SokoCat-My life in Korea

Man of the house

sokocat — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:23:00 GMT

A lot of the Korean culture is based around Confucian traditions, the basis of which is repect for your elders and respect for men.

Having respect for your elders I have no issue with. Firstly, old people in Korea are amazing, I have no problem giving the ancient old Ajumas a smile and a bow of my head as they wander around with their grandchildren strapped to their back. However, the fact that you must have respect for men regardless of whether they have earnt it does really bother me.

To give an example of what I mean. The owner of my Hagwon once paid a visit to our office. This man obviously gained out respect as he was the one who kept us all in gainful employment. Yet this fact seemed to give him the ability to say whatever he wished to his employees. One of the Korean teachers who was sat opposite me did not happen to be your usual stick thin model of a woman as the Koreans tend to be. Having been asked to open her desk drawer, our boss spied some snacks. This is usual as most of the students descend on the office at some point during the day asking for food. But, this seemed to give our boss permission to make a comment along the lines of "You're fat, so obviously you have snacks in your desk". In the UK this comment would have probably resulted in a hearing and some form of compensation. Yet him being our boss and an older Korean man, she just had to smile and laugh although she was obviously upset by this 'joke'

The Korean mens attitude to women, on the most part, would just not fly in the Western world. I was informed during my telephone interview that there would be 'many looking good men in Korea'. Other girls in my office have been asked on their first or second day what kind of men they found attractive. Whilst my boss constantly wanders around my office making inappropriate jokes and claiming 'I look sexy today'

I understand that the basis of these actions come from the traditions of the culture but maybe in a rapidly changing country men really need to learn that respect is earnt, not a birth right, and the office is no place for innuendo no matter how 'sexy' you think you are.

What's the rush?

sokocat — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:09:00 GMT

This could perhaps be down to my Britishness but the fact that most Koreans do not feel the need to queue, or wait in line is a real issue for me.

At the bank, bus, train or shop it is very much a case of first come first served...and if you weren't there first push your way to the front. I think the basis of this rush to do everything in such a hurry comes from the Korean way of life. After a history of being oppressed by a variety of countries from Japan to America they are on a constant journey to better themselves. Whether this be working 12 hours a day, making your child attend at least one academy every night of the week or just pushing your way to the front of the bus queue.

The kKoreans I have the privilege of working with frequently complain about their busy lifestyles and that they have no freetime, well this is when they are not falling asleep at their desks. The urge to better oneself is a noble one but is there any real benefit when you do not have the time to enjoy the life you have worked so hard for?

There are the beginnings of a 'work hard, play hard' ethic appearing in the younger generation but maybe every now and then you need to lay back, admire the view and smell the roses.

They eat Waygookens don't they?

sokocat — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:45:00 GMT

When you're a child one of the first lessons that you learn, along with don't lick power sockets or play in the road is that it is rude to stare. This does not, however, appear to apply if you are a westerner living in Korea. Small children and older peopple are the worst culprits. They make no secret of it, or effort to hide their stares.

The children have more of an excuse. They have probably have little contact with foreigners and we are a novelty. My mother delights in telling the story of the first time I saw a black person on TV and referred to him as 'the chocolate man' ...from the mouths of babes

But once you reach a certain age you should realise that people come in all different sizes; white, black, asian, big, small and a lot of things inbetween. As luck would have it, I am neither blonde nor tall and thin. This serves to avert many of the stares. Perhaps it makes me appear more approachable though? as if ever a middle aged Korean man has a few English words to his name he believes I am entitled to hear them. They are usually 'How long in Korea?' 'how long you stay?' 'where are you from?' or, more worryingly 'Boyfriend?' whilsy gensturing at any random male you happen to be in the vicinty of.

For the record I have found that the best reaction to the staring is to either say hello in an over enthusiastic friendly way...or cocking your head to one side and staring right back.

Appearences can be deceptive...

sokocat — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:29:00 GMT

Order food or a coffe in Korea and you will be struck by something. Specifically that if you are not too careful the food or coffee you will receive will be better dressed than you are.

For example- a pizza in Korea is so much more than a cheese and tomato, or ham and pinapple...once you have watched the chef personally prepare your base, wearing perfect chefs whites whilst he is enclosed in a perspex case, you will have to choose your topping. Elaborate names are given to choices that usually consist of no less than 6 ingredients. Sweet potato is a firm favourite, although failing that regular potato will suffice. Perhaps the west underestimates the potato as a vegetable, only using it as a side order? In Korea potatos are on pizzas, sandwiches and even heated and given to unsuspecting people as gifts.

The Korea approach to coffee is very similar. Yes you can order a straight forward latte or Americano, however coffee Cocktails or green tea lattes are much more the norm. The former involes a glass dilled with a variety of different shades of coffee providing a layering effect. This is them topped off with a generous amount of cream, perhaps some syrup and a strawer. Why have a regular coffee when you can have a much prettier more elaborate affair.

On the surface it appears that the Koreans general attitude is the more bells and whistles the better. This is clear from their approach to food, drink and even appearance (check out a businessman in his shiny suit compleye with sparkly tie...or couplewear which requires an article of its own, or hikers in colour coordinated North Face outfits) Yet upon spying a foreigner eating in a restaurant they will more than likely offer you a slice of their immaculate birthday cake. Prooving that, perhaps afterall, appearances can be deceptive and their beauty obsession is only skin deep.

Books for Asia Appeal

sokocat — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:20:00 GMT

I know an update is long overdue but in the meantime...

Everybody remembers books from their childhood. Personally I remember reading "Where's Spot?" growing up. This book vote as part of the Asia Foundation is raising money to supply childrens books to remote parts of Mongolia so they can learn English. $1 is donated for every vote made and the winning book will be supplied to a school. Reading books was an important part of my childhood and I hope you have the time to click on the link and help some needy children experience these books aswell.

http://bookvote.asiafoundation.org/

Orphanage teaching

sokocat — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:42:00 GMT

As previously mentioned in this blog, I am becoming to increasingly dislike the fact that the main purpose of my 8 hour working day is to line the pockets of my already very well off bosses. When people come out to Korea, as I was discussing with a fellow teacher yesterday, they believe that they will be making a difference. This may be true of teaching English in some poorer less developed countries, but in Korea the students pay an inordinate amount of money to be taught by native speakers.

There is something about the Korean way of life that everything has to be done quickly, everyone is striving to succeed. This also means that once they have paid for the books we teach from, they want to finish them! Otherwise the students and their parents complain they are not getting value for money. Regardless of the fact that if we weren’t so busy trying to finish the books we might actually be able to teach them better English.

However, as I said a few weeks ago I am now endeavouring to counteract this corporate machine by volunteering at a local orphanage. Well, they refer to themselves as a “Children’s Ville” Which I suppose makes it more like a Children’s Home rather than an actual orphanage. From the offset we were made aware of the fact that these children we going to be nothing like the ones we taught for 8 hours a day as upon entering the car that was to be our lift to the orphanage we were asked “Is this your first time working with the poor children of Daegu?”

Having driven around some of the back streets attempting to find the place we eventually arrived. We were greeted by a not entirely unpleasant building with a playground outside and a number of intrigued looking volunteers come to look at the foreigners. We were invited inside, offered coffee (they are big coffee drinkers here) and ushered up to a cheerful room lined with books. One by one children started to arrive in the room all carrying pencil cases. We were stared at in wide eyed wonder as we attempted to break the ice by smiling broadly and waving at a group of about 11 10-13 year olds. A couple of the girls had a game of Cat’s Cradle on the go. I haven’t played Cat’s Cradle in years; I used to play it with my Dad so I began to play too. They loved the fact that I wanted to join in with them, regardless of the fact that we couldn’t really speak each other’s languages.

Having not known the children’s level beforehand we had brought an exercise from one of the aforementioned much loathed text books. The exercise involved a bit of discussion, a bit of colouring and a story. Having come prepared with colouring equipment we soon ended up with some brightly coloured pages and most of them managing to say “Castle” “Cat” and “Goldfish”

After tiring of the colouring one of the more inquisitive girls decided to see if I was ticklish. I am. Extremely so. Which lead to the students learning the word “Tickle” as they were only allowed to tickle me if they announced what they were going to do in English first.

I then felt a small tug on my arm and one of the younger of our merry bunch of students had brought me a book to read. It was about sheep taking pictures of each other…well what else? But thankfully, after a long boring day in the office I knew the Korean for Sheep “Yang” so between knowing that and being able to mime taking a picture on a camera we seemed to understand each other.

All too soon the lesson was over, with a little bit of a riot ensuing at the end but it was soon mollified by the fact I had brought sweets with me. The children filed out in a non to orderly rabble all racing to get on their shoes and go outside. Myself and my fellow teacher wandered back towards the door where we had left our shoes. Both slightly hyperactive from the energy of the students. The students were now outside hanging upside down off the climbing frame. One of them introduced her small friend to me and the fact she was 9! Age is very important when you are that age. Digging into my bag of tricks I found the oranges I had also brought for the students. I thought oranges were a slightly better idea than sweets, as there is nothing more annoying when you look after students as somebody filling them with sugar and then leaving them! I distributed my oranges to the students who all gave a thankful bow and ran off as they had been told they were allowed to go to a playground.

I can honestly say that the hour I spent teaching those students, despite the fact we coloured and played games, was more enjoyable than a week teaching at the Hagwon. But, the Hagwon does have its advantages…my students are starting to discover sarcasm! Joy!

Teacher...what do people in the UK think of Korea?

sokocat — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:12:00 GMT

“Teacher, What do people in the UK think about Korea?” was a perfectly innocent question asked to me by one of my students when they were trying to divert my attention away from what we should have been talking about. Seeing as what we should have been talking about was so amazingly insignificant it has slipped my mind, I answered his question.

I decided the best strategy would be to be honest. This meant that my answer was “People in the UK don’t really know a lot about Korea” Followed by “They know you had a war and that’s about it” As I was saying I could hear how it sounded. It sounded like the West believed that Korea was a small insignificant country who wasn’t really worth learning about. He, and the rest of the class looked crest fallen. Perhaps assuming that this was a general perception of Asia as a whole he persisted “So, what do people in the UK think of Japan?” he asked hoping that the answer would be in the same vein. Again, I believed that honesty would be the best policy here. “Well, we tend to think of Japan being very busy…very technological” no mention of war or poverty there. Seeing the class looking confused as to why there was such a negative impression of their country I hastily tried to explain.

When I first decided that I wanted to come to teach English in Korea I received a number of reactions. A few people, namely my best friends who liked to travel, thought it was an amazing opportunity to see the world. A couple of people, who shall remain nameless said “What do you want to go there for? Pick a proper country!” and some friends of my mother’s said “where are you going? Vietnam? Oh Korea! Thats right, I knew it was somewhere with a war” and these three opinions epitomise peoples opinion of Korea.

There are a large number of English academies in Korea, Over 7000 in Daegu alone, which all have to be staffed by a variety of western men and women on the look out for adventure. This covers the ratio of people who thought moving to Korea would be an amazing experience. The people who said I should pick a proper country, I feel are just lacking information about Korea. I do find their opinions more negative than those who only know that the country had a war. To decide that a country is “not a proper country” because you happen to have not been there, or you cannot go there on holiday is horrendous. Nowadays if we haven’t been to a place, or its not somewhere we can get Egg and Chips and a pint we aren’t interested.

I will admit that before I decided I wanted to come teach here all I knew about Korea was that they had had a war, and that I had all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H. I will also admit that my preference for this Alan Alda comedy may have marginally influenced my opinion on where to come teach English. However there is so much more to this country other than the fact that 50 years ago they had a war. The people are kind, generous and sometimes unintentionally hilarious. There are many beautiful and fascinating temples to visit, huge mountains to climb and a variety of delicious and downright bizarre food to try. I promised my students that when I got back to the west I would spread the word about Korea and what a wonderful country it was. This is the first step in doing that, Korea is one of the most undiscovered and undervalued countries to the West it seems. It would be similar to people being of the opinion that “Oh Germany…they had a war once”.

American English vs British English...

sokocat — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:03:00 GMT

British English vs American English, who is right? This is a debate I seem to have with increasing frequency at work. It usually stems from me having said something and then having to explain what I mean. Or the Americans and Canadians saying something and my mocking of the word or trying to understand what they are trying to say. But unfortunately it is usually the former.

It seems most of the Hagwons out here teach American English. I am unsure why, but it seems American English has become the more recognised version of the language. I do not know whether this is simply because there are more Americans, or that because of globalisation everywhere you turn you see an American clothing store, coffee shop or fast food outlet, but it seems British English is taking a back seat.

In my classes I generally try and use both languages. I say both languages as though they are like French and German but at some points they may as well be. If the book I am teaching from includes vocabulary words such as ‘Trash’ then I will attempt to teach them what I believe to be the correct word. This is not me being snobby…on the most part…but I am trying to teach them English as I would use it. The students think my accent is great, I have one class who insist on me saying “Harry Potter” and “Hermione” to them every class and then they try and copy me. My Englishness is a novelty. But sometimes it does cause problems.

When I initially began teaching at the school I was told by one of the directors that I had to speak very very slowly otherwise the students wouldn’t understand what I was saying to them. There is also a Korean teacher in my office who literally does not understand a single word I say, until I put on an American lilt then all of a sudden what I am saying is as clear as day. He also decided to inform my students that because of my ‘Bad pronunciation’ he had trouble understanding me. I have to say that statement did annoy me somewhat. Bad Pronunciation? For speaking English in an English accent? Hmmm.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not the kind of traveller who prances around the world believing that I will be understood everywhere I go because I have the good fortune of being English. I am nowhere near that arrogant. I am just used to the mentality that the way I speak English is the correct way, because that is what has always been told to me at home (obviously) I must come across very snobbish to the Americans at times! As Oscar Wilde put it, we are two countries divided by a common language, I just did not realise to what an extent until now.

Corporate by the book teaching-Do we make a difference?

sokocat — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:39:00 GMT

I think perhaps most people who decide they are going to spend a year teaching English abroad for a year have a strange feeling of self importance. Or at least I’m pretty sure I did. When I decided to come out I was convinced in my own mind that I would be making a difference, helping these people learn English and I would make a big impact on their lives. This is not really the case.

I work for Hagwon, which basically is a private school that the students come to after their regular daytime school. The owners of the Hagwon I work for a multi millionaires and I suppose the students must pay quite a lot of money to go there. All the parents are bothered about is that they are getting value for money; they are not particularly bothered whether their child is learning correct English.

The main aim in every class we teach is to get as much of the book done as possible. You may think that this aim would be the same in all classes, but we are not doing it because we want to have a very productive lesson. We have to get as much of the book done as humanly possible because the parents complain if we do not finish the book. They argue the fact that they have paid for it so we should have completed it in the term.

The books we use cost about $10, really not a lot of money when you think about how much they are paying already to send their children there. However they do not really care about the quality of the teaching as long as they have got their money’s worth from the book.

Some of the other teachers at this school and me feel as though we are not really teaching the students as much as spending 50 minutes rushing through the content for some corporate company. There is precious little time in class so we are unable to check the student’s homework is correct, only that they have done it and we have no time to explain anything in any real depth.

I am fortunate, as I also teach 4 70 minute classes a week to some of the more advanced students at the school. In these 70 minutes classes I have the chance to explain things more fully to the students, get them to give me examples so I am sure they understand me and also have a chance to have a chat and have fun with them. I much prefer this method to the corporate by the book teaching I spend the rest of the week doing,

Now I am aware that most Hagwons are like this in Korea, and maybe I was disillusioned thinking that I could come out here and make some great difference, but surely we should at least feel like we are at least teaching?

It is important here you understand that I do really enjoy my job. I have spent most of my weekend grading essays and it is great to see that a lot of them are actually taking on board what I am teaching them and putting it into practice. But I cannot help thinking I could be doing something more…

I have decided to put this right. I am currently in the progress of organising volunteer work at a local orphanage where I will teach English a couple of times a month. By making a contribution towards people who may need my help a little more than my current students means that I might feel like I am making more of a difference in Korea.

Culture Shock (or Doo Roo Ma Ri)

sokocat — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:22:00 GMT

Every Wednesday we teach “Free classes” or what some of the other teachers refer to as “Piss take classes” either way; they are not paid for, we don’t have to rush to get through the book and they are generally at a gentler pace.

My contribution to these Wednesday classes is that I get to teach 3 identical 70 minute debate classes. Following a slightly inappropriate book and encouraging discussion between a group of shy, disinterested 14 year olds. The book is inappropriate because it covers a variety of subjects that I feel should not be discussed with a group of 12-15 year olds. These subjects include abortion, unrequited love and having a stalker…not really what you want to try and explain to a group of children with English as their second language.

However last Wednesday the subject of the class was not awkward. It should have been ‘Rules, rules, rules’ and was basically about whether the students believed their parents should be able to tell them what to do. I bet you can guess what the answer to this one was…

Anyway after the first class which was like pulling teeth because they are all so painfully shy I wandered in to my second class. This class contains some of my favourite students; they are my favourites merely because of the fact THEY ACTUALLY SPEAK.

I asked them to name some rules that they have in their houses, which is how we got onto the subject of toilets. It started fairly innocently as they were informing me a rule in their house was that they had to flush the toilet, which is fair enough really. This conversation then progressed onto a rule in their house which struck me as bizarre and perhaps a little gross. ‘Do not put the toilet paper down the toilet’. It took quite a while for me to decipher what they were trying to tell me…incidentally the Korean for toilet roll is “Doo roo ma ri” (They were delighted I seemed eager to learn Korean) they also seemed highly amused at my disgust that they did not put their toilet paper down the toilet.

The longer I am in Korea the more I am learning about living with other cultures. Not just the Korean culture; but Americans, Canadians…other British people. I always thought before I came out here I was quite a tolerant person but it seems the world still has the ability to shock me.

The students found my shock very amusing, one of the more vocal students in the class started shouting “CULTURE SHOCK CULTURE SHOCK” at me. How very right she was.

Happily this then lead to an hour discussion between myself and the students about the differences between our cultures and why we thought they did things differently. Ok, so we didn’t actually get to speak a lot about ‘Rules, rules, rules’ but we actually had an interesting debate, I learnt some more Korean and the students showed how very accepting they were of other cultures. I doubt it would have been the same in a Western classroom with a Korean teacher!

Sometimes you just have to stop and admire the view

sokocat — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:49:00 GMT

I am not the fittest person in the world, nor do I enjoy voluntary exercise usually. Therefore many of my family and friends were surprised when I told them how I spent a cold Saturday in January.

After teaching all week I was going a little bit stir crazy. I love my job and most of the time it is a lot of fun, but my new schedule is killing me. I also prefer my regular schedule because then it doesn’t feel like all I do is work. So to cut a long story short, after not really seeing any day light or fresh air this week I decided to take matters into my own hands, and head up a mountain.

As I’ve mentioned in this blog before, I am not a city girl…not really. I like having the world on my doorstep but I also value my peace and quiet, my fresh air and my own personal space. None of these you can really get in the middle of the 3^rd largest city in South Korea. I was subsequently elated to be on a bus heading out of the city once more. This was once we had found the right bus, we had been misinformed that the bus we needed was the 104, and it was in fact the 401. To misquote the late great Eric Morecambe “I had all the right numbers, but not, necessarily, in the right order!” but thankfully there was an English speaking tourist information so this did not cause too much of a problem.

Buses in Korea are amazing. You can generally get anywhere you want to go for very little money. Last weekend a 70 minute bus ride was £3, and this 40 minute ride was about 75p. They use a system very similar to the Oyster card back home, you top up a little plastic card and off you go, the city is your oyster…maybe that’s why it is called the Oyster card…how clever.

After a reasonably uneventful bus journey, the only incident on which being we had to change buses as ours had a cracked windscreen, we were deposited at the bottom of the track up Palgong Mountain. Palgong Mountain is part of the Taebaek range that runs the length of Korea adjacent to the Sea of Japan. Portions of this mountain were made into a provincial park in 1980 and it is home to a number of temples, shrines, rivers and other natural heritage sites. The purpose of our visit today, was to go and see Gatbawi, the Buddha with the stone hat.

Gatbawi is, as mentioned, a stone Buddha. This one is particularly famous because of the fact it has a hat. It sits 850m up on Palgongsan, is 4 meters tall and its hat is 15 cms thick. To quote Wikipedia here

“This single granite sculpture was made up by Uihyeon, at the top of the 850 meters high rough Palgongsan and is surrounded by a screen-like rockwall as its background. It is said that Uihyeon made it in order to appease his mother's soul in the 7th ruling year of Queen Seondeok of Silla Kingdom. The legend says that a big crane flew in to guard him every night while he was making this Gatbawi Buddha. It is reputed to be a miraculous Buddha stone, which makes a response to prayers if the prayer prays for it with his or her whole heart.”

We were quite excited to climb the mountain, initially. We read on a sign at the bottom that it would be 2km to the top. We scoffed at this, especially once I had converted it into miles, it seemed hardly anything. Nowhere was there a sign that said “Beware Way-gooken (Foreigner) It is 2km vertically!” So off we set. The beginnings of the walk weren’t bad, they were steep but there were plenty of opportunities to catch our breath, joking about how we should perhaps go to the Gym more often. It was after the temple half way up that things became difficult.

I had read on the many tourist sites about Gatbawi that “many people climb the stairs to pray to the buddha” but I don’t think this had registered with me that there may be a fair few stairs to climb. A fair few is putting it lightly. Very lightly.

After we left the temple the stairs began. Fairly spaced out at first, still making it difficult for me to keep going for long periods of time but nothing I couldn’t handle. But then they became closer together, as though they were a flight of stairs, a flight of increasingly vertical stairs. Had I been able to breathe, I may have had the foresight to count how many, my guess is way over 1000. Each one a different shape as they had been fashioned out of rock. Thankfully there were a number of resting points on the journey.

For some reason my face turns red at every opportunity. When I was climbing up to the Sacre Couer in Paris this summer by the top I had a face like a raspberry, and today was no exception. I am usually a source of entertainment for the locals, today it seemed more so because of my magenta face and my inability to breathe. However, being the well brought up girl that I am, I ignored their blatent laughing and staring and instead smiled, bowed and wished them good day in Korean. This they were not expecting! A polite greeting and a show of respect seems to go a long way because now they were extremely friendly. I tend to find Koreans amiable most of the time anyway, but there was a real comradely attitude in the air as we all attempted to get up the mountain.

Whenever I was out walking back home you would say hello to whoever you met, this is something I had not yet encountered in Korea. But yesterday I found it. Once I had been abadoned by the boys as I was going slowly (I was attempting not to fall, any opportunity and I will go a** over tit) Everybody wanted to be my friend. I met one man who was very excited I was from England, he had been there himself apparently. Another older gentleman offered me his water as I was choking attempting to catch my breath. With most people I exchanged a glance of “Why are we doing this to ourselves?” About an hour and a half later we reached the top.

You may think taking an hour and a half to reach the top of a 2km walk is a lot, and I would agree with you. But my excuse, and I’m sticking by it, is that I had to keep stopping to admire the view, and it was breath taking. You could see for miles down the valley, all the way back to Daegu. I likened the whole area to being Narnian. The snow, the silence, the random lamp posts (see pictures) the place was stunning.

The view from the top was even more amazing, well worth the climb. You can see for miles and miles in every direction. Gatbawi itself was also worth the walk on its own. Well perhaps not the statue but its significance to the people who obviously believed he would be able to grant their prayers. The air was filled with chanting, there was a strong, intoxicating smell of incense, hundreds of paper lanterns lighting the prayer area and enclosed in a glass case around a thousand lit pagoda candles.

Carefully encircling the praying Koreans I wandered around to the other side to take a look at the reason I had nearly killed myself getting up this mountain. It may not have been the tallest buddha I had seen, it wasn’t even the tallest buddah on the mountain. But his evident significance to the people around me meant somehow he was more impressive. As the saying goes, Size isnt everything. It is well documented that Gatbawi grants a prayer to all those who visit him, if the prayer is made with their whole hearts. Pregnant women climb the stairs in order to pray for a boy, teenage students climb up there to pray for good exam results and the families of people who are ill pray for their speedy recovery.

As an ardent agnostic, I believe that as long as you are not hurting anybody else you have the right to believe in whatever you like. Also who is to say that Gatbawi does not grant prayers to those who come to see him, they have definitely earned it after climbing all that way! I find the Buddist faith intriguing as it is so different to my own Christian upbringing, but there is more than one way to skin a cat!

Walking down was possibly more difficult than walking up, with the steep incline and the ice on the steps. But as ever, slow and steady won the race and I made it in one piece. Would I be tempted to climb a mountain again? Perhaps, if I can take time to admire the view ;)

Photo Stream

sokocat — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:34:00 GMT

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sokocat/

I have set up a flickr account so my photos can be seen in a higher resolution. I have also added descriptions underneath of what the photos are of and some futher information about their significance.

Photos: Gatbawi

sokocat — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:35:00 GMT

A buddah with a hat!

Another day another temple

sokocat — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 17:06:00 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haeinsa

After recovering from my new years day hangover a couple of the other teachers and I decided to get out of the city and go for an adventure up to one of the most important temples in Korea. I am not pretending I know all the history so there is a very helpful wiki link for those of you who are interested.

Haeinsa temple is about 70 minutes by bus out of Daegu. The first problem is finding the bus. Buses going towards Haeinsa temple leave from Seobu Bus terminal which is located the other side of Daegu to where I live. We thought that getting there would be simple. We would get into a taxi, announce in a proud and happy voice "SEOBU" and off we would go! Think again. We got in the taxi and said "Seobu" confident we would be right. Yet we were just met by a reply of "Huh?" The universal utterance which means "What are you weirdy foreigners talking about?" We persisted, in the way only English speakers know. We spoke very slowly and loudly. SEEEEOOOOOOOOBBBBBBBBBUUUUUUUU...still no response. Now we were clutching at strawers. "Bus?" we asked tentatively. A light bulb went on in the drivers head and off we drove, for about 100 yards. "Bus?" he asked us. Great. Generally when we do not know where we are going, we call somebody who has slightly more Korean knowledge than us and let them speak to the Taxi driver. This worked and off we went.

I was excited about catching a bus across Korea. I enjoy all forms of public transport, it is also a more interesting way to see the country rather than driving yourself or flying. The bus was a lot more packed than we were expecting. We were also the only white people on it, and from some of the looks we were getting, we were the only white people some of the passengers had ever seen. Due to the lack of seating we had to sit next to Koreans, much to their displeasure, but once we had got out of the city the population of the bus decreased and we were all able to bagsie a seat next to the window.

Remembering that this is the depth of winter Korea is still a very pretty country. I cannot wait until spring, because currently everything seems a bit dead. Every inch of spare land seems to be used here, mainly for farming once we were out of Daegu. In the western world we are used to fields being all on the same level, divided by walls and all being full of grass regardless of the time of year. Not in Korea. Here there are very definate fields, but they are all brown (I have just realised there is a distinct lack of grass here) and are a bizarre jigsaw of shapes and levels. We also drove past an entirely frozen stream, which again is new to me. It never gets cold enough at home to freeze entire rivers. After 70 minutes a little man boarded the bus selling tickets for the temple. It cost us all of 2000 won, which is just over a pound, and on we went into the temple. The bus droppped us off by the museum, that boasted the opportunity to have a go at banging a gong, but we decided to forgo that excitement and head up the temple first. It was about a 15 minute walk up hill to get there, and it had decided to rain. I enjoyed looking round, but I felt I could bring nothing more to the experience other than "Ooo that looks pretty" or "that is interesting" which is all well and good but hardly profound. Luckily the gift shop had a book that explained all the different parts of Buddist temples, so next time I will know exactly what the point of everything is.

Considering the Haeinsa is such a prominant temple both in Korea and in the Buddist faith it did not seem all that different to Donghwasa that we visited a couple of weeks ago. The complex does contain the oldest carved wooden tablets in Korea, they were very interesting. We were also able to go and see where the monks lived, so it was more of a personal look at a temple. I will add photos once I upload them from my camera, the rain and the mist added up to a very atmospheric temple trip but I still preferred Donghwasa. Maybe because it was my first temple, maybe because it was more peaceful? whatever the reason Haeinsa was a beautiful place but maybe did not live up to its hype.

However, Haeinsa is the closest place that does temple stays and I would be really interested to try that. Only when it gets warmer.

Intensives

sokocat — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 16:45:00 GMT

I am risking life and limb by writing a blog at work, but then again I dont have a lesson until 4.30 so I have an hour an a half to kill.

I am beginning to feel increasingly sorry for Korean children. Usually they go to school from around 8am until 5pm, then they get on buses and are ferried to their various academies. Each child attends a multitude of extra classes in order to become better at maths, science, music, English, Japanese, art... you name it you can do an extra class in it. At the moment, however, the students are on a 5 week break from their regular schools. So what do they do? They come to academies all day instead! In the UK in school holidays we did nothing, watched TV and went on trips with our friends. Here they are just given more schooling. Poor little things, quite a few of my students fall asleep in lessons. You cant help but feel for them.

Intensives are also bad news for us teachers. I usually work 3pm-11pm. This suits me great. I am not a morning person, I never have been. Getting up around 9.30 going to the gym, have a lazy lunch and then dragging myself into work is great. But now, as the students are here all day, I am here all day. For the next 5 weeks I start work at 8am and finish at 6pm. It has only been 3 days and Im sure my body will get used to it but at the moment I am just sleepy. I realise to normal people these are just regular working hours, but when youre not used to it, it is a bit of a strain to the system. Oh well...4 weeks left!

A very applicable quote for 2010

sokocat — Sat, 2 Jan 2010 14:28:00 GMT

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

A Very Korean Christmas

sokocat — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:18:00 GMT

I cannot pretend I was looking forward to spending Christmas in Korea. Being away from your family at this time of year is rough. It doesn't matter that we spend the rest of the year apart, or that by Boxing Day you are all ready to kill each other. Christmas is a family holiday, and it is for spending with your nearest and dearest. Or it is in the West.

In Korea, Christmas is a romantic holiday. It's not a big deal, it is more like Valentines Day back home. There are some decorations in the shops, but you are not bombarded with it from September as you are back home. There are various renditions of Christmas Songs in the department stores (most of them Last Christmas) but they are interspersed with the highly amusing Korean power ballads that are very big here. Its just...well..different. The most popular decoration I have seen this year is a mannequin dressed up as Santa. They are really creepy. Those Brits reading this will remember the Dr Who Christmas special a couple of years ago with the mannequin Santas that killed everybody? Well thats what they look like. Some of them look really angry. Angry Santas are not festive.

Despite being 5000 miles away from home, we made the best of it. I woke up early, opened my stocking that my mum had sent me in the post (I love the fact that at 22 I still get a stocking) and then I Skyped my mum who had just got back from Midnight Communion. I then met up with the other teachers from my school and we all went to a Western restaurant downtown. The Christmas lunch was not quite what I was used to, as the restaurant is run by Canadians. It had turkey and ham and mash potatos, thats all you can ask for really. I did learn an interesting fact this Christmas though. The UK is the only country who eat Mince Pies and Christmas Pudding at Christmas. I just assumed that these things were universal, as they say "Christmas" to me. However, after a few blank looks from my American and Canadian co-workers I realised that we were alone in this tradition. Some people eat mexican food at Christmas, some have ham instead of Turkey, some people spend all day playing computer games in Pc Bangs (computer rooms) Thus prooving that by teaching in Korea I am become more aware of all world cultures not just Korean culture. Despite this, I did miss my mince pies and Christmas pudding, my mum has promised to mail some out for my birthday which is in January.

Today is New Years Eve, so we are going to go DownTown and bring in the Western New Year. It also seems odd to me that not everybody celebrates new year at the same time. One of my students said, only half jokingly "Teacher, its new year, Give us presents" which in Korea you would do. Whereas at home we get drunk and kiss people. I also have the problem that I am 9 hours ahead of my home time (GMT) so midnight for me is 3pm at home, and midnight for them is 9am January 1st here. I may celebrate twice.

Happy New Year!

Capital Punishment...Yay or Nay?

sokocat — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:54:00 GMT

Today we had a slight incident at school. One of my cockier students decided that he was going to refer to me as 'Baby' for the entire class. I would not stand for ANYONE to call me baby, let alone a 15 year old boy. A 15 year old boy, who for some inexplicable reason has decided his English name should be Tiffany.

Anyway, I let the first 'Baby' go...I thought perhaps I had misheard. However by the very definate third baby I had had enough. I informed him he could call me 'Teacher' or 'Catherine' but not Baby. He then stopped, I think it was an exercise to see how far he could push me. I thought that was the end of it.

When I got back to the teachers office after class I was asked how my class went. I told them it went ok, apart from being called baby. I would like to point out here I was not offended, I actually thought it was quite funny. Anyway, all hell broke lose. His Korean teacher yelled at him for a good 10 minutes about respecting females and respecting the foreign teachers. Yelling is all very well and good, but then she hit him. Hit him square on the head with a wooden drum stick. Not only that she then told him to hold himself in a press up position (Hands on the floor holding up his body weight) and left him like that for about 20 minutes.

Now, as I said before, I wasnt offended by the boy. He was just trying to see how far he could push me, and he learnt NOT VERY FAR. However, I did think the hitting and making him hurt himself was entirely over the top. Yes, if you have the threat of being hit then maybe it might encourage you to be a better student. Yet when I have discussed this with my other students in debate class they have said "yes we might get hit but we still dont behave". How do you draw the line between disciplining the students and child abuse?

In the Uk we have gone entirely the other way though, you can no longer touch a child or perform CPR for fear of being sued. When you are taught first aid for children today you are basically taught to make sure they are not in any more danger and call 999. I think we need to find the middle ground somewhere. Also, I will not be mentioning if my students decide to see how far they can go again. The worst thing was they kept asking me if I thought they were punishing him enough, my yelling at him I felt was more than enough. Ahhh Korea, who am I to judge.

Photos: Donghwasa

sokocat — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:35:00 GMT

Climb every mountain...or use the cable car.

sokocat — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:13:00 GMT

It has been a while since I wrote anything, mainly because I have been working and sleeping and that is the same whatever country you do it in. Yesterday, some of the other teachers and I, decided we needed to get out of the city. Out of the noise, the pollution and away from the 3000 people staring at you because you are a western woman in Korea. So where do you go when you want to get away from it all? Well apparently the answer is up a mountain and to a temple.

Donghwasa Temple is about a 30 minute bus ride out of Daegu. Once we left all the traffic behind us the bus began to climb the mountain and we were very definately not in the city any more. Having spent the last 4 years living in Snowdonia I have become attached to having mountains around me so it was really nice to be able to see the mountains properly as apposed to vague glimpses over the apartment blocks. We couldnt have had a nicer day for it, weatherwise. It wasnt too cold despite it being 2 weeks before Christmas and it was sunny which made the views even more spectacular. After alighting the bus we stood by the giant mushroom statues and decided what we were going to do first. My inner child came to the fore here because I really, REALLY wanted to go on the cable cars. Well, I also did not want to walk UP the mountain but wanted to see the view from the top so my options were limited.

The £3.50 I paid to get up the mountain was definately the best money I have spent in a while, the views from the top were amazing. You can see literally for miles and there isn't a car or a mobile phone shop in sight. Perfect. After a suitable amount of time oooing and aahhing at the mountains, the view, the very cute baby who kept giggling at me we got the cable car back down.

After the mountain, finding the temple was next on our agenda. We found a tourist information booth with a nice little Korean man who beckoned us in and forced his english speaking employee to help us. Sometimes it is nice to be so different, because we very obviously couldnt read Korean so we were given English maps and extra help. The temple was beautiful. Theres no way I can really describe it in words so Im not going to try (Doesnt that kind of defeat the object of a blog? oh well...) But I am going to work out how to put some pictures up on here so you can see. I have also now seen my first giant stone Buddah. Hopefully it will be the first of many.

Yesterday really wetted my appetite for Korean cultures and sight seeing in general. Once it warms up there is talk of some of the teachers doing a temple stay. I am definately using the theory "When in Korea..." from now on.