This week I had two interesting conversations with some of my students.  The first conversation was with an 8th grade girl who is in my gifted English class.  The other conversation was with a Korean English teacher who is in one of my teaching strategies classes.

    After finishing the English assignment in class, one of the 8th grade students started working on some science.  Naturally, this got my attention.  I asked if I could look through her book. 
    The book was about  1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and was mostly small excerpts with lots of multiple choice questions.  She told me that this was the book that she had to study for the semester final.  (Note: Korean school year starts in March and they are coming to the end of their 2nd semester).   The final will be in 2 weeks and she's already stressing about it.  I told her that our kids have to take a science test in 8th grade too.  She then asked me..."Just one test?"  I explained that there was one in each subject area, but yeah, just one round of state testing.  Her reaction..."OMG, you guys are SOOO lucky.  This is the second exam this semester and we had 2 others in the first semester.  We had a different book to study from".  Turns out that there are often 3-4 national finals given each year.  These tests are used to rank the schools so tons of pressure are put on the kids and the teachers.  These students will stay up to all hours of the night studying for their finals.   I told the student that President Obama wanted to make our education system more similar to S. Korea's (Click here to read). I wish I had a picture as I cannot possibly describe the sadness and disgust she had on her face as I told her this.   All she could say was..."I hope not".

    A day later, I had a conversation with a Korean English teacher who teaches middle school.  I asked her about some of the challenges she faces as a teacher.  Her top 2 areas...assessments and classroom behavior.  
    As far as assessments, she echoed what the student told me...3-4 national assessments each year which are used to rank schools.  In addition, open classes are held 2-3 times each semester.  An open class is an opportunity for parents to come observe your instruction during the day and they fill out evaluations.  These evaluations can be used against the teachers.  If a teacher receives poor scores, they will be removed from the classroom and put in a training center.  However, she said that she has never seen this happen, as the "open classes" have turned into more of a dog-and-pony show instead of a demonstration of everyday teaching.  
    She also mentioned the discipline.  Before coming to Korea, I remember several people saying to me that Korean kids are better behaved.  This does not appear to be the case.  Kids are kids and they will always push the limits.  In some cases, it's worse in Korea.  For years and years, corporal punishment has been allowed in Korea.  Some teachers don't know any other methods of discipline.   More recently, Seoul has created laws to protect against this.  Although we are not in Seoul, the Ulsan teachers have been instructed not to use corporal punishment... and the kids know this.  So, when a child acts up the kid basically has the attitude of "Ha Ha Ha, you can't do anything to me...you were told you can't touch me".
    This teacher also told me that the S. Korean government was trying to make their schools more like American schools.   She said that there has even been recent talk about changing their school year to start in September so it would match ours.  Seriously?  If you read the article I attached earlier, you find this point to be quite ironic.

    So anyways, America wants to be like Korea, and Korea wants to be like America.  Personally, I think we need to scrap them both and start over as we are both creating test-taking robots who won't know how to function in society. It's sick to think about.

This weekend was more of a low key weekend.  On Saturday, Carrie and I were invited over to a Korean teachers house for dinner and board games.  Anne, the teacher, was a student in one of my classes at the institute and she is also Carrie's co-teacher.  After having pizza and salad for dinner, we looked through several of Anne's photo albums (from her wedding, honeymoon and other travels) then we played the board game Catan.  It was quite enjoyable.

After we finished, we went to the grocery store then headed to Old Downtown to meet others for dinner.  We met at one of our favorite places to eat...Namaskar.  This is an Indian restaurant with some fabulous curry!  I believe that I have been there about once a week for the past month or so...others went two nights in a row...it's just SOOO good.  I'll have to take pictures next time I'm there.

The remainder of the weeked was spent relaxing with friends, chilling in coffee shops, or just hanging around the house.  On Sunday, the weather turned pretty cold...I'm not sure we ever hit 50°F.  Looking at the forecast for the next week, this may be the beginning of several cold months.

I must start this post by saying that I woke up with a cold yesterday and I've been in a bit of a grumpy mood.  Of course, anyone who really knows me is aware that I'm not pleasant to be around when I'm not feeling well....yes, an understatement I know.

Anyways, today at work was the typical Korean style dump-on-you-at-the-last-minute-regardless-of-what-you-thought-you-might-be-doing type of a day.  Bomb number one...you will assess the 132 students that you have been teaching in 5 area: writing ability, writing creativity, behavior, flexibility, and fluency.  Are you kidding me?  We started these classes in September and you couldn't tell me this little bit of information then???  Plus, the students rotate through 5 classes and I will only see them a total of 2 times.  I was given a 10 page packet with 132 Korean names and I am supposed to assign grades in 5 areas???  They will all get high scores...at this point, I simply don't care.  When the class starts up in the spring, I will be wiser and the students will be graded appropriately.

Bomb number two...instead of teaching the 3 hour class that you had planned for tonight, you will edit essays that the kids have written and then they will revise them and up-load them to the website.  So, the kids print their essays and give them to me.  While I read the 3 page book reports, I need to entertain the kids with a different writing assignment.  Luckily, I had a VERY good group of kids tonight who worked independently.  After proofreading, the kids returned to the computer lab to fix and upload the essays.  Of course, 66 kids were online all at once, so the server was extremely slow and not everyone could finish.  "Katie Teacher! Katie teacher! I am not done!!  What should I do?"  Beats me!!!!  Good luck kiddo!! 

And tomorrow, I will edit the next set of  papers instead of teaching the lesson I had planned for...at least I have 24 hours notice this time (unless they change it again tomorrow). 

Ah...Korea...always keeping me on my toes. 

Last time I went to Ilsan Beach and the Pine Forest, I loved it so much that I knew I would return soon.  Also, there was a portion that we didn't get to see so I was eager to get back there.  Today we started at the pine forest, looked at the light house, then went over a bridge to a small island.  After looking around a bit, we went down to the shore where some ajumma's were selling fresh seafood. (See note below the video to learn about Ajumma's). 

These women were wearing their wetsuits so they could hop in the ocean, get the seafood, then sell it to us.  I am not a fan of seafood, but my friend insisted that we try some.  She picked out the raw oysters and the raw seasquirt.  I agreed to try them, but made no promise of liking them.  The seasquirt was better than the oyster, but I will not be eating either of them again...slimy, sandy, chewy grossness!!  You can see my reaction to the seasquirt in the video below.   Enjoy...

A note about ajumma's:  Ajummas are stereotypically described as short, stocky, tough women with short curly permed hair, or 'ajumma pama'.  She is likely to wear a floral shirt, pants that come below the breasts, and a type of sun visor. Ajummas are women who are self-reliant, devoted to their families, outspoken, and self-centered (for herself and her children).  Ajummas don't take any nonsense - they are fierce and fearsome. If an ajumma is waiting to get on the bus or subway train, she will walk into you or over you to get an empty seat. (been there!!)   Even though she elbows you and steps on you, you are to respect the ajumma.  Ajummas have a very clear and strict sense of "How Things Should Be". If you do something they deem to be inappropriate, you will feel the stare and it will burn.

One of my friends ( & colleague) is also keeping a blog of her adventures in Korea.  I read her posting today and thought it was quite interesting.  Take a peek at her information regarding the university entrance exams...

Too much pressure?
Posted on November 10, 2011 by Carrie K
 
Today was day when high school students across Korea wrote the nationwide University Entrance exams.  According to the newspaper, nearly 700,000 students were scheduled to write the exam.  That’s more people than in most Canadian cities!

The poor students are under an unbelievable amount of pressure.  My co-teacher said that high school students spend 3 years preparing for this one test.  It starts at 8:30 am and runs until around 6pm.  Korean universities are ranked and the results of this one day of testing will decide which university the student can attend.  In a tiny nation of almost 50 million people, competition for jobs must be fierce!

The Korean government and public show an astounding amount of support and understanding for these poor high school students.  Most businesses and schools (mine included) didn’t open today until 10am, decreasing the amount of traffic at rush hour and allowing the students to arrive on time.  Many taxi companies dedicated a large number of taxis to driving students to their test.  People were forbidden from honking their horns within 200 metres of high schools all day, and police were out to enforce it.  Koreans love to honk; this must have been an interesting law to pass!

The listening section of the exam was from 8:30 to 9:00am.  I was eating my breakfast and checking my email when suddenly I felt like I was on the set of a zombie movie.  The sounds in my neighbourhood went from the normal hustle and bustle of morning to eerie quiet.  No cars, no people, no ambulances (I live near a hospital); I don’t even the birds had the nerve to chirp!  Then at 9 am, it was as if a button was pressed: everything returned to normal.

This article in the newspaper amazed me.  I just can’t imagine this happening in Canada!

“The national college entrance exam in Korea is coming up this Thursday, on November 10th. And to help students pay undivided attention during the listening portion of the test, all aircrafts, both civilian and military, will be prohibited from landing or taking off, from 8:35 to 8:58 a.m. and from 1:05 to 1:35 p.m., for a total of 53 minutes.  Planes in flight will have to maintain an altitude of over three kilometers during the designated times, and wait for confirmation from a control tower BEFORE descending.  The requirement, will apply to all planes flying over some 12-hundred test sites nationwide. This means, flight schedules can change as well, so passengers are strongly recommended to confirm their flights with their airlines in advance.”

If you are interested in reading about another persons perspective on Korean culture, schooling and more, visit Carrie's blog...http://ihatecockroaches.wordpress.com/  She's in a public elementary school, so she definitely gets some different school experiences than I do.

Last weekend I went to Busan to see the fireworks festival.  The day started with a walk along Heundae beach then 5 of us met up to grab a late lunch.  We read about a Mexican place that was given some good reviews, so we decided to check it out.  Even though the place was called "Hello Kimchi", the food was pretty good.  (And no, kimchi was not served!)

After lunch we walked around a bit then headed to the festival.  The moment we got off the subway, I knew it was going to be chaos.  There were tons of people so military personnel were called in to help with the traffic.   Upon stepping out of the subway station, we saw that it had begun to rain...hard.  Fabulous.  We followed the masses to the beach.  By the time we got there, the show was already underway. 

The fireworks were nice, but nothing spectacular.  Perhaps I'd feel differently if I could have gotten a view that wasn't obstructed by umbrellas.  I think we caught about 20 minutes of the show.  We decided to stick around a bit after it ended, as we knew the subway would be a nightmare.  As the crowd left, I was appalled by the amount of trash that people left behind.  Who gets the fun job of cleaning up that mess?

Anyways, we finally made it back to the crowded subway station.  After the subway ride, we had about 45 minutes before our train back to Ulsan.  We stumbled out of the rain and into a Korean restaurant for some dinner.  I had a delicious eggroll filled with crab while my friends enjoyed some fish soup...complete with eyeballs.  I'm not a fan of eating anything that is looking back at me.  Gross.