Quick Posting

Thought I post something quick like Nick. For those of you who got the Seattle Supersonics reference, give yourself a hug. For those who didn't ; cbar. Yep that's right cbar. One of the many ways Korean children tell their teachers to go nplmu themselves. Gotta love Korean code. Korean children are polite yet some are fairly straightfoward in expressing themselves. I can see the contrast between Japanese children and Korean children. Usually most children are very over worked from all the hogwans they have to go to. At my old hagwon, there was a girl who went to 7 different hagwons.

Collecting homework at my new job is an eventful task that requires the utmost amount of wit and diplomacy. Because in actuality hagwon ESL work is a combination of ESL teaching and customer service. A lot of teachers fall into the traps of being overly harsh or being felt underly appreatied in Korea. They forget the customer service part of the job: if the child is performing well, that is one thing, but the child has to be happy as well. Otherwise you will hear things like : "teacher, teacher, pinishi!" or "I cut this academi." I am perhaps just writing this quick piece to A) give advice and B) make a quick posting. The book idea has been delyaed from the whole moving hagwons and also due to other events that are personal and cannot be disclosed on the information super gossipway. This is Charles signing out, so go nplmu yourself.

Stubbed My Toe and Went to Seoul Aquarium

Good part about the day: I say a movie and went to Seoul Aquarium. There were a lot of animals and attractions. Bad part about the day: I stubbed my toe. It looks purple and I am in Korea. I seriously do not want to go back to CastleVania Korean Rendition. I will try to wait a day or two, maybe this minor annoyance will go away or maybe my toe will fall off. The good news is that I can bend it.

If anyone lives in Korea, you have to make a trip to the Coex Shopping Center. It is worth the visit and honestly it is filled with many exciting things to do. I was thinking of other activities to plan there as well. In case anybody was thinking "what the Lotte", they have a Lotte World there. I have to give the Koreans credit for the abundance of Lotteria; they have been curbing my hunger for fast food. This next paycheck, I am hoping to finally do something about my accursed teeth. So to the best of my ability, I have been trying to just eat traditional Korean food. I feel a lot more energetic from making the switch in diet, but Korean people really lay out the side dishes. I think I spent a little more than I wanted to, but that was because I went out and had this deep dish pizza. It was okay, but not really Chicago style like it said on the menus.

I guess I'll end this with "I'm crossing my fingers, hoping my toe doesn't fall off".

Thought I Post Something

Life in Korea has been rather hectic for me with the switching of Hagwons and the relocation process. I am still in Incheon, so I am still keeping the site as Incheon Charles. Anyways, I have implemented a strategy to start writing a book. I am not going to say what type of book I will write, but expect an announcement on Facebook and Kindle. The only real obstacle that is holding me back from publishing it is the inherent lack of internet.

Ok, that sound's like an evil enough monolouge without revealing too much. Expect me to be tight lipped. No homo. Expect an update on this book soon. Expect me to blog on this site more now that I have escaped the bowels of ESL hell. Right now I like my new job. I currently work at Avalon, I am teaching there full time and I get to torture little Korean children for a living. Can't beat that.

I have recently gotten back into playing games because mentally I need a recess from going through 4 language books in 8 months. I currently speak a Intermediate level of Korean and can get around fine. (At least according to what the book says; it is more like a  high beginner level.) I think that all I want to write for now. This was suprisingly written in less than 10 minutes. It is probably filled with grammatical mistakes; but if I corrected my own mistakes, I better be getting paid for them =)

Patiently Waiting at Lotteria

Ok this is going to suprise mainly the Americans that read my post, but near my hogwan is a hopital and apparently they are not restricted to the bed! I was shocked when I went to Lotteria to study Korea and low and behold there is a a patient with an IV eating a burger combo! He had the night gown, the nursing assistant, the whole nine yards! I wish I had a camera to take a picture, but I been too busy at work to actually spend time to look for a decent camera that won't cost me an arm and a leg.

I actually had to talk myself into going in because I actually have a cold right now and I didn't want to get sicker. I am going to keep this post brief, because I am still sick. I'm convinced that he was probably from a nursing home in Korea and he was given permission to eat there. And I'm also convinced when I get to the age to be thrown in a nursing home, I'll check myself into a Korean one!

MSG + Americans Don't Mix!

Wow, I never thought I would accidently taste MSG in Chinese food. I thought as health conscious as Korea is, they would have eliminated the use of MSG. I thought wrong.

In Incheon, I had some bomb Mapo Tofu/ 麻破豆腐 (That's right; I know Chinese too!)/ 마보도푸밥 and it was okay, but I had some sort of egg drop soup with it and it tasted a little bland. At first, I accidently added a dash of vinegar (which could have also done it to me X_x) and then I added some soy sauce.

Well it didn't improve the blandness after the vinegar; it made it inedible. However, that did not stop me from trying to make a  fool of myself. I decided to eat it anyways. I promptly paid for the meal (which I was feeling fine then) and left.

Afterwards, I started goofing around on Facebook and I was commenting on someone's Facebook account (because when I am off I either go to Seoul or stay at home) and then I noticed that my stomach started to feel weird--like sick weird. On top of it, I started to feel really drowsy so I went to bed. I woke up and now I feel fine, but it'd be nice if there was a disclaimer located somewhere that says: "Warning, we use MSG!" Eat at your own risk! I feel fine right now, but earlier I thought I was gonna hurl! Since I do not eat product with MSG on a regular basis, the Chinese soy sauce made me feel like I became bloated and then kicked in the stomach.

White Day!

White Day. Better known as "okay guys Valentine's Day is over;  time to pony up bitches". So what should you do on White Day? Well in Asia you usually have to give something back to all the women that have given you chocolate.

In Japan you have to buy chocolate that is three times the amount. I recieved some, but I have to techniqually only buy candy for 3 or 4 women over there so it wasn't bad. For the ones that gave you honmei choco, (which I recieved) you should do something special for them.

In Korea, same thing except guys usually buy candy. So I would have to figure out how to give more for the girls that bought me candy. So I have to give candy. I reasoned it is probably best to give all the girls candy because I do not want much trouble about it during my class. I do not completely understand Korea's White Day so I am just going to err on the side of caution. I think if any adults ask me to give them candy it will be a little awkward, but oh well. 

How Knowing Japanese In Korea Saved Me From Total and Utter Confusion

Ahhh, Shinsege....bustling with Korean hipsters thousands and thousands of them. It is literally an army of bound and ready consumers that just flock to these places and shop. For a second I thought I was back in Okinawa participating in Tsunahiki (a giant Japanese tug-of-war event) except I was just crossing the traffic light. Armed with an arsenal of broken Korean and a little can do attitude, my mission was simple: to infiltrate Kyobo Bookstore and find me some JLPT prep books and some Korean books for foreigners.

While the book "Korean for Foreigners" was a good book, I could not help but notice the title. There was "Korean for Japanese", "Korean for Chinese", and then there was "Korean for Foreigners". I must say that this book is grammar heavy, yet effective. However, I am at odds with the title. Why are Japanese and Chinese people are being acknowledged in English "for Japanese and for Chinese" but English speaking people are known as "for Foreigners"? I think the Japanese company 3A had the right idea and gave themselves a place neutral title. "Minna no Nihongo" (Japanese for Everyone) because frankly even Japanese people can learn grammar from this book. I notice one thing about the book market in Korea. Cram books are popular. They had the HSK, TOPIK, Tofel, Toeic, JLPT, JPT, SAT, MCAT, and books on how to get into Ivy League schools. (No really! They did!)

So your probably wonder as to how Japanese got me out of a jam. Turns out, my Japanese is very useful in Korea. There are quite a few Japanese speaking Koreans over here in Korea with a even higher proficiency than me in Japanese. I had to say and they were the best thing since sliced Kimchi at the moment. I honest had a hard time finding a decent Korean learning textbook. There was one in my place that is ok. Complete Korean is reading heavy. I just wanted something a little more grammar heavy to get over the hurdle of difficulty I was having in learning by myself. Right now, I am not in a school, but I am learning Korean and more Japanese on my own. The hard thing with learning on your own is checking grammar. For me, it is basically trial and error. If my co-workers says my grammar stinks like moldy kimchi than it is back to the drawing board. Each day is getting a little easier on me and it has been a interesting learning experience studying a language without much help from an institution. I am thinking about taking classes due to grammar in Korean being a little harder than Japanese, but I will see how far I progress on my own first. I feel I am able to handle a basic 15 second conversation which is a start. I can say hello, say I like something, order food and apologize. I think those are fairly important skills. Slowly I think Korean will overtake my Spanish and Chinese. I am starting to feel like I know more Korean than Spanish, but I know right now that isn't true. It probably will not catch up to my English and Japanese, but there's no telling what the future holds. My Korean did not get me out of the Kyobo bookstore dilemma, my Japanese did! I was wondering around the Japanese sections and I struck a conversation up in Japanese because I was honestly lost and did not know where the foreigner's section was. I had some help choosing my book and then that person left. I was still looking for a certain Japanese book series, but I could not find it. While I was recommending books for this one person (because I was under the impression that person was just starting Japanese) it turns out she took the 1kyuu of the JLPT. So after shooting the breeze with her, I convinced her into helping me look for a Japanese book series known as Nihongosou-matome (日本語総まとめ）. I finally struck gold and find the books I wanted. They were in Japan and Kyobo had to special order them for me to be able to have them in Korea, but the delivery price was dirt cheap compared to America! I paid roughly $20 total for both books. Wow, I  thoroughly convinced that Korea has the one up on America when it comes to studying a foreign language. This person took the 1kyuu without ever having stepped foot in Japan. It was honestly super rare to come across such a phenomena! Then again I think Korea's JLPT passing rate was about 47% for the JLPT N1. I have to look at the new results. Tomorrow is a new day. I will hang out with my boss at 11am.

Wow, I have to say thanks to all the people that have put up with my absurd Japanese grammar over the years. Japanese really saved me.