Something that was very surprising to me was the discovery that in Korea, the aging system works somewhat differently than the system we are used to in America, or in other words, the only system I ever thought existed. In Korea, you are considered to be 1 year old when you are born. Then, regardless of what month you are born in, your age increases by 1 year on New Year's Day. So, if you are born on December 31st, you are 2 years old the very next day. Because of this difference in counting systems, I have begun referring to my age as "24, in Korean." In case you are unsure, I was born in July of 1987, which makes my age 22 in most other parts of the world.
One interesting byproduct of this counting system is that on your birthday, your age does not change at all. I personally feel that this devalues the day, as many of my students seem to receive very little acknowledgment on their actual day of birth. Often when I ask what they will be doing to celebrate their birthday, the response is, "Nothing." However, this could be a result of the personality tendencies of children and teenagers rather than the method of counting.
Another interesting result of the Korean age system is that young children are only friends with people who are the exact same age as themselves. Since school classes are grouped by age and all people who are born in the same year have the same age, this friend pairing is more or less inevitable. In classes at the school where I teach, classmates are mixed in their ages and grade levels. Nonetheless, children who seem to be friends in class sometimes do not actually consider each other to be friends because of their age difference.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Noraebong-ing
One of the few things that I heard from multiple people before I left the US was that I should be prepared to sing a lot of karaoke in Korea. And they were all right. Karaoke is on a whole different level here than anything I've seen in the States. Unlike in the US, where karaoke is a rare experience involving a room full of strangers and at least a little bit of alcohol, karaoke in Korea is a common bonding event for friends or coworkers.
The process begins by going to a Noraebong (direct translation: singing room). These are very easy to find: last night upon walking out of a local bar, my friend counted 5 different NRB establishments just by looking up and down the street. Once inside the Noraebong, your group is taken to a private room, and from that point on you have free range to choose whatever songs you want for the next hour. The rooms generally feature comfy seating, 2 microphones, tambourines, and a disco ball.
There are many different quality levels for Noraebong, from the typical basement-turned-singing-room to the super luxury caliber. Some of the nicer NRB establishments have features such as a stage area, multiple levels within one room, or free ice cream (that was my favorite). While typically about 80-90% of the available songs are in Korean, the English song selection is still wide enough to keep most singers happy for an hour or two.
The process begins by going to a Noraebong (direct translation: singing room). These are very easy to find: last night upon walking out of a local bar, my friend counted 5 different NRB establishments just by looking up and down the street. Once inside the Noraebong, your group is taken to a private room, and from that point on you have free range to choose whatever songs you want for the next hour. The rooms generally feature comfy seating, 2 microphones, tambourines, and a disco ball.
There are many different quality levels for Noraebong, from the typical basement-turned-singing-room to the super luxury caliber. Some of the nicer NRB establishments have features such as a stage area, multiple levels within one room, or free ice cream (that was my favorite). While typically about 80-90% of the available songs are in Korean, the English song selection is still wide enough to keep most singers happy for an hour or two.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays from Korea! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!Sorry for the long gap between posts, but as many of you know, my family was visiting for the holidays.
Christmas in Korea is nowhere near as overblown as Christmas in the states, although nearly all of my students acknowledged that they celebrate the holiday in one way or another (meaning almost all of them receive presents). Some places go all-out with their decorations, but in general, decorations are kept to a minimum. Therefore it was rather hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year.
The forced secularism found in America was also nowhere to be seen. I was allowed to wish all my students a Merry Christmas as they left my classroom on Christmas Eve at 10 pm (no holiday spirit from the employer, clearly...). In fact, the Christmas tree located in City Hall Plaza had a cross on top instead of a star. There aren't many places in America where I would expect to see that.
New Year's Eve is another holiday that is underplayed here in Korea, passed over in favor of Lunar New Year. Again I worked until 10 pm on New Year's Eve, making it difficult to fully appreciate the day. The Seoul equivalent of Times Square is a place called Bosingak in the center of the city. Instead of a ball drop, there is an enormous bell which is rung 33 times at midnight. This tradition originates from the former purpose of the bell, to announce the opening and closing of the Seoul gates. The bell was rung 33 times at dawn to signify the opening of the gates. The bell is enormous and currently 16 people are selected to ring it. These people are chosen by a survey and are mostly regular (more or less) citizens. This year, the people ringing the bell included the mayor and 4 other city officials, the coach of the national soccer team, a formerly homeless essayist, and a university student who participated in a study aid program for elementary schoolers.My New Year's Resolution: more consistent posting! Hope to hear from all of you this year!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Visiting Base
This weekend, I got a chance to visit the American military base in Yongsan, Seoul. In order to get on base, you must be escorted by someone who works there, and luckily my friend/coworker Andrew's parents are employees and were nice enough to escort a few of us on base for the day. The first step in entering is to stop at a small office outside the gate where each visitor must present two forms of ID, and the escort must have their fingerprint scanned to verify their identity. Then each visitor gets a temporary card to carry around to show who they are. After visiting the office, you pretty much just drive onto base.
There isn't a lot to do on a military base if you're not an employee. We visited the food court, which has the only known (to us) Taco Bell in Seoul. However, even restaurants such as Burger King which are common in Korea offer the traditional American menu instead of the Korean-ized version. There are places to shop on base, but only employees are allowed to buy things. I did manage to obtain a bag of cheese-flavored Cheetos, which are basically nonexistant in Korea and are therefore quite the delicacy to me these days. One of the most interesting things about the base is that it operates predominantly on American currency. It really is like a small piece of America transplanted to another continent.
There are a lot of families living on base, many with fairly young children. Although the base is an American one, there are also Koreans who work there. Many are service industry workers but some are members of the American army. For those of you who didn't know, Korean men are required to serve in the army for just under 2 years. However, some of the men (generally the wealthier ones) are allowed to operate as part of the American army during their service time. These soldiers are referred to as KATUSAs, which stands for Korean Augmentation To the United States Army. This is a highly favorable position to have because the US army is considered to be much less strict than the Korean army.
Overall, the trip to base was rather uneventful. As an outsider, there weren't many places we were allowed to go. Therefore, it didn't really feel like being in a military establishment at all, minus the rather drab decor on some of the buildings. The base is self-sufficient, with its own schools, athletic facilities, and grocery store, so it mostly felt like visiting a small town, albeit a town with rather high security and a youth-skewed population.
There isn't a lot to do on a military base if you're not an employee. We visited the food court, which has the only known (to us) Taco Bell in Seoul. However, even restaurants such as Burger King which are common in Korea offer the traditional American menu instead of the Korean-ized version. There are places to shop on base, but only employees are allowed to buy things. I did manage to obtain a bag of cheese-flavored Cheetos, which are basically nonexistant in Korea and are therefore quite the delicacy to me these days. One of the most interesting things about the base is that it operates predominantly on American currency. It really is like a small piece of America transplanted to another continent.
There are a lot of families living on base, many with fairly young children. Although the base is an American one, there are also Koreans who work there. Many are service industry workers but some are members of the American army. For those of you who didn't know, Korean men are required to serve in the army for just under 2 years. However, some of the men (generally the wealthier ones) are allowed to operate as part of the American army during their service time. These soldiers are referred to as KATUSAs, which stands for Korean Augmentation To the United States Army. This is a highly favorable position to have because the US army is considered to be much less strict than the Korean army.
Overall, the trip to base was rather uneventful. As an outsider, there weren't many places we were allowed to go. Therefore, it didn't really feel like being in a military establishment at all, minus the rather drab decor on some of the buildings. The base is self-sufficient, with its own schools, athletic facilities, and grocery store, so it mostly felt like visiting a small town, albeit a town with rather high security and a youth-skewed population.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
K-pop Artist of the Week: Brown Eyed Girls
My arrival in Korea coincided with the emergence of a new K-pop phenomenon: the release of the song "Abracadabra" by the Brown Eyed Girls. This song has been a ubiquitous part of my experience here. In fact, as I sat down and began to type this blog entry, the restaurant across the street began playing the very song. Although there is another fairly popular single from the same album as "Abracadabra," it and no other song have been as widely heard by yours truly in Seoul as this one. It has the exact components that make any song popular: an easy to remember tune, a distinctive but easy to copy dance move, and a fairly scandalous music video. In fact, the song's trademark dance move is one of the most commonly seen moves. I've witnessed everyone from male waiters in bars to one of my 12 year old students doing it.About the group themselves, I know little to nothing. It would probably be more accurate for me to title this entry "K-pop Song of the Week," but that would be inconsistent with the rest of my entries so here we are.
Check out Brown Eyed Girls' video for "Abracadabra" here. Or check out the less-offensive "stage version" here, released due to the controversy following the original.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Leveling Up
Although I tend to focus on life in Korea when writing, I guess I have an occasional obligation to mention the reason I am here: my job. At my school, the year is divided into 4 13-week terms. During week 10 of each term, the students take an Achievement Test to determine if they will "level up." The English program is divided into 10 levels, and the Achievement Test decides if the students are ready to move on to the next level. Interestingly, the student's score on the test is pretty much the sole factor in making this decision, with the weekly review test scores, homework completion rates, and general in-class behavior having little to no impact. While these things do technically matter since no student will level up without putting in some effort, I feel that this is a somewhat abstract concept to explain and therefore general teacher policy is to pretend that these factors account for a significant portion of the leveling decision.
The achievement test consists of 4 components: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. As the teacher, I grade my own class's writing and speaking sections, which is a somewhat stressful process since the grading must be completed before the 3-hour class period is up. For the writing section, you only get about 15 minutes in some classes to grade up to 14 writing samples. Talk about a time constraint.
The stress on the teachers is nothing compared to the stress on the students, many of whom are under a great deal of pressure from their parents to level up. The test results come out at the end of week 12, which is where we are in the term right now. Students who don't level up have to repeat the level again, and those who have leveled up feel as though they've put enough effort into their current level, and therefore the general degree of motivation during the last week and a half of term is low to nonexistent. Furthermore, some students who don't level up choose to leave the academy and study elsewhere, presumably at a place where it is easier to move between levels.
The achievement test consists of 4 components: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. As the teacher, I grade my own class's writing and speaking sections, which is a somewhat stressful process since the grading must be completed before the 3-hour class period is up. For the writing section, you only get about 15 minutes in some classes to grade up to 14 writing samples. Talk about a time constraint.
The stress on the teachers is nothing compared to the stress on the students, many of whom are under a great deal of pressure from their parents to level up. The test results come out at the end of week 12, which is where we are in the term right now. Students who don't level up have to repeat the level again, and those who have leveled up feel as though they've put enough effort into their current level, and therefore the general degree of motivation during the last week and a half of term is low to nonexistent. Furthermore, some students who don't level up choose to leave the academy and study elsewhere, presumably at a place where it is easier to move between levels.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Clothes Shopping in Seoul
Seoul, as a major city and the capital of South Korea, is definitely a shopping mecca. The city is full of neighborhoods catering to every need a shopper could have. For fashionable young adults, the main shopping hub of the city is Myeongdong, an area of the city about 3 blocks by 3 blocks in size that is more or less off limits to traffic and is filled to the brim with shops and restaurants. The shops range from the expensive and high-class to the tiny and cheap (home of $10 shoes). Housed within this area is the city's only Forever 21, a sight for sore eyes for this recent college graduate who is used to skimping on quality in favor of saving money. Myeongdong also contains a large underground shopping complex as well as a mall and a Shinsegae department store.
Walking around the city, an observant American might notice that most Koreans (women in particular) are rather small, and that the obese portion of the population that is becoming predominant in America is more or less nonexistent in Korea. This suspicion is quickly confirmed on a shopping trip. Women's shoe sizes in most stores max out at size 50 (or 250 mm), approximately an 8 or 8.5 in American sizing. Even less forgiving is the range of pant sizes offered; most stores have only up to size 28 or maybe 29, the equivalent of up to around a size 6 in America. Keep in mind that the average American woman has a pant size of 12. Quite the cultural disparity. So what is a larger-bodied foreigner to do? Pretty much the only option for larger sizes is to go to Itaewon, the center for foreigners. Here you will find many stores specializing in larger sized clothing that cater to Americans in need.
Another important difference between shopping in Korea and America is in the department stores. While American department stores are generally places to find good bargains on clothing and household items, Korean department stores are places for expensive, quality items. Generally the floors are arranged in order of descending price from bottom to top, such that the entrance floor contains the most expensive items. For example, this floor usually contains stores such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and Dior. The second floor will be equally pricey with boutique stores like Coach and Burberry. Eventually, the floors begin to stock clothing items, although they still tend to be rather expensive, with the cheapest brands being Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, or similar. Not exactly the American experience.
Shopping can be frustrating at times, but being fashionable is highly valued in Seoul, so it's important to keep up with the trends. Therefore, the malls and neighborhoods like Myeongdong are packed every weekend, regardless of the weather. As if anyone needs an excuse to go shopping.
Walking around the city, an observant American might notice that most Koreans (women in particular) are rather small, and that the obese portion of the population that is becoming predominant in America is more or less nonexistent in Korea. This suspicion is quickly confirmed on a shopping trip. Women's shoe sizes in most stores max out at size 50 (or 250 mm), approximately an 8 or 8.5 in American sizing. Even less forgiving is the range of pant sizes offered; most stores have only up to size 28 or maybe 29, the equivalent of up to around a size 6 in America. Keep in mind that the average American woman has a pant size of 12. Quite the cultural disparity. So what is a larger-bodied foreigner to do? Pretty much the only option for larger sizes is to go to Itaewon, the center for foreigners. Here you will find many stores specializing in larger sized clothing that cater to Americans in need.
Another important difference between shopping in Korea and America is in the department stores. While American department stores are generally places to find good bargains on clothing and household items, Korean department stores are places for expensive, quality items. Generally the floors are arranged in order of descending price from bottom to top, such that the entrance floor contains the most expensive items. For example, this floor usually contains stores such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and Dior. The second floor will be equally pricey with boutique stores like Coach and Burberry. Eventually, the floors begin to stock clothing items, although they still tend to be rather expensive, with the cheapest brands being Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, or similar. Not exactly the American experience.
Shopping can be frustrating at times, but being fashionable is highly valued in Seoul, so it's important to keep up with the trends. Therefore, the malls and neighborhoods like Myeongdong are packed every weekend, regardless of the weather. As if anyone needs an excuse to go shopping.
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