My Date With Amy

I am a professional musician.  I have not been to a concert of good or great caliber in a long while.  How fitting my next one should be here, in Korea.  Amy and I had the fortunate opportunity to go to the Daejeon Culture and Arts Center to see an International Guitar Festival.  It was a fantastic time. 

To begin with, the Daejeon Culture and Arts Center is comprised of more than just a performance hall.  It is a huge complex incompasing an outside Amphitheater used for traditional Korean plays and dramas in addition to an Ensemble Hall used for smaller more intimate performances.  In short, it is a sight to behold inside and out.  The complex also links up with a grand park and it's surrounding areas (I have not had the pleasure of exploring this part yet so cannot write about it).  This example of fine art is said to have been designed as one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls and equipped with the finest state-of-the art technology and systems in Korea.  Having been to several high quality and varying performances, I have to say I agree.

Upon walking up to the huge building I was reminded of approaching a delightful example of modern architecture of steel and glass.  It is both impressive and welcoming.  Once stepping through one of the many doors leading into the very large lobby you are greeted with a feeling of "this is nice."  There are two imposing box offices on either side of the entrance catering to the needs of anyone, Korean or not.  There is also a coffee shop set to the far right and the smell of delicious coffee waifs in every direction up to the top of this large building.  There are marble steps on either side of the lobby gently sloping up to the two balcony areas of the main hall. On this particular evening we were not to make our way up to either of these balconies as our seats were as close to the sweet spot of the hall as possible.  We were seated on the main floor in the front of the room about 15 rows from the stage just off of center.  Delightful.  We were able to hear the best of the sound and get the full view we required off of this performance.  We were lucky our tickets were complimentary for this particular concert as the price for these seats was out of our price range.
 
This concert was to be 4 seperate guitar duos backed by the Daejeon Orchestra.  The pieces were mainly more modern pieces for guitar such as Concierto de Aranjuez, "Oyun" for Four Guitars op. 93, and Concierto Andaluz for Four Guitars and Orchestra and finally, L'Italiana in Algeri.  These pieces were played to perfection.  The performers were all professional and played their best.  The orchestra was one of the best I have seen live.  There was an encore performance where one guitarist sat and began a piece then a few bars in two of the other guitarists joined in on the same guitar then a few bars after that the other two guitarists joined in as well so all 5 guitarists were playing the same guitar for this particular song.  It was a lovely and talented performance by all.  There will definitely be repeat performances attended in the future.

Outside

the Lobby

People we met outside who wanted to be in our picture :)

Our Date

After that remarkable performance we continued our date to dinner of delicious sushi.  Eel and smoked salmon with freshly made miso soup and ginger salad.  Yummy.  Talking and meeting up with another friend until the wee hours in the morning with good coffee where we made plans to see the opera, Carmen. 

It was a great date.  Thanks Amy!
I hope we have another one soon!

School Information

A few people have been asking about how our school works and what a typical day is like. 
In teaching there aren't really any typical days, just normal crazy days with a few toned down days in between.  This particular post will be continuing on various topics of interest and if anyone has anything specific you are curious about please email or comment on here. 



1.  The school's name is Reading Town English Institute
2.  The school is located in Daejeon, South Korea (there are many independently owned branches around the world) it is on the 4th floor about a 5 minute walking distance from our apartment.  On the same floor is a piano private school, a math private school and our school.  There are 8 classrooms, a teachers room, an office of sorts and a reception area. It is "U" shaped.
3.  The grades we teach are the equivalent of kindergarten through middle school--the highest reading level is a Lexile of 5.0.  The comprehension level is a bit lower, around 3.2.  Fluency is definitely a lot higher than the comprehension level. 
4.  Joseph and I each have about 40 students and the school has approximately 150.  It is a smaller branch with 2 foreign teachers (us), 3 Korean speaking teachers, a director (assistant principal) and the owner.  Something interesting is that parents send their children to these private English academies to be specifically taught by the English speaking teachers.  That's why they want native English speakers and it is why Korean's pay so much for their native English speaking teachers.
5.  We teach Speaking, Writing and Reading.  The Korean teachers speak Listening and Comprehension.
6.  The students read in English but they often translate within the books to better understand the context and vocabulary

7.
A typical day is us arriving at 1pm and we begin teaching at 2:10.  Think of this type of school as an academy or private school like back home and you have the general idea--just very small.  We have 7-8 classes each day with no more than 10 students in each class.  Joseph has one class with only one student--how nice!  Our classes are each 50 minutes long.  In that time we speak English with the students about topics that are in the curriculum and also topics the students bring up in addition to the school curriculum.  We can talk about anything appropriate and we are encouraged to do so.  At the end of 50 minutes the students either stay in the classroom, go to break (5 minutes) or leave for the day.  The teachers switch to another classroom within that 5 minute break and are back in another classroom after that 5 minutes. 
Again, each school is independently run even if it is a branch.  They are each owned by a specific owner or one owner will own several schools. 

Our school is run through a New York based company.  Our day ends on M-W-F at 9:25 PM and on Tues-Th at 8:35 PM.  Back in Florida, Joseph and I used to wake up at 4am and be at our respective schools by 6:30am and home by about 6PM so this is a bit different.

Each school is different on the requirements for the teachers.  Our school requires us to do weekly and monthly lesson plans and mid-terms/finals in addition to bi-weekly vocabulary word tests.  Joseph and I are do-ers and find it hard to only do that so we when we inquired about the school library we were given the privilege to revamp it and just recently are talking with our school about writing a more effective writing curriculum.   

Something interesting we learned is that students here are not staffed.  For anything.  That is slowly changing but we have been learning that if a child is somehow learning disabled, EH, ADD, etc. the parents don't want their children tested.  From what we understand it is a non-issue at most public schools.  They just don't do that kind of thing here (in my mind this sounds a bit off so I will further research this topic and write about it at a later date).  If it is something severe, the child is usually not mainstreamed and is put somewhere else either kept at home and taught or another type of school.  From what we are learning it is rare for a special needs child (from either end of the spectrum) to be in a "public school" but we would like to do more research on this topic.  I find it interesting and a bit bizarre to simply let it go at that.  IEP's [Individual Education Plan] (or their Korean counterpart) have never been heard of here.  Can you imagine that back home?  My mind goes straight to the court cases for ESE and ESOL. 

We will have another blog with pictures and perhaps a video of our students and school.  :-) 

Further topics to research: *Korean ESE students, *ESOL standards?, *Private school funding
Any other ideas?

Rugby World Cup 10-23-11

Ah...sports. 

I am not the most avid sports fan.  I love Gator football of course, and I like the Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Dolphins, The Red Sox and even kinda sorta, the USF Bulls.  I enjoy being at those games more than watching them on TV but who doesn't?  I have found a sport I like watching just as much as being a part of the crowd.  RUGBY.  It's spectacular.  Something about the energy on the field while the players are waging battle against each other is really exciting.  I think it is truly fun to watch and I can imagine being a part of the crowd is even better. 


This past Sunday (yesterday), Joseph and I got together with some friends and about 150 of their friends to watch the Rugby World Cup.  For some history of the sport click here. I think of it as being similar to American football, only without pads and with a higher caliber man playing it.  Not a better man, just very well built for as physical as the game is. I know I'm off on that description but [as a girl] I get the right to say that.  Not to mention the players are amazingly...athletic.  Not an ounce of fat on them and they move like machines across the field and plow right into each other from yards away.  

I don't really know enough about the sport to have a favorite team but that doesn't stop me from having one.  My favorite is New Zealand.  The men who play this dangerous yet extremely exhilarating and energetic game are fantastic at it.    

My favorite part of the entire game is when New Zealand performs the Haka before the game starts. 

The Haka is a traditional Maori war dance from New Zealand. There are thousands of Haka that are performed by various tribes and cultural groups throughout New Zealand. The best known Haka of them is called "Ka Mate". It has been performed by countless New Zealand teams both locally and internationally. It puts a smile on my face and goosebumps on my arms and legs.  It's really an awe-inspiring couple of minutes.  It certainly gets the crowd revved up and you can see by the players intense faces and their body language it really is a "war dance" for the game.  


Here is a video of yesterday's game of New Zealand performing the Haka.  Notice how France walks toward NZ as if about to challenge them.  Please also look at the facial expressions.  They are great.

"Haka's are challenges and you're basically laying down the gauntlut to the opposite side.  You know, 'let's go to battle' and the winner walks away.  In Rugby, the winner walks away with the points." --Wayne Shelford, All Blacks NZ Rugby Team 1985-90.


The Haka is meant to be powerful and really fearsome.  I think the All Blacks have achieved their goal and they really did walk away with the points yesterday.  

Go New Zealand!  Great game.

Rugby World Cup

France vs. New Zealand

Score: 7-8

October 23, 2011

Weekend Part 1: Yunseong Foot Spa (9-25-11)

Whew!  Another nice weekend in South Korea.  We are saving money and hence not a lot of trips outside of Daejeon yet but we are getting there.  Promise.

On Saturday, Joseph, Amy and myself went to the "tourist area" in Daejeon called Yunseong Special Tourist Zone.  We did not notice anything particularly touristy in this area.  We did pause at the Yuseong Foot Spa which we later discovered was the tourist zone.  This is a natural hot springs that goes as hot as 41 degrees Celsius which in my world is 105.8 F.  We studied the people sitting around the spa with their legs in.  We discovered that their legs were almost beet red from how hot it was.  Surely that cannot be safe?

We were encouraged to try it and after a bit of deliberation we decided to give it a try.  It was HOT.  All of our legs turned red where the water touched them after about 5 minutes and the local patrons had been sitting around this spa for at least an hour or so.  We were told this is healthy for our legs and circulation and known to cure all manner of skin ailments and an effective treatment for neuralgia and related maladies.  I searched for more information about this spa and learned that written accounts of the Yuseong hot springs first appeared more than 1,000 years ago. It was only after the Gyeongbu and Honam railway lines began passenger service in the early 20th century that Yuseong began to attract the public′s interest. After the Chungcheongnam-do Provincial Office was relocated from Gongju to Daejeon in 1932, the Yuseong area came to be developed into a tourist resort..  The video below we found on You Tube which will give you a good idea about this foot spa.  It is a smaller area and was filled with older people and some of their younger counterparts the day we went.  A few families would have their feet in the spa then picnic for awhile and then get back in.  Just another social day in Korea!


Spa Here

Not us, a local :-)

Not a very large place but very nice and relaxing

Joseph's new friend

We were regaled with entertainment

Everyone was clapping along

Weekend Part 2: Mountain Fortress (9-26-11)

Chicken Foot Mtn. from the top of the mountain at the Fortress

A few of us here have decided that we would like to further take advantage of Korea's great hiking and scenery that can be found all around us.  Sunday Joseph, Amy, our friend Jessica, and myself set out on a hike to travel up the mountain in our backyard called Mt. Gyejoksan, which is 429 meters in height. Its name means "chicken′s foot mountain," because its ridges extend outward in various directions, like the toes of a chicken′s foot. According to legend, the rain that falls after a dry spell are tears from the mountain.


At one point in our hike we saw a fortress through the trees and decided to hike over there as it didn't look "too far."  Silly us.  What began as a 1 or 2 hour hike became a 5 hour hike to this fortress.  It was amazing and some of the steepest hiking we have ever done.  At one point it was so steep our knees almost reached our faces. 
Atop the mountain, at the fortress, you can see for miles in any direction.  Adjectives such as breathtaking, picturesque and beautiful don't quite describe this view but we hope you get the idea more from the pictures we took.  We saw far away mountains and had an excellent view of some hikers as they made their way to the fortress.  Our walk down from a different direction was less demanding and we ended up on the barefoot walking marathon walking trail on the same mountain.  About 2 or 3miles later we are at the foot of the mountain not exactly sure where we are located.  Are we still in Daejeon?  A friendly local helped us out by calling a taxi for us.  Your hike is really put in perspective when the hike up, down and around a mountain took you about 5 or so hours and the taxi ride to your neighborhood took 18 minutes.  The great day ended with a much needed dinner of dalk galbi.

One of our many spectacular views

This is about the half way mark from the beginning of our hike.
Notice the video camera on the top right of the tower?
Nothing like CCTV in the middle of nowhere on top of a mtn.

Wildflowers on the Mountain
This is for you Mrs. Utke!

sitting on the ledge of the fortress looking down.
In Korea there are no barriers

See the tower at the top in the middle? 
That's about half way from where we began our hike

Mountain Fortress

View from the Fortress
(the lake in the background is the same one J and I hiked to earlier)

Mountain Fortress

A sign we found at the top of the Fortress

ESOL and Relationships

As a teacher one is expected to have a certain type of relationship with the students to inspire motivation and trust and to encourage and motivate students to do their best in their studies.

The most common way to accomplish this mode of relationship is to have activities in the first few weeks of school to encourage the students to problem solve together and become one unit.  This is why the first 2 or 3 weeks either make or break you as a teacher.  During this time you assert yourself as the teacher and help mold the students into a "family" type of atmosphere where they feel safe and secure within the classroom to do their best, make mistakes and be themselves.



When the students and teacher do not speak the same language those first few weeks in the classroom can be harder for some ESOL students or ESOL teachers to accomplish.  All relationships need trust and communication to ensure a healthy, strong relationship.  When one or both of these are missing that encourages distrust and miscommunication and is a disaster for any type of relationship.  It makes it more difficult for the students and teacher to understand one another and to understand what the other needs and wants. 

Living in Korea, Joseph and I fully understand better than ever before the affects of all of our years of ESOL training and teaching.  Living in a country where everyone speaks Korean and maybe a few words of English is a fantastic thing when wandering around the countryside and exploring what Korea has to offer.  It is quite another to be a teacher and to do your best in the classroom.  It is a wonderful challenge and as Joseph and I enjoy challenges this is what motivates us to do our best.  We have the knowledge of our years of training to tell us it takes 3-5 years to be fluent enough in a language.  It take another 3 or 4 to fully acclimate one self to that culture.  We won't be here that long so it is imperative that we learn as much as we can with the language.  We already speak enough social (BICS) Korean to get what we need from various places.  It is the academic (CALP) language we need to acquire more efficiently.  

It is important to note that anyone coming to Korea to teach English is not required to speak Korean.  In fact, is is generally preferred that you do not.  However, Joseph and I feel we cannot truly do our best if we cannot speak better Korean in the classroom.  It is imperative to the student/teacher relationship. 

We would strongly encourage any teacher in the United States to learn about your students' background and culture.  Not only would it be interesting to learn about that culture but it would help you in the classroom while teaching them.  For instance, the Korean students have difficulty saying the /r/, /l/ and /f/ sounds.  Also, Korean's feel the need to end a word with a vowel.  If it does not end in a vowel you will hear different sounds at the end of a word: Home Plus becomes Home Plus-uh.  The word dish becomes dish-y (the long /e/ sound).  These nuances are important to know and understand when you have students from different cultures.  When listening to them speak and when helping them with their English.  You may not be able to speak their language but you will speak the same cultural language and that may make all the difference with your students and your relationship with them.  It will help them feel confidant, secure and safe in the classroom environment which, I believe, makes all the difference in each students doing their best to succeed and as teachers, we are here for the students.

Google *giggle*

Google is a wonderful thing.  I do not know what we did before the Internet came along to help us on our lofty quests.

While using Google to help me with various information for some of our blogs I came across people I know and people's blogs whom I know.

Awesome. 

Google is very cool.

For instance, if you go to Google Images and type in Barefoot Marathon, Daejeon South Korea several hundred images will come up but a few are of friends and family here in Korea.  It just made me giggle. 

There must be something to be said when you Google specific information and people you know pop up I just don't know what it is.  I'm waiting for when I Google something and our blog or pictures pop up.

PS, Happy Birthday Google!