Meme

The sixth night in a row… this is getting out of hand! I think perhaps I will not update much this weekend though, so it will be good to round out the week this way. It’s currently about 9:00 on Friday night, meaning soon I will have been in Naju for exactly one week. Oh man! I just did some quick, shoddy math and today also marks approximately my fiftieth day in Korea, give or take a few days! This is indeed a momentous occasion. I suppose some deep reflection is in order.

Deep reflection? You know what that means… meme time!

What I really like about Korea and the Fulbright experience:
1. The profoundly respectful school culture- I’m very afraid that I’m going to be spoiled by this experience in the Korean educational system, where learning is so highly valued (by adults and students alike), and teachers are treated with such immense respect. Students, whenever they see a teacher anywhere (in the hallway, driving by in the car, etc.) all give insa. Insa is a… verb(?) that just means, I think, to greet appropriately, which in a school setting means students bow deeply and say “안녕하세요?” to all teachers. And they do it to me too! It’s way cute!
2. Being a foreigner- This is, I guess, a double-edged sword. As I described yesterday, there’s definitely something strangely liberating about being the only person at a large table who can’t understand what everyone is saying. And there is definitely a certain element of excitement in knowing that you can do a lot of things that wouldn’t be socially acceptable typically, but that will just be accepted because you’re a foreigner. Having no idea what is going on and feeling awkward and out of place all the time obviously has its inherent downside as well, but I wouldn’t want to ignore the upshot. It’s funny… I can pretty much be certain that this will be one of the hardest things I will do in my life. I mean, it’s true that I am a nervous person. I do get stressed out a lot about even small things, when it means having a new experience or being in a new situation I feel unprepared for. Most people don’t know that, because I don’t typically verbalize it, but I can work myself into a state over something super-simple, even though I know I will eventually force myself to figure it out. That’s why doing this was such a ludicrous but good decision for me. I have to let go of some of that to function here, and I’m doing okay at that so far. Fact: I will never have another first-day-on-the-job as awkward as this week. (Random aside: My little brother just walked in my room, looked at me, looked at my computer, and walked out. Strange.)
3. Reinventing myself and my space- This isn’t, I know, a specifically Korealand trait, but I suppose it’s worth mentioning here. As always, I really like moving to a different place. Yes, it’s always stressful, although never before so stressful because of the language gap, but it’s also exciting and rewarding. I’m looking forward to weather cool enough that I can do more exploring, but even just having a new room (and two new cubicles!) of my own is gratifying. And as always, when you suddenly uproot yourself and create a whole new social circle, there is a certain element of reinventing yourself, which for me is fun. And I went from being a college student to a teacher in two months—a big role reversal. But it feels right, which makes me happy.

What I really don’t like about Korea and the Fulbright experience:
1. Not knowing more Korean- While there is definitely a unique element of fun and curiousness to being a foreigner, I’d still rather be a foreigner who speaks more Korean than I do. I’m going to make a concerted effort to remedy this situation as soon as possible, but it’s such a daunting task. It’s difficult to force myself to do something boring like teaching myself really difficult grammar, translating passages, and memorizing vocabulary when I could be doing any number of other things. And Korean is just so damned hard. The most frustrating part of it is that you have to pronounce the word exactly right to be understood—otherwise you’ll just get a lot of confused looks. In defense of Korean, this is apparently because Hangeul is such a scientific alphabet—each letter has a very specific sound, so everyone pronounces words the exact same way. Contrast that with English, where there can be two or three ostensibly correct ways to pronounce any word. That, I think, might be more frustrating. But maybe not. So yeah, I just wish I knew a little more Korean (well, I wish I knew a lot more, but I would settle for a little more)—so that I could get at least the gist of conversations going on around me, and maybe more importantly, so I would have a slightly larger conversational repertoire.

What I miss most about 미국 (the US) in no particular order:
1. family and friends
2. Taco Bell, and Mexican food in general… I can do without most fast food, but I would kill three large men for a burrito right now
3. American movies and my movie theaters
4. movie rental places
5. being able to make small talk with everyone
6. my car
7. Norman!
8. talking on the phone
9. bookstores filled with books in English
10. the ubiquitousness of air conditioning

What I don’t miss about 미국:
1. hot weather (there’s plenty here)
2. college (not yet, anyway)
3. paying rent
I’m sure there are others, but they aren’t coming to me right now.

The best thing that’s happened to me in Korea:
Well, I think the best thing that’s happened to me so far in Naju, or the thing that made me happiest, was the card I received from one of my students today. There was a picture of it in my last album, but it was just really sweet and reassured me that at least one student likes me and won’t be bored to death during my class. There’s something I want to say… I think it just stems from that role reversal thing. When I was in middle school, I didn’t think much about my teachers’ feelings, or really even conceptualize them as people. Same with your parents—they exist mostly in terms of you, and it’s a surprise when you discover that just as your teachers have lives outside of school, your parents had lives before you, and continue to have lives after you go away to college. In high school I definitely came to appreciate my teachers as people, and thus, I think, treat them more sensitively, thanks to Mrs. Coston. I suppose in 8th grade I was in love with one of my teachers, so I did think about him in those terms, but I think most people don’t, until they’ve been in a position, even begin to contemplate the ramifications of it. Students can be jerks to substitute teachers because they won’t have to see them often, and they have no emotional investment in the substitute teacher’s feelings. Hmm… that was conspicuously ineloquent, so I apologize. (First, I typed uneloquent. I didn’t think there was a specific negative form for eloquent, but Microsoft Word informed me differently.)

Maybe the best thing that happened to me in Korea was the friends I made during Orientation. Because the more I think about it, the more I think that Orientation didn’t really prepare me a whole lot in other ways, but I really can’t overstate the comfort I derive from knowing that I have friends substantially closer than twenty-five hours away.

The worst thing that’s happened to me in Korea:
Thankfully nothing really bad has happened to me in Korea. But, I suppose, I feel like I perhaps wasted a lot of time and emotional investment on something that I fear will bear no fruit, which is disappointing. Oh yeah, and being sick sucked. A lot.

If you were in the US right now, what would you be doing?
Probably sleeping, as it’s 8:21am there. Hopefully, though, I would have gotten a job teaching high school, and I’d be in the middle of second period.

And some questions my sister sent me via email, that I figured I would answer here for everyone’s reading pleasure. :) If you have other questions, send them my way!

1. Does your host Mom work? Where?
My host Mom works at what seems to be a family store—they own it, I’m pretty sure. I think it’s a sort of greengrocer’s with fruits and vegetables? I don’t actually know what a greengrocer’s is (thank you, Publix!), but maybe sometime soon I will see it. I asked this morning where it was, but it’s about a 30 minute walk apparently, so I won’t be just popping in to say hello.

2. Do they have a refrigerator? Is it chock full of junk like an Americans?
Yes, they have a fridge. No, it’s not chock full of junk like my sister and my mom’s fridges. :) I’m not actually sure that all Americans have fridges like that, but we certainly don’t. It’s just a lot of Tupperware. I think that’s because we eat roughly the same side dishes at every meal, so it’s just a matter of dishing the same six things into little bowls every single meal. Then there’s some kind of meat or main course. The side dishes, because I know you’re curious are… um. Kimchi. Cucumbers. Some sort of sprout things. A different kind of kimchi. And… I don’t really know what they are, truthfully. Some egg, a lot of times. I don’t eat much of them, besides the kimchi. And we always have rice.

3. Where does host Dad work?
I’m not actually sure. I was told beforehand that they both work at the shop, but I’m not sure. I don’t see him a whole lot.

4. What extra activities do the kids do? Soccer, piano, homework, chores...?
The kids don’t seem to do much in the way of chores, so far as I can tell. Mom is very much a housewife and spends a lot of time cleaning up after them and stuff. (I try not to make her clean up after me at all, though it’s typical for families to see the Fulbright person as their extra kid, apparently.) The older girl goes to academy (hakwon) fairly frequently for extra study, although I don’t think elementary schools have started yet, so I’m not sure if she’ll be going when school actually starts. She studies English, math, and Chinese--> the reason she studies Chinese is because there’s a good deal of Chinese characters used when writing formal Korean (in newspapers and stuff), so to be completely fluent in Korean you also need to know something like 5,000 Chinese characters. (Chinese writing differs from Korean in that each incredibly complex symbol stands for one whole word [much more difficult to learn!], whereas those Korean symbols you see are distinct letters and sounds… ㅁ is an M sound, ㅏ is an ah sound, and so on.) They also watch a lot of TV, it seems, and the boy plays games on the computer. The other day a tutor came to the house to study with them, but I haven’t really figured out the schedule or anything, so I’m not sure how frequent that will be.

5. Do they have any pets? Do Korean families ever have pets?
Nope, no pets. Umm… some Koreans have dogs, apparently, but cats are much less common. :( I miss you, Norman!

6. What religion are they? What kind of cultural background does the family have?
I’m not sure about this. There’s a distinctly Christian looking picture hanging in the kitchen (a white guy in a black outfit praying with a loaf of bread and knife sitting on the table). I know that the grandmother (father’s mother?) who lives with us is Buddhist. I’m not sure who is Christian, but I think we’re going to a traditional (Buddhist?) music festival tonight. It’s the kind of topic I don’t have the vocabulary for, and I’m not sure how to broach in casual conversation.

7. Would you say the town is like a small town in America, a small city (Cape Coral like)?

Yeah, I guess it’s size-wise a bit like Cape Coral. I haven’t seen much of it, though. Today I’m meeting a couple of American friends for a little exploring, so hope for some cool weather. Then maybe I’ll have more to say.

8. Are the parents strict with the kids?
It doesn’t seem that way. I don’t see Dad interact with the kids much. When I’m around Mom is mostly just playful with the kids… I haven’t heard much yelling. Mom does, apparently, whack them on the calves with a wire hanger when they’re bad. The girl has a couple bruises there, but presumably since Mom pointed them out to me it’s not a shameful sort of child abuse. The kids seem really well-adjusted and normal, anyway. And I can’t impose my Western views: corporal punishment is (I guess?) still legal in Korean schools, although the government is really pushing for it to be cut down. Funny! My co-teacher (the old man) brings a stick to class and waves it at students, but it’s apparently an idle threat, because they just laugh. He seems to be of a very different generation.

9. Does the family wear Western clothes? Nevermind
Yep. Everyone does, apparently. Hanbok, the traditional Korean dress thing, is, I guess, worn on some holidays, and for weddings? There’s a picture of my host parents in their bedroom where they’re wearing traditional clothing. But everyday? Western stuff. Except the Buddhist monks, apparently.

10. Did it rain today?
No. It’s only rained twice since I arrived. A change from Chuncheon.

11. What kind of candy do they have over there?
Umm… chocolate, hard candies… I bought a Snickers the other day.

12. What do they watch on TV?
Weird stuff. :) The kids watch a lot of comedy. I don’t understand what’s going on, usually, but it’s kind of like sketch comedy with people making fools of themselves. (Sometimes Jackass style, and sometimes more hokily.) The dramas are, I suppose, somewhat similar to the States, although I think more melodramatic. ahaha! The other night my host brother was watching something akin to the National Geographic channel, but it must have been a predator show, because we watched in succession as one predator devoured another, who was in turn devoured by another. (Preying mantis, snake, scary plant… etc.) My host sister and I were horrified, but my brother was enthralled. Some things are universal, I suppose.

13. What is host Mom's grocery store like? Is it big like Publix or is it a smaller market?
You mean the Gmart we shopping at? It’s pretty big. Not as big as a Publix, but a respectable size. If you mean the one she owns, I don’t know. I haven’t seen it, but I assume it’s a small vegetable/fruit store.

14. Oooh - does your town have an outdoor market?
Yes, apparently there are frequent markets (weekly?) in Naju, so maybe I’ll check one of those out sometime. I’m not really the grocery type, but we’ll see.

15. Do you have a bed or do you sleep on the floor Korean style? Nevermind.


As for exciting things that happened today… my second day at DMS actually went really smoothly. I had time to do a little prep before class, and then I taught 2nd graders during 2nd period and 3rd graders during 3rd period. In both classes we did a lesson on pronunciation (R, L, V, B, P, F), and it went surprisingly well. I absolutely love the second graders! They’re cute and really responsive, and I think some of them actually like me. :) 3rd grade was okay today too! After that I spent a lot of time hanging out in the gyomushil. I had a sit-down with my co-teacher, and she gave me a good idea of what part of the chapter she wanted me to teach the next two weeks, and she didn’t lock me into using only the book activities, so I’m hopeful that it’ll be well-structured but maybe still fun. I bonded a little more with some of the other teachers, and ended up staying until five so that Mr. Kim could take me home, but I didn’t do as much Korean studying as I would have liked. This evening I napped, ate, and blogged, and that’s about it. And I’m about ready to turn in again. I’m wiped today—don’t know why. But here’s…

My agenda for the weekend:
Saturday:
Morning—Meet Tim and Meghan for shopping and lunch and perhaps DVD bang
Afternoon—Study Korean
Evening—Go to a music festival with host family in Gwangju

Sunday:
Study Korean all day
Lesson plan!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Take care. <3