Broad Strokes

It has been nearly four weeks since we’ve left for Korea and already so much has happened! Korea is such a culturally rich and interesting place. I hardly know where to begin in describing what my life is like here. Scott and I spent the first week in Seoul at a national EPIK orientation. For those of you who do not already know, EPIK stands for English Program in Korea. EPIK hires for Korean public schools, unlike its private school counterpart: the hagwon. Scott and I chose to apply for EPIK because, whereas hagwons tend to be profit-driven, public schools place the emphasis on the students themselves. During our 9 day orientation, we spent time learning about teaching English, Korean culture, and of course the language itself! We also enjoyed presentations from guest speakers and went on a cultural field trip to a traditional Korean village. We saw several performances including music, dance, and traditional tight-rope walking. Surprisingly, we were ushered into a separate building after all of the performances on our field trip to learn to dance and play the drums ourselves. Needless to say, it was a really unique experience! After a week of preparation, we loaded our baggage onto buses and left for our separate assignments all over Korea. For us, the bus stopped in the small, picturesque town of Hongcheon in Gangwon province.

LOCATION

Hongcheon is about 1.5 hours outside of Seoul in a verdant and mountainous region of northwestern Korea. For Coloradans --- when I say “mountains,” think Appalachians, not Rockies. As we drove down the highway, we would pass row after row of them, with scattered farms and small towns about. Hongcheon is framed by several tree-lined ridges and is divided by a fairly sizeable river. Aside from row after row of high-rise apartment buildings, the town feels relatively “rural” – at least by Korean standards. Our co-teachers told us that Hongcheon has a population of roughly 75,000. It has no university, so its demographics are predominantly either very young or very old. My apartment is on the outskirts of town next to a farm and the foothills. One day, we decided to cross the road and explore a small path leading through the farm and into the forest. We discovered an incredible network of trails along the ridges that led for at least a few kilometers into the countryside!

The closest city to us is about 30 minutes away, called Chuncheon. From what I hear, the shopping and nightlife is much better there, but neither of those appeals to either of us as much as the serenity and simplicity of Hongcheon. When Koreans go out, they often visit their local “noraebang”—or singing room for karaoke. You can rent a private room with your friends and sing all evening over a few bottles of soju (the local spirit), beer, or juice, depending on your tastes. The week that we arrived in Hongcheon, the 2010 World Leisure Games just happened to be taking place in Chuncheon, which had among many other events: paragliding, powered paragliding, speed flying, slacklining and “aggressive rollerblading.” We were able to visit the flight park on Mt. Daeryong later in the evening after our school event had finished. Some competition pilots were gearing up for a sunset launch. We watched them take off and soar along the ridge above Chuncheon. Words cannot describe how gorgeous it was up there!

FOOD

After about one week in Korea, I realized that I was going to have to become a “closet vegetarian.” EPIK had warned vegetarians on the application that it would be difficult to find meat-free cuisines, but you cannot truly appreciate how difficult it is until you arrive. The Korean diet consists of meat (chicken, pork, beef, and fish) in virtually everything – soups, stir fries, sauces, and salads. One of the main social events for friends and co-workers alike involves attending a Korean-style barbecue (“gogi” = meat, “sogogi” – beef, “twaejigogi” – pork, “tagogi” – chicken, etc.) where you sit on the floor (usually on a cushion) around a large table with a grill and a hose hanging from the ceiling that sucks up the smoke. The waitress lights the grill underneath the table and places raw meat and vegetables on top that have been marinated in a sauce with garlic, onion, and/or SPICY red pepper. She places a spatula next to the grill, so that customers can cook their meat and offer it to the other guests at the table. In addition to the meat cooking in the center, she brings out several side dishes including lettuce leaves, spicy peppers, pumpkin and a variety of sauces. When the meat has finished cooking, you can either eat it alone (with chopsticks, of course!) or make a small wrap using the lettuce leaves and other toppings. A soup is also served with the meal --- it’s usually a plain cabbage soup. After you’ve had your fill of meat, you can request the final course: either a cup of rice or a bowl of noodles. Each time I’ve gone any sort of group barbeque, they have always served the rice after I had finished eating everything else.

At formal Korean barbecue dinners, much emphasis is placed on properly pouring drinks during the meal. If you are in the presence of elders or any persons of higher status, it is customary to offer to pour their drink whenever it is empty. Likewise, if you are offered a drink by a person of higher status, you must hold your glass in the air in your right hand while you grasp your forearm with your other hand, all with your head slightly bowed. Everyone watches you to make sure you are doing this correctly and, in the case that you are not, you are swiftly informed of your error!

Besides barbecues, other typical meals include squid, dried fish, cold soups and, of course, kimchi! Kimchi is easily Korea’s national food – it consists of fermented cabbage that has been stored in hermetically-sealed pots for several weeks to acquire the precise flavor that makes it the hit that it is. It is often marinated in a red chili sauce, like many of the other dishes and is almost ALWAYS included in every meal. In fact, when some Koreans go abroad, they grow restless after being without kimchi for just a few days.

CULTURE

If I had to describe Korea’s culture in just three words, it would probably be: generous, hierarchical, and industrious. Words that also come to mind include polite, discreet, and at the same time very open about their personal lives. One of the first things that you, as a visitor, will notice is how incredibly hospitable just about everyone is. When we arrived in our home town, we could not speak the language and we did not have cell phones, the internet, national ID cards, or just about anything. Our co-teachers, our co-teachers’ friends, and even random strangers went way out of their way to set things up for us, show us around, shuttle us around to various offices and stores, and give us language/logistical support during our whole transition. Additionally, they all took us out to dinner afterwards and refused to allow us to pay for a cent after all of the hard work they did to get us settled in earlier in the day. In contrast to my previous experiences living abroad, this came as a huge and pleasant surprise!

A second thing that you, as a visitor, would notice immediately upon arriving in Korea is the hierarchical nature of every interaction. The Korean language is said to be more about affirming one’s place in the social hierarchy than it is to efficiently communicate. For example, there are three different ways of asking someone’s age: one for asking a child, one for asking an adult who is near the same age as you or younger, and one for asking an elder or a colleague with higher status. I checked my phrasebook and the sentences don’t even resemble each other! (Scott and I are slowly starting to pick up the language ourselves – we learned how to read the Hangul alphabet in the first week and have been taking EPIK-sponsored language classes ever since after school three times a week.) Beyond language, the hierarchy can be observed in more concrete ways. The seniors always get served first at meals and, in the office, a person’s status can be determined by the size of their desk and the quality of the equipment and furniture. Koreans will often ask a newcomer seemingly personal questions like how old they are, how much money they make, and how experienced they are at what they do. To an American, this might seem rude or inappropriate. However, Koreans do not feel comfortable interacting with someone new, especially a foreigner, unless they can mentally place them on the social pyramid so that they know how to greet and interact with them.  I am still trying to get used to walking down the halls and having students come up and bow to me!

A third thing that you, as a visitor, will notice immediately upon arriving in Korea is how incredibly hardworking everyone is! The students start school between 8:30 and 9:00 am. They usually stay at school to learn and study until 9:00 pm. If they live in the city, they might need to go to Hagwon (private school) after finishing the day at their public school, which means that they do not finish until the next day in the early morning. My co-teacher told me that she used to start high school at 8:00 am and did not finish Hagwon until 1:00 am every day. This left just 7 hours outside of school for her to rest and prepare for the next day. (Jason – that leaves barely enough time to play video games!! The kids also have a period just for cleaning the school, like dusting, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms. Bet you feel lucky you don't have to do that at your school!) Professionals have a similar schedule, working long days and then taking a sizeable amount of work to complete at home.

SCHOOL

I teach at 3 different schools: Yangdoek Middle School (Grades 1-3), Yangdoek High School (Grades 1-3), and Sokcho Elementary School (Grades 1-2 & 5-6). In other words, I teach every grade from elementary school through high school except for Grades 3-4 Elementary. What does this mean? Lots of lesson planning, of course—about 8 lesson plans per week!! However, it gives me a chance to compare and contrast different age groups and English ability level. Surprisingly, I have elementary classes that speak more fluently than some of the high school classes. Each class has its own unique personality, strengths, and weaknesses. With 417 students total to teach every week, the challenge has been adapting my lesson plans to suit the individual needs of each class and student. Scott and I both teach with Korean co-teachers in every class; however, our freedom to create our own lesson plans and execute them varies. My teachers have essentially given me the go-ahead to do whatever I’d like, as long as it’s interesting for the students and educational at the same time.

I work from 8 am to 5 pm from Monday thru Friday. The commute varies from between 15 minutes by car to over an hour of walking and riding buses. I have my own desk and computer at all of my schools, which makes lesson planning a lot easier. The first couple of weeks, I expect to be taking a lot of work home. I hope that, over time, I can develop a routine so that I can get everything done at work, in addition to actively teaching 22 hours per week. We heard at our orientation that the ability levels of students in rural areas tends to be much lower than those in Seoul, Busan, and other metropolitan areas, and I have found that to be consistent with what I have observed so far. One of my main goals is to get students to form sentences independently – they have large English vocabularies but they don’t yet know how to piece it all together. My class sizes range from over 30 students per class (not grade) in high school to 2 students in my entire second grade. They are all pretty adorable and enthusiastic about learning, which makes my job a lot easier!

ADVENTURE

Next week, Scott and I will get the week off for Chusok, or the Harvest Moon Festival. We are considering going to the beach in Sokcho or Seoraksan National Park, which has the best hiking and climbing in Korea. We also have a few local crags, such as Yunghasan near Chuncheon – the closest sizeable city to us. Other considerations for future trips include Japan, which is only a short ferry ride away from Busan, and other parts of surrounding Asia such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, etc. For the first half of the year, at least, Korea has enough to keep us more than happy! We are excited to explore its mountains, valleys, rivers, waterfalls, and all of the beauty it has to offer.

So those are the broad strokes of our experiences so far in Korea! In the coming entries, I will probably focus in on the details of (not so)-everyday-life in Korea. If I mentioned something that seemed particularly interesting to you, let me know and I will gladly elaborate!

Thank you for reading our blog and please continue to visit often for updates! :-)