(10) 90 in 90: Back again aka working is hard!

Today marks the first day back for the second school semester and while I wish it was a little more exciting with a little more fanfare... there wasn't.

The mood today was incredibly dour and quiet. None of the enthusiastic greetings from teachers, none of the normal greetings from students. Everyone today was tired and not looking happy to be there.

I guess you could have included myself as well. After having an extra long vacation and having to start my normal schedule again, I also felt incredibly lethargic and sluggish throughout the day. Something about being back and working didn't register in my brain. Thank goodness the activity level of everyone today was low because I'm pretty sure the thought processes in my brain were tumbleweeds.

I'm hoping that this is only temporary and I'll be back in the work and teaching mode by the end of the week. It's such a weird feeling having a different mind set when you need to be doing something. It feels weird, not right and yet you know it has to be done. Your body is rebelling against you while your brain yells at you for being a lazy ass.

You tell em lazy cat. You tell em. 

I wish there was more to say but today was incredibly meh, a solid 5 out of 10. Here's hoping my students and more importantly myself are ready to go at this whole teaching and learning thing again soon. Doing simple warm up activities was a long and time consuming task that took a large amount of effort just to get the students doing what they were supposed to do. An activity that was supposed take thirty minutes took almost the entire hour.

I can't help but feel bad for the students though. Their summer vacation wasn't really a summer vacation like I was used to. Students still had to go to school and attend classes until noon. Afterwards, they were required to stay and study until 6 pm. Some of the teachers also had to stay full days as well not only to teach them, but to monitor the study sessions as well. I consider myself very lucky. I have a feeling that besides myself, very few teachers or students had the opportunity to relax and go on vacation like I did.

So now, I head to bed. Wish me luck tomorrow world. Let this laziness go away and get my butt back in gear. I'm a big boy now, time to start acting like it.

(9) 90 in 90 Hiatus: Coming Back Sunday

I'll be gone for the next few days enjoying the last part of my vacation before my school starts again full time next Monday. It's been an incredibly relaxing and incredibly lazy last week as a majority of my summer classes were cancelled and the extreme heat has kept anyone with sense indoors.

So I'll be going to Ocean World, a famous waterpark in Korea along with some other random adventures before coming back on Sunday.

This means I won't be able to post for a few days, and maybe I'm technically cheating on the 90 in 90 rule, but well, its my blog and my rules. That's all I have to say about that.

So see you in a few days. To the few people that read this or stumble upon it by accident, thank you for taking the time to read. I'm really doing this more as a way to write and have a reference for various memories and states of mind while I was in Korea, but if some of you actually find what I write entertaining and worth reading, that's cool too.

See you when I see you!

I'm cheating a little bit. I ain't even mad though.

(8) 90 in 90: The rain that takes the heat away

The rainy season is almost finished in Korea, meaning the hot and humid temperatures will eventually lead the way towards cool and windy fall days.

For that, I can't wait. I've said it many times before, but I'm just not a fan of humid summers. I can deal with the high heat but its the humidity that makes it a miserable and sweat filled experience for me, sapping away any energy and will I had to accomplish anything, and instead making a lazy day spent in an air conditioned sound like a continually tempting way to spend a day.

However, there are days, a small amount of days, where the rain comes and doesn't make the weather more

DAT HUMIDITY...

humid. Sometimes, the heavy rain can bring a moment of relief from the hot summer days. For a few hours, it feels nice.

This feeling never last long. It last for a few hours before the sun comes out again and the sweltering heat comes back. Until that time, I enjoy the coolness that it brings. The heavy and sticky feeling of humidity yields to a cool and chilling feeling. A cool breeze can lightly be felt, a sign that for a few hours, its time to open the window and let in some air from the outside that actually feels good.

Sadly, this has not happened very often this summer. A majority of the days were humid, but its those few rare times, where relief comes through and allows me to escape from the heat for a little bit.

It's funny how appreciative I have become of something as simple as a rainstorm, but like many things since moving to Korea, I've gained a new perspective perspective and appreciation on many things.

So thank you rain and the cooling effect you bring. You're my moment of relief and a sign of cooler days to come.

(7) 90 in 90: Things that bother me about the WSJ Korean Education Article

A few days ago I read an article published by The Wall Street Journal titled Should the U.S. Follow South Korea's Education System? In the article, the writer talked about a Korean "super teacher" Kim Ki-hoon calling him a $4 million dollar teacher and crediting his wealth to his more than 20 years of teaching, tutoring and lectures.

The article then goes on to describe how he is paid in accordance with his skills, eventually suggesting the idea of teachers in Korea who are paid on the level of athletes or lawyers to teach students.

This part of the article, along with the constant reminder that Korean teachers make a lot of money really bothered me. The article as a whole is fine, and brings up many decent points usually not discussed in detail in western media.

It's the statement about teachers and other similar statements that while I don't think were intentionally written incorrectly, were lacking the proper research to give a more balanced opinion.

While its true that teaching, or anything in the educational field is a stable job and source of reliable income in Korea, the number of teachers who make anything close to "rock star" status income is very small. Kim Ki-hoon, while successful and more likely than not deserving of every bit of income, is an outlier.

A majority of teachers in Korea, both public and hagwon make a basic salary comparable to other mid to high level jobs. In fact, may teachers starting out their teaching careers for the first time make less than I do, and still have to pay many of the living fees such as rent and utilities that are provided to me for no cost.

Many starting teachers who work at private schools and hagwons are also often being offered one year contracts which ensures one year of employment and possibly succeeding years based on their performance. You could eventually make a lot of money teaching this way, however this comes through a higher position than an entry level teacher.

The end of the article also suggests that the U.S. borrow some ideas from Korea for its own education system. While some of the ideas are solid, some do not take in regard the differences between states and cities that would make some of these techniques hit or miss. The article fails to mention that the geography and population of the U.S. are very different compared to Korea. What works in one school district, in one state can very well fail in another. The geography, population and economic stability all play a part in providing differing experiences.

Another point the article does not bring attention to is the side effects of such high pressure on success and education. Students are taught that success is all that matters and that failure isn't a chance to learn from your mistakes, but rather a sign that you have missed your opportunity. Korea is sometimes called a "one shot society" meaning that everything from job interviews to language tests relies on that one window of success.

Such a high stress environment can sometimes create unbearably high pressure for students and create a day in, day out regimen of classes, studying, followed by more studying. Such a high emphasis on specific subjects for testing also leaves very little time for learning about non academic things like humanities, culture and society. From an early age, students are taught that these things do not matter nearly as much as getting into a good university.

While I feel the article is an interesting look for western readers at the Korean education system, much more consideration needs to be put into effect before we start clamoring for our own rock star teachers.

Borrowing from an overall effective system? Great. Taking things without regards to how it can fit into a culture and society different from the original one? No so much.

You can read the original story here

(6) 90 in 90: Korea Heat

Korea is humid and hot. Hardly groundbreaking news to anyone who has lived in Korea for an extended period of time, but for me, its been almost two years living in Korea and I still can't get accustomed to the heat.

I grew up in Indiana. Located in the Midwest part of the US, where summers would occasionally get hot, but it was never anything that could be considered extreme. Even when the heat would climb higher in the summer, the humidity wouldn't ever become too unbearable. To me, those hot summer days were the definition of "hot" summer days.

Once I came to Korea, I learned the true definition of hot summer days. I knew what it meant to be hot.

Where I live in Korea is the central most area of Korea, only an hour away from Daegu, the largest city in the Gyeongbuk-do region. While this means that the winters are usually not as cold as Seoul or Incheon, it means that the summers are significantly hotter and more humid.

Home is still really hot in Korea

The act of simply stepping outside on a typical summer day will usually result in my body sweating profusely and my shirt becoming drenched in sweat in a record amount of time. I used to enjoy walking to school every morning, but during the summers it becomes an impossibility.

The humidity is what makes the summers so ridiculously hot. It often adds up to 5 extra degrees to the overall temperature and makes the air thick with moisture, making even the simple act of breathing a uncomfortable experience.

This makes the air conditioner and water my two best friends during the summer.  I am constantly running the aircon, making my house a cool environment that at times almost feels too cold, a much preferred alternative to the hot and humid outside. During the summer, I am constantly drinking water, even when my bladder feels like it will burst and my thirst has been quenched ten times over. I feel this constant paranoid, creeping feeling that my skin and body is rapidly loosing moisture to the heat and I am constantly trying to recover it.

This also makes school a sometimes sticky experience, as my school is an older building and the principal of the school constantly request that we run the air conditioner the least amount of times possible to save energy. I hope Korea appreciates our sacrifice, because I'm certain that both the teachers and students do not.

There are much hotter and much more humid places in the world, but for now, Korea is the hottest and most humid one I have been to yet. Maybe one day I'll get used to the humidity and heat. Maybe one day I'll welcome the sweat slicked back and soaked shirt. Maybe one day I'll embrace the heat of Korea and welcome it like I welcome other things in life that start as annoyances but eventually become routine parts of life.

Maybe one day I'll learn to walk on water as well.

*for those who ask if the rainy season that Korea gets makes the weather more bearable: no, it does not. It just makes things wetter and more humid.

(5) 90 in 90: The Short Goodbye

One of the sad and ultimate inevitable things that every foreign language teacher runs into while teaching overseas is the flurry of goodbyes that comes from teachers leaving the country to return home.

The amount of time teachers spend overseas varies. Some spend just a year abroad before heading back home. Some spend several years living overseas, carving themselves a nice little lifestyle that lets them do something different and separated from the norm of their country of origin while still having a comfortable life.

The reason people come to teach in Korea differs from person to person. Out of every person I've talked to, each person has had a slightly different reason for being here. Some come here to pay off student loans. Some come to find a better job and a means to escape from their country's economic situation. Some even come here due to a love of Korean culture and a desire to immerse themselves in it for a period of time. Each person has a slightly different story on what led them to Korea, making each person's back story all the more interesting.

For these reasons, you come to meet some pretty cool people living here with you. Teaching is not really a job for introverts. To succeed at teaching you need to be somewhat sociable and able to communicate with other people. Working and living in Korea has not only given me the opportunity to meet many native Koreans, but native English speakers from all over the world. It's been a wonderful experience to meet many people and see perspectives from other people and customs. I can honestly say that becoming friends with people abroad has broadened my horizons and views of many things that I would have never achieved staying inside my own enclosed bubble.

However, for as many people you come to meet and become acquainted with, an almost equal number you come to part ways with. Being a English language teacher is not a long term job, nor is it an adequate career for someone to have. People eventually have to return home.

People go back to find a job related to their major. Some leave to explore other opportunities. Some even go because they've become quite fed up with Korea and want to leave while they still can.

Whatever the reason, it doesn't make the goodbyes any easier nor does it make the reality that all the teachers face any less brutal.

Lifelong friends are difficult to make abroad. While it certainly is not impossible, the ratio of people who leave on a yearly basis compared to the amount of time it takes for someone to become comfortable and form a close relationship with someone does not match up. There are several people I consider to be on very good terms with. Despite our closeness though, I can already tell that the people that I have a chance to see again or keep in touch with in a meaningful way is very small.

This leads many teachers to become introverted. Not going out of their way to make friends or make a strong effort to become close to people. After all, what is the point if they're going to leave in a year (for other teaching programs in Korea, sometimes even less).

For me however, it stands a constant reminder to cherish and remember the times we have together. Value the little things that happen everyday and appreciate the moments you share with the ones you care about. While they may not be around forever, the memories and experiences you create will.

I was once told that years from now, we won't remember the names of all the people we met or the places we all met at. What we will remember are the times we had together and the reasons we remember these events to begin with.

I may not see all of you forever, but the memories we shared in this sometimes great, sometimes horrible and sometimes strange country called Korea will last forever.

So with that, I say goodbye to all of you leaving. Take care, and to quote a favorite game of mine: "I'll see you when I see you."*

I'll see you when I see you Gordon!

The quote is from Half Life 2.

(4) 90 in 90: Teaching During Summer Vacation

Like most other teachers in Korea, I have to teach students during their summer vacation. Now before anyone asks the question, the summer vacation period for Korean students isn't a summer vacation in the sense of the summer vacations from America. There is no three month period of doing nothing during the break rather, students still have to come to school and still have to attend class, just not as long or not as many classes as the normal school year. Most students go home at 12, but some still stay behind to either study or go to additional classes.

I'm the teacher who teachers the additional classes. While most foreign teachers here teach for a few hours during the morning period, I teach in the afternoon for only an hour and a half each day. Most other teacher use their summer classes to play games with students or for the most part, entertain them for the class period. Since I teach high school, entertaining is not really part of my plan, or rather not the goal the head of the English department wants me to teach.

I was specifically instructed to teach students the concepts and mechanics that cannot be taught in a classroom. I would be having a smaller class size this year, only three students. While at first this sounded daunting, being able to keep the attention of only three students for a longer than normal class time, I pleasantly found that this could not be further from the truth.

My summer classes only last a week. During this period I have taught the students advance speaking techniques. Techniques such as intonation, pacing, pronunciation and volume control. All important concepts when it comes to speaking another language but are almost impossible to teach effectively to a classroom of thirty students who would rather be anywhere else than a hot and stuffy classroom.

I feel very lucky that I can teach important concepts on a near one on one basis to other students. I feel like the progress we have made over the past few days is incredible and with just a little under a week of classes, the students are already showing remarkable improvements in their intonation and pronunciation.

After today, there are only two more days of classes before a three day break period and I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish. Last year, was a bit of a cluttered mess with a larger class and lack of clear ideas for what the class was supposed to teach. This year is tighter and more focused, making much better results in the end.

I'm looking forward to my mini three day break, but in the mean time I can't really complain about my summer classes. If only all classes could be this simple and effective.