Hanbok & Hula Hoops

Starting with my fourth-grade classes last week, teaching got a little more difficult. It's hard to compete with the noise coming from the soccer field each period as dozens of students shout and clap while music plays and teachers blow whistles. Closing the windows makes it a little quieter, but drastically reduces the quality of the air inside the classroom filled with thirty hot, excitable eleven-year-olds. Plus there's still usually a ruckus in the hallway to contend with.

The excitement comes from school-wide preparation for an important event coming up on October 1: Sports Day. The specifics of this highly anticipated affair are unclear, but I'm very excited by what I've seen as students get ready: relay races, choreographed dances, hula hoops, pom poms, traditional Korean dresses (Hanbok), and enormous inflated balls (taller than the students rolling them across the soccer field and around a cone). Saturday might be the best day ever.

Important things are happening.

With all this going on, I was surprised to be the only one with a problem concentrating; students could care less about shenanigans outside the classroom and were totally engrossed in our game of the week. I've found it works like a charm to take a simple game students already know/love and modify it to include English. Exhibit A: Bingo. Exhibit B: Yahgo Game.

In traditional Yahgo (baseball) Game, one person thinks of a three-digit number (and frequently forgets it, if that person is me). One at a time, players guess the number. If none of the digits are correct, that "pitcher" gets 0 balls and 0 strikes. For each digit that's correct but not in the right place, it's a ball. A digit in the correct spot is a strike, so guessing the correct number results in three strikes (and lots of cheering).

Not only can this game be adapted to practice numbers in English, but also any category of words imaginable! Animals! Fruits! Colors! Sports! We tried them all, reviewing vocabulary and practicing simple sentence structure and plurals: "Do you like yellow, pink, and orange?" "Do you like bananas, pineapple, and lemons?" Rather than a never-ending game that would surely result from allowing any animal or any color to be fair game (I could just imagine the advanced kids' guesses: "Do you like iguanas, rats, and killer whales?" "Do you like light pink, dark blue, and burgundy?"), students worked their logic magic on a list of a dozen items from the given category.

Watching the wheels turn in their heads was amazing. Some students took notes with each of my announcements of balls and/or strikes. A student got eye rolls from his peers for guessing a different order of the very same three fruits the previous guesser tried (and got zero balls and zero strikes). Many helpful (but usually incorrect) suggestions were lobbed toward the guesser who bravely rose from his or her chair to deliver the pitch. The forty-minute periods passed quickly and enjoyably without having to hear the same prescribed key phrases from the textbook a hundred times, and especially because I got to think about delicious fruit.

• • • • •   Video previews of the coming attractions   • • • • •

Stray Observations

• Lindsay Teacher to third-grade class: "How are you today?"
  Song-won (a boy): "Tomato sauce!"
  Jeon-oong (a boy): "I am angry...bird!"
• Thank you everyone who has continued to send me mail!
• The principal said at lunch today he wants me to stay another year! Flattering, but no thanks.

Two for Tuesday

Students' t-shirts, pencil cases and notebooks are endless sources of confusion, entertainment, and sometimes even motivation. Today I'll highlight two lovely fifth-graders' notebooks.

First an excellent geography lesson, courtesy of Stacey:


And this happened:

   (To minimize squinting...)

Tight Spaces

My brief trip to the US in May/June, especially its long drives across expanses of mid-western states, reminded me of how tiny my adopted country is. The Internet told me that South Korea is slightly larger than Indiana, a state home to roughly 6.5 million. Korea's population? About 48.8 million. 

With so many people crammed onto a peninsula, it's no wonder the traffic sucks, the smog is terrible, hi-rise apartments stretch out as far as the eye can see, and the sewage system definitely leaves something to be desired (even when all those bathroom users remember to put their toilet paper in the trash bin). On the other hand, the public transportation is pretty remarkable, many places are open 24 hours, there are about nine million restaurants and coffee shops to try, and people get pretty inventive with how to best utilize the limited space they do have.

Why waste the space between two buildings? Put a vending machine in it! That tiny bit of land between the porta pottie and the driveway? Perfect for growing some corn.

Some days you might step out of your apartment to find a blanket on which a neighbor is drying chili peppers. Or you may find the landing by the elevator has temporarily become home to a tarp covered with mysterious, pea-sized brown balls. Well done, Korea.

Explanations

At the urging of my mother, I did some research into the meanings on an odd sign I saw at a ski resort in February. Believe it or not, online translating tools were not a ton of help. My co-teachers Stella and Junki laughed when I showed them a photo of the sign, but happily provided accurate translations for me.

Below find the pronunciation of the phrase, my guess as to what the illustration means?, the inaccurate translator tool meaning (if applicable), and the true meaning (according to my Korean sources).

1. jahm soo geum jee
   Don’t scuba dive?
   Stella says: “Diving prohibited.”

2. bahng huang geum jee
   No dropping your head?
   Stella says: “Wandering prohibited.”

3. tahl sawn geum jee 
   No running?
   Stella says: “Escaping prohibited.”

4. jawl mahng geum jee
   Don’t yell?
   Stella says: “Desperation prohibited.”

5. bahng kohk geum jee
   Don’t pout?
   Internet says: “Ban on Bangkok.”
   Stella says: “No staying at home alone [for a long period of time].”

6. chim mook geum jee 
   Don’t meditate?
   Stella says: “Silence prohibited.”

7. bee gool geum jee
   No praying?
   Internet says: “Ban on cowardice.”
   Junki says: “Don’t obey what a powerful person says to try to get
   ahead...don’t kiss butt.”

8. pohk ryawk geum jee
   No sweating?
   Stella says: “Violence prohibited.”

9. jee twee geum jee
   No dancing?
   Stella says: "No dropping out of school."

There you have it, Mom. Mystery solved.


Stray Observations

• It seems like an emerging trend is for teenage boys to ride little kid-sized bikes. Or maybe the four guys I saw doing that yesterday have parents who refuse to buy them properly-sized bikes.
• After losing many battles in the ongoing War On Laziness, I am finally back on the (exercise) wagon and training for a 10K in October.
• The remaining weeks here might be highly caffeinated, thanks to a recent shipment of coffee from my mom and a helpful hint from Bethany (a Concordia friend and recent Korea arrival) that Dunkin' Donuts has inexpensive and delicious drip coffee. In big size.
• Among some new people who started working at my school this month, there are two people who aren't scared to have a conversation with me in English! When I met the new vice principal, Mr. Oo, he asked where I'm from and when I told him Minnesota, he didn't miss a beat before enthusiastically replying, "Minnesota Twins baseball!" If I understood him correctly at lunch on Wednesday, his journalist daughter recently interviewed Steve Jobs...Hannah, the music teacher, makes few mistakes when she speaks, but one on her first day was memorable. "When I saw you, you looked so boring," she told me sweetly, "so I thought I should come visit you since you have no one to talk to." Knowing Koreans to often be blunt, I thought I'd double-check her intention: "I hope you mean I look bored, not that I am boring." "Ohhhh okokok. I'm so sorry," she said.
• PostKoreaJobSearchFest2011 has begun in earnest. #someonepleasehireme
• The universe must have known Korea couldn't handle two Hartlebens at the same time; my brother will be embarking on his own Asian adventure shortly after I depart. Congraturations, Nathan!

Uh oh

Might have found a reason to stay in Korea. This little guy needs me to buy him and name him Nacho and teach him tricks and then we'll keep each other company all winter and in the spring go to parks and go swimming next summer when he's bigger.

Look at this cool playground equipment

I hope the kids from Seochang don't wander over to my neighborhood and see what they're missing in the playground department. Last month, an old playground was torn down and I worried a 7-11 would take its place. But then this magical place was assembled. Look at these bright colors, the variety of slides, the jumbo tic-tac-toe board, the bouncy animal and bug things...the sand instead of a hard rubbery surface!

And a feature that seemed dumb at first but now I realize would have come in handy on the playgrounds of my childhood - swing safety fences. Sure, they may be a bit prohibitive when it comes to jumping off the swing (usually a bad idea anyway), but they must save countless careless kids from being clocked in the temple by a swinger's tennis shoe while running amok in a game of tag.

Less is More

Fortunately for inexperienced non-formally trained teachers such as I, there is a thing called the Internet. And on that Internet are lots of other teachers who are willing to share their lesson plans. And among those teachers are people who are remarkably good at making exciting, flashy games in PowerPoint (I know! I though it was only for presentations, too!) that cause children to ooh and aah and squeal with delight.

This PowerPoint plays music, shows a ship blowing up, and launches fireworks for the winner.

But I've found that sometimes it's best to leave the computer off and keep things simple. Lesson Nine for fourth-graders at my school was "Is This Your Key?" As we observed with third-graders, possessives don't exactly come naturally, so the more practice, the better. To try to sear some basic phrases into their memories — and to give each student a chance to try out their English one-on-one with me — I played a guessing game with fourth-graders.

After practicing the pronunciation of "Is this yours?" (th vs. d needs as much repetition as r vs. l and z vs. j), "Yes, it's mine," and "No, it's not mine," I inadvertently mortified a few front-row students whom I attempted to use as demonstrators of the phrases. Improvising doesn't always work well, even if it's only asking a boy if my watch belongs to him. They do better with clearly structured scenarios, so we moved on to the game.

One at a time, a student would come to where I sat at the teacher's desk. In front of me were six items (pens, glue sticks, scissors, Post-Its, etc.), separated into two groups of three. I would mentally choose one from each group that was "mine" and the student would guess which it was, point to the item they chose, and ask, "Is this yours?" If she guessed incorrectly, she'd throw their hands up and return to her seat. If she guessed correctly, she'd choose from the second group. Two correct guesses resulted in 100 points for that student's team.

Oh crap, I forgot which one I chose.

Students took this task very seriously. The future sports coaches would shout instructions to their classmate as he or she stepped toward me, trying to impart wisdom gleaned from his or her own turn. Calmer students attempted deep concentration by rubbing their temples for the entire period. Potential police interrogators would look intensely into my eyes, then at object one, then into my eyes, then at object two, then into my eyes, then at object three. Fatalistic students would touch each item while reciting an eenie meenie miney mo-type rhyme (something about Coca-Cola being delicious). A handful of bored students grabbed the object closest to them.

I'm beginning to see what they mean when they say my face "makes a lot of movements."

After a moment of hesitation for suspense (and to enjoy the sight of the kids perched on the edges of their seats), I would reveal my answer and brace myself for the reaction. If too many heads hung low because of a string of "No, it's not mine"s, I'd turn things around and get some cheers with a run of "Yes, it's mine"s. Some lucky guessers looked like they just won a free bag of ice cream. All for choosing the right color of marker.

Success!

Best This, Best That

Time is flowing, and now just two months remain in my Asian sabbatical. Approximately 60 days are left for me to enjoy all the BEST things Korea has to offer! Signs, billboards and packaging use "best" so frequently,  it might be hard to leave a place that has so many amazing things lurking around every corner. And in case you didn't know, yes, I have been living in the World Best City for the past ten months.

The Best Shop's signage is a little more convincing than the Best Store's.

While I can't say whether that was the best driver (in general?) or the best taxi driver, I am about 98% sure neither Mister Donut (top right) nor Angel-in-Us Coffee (bottom right) comes close to having the best coffee in the world.

Aaand I almost forgot about the best network!

Ruke & Rinjee Take on Thailand

"This will make a good story later," my boyfriend Luke said as we waited in the back of the large, open-sided flatbed truck. With no idea where we were and no idea where we were headed next, we only knew it was about 4:30 a.m. and we needed to scoot over on the bench to make room for other bleary-eyed backpackers. I inwardly rolled my eyes at his calm certainty; I was growing more impatient by the minute and just wanted to reach our destination, Ko Tao, a 21-square mile island in the Gulf of Thailand. But I should have learned by that point that travel during this summer vacation would be anything but simple, fast or relaxing.

Earlier in the week, it took a 15-hour journey for me to reach Thailand from Korea. I barely arrived in time for my first flight, a midnight departure which proved to be the coldest but most deliciously-scented flight of my life. Because AirAsia gives passengers nothing for free, not even water, I had a bit of trouble swallowing antihistamines to knock myself out in order to escape the amazing aromas of everyone else's pre-paid entrees. Lacking a blanket (or anything warm in my baggage), I was forced to make a classy move and insert my arms inside my t-shirt for warmth/survival while I tried to sleep. I grabbed a nap in the airport in Malaysia, then was the lucky recipient of a non-reclining seat (and a full-volume video game-playing seatmate) for the two hour flight to Bangkok. Fun.

ATFP

Time for Awkward Thai Family Photos! Unfortunately, I was too timid to take a photo of what was possibly the most awkward family photo I've spotted to date. It contained nudity, so some censoring would have been necessary for online publication anyway. A description will have to suffice.

On a busy Bangkok street, amid several food and merchandise stalls was a photo shop. Outside the shop was a three-foot-tall glossy poster, an aerial shot of two adorable babies. Lying on their backs. Wearing colorful headbands. And socks. And nothing else. Certainly some people think baby nudity is no big deal, but I feel strange after accidentally seeing a tiny Thai twig-and-berries, so into the Awkward file it goes.

As a consolation prize, here's a photo of me and my orangutan friend at the zoo in Bangkok. It would be much less awkward if he would have stopped playing with his nipple long enough to take a photo. His handler kept yelling, "Bam! Bam!" which I'm guessing was either his name or how to say, "Stop playing with your nipple!" in Thai.

More Bathroom Signs

They continue to amuse me. So I'll continue to creepily take pictures of them.

At a subway station in Incheon.

These even use apostrophes correctly.

At a restaurant in Pohang (southeastern Korea).

And...the hair, the butt, the stance, the window on the porta-pottie? So many great and confusing things about this one.

Near a walking/biking trail in my neighborhood.