Was out for Phil and Alex's birthday last night. I wish I had a photo but we had some lovely meat called Moonngtigi.
It tasted like a good pork chop and was excellent. Plenty of beer and 2 new drinking games. The first one is called 'the chopstick game', where, after 3 seconds, you shout a number and point to someone you continue the line around the chopsticks for that number and the last person has to drink. Quick and exploitable.
The other one is called reputations where you make a questions like. 'who has snogged the most rotters?' and point at someone after 3 seconds. Whoever has the most votes has to drinks.
Randomly I won the 'most posh' but failed to win 'nicest eyes' so I am extremely sceptical of its validity.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
The Back End of Racism
The Korean Beat is a blog which translates Korean news articles into English. Although one or two major English newspapers have an English edition, they are often not exactly the same as the original. Most newspapers in Korea, understandably, can be separated into tabloid and broadsheet journalism.
I have experienced very little racism in Korea but I have seen its existence and heard from reputable sources about unseemly events. Some is not undeserved however. Many new teachers are fresh out of uni and try to continue the lifestyle of late night drinking, mid week parties, and a relaxed attitude to social proprieties. They fail to see that not only are they in a more reputable position in society but also this society is a lot more conservative than the one they previously dragged in to degeneration.
I will state that a vast majority of the teachers I know like their job (maybe not the hours), care about their kids, and want to see them improve. They may enjoy the occasional Wednesday night out but so do most Korean men. This article, in my opinion, co relates to all The Sun and Daily Express publishings that seek to sell more stories by picking an easy, less protected target, and degrade them all with one bush on baseless or singular examples. While at the same time ignoring all the positive things they bring to society and in this case the duty of the employers to higher and treat staff responsibly. I know most Korean people, like the Brits, enjoy the benefits of multi culturalism, but there's nothing like a xenophobic article to make you feel like your on the back end of racism.
Please read the article here.
NB. When I say conservative I don't mean you can't drink a lot and party. Korea has plenty of opportunities and ample enough young population to do that. They just see jumping around the street at 4am, shouting profanities at passers by, showing of your chest hair and being sick on the street as thoroughly off putting and undesirable.
I have experienced very little racism in Korea but I have seen its existence and heard from reputable sources about unseemly events. Some is not undeserved however. Many new teachers are fresh out of uni and try to continue the lifestyle of late night drinking, mid week parties, and a relaxed attitude to social proprieties. They fail to see that not only are they in a more reputable position in society but also this society is a lot more conservative than the one they previously dragged in to degeneration.
I will state that a vast majority of the teachers I know like their job (maybe not the hours), care about their kids, and want to see them improve. They may enjoy the occasional Wednesday night out but so do most Korean men. This article, in my opinion, co relates to all The Sun and Daily Express publishings that seek to sell more stories by picking an easy, less protected target, and degrade them all with one bush on baseless or singular examples. While at the same time ignoring all the positive things they bring to society and in this case the duty of the employers to higher and treat staff responsibly. I know most Korean people, like the Brits, enjoy the benefits of multi culturalism, but there's nothing like a xenophobic article to make you feel like your on the back end of racism.
Please read the article here.
NB. When I say conservative I don't mean you can't drink a lot and party. Korea has plenty of opportunities and ample enough young population to do that. They just see jumping around the street at 4am, shouting profanities at passers by, showing of your chest hair and being sick on the street as thoroughly off putting and undesirable.
My Late Monday Class
I really feel sorry for Korean kids. They are pushed much harder than any kids back home. Granted there is nothing wrong with ambition and making your child study hard. However my last class on Monday between 9.00pm and 10.30pm is with a 11 year old kid.
Her English is really good and I actually think she is a really nice, bright girl, but her and many other Korean kids spend all their childhood studying. These kids go to school at the regular time of 9am until 3pm; but after they head home for dinner they are usually back out in private academies until 10 or 11 at night. In addition they have to fit in their homework somewhere and they will usually be at school and academies on Saturday too. It's a tough life and It is meant to be (from our point of view) the least stressful days of your life.
I understand for most Koreans employment relies on a degree, much more heavily than in the UK, and that is a major reason for the pressure on kids. I have been thinking a lot about the Korean system and how different it is from the UK. I think I will write about it in a separate article later.
Her English is really good and I actually think she is a really nice, bright girl, but her and many other Korean kids spend all their childhood studying. These kids go to school at the regular time of 9am until 3pm; but after they head home for dinner they are usually back out in private academies until 10 or 11 at night. In addition they have to fit in their homework somewhere and they will usually be at school and academies on Saturday too. It's a tough life and It is meant to be (from our point of view) the least stressful days of your life.
I understand for most Koreans employment relies on a degree, much more heavily than in the UK, and that is a major reason for the pressure on kids. I have been thinking a lot about the Korean system and how different it is from the UK. I think I will write about it in a separate article later.
Korean food! #2 Sam-gu tang
I first had sam -gu tang a few months ago with Mimi. It is like a fresh chicken broth with onions, ginseng and garlic. It usually comes with a small chicken stuffed with rice a gin seng and chestnuts in a bowl of hot broth in which it has been cooked in for a few hours. It usually comes with a small side plate of salt and spice in which you can dip your chicken in or add to the broth. I really enjoyed it the first time as pictured above.
However sometimes it's great to be a teacher. My two conversation students invited me round to one of their houses to cook me lunch instead of having a class. Sometimes when I see the high rise apartments stacked around me I get a feeling of despair. Hundred of thousands of people packed into identical blocks.
How wrong was I. As I reached the 11th floor I buzzed the tiny metal door only to enter one of the nicest apartments I have ever seen. Granted my student is a University lecturer in art I didn't expect the sheer size never mind the interior design. It was decorate with tasteful art and an original Andy Warhol print. It had 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a study, extremely large living room-kitchen and and 2 balconies.
I was served a five course meal from prawn salad, homemade sam-gu tang, fruit, ice cream, coffee and tonic. Everything was either handmade in a traditional Korean style or designed by my student herself. Was excellent!
In addition to the food it was also nice to be accepted into a Korean's home and I enjoyed interesting cross cultural discussion with 2 older Korean woman. Was really interesting and insightful. Going back to work after a few glasses of red and a full stomach is not advisable.Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Invade Privacy and Let the Industry off Scot Free.
Two new legislation on the table and one announcement on the banking industry and to me it's totally back to front and completely out of touch with reality.
First of the bat are plans to ban smoking in cars where children are present. Who would ever say that smoking when your child is in the car is a delightful habit?! What father would protest this bill? No one can come out and say this is a bad idea or that it's ok to smoke with children are around. However without an argument for the negative it doesn't mean the government should legislate control over an individuals lifestyle choice. The car at the end of the day is a vehicle in which you lose all your privacy. Cameras watching your speed. Police watching your driving and holding the right to stop and search you whenever they want. Government and companies ensuring your car's innards are in respectable order and so forth. And all this is needed to ensure road safety and a high standard of public safety. However new technology which auto tracks your windscreen and watches you from afar has already been piloted across Britain. Putting away the mobile phone is a good idea but being fined for popping a sweet or switching the radio on is backdoor secret surveillance and dare I say, totalitarianism. You can't smoke at work, in the pub and rarely at home now everyone has jumped on the anti-smoking banned wagon (which I am part of btw). Now you can't even roll down your window and have a smoke when your stressed out from grid lock, the kids are screaming in the back seat and your wife just left you for spending to much time at work.
It's a horrible image but I don't think the government or police should be concerned with our private habits and indeed their role should be protecting not suppressing them.
Legislation number two is tougher regulation on Sun beds, or tanning salons as they are called now. Again what argument or specialist is going to stand up and defend the right to have artificially brown skin, but I question the government when they want to clamp down on unmanned salons and underage bronzing addicts when hedgefund managers, banking executives and the like are off gambling with the public's savings; and after losing them ask for a government handout. When looking around the commons it is more likely that the sun kissed skin of our right honourable MPs is not from overdosing on UV beds but from vacations in the Caribbean or Sunday afternoons sailing on their moats which they fiddled through tax payer funded expenses. It almost too ridiculous to believe.
Looks like today Darling will announce that regulation was not to blame for the financial crises. To an extent tough regulation in the UK would not have stopped a global economic turn down but it would mean our banks would not have been such a major part of it. Regulation is what's needed and its what the public want too. If someone commits a crime you may blame the police for not catching them before they done it but you never let the criminal get off scott free on the same presumption.
First of the bat are plans to ban smoking in cars where children are present. Who would ever say that smoking when your child is in the car is a delightful habit?! What father would protest this bill? No one can come out and say this is a bad idea or that it's ok to smoke with children are around. However without an argument for the negative it doesn't mean the government should legislate control over an individuals lifestyle choice. The car at the end of the day is a vehicle in which you lose all your privacy. Cameras watching your speed. Police watching your driving and holding the right to stop and search you whenever they want. Government and companies ensuring your car's innards are in respectable order and so forth. And all this is needed to ensure road safety and a high standard of public safety. However new technology which auto tracks your windscreen and watches you from afar has already been piloted across Britain. Putting away the mobile phone is a good idea but being fined for popping a sweet or switching the radio on is backdoor secret surveillance and dare I say, totalitarianism. You can't smoke at work, in the pub and rarely at home now everyone has jumped on the anti-smoking banned wagon (which I am part of btw). Now you can't even roll down your window and have a smoke when your stressed out from grid lock, the kids are screaming in the back seat and your wife just left you for spending to much time at work.
It's a horrible image but I don't think the government or police should be concerned with our private habits and indeed their role should be protecting not suppressing them.
Legislation number two is tougher regulation on Sun beds, or tanning salons as they are called now. Again what argument or specialist is going to stand up and defend the right to have artificially brown skin, but I question the government when they want to clamp down on unmanned salons and underage bronzing addicts when hedgefund managers, banking executives and the like are off gambling with the public's savings; and after losing them ask for a government handout. When looking around the commons it is more likely that the sun kissed skin of our right honourable MPs is not from overdosing on UV beds but from vacations in the Caribbean or Sunday afternoons sailing on their moats which they fiddled through tax payer funded expenses. It almost too ridiculous to believe.
Looks like today Darling will announce that regulation was not to blame for the financial crises. To an extent tough regulation in the UK would not have stopped a global economic turn down but it would mean our banks would not have been such a major part of it. Regulation is what's needed and its what the public want too. If someone commits a crime you may blame the police for not catching them before they done it but you never let the criminal get off scott free on the same presumption.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
English Camp
As I mentioned before I was working an English camp this month. The camps vary from forest retreats to an extra Saturday studying. This one was at a countryside school but it was kitted out well with 2 large LCD HD TVs directly connected to a PC hub and internet. I decided to incorporate this into my lessons and add some fun to the day. I had to start early at 9am, leaving at 7.30am, and work till almost 4pm. In reality though I only taught four 40min classes and they were just a lot of fun.
As you can see I taught the the intricacies of the Act of Union and then gave them a project to do.
My teaching assistant Mr. Bean!
After teaching present continuous, I am Verb+ing, I used the videos and asked the students 'What is he doing?'
Musical chairs
After this we played musical chairs having to perform the verbs they learned. Running, hopping, dancing and eventually the Moon-walk ;)
(to the tune of 'There's a Moose Loose Aboot this Hoose'
Add a tweed jacket, a pot-belly and less hair and that could be me lecturing on Marxism in 10 years time!
My weapon of choice for unruly students!
As you can see I taught the the intricacies of the Act of Union and then gave them a project to do.
My teaching assistant Mr. Bean!
After teaching present continuous, I am Verb+ing, I used the videos and asked the students 'What is he doing?'
Musical chairs
After this we played musical chairs having to perform the verbs they learned. Running, hopping, dancing and eventually the Moon-walk ;)
(to the tune of 'There's a Moose Loose Aboot this Hoose'
Add a tweed jacket, a pot-belly and less hair and that could be me lecturing on Marxism in 10 years time!
My weapon of choice for unruly students!
Ceilidh Dancing
I only really know the Gay Gordans so I decided to give it a bash as the finale, and they seemed to like it. Prizes if you can guess what song it is, the clue is in the picture!!
I only really know the Gay Gordans so I decided to give it a bash as the finale, and they seemed to like it. Prizes if you can guess what song it is, the clue is in the picture!!
Monday, 15 June 2009
Korean food! #1 Duk Bok Ki
It might not look that appealing but Duk Bok Ki is a family favourite over here. It's basically rice cakes in spicy sauce accompanied by veg or fish cakes. When I first came here I couldn't handle the spiciness. Now it is actually tasty. Pictured here it is mixed with some beef n veg.
Korean spiciness has strange effects. It's like when you go on holiday and crave a certain food from back home. Like a cup of tea, fish 'n' chips or a curry. When I go home this has the same effect on me. I rarely eat it, it singes my nostrils, it burns my tongue and it is guaranteed to wreck my digestive system, but I just got to have it.
Korean spiciness has strange effects. It's like when you go on holiday and crave a certain food from back home. Like a cup of tea, fish 'n' chips or a curry. When I go home this has the same effect on me. I rarely eat it, it singes my nostrils, it burns my tongue and it is guaranteed to wreck my digestive system, but I just got to have it.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Slow Start
Slow start this month with only two posts. However I have been a little busy. I have 3 new classes at work. Three TOEFL writing classes twice a week. Now most people from English countries have never heard of TOEFL, however it the standard test for any student who wants to go to university. It measures your ability to read, write, speak and listen in English in an academic environment. After teaching the writing course a few times I also think it forces student's ability to analyse and write essays.
I also worked a camp in the countryside this weekend which was fun if a little tiring. I'll put up a separate post about that when I get some photos.
I also worked a camp in the countryside this weekend which was fun if a little tiring. I'll put up a separate post about that when I get some photos.
Friday, 5 June 2009
This Month
OK, I reached 25 posts and finished Zarathustra amongst other things.
This month I am gonna set a few more aims.
This month I am gonna set a few more aims.
- Get comments flowing on my new idea of 'Question of the Month'
- Get photos up of Korean food.
- More comment on international affairs.
- Read Franklin's Biography
- Continue aiming at 25 posts
Question of the Month: June
As a new project for my blog I am going to pose a question every month which I will encourage friends and visitors to comment on.
This question will be on a number of issues from politics, philosophy, society to food or traveling.
This months questions is something for my immediate age group.
'Is university financially worth it?'
Financially, as in you might of had a great time sipping your £5 Blossom Hill wine or £1 pint for 4 yeas, but has it help your career; or left you crippled with debit in a job you could have worked up to or attained with any BA never mind your specialization.
This question will be on a number of issues from politics, philosophy, society to food or traveling.
This months questions is something for my immediate age group.
'Is university financially worth it?'
Financially, as in you might of had a great time sipping your £5 Blossom Hill wine or £1 pint for 4 yeas, but has it help your career; or left you crippled with debit in a job you could have worked up to or attained with any BA never mind your specialization.
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