Last day of July

I've been in "Korea" for almost a month now. I put quotes around Korea because so far it's really been little America in Korea. I've said this a dozen times, and I'm going to say it again: none of us have experienced culture shock yet, and we won't until we get to our placements and actually have to fend for ourselves and communicate on a daily basis with people who don't speak any English.
With regard to teaching, on Tuesday and Wednesday I taught two lessons. Tuesday was a lesson introducing the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and The Grapes of Wrath. I used that to springboard into a lesson on the basic parts of speech. Overall, this lesson was much more manageable. I didn't try to do too much in the 50 minute period, and I was definitely more comfortable because I knew that this lesson was going well. I also had a better idea of what was expected of a teacher, although I still don't know if it was a literature lesson in English or an English lesson involving literature. That was something that CF did not define and no two people had the same answer for me. Lesson 3 also went pretty well. I did a compare/contrast lesson on facts about the ROK and US. I was told by my instructor that I had to play a game before leaving CF. In my mind, a game was a cop out, a way to waste time. The reality is quite the opposite. A game takes a lot of planning and innovation. Also, I was a little disinterested during the game because I knew that it didn't fit well into the rest of my lesson and was almost forced. While the kids were enjoying themselves, I cut the game short because I thought they were getting out of hand. My perception of how students should act is shaped by my own high school experience. However, this has to change because the students here are NOT the same as in America. It's almost as if they're a little less mature. They've been coddled all their lives and as a teacher that's something I have to take into account. I'm not saying that I'll coddle them too, but they're kids after all, and kids will be kids. Of course, these kids are a lot smarter than I was in high school.
Korean classes are still extremely hard and still handing me a whipping every week. However, we're learning a lot and this type of intensive language class is how language should be taught. Hopefully I'll at least get to the intermediate/conversational level by the time my grant year is over. A lot of that will depend on the resources available to me where I'm placed.
Last two things I want to note: I was able to order pizza the other night using my limited Korean. Victory #2!

Another pic from the hike Jim 씨 and I went on

Also, the best part about Korea is that the door close button in the elevators actually has a function rather than just to light up when you rap it. Amazingly, when you push it, the door closes.

First lesson plan - Teaching is hard

Again, it's been a while! This past week was rather busy too, and filled with lots of Korean class. One particular teaching workshop that I found more informative (although my fellow Fulbrighters would disagree) than the others was hosted by the regional English director. It was the first teaching workshop that I actually took notes during because I thought that he was giving us some really good advice. Other people thought he was a little condescending but whatever, I've gotten used to that in Korea...
It's also been raining the past two days. Yesterday we played some pepper (volleyball) in the rain and today we were planning on going to Seoul but after some confusion with the bus schedule and the realization that we were going to be in the rain all night, we decided against it. I think the weekend after next we're all going to Seoul to visit the DMZ which should be a memorable experience. Also, I've got a year to experience Korea, there isn't much of a rush. However, it would've been real nice to get out of Goesan for a night and experience the big city. 
We're involved with this two week program called Camp Fulbright. Basically Korean kids from all over Korea come to Jungwon University to participate in the program. They serve as our guinea pigs so when we get to our placements we're not totally lost in the classroom. For my first lesson, as I think I already said in a previous post, I had the subject of music. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be an English lesson involving music or a music lesson in English. I tried to do a mixture of both and I think I was way too ambitious so the lesson fell a little flat. I also was told that they knew their parts of speech, which ended up not necessarily being the case so I had to try and teach them that. The biggest lesson I took away from that first lesson plan was to be simple and not try to do too much in one 50 minute period because everything takes longer than anticipated. I showed them a few cartoons with classical music in them, tried to teach them about the music and basic music vocab, then have them narrate the cartoons using fill in the blank worksheets with the parts of speech in parentheses. It ended up being too hard for them and too much work for one period. My next lesson is literature and I'm using the Grapes of Wrath to have them pick out the different parts of speech from a preselected passage. I also want to teach them a little about the history of the Dust Bowl so we'll see how that lesson goes. At the very least, it's a much more simple idea.
Some of us also played kickball with the Camp Fulbright kids, which was fun. They're definitely shy at first but slowly starting to come out of their shells, like any kid. Korea is a really humid country in the summer. Five minutes of physical activity and I'm sweating. Today I was a part of the Camp Fulbright Olympics and I helped run the soccer station. It was a lot of fun, or at least as much fun as a 9 AM Saturday morning can be.
Yesterday our placement preference forms were due. Basically I don't have any preferences except I would very much like to end up in a city where I can meet lots of Koreans and take Korean classes. Also I want to be in an area with good transportation so I can travel Korea and visit my family in Jin Ju. Ending up in Jin Ju itself is an option but probably not preferable. Speaking of which...I finally called my uncle and cousin who speak English. Their English skills were great, especially my uncle. He said he wants me to speak to him in Korean next time though...we'll see how that goes. My cousin was upset that we weren't coming to Seoul after all. She was planning on meeting up with us for dinner.
Lastly,  I had poppinsu last night. It's shaved ice, ice cream, sweet red bean paste, fruits and some other stuff. It wasn't bad, although sweets aren't my thing.

The days are getting longer

The work is really piling up between language classes and teaching workshops. So far, my lesson plans have taken me a lot longer to draw up than I thought they would. I'm supposed to teach a lesson on music for my first lesson so I decided to teach about classic music found in cartoons and have the students narrate what's going on in the cartoons using different parts of speech. Basically my lesson is more centered around parts of speech than around music, but I will be including some musical terms like meter, rhythm and tempo. I'll post how it goes tomorrow.
In other news, I attended a talk on North Korean human rights, but it ended up being more of a talk on how to volunteer at NK refugee organizations here in South Korea. North Korea has always been of particular interest to me because of its irrational behavior, whether it has to do with its nuclear weapons program (bargaining perhaps, but it seems to have backfired) or the sinking of a SK submarine (what was gained by denying it? especially if NK is going to do it in the first place, knowing it would get caught). Overall, though, it was a very informative talk that helped me understand a little better what was going on in NK. With the Middle East in the forefront of our minds, we often have more of an idea what's going on in a country like Iran with regard to its egregious human rights violations, but sometimes Asia flies under the radar (see China, NK).
Well it's time for bed, Matt the Teacher takes the stage tomorrow. If I remember, I'll expand on my perception of NK in a post in the near future.

Week 2

It's Sunday night of my second week in Korea. I've been here 14 days now but my last post was on Monday. Not a whole lot happened during the week because we've been so busy with Korean language classes and teaching workshops.
One thing I've noticed is that drinking is a part of the culture here. It's not taboo like in America, instead Koreans can only really express themselves and be who they are when they're drinking. If one doesn't drink, the Koreans see that as bizarre for starters, but it also takes away from the cultural experience because one misses out on a big part of Korean society. They also have a slew of drinking games, all involving singing. They're really quite entertaining. They even describe chasing a drink though a Chinese proverb that roughly means you start with something bad and end with something good to make yourself feel better. Genius. Also, they eat constantly. In America, generally you go to a bar to drink, not eat. In Korea, the two go hand in hand at all times, at all hours of the night. The kitchens don't close like in America.
As for the particulars of the last week, we had a few people come and talk to us about our upcoming Fulbright Korea experience, telling us what to expect and how to deal with the unexpected. That includes some informative panels, where currently placed ETAs talk about certain aspects of their placements.
A quick note on our language classes: we've started to conjugate verbs in Korean. I said that Korean was hard before. It's really hard now.
On Wednesday I teach my first lesson. I'm teaching music so I decided to do a lesson on the parts of speech. I'm going to have the kids narrate different cartoons that feature classical music. Maybe it's not a music lesson but I figure they're here for the English anyway.
For a "relaxing" break, we went to Haeinsa this weekend. There's a temple there and it's a pretty interesting site. We spoke with a monk from the temple who was actually the son of a Fulbright recipient. Religion isn't really my thing, but Buddhism interested me a little since my Mom claims to be a Buddhist (even if she doesn't practice). That's the same reason that Judaism interests me. Thanks, Abba. On Saturday, my friend Jim and I hiked over a mountain. It was 4.4 KM to the top (1430m of elevation) and the sights were incredible. The waterfalls and scenery were impressive, even for a city boy like me. However, somehow we got lost, came down the wrong side of the mountain and ended up back at the Buddhist temple. Maybe someone is trying to tell me something. Or maybe we're just directionally challenged. We realized we were going the wrong way but we had already gone too far, and had just gone over a really difficult part of the trail. We kept passing signs that pointed in the direction we had come from, saying "DANGER". Anyway, it was 3.9 KM to Haeinsa and then Jim and I took a cab back to the hotel. It was definitely worth the embarrassment, muddy shoes, and 8500 won (roughly $8) each.
I also experienced victory #1 in Korea. I bought some ramen and poured what I thought was hot water into the cup. However, the water was room temperature and now I faced the dilemma of having ruined my noodles! I asked one of the Korean-Americans how to say microwave and somehow conveyed to the hotel staff that I wanted to warm up my noodles. I even got chopsticks too. Maybe Korean isn't so hard.
We have our placement preference form due Friday. While I want to end up in a big city because I think it'll offer the most opportunities for beginner Korean language classes, I would also settle for ending up in a place with solid transportation options in the southern part of Korea provided that I could also easily visit my family in Jin Ju. I came to Korea partially to discover myself. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to spend all my time with my Korean family because they speak very limited English, but it's definitely a factor.
As a closing note, our elevator is made by Hyundai. I bet it gets great gas mileage.

Cute Korean commercial

This supposedly entices kids to eat eggs, like America's milk commercials. I already want eggs.
http://www.iloveegg.com/egg_english.htm
(This is the English version)

The homepage can be found here: http://www.iloveegg.com/eng_index.htm#

Update!

It has been a few days since I've posted an entry. This is partially due to being busy, partially because there hasn't been much to write about. Orientation is pretty much the same every day. Mornings are filled with either Korean classes, culture lectures or teaching workshops. Afternoons are consumed by the latter two. Somewhere in between comes lunch and maybe a little physical activity.
Between my last post and this muggy Sunday evening, we were at B&B and my "Korean suitor" decided to apologize for chewing me out the other night. She said she doesn't hate me, and wants to spend time with me. I tried to tell her that I would practice English with her, but that was it. I don't think she understood. I'll keep trying and eventually I think it'll become more apparent. At least I hope. The issue is that the town of Goesan is small, and when we go out in a big group she has a tendency to magically appear. I might have to find a new night spot. Also happening between the last post and now were quite a few teaching workshops. They were very helpful for developing lesson plans. I knew that the Fulbright ETA program wouldn't send us in blind, but the level of prep is impressive. In the last one, we had to write a lesson plan for teaching about American holidays to intermediate high school students at an all-girls school. We decided to focus on Valentine's Day, and I wrote a sample Valentine's card that we would present. It was a little more flowery than an intermediate student would write, but I figured that was in true Geduldig fashion.
We also attended two lectures by Michael Hurt. One was about landscape photography in South Korea, which was very interesting. You may have heard of him through his moderately controversial blogs. I won't go into too much detail about these lectures but I will say that the workshops are more informative for me than the lectures. I'd rather work on preparing to become a good teacher rather than sit through these lectures, most of which have a pessimistic overtone. I think that Fulbright is trying to prepare us for the worst, in case we're met with hostility or prejudice while here in Korea.
We've also played some sort of sport or physical activity almost every day, which has been great for bonding purposes. Some of the guys are pretty cool, which is always helpful when going abroad.
Today we had the option to go to Chungju, the capital city of Cheongchung buk-do. It's about an hour away, but I chose to stay at JWU instead. I wikipedia'd the city and found that there wasn't much to see there. If it had been a historical site, I definitely would've gone, but from what I'm told by the people that went and the OC's, it was really for shopping purposes if you needed something you should have brought from home or whatnot. A lot of people enjoyed a taste of Americanized food there, but I haven't had any problems with the food at JWU so that wasn't a concern. Instead I ate lunch, took a nap, watched the "Hurt Locker" and did some LSAT work. Now I have to study for my Korean language quiz tomorrow. We're getting more and more busy by the day, so it was a good interlude.
Two notes about Korea. The Korean students that we've made friends with here are very eager to learn English, and very touchy feely. If they didn't smell like kim chee and cigarettes then it wouldn't be as much of an issue! I think that's a characteristic of Koreans in general from what I'm told, but we'll see how true that ends up being. Also, it's so muggy here that nothing dries. My sweaty clothes and wet towel are going to sprout roots soon. Either that, or resemble the carpet that our landlord from Colgate, Wayne DD Foster, insisted that we keep in our bathroom in our senior year off campus house. Woo 9 Pine...

Not an interesting day by any means

Today started great. Breakfast was awesome. It consisted of some sort of gogi that I thought was an Americanized Korean food, but apparently not. There was also a fish soup and your kim chee staple.
Language class was especially rough today. I now know why Koreans have trouble pronouncing the "L" and "R" sounds in English. In Korean, there's only one letter that kind of combines the two while leaning more on the "L" side. The good news is we're reading. Slowly, yes, but still reading. It's certainly an intensive immersion course that's teaching me a lot. The professors are great, which makes it all the better. As class captain, I found that I'm basically responsible for making the professor's life as easy as possible. We'll see how that goes, especially considering that I can't communicate with either of our two profs.
After language classes, we had a Korean history lecture, followed by a game of pick up basketball with other Fulbrighters. Overall an enjoyable but uneventful day.
Lastly, I was chewed out by the Korean girl I met the first night we went to B&B (a bar). She asked why I was avoiding her, why I wasn't going to GLEE club and where I was going at the time. Pretty nosy for someone I just met! I told her that Fulbright was keeping me busy and that I was jet-lagged. Both true. Maybe she'll leave me alone now.