These photos were all taken from the high school where I work.

That would be me…

• Try as I might, I just can’t remember to use the damned bathroom slippers.  Fuck it.  I mean, how important is that, anyway?  Now, I HAVE been in two public restrooms that provided bathroom slippers, and I was damned thankful for them.  These were at traditional restaurants where you sit on the floor.  Your shoes are already off, so if nature calls, then you must pad over to the bathroom in your socks and put on their slippers as you enter.  And there is a squat toilet, and the floor is damp with god knows what, so you are thanking God for the slippers.  But in your house???
• I can’t freaking remember my Hangul.  It’s moronically simple, and yet I can’t remember it.
• While I am pretty good about taking my shoes off when I enter the apartment, I am horrible about exiting the apartment.  There I am, at the door, having put on my shoes, and there, twenty feet away, is my purse.   Do I take off my shoes to fetch the purse?  Or do I sneak over there on tip-toe?  Does it really corrupt my floor to just walk over there?  Rinse.  Repeat.  I go through this dilemma about every other day.
• I keep falling asleep earlier than I intend to and wake up with all the lights on.
• I always miss answering the phone (wrong numbers in Korea are hillarious – I just keep talking to them  in English, and their reaction it’s funny how long they keep trying to get the person they intended to call.

across from my officetel (apartment) walking towards Pyeongchon Station

(correction in this one – there’s actually very little shopping here, and it doesn’t go that far)

Halfway through school today it dawned on me that the kids don’t know how to talk.

What I mean is, they don’t know when the right and wrong time to talk is.  To them, any time they are not studying for a test is the right time to talk.  So I ditched the idea of even attempting to play what’s my line, and decided to talk about appropriate talking instead.

I modeled 40 students.  Then I circled 4 of them talking.  Then I circled  4 more groups of 4 of them talking.  That’s 20 students talking.  1 teacher to talk louder than 20 students. 1 teacher asking the poor nervous Korean student to please repeat, please repeat, please repeat because I couldn’t hear them.  I explained how American students talk in class – but how it is mostly appropriate – that they know WHEN is OK and WHEN is NOT OK.  I modeled whispering to each other.  I modeled writing notes to each other.  I told them both of these were fine, but that talking out loud while someone else is speaking is disrespectful.

They got it.  They nodded.  I mean, they really got it.  And so I played the game.  And as soon as their excitement over playing a game set in, they totally un got it.  At one point team 4 didn’t even know it was their turn because they were talking to each other.  Yes.  I made quite a spectacle out of that.

IF I ever play a game with them again, it is going to be the right time/wrong time to talk game.  Only, I need to invent this game since it doesn’t seem to exist in any of the ESL class resources anywhere.

So my lesson planning today consists of inventing this game.  And tomorrow I will borrow the school tripod and set my video camera on it.  I don’t know whether to just film some and play it back, or to keep it running and blacked out until I see some oblivious talking going on. Or maybe just the presence of it will cause them to shape up.

The best thing really would be if I could get the class to monitor this.  The students are totally oblivious to the impact of their own mouths.  They are unaware they are even doing anything.  I would love it if instead of me throwing erasers, the class did it instead.

Young-a said she thought the students needed to learn to listen better before they can talk, so my videos and culture lessons are good for that.  And I told her yeah, but they can’t listen when they’re talking, so they need to shut up first.  then listen.  then speak English.

And American teachers think they are powerless.  HA! ha ha ha ha ha!  No tests, no grades, no way to discipline, left on our own with oversized classes.  HA!  Now THAT’s powerless.  I WIN.

• One of the teachers, when asked if he would allow his daughter to marry for love, regardless of the economic status of her fiance, said yes.  Further conversation revealed he would be against an auto mechanic who made $75 an hour, but in favor of a teacher who made much less.  Engineer, doctor, lawyer, or teacher would be okay.  Auto mechanic who makes as much or more than some of them.  Not okay.  Social standing is everything in Korea.  But what about happiness?
• Why Starbucks and many coffee shops do not open before 10 a.m.
• Why the male teachers carry beating sticks and the female teachers do not – I’m beginning to think this is a phallic symbol thing which empowers them.  (Yesterday I left my office slightly before 10 pm, and there was a boy doing the downward dog position in the hallway.  He looked like he’d been there a long time, and then the gorgeous teacher walked to check up on him, scold him, and beat him.  I made a hasty retreat and regretted not having my camera…)
• Why the myth of the size zero anorexic Korean girl, when the vast majority of Korean girls I’ve met and seen are healthy and average sized.

I always think of these things when I don’t have my lap top handy, so I’ll keep adding to this post and post a link whenever I do.