"That's okay!"

Because of my "J" personality- something Jamie would say- I have spent an obscenely large amount of time updating my pictures. I even added a new link to the picture section on this page. I have added an album labeled "Around Korea" and updated the albums "Daegu" and "Kangwon dae Hakyo". It dawned on me that most of the pictures labeled "Daegu" were not actually pictures of Daegu itself. So, I moved them to the album "Around Korea". Here is a brief synopsis of the new pictures under the three albums:

"Around Korea"- the first group of pictures are of the 9/12 hour hike my host mother, father, and brother went on this weekend. We left at 7:00am and got back around 6:45 pm. Although we took a break for breakfast, lunch and some snacks. All said and done, I estimate that it as a 9 hour hike up Seoraksan, or Seorak Mountain. It was gorgeous- too green, in the fall it's supposed to be AMAZINGLY beautiful. I'm not sure why my host family decided to go this past weekend- except for the fact that I think my host father had some time. Either way it's beautiful and I am happy that I had the chance to go. Although, I was not so happy coming down from the mountain. I don't think I've ever been in so much pain- my feet killed me, my knees hurt, my back, shoulders, etc. Typically, I've heard to hike Seoraksan, to the highest peak, it usually takes two days. I guess we were originally supposed to spend the night at a Buddhist temple, but my host mother decided she didn't want to, so around 2pm or so, we started back down the mountain. I was glad to be going home, but it turns out that we stayed in a motel on Saturday night and to my horror, on Sunday morning, I was told we were going hiking again. At first I thought- what?! But it ended up being okay, because what was meant by hike, really meant ride up the small peak in a cable car and walk a little ways to the really pretty view. I also got to boulder some, which was neat. Seoraksan is about 4/5 hours away from Daegu.
Also in "Around Korea" are pictures from K/Gumo mountain in Gumi (about 45 minutes away from Daegu). I met up with Ray and we hiked/walked up the mountain (it wasn't too difficult) and got to see the pretty waterfall and the cave. Again- amazing views! Oooo- there are also two pictures of dinner, blowfish soup and blowfish tempura! It was surprisingly tasty! It's actually a white fish. I couldn't keep from thinking of seeing the mini-pufferfish with Quinn. "Puff up!, Puff UP!"
Lastly, there are some older pictures from Heinsa and Bulguksa Temple- they're pictures I got from my host father. There's even a picture of my youngest host sister and I.

I updated the album "Daegu", it has fewer pictures (I moved most of them to the "Around Korea" album, but it has some pictures of the World Cup Stadium at night for those of you who love football. There's also a picture of my cell phone, finally- it's not all that spiffy, but some of my friends have very spiffy phones and the cell phone technology in Korea is about 50xs better than in the states. Koreans also don't go anywhere without their phone- I'm not even joking. The fitness center (while working out), the bathroom (in the stall), at the jimjilbang (while naked)- you get the idea.
There are also two pictures of me helping with the cooking preparations for Chuseok! My host mother and her sisters (2 of them, shown in the pictures), along with my host grandma have been cooking since this morning. We have made so much food in preparation for all the relatives (about 20 or so) that will be coming to our house tomorrow for Chuseok (akin to Thanksgiving in the states- but not really like it). It is a huge three day holiday where families travel back to their father's homes. Some will visit graves and honor their ancestors in a ceremony (I'm pretty sure it's a Buddhist ceremony). It really is a big deal, comparable to Christmas in the states. People bring presents, there are gift sets galore at shops (very expensive) and everything is busy as people are traveling (especially roads). It's been really neat to see and experience, hopefully more pictures will follow. I'm not too comfortable taking a whole bunch of pictures as I don't want my family to feel like they're in a fishbowl. Here's the picture of me:



Lastly, I added about 4 pictures to the album "Kangwon dae Hakyo". They are pictures of friends and I from Yonsei Day, when we met our principals and co-teachers, effectively the last day of orientation.

One more interesting story before I have to get back to my host family: Friday night I lost my business card holder, which was a graduation gift and I felt really sad about it. However, I thought I knew where I dropped it (back at my high school). I was going to walk to the high school, it was nearly 10pm, it would have taken about 20 minutes, but my host mother insisted on driving me. That was really nice. I found the business card holder- yea!- but on the way back, my host mother clipped a teenager in the arm with her car! It was really scary- because I was sitting in the passenger's seat and the kid was hit with the passenger's side mirror. She stopped, got out and made sure he was okay- and then came back into the car (where I was waiting- what else could I have done?) and said "That's okay!"

By the way, if you missed the earlier post about teaching- it's pretty good. It also features two video clips of my teaching/student's learning. I'm going to end this blog with one more video clip of me teaching. My students have a fit whenever I speak in Korean- it's pretty fun!

-Jenna :)


P.S. I just showed my host family this video and my oldest host sister told me I looked fat! (I love Korea! Thankfully I have thick skin!!)

A glimpse into the everyday...

Hi Everyone,

I was lucky enough to have a good friend visit me yesterday and observe and help me teach. This means I have a lot of footage from this week's lesson- which I think is pretty niffty. So, I've changed the picture on the right to a picture of my students and added a new album, cleaverly labeled- "teaching". I am also trying to upload a video or two of me teaching, so please enjoy! It might take a few days to upload the videos and pictures- I'm still trying to wrestle with technology! This should be a picture of me looking silly- I was trying to get the students to guess what what was in the envelope!



As you can see by looking at the pictures, I write an agenda on the chalk board (yes, chalk board) everyday. I also write a daily phrase. This helps the students get into a routine and helps them practice and learn some English classroom vocabulary. I try to keep the phrases and agenda as simpe as possible so the students can read and understand what is happening. This week's phrase was "May I go to the bathroom?" Which was inspired after a few students did not know what to ask when they had to use the bathroom- my bad! Th first three weeks were phrases to help the students understand things I will say in class on a daily basis: May I have your attention please? (ala Kent, it works in Korea too!) Do you have any questions? Please pass your papers forward.

The lesson I taught this week was about Green Eggs and Ham. Actually- that is the story I used to get the students speaking. The real goal/objective every week is just to make the students speak English. There is no curriculum I have to follow and the textbook they use seems very disjointed to me. Besides they use the textbook with other teachers- I'm not supposed to use that. So, as much as I would like a unit/curriculum map my essential goal is to have the students speaking English. They know the vocabulary, the grammar, etc- it's all stored in their minds after years and years of rote memorization. My job is to tap these resources and get them to use what they know. I have begun this task by using American music (last week's lesson) and books (this week's lesson) to get the students hooked into the lesson and from there to get them speaking.

Green Egs and Ham worked really well because it was something the students could read- and felt confident in reading. Yes, the actual words themselves are easy for freshman English Foreign Languge students to read and speak, but I added a rather difficult twist to the task: put the story together before we read it. I literally cut up and laminated the story into 41 parts (41 students being my largest class) so every student would have a piece of the story. I grouped the pieces by page number (divided the actual story into just 5 pages) and then coded each piece of paper with a letter- my secret answer key. [This really didn't take too long.]

In class I gave a quick intro. to popular kids books in America, some of my favorites! Then I told the students we would read a story in class, but bfore we read it, I needed their help. I explained very thoroughly about how each of them would get a part of the story, but they would be putting the story together in groups and I would be there to help and support them. I passed out the pieces of paper and watched the students get to work. Now, after 13 years or so of rote teaching methods, my students were very eager to work in groups to complete a hands-on task. It was relaly neat to see! The only hesitation students had were if they did not understand what I was saying in English. Once a stuent helped translate into Korean they were off. I walked around to each group and checked in to make sure they were on the right page. I helped with giving hints "read the pieces of paper out loud- it will help!" "look for similar words on the pieces of paper". For some classes/students this activity was above their heads, but most students could complete the task, and other students flew through the activity. After I had the students read thir passage together before they were finished so they could hear how the story flowed (Dr. Suess is great for this).

Then I had the students sit back in their original seats. I showed them the full text of the story- explaining how each page I showed was a page of the story each group put together. It helped them understand what they just did. Putting the story together with no real prior knowledge of the story was very difficult for them. Debriefing the activity helped a ton- I even asked the students "was this difficult? Why?". I would even pull out a few sentences and read them aloud to the students. Instead of me reading the whole story to them, I found the cartoon version of Green Eggs and Ham on YouTube. This was much more of a visual for the students and a lot more interesting than Miss N reading through the story. Watching the cartoon really helped with their comprehension.

Class ended with one more debrief of the story itself. "Was the story easy or difficult to read (speak)?" My students- "Easy!" Me- "Why?" After waiting a few minutes a few students will throw out answers, "same words (repetition), same sounds/like song (rhythm), for kids (short/small words and simple sentences)" Last question, "The story was written for children, so it has a message or a lesson to teach them- what do you think the message of the story is? What it is trying to teach kids?" After a few moments- "Encourage, try" Me- "Great! Exactly, we should try new things! The man in the story would not eat green eggs and ham, but once he did, it turned out (he ended up) he liked them!" One boy in class even said the message was "Don't judge a book by its cover" I nearly fell over I was so happy! So, I tell the students that message too. I think it's a great lesson for them when they learn English too. All my lessons have similar components- speaking and an extra lesson like confidence, or to try new things.

As you can probably tell, I am really excited about how well this lesson went. I was a little nervous at first, but am glad that I stuck with my instincts because my students surpassed my expectations. I alwyas have high expectations of them, but am continually amazed at their abilities nonetheless.

-me :)

"The belly button is bigger than the belly." -Korean Proverb

I've generally been feeling a little down this weekend. I think it has to do with the weather (it's been rainy and cloudy all weekend and the fact that I was exhausted from the week). Nothing too serious, but this weekend was relaxing and in about a week I will have ten days off from school. I am looking forward to this a lot. I will write a bit about this weekend and then recount the rollercoaster that is Korean language class and the inspiration for this blog title.

Friday I was able to sleep in a little, but I got up to have breakfast with my host fam. because I feel bad if I don't eat with them. Usually the mother or grandmother leaves food out for me and then heats other food for me. I try to avoid this and ate with the fam. and then went back to sleep- a little. I walked to school and met my co-teacher who was kind enough to contact and drive me to a place where I will start volunteering every Friday. I really wanted to volunteer at an orphanage, but it turned out that places did not need anyone on Fridays. I did not understand this until he told me in the car- I would have worked on the weekends to work in an orphanage, but am excited to be where I am- I think I might be needed more. It's an after school center for children who have lost one parent and/or are having financial problems. I think there are only 22 children who come to the center and they are all elementary age. The range is pretty sweeping and there is a good mix between girls and boys. Apparently there are a few orphans who live above the center and might come and attend my class. I think I am teaching the children English- which isn't all that interesting, but hopefully I can make it fun for them. I am excited to meet the kids, I start this week. The woman at the center who met us told me that some of the kids are rude and might not treat me that well, but it is because of their situations. I told them it was the same as in the states.

After I went to language class and then got together with two classmates for dinner- at a Mexican restaurant!! I had a lime daquari and a taco with real sour cream and guacamole! It was super exciting. I haven't been craving anything really, but it sure tasted really good. It was also really nice to talk with other native English speakers and got to meet new people. One of the women I went out with is from Canada and the other from Florida. They are both really nice and are English instructors at the university. Sara, the Canadian, has been in Korea on and off for four years teaching and loves it. She also has a cat! Which I got to hold and pet! I really miss kitties- they don't like them in Korea and no one really ever has them as pets. They're are like rats in America. Chris has been here for three weeks and she's pretty cool too. It was my suggestion that we go and get a drink and I had a nice relaxing time.

Saturday morning I met up with a friend for coffee and that was really nice. We walked around Daegu and found this really interesting outdoor market. Lunch wasn't the best, but it was edible. 국밥 not my favorite thing! Then I came home and just hung out with my host family. I really don't think I did too much of anything really- it was nice. Today I woke up and had a delicious breakfast! It was a fried rice omelette!! Man it was tasty- I can't wait to try and make it myself. My host family invited me to go hiking with them today, but were cool that I wanted to go to church instead. Church was pretty good- this time, the pastor's wife helped translate. I missed a lot, but the service was pretty good and I liked the worship music again. We sang, "God is good all the time, all the time God is good"! It was exciting. Then I went to Bible study and that was good- I still feel bad for disturbing everyone and making them translate things for me. But everyone was excited to see me again and one girl in particular really wants to be my friend- which is really exciting. Then I came home. I was going to go to the gym, but forgot that my host sister wanted to make brownies. So I helped her instead. Dinner was interesting- sushi and a hotdog. :)

Korean language class is difficult. But I am glad I am taking it. Really I think I could just hit myself over the head with a baseball bat over and over again and I would feel the same. Monday night I started in the beginner 1 class, but it was really really easy. I somehow convinced my teacher to let me try beginner 2- but the beginner 2 teacher was less than happy to let me in. Mainly because she thought I wouldn't understand anything. It was really frustrating, I brought my little certificate from Korea University and everything too, but she didn't even read it. Wednesday night she asked me a question in class (part of the grammar we were learning) "how long have you been studying Korean?" I answered correctly "2 months" my teacher nearly had a heart attack and exclaimed "what?!" but really rude. It made me really mad! If I had a different personality I think I would have gone home and cried and changed classes. Instead I was really mad and am now determined to do really well in class- which means I need to study a lot. I left class on Wednesday night and got on the bus angry and then five minutes later my bus broke down. I got off and followed the other Koreans and hoped another bus would come because I had no idea where I was or how to get back home. As bad as this sounds, I am happy I am in class and that it is challenging. Teaching has been pretty easy and it is nice to be challenged. My co-teacher told me the Korean proverb to describe Korean language class. It is because my class is only 50 minutes, but I have to ride the bus for about 2 hours (one hour each way). So, I think the proverb translates to something like "a wash" in English. The bus ride isn't all that bad- except for the fact that Korean bus drivers and driving in general is really scary. I like the time to myself.

I have to go study Korean now! I think I might post again before Sunday as there are a few things about Korean culture and such I want to blog about.

Stay tuned!

-me

Hi all,

I am going to try and get back to the schedule where I post every Sunday. Hm, this is longer than I expected... :)

Last week my schedule was changed. I had to teach on Friday. It wasn't that big of a deal, I just figured I would be uber tired on Friday because I had to teach all the classes I normally teach on Thursday. I teach 5 classes on Thursday and then had to teach another 5 on Friday. Which really meant that I had to plan a lot on Wednesday. But I made a really fun lesson about contractions and pop songs. How do they relate you might ask? Well, I reviewed what a contraction is with the students and explained how native speakers use cotractions all the time when speaking. We did a few activities with that and then I played two pop songs. I printed out the lyrics and then had the students find teh contractions in the lyrics. They really seemed to like it. It was fun and I had a good time. I even tried to make them sing! I get to teach the lesson 7 more times and then I have to plan a lesson for Thursday's class. I am thinking about a lesson around articles. Many Korean tend to leave out articles of speech when they speak. I have to figure out a way to make it fun.

Friday a really nice teacher took me to sign up for language class! Thankfully it looks like everything will work out and I will go to class every day (sort of a bummer, but I want to learn!). So, I will leave straight from school- hopefully get on a bus in a timely manner, go to class, and then come back home. I should be home around 8:30 every night. I need to remember to take a snack with me.

Friday night was fun as I met up with Ray, Ariah, Amber, David, and Amelia. We went out for dinner and just got to hang around. Then I met up with Alison on Saturday and that was a lot of fun! I showed her around downtown, we had a "picnic" in a park with kimbap and mandu. Then we walked to the traditional market and then to Daseong Park- which has a zoo. The park is really pretty, but the zoo is really depressing. The animals do not have any toys in their cages and generally do not look very happy. Some looked a little underweight as well. The most astonishing thing to see was the fact that people kept trying to throw food to the animials- completely unheard of in America. The moneky cage had a whole bunch of trash at the bottom of the cage from people throwing food in bags. Some of the monkeys were even gnawing and trying to eat the plastic bags and such. It was pretty ridiculous.

Anyways, later Alison and I went to a resturant that had an outdoor area. We ordered a bottle of white wine and a cheese plate!!! It was soooo good, even if I did get bit by 20 mosquitos. We hung out there for a while until Ray, David, and Luke met up with us. Then Amber, Ariah, and Amelia found us and we all hung out at a bar. Ariah, Amber and I stayed at a jimjilbang Saturday night and woke up for Dunkin' Donuts Sunday morning. :) I then went back home to drop stuff off before going to church. I forgot that Sunday was a "holiday" of sorts and when I got home my host mother's sister was there. I was told to eat food- so I sat around and tried to hang out. Then I left for church and when I came back home there were moe relatives. In fact, there must have been about 10 relatives or so who came for this holiday. It's really an observance of the ancestors. It's a mini-observence compared to Chusok, which will happen in two weeks. It was interesting to meet the family- no one spoke english, so I just sat around trying to smile. But the family did the whole thing where they set out food and drink for the ancetors and bow and such. It was interesting.

Church was interesting on Sunday- but good too. I met up with the young adult pastor who speaks really good English. Again, he reiterated the fact that there is no English service, so he was not sure how the church could serve me. But while we were meeting the worship band was practicing for service and they were practicing songs I recognized! I was really excited. The songs were in Korean, so I could try and sing the Korean or sing the English I knew. It was cool. The pastor sat with me during church and tried to write down parts of the message, but it was hard for me to understand everything. Apparently the head pastor really wants me to come to the church. I feel bad because everyone has to bend over backwards to translate for me. So, after service I went up and introduced myself (not as scary as it sounds, there aren't a whole bunch of people at the young adult service and I only said about 2 short sentences in Korean). I was about to sit down, but they were no! wait! We are going to sing a song for you. So, that was nice, I did not know what it was about and if they sing songs to visitors or what- but I felt very welcome. :) Afterwards I got invited to a Bible study and got a book. They are going through the Purpose Driven Life group series. But the book is in Korean. There really wasn't a Bible study yesterday because the group had me introduce myself and they introduced themselves. Everyone is older than me, but very nice and helpful. Some were very eager to speak English and others were very shy. I am going to try and go back next week. After Bible study we went to get food and I got to talk some more about myself and Colorado. Then I went home- turns out a few of my new church friends (hopefully they'll be friends) live in the same apartment complex as me. So, that's cool.

Okay, I have to go and teach! Hope all is well with everyone! If you want some more to read check out my friends' blog- he ate dogmeat soup the other day. I haven't had it yet! http://koreanexperience.blogspot.com/

-me :)

"Come and I will make you fishers of men"

Hm, after attempting to fish this weekend, it appears that I should not give up everything and become a fisherman- or woman for that matter! My host family took me to Kampo (Gampo) on Sunday afternoon to fish. Kampo or Gampo is located on the South East coast of Korea. We fished in the sea- the water was pretty gross and polluted. I did not manage to catch anything. However, Han Soong caught a few fish and my host father caught many. Na Kyung even caught one. I was worried we were going to have sushi from the fish we caught, but instead my host mother cooked a few of the fish into a soup we had for breakfast on Monday (I did not eat much of it!). Before the great fishing adventure we had sushi at a restaurant near the sea. Apparently the family eats there every time they go fishing. I was a little worried about the fish and decided to drink lots of soju to try and kill anything on the fish! I'm feeling fine- so do not worry!

Before all this we went to Bulguksa Temple, a famous Buddhist temple, another UNESCO World Heritage site, and to see a famous statue of Buddha, another UNESCO site. They were very nice. Sometimes I think all Buddhist temples look the same, but it was really pretty and a little different than the last Buddhist temple I visited. The statue of the Buddha was pretty cool. It was huge (I forget how tall) and carved out of granite. The sign said it is the best Buddhist artwork in the world. I am not sure how much stock I put into UNESCO site designations, but it was still nice to see.

Saturday night I went out to dinner with a teacher from my school. She invited me out to meet a friend of hers, another native English speaker. Linden turned out to be a Kiwi; he's from New Zealand! He was very nice and it was really interesting to talk to him about the cultural differences between America, New Zealand, and Korea (he's been here four years)! We went to an Indian restaurant- it was Korean-Indian, but still yummy. I even had naan! Afterwards we went and played pool- that was fun too.

Teaching this week had been good so far. The students are speaking a lot better than I initially thought- which is great. Next week I am going to make class a little more difficult. My dad gave me a great idea for a lesson and I am going to try and somehow work it in for next week's class. The idea is around the t.v. show American Idol. I never watched the show and actually do not like it at all, but a lot of my students are interested in learning American pop songs and like to sing, so maybe I can create something around this idea.

Some things that are coming together this week- an orphanage in which to volunteer, a university in which to take Korean language classes, and a church to attend! I am very happy and excited that these things are coming together. I have been trying to be patient and not too pushy and they all seemed to happen at once. My plan was just to work on a place to volunteer this week.

Check out the pictures, I've updated them! I updated Kangwon de Hakyo too! One of my favorite pictures is on the right hand side of this page. I have been teaching my host siblings how to pop snacks up in the air and catch them in their mouths! Hahaha, I'm such a good cultural ambassador!

-Jenna :)