January is "busy season" which means that there's a good chance I won't have a significant amount of time to write. This just happens to be the way it is. Busy Season You may or may not recall the following facts: 1. Korean children go to regular school just like most children in Western cultures (America, Canada) 2. They attend school during the same general time frame - 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. 3. However, after regular school, many Korean children attend "Academy" 3a. "Academy" is a private school specializing in a particular subject - Math, Science, Animation, and the most popular (as well as my place of employment) being English Academy. 4. Korean Children attend "Academy" (my school) anywhere from 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM. That is a review of the facts. Now, take a ... read more

Wine Party About a week ago, Dave organized a little wine party for anyone who was interested. He was able to gather about 12 of us and naturally it ended up being mostly foreign teachers. So, this wasn't the kind of wine and cheese party where everyone brings something and all share, or the kind of party where Dave is kind enough to supply several bottles of wine for the enjoyment of others. Though Dave may be a generous guy, he's a bit smarter than that. If you're going to have a wine party, how about you find out a way to make the wine free for everyone? Dave found an add for a wine distributor that puts on wine tastings for large groups. He spread the word, gathered enough of us, called the guy, and ... read more

A girl in one of my classes asked me, "If Americans go to school less than Koreans and study less than Koreans then why does America have more geniuses than Korea?" This is a question that requires more thought than usual because it asks about deeper implications on the differences between the Korean education system compared to the American education system. Koreans are very smart. They study much harder than the average American. Koreans are taught to memorize. They go to school Monday through Saturday for an average of 3 hours more a day than Americans. At age 13 they take midterm tests and final tests for which they study for several weeks in advance. I teach at a private academy where kids come after regular school. Right now, during exam season, I have kids not ... read more

America has its fair share of commercial holidays. I won't list them, but you can imagine which holidays were created simply to sell things, and which holidays over time have become extremely commercialized. Well, in Korea, there's a day called Pepero Day. Now Pepero is a candy treat of sorts. It means "thin, like a stick" and is simply a thin cylindrical cookie-stick dipped in chocolate. Most Holidays are commemorating some special date, or event. Now, why would there be a holiday celebrating candy? Does it have some historical or religious significance? Or is there simply no shame at all in being direct about the commercialism of the holiday? I'm going to go with the latter, because it turns out that Pepero is manufactured solely by Lotte which is a huge department store in Korea. They ... read more

So, I was walking in downtown Seoul among all the neon signs and Korean faces and all of a sudden I see a giant billboard of Hines Ward wearing a "KEB" Jersey - KEB is Korean Exchange Bank (see attached pic). Apparently after he won the Super Bowl MVP, Koreans found out his mom was Korean and now they love him. Anybody can represent Cambell's Chunky, but you're not the man until you're sponsored by KEB. Sick. Also, smoking is pretty popular among Korean men and all you have to do is stop by a stand on the street and buy a fresh pack of Cigalettes (see attached picture). Then you can go home and watch either of two channels strictly dedicated to video games. That's right. Sometimes I watch a bunch kids play Starcraft on ... read more