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Last week we picked up two Korean children to stay with us for a couple of months. They are brother and sister and so far they are fairly shy with speaking English even though their understanding seems to be pretty good. San Francisco is about three hours from our house so we decided to do a little touring prior on our way home. We went to the Golden Gate bridge where it was a windy 62 degrees and then we stopped off at Stanford University before heading home to a warm 106.

My wife’s nephew caught a ride here on the same flight last minute so we have a full house. He is in his early twenties and just out of his 군대 service. He is here to (drum roll please) learn English and tour a bit before getting back to real life in Korea. He has ambitions of getting a government job and English experience seems to be a real plus on the resume. It seems like everyone wants to get a government job in Korea. Of course, we are all on the other side of the coin trying to learn Korean. I don’t think there are too many government jobs in the States that require Korean language experience though.

My oldest, having now lived in Korea for a short time is doing good with her understanding. My number two, Luke, is not having such an easy time of it, however. Here are some of his thoughts on the matter now that he is sharing a room with his cousin:

Living with Koreans is kind of hard because it is hard to understand them. I want to learn how to speak Korean but I just don’t want to take the time to learn it. My cousin who is staying with us doesn’t speak much English and he is sleeping in my room so that makes it hard to really communicate with him. The other two kids are better at speaking English but I don’t think they are learning anything because they are speaking Korean too much to each other and to my mom. I think I am going to try to learn some Korean during my older cousin’s stay.  

More from Stephanie: 

So on an early release day at the elementary school where I helped teach, my aunt picked me up and I went with her to help her with her job, which was a private English tutor for kids. Her job seemed to consist mostly of driving to each kid’s apartment, checking their homework, asking a few questions and assigning more homework for next time. (maybe it was homework-check-day or something) but after we visited a few kids and got in the elevator to ascend yet again, we were joined by some very young “초딩”s. Before we came to that apartment we had each bought an “ice cream” (more of popsicle type things really) and were trying to eat it before we got to the kids house and when my aunt saw the two second or third grade boys, she immediately offerred her half eaten ice cream to one of them saying “무글래?”(먹을래). I was a little suprised that she would do this, because I highly doubted that she knew this kid, let alone be close enough to offer her ice cream!

Later, as I was leaving a tutoring session, ( that I taught by myself) with “Michael” (6th grade) who came from a different apartment and therefore had to go home also, we were joined by another small kid from that floor whom neither of us knew. Michael was eating a box of 빼빼로 that the 아줌아 whose kid I was teaching supplied for refreshments. When he saw the kid, he offerred some to the little guy who took a couple. I asked Michael if he even knew the kid and he was like , “No. Just.” (그냥 makes more sense in Korean, which by itself means like, ‘just because’ or ‘no reason̵ and when I asked “why would you give a kid you don’t even know something to eat?!” to which he replied “Koreans are just friendly.” I thought this was a very interesting thing. I don’t know about other places, but here, random people are not apt to offer you stuff, unless they’re flyers advertising something but I know I would be a little freaked out if someone I didn’t even know offered me their 과자 they happened to be eating at the moment. Anyone else have a similar experience?

While I was helping teach at an elementary school, I noticed the kids said 멍미 a lot. I asked the English teachers and she said she didn’t know what it meant. I thought maybe I was pronouncing it wrong or something, but later one of the students I tutor said it too, he was in 6th grade and when I asked him what it meant, he said it was ’secret language’ and that it meant just “what?!” . I don’t exactly know what it translates to, because he used it often and sometimes I think saying “what” in some situations wouldn’t quite make sense. but while I was in 서울 he high school kids used what they called “secret language” too. I think it’s more like slang though. Some other words that I learned were the slang words for elementary student, middle school student and so on. they took the normal 초등학생 and turned it into just 초딩.It’s the same for all the others: 중딩, 고딩.I don’t know if 대딩 works but it seems like it should. My cousin used this word when describing his friend, who he said used 초딩말 which is like elementary school language or, like he talks like an elementary student. Does anyone else know any “secret language” words?

What I noticed about the fashion in Korea was that most of the women wore high heeled shoes. The students, however, wore tennis shoes, preferably some ridiculously expensive brand name such as Le Coque, Adidas, Nike, or puma. I never saw a student wearing high heeled shoes. Also the students uniforms are usually altered. The girls that I lived (중삼) with told me that they gave their skirts to the launderer and asked them to shorten them, because only losers wear their skirts long, according to them.

As for the boy’s fashion, there was one boy who had one pant-leg shortened and rolled up partway, but when I asked about it, I was told it was just his own fashion. Boys in Korea are also more conscious of how they look, one other foreigner told me that she was surprised at how often they looked in the mirror. All the students , boys and girls, wore really cute socks with cartoonized singers heads on them or cute smiley frogs. I even saw the waiters at 도내누 restaurant wearing them.

Also my cousin told me that boys and girls wear the same clothes, regardless of whether or not it was made for their gender (and I know they do that here too, but maybe not as much). And I also noticed that when couples go out on dates or whatever they wear matching outfits, meaning they wear the same thing, usually boy style though, so like baggy long shorts and a guys T shirt.matching. Seriously. So I like Korean fashion better. It seems like Americans wear ugly clothes. Sad.

Stephanie will be back home in two weeks.  This coming week will be her last week to volunteer in the school, so she got many gifts from the children she’s been around. Her favorite foods in Korea are 삼겹살, and 장어 샤브샤브 so far (I’m not really sure what that is but I guess it is popular among the people she is hanging out with).

Last week she went to the market place and saw a 아줌마 killing (filleting) a big live fish on the cutting board. That was really was an interesting sight for Stephanie. She said that the fish didn’t die until the 아줌마 cut the other parts too.  She sent a video but it was broken so I can only tease you with her description. Sorry.

She wanted to buy 상 (table) and 가스레인지 for 삼겹살 요리. She thought it would be cool to sit on the 방석 on the floor and cook 삼겹살 on the 가스레인지. We have one of those 가스레인지 and a 돌반 but we haven’t used it in quite some time. We had some friends over and used it for dinner a while back, thinking it would be cool; they thought it was very 촌스럽다.

Stephanie has been very busy so I really don’t get too much news from her. This coming week after she finishes up her lessons at school she will be headed for 부산 to visit some family. She will probably be doing some other touring as well before heading up to 서울. I will keep you posted.

Stephanie says it is raining every day and she feels like she is in a 찜질방 all of the time. I am not sure if she likes the weather in Korea or not but she is not complaining about it. Sometimes she mentions that she would prefer to live in Korea. She is getting better at teaching English and the children like her a lot. They like her so much that someone made off with her shoes the other day. I understand that this is a common problem at this particular school because everyone wears expensive shoes. Hers were Converse. She was happy to get the opportunity to go shopping. She picked up some Adidas shoes to replace her Converse.

She admits to having caught 공주병. She says we won’t like her when she comes home because she is so spoiled… She has three more weeks to go… She has settled into a routine that includes some late-night studying of her own. She has been studying Korean quite a bit (I sent her with a mp3 player full of KClass lessons). When she IMs with her mother her Korean typing is pretty good. It makes me wonder how much texting she is doing in Korean…

She had the opportunity to go yachting last week. I don’t think that is helping her with her condition (공주병) but it sure sounds fun. I wonder if she got seasick. She didn’t say. It was probably a nice break from the rainy season weather though. The humidity is the worst part of rainy season. I recall times when it was sunny one minute and before you could get your umbrella up you were wet from the rain. But then the sun would come out again and heat up all that moisture on the ground and create a sauna. Yes, that is Korea in the summer time. Life sounds interesting for 우리 공주님.

Last week Stephanie experienced some interesting cultural differences.

She has been staying at a house with twin girls about her same age. One day, after breakfast, she was helping to clear and wipe the table and the twins stared at her like she was doing something wrong. It turns out that the twins don’t do any sort of housework or chores. They were amazed that she would help (like it wasn’t her place).  She has noticed that the school children don’t get home until late and then stay up even longer doing homework. But they don’t do housework.

We have noticed with the children that have stayed in our house too, especially boys, that they don’t do chores. Now it may be that chores have disappeared from American society too and I am just a relic but we have had homestay children do chores here. In fact, the boy who just went home said that he was helping his mother dry dishes (but I think he may have been joking).  The “gentlemen first” attitude seems to be fairly normal in Korea, as opposed to “ladies first” here in the states. But Stephanie was somewhat surprised to find that children are not expected to do chores at all.

Another thing Stephanie was impressed about was that Korean children’s study habit.  She amazed that even seven to ten year olds would study until 10 o’ clock at night without much parent superivsion, and that middle school students (중3) wouldn’t get home from 학원 until after 11:00pm. She really has a hard time understanding how they do it every day.

One parent wanted Stephanie and her son to go out to the movies together; he is one year younger than her. Stephanie thought that is felt like a “date” and it worried her a little. We had to explain that it wasn’t a date, just that his mother wanted him to get some more opportunities to practic his English.

Despite all that she really enjoys life in Korea. This past week she has gone to 노래방, made 김밥, had 산낙지 and 개불, and taken a tour on a sailboat. I think she is doing so many things that she doesn’t have much time to fill us in on everything.

I am going to try to get Stephanie to post about her trip experiences. Here are some of her thoughts about teaching English in Korea: 

So, after I got out of the hospital (the surgery went great, actually, the IV hurt more than the surgery itself) I went back to teaching little kids at the elementary school. They all stared at me like I belonged in a zoo and when I spoke korean they looked at me as if I was like a talking zoo exhibit. They all find it rather amazing that I understand anything at all. It’s really different how they all go “우와” when i say something in Korean. When our exchange students speak English, no one here (in America) is really that amazed at their “wonderous ability” to say hi and where’s the bathroom and I’m hungry.
 
So I had my first “class” with “John” who is 10, I think, and “Shell”, two students that I tutor. I had Shell, who is 8, change her name to Shelby because I explained to her that Shell might be a little weird. I could see how a name like Shell would be pretty in Korean, like 나비 or something but I have a Hmung friend whose name is Honey and her sister’s name is Butterfly and her other sister’s name is Angel (which is a normal name, but next to her sibling’s it’s kinda weird), and when you hear your teacher call someone ‘Honey’ it’s a lttle weird. So there was my American culture lesson. I also gave them some vocab words including ‘weird’ and ‘cool’ and ‘kind of’, because since those are the words I pretty much say the most, I thought it would be important for them to know.
 
Halfway through the lesson, this moped man came in (helmet and all) and delivered 김밥 and ramen. It was like exactly how the delivery guys in 궁  looked like!! I thought it was just some random thing incorporated into the drama… “Anywho” that’s pretty much the only cool thing that happened during my lesson. I also taught a few other people and sat in with some lessons that my aunt taught. What I noticed most among the kids was that they were all super shy. Like, they would say stuff but they would either whisper it loudly or whisper it in my aunt’s ear. What one of my students did was stare at the table while he was talking to me, and I thought that was weird too. I noticed that the kids who are not shy usually learn the best, or are better at English, maybe because they get more practice, or I never hear the full capabilities of the shy ones. My first lesson with the kids is usally just a “don’t be shy, lets just chat” lesson.

So, that is all for now!

This has been an interesting week. Last week we sent Michael home. He was ready to go. As soon as he got home he was headed for a week long field trip to 제주도. We Skyped with his mother before he left. She missed him a lot but it looks like she had to wait another week before she got to see him.

We, on the otherhand, just sent our oldest daughter to Korea. She will be there for the next seven weeks. She is doing a “service project” for school credit here where she will be volunteer teaching at an elemetary school, helping out with English instruction. Her first day will be tomorrow.

She is feeling a bit overwhelmed with the lack of English interaction already. Not understanding anything that is said around you can be headache inducing, especially combined with jet-lag. Typical for her though, she has commented at how fashionable everyone is, especially their shoes!

Hopefully, I will be able to post updates about her stay in Korea on a weekly basis. I am sure that her Korean will improve. It will have to. I should have a full update next week!

Our exchange student, Michael, goes home this week. We spent this weekend in Yosemite. For an 11 year-old I was surprised at how impressed he was with the sights. The typical response we have gotten from children and adults alike has been something along the lines of, “that is nice and all but we have rocks and trees in Korea too…”

We asked him what he enjoyed or found different about his time in the United States and here are some of his thoughts:

He was surprised that younger children needed a babysitter, that they couldn’t stay at home alone for extended amounts of time. In Korea this is no big deal.

He was also surprised that we don’t have any 학원 here to speak of whereas in Korea everyone takes some kind of after school class. The schools here are broken up into separate, single story buildings, whereas in Korea, his school is one multi-story building. He liked his teacher here and made some good friends.

While he was here he enjoyed several holidays: President’s day, Valentine’s day, St. Patrick’s day, Mother’s day, Easter. Easter was his favorite. He also liked “pajama day” at school (but I don’t think he wore his pajamas to school).

Generally, he liked American food but there were some things that he didn’t like. He didn’t like artichokes or pears. He said that we (as a society) eat too much meat. He doesn’t like tri-tip; it’s too rich. He really liked clam chowder and stew.

My daughter got a guinea pig for Christmas. At first Michael was scared of it but now he really likes it. He says that he wants one when he goes home. We have noticed, especially with the Korean orchestra last summer, that Korean children are very apprehensive around pets. Most of them warmed up to them though. Michael was no different in that regard.

On Friday there was a rattle snake (방울뱀) sitting next to my back door when I got home from work. I readily dispatched it with a shovel. Michael thought that was really cool. I just reinforced the spring-time rule of not going outside without shoes on…

Unfortunately, you can’t see the tail. It had two ‘buttons’.

So, that is Michael’s impression of his time in the United States. I think he had a fairly well rounded experience. For only being here for four months his English speaking ability has improved a lot, mostly because he was forced to interact in English. Now let’s interact in Korean!