Speaking test

Anne: "What grade are you in?"

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...
...
...
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Student: "Swimming."




Before you judge me for being a terrible teacher, the majority did perfectly. Gotta laugh with this guy, at least he tried!

Exciting and unexpected teaching hurdle

The other day when I was teaching fourth grade, my coteacher told me that a new student joined the class. I didn't really think much of it until he mentioned the boy was transferring from living abroad in New Zealand!

When I met him, I slowly asked him his name and he answered "John" and I wondered what his level of English was. He didn't really participate much, so I didn't know what hit me at the end, when we played a game, and he raised his hand. At first I had no idea what he was saying because my brain was listening for Korean child English, but was instead hearing perfectly fluent Kiwi English!
"Excuse me, this team was one fewer players. We will have an advantage."

I was so shocked and the rest of the class was so crazy and ready for the game I just said not to worry about it. I wondered if I'd imagined it all when he left.

Two days later, I was teaching grade 5. My coteacher told me we had a new transfer student from New Zealand. I said "Oh I must have his brother in grade four!" When suddenly I heard
"Oh hello. You must be Anne. My brother told me about you."

Remember that this is a level of English beyond even the English teachers. My jaw almost dropped. I got to chatting with him, Paul, and asked how he was doing with the transition.

"Well I was finally getting the hang of it, even speaking English with my brother, and then I get sent back here to start all over again!"

My heart nearly broke. Turns out they were living in New Zealand for THREE YEARS!

Paul, it turns out, was a lot less shy than John on his first day. Whenever I would elicit a response, it would go something like this...

Anne: "Did you have fun at sports day, yesterday?" (Complete with miming of running, and pointing behind me for yesterday)

All other students: "Yes!" "Nooo" "So so"

Paul: "Are you kidding me? They had us sitting around, waiting and doing nothing, for three hours, just so we had about one hour of games. It was so boring!"

When he spoke his classmates covered their ears and groaned. Some even shouted "KOREAN!" I tried to keep the class running as smoothly as possible, but it was quite tricky!

SO I spoke with the two coteachers from grade 5 and 4. Ideally, I think these boys should not be in these classes. As Paul said "I learned this in primary one!" (Be sure to imagine the Kiwi accent and Korean face) But I know that is not possible as it's the government program. When I offered to give them extra work, however, I came upon my first real clash of Western vs. Korean ideals. To me it was obvious what was best for the boys was to be pushed and challenged in school. My coteachers however, who are lovely, think it's best for the boys to learn to fit in. They think the boys should learn not to talk too much because it makes the other kids uncomfortable. While this sounds harsh, they do have the kids best interests at heart. They are at high risk for bullying since they're so 'different'. Judging from the students' reaction to Paul's fluid speaking, I suppose they are right. Asking around, another foreigner friend told me a similar back from abroad Korean student at another school has a bald spot from where other kids pull out his hair.

My poor coteachers are also worried because they can't understand the boys! I purposely slow down and simplify my English when speaking with Koreans, but little boys aren't usually as considerate! In fact, John tried correcting my coteacher the other day! Luckily, John was actually wrong (he said "It's too cold" should be "It's to cold"), and my coteacher didn't understand what he said, so no one was embarrassed!

So, it seems the best I can do might be to get them to read chapter books on the side and slyly hand me book reports. After my second class with John I asked him if he'd like anything extra and he actually asked for a "chapter book"! The local library has some good titles, like Harry Potter and Captain Underpants, and I wrote a list of recommendations for them to check out. John also asked why I hadn't included cricket in the sports lesson, and why I called table tennis 'ping pong.'

It's going to be such an incredible challenge dealing with these two, I actually can't wait!

Love mode

This lovely little notebook looks as sweet as ice cream.. It's called "Love mode" and if full of adorable quotes. You can see it says the following:

"No pain no gaine, Early bird catches the worm. A bad workman always blames his tools."

"Positive thinking"

"Asking costs nothing"

"Do my best! No pain no gain."

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" ... wait a second....?


Also here is the bag from a bakery. I found it amusingly serious.

And finally, here is a kids test. Those of you who attended school with me will remember I had a very serious doodling problem. I therefore really like this kid! On the other side of the test (test that I made cause I'm occasionally a real teacher) I even wrote "You like to doodle! I like to doodle too!" I hope she translates the meaning and learns a new word! Also that she notes the difference between angle and angel. 

Sports Day!

I am so behind on my blog posts and actually have a decent bit to write about! I will start with Sports Day! Apparently, having on last October was an anomaly and they are normally in May. Because our field was being redone, it was a little belated and ended up last Wednesday. Or was it two Wednesdays ago? It's easy to lose track of time!

Anyways, it was awesome. The weather was perfect, cloudy and windy. Since then, its either been raining, or insanely hot. I mean INSANELY hot. I feel like I am living inside the Biodome's Rainforest exhibit. Luckily, the teacher lounge at least is Airconditioned so I can cool down in there at lunch. 

So perfect weather and cute happy kids. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I had to use my cell phone. On the plus side, cell phone videos are so grainy I don't feel wrong posting videos of my kids! So here you go, a taste of Korean Sports Day!

The day starts off with the students (hundred of them) doing a warm up together. It is cute, but also seems very militaristic since we have nothing like it. Imagine these nuggest coming after you. Scaryyy.

Next the students race. They races among classes, in groups of 4. It seemed the groups were size based, as the tall kids raced other tall kids. Every now and then a pack of the super unfit would huff by and I couldn't help but laugh. I also laughed at my silly grade 6 girls who ran while holding their precious bangs. Seriously girls, your hair is magnificent Korean hair, NOTHING can mess in up! You put chemicals in your hair TO mess it up!!(Perms). Here are some videos of little ones running. The tiniest ones were unbelievably cute. All students participated in the mini races so they all had a stamp of 1-4 on their hands. None were too upset by losing and all were proud to show me their stamps.

While students raced around the track, various competitions occured in the middle. The whole school was split into a blue and white team and they competed throughout the day. Games included things like tug of way, strange relay races involving a group of children going inside a large hula hoop and running around, and even stranger games which I couldn't figure out. It was a joy to watch!!

Another great part, you may remember from my last Sports Day, is the grade 1s performance. They're dressed up as newlyweds and it's insanely cute. 

Now, while all of this sports day stuff was awesome, I have yet to tell the best part. A few weeks earlier, I was asked if I would like to partake in a teacher vs parents race. I have not felt such athletic glory in a very long time, if ever. The teacher relay-ing before me ran insanely fast, and very quickly left the parent in the dust. I was amazed by his performance so I decided I had to also give it my all. Apparently I am just the fastest woman these people have ever seen. The crowds went WILD (you can hear my kids near the end of the video). I was an absolute celebrity for the day. Students all day said "Teacher! You so fast!" "Running so good!" "You are athlete woman!" I even got called 'LT" which is a phone company whose current marketing scheme is about "warp" speed. It was amazing. Teachers who I've never spoken to congratulated me, parents gave me thumbs up. While my celebrity has died down, it was a truly remarkable and ego stroking experience. One teacher even called me Annesain Bolt, which in the Korean accent does sound like Insane Bolt, so it took me a moment to understand. I was also told the parents had been talking about how the foreigner teachers runs as fast as a man. I have never felt so much pride!!

In fact, this week I got a student letter that reads "Yesterday, we have sports day in our school! And your running is very fast! I'm very surprise And my mom surprise too! I'm running is 2nd! I want to 1st but I'm happy."

And to top it all off, an acquaintance of mine said that his barber told him about me! Apparently, I teach his children, and he took these amazing shots of the race. If I wasn't a already celebrity for my curls, I sure am now!! 

I love the expressions of the audience :)

So odd and creepy that I ran smiling, but I guess I
just forgot how awesome it was to run to a cheering
crowd!

Sports day was awesome.

Mom, wear something nice

I find it pretty amazing that when my coteacher went to her kindergarten son's open class, he told her to look her best. Wear something nice and do your hair!!

I love Korea but, man, in kindergarten all I wanted my mom to wear was a bright yellow sweat suit (I had a Pavlovian association with it. When she wore her yellow clothes she wouldn't go into work).

Today is sports day and I expect to see many sexy, impossibly young looking, moms dressed to the nines.  Keeping up with the Kims!

Jeju-Do!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have a 5 day long weekend! Thursday was a national holiday (Memorial Day), Friday we had off due to being a sandwich day, and Monday was my school's foundation day. 

Anyways, for the long weekend I decided to go to Korea's vacation destination: Jeju Island. This is an island of volcanic rock located to the south of Korea.. about an hour flight from Busan. Initially I had planned to go alone, but was surprised by a friend joining me for part of the trip. I did a tour with her on Friday, a tour alone on Saturday, then had Sunday to myself. Unfortunately, the main attraction on the island is the natural beauty and we had horrible weather. Friday was humid and overcast, followed by two days of pouring rain on Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless, we had a lot of fun! We stayed at Yeha Guesthouse (terminal) which I would definitely recommend. We did the Yeha Tours as well. I preferred the West tour. 

I learned a lot about Jeju. It's an island known for having it's own Korean dialect, and for breeding exceptionally tasty black piggies. I came to learn that Jeju also has a long history of having very strong women. Many men were lost to fishing, and also to becoming involuntary Japanese soldiers throughout the years. The abundance of women seems to have led to the development of the Haenya - a super badass group of women who free dive for seafood. It's unbelievable to see.. these women work for their whole lives, so they are in their 60s to 80s and still diving and farming. It's mind blowing to see them emerging from the water, and remove their gear to expose a head of grey curls. (Yes it seems even the Haenya are enjoying the national trend of old ladies getting perms). 

The tours were nice, I got to see a lot in a short amount of time, but I always find myself getting antsy on tours. The bus system on the island isn't stellar so it was a good way to move around. Friday's tour my friend joined and it wasn't raining, but Saturday I was alone and it was a downpour.. so not quite as fun. Still got to see a lot though and had a friend tour group and guide. They were surprised I was a teacher, apparently I still give off a student vibe. Poor suckers didn't know that if you ask me one question about teaching you will get endless anecdotes on the adorableness of my kiddies. 

On Sunday, I attempted to walk part of the "Olle Walkway." It's a path along the coast of the island separated into different sections. I got maybe an hour into my walk when the rain started. I was soon soaked through my raincoat and down to my skin. While it was definitely an exciting experience trudging through the rain while the sea stormed agaisnt black volcanic rock, I did end up returning to the hostel for a warm shower. I may have channeled some of my old camping spirit and sang full volume while trekking. The rains did allow to experience solitude in a spot with excellent natural beauty, something quite rare in Korea!

In the evening I went to see a show called Nanta. I hadn't heard of the show before, it is marketed as "Korea's first broadway show". It was excellent and a perfect way to spend a rainy evening. It's a "non verbal cooking comedy". Really amazing acrobatics and percussion based cooking, with a lot of comic relief. They communicated mostly in facial expressions and gibberish, but with a sprinkling of real words. Most were, surprisingly, in English. I guess in an international setting more people would have taken a few English lessons thant Korean. Of course, maybe they did speak more Korean than I noticed. The plot is 3 chefs have to cook for a wedding at 6 o clock (one hour away) and their boss is making them work with his little nephew. 

For the first time in my life, I was the random audience member chosen to come up on stage! It sure pays to have an aisle seat and be a very visible minority! As the performers brought me on stage (all I had to do was eat some soup) they were being friendly and chatting briefly probably to calm me. Can I just say having these enormous and gorgeous Korean men speak to me in perfect English was probably the highlight of the show, and definitely did not calm me down!! Alas our affair was short lived and after I 'married' the other audience, I went back to my seat. Amusingly, at the end of the show when the wedding finally happened, it was a picture of me and my new groom. I felt so special. 

So in closing, Jeju was fun, and the black pork really is absolutely outstanding. We ate a lotttt of barbecue. For the first time in Korea, I was stopped by a family who asked to take a photo of their child with me. That was cute. I also got stopped by a  Korean couple looking for directions - boy did they have a shock when I lowered my umbrella! Next time I go, i hope very much for good weather and to hike Mt Halla, the dormant volcano in the centre of the island. This time I can very unprepared for hiking, next time I'll be set!

And now for a million photos. Enjoy!

Unrelated to this post.. Here is Bowser
The amazing doggy of my neighbours,
Jessica and Spencer.

Amazingly, when I realized I had forgotten my
swiss army knife in my backpack, it was not
taken from me. Instead I got to check just the knife
in this handy dandy package. Also I was allowed
liquids. I love Korea.

Look how happy he is!

So  happy also.

I did not sample this. 

Note to self: Coral fish = HAGFISH

Very funky Starbucks.

Insanely over the top "nature themed cafe"

In this coffee shop, there were magazines.
In this one was a page about special teas...

Twinnings Lady Grey!!!

Pork!!!!

Man and Woman Cutting

Ok - let's begin the tour! Day 1, first stop was Halim Park. The park included a ton of stuff, and I would definitely recommend it. It had a bit of everything, from lava caves to a bird park.

Chilling with a Grandfather
statue. Apparently they
were made to channel man
strength on the woman
dominated island. A higher
left hand means he was a
general, and a higher
right hand means a
writer? Something
like that.

Stalactites!

I'm in a cave!

Where is Anne?

Traditional village

I could barely look at this ostrich it disgusted me so much.
Poor thing.

Day 1 - Stop 2. Suweolbong Trekking, part of the Olle Trail. Gorgeous, as you can see in the photos.

Snacks for later.

Spot the dragon!

Day 1 stop 3 - Lunch at the Spirited Garden. Very reasonably prices amazing buffet, at a bonsai (Korean spelled Bonjae or something) garden.

I am a Bonsai tree! 

They cultivate a cactus
fruit on Jeju. This taffy
was AMAAZING.

All palm trees were once imported, so don't
buy Jeju coconuts. The non native palm trees
don't produce fruit.

 Day 1 stop 4 - ALRT Airfield. Apparently used to be an airfield used by the Japanese, it is not fields for agriculture. I wasn't that impressed by the weird airplane statue, but was interested by the garlic farmers.

A bunch of templey pictures coming up
are from this mountain. 

It was garlic season.

Day 1 stop 5 - Mount Sanbang. Beautiful mountain temple. I'd say this stop was worth it!

The humidity made it a pretty tough little hike!

Scary anti-rock ceiling.

All worth it to see the Buddha! I tried to ask
for no rain, but it didn't work.

Day 1 stop 6 - Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls. Gorgeous!!

The water was actually that blue! . 

Note what a day of humidity can do to curls.

Ok back to the hostel briefly...

The hostel had a currency wall. I like it.
Hong Kong money is gorgeous!

And on to Day 2! Due to the rain and being alone, I took a lot less photos. Also I got annoyed of posting them on the blog ahah.

First stop, the trick eye museum. Amusing, but these are also located on mainland Korea so I wouldn't make it my destination on Jeju.

Trick eye museum.

What an amazing illusion!
Get it, the hooves are EYES.
The bird is a NOSE.
And the floating lips
are LIPS!

Terrifying monkey statue.

Day 2 stop 2 - Seongeup Traditional Village. Interesting, especially that people still chose to live here. Apparently, super unsurprisingly, mostly older generations.

Here you can see the net and floating device
of a Haenya diving woman.

Way to capture rain for water.

Traditionally, the black pigs were only fed human feces.
Poor things. They aren't anymore, and some people
argue they aren't as tasty for it.

Before kimchi fridges, the ubiquitous side was
fermented in buried pots like this.

Day 2 stop 3 (or 4 if you count non pictured lunch) - Sunrise Seongsan Peak. This spot is apparently breathtaking for sunrise. Was still neat in the rain, but of course limited visibility.

Tangerines and tangerine hybrids are a main
export of Jeju. Here are some orange fruit
being sold beside an orange cat!

Need to work on my
selfies.

Up we go.

Though we were told the rain was cancelling the Haenya diving demonstration, I managed to find them finishing up a show! People in my tour group didn't believe me, but I have photographic evidence!!

Last stop was this huge lava cave. While extraordinary, I was pretty tired and cold by this point and none of the pictures look great. Here's a lava blob called the turtle.

End of the tours!

Eat me I'm so delicious

Last day I went on a solo adventure across the island. Was a very beautiful experience despite the rain. Midway, I took a break in a coffee shop. It was full of very local looking Koreans watching a Korean drama, but I was far too wet to feel out of place.

There's a lot of respect to the awesome Haenya.
Good to see!

Inappropriate footwear.

May have been a little lost before finding this.

Spectacular show of ocean vs. rock.

These plants reminded me of a flower my mom
grows, only these were huge and so I felt
like I'd been shrunk.

The rain soon got so heavy I had to put my camera away! I passed many Korean tourists in those garbage bag like raincoats you buy at tourist shops, so while I looked crazy walking through the downpour in sandals, I didn't look the craziest!!

And FINALLY - me in the Nanta show! They used a better photo for our wedding, but sadly this is the only one online.