Long Overdue update

I let a few days slip by waiting to get internet at home, but still do not. Hopefully by the end of the week, or at worst early next week it will be convenient for me to upload some photos. I've had two weekends and my first week of work since arriving, so I will write about some of my impressions.

First about the teaching. They have me teaching quite a light load. Although my contract calls for up to 22 hours in the classroom, I am only slated for 13 each week, and am being paid overtime for an evening class with some of the schools top students - probably the most enjoyable of all the classes. The regular classes may be a bit of struggle as the level of English is a bit lower than I expected. At least, their skills are skewed towards reading comprehension. I think many students have a decent vocabulary, but their pronounciation is so bad that it takes several tries, and sometimes they have to spell for me before I can understand what they are trying to say. Well, I guess that is why Korea is hiring so many native speakers to come over and teach English. I hope I can help, but I must note that many of my highschool freshman students were taught by a native speaker in middle school. The man's name is Nick, a nice guy in his 30's from South Africa (I wonder if the students are affected by, or even noticed, the change of accent).

Nick is at the beginning of his 2nd year, so although I haven't had a chance to speak with him at length it is at least nice to know that someone liked it here enough to sign up for a 2nd year. Last weekend he set me up to meet two other English teaching in the area. Middle aged guys teaching at elementary schools, one is Kerry from Wisconsin. He has been teaching in Korea for 9 years, the last 3 in the Hadong area. So he must like it quite a bit. He seems like a nice enough guy; I'm not sure what his life goals are yet, but then again I could say that about myself just as well. I asked him how hard he found it to learn the Korean language, and to my surprise his answer was that he has not even tried. He has picked up a hunderd or so words, but only a basic tourists and teacher's phrasebook, no real ability to carry out a conversation.

The other is a Brit named David, who just arrived in Korea a few months ago. Before that he was teaching in Thailand for 3 years which means he must have moved very quickly with his Thai wife and 27 month old son. His first impressions of Korea is that the pay is much better, but the social life much worse than Thailand, but maybe it is hard for him to tell with a toddler to take care of. We went to Jinju, an hour by train to a good size city, and he showed me a few good places to shop - some large department stores, places I can get some Western goods if I need to, and also a bustling market area, very crowded with people and boutiques. Then we met up with Mr. Kim, a friend from school, an electronics teacher, to check out a festival that was going on in the city that holiday weekend - it was Korean National Day on Friday. I guess it is best to save a description of that event for when I can upload some pictures - a common refrain no doubt

A bit to my chagrin, it seems that I will have ample opportunity to play golf in Korea afterall; wish I had brought my clubs. My co-teacher at the girl's school is a family of golfers. Her husband, son, and I went to a local small course. It was 9 holes, one true par 5, and couple holes played as par 4's by virtue of a club rule that men can tee-off with no more than a 7-iron. Again pictures coming .. but I should tell the story of the beginning of this round. Joing the family was another boy of the same age as the son, about 11. He was introduced as the best junior golfer in the neighboring province. His mother joined to walk the round with us. On the 2nd hole the kid sliced his tee-shot, and his mulligan too, to a lesser extent, then took 2 chips and 3 putts to get up and down. His next tee-shot was short and right as well. For his mother, I suppose she felt she had lost face and enough was enough. An angrily barked correction to her son punctuated his followthrough. As we were walking down the fairway my co-teacher, Mrs. Lee, explained that the boy was unhappy and would be quitting the rest of the round. He may well have been unhappy, but the fact that his mother had to wrestle the club from his hands with a foot to the stomach leverage and a little verbal abuse for good measure indicated that he would have preferred to keep playing. I'm not sure if I should have done anything with respect to the scene, but uncomfortably followed Mrs. Lee's example of leaving the mother alone to deal with the son who will be a huge disappointment to the family when he fails to become a professional golfer. Not to overgeneralize, but I do think the Korean families do seem to put extra pressure on their children to perform.

What else? I got a bicycle recently. It was a little difficult. There are three tiny bike shops in town, but they all only carry mountain bike and cruisers, so I did some internet shopping for a bike. They say that if you buy cheap you will end up buying twice - I think that will be the case. I got a Korean brand road bike I chose to avoid the high tariff, but it is not of good quality. The bearings in the crank are already clicking right out of the box. At least I can see that there are many scenic trips to be taken around this town with its hills and valleys, and I can bike up to the foot of some mountains that are good for hiking. Again this will be better illustrated with photos.

Go in Korea? I have to remember to call it baduk over here. But it is nice to have a wide variety of people to play with, most of whom will whup my butt. At least I can hold my own to earn some respect - most of them are surprised to know that an American even knows the rules.

I've got to go now and teach these Koreans about American volleyball skills. More stories, and finally pictures, next time.