Still Skiing in March

I wish I had taken a photo of some of the snow still up by Yongpyong this weekend. Folks in Seoul would not believe there was probably a foot on the ground just in the town surrounding the mountain, nevermind on the actual ski slopes. Sure, you can call this spring skiing, because it was definitely not prime conditions, but hey, these are the last chances to go skiing until next December.

Instead of paying the 35,000 won price for a lift ticket, I opted instead to buy a season pass (good for the rest of the season...) for 60,000 won. It seems a little strange to get a season pass now, but if I go one more time I will have saved 10,000 won, plus I get 60,000 won off the price of a season ticket next year, which I will definitely be getting if I'm planning on skiing as much as I have this winter. If I had been in Korea in January, I would have just bought one anyway for this year.

Anyway, if you want to get your skiing on for the last time this season, I expect there will be at least one more worthwhile weekend at Yongpyong. And hopefully you'll see me there too.

On Call 24/7

Sometimes I feel as if my job as an English teacher is a 24 hour job. It's not a job that I can leave in the office, though I'm not doing the work I'm technically being paid for. Of course, living with my Korean boyfriend, I'm always helping him with his English. I don't mind this at all, because it's in both our best interests if he can improve his English. Not to mention how much he helps me with my Korean.

Then there are the people who stop to talk to you out in public, with the obvious purpose of not actually caring about your presence, but seeing you as a tool to practice English. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people who start talking to me who are generally interested in me, and why the hell I want to be in this country. Those are generally the people who are willing to speak with me in Korean. Then there are the people who, though I speak Korean to them, continue to speak English at me, either trying to prove their mastery or trying to get some TOEIC/TOEFL practice.

Today on the subway the girl sitting two seats down from me asked the man sitting in the seat directly next to me to change seats. It seemed kind of strange to me, but I shrugged and continued studying my Korean homework. A few minutes later she said "Can I talk to you for a moment?" I looked down, and written in her notebook was this exact phrase, she must have been practicing it in her head for 5 minutes while I was focused on 했다고 했어요 in my Korean book. She continued to explain, in broken English, that the was studying for the TOEFL test and was hoping to study at Texas A&M.

Anyway, she practiced her English on me for the next 20 minutes until she had to get off at her stop, one stop before mine. I find it really hard to talk to strangers. You can't make conversation if you know nothing about a person, right? Especially a person you will probably never meet again... It's not that I mind helping these sort of people, but I just feel like I'm seen as a sort of tool to be used by these random people, rather than a real human being.

Becoming a better teacher?

The Korean recently linked this website to his blog. I found the article intriguing and I suggest that any teacher, who actually cares about teaching, to read it. They talk about what makes an effective teacher. I agree with a lot of the things that this article says and I would like to think that I am using at least some of the techniques that are mentioned in the article.

ESL teachers are faced with an additional burden in the classroom, though. And that is being understood. Even for the best students, it's easy to tune out English when you would rather be doing something else, and quite often we think they should understand when they don't understand at all. Sometimes I feel that I am so clear on my instructions when a student asks a question, clearly mistaking one word I've said, for some completely unrelated, but similar sounding word. No wonder they don't do what I say half the time. I wonder how often it just slips under the radar and the students don't ask for clarification...

A lot of these techniques mentioned in the article, I've figured out on my own. For example, pointing out the good students who are doing what they should be doing rather than yelling at the badly behaving students and giving precise directions (not "Don't talk to your friend" but "Take out your book and read page__ silently").

There's still I have a lot to improve on, but I'd like to think I'm a fairly good teacher... for only teaching for 1.5 years and having no formal training as a teacher. But, obviously, I still have a long way to go. I still consider a class of 10 students too difficult to manage on an average day. I have no idea how teachers with 30 or 40 students handle the class without having an momentous, uncontrollable cacophony of small children all talking at once. I can barely be heard over 10 students, never mind 30. Anyway, I'll try some of the things mentioned in this article and see if they give me any better classroom results.

I did get a compliment from the academic director today about my teaching, so I hope my evaluations come out well. I was never formally evaluated at my old school, so I have no idea how I was doing.

Sunday on the town

On Sunday I set out with the intent to get some fresh air and exercise on a walk down the Cheonggyechong, but as usual, it turned out to be much more than just a walk along a stream. Here is what followed.

After walking for about 5 minutes we started to hear the sounds of distant drum beats, and by the time we reached the Dongdaemun area we knew they must be directly above us. We climbed out of the Cheonggyechong to investigate. We found traditional Korean music performers, performing to collect money for some cause or another. We stood and listened for a few minutes before continuing on our way.

They say that, since the Cheonggyechong was restored in 2005, it's had an amazing impact on the environment of the area. Many birds, insects and fish not previously seen in the area started appearing along the stream area.

The waterway and plant life surrounding it actually has a measurable effect on the temperature of the city, lowering the temperature an average of 3.6˚C on summer days. See the Wikipedia article for more info. I feel lucky to live near such a nice place to visit.

Cheonggyechong ends between Gwanghwamun plaza and City Hall Plaza, and so it puts you right downtown. At the end of the stream there is a waterfall where the boyfriend had some fun playing with the settings on my camera. Something I need to spend more time doing. Anyway, this is what we got...




We continued on our way to get to the Seoul History museum near Seodaemun. Along the way I saw this cute little police car. Seconds after I took this picture, it sprang into action, catching some traffic violator in action.

Finally we arrived at the Seoul History Museum. It's a nice, cheap museum to visit on a boring Sunday afternoon. You can't beat a 700 won entry price. It's not the most exciting museum in the world, but definitely worth 700 won.

We spent about an hour or so in the museum, and then we headed around the back to find Gyonghuigung, one of the 5 palaces in Seoul... the one that I always wondered to myself where it was because I'd never heard of anyone going there. Frankly, there wasn't much to see, nothing compared to any other palace I've been to, but if you're at the museum, you might as well check it out. Now there is only one palace I've yet to visit. Changdokgung.


Again, like I said, not much different than any other palace. If you're sick of palaces, then don't bother. If you like palaces, than it might be worth it for you.

This is a replica of the old style trolleys that used to roll around Seoul before there were subways and buses. I'm guessing the woman is trying to sell something to the riders on the train. Much like how vendors sell products on the trains today!

Here is a big moving statue in between Seodaemun station and Gwanghwamun station. I've never quite figured out what it's for, but it does look cool.

We decided to head to Myongdong to find the boyfriend some new sneakers, so we cut around the back side of Doksugung to go that way. Back there we found these squashed people statues that I've never seen before. They were quite amusing, whatever they were....

We finally found our way to Myongdong and saw the infamous, newly opened H&M, where nearly every foreign girl I know has waited in line to get in and shop. I, on the other hand really had no desire to spend money on more clothes that I have no clothes hangers for and continued along the way to find some sneakers.

After at least an hour or two of shopping around for sneakers, the boyfriend finally found a pair that suited him and we headed home, exhausted from our long hike around the city. Before leaving though, we found these noodle guys entertaining some Japanese tourists with their elementary Japanese while chanting and making noodles. Someday I do need to try these noodles...
It's hard to get out of Myongdong without seeing some strange and interesting sights. we almost made it to the subway station before coming across this Christian trying to threaten me with hell if I have no Jesus. And after reading that, I almost felt scared enough to follow Jesus, but then I remembered that I don't like to be intimidated into believing any doctrines and went along my heathen ways.

This time we were in sight of the subway station when we saw 계란빵, kyeranbang, or a cake with a cooked egg in the middle. It doesn't sound very good, but it is.

Finally we didn't get home until nearly 10:00, amazing since we left the house around 2:30. I'm hoping I got enough exercise to burn off all the goodies I ate at my friend's dinner party on Saturday night.

Kyobo Bookstore

Kyobo is well known as one of, if not the biggest bookstores in Korea. Generally, if I want to buy a book, I go What The Book in Itaewon, but on Monday, after visiting the Police History Museum, we were in Gwanghwamun and decided to take a peek.


Due to the holiday we were greeted with a massive wave of people, mostly concentrated around the stationary section, though there was no lack of people in the book sections either.

I was trying to find a corner rounder to take the sharp edge off of laminated flashcards. Unfortunately, the crowds in the stationary section were a bit overwhelming and making it impossible to find anything. So we moved on to books, where there was a little more room to breath.

Kyobo has quite a large room (probably bigger than all of What The Book in Itaewon) dedicated just to English language books. You can find lots of bestsellers, nonfiction, US textbooks (way cheaper than in college bookstores), Books for learning English, travel guides and books on Korea among others. They even have a whole section dedicated to learning Korean in this area too! I found my text book, and was thankful to find out that my hagwon is not overcharging me on books, believe it or not.



Then we went over to the children's section to try to find me something that I was capable of reading. I found a nice little book about a caterpillar that I was understanding about 50% of... when the boyfriend found some other book he was sure would be more entertaining and convinced me to read that instead. It was not more entertaining though... because I couldn't barely understand anything.... so much for the little caterpillar....

We got bored of my struggling to read children's books after a while, and without any better ideas we went out and headed home. It wasn't quite the amazing long weekend I had hoped for, but you can't ask for everything. I'm now planning my amazing long weekend (only 3 days) in May in which I hope to go to either Kyoto or Fukuoka Japan. Tickets are already sold out for flights, but, this far in advance, we should be able to put our names down for a reservation and get it... I would hope...

Not Impressed...

Lately I've been seeing people's travel plans being mentioned on facebook and I think to myself, That's so lame! Anyone can go to Florida or California... why don't you go to Costa Rica or Guatemala? The plane ticket probably isn't much more... Something about travel within my own (huge, vast, varied) country seems nearly as lame as sitting home to me. Does this make me a snob? Or have I just traveled so much that the novelty has worn off? Even the thought of traveling to Australia seems a bit lame... it must be the English factor.

I feel as though travel needs to be a challenge... you need to overcome some sort of language and culture barrier to get the real travel experience. A trip up to Canada just doesn't qualify, I'm sorry.

I also look at my students who tell me they traveled to Malaysia with the same look of pity. I ask them, "How is Malaysian food?" , and they reply, "Teacher, I don't know, I just ate kimchi and rice there". And I think to myself You poor, sad fools. You don't know how to live....

Is there something wrong with me for thinking like this? Clearly, anyone in their right mind, should be excited over a trip to Florida... right? I mean, there are lots of great things to do in Florida, right??

Anyway, I'm currently investigating tickets to Japan for the long weekend in May. There aren't many long weekends this year (and two have passed by without me even hardly noticing) that I need to take advantage... I'm looking at Kyoto and Fukuoka. What do you think?

Police History Museum

Today, March 1st, is a holiday here in Korea and therefore I was home from work looking for something to do. We decided to go to the Seoul History Museum (in between Seodaemun and Gwanghwamun), but upon arrival, we discovered it was closed. Probably because today is a Monday.

As we wandered through the neighborhood in the freezing cold (we were wearing spring jackets, assuming the weather would continue like it has for the past week) we came across the Police History Museum, and decided to take a look. Admission was free and they had a fair amount to see...for a free museum..

Here was a photo from the 1960's. Here in the top photo, the police are measuring the length of the man's hair. Hair was not allowed to be grown past a certain length back then. (gee, sounds like North Korea) In the bottom photo, police officer is measuring the length of the mini skirt. As miniskirts grew in popularity back then, restrictions were put in place to make sure that the woman covered enough of her leg (maybe we need to bring this back this particular law).

Uniforms from the Joseon Dynasty

Police uniforms from the Korean War

Police riot gear

North Korean spies

After the boyfriend got caught and put in prison, this is what he looked like...

I look Korean, right?

To visit the Police History Museum, go to Seodaemun Station ex 4 and walk for about 3 minutes, and you'll see it on your left. Sorry, no English here, folks... Bring a Korean