From Korea
Well, it finally started raining. Before I get into that, however, I will relate some of what has happened the last few days.
I last wrote on Thursday. Since then I have sat in on more classes and begun to get an idea on what I will be doing when I start teaching on July 4. On Thursday afternoon we had another of the Test of Spoken English classes. I think it went well. The students are a little more advanced and are quite receptive to any help or correction that I can offer them. Thursday night I sat in on one each of Dan's and Katherine's classes. Dan's class was absolutely hillarious. There were only two guys present and apparently they don't usually say much during the class. That day they were joking around with and making fun of each other. I have never seen Korean people behave like that, and it was quite refreshing.
Friday I again sat in on more classes. After the morning basic class we all went out for lunch. It was me and 4 women. We had what seems to be known as "War Stew." The idea is that when the Americans left Korea after the war they left lots of food behind. So the Koreans took all the left over food and combined it with their own food. It was actually quite good. Hot dogs and noodles and generally Korean stuff. We ate this at a chain restaurant which is famous for this type of food. The class itself went better than the one on Wednesday. The students seemed to be more able to focus on the conversation with me there.
The two evening classes went well aswell. The first one was basically a party. Some of the students brought food and drink and we sat around and chatted. I went into the class 15 or 20 minutes before Cheryl and had to entertain the class. We started talking about the weather, and then moved onto Canada, and then onto the recent military accident. The consensus seemed to be that the shooter was unstable and that is why he did what he did. They didn't seem to buy what I had heard which was that the shooter had been poorly treated by his superiors. The rest of the class we discussed fairly simple things including the love of one of the students (he is
married) for what he refers to as the beautiful Korean women. I wonder what his wife thinks?
The last class there was going to be only one student showing up, the same one that took us out for dinner on Wednesday. Cheryl suggested that I spend the class alone in conversation with him. This also went well. We began talking about Canada and how it looks and where I was from. I then directed the conversation towards the work that he does. I had him explain what Intelligent DNS was to me. I was able to help him out in explaining it because of my understanding of technical language. At the end of the class he said he was happy, so I guess I was able to help him better understand how to explain what he was talking about.
Friday night In Pyo went to the hospital. I got home around 10:30 and soon after Hwa Young's sister came over to babysit the Jun Hae, the youngest son. The next day Sang Young (the dad) came home from his trip to Russia. That afternoon we all went to the hospital to visit In Pyo. He looked like he was in bad shape, but his spirits seemed up. He had had surgery to strengthen his upper jaw bone, and I could see bone coming down from just behind his top lip. That evening I went out with the sister and some of her friends. The friends were a Russian-Korean couple attending school in Seoul. We went to a bar and then to a PCbang (PC room) to play some Starcraft. That was my first time in a place like that. It was interesting to say the least.
Today Sang Young instructed me in how to read Korean and he did a pretty good job at it. In the afternoon we went to the local library and then had a quick bite to eat (I feel like I ate an awful lot today). We then wandered the long way home, stopping occasionally to look at and read Korean signs. He always translated for me and prompted me when I wasn't remembering the pronunciation of a letter. I think I have made some serious progress and can sort of remember the pronunciation of some of the characters and what they represent. When we got home we ate some watermelon that he had bought and talked about Korean and Canadian families. I described where my family had come from and he told me about his and about the importance of family in Korea and how this is changing somewhat. We also talked about globalization and what the Americans are doing to the world through the likes of Starbucks and Walmart and the war in Iraq.
I said I'd get back to the rain. It has been raining non-stop here since about 5 or 6 pm and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon. I guess the rainy season has officially started in Seoul and the surrounding area.
I'm feeling pretty good about staying here so far. I seem to be getting along well with everyone that I need to. I do, however, miss my fiance Iliana terribly.
I last wrote on Thursday. Since then I have sat in on more classes and begun to get an idea on what I will be doing when I start teaching on July 4. On Thursday afternoon we had another of the Test of Spoken English classes. I think it went well. The students are a little more advanced and are quite receptive to any help or correction that I can offer them. Thursday night I sat in on one each of Dan's and Katherine's classes. Dan's class was absolutely hillarious. There were only two guys present and apparently they don't usually say much during the class. That day they were joking around with and making fun of each other. I have never seen Korean people behave like that, and it was quite refreshing.
Friday I again sat in on more classes. After the morning basic class we all went out for lunch. It was me and 4 women. We had what seems to be known as "War Stew." The idea is that when the Americans left Korea after the war they left lots of food behind. So the Koreans took all the left over food and combined it with their own food. It was actually quite good. Hot dogs and noodles and generally Korean stuff. We ate this at a chain restaurant which is famous for this type of food. The class itself went better than the one on Wednesday. The students seemed to be more able to focus on the conversation with me there.
The two evening classes went well aswell. The first one was basically a party. Some of the students brought food and drink and we sat around and chatted. I went into the class 15 or 20 minutes before Cheryl and had to entertain the class. We started talking about the weather, and then moved onto Canada, and then onto the recent military accident. The consensus seemed to be that the shooter was unstable and that is why he did what he did. They didn't seem to buy what I had heard which was that the shooter had been poorly treated by his superiors. The rest of the class we discussed fairly simple things including the love of one of the students (he is
married) for what he refers to as the beautiful Korean women. I wonder what his wife thinks?
The last class there was going to be only one student showing up, the same one that took us out for dinner on Wednesday. Cheryl suggested that I spend the class alone in conversation with him. This also went well. We began talking about Canada and how it looks and where I was from. I then directed the conversation towards the work that he does. I had him explain what Intelligent DNS was to me. I was able to help him out in explaining it because of my understanding of technical language. At the end of the class he said he was happy, so I guess I was able to help him better understand how to explain what he was talking about.
Friday night In Pyo went to the hospital. I got home around 10:30 and soon after Hwa Young's sister came over to babysit the Jun Hae, the youngest son. The next day Sang Young (the dad) came home from his trip to Russia. That afternoon we all went to the hospital to visit In Pyo. He looked like he was in bad shape, but his spirits seemed up. He had had surgery to strengthen his upper jaw bone, and I could see bone coming down from just behind his top lip. That evening I went out with the sister and some of her friends. The friends were a Russian-Korean couple attending school in Seoul. We went to a bar and then to a PCbang (PC room) to play some Starcraft. That was my first time in a place like that. It was interesting to say the least.
Today Sang Young instructed me in how to read Korean and he did a pretty good job at it. In the afternoon we went to the local library and then had a quick bite to eat (I feel like I ate an awful lot today). We then wandered the long way home, stopping occasionally to look at and read Korean signs. He always translated for me and prompted me when I wasn't remembering the pronunciation of a letter. I think I have made some serious progress and can sort of remember the pronunciation of some of the characters and what they represent. When we got home we ate some watermelon that he had bought and talked about Korean and Canadian families. I described where my family had come from and he told me about his and about the importance of family in Korea and how this is changing somewhat. We also talked about globalization and what the Americans are doing to the world through the likes of Starbucks and Walmart and the war in Iraq.
I said I'd get back to the rain. It has been raining non-stop here since about 5 or 6 pm and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon. I guess the rainy season has officially started in Seoul and the surrounding area.
I'm feeling pretty good about staying here so far. I seem to be getting along well with everyone that I need to. I do, however, miss my fiance Iliana terribly.
posted by Timothy Friesen at 9:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home