It's officially one month 'til I board the plane back to my cold and soggy homeland. It's starting to get warm here in Korea. The cherry blossoms have arrived and some of the broad avenues of the city are lined with pink-white blooms. It's kinda hard to go home when I know I have 2 months of what amounts to Korean winter (hehe), but at least most of the snow will be gone when I get there. I bit of leisurely tromping in the woods and some trouting will take my mind off the weather.
I'll try and grab a pic of one of the roads lined with cherry blossoms before they fall.
01 April 2008
Crime and Punishment (sort of)
Here's a pic of a couple of my students in a typical pose.
When Korean kids misbehave they're put into this "hands up" posture for punishment. They really hate it and it is very effective at bringing the unruly crowd to heel. Not that I run any kind of super-strict classroom but the kids sometimes go a little crazy or can't stop making a racket. As you can see in the photo they're kind of smirking a bit 'cause I snapped their picture with my phonecam.
Sometimes I used to yell at the students but this has little effect on those intent on mischief and upsets the "good" students. (I have the voice of a drill sergeant, you can hear me all over my (small) school when I do cut loose.) I've been avoiding yelling at all for quite a while, but sometimes it's still called for. You can only say "Please be quiet" so many times under the din in the classroom before a dramatic increase in decibels is called for.
Other more creative "punishments" include having the misbehaving student sit at my desk for the class. This has two effects: they don't like it and are less likely to "do something to have to sit next to Rod-teacher" next time and they actually seem to get some studying done. It's funny, sometimes the students who have had the "front-row special" for a couple of classes start sitting in the front of the class on their own. I think it might be because they get a bit more positive attention about actually doing their classroom exercises.
When they get the "hands up" punishment it's usually for something like repeated outbursts in class, being a complete lunatic in the hallway or for something more serious. I usually place them at the end of my hallway by the front desk where the director can see them. They get scolded by teachers passing by if their behaviour was really bad. Usually a 5 minute application of justice is enough of a reminder and they are then invited back to class. I haven't had to do it very often for the past couple of months but a sudden influx of new students had a reaction similar to something you'd see in a prison yard scene from Shawshank Redemption.
What's really funny is that the kids who are the "worst offenders" (they aren't bad kids, they just need time outs now and then) are some of the kids who bond with me the most. They usually end up being much better students after a while, too. I've also noticed that the "smarter" students are also, more often than not, the ones who are more prone to mischief. Or at least that's the way it seems.
Anyway, I know that if I did anything like this in a school back home I'd be keelhauled. I'll be damned if I see anything wrong with this style of punishment though. A little instructive contemplation and redirection does wonders for classroom order.
[sob] I'm a MONSTER!! [sob]
So why the hell do the little buggers climb all over me and stick to me like fly paper all the time? Damned if I'll ever figure it out. I'll have to have some of my own sometime to see if I can figure it out.
When Korean kids misbehave they're put into this "hands up" posture for punishment. They really hate it and it is very effective at bringing the unruly crowd to heel. Not that I run any kind of super-strict classroom but the kids sometimes go a little crazy or can't stop making a racket. As you can see in the photo they're kind of smirking a bit 'cause I snapped their picture with my phonecam.
Sometimes I used to yell at the students but this has little effect on those intent on mischief and upsets the "good" students. (I have the voice of a drill sergeant, you can hear me all over my (small) school when I do cut loose.) I've been avoiding yelling at all for quite a while, but sometimes it's still called for. You can only say "Please be quiet" so many times under the din in the classroom before a dramatic increase in decibels is called for.
Other more creative "punishments" include having the misbehaving student sit at my desk for the class. This has two effects: they don't like it and are less likely to "do something to have to sit next to Rod-teacher" next time and they actually seem to get some studying done. It's funny, sometimes the students who have had the "front-row special" for a couple of classes start sitting in the front of the class on their own. I think it might be because they get a bit more positive attention about actually doing their classroom exercises.
When they get the "hands up" punishment it's usually for something like repeated outbursts in class, being a complete lunatic in the hallway or for something more serious. I usually place them at the end of my hallway by the front desk where the director can see them. They get scolded by teachers passing by if their behaviour was really bad. Usually a 5 minute application of justice is enough of a reminder and they are then invited back to class. I haven't had to do it very often for the past couple of months but a sudden influx of new students had a reaction similar to something you'd see in a prison yard scene from Shawshank Redemption.
What's really funny is that the kids who are the "worst offenders" (they aren't bad kids, they just need time outs now and then) are some of the kids who bond with me the most. They usually end up being much better students after a while, too. I've also noticed that the "smarter" students are also, more often than not, the ones who are more prone to mischief. Or at least that's the way it seems.
Anyway, I know that if I did anything like this in a school back home I'd be keelhauled. I'll be damned if I see anything wrong with this style of punishment though. A little instructive contemplation and redirection does wonders for classroom order.
[sob] I'm a MONSTER!! [sob]
So why the hell do the little buggers climb all over me and stick to me like fly paper all the time? Damned if I'll ever figure it out. I'll have to have some of my own sometime to see if I can figure it out.
20 February 2008
It's spring and the sap is rising...
So in the interest of gracing this planet with my existence for a few years longer I've decided to repent of some of my wicked ways. My bad habits aren't what you'd call extreme but lately I've been feeling a bit run down. Step one is curbing my terrible long-standing sleeping hours. Almost non-existent. I have been habitually going to bed at 3 a.m. for so long that it's the time that my internal clock has set itself to, making it very difficult to reset myself to a normal daily routine. I don't have circadian rhythms so much as circadian syncopation, everything seems a little out of phase, almost, but not quite, somnambulistic.
After that I'll have to give up my other nasty habits. Which I won't enumerate here for fear of harming the kiddies. I will say that I've been working on this for a while now and though I haven't exactly succeeded, I haven't given up trying either. Who knew what a fight it would be to do something that you know is only going to be really good for you.
After that I'll have to give up my other nasty habits. Which I won't enumerate here for fear of harming the kiddies. I will say that I've been working on this for a while now and though I haven't exactly succeeded, I haven't given up trying either. Who knew what a fight it would be to do something that you know is only going to be really good for you.
03 February 2008
Winter Blahs
Haven't posted in about a month, I've been doing my usual winter hibernation thing. I think I need to live somewhere where it's summer all the time. I hate the sleepiness I seem to live with all winter.
So this weekend my neighbour Lynn and I checked out the Tiger Cafe, a Russian restaurant on Texas Street. It was "interesting", the coffee was really good, Lynn ordered pork-stuffed cabbage rolls (they were HUGE) and I had my first-ever taste of borscht. Lynn and I seemed to both have the opinion that borscht would be some kind of strange experience, but I thought it was pretty tasty; beets, cabbage and pork with a dollop or sour cream, pretty tasty! There was a little menu in English and a Russian menu of about 6 pages, the English menu only had about 4 or 5 dishes but the one in Cyrillic had about 30 or 40. Must learn Russian next year.
Tonight I showed Lynn a little coffee place in Nampo-dong where I go to hide from the crowd. The nice lady who owns it is always very pleasant. Her son attends university in the US and he sends here things from time to time. Tonight she had a box of flavoured Quaker instant oatmeal on the shelf and I've been craving the stuff for a few weeks now (yeah, I know, it's weird.) Anyway, she saw me shwoing it to Lynn and she opened it and gave me a couple of packs. I gotta remember to bring her something nice when I come back from Canada.
So this weekend my neighbour Lynn and I checked out the Tiger Cafe, a Russian restaurant on Texas Street. It was "interesting", the coffee was really good, Lynn ordered pork-stuffed cabbage rolls (they were HUGE) and I had my first-ever taste of borscht. Lynn and I seemed to both have the opinion that borscht would be some kind of strange experience, but I thought it was pretty tasty; beets, cabbage and pork with a dollop or sour cream, pretty tasty! There was a little menu in English and a Russian menu of about 6 pages, the English menu only had about 4 or 5 dishes but the one in Cyrillic had about 30 or 40. Must learn Russian next year.
Tonight I showed Lynn a little coffee place in Nampo-dong where I go to hide from the crowd. The nice lady who owns it is always very pleasant. Her son attends university in the US and he sends here things from time to time. Tonight she had a box of flavoured Quaker instant oatmeal on the shelf and I've been craving the stuff for a few weeks now (yeah, I know, it's weird.) Anyway, she saw me shwoing it to Lynn and she opened it and gave me a couple of packs. I gotta remember to bring her something nice when I come back from Canada.
Labels:
Food,
Tales from Texas Street
19 December 2007
Ever decreasing circles
I'm about ready for bed, it's already too late. I just finished watching the show Medium on Fox Korea. It's about a psychic who helps the DA solve crimes. So anyway, I thought for a moment about my impending end of contract (hopefully subject to an extension) and about life in Busan and life in my neighbourhood in general. I recalled watching the movie Chingu a year or so before I came here, it's actually set in the neighbourhood I work in now. I changed channels and, oddly enough, it happened to be playing and the next scene was of a guy singing My Way in a noraebang. Then I remembered the first night that the teachers took me out for a welcoming party we went to a noraebang and I sang two songs: My Way and Play that Funky Music. Just a little odd.
Something else a bit unusual about this film is that they speak a dialect of Korean local to Busan and general Korean audiences needed subtitles to understand some of the dialogue. I keep joking to friends that I'm learning Busanese dialect so that when I speak Korean they'll know where I'm from. :D
Something else a bit unusual about this film is that they speak a dialect of Korean local to Busan and general Korean audiences needed subtitles to understand some of the dialogue. I keep joking to friends that I'm learning Busanese dialect so that when I speak Korean they'll know where I'm from. :D
14 December 2007
Korean Postal Sevice
So I had my first taste of the using the Korean Postal System today. I sent one 15 kg (that's 33 lbs for you oldtimers) box to Canada; it cost me $115 to send it via EMS (Express Mail Service), a kind of guaranteed delivery, trackable, expedited parcel service. The guy next to me was mailing what looked like a crate of truck axles to Russia! I guess the postal system here is really useful to small businesses.
The bigger post offices even sell the boxes, seven sizes up to about a half cubic metre in size, the boxes cost about $4 for the biggest, double corrugated box they have and there's a guy in a booth who will package everything, including bubble wrap, etc., for you for a small fee. You can walk in with a bag of stuff and they'll do it all for you. Crazy service!
Seyoung sent a parcel to her sister in New York last week: a total of three days to delivery. Canada Post never looked so poor next to these guys. It costs about the same to send a standard service parcel of half that weight from Canada to Korea.
I had to fill out the EMS form twice because I filled out the return address in Korean and the clerk explained in broken but passable English that Canada requires its return addresses in English. All other countries will allow return addresses in Korean. So I guess Canada Post provides as poor a service to its international brethren as it does to the citizens of Canada. So much for a privatized post office.
The bigger post offices even sell the boxes, seven sizes up to about a half cubic metre in size, the boxes cost about $4 for the biggest, double corrugated box they have and there's a guy in a booth who will package everything, including bubble wrap, etc., for you for a small fee. You can walk in with a bag of stuff and they'll do it all for you. Crazy service!
Seyoung sent a parcel to her sister in New York last week: a total of three days to delivery. Canada Post never looked so poor next to these guys. It costs about the same to send a standard service parcel of half that weight from Canada to Korea.
I had to fill out the EMS form twice because I filled out the return address in Korean and the clerk explained in broken but passable English that Canada requires its return addresses in English. All other countries will allow return addresses in Korean. So I guess Canada Post provides as poor a service to its international brethren as it does to the citizens of Canada. So much for a privatized post office.
11 December 2007
Rainy December Day
It was warmish (~10C) and raining this morning in Busan. Kinda of like Newfoundland in early June. One of my adult students gave me a small bag of ddeok and told me about making Ddeok Guk, a kind of rice cake soup. I have lost all taste for anything fish-flavoured lately and wanted something different so I made some soup with ddeok, Korean instant beef stock, fresh spring onions, dried shitake mushrooms and frozen mandu. It was the best breakfast I've had in quite a while and perfect for a wet, grey day. There's a recipe for Mandu Ddeok Guk at My Korean Kitchen. Although I didn't follow the recipe, or even read it all before, my soup is very similar! Maybe I am becoming a Korean, as my director is fond of pointing out.
There are a few new photos posted to Flickr, descriptions, etc. will follow as time permits. I'll post an article or two about them later...
I've been thinking of building myself a hidey-hole somewhere. A little house to stick my books and junk in while I "wander up and down upon the earth". While Googling for "cabin building" info I found a link to this site with a freely downloadable PDF file that you can print to make a model of Thoreau's famous cabin at Walden. The site also has links to the Thoreau Reader, which has some good annotated versions of Thoreau's stuff.
Although I am admittedly a materialistic person (not in the sense of riches, but in the love of objects) one of my favourite personalities in history is Henry David Thoreau. There's a lot to be learned from his writing, even if you aren't the minimalist Trascendentalist he was. Have a look, go build your own shack, or for the more time restricted, download the PDF and build it on your office desk :D .
monk
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