-
May 30, Roses and Thorns
Korea giveth and Korea taketh, part two. Thankfully, today was a giving day. The kind of day that only Korea can provide: unexpected and delightful surprises. It took the better part of the day to get out of bed, clean, do laundry, and leave for the gym. I wore my new flea market romper and let me tell you, rompers when done right are amazing. After the gym I had planned to go to a cafe but instead heard the call of the river that runs perpendicular to the Han River. I figured I’d pick up a snack and walk along the water to watch the sunset. In a twist…
-
May 29, Anticipated Devastation
Korea giveth and Korea taketh away. C told me today that there would be no native teacher replacing me next semester and Seoul will not be hiring any new teachers in fall. The reasoning was that new teachers would have to do two weeks of quarantine. The excuse is a bit flimsy to me since new teachers, and anyone else arriving from abroad, must do a mandatory two week quarantine and have been doing so since March. Why is it now a concern? It got me thinking though and when I got back to my desk I did some research. Many provinces through the national program and even the independent…
-
May 28
C had left for her daily training across town when the classroom phone started to ring. I never answer the phone because it is never for me and is always in Korean. However, not two minutes later I got an email from the kind office lady that explained G was trying to call me and that I should call her back. G and I had a date to meet later that day to get coffee and give me my requested recommendation letter. In the middle of typing my response, or should I say finger pecking at the Korean keyboard, there was a knock on the classroom door and the same…
-
May 27
After five months, today was the day: students began to return and I could eat school food in the cafeteria. But like a funhouse mirror it was wrong in the most important ways, a grotesque imitation of everything to which I had originally looked forward. It cracked the top five most depressing lunches and was only rescued by some (former) grade four boys waving to me. But Korea gives me lows and highs in the same day, I just need to wait. I exited the school at closing time and heard chatter of “Abigail teacher” that were not secret. Former grade four boys across the field identified me and then…
-
May 26
Things I accomplished today: Another teaching course module Video edits for my one year Korea anniversary video English volunteer tutoring lesson for my refugee student Pointed out to the pharmacist that he gave me KF80 masks for my national ration and yes I would like the KF94 masks instead, I’m allergic to pollution thanks Two hours peppering my Hong Kong tutor with questions about the difference between “잘하다” and “잘 하다”. Your eyes do not deceive you, the only difference is a space which stacks up to a lot of meaning in the context heavy language of Korean. Before leaving for her off site teaching course, C gave me the…
-
Palace Detour: Changdeokgung, Changyeoggung, and the Secret Garden
UNESCO world heritage feels, a secret garden, an overly friendly caterpillar, more walking than I’ve done all year. I see now why Gyeongbuk Palace is the most well known and first shown palace in Seoul because if you brought me to Changdeokgung first, the former would be a disappointment. Quite accidentally and even without reading every placard I spent 4 hours lost in the palace grounds. These palace grounds are less than half a mile away from Gyeongbuk and served as a secondary residence to the King’s family. As such, the planning didn’t have to follow such strict royal architecture rules and instead the buildings flow with the landscape. There…
-
“Foreigner”
Current Korean language headache: 외국인 is translated as “foreigner” or “international” and literally means “outside country person”. However, the real meaning is “non-Korean” which poses some problems if you’re attempting to talk about foreigners in your own country. For example, to talk about international students at my home university posed some real challenges during my writing segment today. If I write in Korean, “there are many international students” and use the word 외국인, the Korean reader will assume I mean there are many non-Korean students. Not quite the point I was trying to make, eh? The definition for “foreigner” in English is location dependent. If I’m in America talking to…
-
May 20
I know my Korean has improved because last night I managed to sidetrack my Busan tutor for a full hour. “Next time just sign up for a free talking class. You’ll save money!” She told me. With both of my online tutors, we usually start off with conversation and since I’m starved for human contact I have a lot to say. All at once I realized exactly how my online Chinese students feel— they have so much they want to say once they become stronger in English and their desire to communicate increases ten fold. Now I too can intimately understand. She and I got to laughing as I made…
-
May 15, Teacher’s Day
When I was a freshman in college, I detested that our time and money was being wasted in required weed out chemistry classes run by a professor who wore Hawaiian shirts and made girls cry during office hours so I arranged a meeting with the head of the department. He came to the meeting in sweatpants, gaslit me, and afterwards sent me a scathing email in which he copied his superior and summarized everything he had said along with false quotations from me, and then told me never to speak to him again. Can you guess one reason why I switched my major from chemistry that year? When I read…
-
May 14
E asked me to make a few videos for the online curriculum and I excitedly flexed my video editing muscles. Deep in the midst of centering a screenshot C told me she would be working half days since she had to attend a ten day teacher training she had voluntarily signed up for a month ago and has since regretted. Before leaving she gave me a gift: “I went to Jeju last weekend. This is for you.” She deposited a cute set of Jeju themed sticky notes into my open palms. “Thank you so much!” C is good peeps. Later I noticed something strange in the design: the tiny “I…