First of all, let me start by saying that my writing skills are rather rusty and teaching English is really showing me how atrocious my spelling and grammar skills really are. I have never questioned myself on the numerous annoying rules of the English language and Google spell-checked words more than I have in the past 3 months. I have never been a strong speller and my friends love to taunt me about my regular misspelled words or grammatical errors on facebook posts. But that’s definitely not as embarrassing as being half way through writing a word on the board and realizing you’re not sure how to spell it correctly. Then you humbly admit you don’t know what you’re doing and ask your students to check the spelling on their electronic dictionaries. It’s quite ridiculous actually. Perhaps this job will teach me as much as I do.
When I signed up for this adventure I knew how to say ‘Hello’, ‘Thank you’, and how to count to three. I’ve moved and traveled a lot before, but never to Asia. I was most terrified of getting screwed over by the business world and being left stranded in a country where I don’t speak the language and don’t know anyone within thousands of miles. Fortunately, my doubts and fears only set me up for a great surprise of feeling welcomed in comfortable South Korea. The people are friendly and English is welcomed. Learning English is somewhat of an obsession here. Actually, learning in general is an obsession. It’s perfectly normal for a middle school student to be in school from 8am to 10pm. After normal school hours, students to go to their various private academies (Hagwons). Math, science, music and English academies have created a huge industry fuelled by the county’s obsession in investing in its youth. Not a negative obsession at all, but boy, these kids study a lot. I feel bad assigning homework when they could really use that time to sleep and then stay awake in class. Someone explained it to me by saying that since South Korea does not really have internationally valued natural resources, the country’s wealth lies in the skills of its people and therefore the future lies in skills of its youth to maintain this country’s rapidly growing economy. English is the international language of business and learning it is highly prioritized in Korea, hence the reason why I am only one in thousands of foreigners who has a job teaching English in Korea.
In a nutshell, being a foreigner who lives and works in S.Korea is fun, easy and the perfect way to pay off those student loans. The country has recently become so westernized that you can easily find products from home like Oreos or Diet Coke. The people are great and the country has a deep desire to prove itself to the rest of the world. The language and cultural differences are things Koreans hold on to with pride while becoming more and more westernized and discovering these things makes my everyday experiences exciting. Here’s a list of some things that deserve an in depth, detailed explanation. Hopefully this blog will accomplish that over the next few months.
1. Konglish: Every day is like a big game of MadGab.
2. K-Pop puts the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys to shame.
3. Drinking. Koreans know how
4. Noraebong: Don’t hog the mike.
5. Subway: You can go anywhere for a buck.
6. Cute kids and their chosen English names, like Optimus Prime.
7. Matching Couple’s underwear. Relationship status is serious.
8. Traffic laws. What traffic laws?
9. Fast Internet and limited copy right laws.
10. Image: “You have a small and head and pale skin” is a compliment and source of envy.
11. The health care system includes Gym equipment and Hula hoops in the parks.
12. Foreigners who just didn’t fit in where they came from.
