It's hard to believe that it's almost been a month since I moved to Jeju City in Jeju Island. The time has flown by so quickly that I'm already worried the year will be over before I've even noticed it. On Departure Day, the principal and head of the foreign language department at my school came to Jungwon University to accompany me on the flight to Jeju-si. We drove the forty minutes to the nearest airport in Cheoynju and arrived in Jeju-si less than an hour later.
I was immediately introduced to the Jang family, my hosts for the year. This includes a mom, dad, and two younger host brothers, aged 10 and 12 in Korean years. This means they are 9 and 11 in the U.S., since Koreans are born one year old. My brothers are both in elementary school and are named In-ho and Jin-ho. The whole family is wonderful! They're very laid-back, and my host mother is especially friendly. She speaks English fairly well, as do my cute little host brothers. My host dad doesn't speak much English, but he's learning a little day by day. He's also very enthusiastic about my learning Korean. My second day in the house, when I pulled out my Korean book to study, he latched onto the dialogues in the introduction of the most recent chapter. Pointing to himself, he said, "Linda Taylor," and then to me, "Sato Yuichi" (the names of the characters in my book). Together we read the Korean. Every day he points to something new to teach me. My Korean is still slow going, but I've been picking up more bit by bit.
These are my host brothers and I at Hamdok beach (beach not pictured).
The whole family! From left to right, mom, dad, In-ho (인호), and Jin-ho (진호)
Me posing with the pottery at the five day market.
I arrived in Jeju on a Thursday and began teaching that Monday.
This is my school, Jungang Girl's High School.
I have my own classroom! It's pretty large but it feels awfully crowded and hot with 45 students squished inside. Half of my classes have about 35 students, while the other half have around 45 students!
My early contribution to the decor. On the right we have American news articles about such interesting topics as Sarah Palin's upcoming visit to South Korea and the announcement of Beyonce's pregnancy.
My desk
My students are quite advanced, but very nervous about speaking English. Their reading and writing is so impressive, but their listening and speaking skills haven't reached the same levels. My main goal this year is to encourage them to become more comfortable speaking English and to get them excited about learning the language. Generally, they are quite well-behaved. There's lots of chatter, which is the biggest problem, but most of my students make the discipline part of the job very easy. I try to incorporate lots of fun things into my lessons to hold their attention. Along with some introductory stuff, so far we've covered some grammatical review using a basketball-type game, Konglish (Korean + English words) and the correct English phrases, Pronunciation Olympics including tongue twisters and telephone, and similes in American music. I see all of my students once a week during which time I teach a lesson of my own creation. In addition, I see half of my students for a second time during the week to teach a lesson from their standard English conversation textbook. For obvious reasons, the textbook is much less fun, but I try to incorporate relevant idioms, short videos, and cultural advice into the mix.
I'm constantly changing my lesson plans, learning as I go. There have been a few difficult classes, but the relationships I'm managing to develop with some of my students has already made the teaching experience really rewarding. Obviously it's really difficult to get to know 500 students individually (I'm having enough trouble learning their names as they're almost all very similar), but I'm hoping that my students will think of me more as a friend as less as an authority figure. I figure that the more approachable they find me, the more they'll be willing to speak English with me. I like to think that I'm tricking them into learning English sometimes. I keep the door to my classroom open, and students sometimes swing by between classes to say hello or sit in my room. I keep English fashion magazines by the door. Some of my students are completely entranced by them. They come to class early just to look through the same two magazines over and over. I play English pop songs before class songs with the lyrics on the screen so they can sing along. I've started a biweekly lunch club where students can eat with me and practice speaking in a more low-key environment. And I've encouraged students to write me letters with the promise that I'll write back.
That's been the most rewarding thing so far. Only a handful of students have written, but the feedback has been great. Some have told me that were too nervous to speak to me, but they'll gladly write me a letter. They tell me that they love my classes and want to be my friend. They tell me that they're worried about tests or concerned that they need to lose weight. They even apologize for their poor grammar! I write them back that day, telling them my favorite Korean pop songs and some empathy, since I know as an English speak how difficult it is for me to learn Korean. If their letters back are any indication, it means a lot to them to have someone who really believes in their ability to improve and appreciates their efforts. In Korea, usually only the very best students receive praise for anything, so I'm jumping on any opportunity to raise their self-esteem. I'm planning a lesson on beauty for later in the year...
I've become friends with one of the other young English teachers. Her name is Park Ju-hee, and we've met up a few times on weekends when she isn't teaching (Korean schools have Saturday classes every other week). A couple weeks ago we went to the Teddy Bear Museum on the other end of the island.
Elvis bear
Mother Theresa bear
bears breaking down the Berlin Wall
Thinker bear
Creation bear
World' most expensive bear, complete with Louis Vuitton coat, hat, and miniature suitcase
Traditional Korean wedding bears
Don Quixote bear
Bears representing the famous female divers on the coast of Jeju
My friend Ju-hee throws a coin in the fountain
The island coast
Jeju Island was formed by a volcano many, many years ago, hence the large amount of volcanic rock. Can you see the heron?
Last weekend was a major Korean holiday called Chuseok (추 석). It's almost like Thanksgiving, but with the added element of ancestral rituals. But just like Thanksgiving, Chuseok requires the consumption of massive amounts of food, so we visited the kid's grandparents house the day before to prepare.
This being Korea, all the preparation took place on the floor.
Here is my aunt cooking Spam in an egg batter.
More of the spread. In the back is dok, which is a gummy sort of cookie with a barely sweet filling. I contributed to the cooking process by rolling, filling, and shaping dozens and dozens of these.
Out of respect, I didn't take any pictures of the Chuseok ritual. But I will describe it. In the morning we returned to my grandparents' house where a huge alter had been erected in one room. The alter was piled with the food we'd prepared the day before. The men in the family each bowed to the alter, with their heads touching the floor. They took turns touching a gold plate, and then bowed two more times. Next the women of the family (plus me!) repeated the ritual. Afterwards, all the food was put onto new plates and the entire family feasted on the food. Aside from rice (of course), there were lots of meat and vegetable dishes fried in an egg batter, skewers of beef, fish, local vegetables, and expensive fruits. Many families also use this day to trim the grass from their ancestor's graves, but it seems my host father had done this at an earlier date. We spent the rest of the day traveling from one family's house after another, eating more and more each time. By the end of the day I was exhausted and full to bursting! Since we all had some time off of school, I spent the next day hitting some cultural spots with my host family.
These are called dol-harubang, which means stone grandfather in the Jeju dialect. Various sizes of these local guardians can be found virtually everywhere on Jeju.
My host brothers and I in traditional court dress.
Jin-ho enjoys the view of Seogwipo.
Said view. You can see one of the "small hills" as well as the shadow of one of the
smaller islands off the coast.
Host brothers at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. There's the Alton giant on the left!
Actual shrunken head.
One of several beautiful waterfalls on the south side of the island.
Fun at the Trick Art Museum
Last Saturday I went with my school's UNESCO club to Korea's longest cave, Hwanseon Cave (환선굴)
Here are the lines left by the flowing lava.
Ju-hee and I
Students snacking on kimbap.
I model a traditional Korean water carrier.
Kristen and Caitlin, two of my Fulbright friends, show off our discovery of cheese and guacamole. We meet once a week for dinner and 미국 (America) time
Whew! What a long post! This past month (the past two months, natch) has been crazy and promises to get even crazier! Teaching is extraordinarily time-consuming. Between my forty-minute bus commute, eight hours at school, and occasional supplementary time for lesson-planning, I've been sleeping very soundly every night. Did I mention I've volunteered to teach some of my co- English teachers beginning Spanish? Please forgive me for the long duration between posts! Next month I will venture beyond Jeju to attend the Jinju Lantern festival and later to Gwanju to attend the Fall Fulbright conference with my fellow English teachers. But first things first: my host family is determined to stuff me full of beef for my birthday this Friday. Fortunately my American friends will be there later to provide the cake. I'm thinking of you all!
