Living in Korea: A Vlog

One of the questions I am most often asked is, “What is it like to live in Korea?” I find it incredibly hard to answer that question, since I believe you get out of life what you put into it. I hope this video does a better job showing what life is like in Korea, at least from my perspective.

When you get it right…

How mornings start...

I love teaching… I really do. As we start off the new term, I had a great moment last night. Long-time readers will remember that during the Summer Intensive session, I taught a custom speaking class. It was designed to assist elementary students gain confidence in their public speaking abilities. Two of those students were in my class last night as we began the first lesson in their new level.

Since the material is rather light for Lesson 1, I incorporated a brief lesson on public speaking. I did this for two reasons: 1) Students at this level are asked to prepare longer presentations in class (and I expect more out of them); 2) Twice a year we hold speaking competitions for children at this level and above.

The two students that were in my class were very happy to see that Topic #1 from summer class was the same as the topic I assigned for homework. They not only took time to convince the rest of the class that giving a 2-minute speech was easy, but also asked if they could use the speech they prepared from summer.

I was already proud of them for doing such a great job this summer… but this made me even more so.

Tonight, I teach my first science class. I hope these students are as open to giving presentations as these younger ones. I love science and can’t wait to immerse myself once more into its world.

Monday… Monday

From the media pole!

The past few days have been amazing, but alas it is Monday once more and time to focus and get ready for work.

This past weekend was a great little get-away for Jo and I since we had a lot on our to-do list. It entailed traveling all over Seoul, picking up items from Craig’s List, seeing movies, breaking bread with friends, and visiting historic sites.

Probably the best part about the weekend, is that we just kind of took things step-by-step, having a few ideas of what we wanted to do , but being open to other opportunities along the way.

For example, we had completed all of our shopping on Saturday and had a few hours to kill before meeting up with our friends for dinner. While on the bus to Sinchon (신촌), we passed by a Megabox movie theater and decided to see if something was playing. We opted for Killers with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl.

It looked like it was going to be a cute comedy, and there were moments, but in the long run, it fell flat and was predictable. But for Jo and I, it served its purpose and allowed us some down time and time to get out of the summer heat in Korea. (Seriously, when is it going to end?)

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing some video footage to put together a quick video about a normal weekend in Korea. I hope you’re downtime was fulfilling. What did you do?

Typing in Korean

So you’ve made it to Korea. You’re here, enjoying the sights and sounds of the country you’ll be living and working in, and have even taken the next step and taken up learning Korean. But you keep running into problems when trying to type on your western-style keyboard.

If you have a Mac, you actually have a few options that will make it easier for you to type in Korean (not only for vocabulary practice, but when searching).

To activate the Korean language inputs on your computer, head up to the menu bar on your Mac. You’ll see the current language set. As you can see in this picture, my current language is set to English (US). I’ve also a few other languages.

If you don’t have anything, but English selected (or your native language), hit the Open International option to bring up the menu.

This brings up a preference menu that allows you to toggle which languages you’d like to be able to type in on the computer. As you can see, there are several options for different kinds of input for Korean. I recommend selecting two: 2-Set Korean and HNC Romanja.

Simply close this window and go back the menu bar, and you’ll find your two new additions. The 2-Set Korean transforms your keyboard into the standard Korean input (that you see on every computer in Korea). This is great for learning touch-typing, but for Western computers with Latin characters, it doesn’t do us any good, since we don’t have the characters on our keyboard. Thankfully, there’s a virtual keyboard available. Just click on the Show Keyboard Viewer and it will pop up on your screen.

There it is!

However, since this can be quite slow, I usually opt for the HNC Romanja. This allows you to input Latin letters and the computer changes them into Hanguel. Check it out:

• ng = ㅇ
• ss = ㅆ
• ai = ㅐ
• ngue = 워
• gamsamhabnida = 감사합니다
• ngannyenghaseingyo = 안녕하세요

It does take a little time getting used to (especially when writing the more complicated sequences), but when trying to translate something or enter data, it is quite handy!

Bionics on!

Oh, how I remember watching that show while growing up. It brought together two things that I really love: bionics and stupid-fun-cartoons. Truth be told, I don’t remember too much about the show these days, but I’m sure I could find something on YouTube if I wanted.

The reason this came to mind has been my recent bout of Physio at the doctor’s office. For the first few times, they just gave me heat, ultra-sound, and e-stim. However, after the fourth trip, they started using the device to the right.

It’s an altered air cast that has five zones. Each zone cycles through air and promotes circulation. It starts off at the feet, then the ankle. Then as it starts filling the lower calf, the foot deflates and so on. The therapy lasts for 15 minutes, and unlike the other ones I receive, forces me to sit-up straight (rather than lie down and take a nap).

Since the office started using this therapy, I’ve noticed that my knee has been healing much faster. In fact, with only two therapy sessions left, I’m looking forward to returning to the doctor’s office on Friday and asking to resume low-impact cardio exercise. It’s my hope that I can reduce the therapy to three times per week and resume working out on a full-time basis. Not going to the gym has been killing me (although I suspect that Jo enjoys me not coming home smelling like a locker).

This (hopeful) release will also mean that Jo and I can start climbing some mountains! With Fall right around the corner, I’m eager to show her the beauty of the land!

Take care!

They are delicious?

I had some left over footage from out trip, or non-trip to Jeju. I filmed the toilet bit just before we started back to Seoul and really wanted to use the footage in the video, but couldn’t make it work. So my solution was to couple it with something else.

I also wanted to try my hand at some other transitions, and thought this would be the perfect time to do so! The result was something fun and a little different.

One down…

It’s hard to believe, but another term at school is coming to a close. Three months of education have passed and my students are all taking their mid-terms and finals this week. It’s really been interesting to see the changes that occurred in all my classes this term.

One of the more frustrated things I deal with falls within the realm of reading and comprehension. This mainly is due to the young nature of my students who don’t equate looking at a page and while the CD is playing as actually reading and listening to the material. The former results in students completing homework, but being unable to actually read the stories or answer questions about something they’ve supposedly read five times in the course of a week.

For the past three months, I did something a little different. Each class started off with an open-book quiz. I’d pick five questions related to the homework reading and give students five minutes to complete the quiz. Students that successfully answered all the questions correctly would earn an additional 20 points for their team.

By the end of the term, students in the higher level classes were consistently earning 100% on these quizzes. In cases where students scored less, it was because they didn’t do the homework at all. I’m quite pleased with the efficacy of my students and am looking forward to those that are advancing to the next level starting September 1st.

With the new term also brings some added responsibility on my part. For the past 15 months, I’ve been teaching reading comprehension and speaking (both of which I really enjoy), but I’ll be getting two, new middle school classes: World History and Science. It will mark the first time I’ve taught a subject based course in Korea, but I’m really looking forward to this new challenge.

Having a science background, I’m eagerly looking forward to discussing science and its application to the natural world. I fondly recall my time back in the 1990s when I had my own lab and taught Human A&P and Invertebrate Zoology. They were so much fun. Now I get to tackle a wider range of science topics, ranging from ecology to physics.

Then there’s the world history class. Oh, how I love history and bringing in relationships to present day situations to see how they’ve unfolded over the years. Furthermore, I love digging deeper into details to uncover the hidden stories to make events clearer. History is such a great format for story telling, I can’t wait to have a class where I can read, discuss, and present the wonder that is our world.

So as I leave you on this fine day, what was your favorite class in school and why?

A day away…

Jo and Little T in the Flowers

When the weekend comes, it most certainly is time to play. One of the things that Jo and I do during the week is try to find something new and exciting to do. In fact, for the next month, we have nearly every weekend planed with a fun outing or gathering.

We weren’t sure what we had wanted to do this past weekend, but thankfully the KTO posted a link on their Facebook page for the Taebaek Sunflower festival.

There were several options on getting out there, but Jo and I settled on grabbing an Intercity bus from Suwon and resting along the way. Once there, we walked over to the Tourist Information booth and were instructed to take a taxi to the festival.

Being up in the high country was a welcome change after over a year in the concrete jungle, I really wanted to see some alpine areas. Taebaek was just what the doctor ordered, too. Everything was spectacular, even though most of the sunflowers had moved on to… greener pastures (I know… lame).

Yeongyeon Cave

From the festival area, Jo and I opted to taxi-it to Yeongyeon Cave. It was even a little higher up the mountain and took us on a 800 meter walk underground. It was an amazing experience, mostly because after being in the direct sunlight for hours, the cool, damp cave was welcomed. I thought it was strange that they gave us hard hats when going into the cave, but Jo and I soon realized why they did this.

While the trail system in the cave is extensive, it really isn’t tall-people friendly. Several times low outcroppings darted into the path, and on more than one occasion, I had to get down on my hands and knees to traverse the cave. That being said, it was a great experience, one that I’m thankful Jo and I made together.

The one thing I didn’t understand was the pace that others were taking through this natural wonder. Jo and I took our own sweet time (maybe 90 minutes) to go through everything. Everyone else seemed to be in some sort of race to see how fast they could get through the cave, and in my opinion, missed out on seeing how beautiful it was.

Hwanji Pond

After lunch, we headed out to Hwanji Pond. It’s located about 10 minutes from the bus terminal and was nothing less than an oasis in the center of town.

Everything was so peaceful there, that I think Jo and I thought this was the highlight of the trip. What’s really unique about this ‘pond’ is that since it produces so much water, it’s actually the source of the Nakdong River.

If you have a free day and want to explore some great natural wonders, I really recommend hopping on a bus or train and giving Taebaek a try. There’s a lot to do, and I know that Jo and I will return to visit some of the other natural wonders in town.

It’s on…

Bam!

For the past twelve working days, I’ve been teaching Summer Intensives (like Summer School). While I enjoy teaching, and in fact, got to write my own curriculum this time, what I really didn’t like was how it impacted my days.

Normally, I don’t start work until around 4pm (sure I go in a bit early, but that’s my choice). Having morning classes and then going back in the afternoon, really took its toll on me, since I’m used to taking it easy in the morning and also having time to go into Seoul if needed. Plus, after putting in a few hours in the morning, grabbing a quick bite to eat, and then looking at returning to the office an hour later, really inhibited my language learning time.

Granted, I have not been all that motivated at learning either Korean or Hangeul since Jo’s been here. But that’s changing. I am really motivated to take some extra time out of my day and learn both languages. An emphasis will be placed on Tagalog, since we’ll be returning to the Philippines for Christmas/New Year’s and I really want to be semi-fluent by then. Granted almost everyone in the Philippines speaks English, but I really enjoy learning languages and want to be able to converse with those that might not be comfortable speaking in English. I’m also looking forward to resuming my Rosetta Stone and TTMIK series (I erased my previous account with Rosetta Stone and started from scratch).

As of today, I’ve completed one lesson in both languages. That sounds more impressive that it really is, since they’re both review for me (I’ve done them many times). What I really appreciated was having Jo by my side correcting every little pronunciation as I was trying my hat at Tagalog. I hope with her expert instruction, I can really wow her mother and sisters.

Question: If you could learn any new language, what would it be?

Comfort Food

I love pizza.

I love coffee.

I love greasy, greasy french fries.

They are the things that make me feel fantastic and provide that feeling inside that makes me warm all over.

What’s your comfort food?