How I Avoided Jet Lag

Despite the 14 hour difference between the midwest to South Korea, I did manage to avoid several dreadful days of jet lag.  I felt tired a bit the first few days, but because I followed some guidelines I wasn't dragging my first week of teaching.

Here is the article I wrote for Associated Content on how I avoided jet lag:

How To Avoid Jet Lag


Enjoy!

My first foreign hospital experience

As a newly hired teacher in South Korea, one requirement upon my first few weeks of arrival is to do a health check at a local hospital with my director in order to receive my immigration card and open my bank account.

The process was pretty simple, as the things that they were required to test for are the same things that people often need to be tested for in the states but the way they go about doing it is a little different.

Here are a few differences I noticed:

- I did the typical exam "get weight and height" measurement as always, which was the same except, of course, in kilograms and meters rather than pounds and inches.
- The TB (tuberculosis) test is not a skin test here.  They actually give a x-ray to test for this.  Which, in a way, is more convenient because you don't have to come back the next day but I do know of some people who tested positive on this method of testing who did not test positive with the skin test.  So how good is the validity compared to the skin test?  Its debatable.
- They do drug tests the same with a urine sample.  However, they are MUCH more laidback than how it is often done in the states.  They basically just gave me a plastic cup (no lid) and sent me to the public restroom.  They are more particular about "having enough" in the cup though that in the states.  The one thing they are mostly testing for here is marijuana (though still other drugs) because they don't want it anywhere in this country.  If you are found with any trace of it you get deported (either through the test or in public -- I've read that some testing is done at bars to be sure nobody ever has any).
- When they draw blood samples, it is done in the hallways.  No private room -- people just stand in line to get your blooddrawn.
- The doctors speak very good English (not always the nurses though).  I would have imagined this would be the case considering how strongly this country is about college graduates (and kids in general) knowing a second language.

Overall, it the hospitals feel more "laidback" and "clustered".  It is hard to explain, but during my couple hours of being there we had to bounce around to all different parts of the hospital just to get my testing done.  It didn't quite feel the same in procedure as it would doing the same thing in the states.  It also appears more crowded when you are there, though I think the reason is because they do such little and simple procedures (like blooddrawn, eye testing, hearing, weight, etc.) in the hallways or open-walled rooms.  Though, I suppose that by doing it this way everything gets done much faster.  Yes you still wait as you do in the states, but I think if I would've done ALL the stuff that I had to do in a US hospital that I did there it would've been longer than the 3 hours I did spend.  But, in the same regard, if I would've went to a hospital in the states where I had all of those tests done on the same floor/area it would've taken equally as long.  So I suppose you can argue that in the end they both equal out.

A cute cup at work...

I grabbed this cup at work the other day for some coffee and thought it was rather fitting:

Some cultural differences of South Korea

Here are some things that I have learned in my first two weeks of what is culturally common and socially accepted in South Korea:

• The people here do not learn how to drive until they have graduated high school.  The average age to start driving is 30.
• The majority of people live "vertically", meaning that most people live in apartments.  This helps with the ratio between amount of land needed with the population.
• The average age to get married is 30.  It is also common for most people to not even start dating until they are 25.  Though you will meet a few people that got married at 25, it is a minority.
• Many students leave home to live independently when they go to high school.  My directors oldest daughter, for instance, lives up in Seoul 4-5 hours away on the north side of the peninsula.
• Students also have to apply to go to the high school they want (as if it were college).  This is why education is so strongly emphasized in grade school and students go to both public and private school to learn other areas (I will explain the school system in another post).  They need to be competitive in order to go to high school and, eventually, college.
• Recycling is strongly emphasized.
• There are no garbage cans on streets.  You simply leave your garbage bag on the street corner and the truck regularly comes by and picks it up.  Cans take up too much space, time, and money and its just not necessary -- especially with a relatively large population in a small area of land.
• The weather is often cloudy, though when the sun does come out you will find some people (typically the older people) with an umbrella, long sleeves, long pants, and/or face masks.  The reason for this is because a past cultural belief was that people with a tan were considered "lower class" because they worked outside a lot.  So some older people still do this today.  I have not seen any (or very few) younger Koreans doing this.  It seems that many of the younger age group like to try to follow the western culture trends.

First Visit to Haeundae Beach in Busan

Since summer is almost over, this past weekend I visited Haeundae Beach in Busan.  The beach is a very popular tourist spot for foreigners and the city itself has a very western culture feel to it -- they have a Starbucks, Papa Johns, KFC, mexican restaurants, etc.  The beach was also filled with many Europeans on their vacations.

Here are some pictures I took from the visit:

First Few Tastes of Delicious Korean Foods

With Friday being the start of my first full weekend in Korea, I started in taking the opportunity to try out some popular foods of Gyeongju where fellow foreigners often hang out.

To start off my Friday evening, as I was walking toward the downtown area I met up with a fellow foreigner friend at Baskin Robbins

The popular the ice cream flavors you would find in any western culture baskin robbins they had (chocolate, strawberry, mint chocolate chip, etc.), but with a few extra flavors to accustom to the eastern cultures.  One of the very popular flavors of the area that I decided to try was green tea ice cream.  For anyone who has tried a green tea latte or green tea frappucino from Starbucks, this is very similar in taste.

The next stop was a popular restaurant down town.  In the common tradition with all Korean meals, we had some light meals as an appetizer prior to the larger meal.  The pink stuff in the bowl is water kimchi.  Kimchi is very popular in Korea and it is one of the healthiest foods in the world!  It is traditionally made with fermented cabbage, but there are dishes with the kimchi flavor in dishes such as this (with water and cabbage), radishes, or other vegetables.  The plate on the side gave us the option to add some garlic cloves or jalapenos to the chicken (which are VERY weak here - I can eat them straight no problem).



The main dish that is a common favorite is made of chicken and cabbage -- that they cook right in front of you!  There is also some rice cakes and other vegetables in the mix with, of course, a savory spicy sauce (as with nearly all korean dishes).

How did we eat the chicken?  Well, you either ate it straight (with chop sticks of course -- though they do hide a few forks if you need it) or you place it on a romaine lettuce leaf and eat it as a wrap.  Oh, and don't forget to break off the end piece of the lettuce leaf because (as Koreans believe) the end makes you tired so you shouldn't eat them unless you want to sleep.





**Note: I've also learned that this particular restaurant only serves this one chicken dish.  Apparently it is common in Korea to have a restaurant that only serves one main dish (that they focus on making very very well).

How Can You Teach a Korean if You Don't Speak Korean?

In the world of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and dealing with students (in any location) who are English Language Learners the common question people have is -- how do you teach them?

The answer: by making it simplistic.

To teach English as a Second Language, think back to the basics:  How did you learn English?  By living in your home environment where when someone pointed to a vacuum they said "vacuum" and spelled out the word.  The same methods are used here.  For a child in early elementary who is beginning to learn a new language you tie the worlds in with a picture or action.  Role playing is often involved.  Ask a student:  What does "chew" mean?  If they do not know, you act out the action for them.

Once they get past the stage of "beginner" where role playing and lessons of "pictionary" are the focus, you can then branch into the next level of vocabulary by making this new word known by explaining how it is similar to a word they may already know.

Keep in mind that I am also not the only ESL teacher at the school, so there are many Korean teachers as well who have taught them how a "X" word in Korean is "V" word in English.  For this reason, the Korean teachers at my school have the early elementary students for the longest time while I only have them for about 20 minutes.

What about classroom management?  What if a kid misbehaves?  Or how do you know they misbehave?  Answer:  its instinctual.  Ninety percent of all communication is non-verbal.  If a child did something that I do not want them to do, they can tell that I am not happy with them by raising my voice or giving a facial expression that shows I do not approve.  Kids have strong instincts and pick up on those little things.  If I say "stop that" in English they will still know what I am saying even if they do not know what "stop that" means.

As far as dealing with a group of students here in Korea, you would still think that discipline could be a problem.  Within my first week though, I have had no problems mostly because of the following reasons: 1.  My biggest class has a total of 6 students, 2.  The only students that I have for a full hour are older students that I have one-on-one or in pairs (for these the school is open for me to develop my own curriculum -- which is not something many ESL teachers have, so I'm a bit fortunate in that regard), 3.  It is a very strong cultural belief to be respectful to their teachers (though I have heard of some foreign teachers who were the exception, but that can also depend on how they present themselves), and 4.  It is still legal for the teachers to hit kids as needed.

But what is likely to be the most effective way for a person to learn a language?  Be an in environment with it being spoken.  Just sitting around talking with the kids helps them become fluent, which is something that a person learning ANY language (or topic for that matter) is going to struggle with if they don't step away from the textbook and apply it.

A Pond of Lotus Flowers At Night

Here is a picture that I took of the lotus flower pond in Gyeongju last Monday evening.  Unfortunately, it was difficult to capture the scene to its full effect at night with a point and shoot camera, but I will go back and take more.

The pond is only about knee deep and you can walk on the rocks across the pond.

Korean Apartment Tour

Here is a recent video that I created about my Korean apartment.  I apologize in advance that I couldn't focus in on objects very well, as my camera apparently isn't very good with that.  Enjoy!! :-)

Note: In case anyone did not know (since I forgot to mention it in the video): LG is the second largest company in South Korea and Samsung is the largest, so this is why virtually every appliance and beyond  is made by one of those brands.

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

I have arrived and settled in.  Korea is quite beautiful and the people here are very friendly and helpful to foreigners.  Many have provided me directions on my first day and one girl even let me borrow her cell phone to call my director.

With this blog I am hoping to help keep family and friends updated back home, to inform others from anywhere in the world what life is like Korea, and to provide insights to anyone thinking of teaching Korea.

To wrap up this initial post, here are a few pictures that I took from the airplane of the Korean peninsula prior to landing:

Have a great day! :-)