Korean High School Girls

Someone on Yahoo Answers asked “How does a typical average 17 year old korean girl look like?” I looked at the answers and thought it would be an interesting question to answer.

A Korean girl of 17 is in her first year in hight school. Their American counterparts go to high school at 15 or 16, as far as I understand, but this does not mean Koreans go to high school at a later age. It just has to do with the way Koreans calculate their ages.

Most girl in school wear straight bangs, something many of them will drop once they leave school. Their hair rarely goes shorter than bob and is often tied in to a pony tail in the middle of the head. Since they are Korean they will have the Eastern Asian eye shape and skin colour, small noses, small mouths and heads that appear larger than that of Westerners, dark hair and dark eyes.

All these things are very superficial though, and unless you live here you will not be to tell Koreans from other Easter Asians. Even Koreans can't always tell, but like every country in the world, each person mostly just looks like themselves.

Clothes are much easier describe. School students in Korea often wear their uniforms all day every day. Depending on the high school a girl’s skirt can be anywhere from just above her knees her knees up to a mini a mini. Current fashion is to get it as short and as tight as the school will allow, and some schools will allow pretty much anything. Right now it is summer so she likely will be wearing a white t-shirts to cover everything that is exposed by the silly, to small uniform shirts that they have to wear here. The shirt will likely be completely unbuttoned and flapping open because of the heat. Shoes will be either the standard school saddles of the three stripe flip-flip like, or the current retro style seekers. Many still wear Converse

A great many students here wear spectacles with thickish dark frames in a rectangle shape. I suppose it is just fashion, but I think it suites them well.

Although there are very many absolutely beautiful Korean women, from elementary school through to middle age, do not think for a moment that the typical Korean girl looks like the models, actors and singers you see in photos everywhere. With the help of surgery, a great many of them look nothing like they did in school.

I happened to have taken photos of my middle schoolers leaving school two days ago and noticed this photo. The girls in this photo will go to hight school next year. They will be on he prudish side of the scale, but they will illustrate the look nicely. THe boy in the second photo is wearing the typical specs I mentioned earlier.

GEPIK Orientation 2010

The GEPIK orientation/training is behind us now and I’m sorry to say that it was mostly a waste of time. The whole thing was to short and the lectures were mostly irrelevant to our needs. Apparently this was the first time that the people from the co-ordinater program was asked to arrange this, so fingers crossed it will get better. Only time will tell. The question is, what I would like to see at this that will make me go: “Yaaaaah!”

The very first things that I would like to see is more information on what is expected of us. It’s all well and good to tell us how to teach, but how to teach is worth nothing if we don’t know what we are supposed to teach. There were two presenters from universities who mentioned a) what she things Koreans in general need help with and b) what he needs to see from his students when they walk in to his class, but it seemed noting more than incidental information. Someone needs to say: “Right. This is what we expect from a first grader in Middle School, and from the second grader, and…” They don’t need to tell us how to do it, but again, we can’t do the how if we don’t even have a what. It would seem though the not even the education offices know or understand what we are to do here. We don’t fit in to the Entrance Exam criteria, therefore what we do doesn’t merit the attention the English as a whole does.

The second thing I would like to learn more about is co-teaching. There are people here and there who are working not this, but over all I haven’t seen any of this affect my teaching experience. I have personally tried to get my co-teacher more involved, but it is an individual effort. If I go to my co-teachers and ask them what they think they will generally just say: “Whatever you want”, and I will not be any better off. Both sides need training on how to make this work because at the moment it is only the NTs who seem to have the time and will to do something about it. In the end someone’s time is being wasted and that is time that can been used to do something to help students the way they are supposed to be helped, by teaching them something useful.

Something that was nice was learning who or what the co-ordinators were. It is nice having a bunch of people who are, more often than not, Korean Americans. This provides us with go-betweens who not only speak our language, but is able to speak it our way. They are also capable of understanding our problems because just like we will forever struggle to fully understand those stupid things Korean do, so too will they forever struggle with the stupid things we do. The co-ordinators will go a long way in helping with this.

I am, however, saying “capable”, and nothing more, because we still have to see if that will be the fact. They have skills we have, and their intentions seem good, but will that be enough? The GEPIK co-ordinator leader herself taught for, wait for it, one whole year in Korea. Sure, she is making an effort to further her studies in the field, but that does not substitute for actually experience. What is the situation with the other co-ordinators? I know one teaches part time, but I can honestly say that I am lacking enough knowledge to express anything more meaningful than a question. Also, as an online friend and well know blogger mentions, the Korean American/Australian/wherever, seem to always get caught up in the politics and end up tiptoeing around problems like everyone else. Sure, they might understand and sympathise with our problems, but how effective will they be in a culture where the superior tells the pleb what to think and never the other way around?

(Did you know that there is a special grammatical form/structure in the Korean language for making suggestions or for agreeing with people, and that you are not supposed to use this with your superiors? This translates to the juniors being expected to just sit and nod and never replying unless specifically and directly being asked a question. I am still snooping around to get the full story behind this, so don’t quote me just yet. TOPIK test studies coming in handy already?)

Here’s to another here of the same old same old and here is to hoping that I it will not be so.

The Games People Play

My students pulled me in to a game the other day. It took me a few turns to get used to t, but it is dead easy and like many koreans games, perfect for the sadist who likes to punish his or her friends.

Everyone starts with their fists closed and thumbs down. One person call out a number and everyone must immediately lift none, one both their thumbs. The idea is for the lifted thumbs to not total the number called. If they do equal the call, then the caller wins the round and gets to punish everyone, plus they get another turn until they call wrong.

The punishment depends on the call. If you call, say, three, and three thumbs are lifted, then you get to slap everyone else's hands. The losers place their palms together as if they want to pray, fingers pointing forward. The winner then slap their hand together over the loser's hands using moderate power. In this case they will slap three times, finished off with one hard slap to a side of the winner's choice.

Sex in Public School Dormitories

This was in my inbox this morning:

오늘(수, 5.26) 공개수업시간에는 학생들이 서둘러 입실하도록 지도해 주시기 바랍니다. 그리고 공개수업 후에는 상담준비(성적 등 자료 준비)해 주시기 바랍니다.
좋은 하루되세요.
교무부 최의광 드림

And your Google Translate for today:

Today (Wed, 5.26), a public school hours led to a dormitory for students, please hurry. After public consultation and preparation classes (sexual and data preparation), please.
Have a nice day.
Dream gyomubu choeuigwang

S*** Foreigner

I’m generally pretty thick skinned about being called names and I don’t get upset quickly when people are stupidly racist towards me, but even I have a limit, and when I have an off day that limit is lowered.

One of my classes got to watch their Reward Movie. Usually I start the film, wait a bit for everyone to settle down and there is no further problems. Every now and then the class does not settle down to the extent that I cannot hear the dialogue. At these times I stop the film and wait, not saying anything. It takes about a minute for everyone to realise that they need to settle down before I restart.

One class today did not want to settle down. I actually timed them and seven minutes after stopping they were still going on as if nothing was wrong, with no one even attempting to quiet them down. I was starting to feel for the students who were actually quiet, so I decided to take the noise makers in to the next classroom to do some work as a punishment.

I followed them in and just as I entered in I heard the words 외국인 (foreigner) and 시발 (shit, although I am not sure of the spelling). I can still handle the swearing, but I was obviously being referred to as a foreigner in a derogatory way, by a piss ant student. I will not stand for that.

I told his teacher about it, saying that I don’t want to see him in my classroom again. She spoke to him and she said he was sorry and would like to apologise to me. In Korea, even if you don’t mean it but do make an apology, and the apology is accepted, everything is assumed to be settled. (Remember that when you are in an accident. Don’t say everything is OK or accept any money.) I was still upset about the situation and said that I was not interested in hearing his apology, or not today at least.

Apparently he will be writing me a letter and will give it to me on Monday. I’ll see how I feel about it then.

Is this how my next contract year will be?

Last week I asked what the vacation/test/whatever days are that I need to take in to account for my lesson planning. One of those days was the field trip today.

Yesterday I had to ask what the plans for the trip was because I still hadn’t heard anything.

The plan was that each grade would go somewhere and that I would stay at school. A bit amazed and for a few seconds I did not know what to say. I had to stay at school, with no students and no other teachers? Really? But I was always allowed to go before this?

I asked if I was allowed to go and was basically told “You WANT to go?” Apparently it didn’t seem possible that I might want to join one of the trips. Whatever!

I asked the around to see who is doing what and decided I who I would like to join. The 1^st graders were going to the KBS studios. I can’t name a single Korean drama, almost no Korean films and I don’t have a TV or radio. Needless to say I had little to no interest in going there

The 2^nd graders were going to some village dedicated to some Korean poet. I don’t like poetry in any language, especially not in a language I am not even a decent beginner in. Why on earth would I want to go there? I wouldn’t.

I wanted to go with the 3^rd graders to Digital Plaza in Seoul. I like digital stuff. I am a part time geek, I am. This is where I want to be. Even if everything is in Korean and I am not allowed to touch anything, I would still like to be there.

Today I arrived at school went to my desk to do something while I waited for the students to start getting on the bus, when a teacher who essentially has nothing to do with me informs me that I need to go because the 1^st graders are getting ready? How does HE know I’m going with them and not me, and when was this decided? First I have to stay at school alone and now I have to go somewhere that is only of interest to Korean women and men who want to get in to the business in some way? If I never had a choice, then fine, but I was given a choice and then it is made for me?

I flat out refused to go and said I would rather stay at school. I was not angry. Yes, I was upset, but mostly I was bitterly disappointed. Am I back in the boat where I am the last one to be considered, and then only when I actually remind people that I am?

Just before the 2^nd graders left their English teacher phoned me and asked if I wanted to go along. Maybe it was because it was her asking because I went. It was most likely the most boring trip I ever in Korea and it did not help dispel my disappointment at all.

Also, a week and a half after almost having a fight over the dictionaries that I requested two months ago already, I decided to just buy them myself. They will be mine. If I find one page missing or crumpled, one page scratched on, one cover ripped to pieces, I will ban that student, or even the whole table from my class and they will not come back until I have a replacement. My money, my dictionaries, my rules.

What is his name?

I had my first full Beginner Adult Lesson for this year. Most of the students are quite good, one women is way better than she thinks and one women seems mostly useless. Wait, before I call her that or something worse, I have to admit that her English is not the greatest and the stress of having to come in to this class the first time can be really hard on someone.

We were doing a very basic exercise where you would point to a picture with a name and relationship written under it, and ask two questions: “What is his/her name?” and “Who is he/she?” These are pretty basic questions if I have to say so myself. So basic, in fact, that I can actually ask them in Korean.

One student, and I am really trying to credit this to the stress, was just not able to get that when someone asks “What is his name?” the answer should be “His name is…” Not everyone will always get what to do at first, but at one point I was not even sure she was able to read any English. (I refuse teach people that low in English. I cannot be expected to teach at that level when I can’t explain even basic concepts in Korean).

If you think that was frustrating, get this. I decide to mark in her book which part of the dialogue is A and which part is B. I pointed to myself and said “A”, pointed to her and said “B”, pointed to the picture and asked “What is his name?” Remember, the name is written under the picture and I actually pointed it out, again. All I got was a gargle and an eventual “What is his name?”

Again, I pointed out that the “question person” is A, me, and the “answer person” is B, her. Same result. This was when I decided to change tactics. I point to the picture again, say “OK, 여기, 이곳.” (OK, here, this.) and ask the question in Korea: “이름이 뭐예요?” (What name?). Amazingly, the looks at me and says “What is his name?” WOW!?

With what I am sure is a flabbergasted look on my face, I give the general “What/I don’t know” gesture and repeat while pointing “이름이 뭐예요?”. Even after other has explained it to her, in Korean, and actually GIVING HER THE COMPLETE ANSWER, I still don’t know what they name of the character in the picture was.

Forgive me, but I have special education students in my classes that are easier to get an answer out of. I will see what happens next week, when she has had time to relax and figure out what is going on his this class. Hopefully I can also figure out how to get through to her.

GT it…

More school instant messages translated with Google Translate

학기초 폭주하는 업무로 정신없으시죠? 용케도 잘 움직여주시는 선생님들 감사합니다. 어리버리한 신참내기 교감이 첫번째 과제수행에 들어가겠습니다.
개끗한 환경을 위해 여러가지로 머리를 짜고 실행하고 있는데 ...
먼저 교무실 정리정돈부터 하고자 합니다.
넘치는 업무로 책상이 늘 비좁았던거 저도 다 겪어본 사람이지요.(치워도 금새 어질러지고..)
일단 책꽂이 위 개인 사물은 다 내려 놓으세요. 책꽂이와 서랍, 그리고 개인사물함(전 학교보다 수납공간이 넉넉하네요)을 활용하시고 늘 깨끗하게 관리해주세요. 부장님들께서 수시로 신경써주세요.
또 책상주변의 박스나 오랫동안 안쓰는 물건도 치워주세요.
좋은 시설에서 근무하는 것 감사하며 한번 해봅시다.
일하시다 어려운점이나 개선할 점 등은 늘 말씀해주세요. 전 그런거 좋아합니다.

To express the spirit of the beginning of work, is it? Oh, well thank you kick the city teachers.Sympathy rookie in the fire will enter the first task was performed.
For a variety of environments gaekkeuthan run and putting his head in there ...
From the office to reduce the first order.
As a desk full of business all the time I've ever worked with people 이지요 bijopatdeongeo. (Take a look on is messing up ..)
Once a bookshelf above it and put a personal thing. Bookshelves and drawers, and personal lockers (all schools would be better than the storage space haneyo) are taking advantage of managing hasigo always clean. Sir aids are often your care.
The desk of the box or even remove it for a long time things are horrible.
Thank you and good facilities will work at it, let's go.
Points, etc. Let's work hard to improve and always let us know. 그런거 I love it.

Larry

This is Larry. Well, maybe not, but I'm calling him that.

Larry is not cool. Larry has no hairstyles. Chuck hold pens and stuff inside himself.

Chuck

This is Chuck. Well, maybe not, but I'm calling him that.

Chuck is cool. Chuck has hairstyles. Chuck hold pens and stuff inside himself.

What students carry around

 

Weirdest is at it again.

I swear he is doing it just to try and tick me off, in a friendly way:

“Ha-i. How are you. I’m fine thank you and you?”

His English is way good enough to know those are exactly what you should not be saying.

Uri Teecha

I took my recently discovered shortcut home through the elementary school. Through this shortcut I have found that many of the middle school students play football and basketball on that field instead of walking further to the middle school.

As I passed a bunch of my students they all greeted me. One buy  skipped in my direction, yes skipped, and shouted “헬로 우리 티처!” (Hello Uri Teacha) Uri us Korean for ‘our’. How nice.

I love Google Translate

안녕하세요..급식실입니다.
우유급식 희망조사서를 학생들 편으로 보낼 예정입니다.
꼭 학부모님께 동의를 받아서 작성해 오도록
학생들에게 얘기를 해주시고, 금요일까지 급식실로 가져다
주시기 바랍니다.....선생님들의 많은 협조 부탁드립니다.

 

Hello .. is geupsiksil.
Students Hope Survey of milk feed is expected to send other side.
Write your parents agree to come to you
I'll let the students, through Friday, bringing to geupsiksil
..... Please ask teachers' cooperation.

 

Survey of milk feed? Really? No, thanks you.

Spot, the Stand-up Comedian

Spot, a student of mine, was telling me jokes just now.

Student: Dog, you know. Barn. What?

Me: Huh?

Student: Barn? You know?

Me: ...blah...blah… B-U-R-N? As in Fire?

Student: Yes? Hot dog!

Weird girl was asking me “What do you call a burning dog?” Funny.

Then she asked me if I knew (insert strange Korean word) from Star Wars. A quick action showed me she was talking about a Lightsaber, the light sword thing-a-ma-bob. So she asked: “What colour is a lightsaber?” Naturally I answered: “Red, blue or green.” Shaking her head she said “Orange!”

It only took her only a couple of seconds and a blank look on my face to realise that this was a joke that only worked in Korean. Apparently the world for “orange” is Juhwang(주황), and if you say this quickly it is the sound of a lightsaber extending. Once I got that part I was actually quite amusing.

Side note:

I looked up “Orange” and then “Orange Colour” on Google Translate. It gave me “오렌지 컬러” (Oraenjee Ceolleoh), basically just English with a Korean accent. Quite useless, actually.

Slaves to the System

A boy came into the office today, apparently to join in his class’s share of the cleaning. Just to make sure I asked him why he was here and he replied: “Servant. Slave.” At least one student is honest about his feelings. =D

Heart

Go, Go, Go!

The traffic lights just outside my school. This particular intersection is the source of much frustration and confusion. I'm surprised no students have been run over yet.

I took the photo as I left school at about 4:45. it is winter, so by that time the sun is already very low and created a slight background colour which is helped along by the colour processing action I ran.

Short skirts and expensive watches.

Two of my students are competing in an English competition today. Unlike the previous years, my involvement has been limited to listening to then once, suggesting intonation changes, and then listening to them the next day. The whole thing has been handled by my co-teacher, who is going to Seoul National University of Education next year. The women is a machine. There is seemingly nothing she can’t do.

Here is the dialogue they will do as part of their “presentation”.

Introduction

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

We are Jang Da-Yeong and Jo Soo-Bin from Icheon Songjeong Middle School. We would like you ask you a couple of questions:

Have you ever shortened your skirts to make it look better?
Or have you ever bought expensive but good looking products?

Our dialogue today is related to these questions.

Dialogue

Soo-Bin: You look very gloomy today. Is everything all right?

Da-Yeong: I got scolded for my short skirt just a few minutes ago. What's up with you?

Soo-Bin: I'm just dying to get a limited edition watch, but I don't have enough money for it.

Da-Yeong: I heard that limited one is very expensive.

Soo-Bin: It is!

Da-Yeong: How much is it?

Soo-Bin: It's seven hundred thousand won and I'm only twenty thousand won short, and I have to hurry because there aren’t many watches left.

Da-Yeong: What!? Seven hundred thousand won? It costs too much! Why must you have it?

Soo-Bin: I don’t know. I guess the reason is about the same as you wanting to wear short skirts. I feel that watch will make me look special.

Da-Yeong: Maybe, but we can buy cheap watches in the markets, and there is little difference between those and the expensive watches.

Soo-Bin: Normal, cheap watches don't look cool! And my friends don't think they are great either! Tell me, what makes you want to wear a short skirt?

Da-Yeong: I feel longer skirts makes my legs look fat, and that make me feel embarrassed.

Soo-Bin: I don't get it. Why does it make you feel embarrassed? Isn't it just your own imagination? I think longer skirts make you look nicer and neater.

Da-Yeong: I don't agree. Something different, like a short skirt, earrings, colour contact lenses and make-up makes me stand out. None of those cost W 700 000. Why do you want to have expensive things?

Soo-Bin: I don't have the real reason. I just feel famous products (brand names) are cooler.

Da-Yeong: I think both of us are focusing on the superficial things too much.

Soo-Bin: Maybe you're right. I do stress looks most of the time.

Da-Yeong: I think we should improve our inner beauty.

Soo-Bin: You can say that again. Let's start doing meaningful things. Maybe we can read more, and try to help others. That will make us really beautiful and special people.

Not so scary, is it?

I was looking for Korean Emoticons to use in a lesson and found this:

 

()()() ()()()
(-(-(-.-)-)-)

 

 

A gang of rabbits! how cool is that?

 

.