my reasons for coming to korea

One year ago i began applying for the Fulbright. As it is that time again, some of my friends have been asking me for pointers and i've been showing them my essays. Which, in turn, led me to revisit my essays and the reasons for why i wanted to come to korea. I've been here for two months now. I have been true to some of the goals i had, while i have given less attention to some of the others. And some of my original reasons for coming here are no longer important in my life.

Here's an excerpt from my application essay: "I value unfamiliar situations, for it is here that we get to both see things we had previously been unaware of and come to view familiar things in new ways. I want my manner of thinking and viewing life to be challenged. Nothing could be more satisfying than to be able to look back on my stay in Korea and say that I had indeed left a different and better person than when I had arrived."

I have definitely been in some unfamiliar situations. Some things that i thought would be a big part of my life are no longer present. While unforeseen elements have really captured my time and energy. I've never been so confused in my life. I've never felt so insecure as i navigate the streets, knowing that should anyone try and talk to me, i probably will have no idea what they are saying. I've also never been so comfortable with being uncomfortable. So willing to put myself in such potentially uncomfortable situations.

While my experience thus far hasn't necessarily all been positive, i believe that i am gaining new perspective and insight on life. And i hope that 10-12 months from now (whenever it is that i will leave), this will still be true.

The purpose of this post, then, is to pose this challenge to all of you: are you doing the things you always knew you wanted to? And are you being the kind of person you always wanted to be? If the answer to those questions are "no," then maybe it's time to reevaluate your priorities and to begin pursuing the things and the life you desire.

prom korea

so, during one of my classes, the subject of prom somehow arose. in the beginning i was showing my students pictures from my life that were related to the topics of the day. when i mentioned prom and they had no idea what that was i thought it would be sweet for me to introduce it to them.

i showed them pictures from when i went to prom. i talked about prom proposals and limousines and prom pictures and food and dancing. i showed them some prom proposals off of youtube. and then told them they'd have to create prom proposals of their own!

here are some of the best and brightest from gyeongnam science high school...

mid-week, one of the teachers comes up to me and says: “I heard about your prom proposal lesson. I had class 2-1. I expected them to be asleep, but they were all awake. I asked them why. They said because they had a very fresh class. I asked who’s class it was. They said it was your class. Thank you. Because of you, my class was better.”

that's what i'm talking about! changing the school one lesson at a time!

i played "would you rather" and "never have i ever" with my students. the reasoning behind this was to get them to speak in only english. in every class thus far the students inevitably revert to korean. my goal is to have the class speaking in only english by the end of the semester. i don't want to have to punish them for speaking in korean though. and i decided to take baby steps towards that goal instead of forcing them into it all at once. i'm hoping that at least the last month of this semester will be completely in english and then that this would carry over to next semester, for the returning students at least.

-would you rather drink milk or soju?

i hate milk. i won't drink it. didn't really drink it growing up either, so why start now? but on principle i had to choose it.

-would you rather study english or math?

again, on principle i had to choose english. but in reality i love math. always have always will.

-never have i ever studied during lunchtime

one person put down a finger

-never have i ever bought clothes

everybody lost on this one - how is this even possible?

-never have i ever spoken korean in joshua's class

so this one was debatable. about 5 people didn't put down fingers. but i feel like EVERYONE has spoken in korean

on game point, i lost on, "never have i ever eaten [a certain type of meat before."

once it came down to just me and one student and he says to me, "never have i ever been to prom." it was pretty funny, i can't hate.

sultry

last monday, i found a cot folded up next to my desk. i couldn't remember if it was always there or not… anyway, it was also offered to me that i could go sleep in the dormitories if i wanted. waking up at 6:30 every morning is no easy feat for me. but i've been doing it. and i have never been more than 5 minutes late, which is pretty darn good. however, this has meant that by the time i get to school, i am spent. and since my earliest class doesn't even start until 10:30, i usually take naps every morning. today is actually the first day in the last 2 weeks that i haven't taken a nap. which is kinda ironic since my classes were canceled for today. maybe sleeping is kind of like a stress/dread reliever?

anyway, at first i was sleeping in my chair at my desk. mind you, we have nice leather chairs. like, i've never had a chair of such quality to call my own ever. eventually i moved over to the sofa. i mean, if i'm gonna sleep every day anyway, why hide it? at first i was sitting somewhat properly on the sofa, but now, i just sprawl out. i missed a teacher's meeting last week because i was napping. when my co-teach noticed i was missing, she asked my officemate if i was okay. he responded that he didn't want to wake me up because i looked so peaceful.

i'm certainly not the only one that sleeps at school though...

Mr. Kim and I got locked out of our office today. After 20 minutes of waiting around we started wandering. I find a volleyball and we start playing in the hall. it was pretty hilarious. I show him the wall-drill where you set against the wall. he starts chucking the ball at the wall and it’s flying towards him. he almost got hit in the face on the first one. I tell him to be gentle. so he starts being a little softer. as he’s setting the ball to the wall he kept repeating, “sultry, sultry, sultry.” OMG I died.

Mr. Kim got us locked out of the office, so I

punished him by making him do the wall-drill

sultry.. sultry.. sultry..

we had spaghetti for lunch one day. when i chose not to get any rice the other teachers thought it was hilarious. they started telling each other that i loved spaghetti. one of the teachers even offered me his portion. he was also the one who has a son that is 22 and has told me that i remind him of his son, so i guess that one makes sense.

what doesn't make sense, however, is how i've already seen my host brother naked twice. the first time he was just sitting in his room naked, after showering, so i saw the entire frontal area. the second time he was just walking down the hall naked. so i got to see his back area as well.

this one doesn't make much sense either. this woman is ridiculous. i go to school one day and find that she's rearranged her computer setup so that she can stand while she works instead of having to sit all day. a couple days later she comes to school with a stepper. now here she is working out as she works. or working as she works out.

revelation of the week: even in korea they make fun of female drivers. says korean father, "woman, back mirror, no look."

brother's birthday plus fishing for lobster

it was my host brother's birthday like two weeks ago. trying to figure out a good gift was such a challenge. supposedly he likes baseball. so i thought i could either get him a famous baseball player's jersey, take him to a game maybe, or even buy him some baseball gear. i start feeling out the situation. and i cannot figure out how much he likes baseball. it really seems like he doesn't. he plays about one a month, according to him. he has no desire to watch a professional baseball game -- this means i couldn't get him the jersey or take him to a game.

some of his favorite toys include a ping pong ball, a baseball game on his cell phone, and a harmonica (which he recently obtained and i sometimes play guitar to haha). i asked his mother and brother what he'd like and his brother's response was, "he is a very simple person. he doesn't have much, yet he is happy. there is nothing that he wants." the only thing i've ever seen him get excited about was food. so i'm like, "okay, what about ice cream? i know he likes ice cream." both the brother and mother's eyes light up! food is definitely the way to this kids heart.

i find the baskin robbins to try and buy an ice cream cake. i stand in front of the freezer for a good 10 min trying to figure out what the different cakes are. but aside from the one that says banana in korean, i have no idea what they are. i can't even tell if their ice cream cakes or not. but i am at br, so i reassure myself that they must be. and then my eyes stumble on the one. or on the picture of what the cake is supposed to be. there's a baseball cake! how perfect. even though the actual cake doesn't really look like one and i hadn't noticed it until i saw the picture, i bought that. i had no idea what flavor it was, but who cares. there's a baseball. when my host brother saw the huge br box his eyes lit up and he started giggling and wanted to open it right away. it was pretty sweet. success is mine.

in korea, the birthday boy apparently lights his own candles

in korea, the birthday boy also sings to himself

although it might also have been that he really wanted to eat

the cake so he was just trying to speed the process along

i guess it kinda looks like a baseball...

Next story:

last friday i get home and my host father is like, do you like lobster. my eyes light up and i'm thinking, "lobster? you're gonna take me to go eat some lobster? oh hell yeah!" and then he asks me if i like fishing. i've only gone fishing once, and i've always wanted to try, so i say yes. and then he tells me we're going to go fishing for lobster.. this is when my enthusiasm begins to curb.. the heck does that mean? how do you fish for lobster? i also think back on all of our previous miscommunications and i begin to fear that i may have just gotten myself into another one of those situations. but it is too late. and the potential for eating lobster is too good to pass up. he tells me to put on my "fishing clothes." i put on some boardshorts. and off we go!

the "lobster"

the lobster in our ramen

we ate this too... kidding...

host father serenading me. in english, no less

conclusion:

fishing meant setting up traps for the lobster to swim into.

lobster meant some sort of shrimp/prawn kind of thing.

i had been expecting some fatty lobsters and i was even thinking to myself, "wow, it's this easy to catch lobsters? all you gotta do is set up some traps and eat ramen as you wait? why doesn't everyone do this?" wrong. those little babies were what we were after.

gangnam science high school

i realize i haven't really talked about my school yet, so here is a post on that.

- i am teaching at an advanced science boarding high school. in order to get in to this school, the students had to have been in the top 5% of their middle schools. these kids are probably some of the brightest in korea. high school usually takes 3 years to complete, but the kids at my school all apply for college during their 2 year. very few come back for their 3rd year. although some students will come back if they are unable to get into the good schools of their dreams. the korean education system is also opposite of ours, so it's second semester right now.

as far as i can tell, i think we have 185 total students. of the 185 students, 37 are girls. that's 20%! i teach only the 1st and 2nd graders. there are 4 classes per grade with no more than 24 students per class.

- for the introductory class, i had the students come up with questions to ask each other. here are the top 10 exchanges:

1. Why are you so ugly?
2. Who is the most bacterium?
3. How about going to the dorm with me?
4. Q: Why do you live?
   A: To see you.
5. If you could buy drugs, what kind would you buy?
6. Q: Who is the most beautiful person in the world?
   A: My mother.
7. What do you want to be when you become an adult?
   A: A magician
   A: A mother (said a boy)
8. Who is the best black man?
9. Q: What do you do when you are bored?
   A: Shower
   Q: (my follow-up question) So how often do you shower?
   A: Once a year.
10. Q: What do you think about teacher Joshua?
    A: He is very handsome, but i am better.

- other exchanges i thought were hilarious:

after asking the students how i can help them practice english, one student responds, "just the existence of you, it stimulates me."

"Hi teacher."

Hello. Where are you going?

"Badroom."

Oh, did you get in trouble?

"No, I need to pee."

- i let the students have 5 minutes during the first class to ask me whatever they wanted:

"Do you have a girlfriend? You are handsome." (asks/says a boy)

having girls think you're good looking is awkward already. having boys think so too and to constantly tell you, there is no appropriate word for that feeling.

pretty much every class asked me if i had a girlfriend, which is to be expected. i'm sure all the fulbrighters were asked this. one class, however, was fascinated by my girlfriend and spent the entire 5 minutes asking me questions about her. what is her name? how old is she? did you meet her in korea? how did you meet? what is her Korean name? what is her family name?

by the end i wasn't even asking them if they had any more questions for me, it was more like, "do you have any more questions about my girlfriend?"

- last week the principal asked me if i liked raw fish, fearing he would also try to take me to the "ocean" i said, "it's okay..."

the friday after my first week of school all the teachers went out for dinner together. i arrived 30 min late (the teacher driving me got lost). when i walk in, the VP shouts from across the room, "Joshua is here!" he was plastered! his whole head was red; not just his face. you see, he is kind of balding a little bit so you can see the top of his head and it was bright red!

- speaking of my first week at school, my host father drove me to school every morning (a 20 min out-of-his-way commute) because, as i found out from my co-teacher, he thought that waking up an hour earlier to catch the carpool that the school had arranged for me would be too hard for me. so he volunteered to drive me so that i could sleep more. what a nice man.. unfortunately, the first week ended and so did his rides. i wake up at 6:30 now. if you know me, you know that i am not a morning person. i can stay up all night. i can pull all-nighters without the aide of coffee. but waking up early is just something i cannot do. the first day i car-pooled, i took a two hour nap at my desk. i woke up to my office-mates making fun of me. one of them then proceeded to feed me a spoonful of honey. as a person who doesn't really like honey that much to begin with, that was disgusting! as i'm trying to swallow it, he starts laughing and informs me that eating it straight is too potent for him, that he usually mixes it in tea..

- and lastly (and longly), i did a class on goals as my second lesson. during the first class, the students were speaking too much korean for my liking. what would happen was that a student would first speak in english, but if the other students couldn't understand it, then someone would translate it for everyone. while i believe that teaching english using korean could be very helpful for these students, i think it could be more effective, albeit more difficult, for the students to get into the mind-frame of just using english. that said, i needed to find a way to get them to make a commitment to speaking in english instead of korea. and i wanted to do it without me having to punish them.

what i came up with was to explain to them the importance of english, which for my students seemed effective enough. i don't know about for other schools, but the students at my school all have big dreams for their futures. the majority of my students want to go to KAIST (the best science university in Korea and apparently right up there with the SKY universities) which has an interview in english and has classes in english as well. many of the students have also talked about wanting to be global leaders and desiring to work in the global arena. pointing these things out to the students seemed to be enough, at least for now, to get them to participate in the activities i was trying to do.

after this i had the students, in groups, come up with different things they could do to help them along towards their goals. and here are some of their brilliant ideas:

1. "Go to Joshua's house together."
2. "Have a picnic with Joshua."
3. "We must respect and love Joshua" (so important if you want to practice English…)
4. "Eat delicious food together that Joshua will pay for."
(which i changed to, "Eat delicious food together - students will pay; maybe sometimes teacher will pay")
5. "Translate the school song and sing it" (haha!)
6. "Play games from England" and "Teacher will give students presents which are from England"
7. "You can practice talking with anything - stones, chairs, the wall..."
8. "If somebody speaks in Korean, they will have to sing and dance in front of the class"
9. "Have Joshua live in the dormitory instead of the PE teacher." (The PE teacher is the only teacher who actually lives in the dorms with the students)
10. "Make an imaginary friend and speak with him/her every day for 30 minutes."