Rick's in Korea: drinks

Wow!

It's hard to believe it's been a month since I've posted anything. And even harder to believe that I've been in Korea for 6 months already...

To update everyone on the past month:

First, I had a cast on my leg for about 3 weeks. When the doctors took it off to see how the healing was progressing, I was given a good prognosis. They said that I may only need 2 months of rehab instead of 6 and I was given a hinged brace to wear. I'm much more mobile now and can do pretty much whatever (walking, dancing, etc.) as long as my knee doesn't twist. The brace keeps it really stable so other than being achy it's not that bad unless I stand on it too long or do something like slip in the shower.

So... what've I been up to in the past month then? Well, most of the time was just going to work and coming home, but I was able to do a few things for fun.

Last week, I told one of my Korean friends that I really needed to just get out and do something, so I wanted to go somewhere in town I've never been before. He asked what kind of things I like and I told him I like good music, dancing, meeting people... so he took me to a "booking club".

"Booking clubs" are a very unique thing in Korean culture arising from the lack of (or differences in) socialization skills. One of the first things you notice as a teacher is that it is EXTREMELY difficult to get boys and girls of any age to interact at all. Now, while it may seem normal in the U.S. for kindergarten boys and girls to think the other sex "has cooties", here such actions are not limited small children. Even as adults those behaviors are still ingrained in many.

As a result, a type of night club developed that force interaction. At these clubs, there is usually a band or DJ and a dance floor, but most of the club is actually tables/booths set up for small groups (4-6 people) to drink and talk. Men go to a club with their male friends, are seated at a table, and buy a "set" of drinks and appetizers. Women go with their girlfriends, are seated at their table, and order a drink or two. Then "table managers" (think hosts in a restaurant) go around, take the women by the hand (or sometimes almost drag them by the arm) to tables of men. If the women like the men they will stay and talk for a while getting to know them. If the women don't like the men, they will have a drink and get up and leave after a couple of minutes. Both the men and women who go know exactly what to expect (well, the Koreans know what to expect even if Americans don't--lol).

The women put up a pretense of not wanting to go to the different tables to meet the men. There were two women in their late 20's at the table next to us who actually would act like kindergartners every time the table manager would come get them to go to visit another group of men...making faces, digging in their feet as though they didn't want to go. Yet, they came to the club knowing it was a booking club, were there when we arrived and were still there when we left a couple of hours later.

There were probably 1000-1500 people at the club and it had a great show with a variety of DJ's and good music. The sets of music rotated between dance music (where everyone would get up, move to the dance floor, and the men would dance with their friends and the women with theirs) and more "low-key" sets where everyone would sit down again to mingle. I didn't realize it was a booking club that my friend was taking me to, and really wasn't looking to meet anyone there, but I'd heard about booking clubs and had been curious to see what they're like since they're such a "Koreanism".

My friend and I didn't have the managers bring any girls to our table, since that's not why we were there but I did have girls approach me 3 different times on the dance floor to talk to me. My friend told me that's never happened to him or any of his friends, so I'm assuming that's because I'm a foreigner so I don't fit anywhere in the Korean hierarchy of social structure and therefore the "normal" rules of behavior don't apply.

Well, since I am actually working while I'm here, I thought it might be good to show a typical day in the life of an English teacher at a hagwon (private English school) in Korea.

I happened to wake up early this morning and caught an incredible view of the sun rise on the mountains.

After doing some chores around the house (ok, I admit I also went back to sleep for a bit), I get up and walk down to school about 2pm or so. This is the street I walk down each day.

I teach two 3-hour classes each day (6 hours total) which start at 4:30 and 7:30 respectively for a total of 30 hours of teaching each week. Teachers at public schools and other hagwons don't usually teach as many hours in a week (some as few as 22) but the pay reflects the amount of work involved. Chung Dahm requires all teachers to clock in 20 minutes ahead of class time (so at 4:10) but most of the teachers are there between 3 and 3:30 to prep for the day's classes. Since I'm new and still learning the curriculum, it still takes me a little longer to do my daily prep. Still, working from 2:30 or so until 10:30pm is still only 8 hours a day.

Classes are broken down first by skill level (not grade), then by age... so all the students in the class are about the same English profiency even though the ages may range by 2 or 3 years. At Chung Dahm, the 4:30 classes are usually upper elementary to middle school students and the 7:30 are middle school to high school. I do have to clarify that Chung Dahm also has "Chung Dahm April" which is very beginning English as separate facilities, as well as "CD Prep" which is college test prep level.
My students range in age from about 11 to about 15. I actually teach 4 different levels/classes each week: two levels of "memory English" (vocabulary/reading) and two levels of listening/speaking skills.

Here are some pictures of one of my "lower level" classes working on their daily critical thinking project:

After work, different groups of teachers usually go do something together. Tuesday nights here is "soccer night" for our school, since teachers from a different branch of CDI here in town take the subway up to join some of our folks playing at the park beside city hall then have a few drinks. Since I'm not much of a soccer player, I opted to go to eat with a few other "non-players". We went back to the dak galbi (spicy chicken with vegetables) place I've mentioned before. This time I was able to get a lot more pics of the process of cooking the food. It starts with the chicken, which has been marinated in a spicy pepper paste, being cut up and put on the grill/pan (I posted a pic of that before). On top of that are added all the vegetables to cook.

Once the veggies are cooked, it looks like this:

This time we had solid red aprons instead of polka dot!!

After having dinner with one group, I stopped by the soccer field since it's on the way home. By now it was just about midnight and the game was finishing up. I then went with everyone to the convenience store on the next block, where everyone sat around having a beer and relaxing for an hour (or 2 or 3) at the end of the day:

Then it's back to the apartment to straighten up a little and head to bed.