Blogs from Yeosu, Jeollanam-do, South Korea, Asia - page 4

... and more complicated. But in the meantime, a few things that brightened my weekend. First of all, the most amazing thing happened. Although I did not have much time to play piano back in the US, I did at least have the opportunity now and again. It helps me release stress and be creative and all that jazz. So, of course, I was missing it-- and the musical things I've always done-- but I decided to bite the bullet. I mean, you can't expect everyone to have a piano, and I figured maybe I could convince them to let me play one of the pianos at church during off hours or something. I could beg and plead. Or, just not play piano for a whole year. Well, little did I know that all members of ... read more

Today begins week four of teaching at Jung-ang Girls' High School. So far, so good. I'm loving the students more each day-- gosh, what energy they have!-- and I have a feeling already that they will be what I miss most when the time comes to leave Yeosu. Last week, I taught about vowel pronunciation, and this week I'm talking about different kinds of greetings in English (from "Wassup?" to "Good morning, how are you?"). Many are pretty good at English already-- they've been taking English classes since elementary or middle school. But, in most English classes, the students and teachers do not speak in English. They only learn grammar, how to dissect sentences, random vocabulary, some reading, etc. Little conversation and little writing. So my job, thus, is to teaching speaking and writing. I've been ... read more

Two days ago, I took a six-hour train ride from Seoul to Yeosu with my co-teacher and principal. Beforehand, we had a ceremony where we all got introduced to our school officials. My co-teacher (Mr. Kim) and principal (Mr. Woo) flew to Seoul the night before and met me with smiles and kindness. All of the Fulbrighters and their school officials then had a joint luncheon, and it was very nice to start getting to know more about my school, my colleagues, and Korea. After that, I said goodbye to my fellow Fulbright ETAs (minus one, Colleen, who was going to Yeosu, too) and headed south. So far, it has been fabulous. I was nervous about meeting everyone (school officials, my host family, et al), but it has all turned out very well. My co-teacher has ... read more