Me again. It's Friday and I'm sitting at my neighbourhood PC Bang. I'm off work for four days but I'm too lazy to travel anywhere. I wanted to meet up with my buddy Keith but he ran off to Jeju Island. Jeju is difficult for me to get to because this is the peak of tourist season. Practically every student I talked to this week was going somewhere. It's probably better to stick around Seoul.
Well it's officially been 6 months...Yea for me! I'm surprised that I'm not more homesick though. I really can't say that I'm in a hurry to run home. Although I did say that I wouldn't go home until I could speak Korean. I'm disappointed that I can't yet. I figured that it'd be easier. Although I talked to my friend who went to Canada to learn English and he said that it was 8 months of being totally immersed in English before he felt comfortable speaking. He also had a Canadian girlfriend so it's not like he spoke Korean all the time like I do English.
I've been trying to put some more pictures up, but the friggin computer isn't working for me. I really gotta sit down and read the manuals at some point. It's pissing me off cause my camera is full of about 150 pictures and I really want to get rid of em so I can take some new ones.
The last two weeks of the intensive session have been fun. Well not really but it hasn't been too bad either. They buy us breakfast every morning and do most of our photocopying. So I haven't been overly stressed. I get home pretty wiped at night so I'm really liking my VCR. I've been renting videos almost every day. Pretty boring stuff but it keeps me from spending money. It's pretty cool that Korea doesn't dub English movies. So all I have to do is ignore the subtitles. Although I have trouble keeping myself from reading them. I guess it's a form of studying though cause I've learned some new words and phrases that way.
I feel I should talk more about the life of Brent-teacher. It sounded a little strange to hear kids call me that when I first got here but it doesn't take long to get used to it. They call Korean teachers by their last name and add Sun-saeng-nim (teacher) after it. Hence, they call me Brent-teacher. I don't really think of myself as a professional teacher, so I tell my students that if they want to call me Brent, it doens't bother me. Many of the younger kids will, but most of the older kids won't. I guess it sounds too disrespectiful for them to call a teacher by their first name. In terms of hierarchy, teachers rank pretty high. Up with parents and doctors I'm told. But then again, I'm not Korean so maybe I get knocked down a few pegs.
Many of the kids will simply call you "Teacher". It makes me laugh when a student stands at the door of the teachers room, and calls out over and over,
"Teacher!"...."Teacher!"...."Teacher!....
Then finally someone will yell back at them....
"OK, there are 9 teachers in here, could you be a little more specific?"
"Huh?"
"Which teacher?"
"Oh, uh...Brent teacher"
"Thank you."
Then other dialougues with kids go something like this,
"Hi, teacher"
"Hi,What's new?"
"Huh"
"What....is....new....with....you?"
"Huh"
"How...are....you?"
"Oh, I'm 12 years old"
"Arggghhhhhhhh"
Although, most of my students are good. You can actually have a conversation with most kids grade 4 and older. They don't speak very well, but they understand most of what you say to them.
I guess I'm missing we-fest this weekend. ;( Ah well, doesn't bother me too much. I'll make up for it when I get crazy this weekend. I assume there will be some stories from my hooligan friends, so don't hold back guys. Let's hear em.
Time for Brent teacher to go find some yeomshim (food). I'm on a quest to see if there's actually anything from the ocean that Asians don't eat.... What's that? Rice, squid, seaweed, with a side of femented cabbage...mmmm....yummy. (Actually it is good)
Later.
