Korean Scheduling

Is it me or does the schedule change rapidly in Korea. I thought I would get used to it, but it seems that no matter how much I try, something seems to come up. I am having a hard time getting sleep lately with Labor Board meetings, dental visits, studying Korean, and working. Lately it seems I cannot blink without a schedule change.

Here's how a week for me goes:

I will teach certain classes on certain days and then out of nowhere I will get a schedule change. One week the schedule changed 7 times. I can imagine that one of these days, I will take a lunch break to find out that I was scheduled for class. If I decide to sleep in on Saturday; I need to prepare for a schedule change, take a dump; schedule change, go breathe fresh air; schedule change; think about what I'm going to think about...you get the idea.

I just wanted to get that off my chest, before the schedule changes. So I'll end this, before the schedule changes. If the schedule doesn't change, I'll see you next time.

Korean New Year's Video

I will continue to upload the videos when I get more time to actually do so. I think it would be best to just upload them in one batch and free up my hard drive. I also have content from my trip to Okinawa that I need to get rid of to. Both will be posted at my leisure. I need to have the right amount of free time and be in the right mood to do so. I just thought I would let you guys know what's going on with that.

I have a fairly big blogging idea that will probably not garner me enough noteriety amongst fellow bloggers, but perhaps amongst current linguaphones. I really like writing, but my job has been demanding more and more of that writing time. It not a matter of if I will have time in the future to do so, it is more or less a matter of when.

New Year Post

Okay I have the New Year's post ready. If you want to watch all the parts please go to my YouTube channel. My ID is needmanshini. Happy New Years everyone.

Questions About Korea Part 1

First I want to make it clear that learning a language is only as difficult as you make it. I have had the pleasure of meeting several people from around the world and I am glad I made the trip half way across the world to teach English. I keep getting these reoccuring questions that I just want to address and some of these are common sense (at least to me), but there are others that are interesting nonetheless. I will just answer them without any reguards to order. Some of  these questions are in other languages and I'm just going to summerize them in English.

Q1: When are you going to go back to (Okinawa), Japan?

A1: I have bought a plane ticket to visit there from January 21-24. I will basically be reconnecting with old friends and hopefully I'll make some new friends.

Q2: Are you going to try to come back to America?

A2: I will visit and probably invest, but if I choose to return it would have to be for a good reason. Currently, I am making more money abroad than I was in the United States and I am doing my dream. I wanted to travel for the longest time and I do not want anyone or anything to take that away from me. If I do choose to come back to live, it will be on my own terms and my own volitions.

Q3: Why Korea and why not Japan?

A3: I did actually try to go to Japan during the beginning, but that when the language schools Aeon and another chain closed. And that was before the earthquake too. While it has been a dream to live there, I have already done it  as a international student anyways. That being said, I guess I have to factor in the fact that I wanted to learn another lannguage too.

Q4: How is your Korean?

A4: My Korean is a work in progress. I have reached a middle intermediate level in the language, but honestly I could have reached low advanced if I had not had so many distractions with social activites. Not to say I want to become anti-social, but I had to make a trade off between reaching a desired level and experiencing new things. There we certain days where I had to choose between either meeting someone from my hometown, (that i haven't seen in years) or studying 2-3 lessons in Korean. This new year though I  will be  making up for lost time.

Q5: Is their racism towards foreigners in Korea?

A5: I am not going to beat around the bush and evade this question. Yes there is racism, but it is on a minor level. For one, when I walk outside I will get the painfully obvious "Oh, you're a foreigner." response. I also have a harder time to engage a Korean person in the Korean language because, not to sound counter racist, but there are some Korean people that refuse to talk to me in Korean. Even if my Korean keeps getting better and better and I no longer need English to do anything, there are those few people that just refuse to speak Korean with me just because I am white. I came across this in Japan, but it is more prevalent over here simply because it is not in the norm for a white person to speak Korean- period. There are seriously English teachers that do not even bother to learn the Korean language because they have no positive interactions with Korean people in Korean. I met a English teacher that has lived in Korea 9 years and only has a basic level of proficiency in Korean. But despite this, I still get plenty of language practice in Korean and I have noticed myself not even use English on the weekends. My interactions with Korean people have been both warm and cold.

If you are African American, you will be hard pressed to speak Korean right away, however if you happpen to be Asian, most Korean people demand that you understand Korean because it isn't seen in their culture that you could be a native English speaker. If you happen to want to learn the Korean language, being Asian by default opens more doors as opposed to being white in Korean society. Also if you're white, in many Korean people's eyes you're automatically assumed to be an American by default. There will be places where I would go and Korean people will comment that "this American acts weird", and I would have to tell them that he or she isn't American. Their exposure to foreigners mainly comes from hagwons and middle schools so it is easy to make assumptions based solely upon ignorance.

Age is key in Korea. People say that the older you are the more respect you will get, but  the younger you are the more jobs you will get. On applications there are some job positions with age limits and this causes a lot of turmoil for people  that are trying to pursue their dream jobs late in life. You cannot enter a university after a certain age in some schools. It is sad, but it's their culture and that's the way things are done. Times are changing, but until it completely changes that's the way it  is over here.

The main thing that should be taken away from this is the limited exposure to outside cultures. Not all Korean people are as I have described above. There are some open minded Korean people and there are a lot of closed minded Korean people. Those people have to have an interest in learning about other cultures to want to open their minds.

However a closed mind is like stagnent water- it grows fowl.

Q6: How are you able to study so many languages?

A6: I schedule them. Originally last year I was going to study a lot more, but I had a change of plans. I got to a point where I was getting pretty stagnant with learning languages, but here's how I basically study languages and it isn't my whole flowchart but it just to give you an idea, I'm actually going to change it up a little bit.

Step 1: Phrase Learning Phase- I basically learn the basic script and get adjusted with how the language sounds. I will probably add more audio/shadowing sessions to this in the future.

Step 2: Grammar Learning Phase 1-I learn grammar but do not focus heavily on vocab. From doing the grammar exercises, I pick up vocab from the context. I used to just put everything on flashcards and memorize it, but I do not have the time to always make them. If I do not know a word and I need to know it, I would make a list of words I want to use in exercises and incorporate them somehow. I have found that this works great for Korean and I will do this method for other languages.

Step 3: Polishing Phase/ Reading Comprehension- I get language material that is on my level and study them. I  will naturally learn new phrases and grammatical expressions anyways. This is the step I grind out whatever errors I have in speaking a language. This phase sounds tedious, but only the final steps take a while because it involves a little bit of shadowing. Doing this, I have noticed I can naturally improve my listening since it is audio heavy anyways.

Step 4: Optional Grammar Phase 2- If I find myself still enthusiatic in a language, I will decide whether I want to learn it to another level. This phase involves more polishing and learning techniqual information and specialized jargon. So far, I have only gotten Japanese to this phase mainly due to time constraints. I plan on getting Chinese to this phase once it becomes in my active study catagory.

Note that I am not "fluent" per se in any of these languages. I am saying this because to me fluency is the ability to speak at a near native level. That alone takes years on end and you have to go beyond the advance stages to do so.

Also I have side languages which I dabble in (mainly to see what I want to study next). I do not know any grammar in these languages; I just know like basic phrases.

I have dabbled in French, Spanish, Russian, Okinawan, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, and Cantonese. I think of these French and Spanish is pretty good followed by Bengali. Bengali kind of sticks to me for some reason. I would say that I really only know 4 languages fairly well, but I will add more as I get older.

I have more questions that I will answer, but I do not want to make this blog overly serious because I want a comedy/satirical blog. I supposed I could have answered them in a another fashion, but I do not want to come off as racist or bigoted so I decided to answer them out of the blogging persona here. I think I will do the other ones in the exact same manner just to be safe. I in no ways concider myself to be an expert on learning languages nor Korean culture, but I hope I was able to answer honestly and truthfully.

The Epic Quest for Shoes

Lately I have developed such tactiturn towards blogging. However if I do not talk about this epic adventure, I will die a thousand deaths and ajummas with giant visors and counterfeit handbags will haunt my dreams. My feet are fucking big. There is no simple way of putting this. My feet are so big that you can land aircraft on them. They are so fucking big that I can charge people rent to live inside my shoes.

I should go into a little bit of detail: I am a stubborn mofo when it comes to learning languages. So I decided that the whole day I was going to not use English. I usually can get away with this, but when visiting Itaewon (이태원), you sometimes need to throw that rule out the window. While I was more than capable of doing this by myself, I happened to come across a fellow foreigner who was willing to help me so that's why. Originally I looked up an address on the internet and I was able to find a place, but it turns out they actually sold suits instead. Luckily the person he was with was Korean and she was able to save the day.

The first place I went to was this seedy back alley which was down this narrow corridor. I was so tall that I had to crab walk down the stairs just to peep this ajosshi's wares. He had my size shoes, but I had a choice between ajoshi-pointy-style shoes that were slippery or ajosshi-pointy-style shoes that were not slippery.

The foreigner herein will be referred to as Justin. Justin said that he shopped "there for some Nike's and said that they fell apart a month later." The Itaewon Ajosshi told me in Korean that he had a special sale just for me because I brought in a pretty Korean lady. Ok, creepyness check. He was going to offer me a deal of a life time. Bullshit meter check. He told me 100,000won was a real bargain for his shoes. Scam meter off the charts. To make a long story short I beat feet and went to withdrawal cash.

After I withdrew cash I went into this store with two ajummas and haggled with shoe prices with them. NO HAGGLING NO LIFE! Originally they wanted 140,000won for some authentic hand made Italian shoes. While that is probably normal retail for them, I decide to enlist some help with my haggle. I told my pretty Korean assistant to tell them "There is so many shoes to choose from and I am having a hard time making up my mind. Maybe a discount will help me make up my mind" I actually did have a hard time choosing and I wanted a discount so it wasn't a lie at all. ;) I walked away with the pair I wanted for around 120,000won which were not the shiny-pointy-ajosshi-shoes that I have luckily evaded.

Next I went to Wang Thai which is located at the same building as What the Book is. It is a Thai restuarant with a plethora of eatings to choose from. And for my bottomless pit of a stomach, it is always seasons eatings. I had chicken curry and some other Thai dish. And I have to say that that was the best Thai food that I have ever had. I will certainly be back en masse. My dinner conversation ranged with topics related to English employment, Ohio, and dentistry in Korea, along with the law. In other words somewhat random, yet some what coordinated.  The law came up mainly because Justin's hagwon isn't paying into pension and insurance which is totally illegal. I advised him to file at the pension office, but that could have it's mixed results.

After purchasing my shoes and celebrating the season for eating, I wound up on a subway heading for home. No, the adventure is far from over. I was to be whisked away to a Hof to have another conversation with subway ajosshi (here to be referred to as Mystical Ajosshi as his alias). SA or Mystical Ajosshi wanted to have deep conversations in English. He was actually a fairly open-minded person.

First we talked about travelling to different countries and we wound up talking about Romania and Vlad the Impaler because he worked in that country. Then we talked about GM and Chevrolet because he worked for the Chevrolet plant in Korea. Then we started talking about longevity at the Hof bar and he went into this talk about how he spent his time studying English. We then started talking about Confucian Analects being memorized along the health benefits of studying Tai Chi Chuan  （太極拳）then the health benefits of drinking and the Okinawan diet.

When I mentioned the Okinawan diet, surprisingly he wasn't as apprehensive to classify Okinawan people as Japanese people when I told him the history behind the people. I almost feel like a delegate sometimes when it comes to explaining Okinawa to Korean people because geography skills are surprising low compared to their math and science skills. To cast away any doubt my mentioned statement, I should reiterate that younger children seem to have better geography skills than their Korean elders because the level of education has skyrocketed between the two.

One part of his conversation was this:

When I first started Taichi I couldn't feel any spark in my hands. But after a few months, I could breathe for one minute straight and after 5 years I could feel and electric numbness in my penis and rectum. And finally after 15 years I was able to feel it in the palms of my hands. I am interested in things that will promote logevity so that is why I began Taichi.

Around 3am I parted ways from the Mystic Ajosshi, never to see him again. He was so epic to talk to on a multitude of levels and not just about sparking penie. It is funny to see that Korean men are open about a lot of things and can speak frankly about things without feeling embarrased. He said the above statement so frankly, one could not help but bask in the awe of his awesomeness. (Maybe it was perhaps best avoided, but it is something that worth mentioning because it sort of gives an insight into Korean culture.)  While it does sound like Tantric, he made it perfectly clear he was studying Taichi. Those was his exact words almost verbatim. Now everytime I wear my new shoes, I think of the man on the subway who went on random wtf conversations about philosophy. My day was the makings of a Kubrick film without the late film director (also noted for his sometime random musings.

Halloween Party

Ok being as sick as a dog, didn't help much to give everyone a non-jaded perpective, but this is the viewpoint that is Halloween: every Korean child is either a witch or a wizard!

Korean children need to step their Halloween game up! It was very hard to judge the Halloween contest when everyone partically wore the same costume. There was maybe one devil or one vampire. Ironically most Korean women sported devil horns for Halloween or cat ears. Very basic. However, I think Korean children are perhaps the children American people want as trick or treaters. All the children were greatful to get candy and they were not bratty about it.

I wanted to go to Hongdae to perhaps see the rest of the drunken English teachers/ military people get wild out in costumes. It's just one of those days where complete idiocy is acceptable and sometimes encouraged. Cultural note: I am mainly reffering to the military here, although I have crossed some sleezy English teachers in my time in Asia. I am still slightly sick and I openly wish everyone had my cold after being sick on what is usually my funniest 2 weeks of the year. Of course just this is a gross exaggeration.

Stranger Danger

I have a massive headache. I have finally met students that have been push so far up an educational system the sun don't shine. I was teaching my class like normal when I come across students that do not know what "civilization" and "tradition" means. I get that. I am learning these words in my 5th language. They can be difficult  to grasp, even for me. The world graduation (iphak) took a bit of time in basic Korean.

But then I come across students that do not understand a single world after explaining to them what it means every which way possible AND not understanding that means there is something wrong with how they are studying English. Clearly one should be able to get, "a person you do not know" or "someone who isn't known." These are students that have studied English for 3-4 years and they are supposed to be in the upper intermediate level.

I even broke it down even further

1. Someone you don't know.
2. Do not know their name or where they are from.
3. You never have seen this person before.
4. They can be seen on the street and walk by you everyday.
5. They can be random people whom you never met.

Sigh and double sigh. I just want to beat them with a dictionary. How can these students go through so many years of English study and not know the word stranger nor how to understand its simple English definition? I would have seriously had a talk with the previous teachers as a parent. It is just a shame that the parents in Korea are at times neglectful and do not focus on the children in their times of need yet shell out ridiculous amounts of money for their children's education.

To wrap things up, if they do not understand the word stranger, it is going to be a looooooooooooog semester with that class.