My Students Rock!

As promised, I took pictures of my students. I am only missing one class. As I was looking at the pictures, I realized how much I like them. I caught myself smiling. So without further ado, here they are....



Tuesday Thursday Hi Kids 2-3

Tuesday Thursday Hi Kids 1-7 (They didn't want their picture taken).

Tuesday Thursday Fly High 2-4

MWF Hi Kids 2-1 (They are pretty much my favorite students). I really love both of the boys. The both raise their eyebrows a lot when the speak English. It is super adorable.

MWF Hi Kids 2-1 These kids are really smart and really rambunctious. You can see Ban (the second boy from the right holding up his stack of SLP dollar bills).

The girls. They are so cute!

MWF Hi Kids 2-6

This is my Aim High Junior class. They are the most advanced English speakers at the school.

My Fly High 3-4 class. I love these girls. As you can see, they are a ton of fun.

My Five Year Olds. (Not all of them were here today). These are the kids I see everyday and are my biggest challenge.

I'll end this with another story. Today in my Fly High 3-4 class (which is the three older girls) we were studying past tense and we were using vacations to talk about where we went and what we packed. I asked one of them, "Linda, where did you go on vacation?" She responded, "I went to (some Korean city I haven't heard of) and we stayed at a condom." It took everything I had not to burst out laughing. It was priceless.

Priceless Classroom Moments

I thought I would write a quick blog of my favorite classroom moments so far.

I teach a group of three older girls who have little experience with English but they are very eager to learn and are always asking me questions to improve their vocabulary. They draw pictures on the board and I try to figure out what they are talking about and give them the English word. On one occasion, a girl drew a picture of a stick picture of a person which seemed innocent enough, and then she drew three bubbles coming out of the stick person's back side. She asked me, "Teacher, stomach, (made an sick looking face and pointed at the bubbles), What is this?" I tried to contain my laughter but couldn't. I ended up turning bright red and told her it was called passing gas. I felt like I kind of cheated them by not teaching them "fart" but I didn't want them to go home and tell their parents that is what they had learned in English school that day.



On the other end of the spectrum is my 5 year olds who have been in English school for 2 years and have a pretty great grasp on the language. We teach them from the same books that first graders in America would use. These kids can create sentences and describe the word they are looking for. We had just finished reading "Little Red Hen" and I told them they needed to draw a picture of an animal and write me a story about it. This super cute and smart boy was like, "Teacher what is a pig with horns on his face called?" I told him it was a boar. He then was like, "If my car is hungry, what do I feed it?" as he was patting his stomach. I was confused by this at first but the rest of the kid's assured me this is what he wanted to know. I told him, "You feed your car gas." Then he wanted to know, "Where you feed your car gas?" I told him at the gas station. He wrote this awesome story about a boar who worked at the gas station and how much fun he had it his job. I love this kid. Today, he came to school with his hair permed. I told him I liked his hair and he told me, "I went to the barber and he just made it curly." He cracks me up!


This has story has got to be my all time favorite so far. I was teaching a class of 8 year olds about nationalities. I told them that they are Korean and asked them what my nationality is. One kid told me I was American (good answer, kid) and one kid slipped and told me I was from Africa. I started laughing and told him, Africa are you sure? The smartest kid in the class piped up and was like, "Teacher, you can't be from Africa, you don't have enough melanin in your skin." I wasn't sure I heard him correctly so I made him repeat it and sure enough that is what he had said. I was amazed that he not only used the word correctly but in that context. Some days, I am just utterly amazed.

I'm sure I'll have many more to share with you over the next 11 months. I'll try to take pictures of my students soon and post them.

Korean Healthcare

I had my first experience with a Korean hospital last Friday. The four new teachers all had to go to the National Medical Center to get our health checks which are a required part of our visa. The process went quickly but they definitely don't have Patient Privacy Laws here. The exam rooms for eyes, teeth, blood pressure, height and weight are all open and near the waiting room. There was a big group of high school age girls that were also getting health checks.

Most of the staff spoke enough English to tell us what they were doing to us or what they needed us to do but we had a Korean co-worker there to translate for us just in case. In one room, a lady asked us if we had or ever had various types of diseases. Most of the questions she asked, I had never heard of so I told her no.

To pee in the cup we had to use a non-western style toilet (a/k/a a squat toilet). Not an easy thing! We then carried our samples through the busy hallways to the lab. It was so funny! After we filled our cups we took them to the lab and sat them on a table out in the open (something else that I don't think happens in America). The lady gave us stickers to put underneath our samples and then took three vials of blood. We were then off to the x-ray department to have our chest x-rayed to ensure we don't have tuberculosis.

At the top is a picture of my identification card for this particular hospital. I have no idea what the first line of numbers means. The second line is my first name written in Korean. It doesn't have my last name...very interesting. The last line is my date of birth written year first with a -6 at the end.

We should have the results by the end of the week and then we'll have to send all of our documents to immigration to be processed. After this is completed, we will finally get our alien registration cards. This card acts both as a Social Security Card and a national identification so we don't have to carry our passports with us all the time. This also leads to getting a bank account and other things we all take for granted.

Cherry Blossoms!

Over the past week, I've made some Korean friends that are around my age. Their English is very good and one of them has offered to help me learn Korean. I need to finish teaching myself the alphabet and then I'll set up some time to practice with him. Two of them lived in Florida for a year while in a language exchange program. Another learned English in college and wants to travel but has never been on an airplane. I'm going to try to change this!

On Saturday, Alfred and Saemi took me to Kyung Hee University to see the cherry blossoms. Saemi is a student there. The university was founded in 1949 but it feels much older. The campus is beautiful and the cherry blossoms make it amazing! Check out a few of the pictures. There were many festivities going on. There were people performing Taekwondo and traditional dances among other things. The most amusing performance we found was "The Hip Hop Club" performances. Evidently, The Hip Hop Club is a group on campus who get together and sing hip hop. This was one of the better groups. There was one group where my Korean friends asked me if they were singing English and I told them, "No." They didn't think they were singing Korean either, so who knows what was being sung.

There was also a museum that we walked through that had many artifacts of the many years of Korean history. At one point, there was an entire hallway of paintings that were painted on silk from around 600 B.C. They were amazing. Sorry, I couldn't take pictures there.

I was even approached by a Jehovah's Witness while I was there. She approached Alfred first in Korean and I could tell they were talking about me. I asked him what she wanted and she asked me if she could talk to me. She asked me if I was a foreigner, (Duh!) and told me they were with a group on campus called "Friends for Foreigners." She then asked if I was interested in Bible Study that I could attend in over 160 countries around the world. She then tried to give me the infamous "Watchtower" brochure. I politely told her ,"No" but then I had to try to explain to Alfred what a Jehovah's witness is and what they believe in. Not an easy task!

We also visited Sushi 1000. At this restaurant the sushi was placed on a revolving belt that went by every table in the restaurant. If you saw something you wanted to eat, you just took it off they conveyor belt. The best part is each plate is only 1,000 won ($.70). There were other options besides sushi, like little deserts, Korean rice dishes, tempura, and fruit bowls. It was yummy!

They also took me to get my haircut. The lady did a great job and it only cost me 12,000 won (like $9.00). On a side note, tipping is not customary here. If you tip someone they take it as an insult. Their mindset is that they make good enough money doing whatever it is they do (cutting hair, waiting tables, etc.) that they don't need you to supplement their income. If you try to give them more money, they think you're insulting their chosen profession or taking pity on them for doing the job they have chosen.

I'm looking forward to spending more time with my Korean friends and learning Korean. I'll keep you updated! You can see many more photos of my day in my Picasa web album. http://picasaweb.google.com/christinestroup

Look here in the next few days about my visit to the "Boulder of Seoul."

They launched it...

Well, North Korea launched there missile/satellite/rocket, whatever you want to call it at 11:30 am local time. From the sound of it, it was not shot down and landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

It is 2:30 pm and all is quiet here. Japan has called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. I guess we will all have to wait and see what comes of it.

Here's the article. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/04/north.korea.rocket/index.html

Take Me Out to...Yes, That's Right...The Ball Game

Who knew that baseball is so popular in Korea? Not me. Not that I am an expert on sports abroad (or at home for that matter). I spent my Saturday afternoon at the season opener of the Doosan Bears v. Kia Tigers.

Apparently, South Korea has 8 major league baseball teams. They are all sponsored by large companies so their names all begin with a company name. Seoul has two major league teams: the Doosan Bears and the LG Twins. They both play at the baseball field that was used and built for the 1988 Olympics. The Olympic Stadium sits right behind the baseball stadium. Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure.

We travelled down to the Sports Complex and stood in line for our tickets. Tickets ranged from 3,000-20,000 won (like $2.00-$15.00). As we were standing in line for our tickets, a TV station recorded us. Not too bad for a professional league game. In America we have stands that sell soda, peanuts, and hotdogs. Not in Korea, you can get whole dried squid, kimbap (Korean sushi), beer, soju (Korea's favorite liquor), hard boiled eggs, and fish pancake things. Amazing! You can take all of this into the stadium. Here's a picture of one of the vendors with her goods she is selling.

The South Korean Military performed some pre-game entertainment. It was really good. There was also some traditional Korean dancers that we missed and of course cheerleaders. Wait a second, I guess in America baseball does not have cheerleaders.

The players are a good range of ages. The youngest was only 18 while the oldest was 38. The Doosan Bears even had a "Waygook" (foreigner) playing for them. His name is Matt Watson from Philadelphia. They also don't have an obscure entrance to the building. They get off the bus and walk right along with the fans into the stadium. Quite a few of the home team players had "theme songs" that would play every time they were up to bat. One of the songs was set to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." I wish I knew what the words to it were.

Koreans really get into their baseball! They clap these long skinny tubes together in unison, sings songs, and really enjoy themselves. I was mesmerized by the whole scene. Fans are led in chants by a guy standing on top a platform in the seats. Each team has their own guy to lead them. The fans throw confetti onto the field when they see something they like and aren't quiet until after the pitch is caught by the catcher and even then it's not that quiet. When the bases were loaded they would chant something that sounded to me like "Need home run" but then again I don't speak Korean so I just make things up as I go along. Here's a video of the awesome fans.

One of the most amusing things is the "6th Inning Stretch." I know, in America it's the "7th Inning Stretch" but come on they had to spice it up a bit. This 6th Innining Stretch is for the players not the fans. The players literally go on to the field for a bit and stretch and roll around like baseball players do when they warm up.

I was rooting for the Kia Tigers for no other reason than they had red uniforms and their fans seemed more into the game. They were behind 1-6 until 7th inning when they rallied and scored 4 runs to bring the game within one. Sadly, Doosan got two runs in the 8th and sealed the deal for a final score of 5-7 in favor of Doosan. I was a bit sad but I will definitely be back for another Korean Baseball experience. At that at a cheap price, how could you pass it up?

Here I am trying out my authentic Korean picture taking pose. They always show the peace sign (which to them means victory) in photos.

Hmmm.....

So this is what someone thinks about America? Hmm...

The United States Embassy is pretty old and outdated. It's guarded but lots of Korean police officers.

The sun at about 5:00 in the afternoon. God bless pollution!

I've been super busy. The end of the month equals a lot of work. The kids all take their monthly tests on the last day of the month and we had to make our monthly lesson plans. I've graded all of the tests so now I need to write evaluations for all of my students.

I've still found time to have fun! This last weekend I ventured to another palace with Zach, one of Sebastian's friends that is also in Korea for one year. It was beautiful. The cherry trees are just beginning to bloom. Spring is in the air!

Here's a video of one of the busiest intersections in Seoul.

You can see the rest of my pictures on my Picasa album.

Last night, I went out with the teacher from Canada. We made some more Korean friends. We are always sitting at a table by ourselves and they come ask us to join them. Two of them were also English teachers. It's so fun to hang out with the locals.

On a side note, I started teaching myself to read Korean. It's actually not that hard. I just need to memorize the symbols and I'll be able to sound words out but I won't know what they mean. There's a free Korean class offered at one the colleges here, I think I'll check it out after I can read.