A month of TKD

태권도=taekwondo (TKD)

Our month of TKD at Orientation is over (4 classes 4 times a week). This was definitely a good experience and lots of exercise! Our class size started at 40 but dropped to about 30 by the end of the month. We had three different masters(picture below): young master/Pasta Brioni/Jeong Cho Min (left), middle master (right), and master master (center). The master master (the owner of the dojang, an 8th degree black belt, and who has been practicing for 42 years) was in China the first two weeks, so we were instructed by the middle master and Pasta Brioni. The second week middle master left, and Pasta Brioni was our only instructor. He was more relaxed and laid back; we had fun but didn't necessarily focus on correct form. Pasta Brioni also brought a couple black belt students to help him out.both who had won honors at the Chuncheon. Considering that TKD is the equivalent to Little League or Youth Soccer in the states; everyone does TKD when their a child. Our black belt helper instructors were less than 10 years old!

What did we learn? As I mentioned in the first TKD post, the first couple days were mostly physical training--sprinting, jumping, etc. Each day became less physical training and more punches, blocks, and kicks. We started with punches (face, body, trunk), then blocks (same as punch: face, body, trunk), and then learned kicks. The kicks, especially when done in succession, were the most aerobic activity. The master explained that the TKD kick is the most efficient; you (1) raise your quad, (2) extend/kick out the lower leg then bring it back to the first position, then (3) lower you entire leg. We started with front kicks (body and face), then moved to roundhouse kicks (body and face, the most difficult!), and straight kicks. The form is important, especially for the roundhouse kick since you need to rotate your entire body. Pasta Brioni had been lax on form, so we got grilled when master master returned from China.

Yellow Belts: No sparring for white belts! After three weeks we were tested for our yellow belts. When the master master had first returned (after 2 weeks), TKD class was a lot harder, and we improved a lot before yellow belt testing. We were tested in small groups, going through punches, blocks, and kicks--everyone passed.

Pasta Brioni? You've been wondering? After our last lesson, we went out for dakgalbi with all the masters. Lots of fun. Young master wore a shirt from an Italian restaurant, eternally labeling himself as 'Pasta Brioni'. It's easier to remember than Jeong Cho Min.

I would like to continue TKD in Seogwipo--it's a great way to stay in shape. However, I would be sparring with 10yr olds; no Korean starts TKD as an adult (see right). A couple of the other girls in Seogwipo took TKD with me, they may be interested in continuing...we'll figure it out!

Food Favorites: 커피 and 팥빙수

팥빙수 = pat-bing-su = patbingsu
커피 = caw-pee = coffee (surprised?)

Two foods in Korea that will always make me happy. One's a treat, the other a necessity.

팥빙수 first, since that's new and Korean.
Patbingsu is a Korean dessert, especially popular in the summer. It's a fantastic combo: (from top to bottom) soft ice cream, fruit, and shaved ice. The fruit is seasonal, so for summer, there's watermelon, peach, kiwi, and banana. But there's always sweetened azuki beans (red beans), which give patbingsu a distinct flavor. Separatists don't mix the cream, the fruit, and the ice together, but I'm a firm believer in patbingsu mixing. It looks beautiful before mixing, but tastes delicious after.

It is not socially acceptable to go out to eat patbingsu alone. We usually go in groups and order large, 4-serving bowls, the more friends and patbingsu the merrier! (It's natural to share food in Korea.) However, it seems that patbingsu multiservings only may occur in Chuncheon, our Korean teachers have told us that in Seoul, you order patbingsu in individual serving bowls. What's also great about patbingsu is that it's cheap: 3,000won ($2.50) for a single serving bowl or 2,000won each ($1.65) when shared. Patbingsu is also so popular that it's available for delivery!

팥빙수: eat out or eat in!

커피: Although coffee in Korea is generally the same as American coffee, there are cultural differences. Canned coffee is more popular here than in the states; however, it's usually overly sweet and not strong (see the 'mild'?). Canned coffee has also lead to coffee vending machine availability (6-8oz, 500won or $0.50/each), which is convenient during the day. Another popular form of coffee is instant and on-the-go coffee (freeze-dried). This option however requires hot, almost boiling, water for the mix to dissolve, which clashes with my iced/cold coffee preference. But I can grab several single-serving sticks to use later in the day. Purifiers with hot water are everywhere, so all I need is my water bottle and the coffee.

There is a Starbucks and a Dunkin' Donuts, but the coffee is relatively expensive (3,000won, $2.50). The let down for me here is that they don't usually have half-n-half/milk or sweetners available to add at your own liberty. Maybe if I ask, but my Korean's lacking the coffee shop vocabulary. Coffee shops (커피숍=caw-pi-shyop, I love Hangulized English words!) in Korea open at 8:00am, comparatively late to their American counterparts. Just as patbingsu is a social activity, coffee shops serve a social function rather than as therapy for the caffeine fix. My caffeine MO is currently the instant coffee, but I might soon invest in a small coffee maker. Due to unfortunate circumstances, there is no Starbucks in Seogwipo or on Jejudo. There may be a Dunkin' Donuts.

A new favorite (from last night):
초코 아이스크림 와플 = cho-ko ah-ee-seu-keu-reem wah-peul = choco ice cream waffle

The Fulbright ETAs fully support and are faithful patrons of the Back Gate waffle stand. For only 1,500won ($1.22!), the waffle lady will make you a warm, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup waffle sandwich. Forget waffle cones when you could have a regualr warm waffle. Another sweet heavenly combo. I'm crossing my fingers that there's a cute little waffle stand in Seogwipo, because if there is, they just gained a loyal customer!

What I'm not getting enough of: fruit. Apparently Jejudo, with its pineapple plants, tangerine groves, and orange orchards, is the perfect solution.

Happy Birthday 선생님!

선생님 = sawn-sehng-nim = teacher

My Korean teachers, You Hana and Park Areum, are two of the most adorable people I've ever met. They're enthusiastic, happy, and oh so cute. They both had birthdays this past week, so we got to celebrate as a class. As the class captain (lovingly called Cap-씨, 씨 = (pronounced) shee = Miss/Mister) , I was charged with organizing a class cards, a class gift, and a dinner out. Despite the extra work, I'm glad we had the chance to celebrate as a class and with our teachers.

You Hana and Park Areum are both Korean language teachers at Korea University in Seoul. You Hana teaches our class 9:00-11:00am, and Park teaches us 11:00am-1:00pm. For the six weeks of Orientation, they live in the dorm, share the showers, and eat cafeteria food with us. They put in a lot of extra work for us; besides the four hours of class, they also have office hours in the evenings, and prepare for the lessons. I figure that the amount of time I spend studying for Korean class is equal to, probably lesson than, the time they spend preparing lessons and office houring. If I'm even half as effective as either of them in my classroom, it'll be a successful year in terms of teaching. Both of them said the Seogwipo is 'the best' and that they'll come visit me on Jeju.

Korean class is always a great experience--sometimes overwhelming, but always has great moments. Their English is limited (still better than our Korean), which makes some explanations and general conversation more interesting. Class usually has an elementary feel due to the simplicity of our lessons, but every so often someone interjects a mention of soju or beer. You Hana lived in England teaching Korean for a short time, so is more comfortable talking with us. She also confided to us that while she was supposed to be studying in an English program, she instead took floral design classes!

For dinner, we went out for Chuncheon's famous dakgalbi. Before the food had finished cooking, there was plenty of converstation. You Hana and Park opened their gifts and showed us several Asain photo poses (hilarious). Everyone had a great time!

Korean class B1 couldn't ask for better 선생님s!

Placements

We've been told to expect ever-changing schedules, even to the last minute, and one key to a successful year in Korea is to be flexible. Although true, this was just a segway to tell us that the placement ceremony would 24 hours earlier than planned. Placements were announced yesterday. The placement ceremony is quite formal. Everyone dressed up, we all filed into a lecture hall, and one-by one were given our placements. Program director Ms. Shim came from Seoul to announce the placements with the OCs. Placements were announced by province. Each ETA in the province went on stage, took a picture with their province buddies, and then placed a post-it with their name on their city on a map of South Korea.

Remember my placement preference form?

My province was announced last; I had to watch everyone else go up. I think the hardest part was knowing that I (probably) wouldn't be near those people. My placement: an all-girls middle school in Seogwipo on Jeju-do.

This map is quite intimidating--it's huge! We felt all spread out and so far away. I haven't yet gotten a feel for how big South Korea is, but I know it's not as big as Texas. To give you a better reference, especially for my fellow Texans:

Jeju-do is South Korea's most southern point. According to my Korean travel book, I'll be living on a volcanic island surrounded by palm trees, orange orchards, pineapple plants, and tangerine groves. Ubiquitous fruit is especially important to me.

Yonsei day (meeting principal, vice-principal, and co-teacher at Yonsei University) is two weeks from last Monday. After that, I'll be flying to Jeju-do with 7 other ETAs, 3 of which are also in Seogwipo. (Fulbright makes sure we're not alone--they certainly care about our mental health.)

서귀포 제주도 = sah-gwee-po jeh-joo-do = Seogwipo Jeju-do!

School: 서귀중앙 여자중학규 = Seogwi Jungang Girls Middle School (575 students)

Address: 697-070 제주특별자치도 서귀포시 중앙로 175

Website: www.sgja-g.ms.kr

Life at Korea, Kangwon-Do, Chuncheon, Kangwon National University, Dasagwahn Dorm

Korean grammar- for both time at location, the order is larger to smaller

For example: Right now, it is 2009 August 4th Tuesday AM 7:30

(잠월 오일 2009년 8월 4일 수요일 오전 7시 30분이에요.)

Almost a month ago, I arrived 2009 Aug 5 Sunday early early morning. My time in Chuncheon is almost over--only 2 weeks left. Not much time left for this blog post!

Living Situation

We're all housed at Kangwon National Univeristy in Chuncheon, à la dorm style. The rooms are small (half the size of a Lovett single) plus a roommate. 62 females share 8 toilets and 5 showers (compare the same numbers for only 20 males). Besides the ETAs, I'm also living with the Orientation counselors, RAs, and language teachers.

My dorm room, really small. I had to take each picture standing from a corner of the room.

I've already mentioned cafeteria food in an earlier blog. Not much has changed since then, exception that I've realized how good proper Korean food is. My cafeteria food consumption is plummeting these last two weeks since eating out is extremely cheap (1 roll kimbab 1,000won, bowl ramen 3000won, bowl patbingsu 2,000won).

Doing laundry has been an experience. Here's what has happened each time:

1. Clothes soaking wet after wash. Dryers did not work. Wrung out clothes; took 4 days for clothes to dry

2, 3. Couldn't ask for better. Clothes spun in wash (not soaking wet) and dryer worked.

4. Clothes wet after wash, but competent by now to do a spin cycle. Dryers did not work; hung up damp clothes.

After my first load, I googled Korea Laundry, and this is what I found:

My experience hasn't been that bad....yet. Supposedly most homestay moms do laundry for us....

Day to Day

Our daily schedule is quite simple: Korean class in the morning, lunch, afternoon workshop (or Camp Fulbright), TKD, dinner, free time. We're usually kept busy. Free time usually translates into lots of study time. We're learning lots of Korean fast; there's four hours of class (total 90hrs in 6 weeks!) plus all the study hours we do just to keep up. We're mainly either at the dorm, at the Millennium Building (for classes and workshops), or Back Gate (more below).

Our dorm (Dasagwahn) and the Millenium Building.

Camp Fulbright

To prepare us for the Korean classroom, Fulrbright imports 150 Korean kids to Kangwon University, under the guise of Camp Fulbright (English Camp). For the last two weeks, we've been sharing the cafeteria and the neighboring dorm with them. Every ETA observed the instructors (former ETAs) teach, then prepared and taught three lessons. It's been interesting to see the dynamic of the Korean classroom. There's little things like the boys and girls won't willing mix, thumbs up does not work, Koreans LOVE their K-pop stars (K-pop = Korean pop), etc. My lessons were mediocre; the kids didn't think they were bad, but the evaluating instructor and I knew better. As an ETA, we're Conversational English teachers. Korean students have lots of other English classes (i.e. grammar), taught by Korean teachers, that are lecture based. Our classes should be interactive and activity-based: we need to get them talking. The idea is to teach a concept or an idea (e.g. phone conversation) and let the grammar and vocab incorporate naturally, without a staightup lecture.

Kangwon University

Because we're living together and on a college campus, it's like there's a Fulbright American colony in Korea. Yes, we've been exposed to some Korean culture, but only when we leave campus to go shopping or to go out. But our bubble will break soon! Placements are announced today, and, in two weeks, we scatter across Korea to start teaching.

Our main interaction with Koreans is through KEY Club: Kangwon English Yard (an English club). All the members are college students interested (and committed!) to learning English. Most are spending the summer studying for the TOEIC (Test of English International Communication) and TOEFL (Test of English Foreign Language). We go to their KEY Club meetings to discuss selected topics. And then we go out! Most of us have language partners from KEY Club.

Back Gate

Going out means Back Gate (named for the back gate of the university). Back gate is filled with bars, clubs, restaurants, snack stores, and, most importantly, norabang! Nights out have generally been pretty cheap, even with lots of food, soju, and maekju. Back gate is usually has a younger university crowd, which is nice. Complete with a Dunkin' Donuts and a Baskin Robbins! This is a great place to find hilarious, broken English phrases, especially in the stationary stores. Interpretations and transformations of Western food are also interesting -->

Everything's going well and time is flying! Only two weeks left in 춘천!

The Best Yet: 삼겹살!

삼겹살 = sam-gyeop-sal (= deliciousness!)

I didn't know the quality difference between the cafeteria food and proper Korean till last Tuesday night, when I discovered samgyeopsal. It's the best meal I've had yet. Do not go for samgyeopsal if you're starving; if you do, you're in for a lesson in patience: you cook the meat yourself at your table.

Picture at right:
on grill
-fatty pork slices
-kimchi and sprouts
-mushrooms

in small dishes:
-sesame oil
-garlic
-sauce (soy base)
-red sweet chilipaste

also
-finely chopped cucumber
-lettuce and sesame leaves

And that's only the first roundof pork, since it all can't fit on the griil. We (5 of us) had about three times what you see in the picture!

Cooking 삼겹갈:
You cook the meat. I went with my language partner Seong Jun 성준, two other Koreans, and another ETA. Seong Jun took charge with the cooking: checking and turning the meat. When the meat is mostly cooked, it is cut with scissors. Seong Jun was very particular about this; one of the girls (Korean) starting cutting the meat while he held the meat with the tongs, but he took the scissors to cut the meat it himself.

Eating 삼겹갈:
There are several ways to enjoy 삼겹살, all delicious:
1. Just eat.
2. Dip in soy-based sauce.
3. Dip in soy-based sauce and eat with slice of cool crisp radish
**4. Wrap it!
-in lettuce or sesame leaf or both
-add meat (1 or 2 small pieces)
-add sweet red chili sauce
-add finely chopped cucumber
-add grilled mushroom and/or garlic (optional)
-wrap the lettuce/sesame leaf around to make a ball
-eat it (all at once)!

Definitely a good meal, and very cheap--only 6,000won (~$5) each.


This is Seong Jun (English name Stephen), my language partner. He's studying for the TOEIC (Test of English for International Conversation) so that he can be placed on an American base for his military service (all Korean males are required to serve 20 months) so that he can improve his English even more. He's a freshman business major at Kangwon University. Sometimes we hang out, sometimes we study, and sometimes we get 삼겹살! There's more English than Korean conversation, as I can hardly string together sentences, let alone interesting ones. He's always at the dorm and loves to correct homework, mine and the other ETAs.

Alicia can speak Korean for 5 min

5 minute speeches in Korean class today--look how much I wrote for my draft! Looks impressive, right? OK, don't get too excited; read at what this translates too:

"Hello! My name is Alicia. I'm American; I came from Texas. I came to Incheon, Korea on July 5th, 2009. Right now, I live at a dorm at Kangwon University in Chuncheon. Right now, I am a student, however I'm going to be an English teacher.

Right now, I'm studying Korean at Kangwon University. I wake up at 7am, and drink coffee and eat breakfast. At 9am, Korean class starts, and at 10 till 1pm, class finishes. I like studying Korean because Korean class is very fun. After class, I eat lunch in the cafeteria. In the afternoon, I go to meetings. At 5pm, I do taekwondo. I like taekwondo because it is difficult. At 6pm, taekwondo finishes. After taekwondo, I eat dinner and shwoer. Then, I study Korean and meet my Korean friend Seong Jun; together we speak English and Korean. At about 12am, I sleep.

During the weekend, there is no class, so I meet my friends; together we play sports. During the weekend, I go to the supermarket. I buy coffee and fruit. Last Saturday, at Emart, I brought a camera. The camera was expensive, but I like taking pictures.

I eat meals at the cafeteria, however, the food does not taste good. I like patbingsu because it is sweet and very delicious. Tuesday night, I met Seoung Jun. We ate samgyeopsal at a restaurant in back gate. Samgyeopsal was delicious. I also like samgyeopsal. Korean is hard--study! Thank you."

The grammar is Korean is much different than English, meaning that the Korean version is much simpler. But, considering that 4 weeks ago, I didn't speak a word of Korean, or even know the alphabet, I'm reasonably content with my progress. I also, however, feel that I've been sent back to elementary school.

Curious about the samgyeopsal and patbingsu? No worries, they get an entire post each (they're that delicious).

My class with teachers Park Areum (dark pink) and You Hana (pale pink dress).