I've Got News!

Well, the contract has been signed, and the countersigned contract has been returned, my SMOE school has been informed, my airplane ticket has been bought (for way too much won), so it's now pretty much official, Tuttle will be returning to good ol' Georgia in early August to take a full-time position as a science teacher at a stable Atlanta-area independent school for 2023-24, and hopefully some years thereafter.

While I was on vacation in Thailand (I might end up making a couple of posts later on this) I decided to test the waters since I was reaching the retirement age here in Korea. Frankly, 62 is a ridiculously young age to put a quality teacher out to pasture--I personally have a good ten years left in me! Especially now I've got new lenses after cataract surgery in 2017, a new shoulder following my terrible accident, and a brain MRI that demonstrated I am in "perfect" brain health a few months ago.

So I updated my resume, worked up a solid cover letter, and sent it out to schools looking for such as me identified on the GISA website. To be honest, I am highly qualified, quite energetic, and a pretty good candidate for MS/HS science teaching jobs. Due to age, I didn't have high expectations--I was mainly just testing the format--but got a fair amount of interest, and eventually the job offer.

I know I don't post much these days, which I explain honestly by pointing out that not much newsworthy has been going on--heck, my last post was really just the same post I've made a dozen times with photos of the Yeouido cherry blossoms. Well, to be fair, they are blogworthy no matter how many times you've seen them!

Anyway.

I think this is blogworthy, fer shure!

This blog was inaugurated on the acceptance of a position teaching English in Korea, after umpteen years teaching science and math in my home state of Georgia, and so should probably end on leaving Korea to teach science and math in Goergia. But before that, I want to be sure to memorialize, or blogorize, some of my final, special times here--two and a half months transpired from contract to arrival in Korea, and it's just about the same timeframe before I begin my new job.

So therefore, I hope to at least capture some of my last weeks here before moving on to the next stage in my life--and letting my Patch of Seoul grow on its own.

New Contract Time

This week was re-contracting time here in The Seoul Patch, or more precisely at SMOE for August hires, so I had to fill out some paperwork and undergo an "open class" for the principal and VP. In the past, though I may have worried a bit about the re-contracting process, because there are definitely some aspects of capriciousness to it, I never sweated the "open class", because after 25 plus years teaching, I'm pretty confident in that area.

Or I was, until my co=teacher informed me that last year, under different administrators, they had not really been satisfied with my open class lesson. As she explained, it was "not anything special." Whatever that means. After all, it had clear objectives that matched the textbook, and the activities were designed to help students meet the objectives; there were different types of activities, focused on listening and speaking. The students were successful and there was definitely co-teaching go on. All things that we are told over and over in the SMOE workshops. And I was told that this time I had to do it without a co-teacher.

So my open class this year was to be period 2 of lesson 4 in the fifth grade book (from YBM/Chronjae), which is titled "Say Hello to the Class". In period 1, the story is about two new students, named Sneeze and Hiccup, who join Magic School. "I like magic," enthuses Sneeze, "I am interested in broom class." Hiccup likes wand class. Magic School? Broom class? An homage, let's call it, to Harry Potter's wizarding world.

I won't go into excruciating detail, but my lesson made the relation to Harry Potter explicit. First, I ask a few questions to review the previous lesson, then I ask if they know of any movies that are about a magic school. They know, of course, about Hogwarts. I've been to the trouble of finding an HP clip and applying English subs, warning them that there's a lot of tough language in the clip, but just try to observe what they can about this magic school.


I turn off the lights, and when the clip is over, I make an entrance just like Snape does, wearing a wizard hat and cape. It is a hit. Next we go through a PPT I've made practicing the target sentences of the previous lesson, ending with the team having to unscramble such sentences about HP characters, for points: I am interested in plants. I like gardening. (Neville Longbottom) He is interested in dragons. He likes wyverns and griffins. (Hagrid) She is interested in birds. She likes birdwatching. (Cho) etc.

Eleven or twelve minutes have elapsed, and now we do the practice conversation from the text. I have made and printed out a cloze sheet (fill-ins) for each student. They write in the missing words the first time the conversation is played, then there is a listen and repeat section--nothing earth-shattering here. Next, the teams may volunteer to stand up and read the conversation as a role-play. Now is the fun part--I pull out wizard hats and a broom for them! Lo and behold, every team is chomping at the bit for their turn. Some photos:


Since all the teams do it, this segment runs about fifteen minutes. Next, we play the "Sleeping Elephants Game" only I've re-done it into Sleeping Dragons. Each team gets a mini-whiteboard, and all put their heads down on the desk. One by one, team members/dragons "wake up" to see a part of a sentence revealed on a PPT slide. At the end, all the team members work together to write down the sentence. If they are correct, they earn a point.

We play this game until there are five minutes remaining in class, and we finish with the other main element of the textbook for this lesson, the "Rap Box." There's one in period 2 of each chapter. Mostly they're dreck, like this one--the idea is solid, it just lacks in the execution.

So that's my re-contracting open class. (Okay, so I did go into considerable detail, but I hope it wasn't excruciating!) I got to practice it twice on other sections before the one in front of the administrators and other teachers, so it went flawlessly. I have to admit I took extra care and extra time in developing this lesson, and was even a bit nervous about it.

Now, here's where it gets a little bit odd. The VP and P are no-shows! My main co-teacher whispers to me that they have to be off-campus (remember, they set this date and time about three weeks ago). They're not coming. The only observers/scorers are my two co-teachers, both of whom support me. "So just relax," she tells me. "They trust our opinion." I was relaxed, but disappointed: I wanted them to see me at work! especially having gone to these lengths to make a great lesson.

Anyway, by the end of the next day, I still had not heard about whether I would get a new contract, so now I was getting nervous. But finally, Wednesday morning during the break after first class, my Co tells me the principal has approved my new contract, "Congratulations!"

So, assuming I pass my medical check sometime in July, I am set for another year of jollity and teaching here on the peninsula.

Next issue: Where to go on my summer vacation? Places I have not been: Nepal, Mongolia, Laos. Places I want to try again: Philippines, Vietnam, Japan. Anyone...?

Saturday Class Trip

By which I mean, not a class trip on Saturday, though it was, but a trip of my 'Saturday Class', which is a Public Speaking class for "the best and brightest" from throughout the Nambu (southern Seoul) district--or at least the best and brightest willing to give up most of their Saturday mornings for four months.
And, actually, that doesn't exclude very many of the brightest students, as this is seen as an outstanding opportunity for them--and it's free! The inaugural semester of the program, we had sixteen candidates, and accepted all sixteen. This is the fourth offering, and we had over 150 applicants, which was trimmed down to forty in the essay portion of the application process. There was then an interview session, and twenty-two were accepted into the class. Due to expeced attrition, we now have twenty, seen below: That photo was taken on our field trip on Saturday, which was a condensed, one-day version of the overnighter we took last semester (see the post here, with plenty of photos). We spent perhaps two hours less at the math institute and one hour less at Petit France, and managed to fit it all into one day. Petit France is a kind of educational/amusement facility located in the wilds of Gyeonggi-do an hour-plus from Seoul; admission for adults is 8,000 W. You could reasonably spend two or three hours being edutained, and another two or three hours getting there and back. They have periodic, very brief, marionette shows: ... presented all in Korean. That would have to be one's biggest gripe about the place, if it is to give one the feel or aspect of a French village--the lack of French. It is, nonetheless, a very scenic spot, and does a good job taking advantage of the fact: And don't forget the nice collection of original Le Petit Prince artwork by Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

Bragging Rights

1) Norfolk & Chance earned the "Hat Trick" last night at 3 Alley Pub's Quiz Night, first place three times in a row. Well done, us! Unfortunately, we have to take a miss the next couple of weeks--at least under that team name.

2) This week's class activity is "create your own superhero", something fun and relatively easy with which to end the year. So far, my favorite superhero is Whassup Man. Students name and provide the characteristics of their hero or villain by fillng in the blanks on a worksheet I stole from Simon and Martina and fixed up for my purposes. I take (or sometimes choose) volunteers to read about their superhero/villain aloud at the end of class. It's generally a humorous, nice way to end things up.

Most classes have one or two students that take shots at a disliked teacher or the principal; and a couple who make me into the superhero, angling for brownie points on the last day. I felt pretty good today that one student actually tried to describe my traits as a teacher: "TuttleTeacher can freeze students with his stopwatch", "TuttleTeacher can make students pay attention without using corporal punishment", "His television shows interesting videos".

3) My teaching--or my ego--got a more official boost today; the principal showed me a certificate naming me Seoul Office of Education 2010 NSET Teacher of the Year. My co-teacher said there are five teachers receiving the award; I don't know if she meant total, per division, per region or what. Anyway, recognition is nice. And the monetary prize is nice, too--don't know how much it is, but it's nice.

I don't know the criteria or the process that was involved, but I do know I was asked a few weeks ago to put together some sample lesson plans, and I gather this was at a late stage of the selection procedure. I also know that the evaluators of my "open class" gave me a perfect score; and that my school's English Department gave me an "A+".

So, those are some nice laurels to rest on over the holidays!

Pink Pandas on Parade

When I went to Beijing in February of 2009, I happened to visit a silk factory (while on a tour of the Great Wall of China); the showroom had thousands of hand-made silk ties for about USD 5 apiece. For whatever reason, I bought only one tie while I was there. One.

I've kicked myself ever since. When I went to Shanghai over the Chuseok holiday, I was determined not to repeat such a dumb move, especially when fellow expat Oliver informed me of the tailoring bargains to be had at the South Bund Fabric Market. So, I bought a half-dozen ties for 95 Yuan, about 2,700 W each. (Thanks, Oli!) Including this lovely pink Panda tie. The Pandas aren't pink, the tie is:


Fast forward to today. I attended the annual SMOE NSET Workshop, at a university campus all the way on the east side of Seoul. Afterwards, I am going to dinner (samgyupsal, natch!) with the regular suspects when I see a pink Panda walking toward me on the sidewalk. I fumble for my camera, but only manage to capture the receding image (you can see a blue one at right, with his head off):


I was disappointed, but thought no more about it. Well, we finish eating and head back to the subway for our trips home (tomorrow is a work day, etc, etc) when there s/he is, selling or huckstering god-knows-what. I get Nick to take my picture with him/her:


So, I think this is the end of the story, until I get home and dl the pictures. I remember that just yesterday I took some video of another Panda huckster, this one a mechanical dancing model outside a new-ish SK phone store. It's not pink, but still ...

Tuttle Update

Here's what's happening in my little patch of Seoul:

• Mid-term exams start Thursday, so we have no scheduled classes after lunch on Wednesday. Some teachers have already asked to take my class time for desparately-needed review (a.k.a. lack of planning on their part--but no skin off my nose) so I have three classes tomorrow and two on Wed.
  
• My lesson plan is one of my puzzlers and word games things, meant to be low stress and fun. I'll continue that next week, for the classes after exams finish (Thursday and Friday).
  
• We have a final week of classes July 12 through 16. I will show them some video clips and cartoons.
  
• My Summer Camp will run fifteen days, July 20 through August 5. I will do two classes, both of them only involving the fifteen students who have been chosen to go to Singapore (they depart on Aug. 6). One class will be conversation and vocabulary to prepare them for their trip; the other will be "book club", wherein they are to read and discuss Beastly by Alex Flinn, a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast.
  
• We were told during our "re-hiring interview" to expect a new contract, with a more complete and precise English translation--to arrive at the beginning of July. I'm interested to see what this will bring. We sign it, get a medical check-up, and send that in. Then SMOE sends it back, we take the contract and some other stuff, including some money, to the Immigration Office, and get a new visa. Then it's done.

Open Class

My "Open Class" was Tuesday, when two teachers from a local girls high school came to observe my teaching. The co-teacher announced this to the students, however, as "guests" from the girls school, whereupon the boys began behaving in a deranged manner, for they thought actual young feminine flesh was about to appear before them.

The groan when they were corrected was a soulful wail of shattered dreams.

Anyway, this is all done as part of my contract renewal process. I was initially hired for this job sight unseen after a twenty minute phone interview; but now that I've been a successful teacher inside their system for two years, they treat re-enrollment very cautiously.

I was told later by Mr Lee, at the "meeting" I held afterwards at the samgyupsal restaurant for the English Dept., that the guest teachers gave me perfect marks. I suspect that this is, to some extent, pre-arranged.

So, the next part of the process is an interview at SMOE on June 17; then comes the hassle of the medical check and the visit to Immigration for a visa renewal. And that's Tuttle set up for another year in the Seoul Patch.

SMOE Workshop Covers Same Old Ground

So, someone thought this sign would be helpful ...

Firstly, Korea University's campus, on the northeast side of Seoul (a short walk from 안암 AnAm station on Line 6, exit 2), is very much like the US land grant colleges I've seen--open plazas, a mix of Gothic-style and contemporary architecture, appropriate statuary ...




The only thing missing was the continuous stream of cars prowling the roads looking for an open parking space.

There was considerable confusion surrounding our meeting places--well, let me back up; there was considerable confusion surrounding the whole workshop. My school was notified late Thursday, and I found out Friday AM. Again, the conference was Monday and today. I asked Miss Lee where and when, and she said, "They will tell us later."

I gave her that certain look. She thought for a moment. "Oh, yah, that is problem; today is Friday. You must be there on Monday. I will call to find out."

Well, it eventually got sorted out, in the broadest possible sense of the term, and I joined 200 other SMOE high school teachers for a two-day seminar junket (Andy's post from yesterday is titled "Seminars are Stupid".) Once again, the topic was Co-teaching. This is at least the third workshop I've been to with this topic--at only one of which were the co-teachers included. Enough is enough!

So much so, that when we had a breakout session on Tuesday morning--today--with good ol' Max as our Fearless Leader (you will remember him as my roomie back at Yong-In in aught-eight) (photo below, fearlessly leadering), I told my group I didn't want to talk about co-teaching no more! Let's just share ideas that have worked in our classrooms and gotten the students speaking English. So we did.


I was able to get three ideas that I will try to use next year (two general lesson ideas, one management technique) so it was, in relative terms, a successful seminar for me.
(UPDATE: Here is my report on one lesson I have used in the classroom: Playing ESL Clue.)

This afternoon was different. In a good way! First of all, after a totally unnecessary "Closing Ceremony", everyone received a 4 GB USB drive. Nice!

Secondly, we were treated to a very delicious lunch buffet at a place called Panorama in Jongro-ga--alas, I was near the end of a single-serve line of about 200 people.


But the food was plentiful and well-prepared, though the pork ribs were badly cut, so that each one had hidden lumps of cartilage. A good mix of Korean and Western foods--but it's no Sky Onn Food ...

Thirdly, our main afternoon activity was a trip (well, a short walk from the restaurant) to see the long-running theatrical production, Jump, described in the brochure as an "extravaganza of feet fists and fun". The stairwells down to the performance space were decorated with numerous murals:


They have two performances a day, and our four o'clock included SMOE, a Filipino tour group, and some Korean high school students. I sat in the front row, which was part of the SMOE block. The center seat in the front row.

Signage outside indicated that *flash* photography was forbidden, so I was going to give you, the Teeming Dozens, a real close-up of what is an acclaimed show. It was all going fine for the first 20 minutes, until some staffer crept over and told me photos were forbidden. I wanted to hammer him--there is a universal sign for No photos: a camera with a slash through it. There is also a universal sign for No flash photos: a camera with a flash going off with a slash through it. They clearly had (I double-checked on the way out) the No flash photos sign. My morals are such that I cannot continue shooting after this, even though I know there are chunks of video on YouTube.

I did manage to get a few decent photos beforehand, which are unrepentantly reproduced below. I can recommend the show--well, certainly if it's free, but paying W35,000 for 1 1/2 hours seems a bit steep--since it is very entertaining, easy to follow (practically the only words spoken are Okay, Yes and No), fast-moving and almost error-free in execution. Jump is not Great Art: it's a "comic martial arts performance" with a tenuous but reasonable storyline to showcase acrobatics, physical prowess and well-timed fighting moves that should be pleasing to an audience.




Factoid: the most commonly-understood word throughout the world is Okay.

Factoid: -oid is is a suffix which means "resembling, like, a poor imitation".

So, is a factoid true or just sort of true? Let me know what you think at the "Comments" link below. Okay?

Some Thoughts on Teaching English

Incruit Corporation, which claims to be Korea's leading HR company, has released a survey of over 4,000 jobseekers in the Korean market, as reported in Korea Times yesterday, and found that "the country's top employers' recent recruitment trend highlights one value they're looking for most ― English proficiency."

"Our assessment shows that the English test score was the only outstanding factor that differentiated candidates from success and failure," said Ko Jin-hee, a career consultant at Incruit.
Strong academic records, voluntary work, internships, awards and certifications didn't turn out to be decisive, as a large number of candidates who were rejected had such credentials, the data show.
A similar evaluation done previously indicates that English proficiency is one of the skill sets most valued during recruitment, but figures show that candidates ― whether successful or not ― are improving their scores across the board.

This is no surprise to anyone who is knowledgeable about the way Korea works--or doesn't. And for anyone who teaches English here, like me, it's a definite indicator of job security, especially with the jobless rate in the US plummeting towards 10% and our financial whizzes seemingly resigned to it.

I got a W100,000 per month raise on my new contract (about $85 at current exchange rates) even though technically I was supposed to stay at my level for 2 years. I feel that I am well-liked at my school, even seen as a model teacher--I am sometimes asked not just for English advice, but also teaching advice. The older teachers take notes on my presentations.

OTOH, I am wise to the fact that all that respect could disappear with one "wrong" move from me, though I can't even suss out what that might be until it happens. This is the downside of buying into a foreign culture.

"The standard of English proficiency has changed," said Ko. "Job seekers can no longer outshine their competitors with mediocre skills because everyone is getting better."
She stressed that test scores aren't enough to assess language proficiency, which leads companies to put more emphasis on speaking evaluations.

This is why I try to make students--even resistant students--speak English, a sentence or an idea at least, in every class, hoping to give them some confidence. The best way, it seems to me, is to give them no choice. Listen and repeat has its place, but that's not what I'm talking about.

You can't accomplish this with slapping or beating, or even really with hypervigilance. You need to give them a reason to speak English. I never sit at my desk. When not presenting the lesson material, I move among the students and insist my coteachers do the same, asking questions, eliciting responses, or just plain talking to them, even if it's not about the lesson. Sometimes, I make them stand up and address the class--reading a sentence or two they have had an opportunity to work on.

Much of the time, my lesson plan is only really successful with the students who want to practice or improve their English. The least proficient students (i.e., the ones who need it most) are most reticent. I have learned to accept that. Efficiencies are thus, so don't spend too much time trying to lure them out. Teach to the top, and hope it trickles down.

Still, these bottom 10-20% are part of the class, too. The ideal plan is one which requires any student to speak, in a controlled situation, with a good chance of success. An information gap activity fits this bill--especially one designed with student interests in mind, arranged so the teaching team can maintain high vigilance. An example: Job Fair.

Did that take work? Yeah, of course it did. The SMOE contract is 22 teaching hours and 18 planning hours per week. That's close to a 1:1 ratio! My advice--use those planning hours to plan, to look ahead, to strategize. The better your planning, the more polished your powerpoints, the more well-thought-out your logistics, the easier time you will have in class. When students are engaged (or at least occupied) every minute, there is less chance for misbehavior, more chance for English-speaking.

Since this is turning out to be a post about teaching methods, allow me to mention Howard Gardner's work on multiple intelligences--while as second language teachers we focus on listening, reading, speaking and writing, we should also avail ourselves of the different learning styles and worldviews of our students. Gardner's work was a paradigm shift in my teaching, and it's still impacting pedagogical theory.

Summer Camp, Part Deux

1) Well, camp continues despite the fact that two of the students are on vacation the rest of the week, and two will be on vacation next week. So, I get up at the crack of dawn, walk twenty minutes to work, spend an hour teaching my scrupulously prepared lesson plan, then walk back home, all before most stores along my way are even open for business--for the benefit of four or five students.

2) On the plus side, the students that show up are quite keen. We spend the first five to ten minutes just talking (in part, this is because I designed my lessons to last 50 minutes, as are regular lessons, and as were winter camp sessions back in January, only to find on the second day that they are one hour!) This is nice, but can't be sustained, so I dive into the planned lesson.

3) Yesterday, being Wednesday, was Video Day, and I showed a string of Schoolhouse Rock videos from God's gift to ESL teachers, YouTube. Interjections, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions ... Schoolhouse Rock did a concise, humorous, tuneful explication of grammar topics. Conjunction junction, what's your function...

4) Today's lesson was essentially the Jack Prelutsky "Beware the Crocodile" plan from www.bogglesworldesl.com. I used this during the winter camp as well, when frankly it went somewhat better, at least in the advanced class I taught fourth period. I met Prelutsky when he came to Heritage some years ago.

5) There is no Number Five.

6) In other news, I have been adjudged "healthy" by Seoul Medical Center, thus completing the last step of the renewal process for my job. Now, I have to gather several forms and pieces of paperwork and carry them to the Immigration Office in Mok-dong for a new visa.

7) I am currently wearing a temporary cap and am supposed to get my gold crown on Monday at 11 AM. Anyone who wants to come along and sing "Suicide is Painless" is more than welcome.

Bonus Photographs: On Yeouido. I have been impressed by the amount and quality of public art here in Seoul. Click on art in the label cloud to see more.

SCHMOE or SMOE

First off, I have to let you know this: the Demonstration class wherein I was to be evaluated today by the head office, get this, did not happen! They changed the procedure at the last possible moment, or even later--the letter was in today's mail, so we did not hear about this change until Miss Lee called to find out why no one had arrived to evaluate my class, as promised. What a bunch of ultra-macaroons, as Bugs Bunny would put it. And if Bugs is making fun of you, how far can you be from Daffy Duck?

Here's the timeline:

Mon, May 27 Initial info sent out about contract renewal
Tues, Jun 2 Final contract renewal submission deadline
Thur, Jun 4 Final day to submit date for Demonstration Class (w/in 2 weeks)
Mon, Jun 8 My date for Demonstration class, as submitted
Mon, Jun 8 Announce (in mail that cannot arrive on Mon) change of renewal process

These people make the Keystone Kops look like the Nobel Committee. To begin with, this process should be taken care of in April, at the latest. The only reason I am not flustered is because, as mentioned previously, I don't plan to break out a hash pipe or rape a student across my desk anytime soon.

However, the timeliness of the procedure is not entirely irrelevant, as my semester break/vacation plans depend on acceptance of the new contract and payment of bonuses, airfare allowances, etc. Let's get with it, SMOE!!

Of course, the fact that no one showed up was no reason, as far as I'm concerned, to cancel the beer and chicken I promised to my co-workers! So, at 5:30 we met at Young Poong Chicken 영풍치킨, a hof in the new Blue Nine building across the street from the Doosan officetel where I live. The weather is quite fine--cool and windy, even--for mid-June, so I opted to sit outside. Frankly I was a little disappointed by the attendance, although it was with only day-of notice: Hwang, Mr Hur (Jerry) and Mr Lee (이금천).

We had a wide ranging conversation; these are literate, intelligent people who think the same of me until it is time to do anything practical--but I'll come to that later. I am still hoping to learn more from them than they learn from me in these episodes, but we're not there yet. I taught them about Christian religion in the West, and they thought they taught me about 눈치 nunchi, but they didn't. I already knew.

Mr Hwang left to go to his son's baseball practice with the words, "I'll be back!" At some point, the idea came up that Hwang would not return, but I assured them he would. Jerry then went into a dissertation on 눈치, which literally means "eye-measure", the subtle art of lying to your friends so you don't destroy the mood or hurt their feelings. Socially adept people can read the hints to determine if their friends are being polite or politic, or if they will really come back.

I agreed with him on the definition, since, after all, I have experienced this phenomenon--what with being in Korea for the better part of a year and all that--but I insisted that Mr Hwang was not being nunchi; if he wasn't coming back, he would say so. Well, about the time I was saying, "No, he'd call if he's going straight home," who did I see coming towards us across the mezzanine? Hwang.

Now, I'm not taking back one word I said in the Orange Drink post below, indeed, I think I'm merely proving it--he is as good a Korean friend as a white guy in Korea could hope for! But the stuff about treating me like a slow ten-year-old remains in force.

To wit: we were together at the cash register when I paid for a single beer, cost: W2,500, with a W10,000 note plus a W500 coin. The correct change should be W8,000. When the cashier gave me W7,000 in return, I looked to the native speakers for help. Both later agreed that they saw the transaction correctly--meaning, my 500 W coin, the 10,000 note and the 7,000 return--but wondered why I hesitated and questioned the cashier.

You know why? I think I do! They AUTOMATICALLY think Koreans are smarter/wiser/more careful/more precise than ANYONE ELSE could possibly be. Which is a very, very dangerous thing to think! No matter what nationality you may be: just look at the NYSE.

In any event, Korean perfection took a big hit just last Thursday when Mr Hwang and a juice box ended up looking pretty silly. I labelled this story as a parable for good reason. Today's episode could be titled "Korean money too confusing for foreigners--I mean Koreans!" I have no hope or expectation of changing Korean culture, I don't really want to, anyway, but what I do want is respect--simple respect. As I've said before, I am respected in the classroom. However, in the rest of the Korean world, I'm Rodney Dangerfield.

Moving on ...

I don't recall exactly how it came about, but I sang a few lines of The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha, the breath-taking musical based on Cervantes' Don Quixote, and Hwang wanted to know more about it. I gave him spellings, names, etc--and am chagrined to learn that Richard Kiley's performance is NOT on YouTube--WTF?

However, some guy named Brian Stokes Mitchell turns out to be incredibly awesome. I looked at five or six different tapings of his rendition in the 2006 revival and he brings tears to my eyes every time. Gotta show this to Hwang tomorrow!

Tuttle News Wrap

1) I am scheduled to present my "demo class" on Monday, in front of the "supervisor in charge and Assigned Judges". This is part of the renewal process for my job with SMOE. They are coming to see my sixth period second grade class, who are doing Week 2 of the Invention project, making presentations about the invention they were assigned to the class.

Some of my co-teachers are surprised that I do not appear worried. Frankly, as long as I don't whip out a hash pipe in class or rape a student across my desk, I will be renewed. After school, I'm taking anyone that wants to come for chicken and beer at the local hof.

2) I've been to Bongcheon for lamb and makkuli twice this weekend. First, with Andy, Nick, Max and Max's GF Jennifer, who I met for the first time. She seems quite nice--far too nice for Max ...

The second time was an unscheduled visit, ostensibly with Steve W and Gavin, after meeting Saturday at Seouldae. We met at Liebe Hof, which is Gav's haunt, but where he admits the food is not so great, so we took a fifteen minute stroll to Bongcheon. Well, Steve and I did, Gav decided to take a cab home before we arrived.

The food and conversation were excellent, though an email from Steve later told me a harrowing tale of his subway ride:

As we went on, each stop the train was emitting these popping sounds at each stop (brakes??? duh-h). Jamsil: BANG!!!! I thought someone jumped in front of the train to commit suicide (as if someone ever does that here). Two stops later, bang!! Smoke, more smoke - get off the train. Leave the subway (pay 11,000 won to the taxi driver to get home). It looked like the brakes to me. To know what was going on, I was fortunate to have a young, English-speaking Korean guy to lead the way and tell me the situation. His help was just another example of how helpful and caring Korean citizens are to foreigners.
As I was riding home in the taxi, I thought of DiCaprio's line from Titanic as he's dying from hypothermia: "I don't know about you, but I plan on writing a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line."

3) With a 2 - 0 win on Saturday over UAE, South Korea has earned a berth in South Africa for World Cup 2010. This was my predicted score as I walked to school with Mr Hwang the other morning, as I will be reminding him tomorrow. The winning goal was scored in the fifth minute. Hmmmm.

4) "A growing number of South Korean students are underweight and nearsighted, largely due to an unbalanced diet and bad living habits, government data showed Sunday, according to Yonhap News," as reported in The Korea Herald. The article gives the number as 42.7% of students being nearsighted--apparently there is something in the water in Gangseo-gu, since at my school the students who don't wear glasses have had Lasik surgery. I'm pretty sure.

What's Going On

... here in the SeoulPatch, you may be asking. Of course, the only reason you might be asking is that you haven't bothered to subscribe to the Atom RSS feed linked at the bottom of the page or become my "Follower" in your Blogger profile.

So get on the stick here, Dear Reader!

1) Yesterday was the second day of the SETI co-teaching workshop which was about the same as the first day--meaning some useful stuff, some boring stuff, some contacts made. The usual for these kinds of things. EXCEPT:

2) The lady who spoke to us about assessing student speaking skills was perhaps the most boring, pointless, muddled presenter in the history of educational seminar presenters (I've been to a lot of these in 23 years, so I have seen the zenith and the nadir). Even Dick Cheney would call it torture.

2A) I have also presented at a few such events, but of course, my material was always FRESH and FASCINATING.

3) There was a very good presentation leading us through a SMOE publication with useful information for Native Speaking Teachers. However, in typical Korean fashion, virtually no one at the seminar had received a copy of this book, and the presenters were not authorized to give out copies (they loaned us copies just for the workshop). So probably the best resource of the seminar was literally unavailable. Korea has elevated mindless bureaucracy to a fine art.

3A) Obligatory Confession: I stole the copy they loaned me. I knew I could not withstand the moral pressure to return it when they asked us to do so at the end, so I left about two minutes early.

4) Even though I have not been to the gym in [mumble], I still ate at ChickenMania tonight. It turned out to be a unique meal, as the older guy who seems to run the place actually sat and talked to me--to the extent his English allowed. We were already compatico in that he is also a Doosan Bears fan. His name is Pak Jong-mun 박종문 and he graduated from Young-il, the school I teach at, in 1981. He remembers both Principal Jun and the art teacher Lee Cheong-gye.

I told him tomorrow begins the Young-il Festival and he flipped up his cell phone to look for an announcement. Nada, which displeased him, as he said he usually receives such information.

He went to Las Vegas (everyone here who has been to America will tell you so repeatedly) about 20 years ago as an early Domino's Pizza franchisee, but he told me all he knew how to order was Bud and Coke, so he was hungry alot. I guess he couldn't find the buffet.

5) So: tomorrow is the beginning of the Young-il Festival, which includes a Sports Day tomorrow, and a club activity presentation day on Saturday. There is nothing on Friday--that is School Founder's Day, a holiday for all concerned.

6) Technically, I don't work on Saturday, but I will attend at least a few hours of the festivities on Saturday, just to demonstrate an interest in the students, and to get a few good photos to show you on the blog.

7) Having figured out and solved the technical problems in my classroom, I told Lee Gum-cheon 이굼천, our Deptartment Head, that I was basically satisfied with the English Only Zone. So at lunch today, he floated the idea of a "classroom-warming party" which I and the others present were all in favor of.

8) So: SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) can't give its foreign teachers a useful teaching handbook that it already has copies of, but it can spring for a frivolous eating and drinking binge on the taxpayers' dime, er, baek won. Welcome to Korea!

Another Co-Teacher Training Junket

This time, I traveled to the SETI facility at Sadang for the first of a two-day training seminar ostensibly about effective co-teaching techniques. You may be wondering why I'm at the Korean space agency's Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence compound--but actually what we are looking for isn't that much easier to find, which is a useful paradigm for co-teaching in the English classroom in Korean schools as they exist today.

Let's start at 7:30 this AM, when I came outside to catch a bus or hail or taxi (whichever was first) in the wetness of a gentle morning rain. It took ten minutes before a taxi stopped--actually only to let out a fare--and I practically had to bully myself inside for a trip to Dangsan Sta. This is approximately a 15 minute trip, around 5000 W, but today, thanks to the rain compounding the usual Monday traffic jam, it lasted 45 minutes. This is about a five mile drive. The last two miles were accomplished hydroplaning along little side roads in just under 45 seconds. Or so it seemed.

So, I was in a wet, foul mood by the time I got to the platform just as the train doors were opening. Yeah, I made it, but that didn't improve my mood much, since passengers were packed on board about 17 to the square meter. That's probably close to the surface area of your desk.

Someone was pressing the point of their umbrella into my back all the way to Sindorim, which is a lot further than it sounds. Anyway, the umbrella-presser got off there, but three more people moved into the space he or she had occupied. Line 2 is the busiest (read: most crowded) on a system which carries over 8 million riders per day.

At the next stop, a seat opened up directly in front of me, and I sat in it before the previous occupant was all the way out of it. Still, the execrable slowness of the taxi ride had expended the thirty minute cushion I allowed, so I couldn't enjoy my seatedness, what with constantly craning my neck to be sure I got off at the correct stop. Sadang.

Finally it came. Sadang is a transfer stop, so I was swept along with the mass of disembarkers fighting to make my way ever upward to Exit 1 where I was sure no longer did a SETI bus await for the last leg of the trip to the training center. I did point out that SETI actually stands for Seoul Educational Training Institute, didn't I?

Oh, well, never mind, a kid just outside the exit was holding an umbrella and a sign that said "SETI --->". I followed the arrow and got on the last bus(TM), which was held ten minutes late for slackers like me and from which my fellow travelers were deposited at the Holy Land sans signage. Turns out, this SETI of theirs is quite a complex, with a swimming pool, several big buildings, and a playground. We guessed it was the big building in the middle, and were right. If the weather is any better, I'll bring my camera tomorrow.

I didn't feel so tardy after all, because the first speaker was twenty-odd minutes later than me--and she was the first speaker. We got periodic updates about her taxi's progress through the Monday traffic while Dave Deubelbeiss ran us through his website to "kill time". It is a great site (which may require free membership) with loads of great materials and resources that I use regularly, but it is difficult to find your way around--a fact illustrated numerous times during the day.

So, anyway, the first speaker ultimately arrived, and her presentation was a bit unfocused, though whether because she was rattled by her lateness or because she was just unfocused is difficult to discern. When I say "a bit unfocused" I mean I have no idea what she was trying to talk about. I'm not being cruel or flip, here, though I am capable of being both, but if her thesis was anything beyond "I am a researcher" she failed to develop it to the point it was stateable.

Still, she did serve the valuable function of being the trash can into which we, as one or two year NSETs at the seminar, dumped our negative impressions, complaints and general aggressions.

Actually, it wasn't that bad, but it was I that really got it started. I forget what she said to tee me up, but it could have been anything after Hello, how are you? ...

I related to her the essence of my story in a post not far below titled for its whimsy: 'Tragical Grammatical: A Musical in Three Acts', in which I describe the fundamental flaw of the Korean English education program. No, really. Go read it and come back here. There was applause when I finished. No shit. Applause.

She admitted, poor thing, that the testing culture here is seriously awry, but that she sees no way to change it. Then she went on to talk about how Korea is going to make its own English proficiency test, as if that will help. At all. She even provided these statistics to prove that Korea is farting in the wind: ETS has 700 researchers working on TOEFL and TOEIC and Korea has 6 or so developing its "competition".

Moving on ...

If Dave Deubelbeiss gives me one more worksheet where I have to define, describe or imagine the proper relationship between a Native Speaking English Teacher and a Co-Teacher, I am going to say something mean to him! We had this one task to complete a sentence: "Co-teaching is ..." or "The best thing about co-teaching is ..." working with a partner. Mine was good old Max from Yong-In roomie days. One sentence was "My co-teacher and I hardly ever ..." Max felt this was pretty much good the way it was. I laughed till I cried.

So, you'll twig that I was next to Max. Next to him was Nick, and behind us was Karen. It was a festival of friends, which made it better. I had hoped we could go out afterward together, but in the crush of departure, I only stuck with fellow smoker Nick.

Anyway, in the afternoon, we had breakout sessions, where MS and HS split for demonstration lessons. At the HS level, we had three enthusiastic and organized presenters who belaboured each point at least a little (Note to self: always assume an audience of teachers understands after 2 examples, not 4). But they were good points. I found something to steal from each of them, which to my mind makes for a successful seminar. And there's still tomorrow.

Afterwards, I went with Nick to Sillim, which is on my way home and his stomping grounds, for dalk galbi 닭갈비 (spicy chicken stir fry). Then we went upstairs for a couple of beers at "Garten Beer" which has a delightful innovation that should be copied around the world: Every table has a sunken well for each seat, the right size to hold a beer bottle or flute. Each one has a condenser coil or something so it stays at constant 4 C temperature when turned on. Never a warm beer at Garten Beer!

Soccer Made in Sangam

One of the reasons I didn't want to go to the phantom co-teacher training session was because that would make it impossible to attend the DPRK vs ROK soccer match taking place at Seoul World Cup Stadium tonight in Sangam, right across the river.

Soccer here in Korea is far more popular on TV than it is in the stadium, so I was sure I could get tickets near game time, and therefore didn't book any. What this meant was that I had no overweening reason to fight attending the training session, but also none to attend the match--what, me, waste 15 bucks?

I found out yesterday from Miss Lee that I was, in fact, NOT expected to attend the training session, even though I had gotten an email describing it as practically mandatory--are you confused? I am--but by the end of the day today I had done the same lesson (more on that in a later post) three times with Mr Lee Gum-cheon, so I felt a bit buzz-tired.

I decided not to go and watch the game. Therefore, I timed my visit to the gym so I could watch the first half on the treadmill and the stationary bike after completing 14 km on the elliptical--with a target time of 36 min., which I met. I find it harder to watch the TVs when on the elliptical. My plan was to use the muscle relaxer thing--it's quite loud--at halftime, so as not to annoy people. Yes, I'm polite like that.

Actually, not so much, really, but as the sole pink-skinned person these folks are likely to know, I sometimes feel the need to set a good example. I wipe my sweat off the equipment, even if they don't ...

I've only used it twice, but I gotta say that for anyone who wants to push himself in cardio exercises, loading an mp3 player with driving tunes and fast rhythmic beat songs then playing it on shuffle, is a good way to go. What you want is 120 beats per minute. Of course, you can get more elaborate, with playlists and interval training and so on, but I'm not there yet.

Well--I got one crucial fact wrong in this equation, which might have changed everything: the match began at 8:00 pm local time, not 7:00! I could definitely have gotten there, even after a workout in the fitness center. The stadium is three stops away once I get to Hapjeong:


And I really regret missing it in person, because it was an awesome game. At least for South Korea fans. It has been kind of a quandary that the North has managed to tie the South in their last FOUR consecutive meetings, in both World Cup qualifying and Asian Cup competition. I blogged their last meeting here.

No question, they are both strong teams compared to the likes of UAE, Bahrain or Qatar, but in watching three of those draws, I have been dissatisfied by the results--Tehan Minguk (the South) is the better team. From individual ball skills to concerted team movement to speed, desire and creativity, the North has been totally outclassed in every game.

It looked like the same result was in the offing tonight, when I made my way to the Cooper hof for some smoked chicken to accompany the soccer. Though ROK dominated the game in every sense, from corner kicks to shots to time of possession (80% to 20%), a nil tie looked probable.

The Reds kept up their pressure, however, and with two minutes left, scored on a free kick from about 30 yards. A defender actually put a hand on the ball, but that only redirected it after the keeper had committed.

I have mentioned before my Big Five theory, so I will only point out that this result is yet another data point in its favor. My friends at Cooper hof--well, they're not friends beyond the association we draw when rooting for the same team in the same place--all did the ol' "gambe" toast with me upon the conclusion of the match. It is understood that this means ROK will make its way to the round of 32 in South Africa 2010.

The title of this post comes from a TV series on PBS in the 70s titled "Soccer Made in Germany" hosted by Toby Charles. He would show significant segments of a match from the Bundesliga narrating it in his inimitable prose, using an hour-long show to cover a 90 minute match plus highlights and scores from around the league. Sangam is the location of Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Very early on in my acquaintance with the "internets" I searched for Toby Charles, and at that time I only found two references. If you look today, you will find thousands, as the online community of soccer fans has established itself. Go ahead, put his name into Google and see how many hits come up--more than two, I betcha!

Mr Charles was for many Americans of that time the bridge from the weak NASL to the "beautiful game" as seen in the highlights from Germany. But mainly, he was so colorful! A florid description of an attack; a shaming--with names--of defenders who let in a goal; memorable catchphrases: They'll be talking about that one in the pubs tonight, or Does he have the nerve?

Tuttle News Update

1) Both lesson plans went really well on Day 1--so they are definitely worth stealing from me. The true test is the afternoon classes on Tuesday, but I have high hopes.

2) I downloaded some tunes and put them on the mp3 player, and took it to the fitness center. Really good move, I'm pleased to say--the session just flew by! Still awaiting playlist suggestions ...

3) Those of us in SMOE Team 3 got an email from our team leader at 2:14 pm today informing us that we have a co-teacher training session on Wed., from 3 to 6 pm. Consider it mandatory. Hard to figure how you do that when you've only given 48 hrs and 46 min. of prior notice. This is a classic example of the way things are done in the Seoul educational system.

Now I already knew about this, because my co-teacher told me on Thursday or so. It was, I'm sure, my email to David M for confirmation--since neither I nor any of my cohorts had heard anything--that prompted his announcement.

But, most annoyingly, this is after the native teacher group complained loudly at the previous one of these junkets about how poorly notification was handled.

4) So, there's this weird kid who I don't even teach since he is in the math/science stream in second grade (but I remember him from winter camp) who has been hanging around my office at the end of lunch time, wanting to talk to me. Now, I got nuthin' agin somebody what wants to better hisself, but this kid sits in the unoccupied chair opposite my desk and asks me a lot of intrusive questions. And doesn't take a hint. Hint, hell, he hardly even takes a direct command.

Today he brought in a script he had written out for us to read together, rather ungrammatical (but as I say, I don't worry a lot about that, hopefully it comes in due time), but here's the weird part (okay, the really weird part): he plays a customs agent, and I play someone he suspects of trying to smuggle in cocaine.

I try to explain to him that it's insulting to suggest that just because I'm American I would play a cocaine dealer, and that furthermore, you can't smell cocaine on someone's breath.

In Part 2, yes there's a Part 2, he plays someone who uses iDoser, which is the computer age's version of alpha-wave feedback therapy momentarily popular in the early seventies. The idea was, and is, to "synchronize your brainwaves". Or in at least one case, to addle them.

Bonus Photograph: The Icaremewellbeingcafe has just opened a couple blocks away on my walk to work. The hangeul sounds out as "Ah-ee kae-aw mee".

New Year, New Classroom

Today was the first day of the new school year, here in Korea, and at 11:00 the 1,400 students and faculty of Young-Il High School gathered in the fifth floor auditorium of the "new building" for opening ceremonies. I can't tell you a word that was said, but I did take a couple of shots with my cell:



I was, however, in for a major surprise, as the end of the hallway on the floor where my classroom is has been converted into an "English Only Zone." It consists of two classrooms and an office. And a cool hallway with recessed lighting, and big pictures of Australia, London and New York.


There's still debris from the construction in the hallway, and the computers won't be in for a week or more, but when finished, both classrooms will have large "SmartBoards", a half-dozen student computer stations, and one of them will have digital video equipment. Nice.



I will share an office with Mr Song, and it will also accomodate the English Dept. meeting space, which means a big conference table and chairs. The present desks are, I am told, temporary.


To see pictures of the old classroom, check out this post. Numerous of my other English teacher friends here have told me about how their school was given a grant by SMOE of 50 or 60 million won to create an English classroom, and how they have been waiting ... Well, in my case, I just walked up to where my classroom was, and my jaw hit the floor. It's not finished, but I'm not surprised about that, or even too disappointed that I'll be floating or something for the next two weeks.

Hyundai Training Ctr Redux

I left the house this morning at 6:25 AM and have just gotten back at 8:25 PM. This, frankly, was not all that unusual last year, but I've gotten used to the easy life here in Seoul, where I leave at 7:25 AM and get home at 3:35 or 4:35 PM, depending on the day.

But today was the 2008 SMOE High School NEST Co-Teaching Workshop; it was held at Yong-In, at the same Hyundai Training Center where we spent Hell Week back at the end of August. I must say, it seems so long ago, but it was immediately familiar and comfortable, as my first contact with Korea. Aside from socializing with Gavin, Steve and Andy, I got to spend the whole day in the company of Miss Cho. So how bad could it be?

Well, it wasn't great, starting with the commute--all the way to Seolleung station, about 50 minutes on the sardine-can green line, then almost to the end of the "Bundang" (bright yellow) line at Migeum, nearly as diametrically south-east of Deungchon-dong as you can get and still use the subway. A twenty-minute charter bus ride completed the trip. Click on the "subway map" link to your right under Useful Information to see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, the focus of the seminar was co-teaching: relationships, information-sharing and lesson plan development. In a sense, there was little new here, as most of the information came from the usual suspects, Dave D and Nick Wossisname, who were key presenters back in August. I might have picked up a couple of promising websites, a couple of lesson plans and an instrument to help improve co-teacher communication.

But mainly I got validation. It seems most other teachers in the program are in the same situation I am in--experiencing the same problems and successes I do: a handful of co-teachers with a wide range of English ability and willingness to contribute, a mix of unmotivated and highly capable students in the same classroom, frustration with a curriculum fixated on fine points of grammar rather than functional language acquisition resulting in students who see English as something to memorize rather than use, an administration supportive but confused about the role of this new "Conversational English" dictum in their school.

Further, if the "sample lessons" with which we were presented are any indication, I believe I am ahead of the curve, both with lessons that are interesting and that give the students opportunities to speak and practice their conversational skills. My classroom is as well-equipped as most, and certainly has what I feel I need.

On the whole, I'm not sure the fourteen hour day is an even trade for validation, but it gave me an excuse not to go to the gym.

What Government is For, Korean Edition

"Adoption of English as Official Language Proposed" for Korea, according to an article today in The Korea Times.

Yeah, good luck with that. Of course, Korea is not alone; about one hundred countries (half of the total) include English as an official or widely spoken tongue. A quick google spotted an article about Madagascar's government's decision to do the same. Madagascar is a large island in the country of Africa country in Africa whose president, Marc Ravalomanana, is sometimes called "Park Myung-bak" at least according to this story in Korea's Dong-A Ilbo, due to his five year plans for improving his country's economy, like Park Chung-hee, and his role as an important business leader, like Lee Myung-bak. Park and Lee both have served as Korea's leader.

Indeed, Ravalomanana called Korea "his role model country for economic development," according to the article. You could do worse, as Korea has changed from a feudal, agrarian society into a thoroughly modern, technological marvel and economic powerhouse in just fifty years. This amazing story was one of my key reasons for wanting to spend some time here. Says the article:

Considering the importance of English on the global stage, the Madagascan president designated the language an official language in additional to the indigenous Malagasy and French.
He directed the public sector to use English in a number of work processes...

Now, the fact that many people in Madagascar already speak more than one language suggests a substantial difference with Korea. The population speaks only Korean, and most can read simplified Chinese characters as they are still widely used, but there has been weak cultural interest in learning foreign languages.

Chinese and Japanese have been the most frequently-learned languages, due to the influence of these cultures in Korea's history and geography. In fact, during the Japanese occupation in the first half of the 20th century, speaking Korean was illegal for a while, and everyone was forced to learn Japanese. Some of those people are still alive.

Cut to the latter part of the century past. As Korea's industrial prowess grew, the lack of English speaking began to be recognised as a hindrance to achieving economic goals. The English Program in Korea (EPIK) was introduced in 1992 to bring native English speakers to teach here. Each year, this program is being expanded as rapidly as the market for native teachers will bear. Which also helps explain why I am here. I'll blog later--and ongoingly--about the impediments to teaching English to Koreans.

The Korea Times article focuses on comments from InvestKorea leader Chung Tong-soo, a Harvard Law graduate and a former Clinton administration staffer:

We should convert our difficulty into an advantage. The key is bringing down exorbitant corporate tax rates and giving foreign firms an atmosphere they can easily work in.
Language barriers make life for foreigners more difficult, so let's remove them. Years from now, we may look back on a lost chance with regret.

Acknowledging the difficulties the government would face in adopting English as an official language, Chung said, "That is what the government is for."

Blah Blah Blogging

Welcome to Tuttle's Five Minute Minutiae Report:

* Well, so Seoul Medical Center faxed a copy of my medical check to the school--I was normal in all respects (yeah, shocked the hell out of me, too) except slightly high blood pressure (yeah, no surprise there). The fax is not good enough for the Immigration Office, so tomorrow morning, I will be skipping my first class to travel all the way to Samseong Station to pick up the original; then, at the end of the day, Mr Hwang will drive me over to Mok-dong to apply for my Alien Registration Card.

* The basic interview lesson went well in every class today--at least as well as could be expected from students who have never had to express an idea of their own in the English language. For instance, wanting to ask, What is your favorite food? one student put down Would you like favorite eat? And this is after modeling "What is your favorite ________?/Who is your favorite ________?" severally.

* That one was easy to figure out, but what do you do with What do you want to buy at first?

* I got to use one of my favorite jokes today (yeah, just TRY to stop me), when the question was "What is your favorite brand?" The kid I picked to respond said "Polo." So I said, "Ah, Polo. By Ralph Lauren. You know why those Polo shirts are so expensive? Because the little guy on the horse is wearing Izod!" Two or three of them actually got it. Eventually.

* Mr Hwang came over after school to tell me about the new medical check/Immigration Office plan and we went downstairs to one of the hofs. We had beer and a sausage plate w/French fries. We talked about how I was enjoying living in Seoul, how I was enjoying the students, etc. Then after a short Korean lesson--focused on word order as emphasis--he told me that the students have responded well to me, even if I have been a challenging teacher. My nickname is "KFC harabuji" or grandfather, so the Col. Sanders thing has expanded to the whole school. He insists it's more my hair style and hair color than my age (Koreans have difficulty figuring the age of foreigners, he says)--plus, KFC harabuji is viewed as a very kind man.

* We also talked about the wide range of fluency among students at Young-Il. It is largely explained by the area served by the school. Students from Mok-dong are wealthy and have parents who have traveled abroad and readily pay for hagwons (private English schools), while Deungchon-dong is solidly middle class, and the neighborhood north of E-Mart is decidedly working class. The advantage of uniforms is that these differences are less noticeable to students; the disadvantage of uniforms is that these differences are less noticeable to teachers.