Blogs from Taejon, South Korea, Asia - page 4

In my last entry, I said I was headed out of Daejeon, but a stomach flu kept me in bed for an entire two days! At first, a doctor even thought it might be swine flu =/ But with my trip effectively shortened to 8 days, I had to really move it to squeeze in all that I wanted to do. I would be in Daejeon for a couple more days before and after my trip to Daegu, and I saw a lot of local sights. Temples, Mountains, and lotus festivals, it was nothing huge compared to some of the sights we saw in Southeast Asia, but it was a very good way to get a feel for what the Korean landscape is like. We went to a huge once-every-5-days market, where I picked up some ... read more

So the Korean school system is developmentally challenged. Just last week, they had one week of classes to finish off the previous school year. Needless to say, most teachers just wasted time in classes, most abandoning their classes. Or at least my English co-teachers did. It was almost good to hear the voices of screaming teenagers stampeding up the stairs. Until they got to class. The headache and deep sighs came rushing back. I guess I remember being a kid though...barely. It's funny how quickly your frame of mind gets replaced with that of an adult's. I got invited to the school retreat with all the other teachers the following week. I reluctantly said yes but since I figured I was going to sit at school doing nothing, I might as well go. At the very ... read more

Our school had a holiday, so we hiked this mountain in Daejeon. Daejeon is surrounded by mountains and this one is located south-east of where we live.... read more

Yesterday, while searching The Korea Times news online for debate topics for my students, I stumbled upon an article about Korean adoptees in the editorial section. The article was featured as part of a book about Modern Korea written by Andrei Lankov. This is just another example of how much I continue to learn about myself and my surroundings on a daily basis. What was most amazing to me about this article, is how accurately it depicts Korean views towards adoptees and how accurately this generalized piece of work - about the 200,000 Koreans who have been adopted in the last 50 years - described me as an individual. The last part of the article really resonated with me. Incidentally, last night, I also became a member of G.O.A.L, an NPO/NGO created to help overseas Korean ... read more

The peace sign. A famous symbol all over the world, but nowhere is it more prevalent than in Korea (and possibly all of Korea’s Asian neighbors - as I saw it being used just as much in Japan this past weekend). In 90% of the photos that are taken in Korea/of Korean people - there will inevitably be a peace sign in the mix. Paper, rock, scissors - the ultimate decider. In my W level classes, every time we are doing presentations where the kids are required to speak in front of the class - they inevitably fight over the order in which they present. How else could such arguments be settled, but with such solid and conclusive logic as scissors cut paper, paper covers rock… Vowels. Hangul, the Korean alphabet, is all phonetic. And it ... read more