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October 26, Debate Surprise
In other dramatic news, Jenny and I found out from the Office of Education that the debate tournament, finally on the official schedule, is actually a required event. Required for all students. As you may know, getting even three of the ten students to show up for the debate class has been… a challenge. Strangely, the debate class itself is not mandatory but the tournament is. Not surprisingly, when Jenny broke the news in the group chat, she was ignored by half the students and rejected by the rest. “But teacher, I really don’t think I can go that day.” Sure. “But teacher, we have a mandatory event for school…
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October 25, Okay~
My pretty pink USB crapped out at the T minus ten minute mark so I emailed the sixth grade teachers on my schedule today with the lesson PPT attached. When I arrived to 6-4, I got to prepping. But the short video for today’s class opened in what appeared to be an already loaded internet window. The first tab read: 알겠습니다 영어로 Or, “how to say ‘okay, understood’ in English”. I stared at the tab for a moment. The 6-4 teacher is amazingly proficient, mostly evidenced by her cheery English small talk in the sixth grade break room for which I’m so very grateful. A small, touched laugh stuck in…
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October 22, Community
The recent and drastic change of weather from summer that overstayed its welcome to winter that showed up much too early to the party has zapped the health of teachers right and left: Ten from our school alone left early this week, myself and Jack included, suffering from colds and fatigue. I had to even uncharacteristically take a nap at my desk on Tuesday afternoon. MJ, my office mate the floating teacher, greeted me in our early morning liminal time before Jack and Helen usually arrive with a Lotte Mart gift bag and hot cup of tea, like I was Lotte VIP. I peered inside as she explained in Korean.“There’s…
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October 18, Emissions Check
I made my way across town for the mandatory annual emissions check. I idled nervously in the third line at the car center, unsure of what exactly was expected of me and what results would be returned. A younger man asked for my registration in Korean and then gestured for me to leave the car running and wait in the makeshift office in the giant warehouse. It took about five minutes of me fiddling with the chair and glancing at the TV with updates on everyone’s cars, the place was busy for 5PM on a Monday, before an older mechanic called me over. “Do you speak Korean?” He asked. “No,”…
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How to spend 2 days, 1 night in Andong, South Korea
While Andong is located in the same province as Gyeongju, the feel could not be more different. There are no palaces and no crowns, but perfectly preserved and original villages and houses from over 500 years ago. SIGHTSEEING DAY 1 Dosanseowon Confucian Academy (도산서원) This is the headquarters of the man on the 1,000 won bill! Toegye Yi Hwang was an extremely well-regarded scholar in the 16th century who spent many years instructing his male protege in the way of Confucianism. As this is the original, you can even see the man’s own hand-carved hanja sign on his living quarters. Confucian Museum (유교문화박물관) I really thought this place had been…
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October 6, Haikyu!!
A few hours after lunch, Yana suddenly asked, “do you want to play volleyball?” “In general or right now?” “Right now.” I had suspected this might come about when she surreptitiously mentioned volleyball only to never follow up. I didn’t have any gym clothes, or rather, gym clothes appropriate for playing secret volleyball with the teachers on a Wednesday afternoon, so I offered to be the score keeper. There was an official stand with flippable numbers I called my own. Yana, decked out in track pants and a wrinkled green t-shirt, gathered the new 2-1 teacher on our way to the school gym. “Oh! Hello!!!” the new, very young teacher…