The Reemergence of Alex

Just when I thought that even my Korean friends had moved on, I bump into Alex in a military uniform at a Hof (drinking establishment that serves snacks). The establishment was located right next to where his Tandori Chicken restaurant was. He was sitting in the outdoor seating section as I was walking home from work. Both of our jaws dropped in surprise, he flagged me over and introduced me to his other friends that are also doing their mandatory year of military service. One of them I did meet before, but the details are a bit hazy as that night Alex woke me up at 1:00AM and begged me to meet him at a hof near my house for food and soju, I had to excuse myself after a little while so I could remember how to get home.

So after our "long time no see" greeting he invited me to sit down and have a cold beer with his four buddies. It was good to see him again. Sometimes it is little surprises like this that reall make me feel good. It was good to see an old friend and have a cold beer with him on a warm summer night. I believe that he mentioned that we would be going to Carribean Bay, a water park inside Everland, where he will be competing in a surfing contest on a wave machine. If all goes well, I might even get wet; that would be a relieve from the warm weather.

30 Days and counting

I know, I know. I have not been a very active blogger lately. But, as I see it, the stress of some more unforeseen circumstances that I cannot control, and the loss of intelligent conversation (in a language and cultural context I can understand) for several months, have reduced my brain to mush. I need some human interaction other than "May I go to the bathroom please?" just to get out of being in the classroom.

So there you have it, nothing to say, thirty days to go, and looking forward to having a break... Embracing the culture here is not as easy as it is in other countries. In fact, it is, in my opinion, very difficult. My opinion is based on circumstances so I am hopeful that one more year in different circumstances might be different. Let's face it, it takes at least six months to a year to get into the groove. Now add a bit of conflict or things like having your counterparts and supervisor not be able to speak English and you just prolonged that process. I am looking at another contract where the director actually speaks English, and good English, not broken English--And so does the Head Teacher. This is not what I have endured over the last year. I guess this accounts for the high number of mis-communications.

So, yes, I am in the process of negotiating another year here in Korea, but in Seoul and not over two hours away on the very outskirts of the province. At least I will be able to walk to the subway instead of taking a bus and subway just to get to Seoul. Not only that, the population is higher (at least double what it is in my village now).

I am off to bed, but if you have GoogleTalk or Skype please do look me up and talk to me. If you don't then ask me for my Skype In number; it is a Southern California based number so send me an email and talk to me because I need to brush up on my English before I finish...LOL And don't be surprised if seem confused by your big words as I am having a hard time coming up with them myself...LOL

My return to the US is going to be breif. Send emails and make time now or it might not be available. I haven't been there much in the last five years and some of you have been good about taking advantage of my time and many others have not. I encourage at least an attempt to so at least I know you care. 8-)

See you soon!

Flatulation!

Yes, it is true. Just when I think the random phrases that I have to teach my students becomes really bad, it just gets worse! So this week I learned that the new curriculum has some new action phrases that I will most likely, at some point, teach the kindergarten children.

The new books have this charades like game in it that has a picture that instructs the kids to do something and say the phrase below. The action of the week is to bend over and and stick your posterior out and have the kids recite, "Fart like the skunk!"

OK, let me clarify something. I am mandated to teach the franchise developed materials... Would I if I had a choice? Absolutely not! Why? See phrase above. I don't know about you but when you were in kindergarten do you remember "fart" being taught as a part of the English vernacular?

Oh well there are downsides to every job. I live overseas so it is expected that this become the norm for the country. If anyone knows me, they know that if I can help improve something I will. In the fall and in the spring the academy holds a writing contest. So last fall a big poster was put up announcing the academy's "ENGLISH WRITHING CONTEST." I tried to pull the head teacher aside and showed her the correct spelling, and tried to explain to her that "writhing" means to squirm, but it didn't register and she was a bit sore with me for a week. I tried two other time to fix errors without success; so now my attitude is "Fart like a skunk?" Whatever!

One last thing--Next week Friday we are having another "ENGLISH WRITHING CONTEST!" 8-) I don't know what you will be doing on that day, but as for me... I will be writhing! 8-)

Parrots!

I think I have come to believe that some of my students are not attending my classes to learn. Yeah, sure I have to take responsibility and manage the classroom, but if they don't understand what I am teaching or what they are saying then what is the difference? I guess I would not feel this way if the grading policies were based on performance of the students rather than on what the parents want. Either way, I have found a fun way to amuse myself and take my mind off of many of the various annoyances that inevitably drive me nuts.

This week I noticed that one of my former students that actually "knows" one word of English remarkably sounds like my late grandmother's African Grey Parrot. Every day I walk in the building after lunch to the sound of "Hello" from "Kevin" one of my former students. After the initial greeting there is nothing but the Korean equivalent meaning "I don't understand."

It was then that I decided to train the kids to repeat some new ridiculous phrases that at least make me smile everyday. The only caveat is that they have to say them if they want to get out of the classroom, which all of of the students can't wait to do. So two to three minutes before the end of the class the kids put their books away and have to sit and wait to be called on before they recite one of many parrot phrases.

Thus far, as I walk the halls to my office, I can hear other students passing on the magical phrases that will garner them an early exit... "Polly wants a cracker!"; "Shiver me timbers!"; "Who is a pretty boy!" all resonate down the halls and it makes me laugh endlessly. There is one habit that my late grandmother's parrot did do that I am not going to teach my kids, and that is mimicking the stupid fire alarm that went off quite often because of the family's cooking.

If anyone has some good parrot phrases that they want to pass along, I'd sure appreciate them. Have a good week! I look forward to hearing from you soon.

My New Business Project

I am not sure if I stated before that My Korean friend Alex (Chung Won) introduced me to one of his friends Park who went to university in Utah. He really is a nice bloke that has better English abilities than Alex and is becoming a very good friend. When I arrived on Thursday from the US he called me in a panic to assist him in translating some documents for a work presentation he had on Friday. We worked on it until 4:30 in the morning and it turned out that my business advice was successful and appreciated by his boss.

Park works for an IT company and one of their customers has asked their company to act as the Local Support Service (LSS) center for Korea. Thus far my role has been to assist in translating some documentation and assisting my friend in selling some things that their company has already performed that, perhaps, the customer was not aware of. It is not a situation that I would want to be in, but have been in before in my many years of business experience. Either way, eating crow sucks bigwan!

So this evening I get a call from him and was invited out for Korean BBQ at "Oose" (pronunciation only) restaurant with Alex to help him with his conference call tomorrow to discuss why his client did not accept their efforts towards developing a website for support requests. Currently the only method of initiating support requests is via telephone and email. After a long chat with him I gave him some straight forward talking points to discuss with his client that will not only help him sell them on the prospects of allowing Park's company to continue to develop the website, but also assist in preventing the company from losing valuable revenue spent on developments thus far.

If my instincts are accurate, I am sure that the client will buy into the pitch and consider Park's companies proposal to develop the website. Either way I am sure that this will be a great opportunity to be entertained until the end of my contract.

All is good here. Send an email when you can or respond to this blog...