window wishing I had brought my camera to school today. Weve had snow the last couple of days and although the students at my school have done their best to dispose of the snow on the ground by throwing it at one another (and pretending to throw it at me) there is still a decent amount on our playground. And by playground I mean a huge square dirt field.

Every day after school our school baseball team practices outside in this dirt playground. They practice hitting and fielding. Sometimes I stop to watch for a couple of minutes on my way home. They of course play all their games elsewhere (on a real baseball diamond I hope) and Im pretty sure the season ended a month or so ago, but they are just determined to be ready for the new season in March or April. Anyways, I digress. Since it is impossible to practice at all effectively on a frozen pile of dirt they drive a truck around the playground with a large metal rake attached to the back. This usually does the job. Im assuming the snow that has been trampled down by the students until it is a sheet of ice mixed into the dirt has made smoothing out the field much more difficult. As a result the truck is now driving around the yard with about 5 or 6 baseball players crouched on top of the rake trailing behind it. I can only imagine this is done to add more weight to the rake so it can dig into the ground better. Of course to my eye it just looks like an accident waiting to happen. I can tell from the mud down the backs of some of their pants and jackets that a few have fallen off a couple of times. My words do little justice in describing the situation. Ill have to remember to bring my camera to school the next time it snows.

Im back after an hour of teaching class and it looks like the baseball team has given up. The van is doing laps around the playground area still, but the players appear to have gone home. There's a good chance the field is in worse shape now than when they started.

Today is Thanksgiving for those who living in the land of the free. For everyone else in the world it's just another Thursday. We're trying to make it special by having dinner with the other foreign teachers we know. There will be 4 Yankees, 3 Canucks and a Kiwi at dinner tonight. Since none of us have an oven to fit anything larger than a pie pan we're going to have chicken instead of turkey. Our friends have however made a pumpkin pie and an apple pie. Meg's made stuffing and cornbread and I've heard rumours of gravy. It should be a fun gathering. I'm hoping it will help me put back on the weight that I've lost since coming here. Winter is coming and it is always good to have some extra insulation. Especially in the frigid temperatures I have to work in.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Posts

It's been a week since we've written anything so I figured I should try to at least put something up. I decided that maybe people have forgotten what we look like over these past couple of months so here are some recent photos. I'm the taller one...with the brown hair.


The fall leaves were more impressive than I though they'd be.



This is me in front of Namdaemun gate. The gate was built at the end of the fourteenth century and apparently helped to protect the city from tigers (if you can trust wikipedia). Now it serves as a gateway to Namdaemun market. The market is pretty cool actually. I'll try and post some photos from there in the near future.

Also, apparently this gate was the basis for Darnassus in the World of Warcraft (I know at least one of our readers will find that interesting).


Meg in Olympic Park. See if you can spot the American flag in the background. I'm pretty sure Meg's standing on the exact spot where they took away Ben Johnson's gold medal (give or take a few miles).



This is Meg on the stairs at Wa Woo Jeung Sa (A Buddhist Temple). The same place that I posted images from last week.


Finally, Meg laughs at me while I fiddle with my camera. I'm pretty sure I said something really funny and it had nothing to do with my wife thinking I'm a camera nerd. Our friend Brenda took this photo. I think she really captured a moment.

Well that's all for now. I have the day off on Thursday because all the final year high school students are writing the most important exam they'll ever write (the Korean equivalent of the SATS). The school beside mine is hosting one of the test sites and my school is closed for the day so "we don't make any noise that might distract the students writing the test". My friend Kevin's co-worker told him that they even cancel all air traffic over Korea for a couple of hours while the test takes place (we're not sure if this is actually true). I'm just happy to have the day off (unfortunately Meg has to work). I'll be heading into Seoul to try and get Vietnamese visas for our trip next month. Once our schools shut down we're heading off to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand for a couple of weeks. We're getting excited already. Angkor Wat has been the places I've wanted to see the most for the past four or five years. We just booked our plane tickets on Monday and are ironing out the details now.

Hope all is well back in the West.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin-Eater

One of the things that has been confusing Paul and me is the appearance of cheating in our schools. When my coworker is teaching, the kids write answers to questions in their workbooks (which are also their textbooks). Usually, she gives them a few minutes to do each exercise. Some of the students are finished right away, some struggle through, but most just sit there, staring at their pens, waiting for the teacher to give them the answer. Sometimes, if they’re feeling ambitious, this last group of students will find the ‘smart’ person near them, and copy their work. And, in a few cases, they don’t have to write anything at all, because they have the ‘remedial’ textbook: the one that comes with all of the exercises done.

You could argue that calling this ‘cheating’ is a bit too much. They’re going to get the correct answers in class anyhow – either through the teacher or other students. They’re not cheating on their work, but simply cheating themselves out of an education. You could also argue that it’s simply the result of the Asian ‘group mentality’: the students are doing their work as a group rather than as individuals. I sometimes encounter this when I divide my classes into teams and have them play games. Often, only the students who are the best in English play, while the others sit back and watch. They don’t take turns unless forced, because they’re playing ‘as a group.’

Group mentality, however, does not apply to tests. Koreans take testing very seriously – it’s what determines high school and college entry, as well as entry into certain job markets. Certification is key. When my students took midterms, each classroom had a teacher proctoring the exam, as well as one of the mothers looking on.

It seems like they take education rather seriously. Each of the teachers has a long stick to beat the students with (and it happens regularly). Students regularly have to stand at the back of the classroom – sometimes holding their hands above their heads – as a punishment for not finishing their homework or not bringing their pen or book to class. Almost every day, I watch as a student or two is brought into the teacher’s office to be lectured and yelled at. One day, all of the students who had shoulder-length hair or too-tight uniforms had to run laps outside.

But it doesn’t stop there. If a teacher catches a student smoking outside school hours or outside school grounds (on a Friday night, say, in downtown Yongin), the teacher calls the parents, and the student is punished by both her parents and the school.

This week, my coworker has been giving our students a vocabulary quiz. The students are given five-minutes notice, and five or ten minutes to take the quiz. While they’re studying, we wander through the class and answer questions. Imagine my surprise the first time I caught a girl writing all the words on her desk and hiding it so that I wouldn’t see. My coworker looked briefly, and the girl erased the words. The same thing happened in the next class. No punishment was given other than having to erase the words. The next class, I watched and waited. I caught a girl in the act. I thought for sure my coworker would be upset. I was wrong. No punishment; just having to erase the words so she couldn’t cheat.

Is it possible that forgetting a pen or talking through class is worse than cheating on a quiz?

Monday, November 5, 2007

Addendum

Apparently I can't add photos to blogs that Meg has written...so here are some photos from our weekend. You can read her note below.

Waa Woo Temple. This is the largest temple in the Yong-in area. It's about 8km from our house, but the bus that passes it seems to run hourly. This obviously makes it a bit of a pain to get to. They temple started work on making a huge Buddha statue, but never finished it (not sure why, probably financial reasons) and so they just put the head on a mound of rocks.

The temple extends up onto the mountains. This is one of the guardians at the top of the staircase.


A Buddha Statue against the fall leaves.

Recognition

You may not have visited our blog in a while. We haven’t visited it for a week. We can post things, but we can't see our posts. In Korea, Blogger is down due to posts regarding the upcoming election. I don’t even know whether I should be posting this…

I’m freezing cold at the moment. Koreans believe in sauna-like temperatures for their houses, but they also believe in ‘fresh air.’ In summer, my school had the air conditioning on and the windows open; in winter, we have the heat on with the windows open. In both cases, they were wasting electricity. I haven’t been this cold at school since I was at Beaver Local.

I spent Saturday sick in bed. Paul, on the other hand, had an adventure in Seoul. He returned with a Costco card, cheese and oatmeal, a Brita filter, and a much better understanding of the bus and subway system. Sunday afternoon, we ventured up the mountain to wander around a Buddhist shrine. It’s kind of a neat idea: they’ve placed statues, ponds, and walkways up the side of a mountain; people are free to roam about as they wish – worshipping or not worshipping as they like. Paul, of course, had out his camera to catch some of the last of the fall colors. It was a beautiful day. I spent some time wondering about what it would look like if more churches would put together worship-park like-things…

And, as I was thinking, I heard something like what my students call me, but not quite: “weggy.” It’s the short, cutesy form of the Korean word for ‘foreigner’. They were pointing at me and calling me ‘foreigner.’ They were not the only ones to give us funny looks… Of course, people often stare at us, whether we’re at a shrine or at the grocery store.

I came in to work this morning to find the contents of my class folder on my desk. When I opened the folder, I found a new class list inside. A few hours later, one of the other teachers came to my desk and started rifling through the folder, without acknowledging me at all. You would think there would be a happy medium between being over-recognized and under-recognized.