So today the sixth graders graduated from my school. They'll be moving on to middle school and I probably won't see any of them ever again and this makes me a little sad. I know as a teacher that It's hard not to call on the students or stop and talk to them in the halls when I know that they're able to speak English to a basic extent. If you think that this makes me a bad teacher, I'll just have to mildly accept your criticism. I will actually miss these students. In general, they were the most well behaved and they knew the most English. They were also at the age where I could relate to them on some things. For some reason, I thought that there would be more to say about this, but I guess not.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
formspring.me
Why did you choose Korea?
Ooh. It's my first real formspring reply. It's all so exciting. The first question I answered was a test question that I had my brother ask.
The answer to this question isn't a simple one. I didn't really choose Korea, it just turned out that way. At community college I figured that I would finish my two years, go to a university for two years, and then straight for a teaching credential. However, after getting into UCLA, I realized that I wanted to go abroad for a while before really cracking down and pursuing a career. There wasn't anywhere in particular that I wanted to go. I just knew that I wanted to leave the United States for a bit. I learned about teaching English in Japan with the JET Program from someone and figured that would be a reasonable option. I mean, I like anime, Japanese food, and giant robots.
However, a little over a year ago, while I was busy trying to finish college with the least amount of effort possible, I realized that I ended up missing the deadline for the JET application. I didn't think about it too much at the time, but as graduation approached I figured that I should make some money or something. Applying to school again wasn't in the question, since I also missed all the deadlines for that. Instead, I applied for a few jobs in China because I thought it'd be a cool place to go. I got turned down from those for not having enough experience. I learned about teaching English in Korea through my friend Alex who was already starting the application process. Actually, I didn't even apply for Korea when I heard that's what he was going to, but continued my daily craigslist searches for jobs abroad and in the country. I stumbled on Teach Away through my job hunting and got in contact with them about working abroad. I sent them my resume and they said I'd be able to get a job in Korea. I guess that's when I really decided to go. I started the application process with them. I didn't actually realize that they were recruiting for EPIK until later, so it just turned out that I was applying for the same job as Alex. The rest of that story is me basically finishing the application process and waiting to see if I got the job or not.
So, it all worked out in the end. Working in Korea just worked out. It's not as if I was opposed to the idea of coming to Korea either. I liked Korean food and knew a little bit about it from Korea-American friends. However, I do understand why people ask me this question. Korea's not a really big tourist destination and people know less about it than China or Japan. However, knowing what I know about Korea now, I probably would have applied for this program first. It would have been a lot easier than trying to find a different job.
Monday, February 8, 2010
What I learned in Korean this week:
Hangul - Pronunciation
- 맥주 주세요 - Mekju jusseyo.
- 건배! - Geonbae!
- 어젯밤 필름이 끊겼어요. - Ohjetbam peelumee geungyeosohyo.
- 두통 있어요. - Dutong issoyo.
Translation
- Beer please.
- Cheers!
- I blacked out last night.
- I have a headache.
These are the solar energy panels at my school.
The school I work at is going through a lot of changes this year. I guess the fact that I'm teaching there is one of them. However, this is probably the coolest change. They just finished setting these up these bad boys on the roof of my school a few weeks ago. I'm not exactly sure how much energy they save, but it's pretty sweet.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
I decided to check out multiply.com, because when I googled my own name another dude's multiply page showed up in the search results. It's actually a pretty neat service though. I guess it's a social networking site but a little different. It is probably better to describe it as a media sharing service with social networking elements. Anyway, here are some of the things that I like about it:
- You can upload pictures in hi-resolution.
- It's easier to upload pictures than facebook, which I hate doing.
- It allows you to import shit from a list of other sites. For example, you can import your posts from blogspot, your videos off of youtube, and that you have on your facebook.
- You can use a few editing tools so you can upload shit after you've uploaded your images.
- The page layout is really simple and fairly easy to customize.
I like it, so you should probably make one too. It's way cooler than the asianave page that I started as a joke last week.
Where's yo head at?
Lucky Star - Basement Jaxx with Dizzee Rascal
According to The Korea Times, Basement Jaxx are coming to Korea on February 27th. They'll be having a DJ set at Club Eden down in Gangnam. I'd go to this if I knew that a night down in Gangnam would cost a tenth of my paycheck.
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