I Teach The Cutest Kids In The World

I can't believe it but I've already been working here for three months which means classes are resetting and some of my students are changing. Here are a few of my favorite messages that my kids sent me over this past few months:

Subject: I love you!!

Hello?? teachr I am jessica!! 

I am enjoy your class.
And I like you!!
Good by^^Lets see in thursday~~^^ I love you very much!!

Hello, teacher. I"m daisy.  I"m don"t know review home work. The review is not home work the speaking and writing? I"m sorry write it. Because teacher is busy. But I don"t like stay nine o"clock.......

You are so so so so so so so so~~~beatiful,handsome,kind.
I love you~~~
Claire

Teacher..I am Stuart..
Teacher says we need to wear a costume in Halloween...
But I don"t have a Halloween costume...
Can I buy a mask and go to Halloween?
Only mask......

teacher, hello^_^v my name is Krista.
 I am waiting your class. Because you is good and very funny.
 HAHAHA... I"m a bad student(?) or good student(?)??
 Please answer to me...
 See you soon♥

A lot of them are also sending me really cute messages now because they won't be in my class anymore. I'm gonna miss their cute little faces!!!

Teacher my name is chole..
I missing you forever~~~
I visit Your class when I have time..
I love you!!!!!♡♡♡♡

teacher hi!! my name is krista.
I"m very sad. Because I go to IP
So I miss you, but I visit your class when I finish my class.
I have time often.. So I go to your class..
I miss you very much..
Thank you for teach me
"m very sad and miss. I visit your class.
 Bye.. I LOVE YOU♥_♥

Gahhh!! I LOVE my job!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my 3^rd month of Thanksgiving in a row! September was Korean Thanksgiving, October was Canadian Thanksgiving (I have a few Canadian coworkers) and today, obviously, was Thanksgiving for the good old U.S. of A. I haven’t eaten turkey or maple leaves or kimchi or whatever I’m supposed to eat but I’ve definitely been celebrating! Every day I wake up with more reasons to be grateful than I had the day before. I’m celebrating by being excited every single day from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed about the opportunities that I’ve been given.

Things That I’m Most Grateful For This Year:

1. My amazing family, friends, students and coworkers who make me smile every day
2. My American citizenship because it gives me the invaluable opportunity to live anywhere in the world that I want to
3. A job that I look forward to just as much as I look forward to the weekends
4. My own apartment because I can offer it to anyone and everyone whenever I want
5. My health and the new-found ability to afford healthcare
6. Technology that keeps me as close with my friends & family on the opposite side of the world as we would be if they were here with me
7. The fact that I can still learn new things every day even though I’m technically no longer a student
8. My most recent obsession: bachata (sorry, but I had to)

I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, turkey, football and lots of things to be grateful for!! :)

Let The Medical Adventures Begin!

Last night, I experienced the same kind of stomach pain that landed me in a hospital bed in California a few months ago (where my gallbladder was removed), so I decided to go to the doctor today. Turns out, it was a giant waste of time.

I decided I’d kill two birds with one stone and see a doctor for my toe (that’s been red, swollen and hurting for almost four months now) since I was already at the hospital. I went to him first and, after X-rays (which only cost $4), he told me it wasn’t broken. Still, he either didn’t know what was wrong or didn’t know how to say it in English. He explained a few things to me in Korean while I just stared at him and then he sent me out of his office with a prescription. I still didn’t know what was wrong but I bought the medicine because it was only $7. The nurse instructed me to wear bigger shoes and not play soccer and to come back for another X-ray if the meds didn’t help.

I then went to the gastroenterologist (which my surgeon in Cali warned me I would need to see if my stomach issues continued). He spoke a little more English than the first doctor, but not quite enough. From the time I spent talking to him, I gathered that he thought there was nothing really wrong with my stomach and also that I would not be allowed to take the pills that I had just bought for my toe because they’re bad for your stomach (there were three pills: a pain killer, an anti-inflammatory & one for the upset stomach that the other two pills were sure to cause…the third he told me I could take).

I know no more about my toe and stomach than I did when I woke up this morning. But I can’t say I’m surprised. (This is why I put off the medical adventures for so long…I still have the dentist and eye doctor to tackle but I’m not up for it just yet.) Almost every time I’ve gone to the doctor in my adult life, I’ve walked away without answers. Really, the only differences between today and doctor visits in the U.S. were the language barrier and the fact that I could actually afford it for once! I think it’s a fair trade and, at this point in my life, I definitely prefer to take this end of the deal.

Manners

The society you grow up in truly determines how you think. Of course all of the people within each society are different – they have their own ideas and think for themselves – but at the same time, they all live under the same umbrella of thinking…a general idea of what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s normal and what’s weird. Once you’re taken out of the environment you’re used to, though, you learn that there is not really as much of a “right and wrong,” as there is a difference. Manners are the perfect example because they exist in every country but they’re very different in each one.

            When I lived in Mexico, I said good morning/afternoon/evening to everyone I passed in the streets. I didn’t tip servers or cab drivers. Whenever I entered a room, I greeted everyone with a kiss on the right cheek, no matter how long it took. If there was someone I didn’t know, I introduced myself that same way and I did it all over again on my way out.

            When I lived in Italy, I greeted people with two kisses on the cheeks – first the right and then the left (which caused problems for me because of the habits I developed in Mexico…I often tried to go left first and had issues). I ate with my elbows on the table to show that I was enjoying the food and ate whatever was put in front of me, even if I didn’t want it. 

            Now that I live in Korea, I bow when I say hello, goodbye or thank you to someone and I use two hands when I hand money to a store clerk (if I only use one hand, I rest my other on my arm or stomach). I yell across the room to get my server’s attention when I’m out to eat and, again, I don't tip.

            My manners in the States are very different than they are everywhere else. I tip. I don’t talk to strangers. I keep my elbows off the table and I don’t kiss people on the cheek when I meet them. I don’t yell at my server from across the restaurant and I don’t bow when I say thank you to my cashier at Walmart.

I change my manners depending on where I am but some things always stay the same. Hocking loogies, as well as many other unacceptable (by US standards) bodily functions are ordinary in public here but I don’t take part in that part of the culture, simply because I've never wanted to. At the same time, I do plenty of things that are somewhat looked down upon by every culture I’ve been a part of: I laugh really loudly in quiet, public places, I walk around in sweats after working out (obviously without showering), and I poke fun at whatever country I’m in at any given time.

I often entertain myself with the idea of people from one of these countries trying to live in one of the others. It happens all the time but the first couple weeks inside that person's brain must be hilarious, with them wondering how in the world anyone thinks (fill in the blank) is normal. I know for a fact that the word "crazy" comes out a lot when someone first gets to a new country. In all seriousness though, adjusting the way you think so you can adapt to random cultural differences like these is one of the absolute best parts of getting to live in different countries and I'm already excited to do it in the next one I move to! :D

My Students Are Hilarious

The other day in class, the kids were supposed to be practicing their new vocabulary words that had to do with possible future careers. The answers in the following activity were supposed to be:

1. I want to be an actor.
2. I want to be a cartoonist.
3. I want to be a comedian.
4. I want to be a conductor.
5. I want to be a movie director.

But instead of actor for number one, my student said, “I want to be a...........terrorist?” (Here the close-up:)

I have to admit that, not only was his answer hilarious, but it was actually a more accurate description of the picture. :)

Attack!! (...just kidding)

Yesterday I witnessed my first North-Korea-Attack Drill and it was so weird. I was walking home from the store and suddenly people with flags blew whistles and walked out into the intersections so that traffic everywhere had to stop…even pedestrians weren’t allowed to cross the street. Within a matter of seconds, everything in the country came to a halt. Most people went inside somewhere or just stood still but a few of us kept walking (I can’t let a little North Korean attack stop me from getting to work on time now, can I?).

I felt like I was walking through a ghost town in a horror movie. As I walked along, almost no one else was moving. Life had completely paused. The people standing in the intersections stared at their watches and whispered occasionally but, since no one couldn’t hear them, it was completely silent. Twice I walked past stores that still had music playing inside them so the music would fade in as I got closer and then fade right back out as I walked away, just like the eerie opening scene of your typical scary movie.

After maybe ten minutes, the people in the intersections blew their whistles and went away and life in one of the most populated cities in the world went right back to normal. People came back out of wherever they had gone and started walking around again. Everyone started talking and the cars and motorcycles began to speed by. It was suddenly like North Korea had never attacked...  ;)

Anyway, another interesting experience to add to the list...

This Weekend Was For Sure The Best I've Had In Seoul!

I’ve been meaning to update all of my salseros and bachateros for a while but now seems like a more perfect time than ever!! There is plenty of salsa/bachata/merengue (and even reggaeton) here in Korea and it’s pretty much all I’ve been doing on the weekends! I’ve been having so much fun with it and I’ve met so many wonderful people!! This weekend, though, there was a bachata festival which put my excitement through the roof (I’m sure you all remember how much I freaked out about the last one)!! I took workshops with Troy & Brittney, Jorge Elizondo and Ryu & Kaori and, as an added bonus: it was much cheaper and more intimate than the bachata festival in San Francisco that I went to last year. I even got to dance with Troy (who, for my non-bachateros, is probably the most famous male bachata instructor in the world). It was SO much fun!! I had a lot of friends there and got to meet even more people. Life couldn’t be better.

Also, Bridget (that I met on the airplane on the way here) came to stay with me and we had a blast. It was fun getting to know her and we rarely stopped laughing. She learned how to bachata (and she was good!!) and, together, we learned how to ride a tandem bike (which was not only a leg workout, but also an ab workout from all the laughing). She also got to see parts of Seoul before she left the country and I got to see new parts as well because we got lost every time I tried to take her somewhere. It was fun seeing how well each other were doing after our initial trip here together when we had no idea what to expect.

The weekend is over which is good because I’m exhausted and need to rest up for dancing this coming weekend! I’ve got 100 adorable little elementary school kids to keep me rolling on the floor with laughter until then (today one of my kids with bad handwriting – his “f” and “t” look the same – wrote the wrong word in the blank on an activity and when I went to check his work, I read: “The peacock’s tits are amazing.”) so I’ll be here in Seoul, enjoying every second of my life, if anyone needs me. 

The Good Old Language Barrier

Since my crappy old camera officially died and my amazing coworkers have been taking me on weekly adventures to different parts Seoul, I decided to buy a new camera yesterday. I had an entire conversation with the man who worked in the store, even though we only understood about one word from each sentence the other said. He was speaking only Korean and I, obviously, was speaking only English but he still managed to help me get a good deal!

I always enjoy language barriers and I’m not sure why. As much as I love languages, there’s something fun to me about trying to communicate without words. Although the people in the stores are probably annoyed by it, I think it’s fun to have entire conversations in expressive faces and hand gestures.

I even love when our class textbooks say something strange because whoever wrote them isn't actually a native speaker. They make me laugh every day. While I would most likely describe the word barbecue as “grilling food outside,” our book today explained it with this example: “Let’s have a dinner of meat in the garden tomorrow.”

It made me laugh. And crave a dinner of meat.

I Hope Laughing Is Considered Professional

For the most part, I’m able to contain my laughter enough that only students in my class can hear me – but sometimes I'm attacked by uncontrollable laughter and I'm sure students in the neighboring classrooms can as well.

Sometimes it's something small, like a pronunciation mistake. Just yesterday, we had the word “photographer” but one kid read it, “potato-grapher” which I thought was pretty hilarious.

Other times, it's something that I really shouldn't laugh at. Yesterday, one of my kids who is really smart (but is often disruptive) was being a giant pain in the butt. At one point, when he raised his hand, he threw his head back and accidentally smacked it on the desk behind him. He was fine but it sounded like it really hurt. I probably should’ve yelled at him for messing around, but instead I just laughed…really, really hard.

No matter what I'm laughing at, though, the students never understand why I think it's funny and that's a good thing, especially in the case of what happened the other day. It's well-known that ESL learners have a lot of trouble pronouncing the –ed ending on words where the –ed sounds like [t] and my kids are no exception. They always say “finished” when they complete an activity but it sounds like [fin-ish-ed] rather than [fin-isht] so I always hound them about it. The other day, I made one kid repeat it like 15 times because he was improving but still didn’t quite have it. Eventually I emphasized only the very last part for him…the [sht] sound. He was annoyed with me but was trying his hardest anyway. He used his whole body to try this one last time and you could see in his face how hard he was working. He slapped his hands down on the desk for emphasis and, lo and behold, he yelled “shit!” (I should mention that Koreans have trouble saying consonants without a vowel in between them.) I cackled full-force and couldn’t stop laughing for way too long. My students kept asking me what was so funny but, since I couldn’t explain the real reason, I said it was the face he made when he said it. He was embarrassed and I felt bad about laughing at him but I really couldn’t stop. I had little outbursts for the entire rest of the class. It wasn’t exactly professional, but it was awesome. :)

When You Get Your Hair Cut In Korea...

You will have to take your shoes off when you enter the shop.

Someone who is not going to cut your hair will do everything but (she’ll wash it and clip it up while it’s wet so that you have no opportunity to show the person who does cut your hair what you want done).

The hair dresser will be super nice but will not really listen when you explain what you want (even though he asked).

He will sing to you in his best falsetto voice for the entire FIVE minutes that it takes him to cut your hair.

He will do exactly what you tried to ask him not to do when he wasn’t listening.

The other woman will return to help him blow-dry your hair.

At the very end, he'll ask you right before you get out of the chair how your Halloween was (and he'll say it sounds like you had a lot of fun because you're losing your voice...even though it's just your normal voice).

You will not know whether or not to tip because the rules are different in Korea.

You will be flustered from being confused about tipping so you will start to walk out of the store in the slippers that they gave you at the beginning, instead of your own shoes, and everyone will yell at you in Korean to come back and change.

In the end, you'll walk out the door into beautiful Seoul and it's perfect weather. You’ll find it amusing that people in other countries can never cut your hair correctly and you'll be perfectly happy to be where you are with your crappy hair cut.