Up a level...

So my class at Metro Korean Academy was canceled because there was only me in there, and not enough classroom space, so they told me I could move up to the third level (the officially "intermediate" level). I wasn't sure if I could handle this. Though I understand a lot, I still speak like a 2-year old sometimes and I wasn't sure if I could compete with my classmates (all two of them). Lately I've been feeling a little down because everyone that transfers into my class, even in the lower levels, speaks better than me. I told them that if level three was too hard, that I would move down and redo a class I've done.

Well, I went to class, and I was understanding everything, so I was too lazy to move down to a different class (though it would have saved me 33,000 won because I already have a the book). I probably should have moved down a level, if for no other reason than just to practice the basic vocabulary and grammar again. I've been finding that the hardest part of Korean isn't the grammar, it's the vocabulary. I usually can't remember a word until I've heard it AND used it successfully in sentences without some sort of visual cue several times over. After that I rarely forget it, but there are so many words that I hear all the time, but can never remember because I never use them myself.

Anyway, I was super busy and super lazy the past two weeks and got no homework done (well, I did move to a new apartment, AND it was test week at SLP, so I have an excuse) so today, now that the test corrections are finally totally done, I studied for over an hour at work (that's a long time for me) Then for another hour at home, plus I had some "Korean only" talking time with my boyfriend (which doesn't happen often nowadays... god I'm getting lazy). Actually, I should be studying now, but, well, I'm lazy... or ADD... or something to that effect. My attention span only lasts so long...

Ok, I'm making a 약속 to study for 20 more minutes until 11. Then I'll go to bed I guess since I've got nothing better to do. Good night.

An elementary schooler's ideal future husband and wife

This week my Fly High Junior class (a fairly advanced class for 4-6th graders) read a story about "love at first sight". I asked them if they believed in love at first sight and all the girls agreed that it was completely possible, while the boys looked a bit sceptical. The next task was to create a list of things that you look for in a boyfriend/girlfriend, though I expanded it to friend too since some of them are still young and not really thinking of the opposite sex yet (or not admittedly thinking of the opposite sex). We did some brainstorming on the board about physical appearance and personality traits, and then I asked them to choose the top four Important Traits and top four Not Important Traits in a friend or boy/girlfriend.

Some of the answers were interesting. One girl said she didn't want to be friends with anyone with small eyes, because really small eyes scared her. One boy listed handsome as a "Very Important" trait in a male friend. The same boy also said that weight was unimportant, so I asked him if it was ok to be friends with someone who is 100kg (220lbs) and he said that he wasn't ok with that...

Then I asked them to get into groups. All the girls together, and all the boys together. They needed to think up the top four traits of a future husband or wife. Of course, they are young and haven't started dating, which is why I found this so interesting, because it's totally unadulterated by experience. It really shows what their outside influences have impressed upon them as important traits. I let them choose either physical or personality traits.

The first one the girls came up with was handsome, of course. They said height was important, so I asked them to be more specific and they said no shorter than 180cm (5'10"). They also said that weight was important, but they couldn't come up with any numbers for that one.

I was surprised that one of the boys (both of whom are only in 4th grade) said "positive" as an ideal trait right from the start. Then they started to do some more brainstorming and they came up with some ideal heights and weights for their future wives. The two boys had slightly different ideas about ideal weights, but I told them that was ok because I was so interested in what they would come up with. One boy, the one that said a positive personality was important, also said that 50kg (110lbs) was the maximum weight for his future wife. The other boy was a little more forgiving, and said that the weight range for his future wife would be 53-63kg (116-139lbs). Of course, keep in mind that we're in Asia, and on average, women here are considerably smaller than westerners in all ways. Then the boys gave me a height. She could be no shorter than (or was it taller than? They were getting a bit confused) 175cm (5'8").

I really liked this exercise. If I have time, I might try it with my middle school girl class. I really like the answers they come up with.

A Very Merry Chuseok!

Yesterday was Chuseok in Korea. Chuseok is an autumn harvest festival that is celebrated in some shape or form in many Asian countries. The date varies every year because it falls during the lunar calender, much like Chinese New Years (Seollal in Korea). In Korea it's a day for visiting family, making songpyeon (송편- a rice cake of sorts), bowing to grandparents and visiting ancestors' graves. Since I have no grandparents of my own to bow to, and my boyfriend is in Los Angeles on a buisness trip, I spent the holiday with some friends from my Korean class at my friend's house in Noksapyon.

We had a feast of food, taking full advantage of my friend's oven. Ovens are kind of a rarity for English teachers. After many arguments about the subject, I finally realized that many large, modern apartmetns DO have ovens, but most Koreans never even turn it on, it's practically just a decoration. Maybe on occassion they will barbeque something in there, but never use it for it's original purpose of baking. Anyway, since my friend does live in a fairly modern and fairly big apartment (three bedrooms is huge to me... but I suppose to an average, well off Korean it's probably just average size), he does have an oven. Two guys made the most glorious meatloaf I have ever tasted. I need to find that recipie and try to recreate it another time. I made some mashed potatoes, and my friend made Velveeta mac n cheese and chili mac. Finally for desert we had some Paris Baguette "cheesecake". I like Korean cheesecake, but I'm starting to forget what REAL cheesecake tates like... We ended the evening with a little bit of alcohol and watching crazy youtube videos on my friend's projector. All in all, it was a fabulous Chuseok.

New Layout

It's been a while since I changed the layout of the site and made a new banner. Let me know what you think. If you like the old one better, I can always go back. I really like my new banner though. It's a photo I took in Gyeongju last May. What do you think of the color scheme. I'm still thinking about the link colors. Let me know if they are good or if I should keep trying. Is the text easy enough on the eyes, or should I go with a lighter shade of gray? I like this, but if it's straining people's eyes, it's not worth it. Feedback please!!!

Is there something written across my forehead that says "I speak Korean"?

Recently I've been having the strangest conversations with random Koreans I come across. I can't figure out if I'm giving off some body language that conveys the fact that I'm studying Korean, or maybe it's just that I understand things and respond when most people would just shrug their shoulders and say sorry "hangul, aniyo".

First there was the old Korean lady who had to try my guacamole. But this week I've had two random encounters as well. First I went with my friend to buy some onions from a street vendor, a little old lady who is always on our street in a little lean-to shack selling veggies. I just asked for "two onions please", nothing complicated... but the old veggie lady's friend who was sitting around chatting with her turned to me and asked me in Korean, "Oh, do you live in that officetel down there?" pointing to my building. That was a little creepy that she knew where I lived, but she probably sees me everyday, but I just never bothered to notice her. "Yes, I live there." I replied. "Oh! How much is your room per month?" I was sure I must have misunderstood her. Why would she possibly be asking how much my room is. I'm a foreigner. People don't ask me complicated questions like this. "Uh.. I don't know" I replied, not sure what to say. "You're room! Room! What do you pay a month!" Ok, there was no misunderstanding this time. "Uh... well... my hagwon pays for the apartment, so I'm not really sure..." "Ohh.. What hagwon do you work for?" I told her where I worked, but she just kind of nodded in that way that I could tell she had no idea, and that was the end of the conversation.

Then on Wednesday, I went to the bank. There's only ever one of two bank workers that deal with money transfers. One is a young guy who knows only banking words in English, and one is a older guy who knows only banking words in English. Actually, once I had a short conversation with the young guy in Korean, and he seemed quite nice, but usually he is too shy to make conversation in any language. On Wednesday I got the older guy. He always seemed very quiet and maybe even unfriendly, but maybe that was just his reluctance to speak English coming through. In fact, I think I had tried to speak to him in Korean before but he always would confirm everything in English, so I never really got to speak to him. I was sitting in silence waiting for the 15 minutes of typing, photocopying, signing, filling out forms and lots of waiting to be over for my bank transfer to go through, when all of a sudden he just blurted out in Korean "Have you eaten yet?" it was around lunch time. "Uh.. no, I haven't eaten.", and he just nodded his head and went back to work. About 5 minutes later he perked his head up again from his work and out of nowhere said "What kind of Korean food do you like the most?" "Oh, I like everything," I replied "I really like spicy food." He laughed and then continued on his work as if nothing had happened. He finished the transaction and I said good-bye and that was it.

I'm not complaining, but do other people learning Korean have these weird conversations, or is it just me???

Hwaseong Fortress

Hard to belive today was Friday, since we had it off for Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving... kind of). We were supposed to go to Manilla, but because of the storm and the flooding in the city and the newest typhoon set to hit on Saturday, we decided to cancel our tickets and stay away. This did, though, give us an opportunity to see something we've been talking about seeing for over a year. Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon. We took the train to Suwon Station on Line 1 (about an hour outside of Seoul) and hopped on a bus labed Hwaseong Palace.

We knew it was time to get off the bus when we saw Paldalmun (발달문). Here is one of the main entrances to get to the fortress wall. First we had to conquer quite a few stairs to get to the fortress wall.This is the view of the city after we conquerd about half the stairs to get to the fortress. We still had a while to go at this point...


Finally we reached the top and found a nice, leisurly path along the wall with an amazing view of the city. We had no idea how big Suwon was!


The two hour walk treated us with lots of interesting things to see. Finally the wall abruptly ended and we found ourselves in the middle of a market in downtown Suwon. We walked back towards Paldalmun through the market when I saw this guy making stamps in the street. It looked cool, so I took a photo.
We were about to head back to the bus when we stumbled accross pizza school and couldn't resist the temptation of Korea's only good and cheap pizza. How can you turn down a pizza for 5,000 won? We got the extra cheese crust, and a combination veggie and meat pizza, along with three sodas and it came to less than 10,000 won.

If you want more info about Hwaseong, you can visit their website, it's pretty good: http://hs.suwon.ne.kr/

An attempt to explain Chonse and Wolse, or Key Money in Korea

It took me ages to understand the Korean "key money" system. I'm well accustomed with various landlord procedures at home. Things like security deposits that are usually the price of the first month's rent, or paying first and last month up front. These things make sense to me. Security deposits cover any costs of repairing damages you caused while living there. First and last month prevents renters from skipping out on tier last month's rent. Key money, though had me baffled. Koreans pay somewhere between 5,000,000 won- 50,000,000 won ($4,000-$42,000 USD) as something that sounds to me the same as a deposit. Then they pay monthly rent. Koreans often take out loans for key money, if they don't have it in the bank. Who in their right mind in the US would take out a loan for an apartment? The whole point of renting is so that one does not need to take out loans!

After many a conversation with my boyfriend about the matter (many of which involved me shouting "but it doesn't make sense! who would seriously pay that much for a deposit?!"), I finally started to understand the system.

Not so many years ago, it was hard to find an apartment with a wolse (key money and monthly rent, but let's use the Korean term for now). Apartments offered a different system, one that is still always possible nowadays, though often not considered. That is something called chonse. Chonse means that you pay a HUGE amount of money (generally 70,000,000 won and up) up front. But, after paying this huge sum of money, you pay no rent. At the end of your rental period, you get all your money back. Actually, it's kind of crazy when you think about it, because you're basically getting an apartment for free. Why does this work? Well, the landlord can do one of two things with your money. He can put it in the bank, and collect the interest on your money. Surely this would be equal to what you would be paying in rent. For example, if you're cholse was 70,000,000 and the landlord put that into the bank at 1% interest, it would be making about 700,000 won a month just in interest alone, and nowadays in Korea you can get those tomato savings with 4% interest. Ok, option two for the landlord, and this is probably more common than the first, knowing your average Korean property owner. Take that chonse and invest it into the next piece of property or investment. When one renter moves out, theoretically a new tenant should move in, paying that same amount, which can just be given to the tenant moving out, and everyone is happy.

Nowadays, it's more common to see a wolse price and a chonse price listed together, and you can take your pick. A wolse price can always be negotiated. For example, if you pay 10,000,000 won as key money, the wolse (monthly rent) might be 700,000 won. But, if you pay 20,000,000 won, maybe your rent might go down to 600,000 per month, and you can negotiate your key money even higher to get even lower monthly rent, if you so choose. Wolse is generally something negotiable. And if you pay a really high key money deposit, you get it back when you move out, not to mention you got cheaper rent while you were there. Of course, you actually need to have this kind of money laying around, which most people don't, if not, you need to take out a bank loan.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well, I'm applying to some jobs for the spring semester, mainly with SMOE, but I'm trying to use what connections I have to find a university job too. If I come back, I'd like to get my own apartment so I don't have to constantly be dealing with school management to get things fixed. I've never had an issue with my school, but I know others who have. Things like this also tend to cause some friction between Korean co-teachers since they are also the ones responsible for dealing with foreign teacher's housing issues. I just want to prevent any problems like that and just get my own place. I've already started looking around, though I know it's way to early to be serious about any particular apartment... but it's fun to dream though!