Education: My own personal demons and Korea's

The time after winter break (the start of February) until the start of March and the new school year is the most ridiculous thing I've ever experienced. Especially for the 6th graders who know that they have finished their finals (IN DECEMBER) and nothing they do will effect them getting into middle school or not. I only had 2 classes of 6th graders today. In the first class, only half of the students brought their books and in the second class only 3 or 4 students had books. How the hell are we supposed to follow the lesson plan, finish the book for the year as planned/requested if the students don't deign to bring books or pencils? They were rambunctious and couldn't care less about being there. In the afternoon there is a field trip to visit the local middle schools for some sort of orientation (I think, as usual there is a fair amount lost in translation) so everyone was beyond hyper.  Mrs. K eventually gave up on at least trying to get through the listening/speaking activities and suggested I start a game. I got the class under control by asking them if they would rather write or play a game (the 6th graders almost universally hate writing in English, I shouldn't use it as a punishment but at this point it's almost a lost cause). They stayed calm for about 2 minutes. One more warning and I gave up. I had them all sit down, passed out paper and pencils and had them copy sentences from the board. Boring as hell for both of us. Tomorrow I may or may not have classes since there is a rehearsal (but we aren't sure) for the big exhibition next which I know nothing about other than it's on Wednesday or Thursday at 6 or 7 and I should probably show up.  This ambiguity has nothing to do with my co-teacher's English and everything to do with how business is run in Korea, that is to say last minute. I am trying to go with the flow. After all, it isn't really a travesty if my classes are canceled last minute.

On another educational rant, though a slightly different topic, the infamous Kang Shin-who wrote the concluding piece in his illegal tutoring series. The conclusion? Exactly what I said a few days ago, that illegal tutoring is in too much demand and far too hard to regulate for the government to have a chance in hell at eradicating it. They might as well make some money off of the more honest folks. Kang, are you reading my blog? :-p Just kidding. The article was anticlimatic and not up to his usual inflammatory level. However, he did through in evidence of his usual standard of journalistic integrity by using this "fact" instead of trying to cite any actual statistics (or god forbid, conducting his OWN data poll or survey).

"According to some parents and students in Gangnam, southern Seoul, many foreigners there earn 50,000 to 70,000 won per hour for private English tutoring sessions."

Seriously buddy? You can get away with that sort of stuff in the informal blogosphere but you write for the Korean Times, a newspaper that proclaims it wants to act "[a]s the mirror of the times, The Korea Times will become the eyes, the ears and the window to a whole new world." 

I realize this is an overly negative blog post. I should probably refrain from blogging when I've only had about 2 hours of sleep. Stupid insomnia. 

Racism is Taught

I posted a few days ago about the growing popularity of an extremist group called the 'Anti-English Spectrum' recently renamed the 'Citizens of Right English Education.' The latest controversy stemmed from an interview with the leader who publicly announced that he follows (not stalks) English teachers around to try to find evidence of criminal behavior.  Anyways, this article in the Global Post, Jiyeon Lee discusses the rise of racism and problems with the increased foreign population in South Korea. The article does manage to emphasize that the media tends to exaggerate the tendency of foreign teachers to break the law, that in fact only 0.5% of the population actually were persecuted by the law in 2008. In contrast, the article makes no mention of the percent of lawbreakers among Korean teachers. 

Here is my main issue with the presentation: Jiyeon Lee hypothesizes that the growing number of foreigners has led to a rise in racism. I disagree: I believe that the increased foreign population has simply made the racism more visible as there are more opportunities to express prejudices.  Racism is taught, it isn't something that just springs up. Last year when I taught at a hagwon (and thus had more opportunities to hold classroom discussions/debates) I was appalled by how many students hated the Chinese and Japanese. When I asked why, they didn't know. They tended to say that it was something their parents had said that they had learned to believe. These were elementary school students.  When the issue of racism comes up in the media, there are lots of different ideas presented about where the racism might stem from and who is bickering with whom but very little discussion about what can be done to curb the problem. Legislation has been drawn up (though it hasn't passed yet) but legislation against hate crimes won't help my students understand the diversity of humanity better. I would love to be able to teach a multiculturalism unit beside the traditional "Where are you from? I'm from America" unit. Their class that children are required to take on Korean culture is important but perhaps it is more important to have a class on different global cultures as Korea rises to the international stage. 

Yonggun Sa (Temple)

As I mentioned before, there is an amazing woman at the bank who speaks a fair amount of English. One of the last times I went to take care of some bills she sat down and chatted with me for a few minutes. She wanted to know if I would be interested in meeting her family and doing some cultural site seeing with them. Every weekend they make a day trip to a temple, national heritage site or something similar. My philosophy of life these days seems to be 'why not?' After all, I didn't get any bad vibes from her and in general, I've found that if a Korean reaches out to you they are surprisingly genuine. Sunday afternoon I met her husband and two absolutely adorable sons. The eldest knew some basic English and delighted in asking how to say things like 'seat belt' in English. The other boy was only 29 months and seemed to get a bit confused by the fact that we were all speaking a language he couldn't understand. He called it 'making noise.'

We drove out to Yonggun Sa (sa means temple) which is a large Buddhist temple on the edge of a cliff on the water. The informational sign had some of the worst English I'd ever seen. There weren't spelling errors...it was just awkward beyond belief.
(Click the photo to view the larger version so you can read the silliness) I will admit though, the sign charmed me. I've gotten used to strange English after living in Asia for a year. The rest of the temple was absolutely gorgeous though the giant yellow signs advertising something kind of clashed with the beauty of the landscape.These are the statues for each of the 12 zodiac animals in the Chinese calender and a random family. I forgot to ask photo permission from the family I was with so any people in the photos are just random people.You put money on things for good luck/a wish. I didn't make a wish...I'm pretty happy right now.You can't really take pictures inside since people are actually praying/worshipping/lighting incense and it is generally frowned upon. Even if it was permissible I'd feel really uncomfortable doing it.Mini Buddhas hidden on the hillside.
Who doesn't want a giant gold colored Buddha? The oldest boy's favorite color is gold; he loved this statue.
Awesome ceiling post paintings.
Notice how packed that bridge is? The place was packed with tourists...and yet it wasn't overwhelming. People were respectful of the fact that it was an active place of worship and everyone just seemed to be enjoying the gorgeous weather.

After the temple we went out to dinner and I ate until it was painful, as per usual. I was also offered soju and since I've yet to fully master how to politely decline an offer for food or drink (which is generally pretty rude in Korea) I sipped at my soju and got far tipsier than I would have liked on a Sunday afternoon. I didn't have very much it just went straight to my head. In any case, they invited me out again for next week and I think I will go. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with a Korean family and see more of Korea.

Those Crazy Waegooks, Club Opening Night

Friday night the Female Kiwi, Hooligan 1 and I grabbed dinner and then 'roadies.' Basically, if it takes you an hour to get to your nightlife destination you get a drink at the corner store for the road. Since it's completely illegal to drink in public in the states (or at least, all of the states that I've visited) Americans tend to get quite a kick out of this. I will admit that the novelty has worn off some after a year of roadies but the Hooligan is still new.

After a few stops, two ajeossis (elderly Korean men) were highly entertained by the three of us chatting away and drinking. They could not get over the fact that the Hooligan was just drinking soju straight from the bottle on the subway--without anju! Hooligan 1 and I didn't know what anju meant but the Female Kiwi giggled madly at us and explained that they thought we were weird for drinking with snacks, anju. So what did the ajeossis do? They pulled out a package of amazing rice cakes filled with bean paste and pass them over to us. We chatted awkwardly in Korean with a smattering of English until they reached their stop and got off. Hooligan 1 was also complimented on his fabulous-ness for going out with not 1 but 2 pretty ladies. I'm not sure the ajeossis quite believed us either when we said that we were just friends. Oh well, scandalizing Koreans is what us waegooks do.

Shortly after the ajeossis got off, a giant group of high school girls got on, still in uniform and 2 of them were carrying TAMBOURINES. And because Hooligan 1 never misses an opportunity to be ridiculous and silly he went over, borrowed a tambourine and played/posed with it for a minute. Which was fabulous...except for the fact that my cell phone somehow DIDN'T SAVE THE PHOTOS!!!!!!! Evil, absolutely evil.

That was the amazing part...my night was filled with laughter and happiness before I ever got to the destination. The new club, Womb, was alright. Good DJ, trendy atmosphere but here was my big issue: it's a big basement club and while spacious it didn't have a good ventilation system. Imagine several hundred smokers going at it for hours without a single window open. Smokey. I came home feeling like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes. Thank god I had put my coat in a locker immediately and it didn't reek too badly the next day. Ridiculousness: the PR people doing photography for the opening went nuts over us, taking our photo. For the first hour or so we were the only foreigners there and I guess it looked good having foreigners mixing with the locals at a big club opening. Later some other people that we met at the EPIK orientation joined us and by that time there were other foreigners and I didn't feel like I was under a microscope anymore. All in all, a good night out with friends.

Coming up next time: Alex goes to a temple on a cliff over the beach...

5 Centimeter Bangs

While browsing the Korea Times this morning, I came across this article on laws and rules governing the length of student's hair. In America, there is the occasional controversy over boys having "girlishly" long hair at school but this was governing every student. Apparently, such guidelines are defended because they "keep its students away from entertainment outlets for adults in its vicinity by making them easily recognizable as students." That means 5 centimeter bangs for girls (can that be right?) and forced trims if your hair doesn't meet requirements.

The counterargument: cutting student's hair without their consent is a human rights issue. And I agree. It might not be as bad as say, killing/jailing/torturing people for expressing opinions against Dear Leader in North Korea but it is most certainly a violation of the student's rights. The counterargument is weak at best; adult venues should be carding minors they believe to be inappropriately trying to gaining entrance. Not to mention the fact that most of these students seem to have zero free time to get into such shenanigans. If they aren't in school, hagwon, taekwondo, piano lessons or studying they are helping out their family. The little free time available gets devoted to the television, computer or gaming systems.

I will have to ask my co-teacher what she thinks about hair guidelines as she is both a parent and a teacher.

Correction and Books

Apparently, yesterday's post about EPIK is a mistake due to a misinterpretation of an email between EPIK and it's recruiters. Not surprising given the standard of communication in Korea but a relief for incoming teachers nevertheless. (See Brian's retraction here.)

I just read this article in the Dong-A Ilbo and am utterly appalled. Apparently, the average Korean adult reads only 10.9 books a year and 28% read no books at all. I was beyond horrified by these statistics-- until I got online and discovered that in 2007,** 25% of people in the United States didn't read either (read this AP article). However, it is interesting to note that neither poll concerned how much time people spent reading blogs. Yesterday, I spent a good 6 hours between work and home reading newspapers and blogs online. If I had been reading a book I would have started and finished it in that same time period (given of course that I wasn't reading French, Spanish, Joyce or anything else ridiculously long and difficult).

Apparently I am more of a freak of nature than originally surmised considering the fact that I read more books in a month on average than most people do in a year. February is off to a rather slow start though. It is already the 4th and I've only read 1 book, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying (fabulous by the way). I shudder to think what my rate would go down to if I ever give in and buy an iphone.

Migraine update: I do not have a migraine, I need to get my eyes checked. The headache immediately abated significantly when I made the viewing font on my computer 3 times bigger. Obviously, I am going blind again. Stupid genetics. Luckily, getting your eyes examined in Korea is FREE if you are purchasing anything at all with the exam, contacts, glasses, etc. And since I'm quite sure they are worse and will require new lenses and contacts it will be great.

I have updated my blog 3 times and it's only 11AM here. This borders on spam. Oh well, no one is being forced to read it.

**No more recent statistics appear to be available for the USA, at least according to my preliminary Google research.

The Hated Kang Shin-who Strikes Again

If you read the Korean Times with any regularity (or indeed, any of the angrier kbloggers) you have probably come to despise Kang Shin-who just a little bit. His articles almost always have lovely racist jabs and constantly belittle foreigners in the education system without offering any sort of balance, counter-arguments or indeed, possible alternative viable solutions. Today's mess is a continuation of a previous piece on the horrid private English lessons that continue unchecked despite their illegality.

Background:
Under current visa laws, workers on an E-2 visa (ie, those of foreign English speaking heritage teaching English in a hagwon or public school) are forbidden to teach private lessons. People with an F-2 or F-4 visa (those who are of Korean heritage or have a Korean spouse) are permitted to teach lessons so long as it does not violate their full time work contract and they report all of their lessons for tax purposes. University students are allowed to teach a limited number with the permission of their professors (presumably so their private work does not interfere with their studies).

Kang Shin-who complains that it is so very hard to catch foreigners teaching the lessons illegally. Indeed, someone receiving these lessons is very unlikely to report them, especially if they are satisfied with the quality of their education. Here are my issues with the law: why are people who might not even be native English speakers allowed to teach private lessons while native English speakers are not? Second, if it is so hard to catch people doing it illegally or even deter them maybe they should make it illegal and tax it so that the government has an increased revenue which in turn could be used to reinvest into improving the public school system (and thus decreasing the need for private education). Sure, it might not get everyone who is teaching illegally to suddenly report their earnings but there are many honest souls out there who would rather be law abiding citizens. I do not teach any private lessons but if it was legal I would certainly consider it--and would definitely allow taxes to be taken out of my wages.

Here is another frustrating aspect: I want to hire a French tutor so that I can refresh my French and work on improving my writing skills. [I'm seriously considering grad school in France but that's for another blog post.] To do so, would I have to find a French person with a Korean spouse in order to not break the law?? In a country that places a high value on a capitalist way of life it seems absurd that they are not answering a supply and demand situation that doesn't deal with drugs, sex, illegal arms or North Korea.

Another infuriating point about F-2 and F-4 visa holders? They are not required to get the HIV test in order to teach-- and E-2 visa holders are. I understand the need to keep HIV in check, however, discriminatory testing is a human rights issue. Definitely something for another post...