Getting the Vote: Campaigning Observations in Korea

I've really enjoyed seeing all the color and enthusiasm as Election Day draws near in Korea. June 4th is the big day and a couple of weeks ago I noticed a well-dressed man with a sash around his torso  standing on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in my city Icheon. Right by the bus terminal, I couldn't figure out what he was doing; he didn't have a bag or a suitcase and he was just standing there, arms straight at his side, waiting patiently. When the light changed and the traffic started rolling by, he began bowing. Deeper than the standard-everyday greeting bow, his bows lasted a few seconds. It is something I won't soon forget! "Oh, wow," I thought, "He's bowing to the drivers."

After School Club

I came into the new school year with three after school classes and a plan to focus on broadening vocabulary though the art and stories of children's book. I put together a "My English Notebook" for each of the after school club attendees, created worksheets and activities specific to each book, and established a sticker rewards system that they could track on the inside cover of the notebooks. With powerpoint versions of the books to display on the big touch screen, I was confident this was going to be awesome.

It was pretty clear by the second week that my plan had relied too much on their ability to focus that late in the afternoon. Combined with varying levels of English, extreme tardiness, and schedule changes, I abandoned the children's book lesson plan and opted for ABC and ABC phonics activities and English games - many of which I found here - that practiced the key phrases we were learning in our regular English classes.

Expressing Sewol

Thank You, Bus Drivers

The bus drivers here in Korea are cool, fearless, sometimes easily irritable, lay-on-the-horn type, and have a "I'm bigger than you" mentaility when driving. One of the city bus drivers I see more regularly has shocking white hair, wears aviators, and changes gears like he's flying a fighter jet. 

Red lights are optional and the bus drivers are, if possible, more anxious and impatient than the riders themselves to get where they need to go. Express buses to Seoul from my city, where seats are reserved (see below for online-iPhone reservation how to), leave the second the scheduled departure time rolls by. Leaving from Seoul, there's a great stand-by system that let people pay for seats of people who miscalculated their timing and don't get to the bus on time. When arrived at the destination, the express bus drivers stand outside the bus door and bow as each of us passengers get off. 

On the longer trips I've taken (to Busan and Seoraksan National Park), the bus driver has had a set of indoor driving shoes, driving gloves, and a suit and tie hanging behind his seat, you know, just in case. The level of professionalism and pride of ownership - I drive this bus - is so right. I've noticed in other places - taxis and public places like bathrooms and elevators - head shots of those in charge (the drivers, cleaners, operators and maintenance workers). It seems like a good system to me, one that says, "Hey, I'm here working and making life that much nicer for you." 

Doam Spring Sports Day

Happy Labor Day, all. I was thrilled to have a day off from work and even more excited to spend it outside at Doam with my co-workers and students. The weather today was sunny and cool, beckoning the track suits and visors of the abbreviated Sports Days.

I didn't write a post about Doam's Fall Sports Day, which was a full day of races, quirky games, whole-school choreographed dances, music, food carts, colorful decorations, and family onlookers. It was a big event, one of my favorite days in Korea. Because of the ferry, my second school's Sports Day was cancelled and Doam's Sports Day was significantly scaled back; absent were the dances, decorations, food carts, and flock of parents. There was only one big school relay race, otherwise small competitions (like dodgeball and jump roping) took place by grade in different sections of the playground yard. It was much less of an event and more a collective morning physical education class. Still great fun of course.

Trick Eye & Ice Museum

I went to the Trick Eye Museum, and by extension the Ice Museum, with Anne and Rebecca a few weeks back. Located in young and hip Hongdae area, the days were still quite cold and the winter drear was at a maximum for me. The Trick Eye Museum mashed together great scenery with the joys of taking and looking at pictures of ourselves, and the visit gave me some much needed "Vitamin D." I was carefree and high on art, though I was still plenty awkward as I tried to coordinate my body into a good pose for each scene.

School Feelings

Teaching is my teaching weakness. It's an inside joke with myself as I talk with other teachers and listen to their stories. But as I sit here and wrap up and bow tie twenty-nine mini Twix bars for my after school kids tomorrow, I'm thinking what a cool teacher I am. It is my secret plan to have the kids associate chocolate with English time, and I know that they'll be thrilled to get the little notes with my signature scrawled next to a heart.

It's been a tough two weeks for me at school. Mostly I've lately been struggling with my role in the teaching classroom, especially at my second school. Co-teaching is something that takes work; it's a partnership and I'm not sure everyone is meant to work well together. Throwback, but I must say how thankful I am for my time in the Dino Room. It was a subtle dynamic that made things work there, for me at least. Thank you Maggie, Steve, Preston, and Karli. 

Here are some shots of the "English Notebooks" I made a while back for my after school classes, along with the bow-tied treats. Paper and bookmaking heals all: 

Yellow ribbons for Sewol ::

Thoughts on the captain and crew:

I think that human mistake after mistake compounded into what is now one hundred seventy dead people with still over one hundred missing. I think that the people of authority on the Sewol made decisions and orders that failed to protect the lives on board. I think the surviving crew members had to decide to leave a sinking sink with three hundred some people, most of them high school kids, trapped inside. When I feel how I feel about that cold, hard fact, I know that the surviving crew are feeling that ten fold in the darkest way possible. And the reactions that are trying to find the "good" in their personal destruction and arrests and hold their actions as forseeably intentional are useless. 

It's difficult not feel betrayed as the numbers of the dead and missing tower over the heads of Captain Lee Joon Seok and the surviving crew of the Sewol. How could they abandon all those people? Why didn't they do more? Where is their honor? However, I reject the notion that they survived in the place of one of those who are missing, those who are dead. I think the decisions and actions made in crucial moments culminated into tragic realities where they were not trapped. They had a responsibility and they made the wrong choices, and South Korea is devastated. But I have to believe, until I hear from the mouths of the crew or of proof otherwise, that they did what they thought was best under the circumstances. Which was, tearfully, regrettably, furiously, not near good enough. 

South Korea & The Sewol Ferry Sinking

A friend from home sent me a message making sure I was okay, and I think it's important to acknowledge the tremendous sorrow and fear of the number of people that are still missing and of the number of people that have died in the Sewol Ferry disaster. 

I was at the home of one of my Korean teacher friends, excited to eat dinner with her and her daughter and mother, when she turned on the TV and asked me if I'd heard about it. The footage of the ship on its side -- it is a disrupting image. A ship doesn't look like that. We stood there and I slowly began to comprehend the facts. At that time, there were three counted dead, which I was understanding as, "Okay, three dead." My friend was saying how earlier in the afternoon the number was good at zero dead. But then, she explained what the other numbers in the counter box in the top right-hand side of screen meant. Then that most of the people on board were from an Ansan high school. High schoolers -- please let there be a gigantic jump in the number survived, please.  

GEPIK Workshop, Korean Education, & Change

The GEPIK Teachers' Workshop was a good series of lectures and meet-and-greets. It wasn't that I didn't think it wouldn't be beneficial, but the training addressed some topics that surprised me, including the over-demanding school system my students are a part of. I liked finding out that I am working under an organization that is aware of the problems and brought up rational points that go against the Korean status quo of more and more school time, more study time, and high test scores. That was the most important thing I took away from the training.

Held at the KSA Training Center in the middle of nowhere, somewhere near Suwon, one of the training rules specifically prohibited leaving the grounds, which, I mean, there was no where to go. Driving up the road to the main building, the bus passed a barn full of cows. But it was a beautiful location with a hiking trail, tennis court, and full-adventure arena with zip lines and climbing walls. I was disappointed we didn't partake in a team building zip line workshop, but it was lovely walking around with all the blossoms.