2013 Talent Show | Most Likely to Become a Professional Blogger Award

It's official, folks. My blog has received the very-official stamp of approval from the Fulbright Talent Show Committee. And now I would like to thank...

We basically never stop around here. 

The OCs always have something planned. And if they don't have something planned, they have other ETAs plan an event for us just like tonight's Talent Show! I went to Goesan earlier today to get 8x10 prints of some of my photos, which I have decided is how I will make my contributions for the event. (Times like these really make me wish I had a performable talent!). 

There were great performances in song and dance and instrument-playing, and there were cool exhibits on origami and drawings - among many other things. Sitting back on my chair, feeling slightly feverish, my amazement over the caliber of talent we have as a group was renewed and compounded with each new act! 

I almost wished they had arranged this event earlier but, then again, maybe not as many people would have signed up, and we would certainly not have witnessed most of the dynamic pairings and groupings that showcased their talents on the stage! 

A night of fun and entertainment and bonding :)

Just a few of the handful of ETAs who shared their talents! I was so entertained and inspired by the different ways each and every one of them expressed themselves!

My way of contributing to the talent show; also a mini advertisement to the natural beauty of the Philippines!

Once I get more time, I will post the photos on my photography website since I edited a few more photos from the 2011 trip to the Philippines for the event!

After everyone's performances and exhibits, the OC Team surprised us by dancing as a group on stage. It was one of the best, most entertaining things I have seen during Orientation! With all the work they do, I have no idea how they found the time to also learn a dance!

Anthony said that they got the steps down the night before. Uh-huh...

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Do you have a performable talent? What is it? How have you shared it with others?
If you don't have a "performable" talent, what have you done to showcase talents/abilities/skills not easily performed on the stage?

Tea Ceremony: Learning How to Pause & Really Savor the Taste of Tea

The set-up:  you can see many tea sets laid out on the floor on the bottom right, the actual tea set we used, and the two
kinds of tea that we made and drank!

Besides Taekwondo, the only other extracurricular activity I signed up for was the Tea Ceremony. This ceremony was scheduled to take place near the end of orientation, so I thought it would be a nice wrap to my time in Goesan.

I believe the ceremony was two hours long, from 7-9 p.m. in the TKD room. Two older women dressed up in traditional clothing called hanbok led us through a neat presentation of how to bow properly (there are different bows for both men and women), and how to prepare, serve, and drink tea!

It's complicated-sounding but is actually quite easy.

Here are some photos I took of the men as they performed their bow in front of one of our instructors.

THE MEN'S VERSION OF THE FORMAL BOW

Great job, guys!

Everyone: The ETAs, the Tea Ceremony instructors, our RA, and Anthony

I spaced out during some portion of the ceremony - the parts that were particularly heavy in Korean - but, overall, this experience was a seriously amazing opportunity! Korean culture is so rich, so beautiful, and (I learned tonight) so thoughtful. 

One does not simply brew tea here. Or pour tea however way one pleases. Or even drink tea however one chooses! There is a proper way to do - more like perform - everything, and most of these ways can only be described as being thoughtful and deliberate. I enjoyed the performance, and I enjoyed the tea! Watching the instructors do the simplest things like pour a few drops of tea in a little white teacup made me want to replicate their actions, and do so as slowly, gracefully, deliberately - thoughtfully. 

Before we drank the tea, the instructor told us to hold the cup up before our nose, and to just smell the tea. It seemed that she was asking us to gauge the flavor of the tea (because they come in a variety of flavors) just by way of smell! 

Asking us to smell the cup of tea, to just savor it, before drinking was a surprisingly difficult instruction to follow. For me. I just wanted to drink. 

The smallness of the teacup would have meant two or three normal sips. Realizing this made me pause. And look at all I had to drink. And, gingerly, I sniffed the tea. And savored its smell and its taste. 

Once we took a sip, we were not to swallow the tea immediately.

 

The whole thing was a nice pause to what has been a pretty hectic last few weeks. Even now as I sit in my room hours removed from the tea ceremony, I can still remember the taste of the tea. 

Insights Workshop Led by ETAs | Teaching on "Successful Blogging 101"!

This is one of three 15-minute workshops I gave on how to blog successfully during our grant year! Photo creds: Helen Li

THE INVITATION TO LEAD A WORKSHOP

I was contacted by the OC Team to lead an Insights Workshop. I was pleased to hear that they had heard good things about my practice teaching sessions, and that they thought I could lead a workshop on either lesson planning or teaching persona. 

Insights Workshop is basically an opportunity for any of the current ETAs to give a talk/presentation/etc. on whatever they want, as long as it somehow pertains to the grant year. The workshops are meant to be 15- to 30-minutes long. Most of the ETAs led talks that were teaching-in-Korea-related. Given what the OCs had suggested I teach, I was also considering going this route. 

THE DECISION TO GIVE A WORKSHOP ON BLOGGING

However, I did not give myself enough time to think of a creative and fun way to deliver either of the talks, so I decided to teach on...blogging. Not just blogging, but successful blogging during any ETAs grant year. 

In 15 minutes, I went over what a blog is, why people should consider blogging (aka the benefits of blogging), blogging platforms available, the five Ps of blogging (Plan, Pen, Publish, Promote, Participate), and the anatomy of a "successful" blog. Here, a "successful" blog is defined as a blog that grabs the attention of a casual web browser by an aesthetically-pleasing design, that entices that web browser to read the actual content by drawing them in with (hopefully) interesting titles, subtitles, photos/photos with captions, etc., and that builds an online community by inviting the online reader to ponder what's been read and leave a thoughtful comment. *ahem I may or may not have used this blog to illustrate some of my points ahem*

THE TEACHING PERSONA EMERGING

I taught after Helen led a workshop on how to use cartoons in the classroom. Her workshop was quite engaging and I almost forgot how nervous I was as I imagined the various childhood cartoons she conjured up in my mind. I was nervous thinking about facing a class of fellow ETAs but this feeling disappeared - once again - as I stood in front of the classroom and began to project my voice. Like my practice teaching sessions, I moved around a lot during this workshop. I was so relieved to realize that my teaching persona is strong (and stronger than my neves!), and can be counted on to emerge regardless of the age of my students/audience. 

Also like my practice teaching sessions, I did not heed the "Less is More" mantra, and overpacked my presentation. 

THE WORKSHOP AFTERMATH

It was a good overpacked though. This workshop was created with the help of various online resources, which I know would be very easy to find if the other ETAs are interested in learning more. I stressed that what I gave them were just very basic and quick blogging tips and that anyone could create a blog even without any background on blogging or knowledge of HTML or CSS. 

I went over time; questions poured in; questions followed me after the workshop ended - in the hallways, during meals in the Grand Cafeteria, while riding the bus to Goesan,...

ETAs who already had blogs said they were inspired to do some redesigning after my workshop. Those who didn't said that they would start one up after the session was over. Those who remained silent later went up to me and told me that they had changed their banner, or reshuffled their color scheme, or added a new "page." ETAs who were not able to attend the workshop told me they had heard great things from the others and wanted to sit down with me and ask me [more] questions about blogging, content, photos, etc. 

Believe me, I was so. very. excited. I'm obviously an avid blogger, but to inspire others to likewise share their unique thoughts, experiences, and worldviews - that's 15 minutes of my time well-spent! 

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

What subjects/topics do you know so well that you could teach on them? What workshop would you give if you had the opportunity to give one? 

Do you have a blogging-related question? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.

"Dare to Be Expressive" Day: Teaching My Third Lesson in Camp Fulbright

Me observing the first ETA teach a class of elementary-age students

TEACHING THE THIRD AND FINAL TIME AT CAMP FULBRIGHT 
I had my third and last practice teaching session today with another CI's class. Like the previous two, I was the last one to teach a lesson. While this wasn't an issue with Eric's older students, it was definitely more of a challenge with Daniel's younger elementary-age students. Daniel had given me plenty of heads-up as far as their language ability, their energy-level, and their adorableness and, for the most part, he was spot on.

THE FIRST ETA TEACHES
From the back of the room, I observed the first ETA struggle with students who were not as engaged and had their heads down on the table. Midway through his lessons, the students would say things like, "Teacher, next! Next teacher!" asking him to move on to the next phase of the lesson. The ETA moved through his slides, but the content was very similar to the previous slide's so the students would, again, ask him, "Neeext!"

Seeing this dynamic made me a bit nervous in my chair. After the first ETA finished, Daniel told both of us that the students were probably just extra tired from a full day of classes, and feeling sleepy after lunch time. He also said that one student had not been feeling well his entire time at camp, and another student had not gotten enough sleep the previous night due to construction work right outside his window. The CI stressed that these were things that were out of our control, and to just do our best to deliver our lesson and engage them as much as we could.

THE SECOND ETA TEACHES 
These were very good things to know going into my turn to teach. I resolved that no heads would be down on the table (or if heads were down, that their eyes would still be on me), and that I would do my best to vary up the activities so I would not encounter the same reactions as the first ETA had received. My lesson was on the topic of bullying and teaching students how to be more than a bystander if they witnessed a situation where a student or a group of students would physically, emotionally, and/or socially harm another student/group of students on a regular basis.

SELF-EVALUATIONS: WHAT I COULD & COULD NOT CONTROL 
I was successful in meeting my goal of keeping the students' heads off their tables, and I was also successful in varying up the activities that I had them go over. However, I think I might have pushed my class to do too many different activities because they had a difficult time transitioning from one to the other. Eric had warned me in his post-lesson feedback that wrapping up one activity would take time, transitioning would take time, and explaining a new one would also take time. This was most evident in a class of younger students whose attention span was not as long as that of the older ones' I had become used to teaching.

I became particularly distressed towards the end when the sick student and the sleep-deprived student "woke up" from their respective reveries and found opportunity to lay themselves on the floor and (jokingly) convulse violently during a skit. There was a point where I believed my sense of helplessness did not register on the outside, but, towards the end, I am sure it became quite evident to the CI and the other ETA - if not also to the students. All I could do was smile at the two-three students who were still on task, separate those who were pretend-kicking and pretend-strangling each other, and remind myself over and over that it was okay to not have control of the class 100 percent of the time.

I have a suspicion that I might have to settle for not having control 75 or 50 or less than 50 percent of the time...

LANGUAGE ABILITY & MATURITY LEVEL
My time with my third class was helpful in the sense that it affirmed my belief that I work best with older students. This younger class was quite advanced in their English ability so it was not so much their language ability, but more their maturity level that I had a difficult time getting used to. Again, I know this is because I have worked with college-age students for the past four years. Yet I know that, if given the time, I would learn to embrace all the joys and challenges that come with teaching elementary-age students.

After practice teaching and Taekwondo, I headed off to Eric's class for my last night of Homework Help.
This is a photo of Eric's students prettifying their classroom for tomorrow's Camp Fulbright Closing Ceremony. 

LAST NIGHT OF HOMEWORK HELP 
As it is, I was relieved to find myself back in Eric's class that evening for Homework Help. I had nearly forgotten this obligation, and was still in my Taekwondo uniform when I quickly headed to his class from a 15-minute dinner. The students were on autopilot preparing for tomorrow's Camp Fulbright Closing Ceremony - the earlier part of which included showcasing their room to parents who were coming to pick up their students for the day.

As always, I was impressed with how well these eight students worked. They had two female students delegate tasks to the others from the back of the room, a couple of really artistic students, and a couple who were very good (or just very excited) about coloring their "masterpieces." Meanwhile, Eric was hovering over everyone semi-freaking out and semi-encouraging his students to finish, finish, finish! He had time to joke with the girls, and those who had crushes on the other CIs.

Me: What? None of the girls have crushes on you?
Eric: No, no, no. They hate me
Girls: Yes, we don't like Eric very much. 
Me: [to students] What?! I thought you loved your teacher!
Girls: [to me] He's good teacher, but Daniel is more handsome.
Me: [to Eric] What? Why Daniel? Why is that? 
Eric: Ah, probably because Daniel is a lot nicer to them. He is incredibly dedicated to his students. Me? I love my students, too, but I tease them way too much and they don't like that.
Me: Huh!
Eric: ...and I think it's also because some of the other CIs fit their idea of prince charming better. 
Me: Ah, I see what you're saying. 

LOVE NOTES FROM STUDENTS
I was reminded of my one-on-one with Daniel, at the end of which I noticed a craftily-folded note lying on his desk with his name on it.

Daniel: [noticing me looking at the note] You can read it if you want
Me: Oh, no! I was just looking. Who is it from? 
Daniel: It's from one of the students. You can read it, I'm serious
Me: Are you sure?
Daniel: Yeah [smiles]

It was a letter from a female student professing her love for Daniel, and describing how amazing of a teacher and person he was. I was very amused while reading through the letter - the letter-writer was so open and honest about her feelings for Daniel.

Me: [laughing] How do you deal with this? 
Daniel: I tell them that I am already married. 
Me: Wow, what a way to break their hearts
Daniel: Yeah...

CULTURAL IDEAS OF WHAT/WHO IS BEAUTIFUL/HANDSOME/ATTRACTIVE
It dawned on me that the girls preferred Daniel and his Caucasian features over Eric and his Korean features. I'm sure Eric is right though, Daniel's sweeter, more soft-spoken personality also probably has something to do with why his students adored him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Eric chasing a male student, heaving him up and slinging him across one shoulder, and slowly running around the room with him in tow. The room was in chaos, but it was a warm and friendly kind of chaos - the kind that I was somehow assured would all magically change in time for the parents' arrival.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU: 
Have you ever considered what you personally find beautiful/handsome? What or who do you consider beautiful/handsome? Are there certain characteristics that you immediately, without thinking, equate with beauty? Why is this?

Have you ever written a love note to a teacher? What grade where you on? What did you say? How did the teacher respond? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.

Camp Fulbright Activity Weekend | Amazing Race: Welcome to Brazil!

This morning, my team prepared our "Amazing Race"-inspired weekend activity for the campers. I volunteered to plan for and coordinate a game that would involve campers "crossing the Amazon" in "Brazil." This was our version of an activity that the OCs had led earlier during Orientation to have each house compete against each other.

It was so much fun to create a "Brazil" in one of the classrooms, and search for appropriate soundtracks to play in the background!

COUNTRIES/CONTINENT IN THE RACE
I believe we also had an Ireland (where campers learned steps to a dance), a France (where they created portraits of each other and then hung them up on "galleries" (aka the hallways)), the U.S. (where campers navigated a subway in New York City), and Antarctica (where they had a snow clothes relay race, made snow flakes, and played freeze tag).

The campers had a lot of fun, especially with the face painting we had them do in Brazil before they could partake in the actual river-crossing activity. Danielle and I helped paint cute designs on the campers' faces and also demonstrated how the activity would look like, while Seijin held the mic and gave instructions. We led the activity for two hours and interacted with about a hundred young campers and Junior Counselors both from Korea and the U.S. This weekend activity took a lot of energy, but I somehow found a reservoir that helped me keep up with the campers' excitement.

At the end of the day, I couldn't tell which of us had had the most fun: the campers, or the ETAs!

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
If you were part of the "Amazing Race," which country/continent would you lead with your own campers and what activities would you do with them? Share your ideas in the comment box below.

Surprise Celebrations for the "Half Birthdays" of Our Language Instructors!

Our first instructor for the first two hours of language instruction. I love everyone's expression here!

LANGUAGE CLASS THIS PAST WEEK: THE GOOD AND THE BAD

It's been a good week in class because I got a 20/20 on the second quiz we took on Monday! It's been a not-so-good week because we've been covering a lot of grammar. Although one of my majors is in English Language & Literature, I have to admit that grammar has always been my weakest point. It is most evident in my speech, but I can usually catch it in my writing. 

Most of this week, our class has alternated between sliding back in our chairs in exhaustion and/or resignation, or straining forward on our desks to understand a grammar rule being scrawled on the board. 

THE INNER THESPIAN IN EVERY TEACHER

Our instructors write in Hangul but supplement their teaching with English words to help us understand. They also draw in the air, act out sentences, and sometimes dance - all in order to enhance student comprehension. 

They're pretty incredible! 

On certain days, and even through my exhaustion, I can still muster a weak, internal giggle when I see them perform in front of the class because that's what they do - they perform! 

I know that I will also be called to do the same in front of my Korean students, thus me giggling. I can only hope to look as cute and adorable as them when it comes my turn! 

One of two small cakes for the instructors

DISCOVERING THAT "HALF BIRTHDAYS" EXIST

However tough, this week ended on a very good note! Our class pooled enough money together to throw surprise "half birthday" parties for both of our instructors. Apparently half birthdays are a thing. 

Me: Are half birthdays a thing??

Another ETA: [Laughs] I think the other ETAs may just really want to have a class party. 

Me: Ah...more party, less grammar lessons. I get it now...

And so it was that on Friday, our sonsaengnims (teachers) walked into class and were each greeted by a party hat, a candle-laden cake, and a happy birthday song in Korean. They seemed very pleased by our efforts, but I could see their minds whirring in the background trying to maybe figure out how to show appreciation for the surprise half-birthday parties, but also transition smoothly into the day's lesson.

Both of them were very smooth about these transitions, so we actually didn't even cut off too much time from our grammar lessons. They are so darn efficient with class time! 

Instructor putting on his birthday hat

INSTRUCTOR APOLOGIZES FOR ENGLISH ABILITY

Yesterday though, our first instructor got side-tracked (for the first time ever) discussing fun games we could play to learn how to count in Korean. We were all laughing and having a great time, when, still smiling, he began to apologize to us.

Instructor [in English]: I'm so sorry. I cannot speak English very well.

Our class: Oh! No, no! You are great! Your English is very good, sonsaengnim!

Instructor [still in English]: When I was a student, I didn't study English. I regret." 

He then proceeds to make us all very sad. Meanwhile, I am scrawling this dialogue as quickly as I can on my notebook because it just broke my heart to hear him apologize to us over and over. Our instructor, who teaches graduate students at one of Korea's top universities, apologized to us (a group of American students stumbling through Korean) for not being fluent in English. There was something definitely heartbreaking and troubling about this but I couldn't pinpoint why. Maybe it was especially painful for me to hear because he was smiling the entire time that he was apologizing. 

QUICK THOUGHTS ON LANGUAGE HIERARCHY

Our second instructor for the third and fourth hour of
language instruction. Yes, our days are quite long.

Instead of learning English, he said that he studied Japanese and knows how to speak both Korean and Japanese - pretty darn impressive! There seems to be an hierarchy of languages (and identities) here that manage to create feelings of inadequacy in not only the American students (who are grappling with an "immense loss of power" in learning Korean), but also in the Korean instructors (who may feel extremely self-conscious about their fluency in English). There's a lot to unpack here, but I did say that we ended the week on a very good note, so...

...we partied! And it was definitely a welcome break from the usual order of things. 

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Have you ever apologized for not being able to communicate well in a different language? If you have never felt the need to, why is that? Who were you talking to and what was the language in question? If you have, what compelled you to apologize? Again, who were you talking to, and what was the language in question?

Do you think anyone should ever apologize for not being able to communicate (speak/read/write) well in a different language? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.

Signing Up for Homework Help in My Camp Instructor's Classroom

The view of Eric's classroom from the back of the room, where the ETAs usually sit during observation

THE HOMEWORK HELP REQUIREMENT
We are required to participate in at least one "Homework Help" time during Camp Fulbright. I signed up to help out in my CI's class a day after I gave my lesson on "The Interpretation of Dreams" to have more time with the students and to get to know them better, especially since my second time teaching would also be in the same classroom, with the same students. Many of them remembered me as the teacher who gave the lesson on "interpretation of dreams."

In an email, Eric said that his students usually spend homework time catching up on assignments they hadn't finished from earlier on in the day or week. He said that, since the assignments were writing-based and require them to produce "polished" paragraphs summarizing articles and making up fictional stories, we could help by chatting with the students about these writing pieces. He warned us that they are self-motivated enough to sit in isolation and complete everything on their own, and that we might be bored because of this.

THE CHALLENGE OF PRODUCING ORIGINAL CONTENT
I went anyway and accomplished what I set out to do: talk each student individually and gauge their speaking and writing abilities by peaking over their shoulders as they wrote and, later, asking them questions about their content. The boys finished first, but it appeared that they had merely copied a few significant sentences from their assigned articles and stitched them together as their own "summary." I tried to explain that this was plagiarism, but the concept of plagiarizing seemed foreign to them.

I was forewarned about this during our teaching workshops! I will have a couple more weeks to figure out how to deal with this should it arise in my own classroom.

The girls worked slower but appeared to produce more original content as far as summarizing their articles.

ERIC'S CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Eric had given each of them a picture isolated from the news articles they came from. Their task was to observe the picture and, based on what was going on in them, write a fictional story. Later, they would receive the news articles that the pictures originally came with and see how "close" their fictional stories were to the actual news stories.

Eric: This is to give them a creative writing exercise. [In general, Korean students do a lot of memorization and do not have as much opportunity to exercise their imaginations].
Me: Wow, this is such a cool activity!
Eric: ...No, not really. 
Me: ...what?! I think it is. I would have never thought of something like this.
Eric: No, believe me, it's not that creative. You could easily come up with something better. 

He waved me off and instructed me do whatever I wanted in the classroom: study for my own classes, sit and chillax in a corner, or talk to the students. Seeing that I was unwilling to sit and chillax in a corner, he gave me the task of giving the students the articles after they were done writing their fictional stories. It was a small task, but there really wasn't much he needed help with.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
How would you go about explaining the concept of "plagiarism" to a young student? If you were giving a writing assignment, how would you ensure that the students create their own content instead of merely plucking a few sentences from the text they're working with? Any ideas would be welcome! Please share them in the comment box below.

Discovered My Favorite Korean Snack Just in Time for My Study Session!

Mrs. Shim wasn't kidding. Our Donghae trip really was the only time we would get to relax before being hit by the two-week tidal wave that is Camp Fulbright. Camp Fulbright is described on the Fulbright website as "Korea's most comprehensive, dynamic, and exciting" English camp, bringing together young people from all over Korea who are interested in receiving deep immersion in the English language and in making friends from the United States. The campers attend classes and play in and around Jungwon, communicating with each other in nothing but English (or so they agreed to do when they signed their contracts). Meanwhile, the ETAs are given the opportunity to teach a total of three classes during these two weeks, giving us the chance to engage with and teach Korean students before being placed in our schools. The program is designed to be a win-win situation. 

With all that said, tomorrow is a very big day and I have to pick up a lot of work that I left unattended during the weekend. 

REASONS WHY TOMORROW IS A BIG DAY:

• My Lesson Plan #2 is due at 11:59 p.m. tonight.
• I am scheduled to observe someone else's class at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
• My Korean language quiz #2 is immediately after at 11:00 a.m. and
• I teach my first class tomorrow at 2:25 p.m., right after observing and evaluating another ETA's teaching performance. 

No big deal. 

I wandered into the university mart and looked for something I could snack on while studying a hundred vocab words. This is what I found:

Round, chocolate-covered crackers!

I ate an entire box tonight and didn't even get through all of the vocab! I will have to avoid the mart for a few days to recuperate from all of this unhealthy goodness...

A Tour of Jungwon University on a Rare Sunny Day!

Very uncharacteristically of me, I have not taken too many photos in the two weeks that I have been here. Everything I have shared so far on this blog have been taken using my iPhone. The DSLR is still tucked away, just waiting to come out at the right moment. Until then, here are some photos of Jungwon taken by my trusty iPhone.

The light streaming in through these glass doors drew me outside

I immediately went from cool to hot, and from I-want-to-appreciate-the-world to I-can-hardly-see-anything-the-world-is-so-bright!

I believe there are 11 floors, not including many secret underground floors

Signage in English

Something about this tree really impressed me

This is a map of Jungwon. You can see the pool to the left, and the site where I am wandering around taking pictures to the right

Jungwon looks so luscious and pretty when it is bathed in sunlight!

Fountain and rock formations across the bleachers and field

A clearer view of the fountain

The bleachers. From what I've heard, Jungwon is a school with many student-athletes

More lusciousness to the right of the bleachers

And this is the sight that will greet you if you turn to the left of the bleachers

Apparently framing photos using trees/tree branches is something I like to do a lot

This creature looks like a lion to me. What do you think?

This is only one side of the campus but I hope you enjoyed the tour!

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
What do you think of Jungwon, the "Marble Mansion"? Do you like reading/viewing blog posts made up of more photos or with more words?

"To Learn a New Language is to Lose an Immense Amount of Power"

Mr. Thomas Santos providing a workshop on "Teaching in the Target Language Without Translation."

THE AMERICAN EMBASSY'S REGIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE OFFICER

After Korean language classes, we attended a workshop by a guest speaker named Thomas Santos. He is the Regional English Language Officer (RELO) from the American embassy, and will be with us for a two-part workshop on teaching English in English in a Korean classroom. 

While it may seem like an obvious concept at first, there is apparently a huge debate right now about teaching in the target language without any translation. I remember my four years of Spanish classes in high school, where my teachers would speak in English to teach Spanish. I never thought about it much - how in/effective this approach may be, or whether there were other strategies for teaching a foreign language - until I went to college and took more Spanish courses. 

LEARNING SPANISH WITHOUT TRANSLATION

At UW, I experienced firsthand what it means to be taught a language by only hearing, speaking, and writing in that language. Although college-level Spanish was difficult, I was still able to derive comfort in how familiar this foreign language was to me. My "r"s rolled in a way that made me the envy of most of my classmates, and my pronunciations were diamond-cut in their precision. 

LANGUAGES & SHARED HISTORIES OF COLONIZATION

In elementary (still living in the Philippines), I heard stories about how my mother's side of the family had Spanish blood. In junior high (once in the U.S.), I quickly developed a passion for learning more about Spanish-speaking countries - especially those in the Americas. It wasn't until college that I came to understand more that my affinity for things Spanish was historically-based. 

My "r"s rolled enviably and my pronunciations were diamond-cut thanks to 333 years of Spanish colonization of the island-nation of the Philippines. My passion fixated more on the Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas because most shared a common history of being colonized by Spain. Language-learning, first with English, then with Spanish, and now with Korean, started on a thought-provoking note for me from the very start. 

LEARNING KOREAN WITHOUT TRANSLATION

Our Korean language classes here in Jungwon are taught by professors from Korea University, one of the three "SKY" schools (Seoul, Korea, and Yonsei). They speak to us only in Korean - thereby providing a demonstration for those of us who have not yet experienced what it looks like to teach a language in the target language. Despite my sneaky little complaints over the length of class-time and the mind-numbing amount of memorization we have to do, at the end of the day, I recognize that receiving such a high-quality (and free) language instruction is an immense privilege - something that other Fulbright programs do not provide, but something which the Korean Fulbright program has ensured was included in our training. 

Back to Mr. Santos. His workshop was very informative and very interactive, but one thing he said that has really impressed itself on my mind is this:

"To learn a new language is to lose an immense amount of power." 

People around the room slowly nodded in agreement. Mr. Santos continued by saying that being a beginner can be especially infantilizing. More nods as minds everywhere connected what he was saying to our classroom experience, where teachers talk very. slowly. with. us. Just because they need to in order for us to understand! Since I have experience learning a foreign language myself, I feel more equipped for the job that's ahead of me. However, there is more equipping to be had and, even before this, maybe more experiences up ahead involving the loss of "an immense amount of power" before I can re-learn to place myself where my Korean students will be in my English classroom. 

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Do you speak another language? If so, how did you learn? Did you experience the immense loss of power that Mr. Santos talked about at the beginning of your journey to learn the language? If you don't speak another language, what is preventing you from doing so? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Photo Scavenger Hunt in Goesan

Some photos I took while walking around Goesan for an hour during a photo scavenger hunt!

After Korean language classes in the morning and teaching workshops in the afternoon, the OCs divided us up into teams of 4 (each member coming from a different House) and sent us out on a photo scavenging hunt in Goesan. I was pretty excited since I have never participated in a photo scavenger hunt before and have always wanted to!

THE SCAVENGER HUNT
There were about 20 teams. The first five teams to come back with all of the photos would earn 15 points for the House of each team member. The second five teams to come back would earn 10 points.

We were the first group out the door, but other groups quickly overtook us by running. My group had three Korean language beginners and only one Intermediate language student. We got by by having the Intermediate member ask the locals for directions to most places: the hospital, the bus terminal, the stationary store, the coffee shop, the convenience store, the bars, etc.

One older lady who we happened upon actually led us to the hospital. She walked ahead of us and was so sweet and thoughtful. I was very impressed by her kindness. On our way there, another group saw us being led by the older lady and shook their heads at us, smiling.

We checked off all of our items within one hour, except one: taking a picture of the Jungwon shuttle bus at the bus terminal. Since we had just missed the bus heading to Jungwon, we had to wait 40-45 minutes for another bus to come by. By this time, there were 5-6 different groups all huddled around the terminal waiting for the bus and poised to be the first ones on.

A CONVERSATION ABOUT PHILIPPINE MANGOES AND FILIPINO BEAUTY
I got to chat with some of my team members and found out that one of them is actually interested in traveling to the Philippines during our winter break! I was very excited to hear this since I am also very much interested in visiting to see family and relatives!

Me: So, why do you want to go to the Philippines?
Jennifer: To be honest, I love mangoes. I heard the Philippines has great mangoes!
Me: Ohhh, I love mangoes, too! We have the best in the world, basically.
Jennifer: I'm definitely thinking about going. I also am just very curious!
Me: Oh, yeah? About what??
Jennifer: Well, every person I've seen or met from the Philippines have had amazing hair, and been really beautiful. I want to see for myself if this is a normal thing!
Me: Haha! Well, I would have to *ahem* agree that most Filipinos are beautiful and generally have amazing hair [Exaggerating every movement, I run my hands through my hair and shake my head to the side, causing my hair to dramatically cascade to one side]
[The group laughs]
Jennifer: Haha! So you must be Filipino. Are you Filipino?
Me: Yes I am!

While here in Korea, I have the amazing privilege of representing not only the U.S. but also the Philippines. Always glad to represent wherever I am!

PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT OUTCOME
We were the 12th team to finish, so none of the members of our team managed to earn any points for our respective Houses. Sad days :)

Eating Korean Cafeteria Food & Other Notes on Jungwon's Cafeteria

Our trays usually have an assortment of dishes on it much like this one! Some days they are not as colorful.

Family and friends have been asking me what the food in Korea is like. So far, I've only eaten the cafeteria food offered here in Jungwon, so I haven't been exposed to anything from a restaurant, or anything home-cooked. The OCs keep alluding to how much more amazing non-cafeteria food is like.

FIRST IMPRESSION OF KOREAN CAFETERIA FOOD
Since I only have the cafeteria food to go off of, this is what I will write about. My first impression of my first meal here ever was something along the lines of: "This is okay...A very long shot from Mama's delicious meals." And I got a little sad because the food reminded me of my mom and how much she seemed to love cooking but actually lately revealed to us that she'd rather not cook at all but actually be the one being surprised by good cooking, and that she only cooks because we enjoy her cooking so much and want us to be happy. So, yeah. For better or worse, food reminds me of home.

Fortunately, I don't over-analyze each food item or meal like this.

I'm getting used to using the chopsticks, and eating the spicy kimchi, and trying out little portions of foreign dishes. And, perhaps even better news, I am learning to enjoy the cafeteria food here, regardless of what everyone else keep saying under their breath.

SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE
I think my perceptions shifted in a major way when I heard one of our RAs talk about how much better the cafeteria food had gotten since our arrival. That's when I realized that what a majority of us may daily begrudge as tasteless cafeteria food is actually the best meals some students at the university will never get.

RA: Normal food here, bad
Us: Really? 
RA: Yes, bad food. This? This good food!
Us: Really??
RA: Oh, yes! They don't make like this for us, for us students. 
Us: Wow. 
RA: So, thank you guys. Thank you for being here [smiles before continuing to eat]

Bam. Perspective is now served.

ETAs lining up for lunch on both sides of the food counter. I got out of class early so was able to beat this line.

OTHER NOTES ON THE CAFETERIA:

• We are fed three times a day. Because of this, I've been having regular meals again for the first time in a very long time!
• We are supposed to scan our blue electronic cap thingies before each meal, but I have heard that the card reader actually doesn't even work so I have stopped tapping it. 
• The food is served buffet-style on a long table and usually consists of: some type of rice (white, purple), kimchi (always), some type of meat or fish, some type of surprise item (like seaweed - basically my favorite thing now), a bowl of stew/soup, fruit (watermelon, cherry tomatoes, etc.), and maybe dessert.
• For some of the food items, someone in uniform may be standing by ready to serve you your portion.
• We have exactly an hour to eat. If we take longer, an older chef-looking lady comes out and tells us off in very authoritative, harsh-sounding Korean. 
• After each meal, we take our dishes to a central location, where we separate compostable food scraps in one big container, garbage in another container, and stack our trays, cups, eating utensils, and bowls on shelves. 
• While we do this, 1-2 staff members are usually standing by ready to cart away more loads of dishes, or just observing how much food each person throws away. This has been a huge motivator for me to only get as much as I think I will eat. 
• After I successfully sort everything out, I usually acknowledge whoever is standing by by bowing to them and thanking them, saying/mumbling "kamsahamnida" before leaving.

2013 Fulbright ETA Opening Ceremony & Language Placement Tests

The Fish Bowl Room, where the Opening Ceremony took place, and where we meet for most of our workshops

Today we attended an opening ceremony in the Fish Bowl room, and took our language placement tests afterwards.

I attended an optional Hanguel review session earlier that morning so I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to write and sound out...the Korean alphabet. I knew without taking the test that I would be placed in the Beginner's class. They had set aside 1-2 hours for this placement to occur, so I was extremely surprised and kind of pleased when I finished my language test in 3 minutes.

All I had to do was write out my name. Instead of writing out "Mimi," I chose to write out my full name for a bit more challenge. Learning Hanguel has been a lot of fun! I know it will pick up really fast in the coming 6 weeks, but it will be for the best.

Arriving At Jungwon University in Goesan

The huge welcome sign that greeted us on our way to Jungwon University. Those who saw the sign outside their
bus windows started cheering and clapping. 

I arrived in Korea at 5 this morning with no incident!

MY YEAR AS A U.S. AMBASSADOR STARTS NOW (AKA ON AN ALASKAN AIRLINE PLANE)
Except for one small episode on my flight to LA which involved a Spanish-speaking mother of two who had taken my assigned seat and was refusing to look at my boarding pass as proof. I tried to see if I could then switch seats with her, but she was also refusing to let me see her boarding pass for some reason. Thus, I was the awkward person standing right in the middle of the aisle, apologetic in barring everyone else's way to their seats as I attempted to explain the situation to her in Spanish. A woman sitting behind the lady tried to help me help her understand but in vain. As more and more passengers came on board, I had less and less room and became more and more stuck. At this point, I was sweating in my gray UW sweatshirt, and growing panicky and indignant. It took the flight attendants a while to notice my dilemma. I was able to flag one of them and, luckily, he was able to more assertively plead my case with the lady. Because of her two children, the lady still wouldn't give up my aisle seat, which I had quickly gathered. I explained to the flight attendant that I was willing to switch seats early on, but she refused to let me see her boarding pass, thus, preventing me from making the switch. The flight attendant nearly had to pry her boarding pass from her before she gave it to him. By the time she understood that the seat really was assigned to me, and that I was willing to make the switch, I had been standing for nearly 20 minutes, with every other passenger on board seated, and just looking on. A few gave me sympathetic glances, which actually helped me keep my composure and remember the reason why I was on the plane in the first place.

I stomped all over my frustration when I remembered where I was headed and what my future role was going to be. I was very glad I did.

The flight attendant offered me "free drinks" during the flight as an apology for the inconvenience. There was no where else to stow my carry-on but some folks promptly rearranged their luggage to make room for mine. Once we arrived in LA, a man quickly got up and started a chain made up of folks who ensured that I got my luggage handed to me from the back of the plane. Unexpected acts of kindness like these really helped pump me up for the rest of my journey!

THE FULBRIGHT ORIENTATION COORDINATORS GREETING US AT THE AIRPORT
I flew with Alaska Airlines from Seattle, WA to LA, CA and then switched to Asiana Airlines to fly out from LA to Seoul. Once in Seoul, a team of Orientation Coordinators (OCs) met me along with 77 other ETAs at Incheon Airport and bused us to Jungwon University in Goesan, a county in North Chungcheong Province. The OCs wore neon green Fulbright T-shirts at the airport and were strategically placed throughout the place to help welcome us and guide our exit out of the building.

I believe there are a total of 7 Orientation Coordinators, including Ashlee, who is the Chief Orientation Coordinator.

They were a very organized bunch. Immediately we were given name tags and ETA numbers (I'm ETA #5 out of 80), room keys, an electronic card that allows us access to food in the cafeteria and entrance into the building, as well as our first weekly stipend of 70,000 won (roughly $70). From reading the ETA Handbook they had given us, I was actually expecting around $49, but I suppose cost of living has increased between now and then.

Either way, I was quite pleased.

Two buses took 40 ETAs each and two big trucks hauled our stuff right behind us to Goesan, where we would be staying for the 6-week Orientation.

JUNGWON UNIVERSITY, THE MARBLE MANSION
Once in Goesan, the sight of Jungwon University loomed over us, and many were quite impressed with the big school. Compared to the UW-Seattle campus, however, Jungwon is very small.

Jungwon University in Goesan, (aka the "Marble Mansion"). Taken during a campus tour with one of our RAs

Jungwon University sits in the middle of nowhere. This is a view of the field, hills, and mountains that surround it.

By a quick estimate, it is probably the same size as the Health and Sciences building. The university is a neat stack of mostly gray buildings and is immediately surrounded by a wide field, and by nature and mountains off in the distance. The grayness of the building matched the sky. I have been describing the weather here to friends and family back home as being a cross between Seattle's norm of overcast and rainy and the Philippines' humidity.

MEETING MY ROOMMATE AND MOVING TO OUR ROOM
My roommate is a very sweet young lady named Tara. We settled into our new home, which is a very small but cozy triplet.

Jungwon University, Room #1017. I share a small and narrow triple bedroom with one other Fulbright ETA. 

So far, everything looks good except the fact that our air-conditioner doesn't work. Several other rooms have the same problem so the OCs and RAs have assured us that everything will be fixed soon.

We unpacked, took turns taking a shower, changed from our sweaty attires, and went downstairs for our first meeting as a group. To help combat jetlag, the OCs had set up activities designed to prevent us from crawling to our new beds and sleeping our first day away in Korea.

This is Anthony, the OC that I corresponded with the most regarding all things of concern while I was still in the States.
Thank you for your prompt and thorough responses, and for your patience with me!

JUNGWON CAMPUS TOUR
One of these activities was a campus tour with our RAs. We practically circled this vast building, got lost in its many halls (our tour guide/RA got lost with us), and saw where the mart and pool were. Here are some photos I took:

More of Jungwon University!

The full schedule on our first day in Korea worked. I was exhausted by the end of today! Imagine me sleeping as early as 9 p.m. That's how utterly beat I was. My roommate a wall away from me was out, too.