Dan - Why I Should Get Into Porn (And Other Stories From my First Week Teaching)

Overheard by one of my sixth grade boys: "Teacher you are so handsome! You are so tall! You should be in porno!"

I don't know what brought that on. Maybe it was just a mistranslation. Maybe that's a common compliment in Korea.

Maybe it's my new mustache.

But that sums up my first few days of teaching. Mostly laughing and good fun, but it's got this weird uncomfortable foreign undertone to all of it that I'm not quite used to yet. But all and all, it's been pretty great thus far.

After arriving in Daegu (which is hot, but about the same as Jeonju. Nowhere near as hot as Brazil) our group meet with a massive amount of co-teachers in a downtown meeting hall. They led us on stage according to our district and named us off in front of the co-teachers. After being named we grabbed our luggage and left in their cars. Pretty simple.

My coteachers: Miss Un, Mr. Yun and Mrs. Cho took me to my school first, where we met with the principal, vice principal and head teacher (In Korea, each grade has a ''Head Teacher" who is basically in charge of that grade, only under the Vice Principal and Principal). Miss Un (Emily) teaches grades 3 and 6. Mr. Yun teaches grade 4 and Mrs. Cho teaches grade 5. I managed not to screw up saying "Nice to Meet You" in Korean (Man-a-so-ban-gab-su-nida) and gave the principal the impression that I knew how to speak Korean. I guess that's good? He and the vice principal got a Chicago snowglobe, my coteachers and head teacher got a keychain.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here about the hierarchy here in Korean society. The respect for elders and higher-ups are tremendous. If I had given the snowglobe to my co-teacher, she would have refused and told me to give it to the Principal because it's a better gift. Additionally, if I have a problem with my school it would be a major cultural faux-pas to complain to the principal before complaining to my coteacher. It goes coteacher->head teacher->vice principal->principal and then the Office of Education. Each person knows everything about what goes on below them, and that's how businesses and schools operate in Korea. People are so concerned about maintaining their level in the hierarchy that they will refuse to let anyone but the highest ranking employee win at ping pong or volleyball, for example. 

Anyway, after meeting the important people they showed me my apartment. And? For a Korean apartment in the city it's not too shabby. It is a studio, but the living/sleeping area is pretty big. I may even have room to exercise. The bathroom is small and does not have a shower area, just a showerhead that connects directly to the sink. Toilet paper is covered by a metal cover so it doesn't get wet, but everything else in the bathroom is after I take a shower. The kitchen is also tiny, housing a drying rack, sink, washing machine and no counter space. I do have a bed that's somewhere between a twin and a queen, a dresser and a desk with a TV. 

Here is a link to a photosphere of my apartment.
https://plus.google.com/107505429792987606809/posts/UN2fN3vkHWa

After showing me my apartment, my coteachers took me to the nearest Home Plus, which is a store in the vein of Target or Wal Mart. We bought sheets, pillows and a little bit of food. The driver got a ticket on the way back to my apartment. They said they were nervous from speaking so much English to me. The girl I'm replacing left me a few things (Dishes, detergent, books, and some girly things I need to give to Catt).

My neighborhood is very nice. It feels like a maze of alleyways disconnected from the main road. There is always people walking around and a convenience mart is right on the nearest corner. The school is a five minute walk away. I'm a ten minute walk from the nearest subway station on the green line and can be anywhere in the city within a half hour. Speaking of the subway, there are only two lines in Daegu, arranged in a plus fashion. Red and Green. Very festive. 

Here is a link to my neighborhood with places I put on there.

http://goo.gl/maps/MF7Jt

The nearest main street. This is part of my daily walk to school.

My street. My apartment is the tallest building on the right.

Kitchen.

Kitchen. This is to the right of my prior picture.

Bathroom. It doubles as a shower.

Here's the shower! It takes five minutes to get warm water. It feeds from the sink's water line, so I have accidentally sprayed myself when trying to wash my hands.

The first day was mostly observation. I had prepared an entire powerpoint to teach, but that was pushed back until next week. The kids are constantly staring at me in the hallways until I say "Hello", in which they now say "Hello" back. I've been getting a few "annyong-ha-say-yo" (Hello in Korean) so I have to stop and correct them with "Hello! We are in English class!" The walk to my classrooms is a gauntlet filled with kids running up to me and saying "HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!". 

I have a LOT of downtime, especially since I'm observing. I have several lesson plans ready for emergencies and an introduction lesson planned for next week, but a lot of my time is researching other experiences by EPIK teachers and figuring things out around here. Example, I co-taught two fifth grade lessons on Friday for 40 minutes each. The rest of the 8:30-4:30 day was spent on my computer. At least I won't have to take my work home with me!

View from my 3/6 grade classroom.

My 3/6th grade classroom.

My school.

The middle school is right next to my school. This picture is what I show the taxi drivers when they don't understand where I need to go.

Um, I have to give a speech on Monday. To the whole school. KOREAN SURPRISE! 

My office is shared with several sixth grade teachers. They're all very nice, but the English is very limited. They love to play ping pong and volleyball and I've been invited to join. I'll also be going out drinking with them next Friday, which is a very common thing here. Many coworkers are very close outside the work day, and schools are no exception. It's to the point where a refusal of a invitation is considered rude. And god help you if you refuse a drink from a higher up, you poor bastard. I've been really trying to make an effort to socialize and try and be not just another TEFL teacher who doesn't interact with the rest of the staff because of the language barrier. It's working well so far, I'm getting lots of compliments that I'm much more outgoing and pleasurable than prior english teachers.

Thursday afternoon I left with my coteacher Emily to get my Immigration (ARC) card, which I need to open a bank account and other things that require a contract for (cell phone, for one). She could have ended her day there, but we ended up walking around downtown Daegu until 7pm learning about each other and each other's cultures. She loves English and wished to be a Hollywood writer as a younger age. She is also a big fan of Chicago, wanting to go there ever since seeing the movies Source Code and Transformers 3. In return for my USA rambling and questions about Korea, she taught me about the Daegu subway system (Which only has a green and red line, very simple!), life in Korea and tips that will help be succeed here. She even took me out to dinner and paid!. I have a feeling we are going to get along extremely well.

Friday evening I saw someone inviting the new EPIK teachers to Korean BBQ in downtown Daegu. I met up with Jason, who came to Korea a year ago through the same program I'm in. It was nice to freely speak English and be led around by someone who knows the city.

Korean BBQ (not my picture)

This particular one was an all-you-can-eat restaurant. There is an oven in the center of the table. The customers load up on meats and veggies at a buffet-style bar and cook it themselves right at the table. They had dozens of types of meat and veggies and it was all pretty good. No BBQ sauce though. I don't think that's a thing in Korea, it's been hard to find. 

We went down various shopping districts until settling at the Traveler's bar, which is apparently the bar that all EPIK people find within their first week. There's also a bar in Daegu that all EPIK people who are sick of the new EPIK people go to. Haven't been there yet. But this was really comforting. Two travelers from Canada went through the teaching program years ago and decided to start a bar and grill in the middle of downtown Daegu, specifically catered towards those missing home. It's a very western-styled bar with burgers, cheese sticks, pasta and various other dishes that aren't commonly found in this side of the world. It was very refreshing to get a good burger and fries again. 

You can write on the wall with where you've been too.

Saturday I met up with Catt at the train station, which is about fifteen minutes on the subway from my apartment. Couple that with an hour bus ride and it's much shorter than our DeKalb-Chicago trips we did when we started dating! It was a relaxing weekend, with me showing her around the places mentioned above and some light shopping. We managed to run into Emily at the mall, which was a nice surprise!

That's about it for now. Thanks for reading!