Spick and Span

In Korean high schools there are no janitors. This has made me appreciate the role that the janitorial staff at my American high school played and long for those "good old days" when the bathrooms smelled of ammonia. Instead of janitors, the girls clean the school themselves. In principle this is a great idea, because it seems like it would teach them that they must clean up after themselves, not to litter, and that the state of their school environment is up to them, not someone else. When I first arrived at my school I felt good about this policy. As the weeks go on and the amount of bacteria that I imagine lingering in every crevass and corner of this school increases, I realize that like socialism, such a system makes more sense in theory as opposed to practice. It is almost comical to watch my students "clean" the school. First of all, the only materials that they use are water, dirty hand towels and short 3 foot long brooms that resemble props from a midget Halloween play. The girls hunch over (due to the short handle of the broom) swishing the broom back and forth across the stairs or the ground, not even bothering to use a dust pan, either because they are not provided or because it just didn't occur to them. Another girl takes her wet hand towel and wipes down the counters, etc. I don't think these towels ever get washed, because there seems to be no system in place for cleaning the rags, only for cleaning with them. (There is a whole rack of filthy towels in my office.) The girls also wash the dishes from the teacher's lounge and clean the bathrooms. Cleaning the bathroom involves little more than literally hosing down (with a hose) the entire facility including the toilet. I have never seen any sort of disinfectant or bleach used in the bathrooms or anywhere else. When the girls wash the dishes, they take an old sponge (probably as old as the school itself) and wipe down the dishes as they run them under lukewarm water. My own reaction has been to change personal behaviors in order to safeguard myself at least slightly from the battlefield of bacteria that is my school. I have hand sanitizer on my desk which I use periodically, and I no longer accept tea or coffee that is not served in a paper cup. I thought that the cleaning policy at my school would encourage the girls to take care of their school more, but in fact the girls still trash things, because they know that "Someone Else" will clean it up, it doesn't matter if that someone is a janitor or another student.

Birthday Party Photos

My incredible Korean birthday cake! That is real fruit on top!

We moved what little furniture we have out of our living room and set up extra tables for the party!

Koreans make it easy to blow out the candles; they have two longer candles that represent 10 years each and 6 smaller ones for my 26 years...

After my house we went to a nore bang (singing room is the direct translation) where Emerald and Julienne were really tearing it up!

These 6 ETAs live on Jeju Island with me! Singing is a big part of Korean culture; although, for the most part Koreans have really nice voices so it's easy to understand why they like to sing. Americans on the other hand...

The Fish Festival

Last Saturday Jeehee, Lindsay, Gretchen and I went to a fish festival in a small town called Daejon.

At the fish festival you can pay $10 to get in the pool and try to catch a fish with your hands (you wear gloves). The fish themselves are worth 30$ each, so if you can catch one or two you're doing pretty good.

There are about 10 people in the pool at a time and about 15 fish; you are competing against the other people to grab as many fish as you can and throw them in a basket before there are no more.

My friend Gretchen with her fish.

Here I am with two huge dead fish; the one on my right is a shark.

Gretchen's fish after they cut the head off.

생일주가함니다 in English: "Happy Birthday to you"

Today is my birthday and I'm celebrating Korean style. This means that I had birthday soup and white rice for breakfast (birthday soup is a broth with seaweed and beef in it), I had some of my friends over to the house for a few hours on Saturday, tonight I am going out to dinner, and I have received numerous very Korean birthday presents (a Korean birthday present is usually something like a pair of socks, scarf, chocolates, earings, CD, stationary, etc.). Last Saturday evening my Korean mother asked me to invite my friends over for a birthday party with lots of Korean food and cake. So I invited my fellow Fulbright friends over for a party that started at 6:30pm and ended at 9pm. My mother had prepared an enormous amount of food, ranging from dok boki (Korean rice noodles in a spicy red sauce with a sort of fish cake that resembles tofu), chop che (sort of like a Korean version of lo mein), little sausages (possibly SPAM), dok (rice cake with red bean paste filling), fried chicken and sweet sesame chicken wings (this is considered American food and was ordered from the fried chicken place). We had a nice gathering in the middle of my host family's living room (my host mother moved the two pieces of furniture, a cot and a low round table, out of the way and set up three long rectangle tables.) It was very festive and my friends enjoyed seeing another Korean home; I'm finding that we all live in very different situations (my home is distinctly Korean-style, whereas some are living in more westernized apartments.) Today feels like little less than a school day and that is how a Korean birthday is celebrated. Birthdays are not a very big deal here, in part because age does not change until the new year. In Korea I was 27 before today and I will be 27 tomorrow; however, in America I was 25 yesterday and today I am 26 (this is a whole separate issue which I have no time to delve into at the present moment.) It is a bit complicated, but the way that Koreans calculate birthdays is with the New Year, so everyone who was born the year that you were born is the same age as you. This makes sense also, because in Korean society the only people who are considered your true equals or "friends" are the people who were born in the same year as you. This is all part of the Confucian hierarchy that I constantly refer to in these blogs, because it is the underlying source of many modern customs and behaviors. To further complicate matters, when you are born you are 1 year old, whereas in America you are 0 years old. All of this accounts for the discrepancy between my American age and my Korean age (most people are only a year older in Korean years, but because I have birthday that is late in the year, I there is a 2 year discrepancy for most of the year). I keep telling my students that I must go back to America so I can be young again. Although this started off as a joke, there's nothing like a looming 28th Korean birthday (New Year's) to make me feel that perhaps I really do need to go back to America before I start feeling my Korean age, or even worse... acting my Korean age.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Teaching has been a really interesting experience for me, but in many ways this experience is nothing like being a "real" teacher in America or even Korea, because of the freedom that we have in regards to our curiculum. There are no expectations, nor are there any restrictions as to what can be discussed in the classroom. Basically, we are supposed to speak English to the students, engage them in various English speaking activities of our own choosing, and teach them about American culture. Sometimes I can't help but chuckle to myself when I find myself at the front of a classroom, facing 40 pairs of inquisitive jet black eyes, explaining my culture as if it were as simple as 2 + 2 = 4. Explanations like the following seem out of place in a classroom: a turkey is cooked for 3-4 hours, cranberry sauce is eaten on turkey and stuffing is cooked inside of the turkey, we watch the Macy's Day Parade in the morning and football in the afternoon on Thanksgiving, and the Thanksgiving meal is usually served in the afternoon between noon and 6pm. Although these are the details that the students find interesting, it often feels bizarre to hear American traditions described out loud, because these things are things that we do, but rarely ponder or even think twice about. In the grand scheme of things, our traditions sometimes remind me of our youth as a nation. The closest Korean holiday to Thanksgiving is Chuseok, but the traditions of Chuseok include things like making wishes on the full moon, performing an elaborate prayer ceremony that honors ancestors from generations past, cutting the grass on their ancestor's graves the week before and returning on Chuseok Day to pour soju on each grave, and wearing traditional Korean clothes like hanboks (Korean version of the kimono) Perhaps it is just because it is my culture, but watching a commercial parade with floats depicting Ronald McDonald, Sesame Street characters, and Barbie, eating a lavish meal, and later watching American football seems trivial in comparison. Please do not misunderstand me; I love Thanksgiving! In fact, I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! It's just that sometimes it feels so ironic that our culture is the dominant culture in the world, yet so new and in many ways still undefined in comparison to cultures and traditions which have been around for centuries preceeding our own.

Early Thanksgiving in Seoul

Friday night I flew to Seoul for an early Thanksgiving celebration at the U.S. Ambassador's home. All but 2 of the Fulbright ETAs were there, and it really felt like Thanksgiving, despite the fact that I am thousands of miles from my family. Thanksgiving dinner began at 2:30pm on Saturday; it was a beautiful fall day, and we arrived with enough time to look around the Ambassador's residence. Ambassador Vershbow and his wife, Lisa, were very hospitable, and they seem like very nice people. The residence is this amazing Korean style home that was built with imported wood from the pacific northwest, United States. Inside they have an art collection of contemporary American crafts. Apparently, each ambassador is allowed to choose a collection of American art to display in their home overseas, and they chose handmade crafts, because they thought it would go nicely with the traditional style of the home.

My friend Sara and I, with full plates of delicious food. It was catered by a hotel from the military base in Seoul; the food was delicious!

The Fulbright director, Mrs. Shim gave a short address, followed by a short speech by Ambassador Vershbow.

After the meal, as we headed back to our hotel, we came upon this interesting outdoor photo exhibit, the subject of which was quite amusing. We spotted it from across the street and decided to check it out. As we got closer we found that it was a very dramatic photography exhibit about photojournalism. The entire exhibit, (some 200 pictures or so) are "action" shots of photojournalists doing their jobs (in other words, the whole exhibit was composed of photos of photographers taking photos.) The title of the exhibit was "Photojournalist Reality". It seemed like the exhibit might have been motivated by a sincere feeling of under-appreciation. In the picture above, I am posing in front of one of the "action" shots of photojournalists on the job.

Saturday night we went to a hooka bar; it was really nice to catch up with some of the ETAs that I don't ever get to see.

Here I am with my good friend, Dana; he and I are probably going to teach a winter camp together in January after I get back from the United States.

Su Neung Day: The test that determines the future

Yesterday we were dismissed from class at 10am. Today there is no school. Why? Because I teach at a high school and today, November 16th, is the day when 580,000 Korean high school students will take the Su Neung Test at 971 high schools around the nation. High school in Korea consists of three grades, which are labeled 1, 2 and 3. Today all the third graders (equivalent to a senior in high school in the U.S.) will take the exam beginning at 8:40am-6:15pm with a one hour lunch break in between. The Su Neung exam is more important than graduation, it's more important than grades or extra-curricular activities, because it carries the most weight in the college admissions process. Most colleges base 70% of their decision on the test and only 30% on grades. For this reason, testing day is sort of a national holiday. This morning there were policemen on the streets, helping to ensure that students could get to the exam on time, many employees were told to come at 10am, instead of 8, in order to reduce traffic, and the subway was running more frequently between the hours of 6am and 10am in the more urban areas. These are all efforts by the government to alleviate some of the stress of a typical morning for third grade students, enabling them to focus more readily on the exam. You could argue that we have a similar system in the United States, with the SAT; however, it doesn't carry the weight that the Su Neung exam does in determining one's future. In America, you might be at an advantage if you attend a prestigious college, but your career is not over if you do not. If you are talented and ambitious you can do well in the workforce despite the title on your college diploma. In Korea everything the rest of your life will be affected by what university you went to, the prestige of your diploma is the adult hierarchy that governs the professional world adn there's no escaping it. The entire Korean educational system is structured around this one exam, and if you do poorly, you must wait one year before you may take it again. After the exam, a student's test scores (carrying the most weight) and grades are compiled in a computer. This is where it gets really interesting. Students must come up with a list of 3 schools that they want to "apply" to (Students used to only be able to pick 1 school, but the law has changed.) The system is sort of like gambling, because what happens is the computer will match the students up with their schools, based on the students ranking. For example, there are three schools which are considered the best schools in Korea: Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Korea University; all of these schools are in Seoul. Each university has an exact number of students that they are allowed to accept, no more and no less, so depending on who applies to these top three universities the top ranking students will be accepted. In this respect the school has no choice in the selection of their students; they must select the top students based on their test score (70%) and grades (30%) from the list until they reach their capacity. So a students odds of being accepted at a school is not governed by anyone except the students themselves, sort of like the stock market. If many students perceive that Korea University is too hard to get into, so they don't want to take a risk on selecting it as one of the three schools they apply to, then perhaps that year the lower ranking students who apply will get in, because the computer selection process will remain the same regardless of the quality of the applicants. Due to the significance of this one test, students spent countless hours studying. Many of my students have little experience outside of a classroom, they do not have time to nurture other interests, instead they spend their days from 8am-9pm at school, studying. The pressure and competition is so intense that there is an entire industry of private institutions, sort of like Kaplan or the Princeton Review that tutor students (as young as elementary school) after they attend their regular school. For example, my host sister attends a private academy for extra tutoring in all subjects, meaning that she usually does not arrive home until after 11pm and attends classes on Saturdays and Sundays as well. It is sad to watch my students lives passing them by, but I must remind myself that they don't know anything else; this is their reality, so it's almost like they don't know what they're missing. In some respects that is true, but at the same time, they seem to be aware of the injustice they are suffering by not having time for anything other than school, and they feel sorry for themselves and a little resentful. Remembering myself in high school, I sometimes wonder what my fate would've been in Korean society. I think there is a good chance that I would have ended up at the bottom of the hierarchy, perhaps working at a local fast food restaurant or gas station, because surely I would've rebelled against a system as repressive as the educational system that is currently in place.

Photos of Su Neung Day at My School

At least a dozen police officers were on the street outside of our school, monitoring everything and stopping traffic for the students who arrived at school to take the exam.

Photographers from local newspapers and cameras from the local television station were there snapping photos. One jouranlist interviewed me briefly, asking if I had ever seen anything like this before. Of course my answer was: "No. Never."

Here are my students holding up their banner (Apparently it says something along the lines of: "Blow that test away!") There were about 10 clusters of students from different schools.

These students were standing outside cheering from 5am-8:40am, when the test actually began. Most of the older students (3rd graders) who were taking the test arrived around 7am, but the girls were there early in order to get the best cheering position.

As the 3rd grade students arrived (the equivalent to American Seniors in high school), they gave them a cheer and some candy or coffee as they went in to take the exam.

The cheers were quite elaborate; some involved dancing and gymnastics. They were led by 3 or 4 older students, and the rest of the students were class leaders or involved in student government.

Why Not?

One of the great things about living in a foreign country is the way it forces a person, in this case me, to wipe their slate of preconceived notions clean and start over. Perhaps a person can get by without doing this; however, I believe that it eases the transition into the new culture, and keeps the foreigner from constantly asking the question "why?" instead of "why not?". In Korea there are so many different ways of doing things, that I must constantly remind myself to clear my slate so that I don't make the mistake of qualifying certain Korean behaviors in relation to American customs. It seems second nature to sort foreign customs and behavior in relation to one's own; however, I often remind myself that other ways of doing things make as much sense as our own, even when it is the polar opposite. For example, last week I received a gift on my desk, as did all the teachers at my school, and it was a wedding present from a young, recently engaged female teacher at my school. It was wrapped nicely, and I thought it might be a box of chocolates or some other frivolous gift, because it was in celebration of her marriage. The fact that the young fiance was giving others presents when it was she who was getting married is a custom that I am now used to. It seems that when there is a special occasion to share, like a birthday, a newborn baby, a wedding, a retirement, small gifts are offered to OTHER people in celebration of good fortune (which actually makes a lot of sense, because it is a way of sharing the good fortune with others). I had already added this behavior to my ever-growing list of Korean customs and did not think it odd to find a gift on my desk from Ms. Kim (the fiance). I opened the gift and it was two boxes of toothpaste, the most popular brand that is used in Korea, like the equivalent of Crest in America. Here I had to remind myself, once again, to refer to the clean slate of reference and instead of asking myself, "why?" ask myself, "why not?" In fact it makes perfect sense that one would give toothpaste; it is a very practical gift that is sure not to go to waste, and maybe Americans are absurd for giving frivolous party gifts that may never get used or eventually end up being sold in the family garage sale. I mean why WOULDN'T you give someone toothpaste. Such practical gifts are not limited to these occasions, but also Chuseok, and I'm assuming it will be similar at the other large holiday, where families give each other gift packages full of toothpaste, SPAM (Koreans eat SPAM) and maybe some cooking oil or toothbrushes (these gift packages can be purchased at almost any supermarket). At school, when students compete on "Sports Day" they compete for a large package (like 18 rolls) of toilet paper! That is the grand prize; I mean, tell me that a large package of toilet paper won't get more use than a plastic three foot trophy that will eventually be broken and thrown in the garbage! Recycling is another way in which Koreans are incredibly efficient, they have compost garbage cans where all left over food goes and everything else is recycled as well, plastic, paper, etc. This is a way of life, not a trend, and it's efficient. The list goes on and on... the way they squat over porcelain holes in the ground, rather than sitting down on toilets, so that your body never touches any part of the porcelain. Also, the custom of removing one's shoes before entering the house; therefore, leaving the dirt and grime of the street outside the house, and reducing the amount of times it is necessary to clean one's house. (This also means that when you are eating, should something fall on the floor, it is appropriate to just pick it up and pop it in your mouth.) We have our own reasons to justify our behaviors, but there are as many, if not more good reasons to justify the behaviors that I've observed in Korea, and perhaps it is not I who should be asking them "Why do you do that?" but they who should be asking us, "Why don't you do that?"

Happy 빼빼로(Pepero) Day!!!

Well, tomorrow is November 11th, which means it's 11/11. Some of you might ask...is it Jenn's birthday? Is there something that I'm forgeting? Don't worry, you have probably never heard of the holiday, but tomorrow is 빼빼로 Day (in English Pepero Day!) This is a national holiday among Koreans, and it's very interesting because Pepero is the brand name of a type of candy. It would be like having a national Snickers Day in the United States, where everyone gives each other little Snickers bars to celebrate. The candy is a long thin cookie, about the size of a pencil, that is dipped in chocolate. I have yet to try one of these treats, but the reason November 11th is the holiday, is due to the resemblance of 11.11 to the actual candy. Unfortunately tomorrow is a Saturday so I will not be at school, and therefore unable to see how many students would have given me Pepero! I'm tempted to come to school anyways, even though I don't have any classes to see if I get any! Giving someone Pepero means that you really really like or even love them. What an ingenius ploy; to name a holiday after your product... it certainly guarantees a certain number of sales every year, even if people don't eat them for the other 365 days (which might be the case, as I do not see that many Koreans eating Pepero on a regular basis.) Happy Pepero Day!

Happy Jeju Halloween!

This weekend a group of thirty Fulbright ETAs got together here on Jeju Island to celebrate Halloween! About 15 ETAs flew in from the mainland and all 12 of the ETAs who live here on the island hosted them for the weekend. It was really fun! On Friday night and all day Saturday I showed my two good friends Kiehl and Dana around the island. We visited the world's longest lava tube and the biggest crater on Jeju Island. We hitch-hiked most of the way, which is O.K. on this island, and made the day feel quite adventurous. Saturday night we all went out for a great Kalbi dinner (meat grilled at your table) and then we put on our Halloween costumes to celebrate! We stayed in a pension, meaning we had about 5 rooms to share between all of us, and a living room and kitchenettes in each bedroom. Saturday night EVERYONE put on some sort of costume and we walked down to a beautiful nearby beach to hang out on the sand. It was great weather and made for a great weekend!

I was Punky Brewster and fellow Jeju Islander, Emerald, was a henyo, one of the female diving women that are legendary on Jeju Island.

Christina was a Korean high school student, and David went as "Facebook"; an internet blog site that many of the ETAs are members of.

Ryan Park was Kim Jong Il and looked the part, despite the fact that he is a little too thin to be Kim Jong Il...

Alyssa was a space cadet...

These four Jeju Islanders looked great in their costumes! From left: Julienne was a Chinese person in Korea (She's Chinese so this might have been the most authentic costume; Lauryn was a futuristic Korean student from year 3000; Emerald was a diving woman; and Kate was "Eloise" from the children's series.

Here I am with Kiehl and Dana... Kiehl went as another of the ETAs who didn't make it down and Dana was a Korean hiker... it was really great to see both of them!

Photos of My Students....

These are my more rowdy girls...this class isn't a bad class, but definitely has a lot of energy and can be hard to handle... they're pretty cute though.

Here I had to take another picture of these girls, because one of the girls walked into the room right after I had taken the picture.

These girls are in one of my better classes; the girl in the middle, Yu-Rah is one of the best English speakers in the second grade...

As you can see; I wasn't kidding when I said EVERYONE makes the peace sign in pictures!

November

Earlier this week the provincial board came to visit our school and do an inspection. It was a day long process where everything was scrutinized, in particular the teachers. The provincial board has quite a bit of power over the teachers, as they are the ones who decide where the teachers will be teaching next year. For this reason, everyone was on their best behavior. Apparently it is normal practice for the board to treat the principal and head teachers to dinner at the end of the day; sort of an informal setting where they tell them how the inspection went (this reminds me a little of the mafia and how they whack their enemies at big lavish dinners). For some reason, I was also invited to this dinner by my vice-principal. Anyways, the dinner was quite eventful, but it was all old men, meaning I didn't exactly fit in. My principal was happy, because we did well on the inspection. The normal custom of pouring soju for different people at the table took place repeatedly. My co-teacher was not there, so the only person I had to translate for me was another English teacher whose English speaking capabilities are somewhat limited (even though he could run circles around me in grammar). This was cause for some very large language barriers at times. For example, at one point when I got up to go to the bathroom, my vice-principal thought I was leaving to go home (even though we had all come together in the same van), but I said I was going to the bathroom in Korean. He then said something else that I did not understand, so I looked to my "translator" who took a moment to think and then said, "You're going to pass urine?" I couldn't help but grin at this, and said "Yes, I am going to pass urine." I wondered why it would matter to them if I was going to do that or something else, but maybe he was just genuinely curious. Later in the evening they brought out stir fry dishes and little stoves, that are very common in Korea. They set the stoves on the table and turned them on. Next, they filled the dishes with something that resembled salad greens and then a bunch of slices of meat on top. This is where the head teacher of the 2nd grade looked at me from across the table, pointing to the meat and and shook his head no. I was wondering what he meant, when my translator leaned over and said, "Dog." I guess the head second grade teacher assumed that because I'm American, I don't eat dog. He was correct in one respect: I had never eaten dog, but I wasn't against trying it. So I did. I don't really like dog. It just doesn't taste very good. It's sort of tough and there's this thin layer of fat on the top of it. I had a couple of pieces and it was interesting. I have heard that in Korea they used to eat dog meat when they were very very poor, but after the economy became stronger, people continued to eat dog, because they liked the taste and it's supposed to be good for men especially. At one point I the second grade teacher sat down next to me and we attempted a conversation. I remember asking him a question about school or the students, but I cannot remember what exactly the question was. It I do remember that it was a yes or no question, and I was quite surprised when he answered me with "October." This kind of stuff happens all the time, so I just let it go by pretending to be semi-surprised at his answer, that way I cover all my bases (hopefully the teacher will think I'm surprised if that's what the appropriate reaction is or not surprised if that's the appropriate reaction; this usually works). I had completely forgotten about the whole conversation (if you can call it that) until this morning, when I saw that same teacher in the hallway at school. Instead of the usual quick bow and greeting in passing, he stopped looking like he wanted to tell me something, so I waited. Finally he said, "No....not October," I nodded in recognition and he continued, "November. November." He looked satisfied that he had corrected any miscommunications and went on his way. I on the other hand walked away wondering what in fact is going to happen to me in November? I guess I can only wait and see.