Vacation

I am officially on summer vacation for the next week. I leave for Phang Nga (near Phuket), Thailand tomorrow morning. But first I have to get to Incheon Airport, outside Seoul. So that means I have to take a bus at 12:30 tonight, and I won't get to the hotel until probably 9:30 tomorrow night, which is 11:30 here. All this extended traveling I've been doing the last few years makes anything under 15 hours seem like a breeze. This, of course, not being one of those instances. Still, though, Thailand.

Have fun at your day jobs, suckers.

Funny Classroom Situation

Yesterday the air conditioner at school broke for the second time this month. It was awful. Only one of the four classrooms has a window that can open, and mine isn't it. The kids were miserable, the teachers were miserable. Very little learning goes on when you're that sticky. There was a lot of moaning. Even the ice cream that inevitably gets brought in by... someone, the school or parents, I don't know, doesn't really help.

My fourth class of the day is usually pretty hard to control. There's one girl in there who has ADHD, I'm sure of it, and trying to control her is an eternal struggle. Another kid, though the smartest in the class, just sleeps the whole time most days. Other kids vary between ultra shy, overbearing, and inattentive. The age range is a little awkward, too. Most of my classes are arranged by grade, with kids not varying by more than a year, for the most part, but this class, I think, ranges from grades 3-6. There's a big difference between 3rd and 6th graders.

The heat made everything worse, but there was this odd long moment of total, awesome bizarreness that I thought I'd share. This occurred, I think, when I was asking a question to the class, and everyone was pretty much ignoring me. Here's what the class looked like (wish I'd had my video camera):

The overbearing girl, Bunny, was up by the door, swinging it open and closed repeatedly to create a breeze. Sleepy head boy, Pam (he chose the name not knowing it's a girl's name. I haven't the heart to tell him), was asleep with his forehead on the edge of the desk. Next to him, another boy, John, had changed seats to be by the swinging door, and had collapsed his head into his arms on the desk. One of the shy girls, Lauren, was just staring off into space. That was the back row. In the front row, two of the oldest kids, Ruby and Hollis, were doodling and I think making googley eyes at each other, and to top it all off, Any (pronounced "Annie"), the ADHD girl, had turned her chair sideways and was sitting backwards in it, facing the wall, and rocking deeply back and forth, saying "This is very relaxing" over and over and over and over. The only way she can control herself from screaming and running around is by putting herself into a trance. That trance lasted about ten minutes, complete with mantra.

As I paused, superficially to let them think about my question, but really because I had just given up on trying to teach them, I surveyed the classroom and that sight. Then I just started laughing at the sheer lunacy that they had settled into. Ruby asked what I was laughing at, and I told her to look at the class. She got the joke. I think she said, "Oh, crazy people," laughed, and went back to her doodling. Oh, the joys of teaching.

Korea Questions... Concluded?

Has teaching been more difficult than you expected? What are the kids like?

Teaching hasn't been more difficult, exactly, just less appealing. Teaching here isn't like what you would expect back home. Especially in public schools, it's mostly just a "warm body" job. So the key to not going crazy about how little the kids are learning and how poor the system is, as far as I can tell, is to just remember that you're not supposed to make the kids fluent in a year, and that you're just following what the school wants you to do. This is supposed to be your adventure, too, so don't get stressed over what happens at school. Everyone I've talked to who works in a public school feels pissed off at first about the system, but they learn to accept it and have fun. If you're in a public school, you probably won't be able to converse with the kids much, unless you have some kids who also go to hagwons (private academies). A friend of mine who has several hundred students tells me he can only talk to a handful of them, and the rest he can only communicate with through his Korean coteacher, who translates.

I've gathered that at public school, the English classes are largely taught in Korean, which is probably why the kids learn so little. That, and the fact that they memorize everything instead of learning it. The Seoul teacher gave me this example: you can ask a kid "Where are you from?" and he will respond, "I am from Korea." But if you ask, "What city are you from?" he has no idea what you're saying.

Besides the actual teaching part, you also have to get used to the kids. I was warned by a friend who taught in Japan that Korean kids are supposed to be whiny. This is somewhat true. I think a more accurate term would be "tattletale," though, to the extreme. These kids have no honor, which I found surprising since we're in the land of honor. As it turns out, the Asian concept of honor and respect are much different than ours. For example, I was told by a public teacher in Seoul that respect in the classroom means getting there on time and wearing indoor slippers to class; not doing these things merits getting hit. However, not doing homework, talking in class, hitting other students, etc. do not merit punishment.

Regarding punishment, you might have to get used to the teachers hitting the kids. It seems like a common practice. Foreigners are not allowed to hit students, so you won't be expected to punish any kids, though.

Is there anything you wish you'd known before going to Korea?

Probably the one thing I most would have liked to know before coming was that the level of English fluency among the general population is low. I was led to believe that most people speak a little English here, but I was not told that the extent of that English is usually "please," "thank you," "hello," "goodbye," and numbers one to ten. I would have come anyway, of course, but had I known that, I would have gotten Rosetta Stone before I got here and studied more. Not being able to speak to anyone was frustrating at first, but I've both gotten used to it and learned enough to muddle through when I need to. Some people do speak English well, though, like bank tellers. My hairdresser speaks decent English, too. Children also speak English, of course, and they will approach you on the street and probably tell you you are beautiful (or handsome). Every day. It's nice.

There are benefits to not knowing much of the language, though, I must say. You don't get as annoyed with commercials if you don't know what they're saying, and you don't have to listen to annoying conversations in public. You can also get away with stuff with the "stupid foreigner" ruse, should you feel the need to get away with something.

Korea Questions Continued

Do you pay for everything in cash? What's the bank account situation?

Cash: I hardly ever use it. I use my debit card, which is widely accepted, and which draws from my Korean bank account. Getting the bank account set up was a little harder than I thought, but still not very hard, just time consuming. Although you can get a bank account with just your passport, it takes longer to set up than if you wait to do that until after you get your alien registration ID. Getting the ID takes a week, though, and you can't exchange American money at the bank until you get a bank account. It all seems a bit complicated. The way I did it (and really was not given a choice by my bosses, and was guided through this whole thing) was to get the registration card first and have one of my bosses take my money to the bank and exchange it himself. For some reason was not allowed to withdraw it from his bank account right away, so his mom gave me 100k won to borrow. By the time I got the ID card, payday had come, so I got my first paycheck, plus the money I exchanged from American money, in cash. Once I was able to take the alien card to the bank and open the account, I put some money in my account and wired the rest to my American account. I was given a debit card at the time I opened the account. During this whole process, I was with either one of my bosses or their parents to help me and translate and such.

What's with the alien registration/ID card?

When you get here, you have to go to the immigration office to register as a foreign resident. You are issued an identification card, which you need to carry around as if it were a driver license or other important ID. You use it to identify yourself at the hospital, to pick up bus or train tickets you get online, etc. You also need it should you ever get stopped by a police officer, or whatever, as unlikely an event that is. Important: I was not told I would need any more passport pictures, but you need two to get your alien registration ID. Having to get them done here delayed everything above by a couple days, because they place my boss took me to didn't have one hour photo, and I think we had to wait a couple days because they were closed on Sunday or something. Bring two passport sized photos for the ID. If you need any more photos, you can get them here for pretty cheap (ten photos for 10k won was what I got), but already having them expedites things.

Are credit cards accepted anywhere?

Visa/Mastercard seem extremely widely accepted. I carry around an American Express, and ironically, the only place that's ever been rejected was at a restaurant on the American air force base up north, which runs on American currency. You'd think the military would take AMERICAN Express. Jerks.

Is it difficult to get clothing that fits? What about shoes?

Purchasing clothes has been somewhat difficult, less because of size issues than because they're freaking stuck in the 80s here. It's hilarious and awful. I go to the stores and just laugh and cry. Since most Koreans are quite thin, most clothing here is small. There are a lot of foreigners here, though, and it seems like the country caters more and more to them as time goes on. Even if you can't find good clothing in your city, you can always try shopping in Seoul, Busan, or other big cities. Larger people be warned, though. It's difficult to find clothes that fit no matter where you go in this country, or so I hear. The two other Western teachers at my school aren't particularly fat, but have like beer bellies, and even they can't get clothes here.

It's possible that shoes would be okay anywhere. People are taller here than I expected, so that might result in larger feet. I have small feet, so I haven't noticed shoe sizes too much.

Bras could be a big problem for some women. They only have A and B cups here. So if you're bigger than that, make sure you stock up, because you'll have to mail order them if you don't. Or pay a ton from some sort of specialty store, if there are any.

Also, good luck figuring out the way sizes work here. I haven't. My shoe size is 235, my shirt size is 90, and the jeans I bought here are 71-94. The only size that makes sense is the bra size, which is measured in centimeters.

Is everything cheaper in Korea than in the US?

I originally had the idea that things cost less here than back home, but I was WRONG. I don't think I've seen a single thing in this country that costs less than it does in the US or Canada. I bet rice does, but I don't buy rice, so I don't know. Oh, and food from street vendors, but we don't have those anyway. Clothes don't cost more, per se, unless you're shopping at the department stores. Then the prices make you want to vomit. Most of what little clothing I've bought here was from E-Mart, which is like a Super Target, and an easy to find chain. You pay 15-30k won for a button down shirt, 7-25k won for a t-shirt, 10-30k won for pants, and so on. There are many American shoes here, like Converse, Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc. They seem to cost exactly the same amount as in the US.

What are the differences between public and private schools?

Let me talk about public schools first, based on what I've heard from others:

Teaching in public school involves very little responsibility, from what I can tell. As a teacher, you are mostly responsible for coming up with lesson plans and fun activities for classes. You don't have to work very much, usually between 20 and 30 hours a week, and you don't have to give or correct homework. You work with a Korean coteacher, who translates for you and runs the class. Because you have that coteacher, you can actually use your sick days if you need them, and you get plenty of them. You can also choose your vacation because the coteacher is there to conduct the class. You get a lot of days off when the school is not in session.

There are disadvantages. One is that the classes are huge and the kids don't really speak any English, unless they also go to private school on the side (rich kids). This means you don't get to talk to the kids much. That kind of sucks, I'm sure. Another is that the education system in this country is complete and utter bullshit and it gets frustrating that you have to follow such a slowly paced curriculum. For example, a teacher told me he had to spend two weeks on "hello," "hi," and "goodbye." Ouch. A major drawback I've noticed is that the contract stipulates that you have to be at school for certain times even when school is not in session, and they don't give you work to do, as far as I know. This means you sit at your desk and read or play solitaire for 8 hours a day, and you can't leave. Finally, you don't get the personal attention at a public school as you do at a private school. Consider the following example regarding a teacher in Seoul, who came here through a program called EPIK, and was placed at a public school:

One guy I talk to in Seoul said that his apartment, although I think it had everything it needed in it, was not professionally cleaned before he moved in (the school should be paying for that), and the place was a nightmare. I don't remember if he dealt with it himself or if he paid to have it cleaned, or what, but that situation was bad. Also, his landlord was bothering him a lot at first because the previous tenant (an English teacher, too) had skipped out on three months of utility bills. The school apparently didn't help him out in all this, at least not at first.

I'm teaching at a private academy (hagwon). This has its pros and cons, too, of course. The pros are as follows: I'm in charge of my classes and I do pretty much whatever I want, whether it's in the book or not. My classes have no more than eight kids. I would get a bonus each month for any class that has more than eight kids. There are only four teachers at my school, so it's all very personal, and I can get lots of help from my boss without feeling like I'm one of many teachers nagging her for something. I think private school teachers get paid a little more than public, at least at the entry level.

The cons: I have to work very, very hard, and I hardly get any days off compared to public school teachers. The first few weeks I was here, I didn't have that many classes, so I wasn't working long hours, but in March, the schedule changed, and my class load was increased by over 50%. For the first few weeks, while I was getting used to both teaching and the new schedule, I was working about 50 hours a week, because I taught about seven hours a day and corrected and prepped for about three. I've streamlined it now, so I'm only working 40 hours a week, but that's about 10 hours more per week than the average English teacher here. I do get overtime, though, so it's a good deal. For days off, I get national holidays, and one week at the end of July and one week at the end of December. This is considerably less time than public schoolteachers. I get sick days, I think, but it's difficult to use them, and I haven't used one yet. If I call in sick , my boss has to teach my classes, or cancel them. She gets kind of pissed off when someone calls in sick.

For Those Coming or Thinking About Coming to Korea

I've gotten several comments lately about people coming to Korea who want to ask me questions (some comments not published to protect the innocent), so I figured it worth the effort to post the questions and my answers to benefit anyone interested. Below is a sampling. I'll add more soon.

What is the cost of utilities there?

Utilities for me include a flat apartment management fee of 30k won a month. Internet costs about 36k a month, and cell phone is about 15k a month. It varies a little. All of this is taken directly out of my paycheck, so I don't have to worry about paying bills. I did not have to put down any deposit on anything at all. HOWEVER, as I'm writing this, I just got an IM from a teacher friend of mine whose year is up in September, and he tells me that he had to pay a 700k won safety deposit on his apartment. You should ask your school about this if you're concerned.

What's your apartment like?

My apartment is small, but nice, and it was cleaned professionally before I moved in. This isn't always the case, but usually is, I think. I have a queen size bed with Korean style bedding. This means there is a bedspread similar to any Western style bedspread, but the sheets are not Western. Korean sheets involve just one thin quilt, not fitted, which is lain atop the mattress cover. You don't have a top sheet, so you just sleep under the bedspread. They provided me a pillow, but it was too small for my problematic neck, so I bought another bigger one. Pillow cases in Korea are more like pillow shams, with frills and such. Not the most comfortable. I recommend bringing your own bedding if you can fit it.

For furniture, I have a table with two chairs, a tall bookshelf, a vanity-style cabinet, and a small cabinet. For appliances I have what seems like a new refrigerator (It's not as big as the standard family fridge, but has ample space for one person. It's not like a college fridge or anything.), a tv (Cable is included. There are several channels that play American movies, too.), a washing machine, a two-burner gas range, a rice cooker (which I don't use), and a hot water heater. The apartment came with pretty much all the dishes I need, except for glasses. I had to buy three (they cost a buck) to add to the one mug that they gave me. I did get a brand new set of pots and pans, cutting board, cooking utensils, etc. The only things I've bought for the place are the glasses, a broom, a couple small trashcans, clocks, hand towels, a steam tray, and the pillow.

Is there training?

Despite what I was told before coming here, I was not given any training, nor did I shadow any classes before I jumped in and started teaching. I'm not sure if this happens commonly with private academies. Luckily, my school uses American English textbooks, so I just had to follow the lesson plan. I was given access to the books during the weekend I arrived, so I was able to get a feel for what I was doing beforehand. With teachers going into public schools through programs like EPIK, there are large orientations, but I've heard you don't really learn anything at those. I think in any case, unless you already have teaching experience, it's all pretty much learning to swim by being thrown in the lake. Whatever.

What's the toiletries situation?

I pretty much brought all my toiletries, because I was paranoid about things costing a lot. AND I WAS RIGHT! Now I wish I had brought even more than I did. For the girls, definitely bring tampons--I haven't even noticed any on the shelves. I just put mine in plastic sandwich bags to save space in the suitcase. They have plenty of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, mouthwash, body lotion, and bar soap here, for sooort of decent prices. The toothpaste doesn't have fluoride, but that whole fluoride hype is just hype. Just, you know, brush your teeth. Definitely bring facial cleanser and moisturizer if you use that stuff. Clearasil costs 13k won a bottle. Retarded. They have Korean brands of facial stuff for cheaper (like between 6 and 10k), but it's a little harder to figure out if it's right for your skin.

If you wear contacts, I would recommend bringing plenty of that stuff, too, or at least plenty of eyedrops. I saw a bottle of Renu multipurpose solution at 7-11 the other day that didn't seem to cost much more than in the US, so that might be okay. Bring deodorant. Bring sunscreen! I didn't think of it, and I had to buy a tiny bottle for 11k won. What a ripoff. Bring condoms. They don't seem to sell condoms in droves here. I haven't looked much, but I haven't noticed, either. Medicine! Apparently Koreans don't self medicate, they just go to the doctor to get drugged up. I highly recommend cold and allergy medicines, especially if you're concerned about the yellow dust they have here (it's not severe). I pretty much had a cold the first four or five months I was here, as did the teacher I mentioned above (I don't think it was the dust, though).

What's the visa process like?

The visa process was pretty quick, but a wicked hassle. I overnighted the application with FedEx, then got a call a couple days later saying they had just changed the requirements and I had to go to the "local" Korean consulate for an interview. This meant driving from Maine to Boston for a ten minute interview. It's possible I might have actually gone home with my visaed passport the day of the interview, but the visa processer was on vacation, so they FedExed it back to me a few days later. The whole process only took a week or so, but you should call your consulate to ask about processing time.

Of course getting the visa only happens after you get a bunch of other required documents, like the criminal background check and the medical examination form. I only had to do a criminal background check with the city of Los Angeles, where I was living at the time, but I believe now you have to get either a state or federal check. A city check is a one hour process; the state process takes weeks, and I think the federal check takes months. Best to get that out the way immediately. The medical check was a hassle, too. I called the agency that got me the job in Korea to see if there is a specific form that they had that I could bring. They told me that doctors usually have a general form for this sort of thing. When I called the hospital to find out if this was true, they said the company requiring the exam would have to provide the form; otherwise they wouldn't know what to look for. I ended up digging out the medical examination form I had to fill out to get into college (I can't believe I saved that), and copying all the questions onto a Word document and printing it out. It totally worked.

Speaking of visas, once you get here, you need a visa to leave and come back, if you're taking international trips while here. The US automatically issues a multiple reentry visa on your E-2, but it expires a year after the visa is issued, not a year after you get here. So if, like me, you are travelling internationally the month or two before your contract is up, you have to go over to immigration and get a new reentry visa. This costs 50k won.

Engrish

I went to Daegu yesterday and saw a few cool t-shirts. One guy was wearing a shirt that said:

It always leads me here... and you

I went into a t-shirt shop that had some good ones. There were some old school-looking Super Mario Bros. shirts: "We'll clean your pipes!" Then on the back it said "Ways to score a pringess" and had three panels. The only one I remember is "bling." It was pretty good.

Another t-shirt had a little cartoon zebra on it. It basically said, "My mother was a black horse and my father was a white horse. At school they called me Oreo" and some other funny name, but I don't remember. I should have written it down.

I wanted to buy a shirt, but they were all so big. I think it was really just a men's store. Women don't do big t-shirts in this country, so it must have been. Maybe someday I'll find a nice Engrish shirt in my size. Perhaps I'll grab some over in Japan if I ever get there.

Six Months

As of tonight after work, I will have been here for six months. Time hasn't gone by as slowly as it did when I was in Kenya, which I'm glad of. In Kenya, I was ready to go home after a month, but here after six months, I still feel okay living here. I guess it's just the difference between third and first world countries.

The first three and a half months went by wicked fast. After that it seemed to take forever to get to five months. The last month has gone by at a fair clip. I'm sure the next six weeks will be going by quickly, as I have planned a trip to Thailand, a couple backpacking trips, and some trips visiting my only two friends in Korea, who are both leaving soon.

At this point, I'm beginngin to settle better into my classes. It takes me less time to plan lessons and correct homework now. It's a little more routine. I've also started a reward and punishment system for homework that seems to be working a little better. I'm starting to have a better handle on the whole discipline situation, or I'm at least just not letting the kids get to me.

My Korean skills are getting better, but very, very slowly. I like Rosetta Stone, but I wish it would give me some more useful skills. Saying that the red circle is bigger than the blue square isn't exactly something I need, although the individual parts of the sentence have their applications.

I'm a bit concerned that I haven't had the chance to leave the country yet. I had wanted to take long weekend trips to maybe Hong Kong or Tokyo, but that just hasn't happened yet. Now that I only have a couple more three day weekends, I'm afraid I won't actually get to do all the things I wanted to do. I still have a week long vacation in December, but I want to go someplace a bit further than China or Japan, and not in a city, for that.

Other than not meeting my travel (and financial) expectations yet, everything's going pretty well. Now time to get ready for work.

Boryeong Mud Festival

Greetings from one of the Boryeong Mud Festival characters. Yes, he has two eyes, but his hand happened to be right in front of one when I clicked:



Boryeong, a small coastal city up in the northwest of Korea started having a mud festival 11 years ago. This event has become the big go-to event for tourists, and many Koreans also attend. This year it runs from July 12th to the 20th. The town is pretty sleepy during the other three seasons, but because the beaches are so nice, it gets pretty hopping during the summer, and it peaks during the festival, of course. I feel bad for the locals, but I'm sure all the businesses make tons and tons of money for that 9 day period.

Here are some muddy visitors. There were a number of tables with buckets of mud and paintbrushes, so you could paint your skin and not your clothes. The clothes get muddy anyway, so I think the draw must be that painting is fun.



I received an email from ASK Now, the company that got me out here, organizing a trip, with buses from Seoul and Busan. Busan is about an hour away from me. I asked my friend Kent if he wanted to go, and he did. He took the bus from Seoul, since he's up north. The trip consisted mostly of foreign English teachers, mostly Canadian (ASK Now is a Canadian company), but since the Busan trip was run by a Korean travel agency, and since people were allowed to bring any non-teacher friends, there were also some other foreigners and Koreans on the tour.
The package included the bus trip to the festival and accommodations at a minbak, a Korean guesthouse, and for those of us going from Busan, breakfast and a free Kangsan Travel t-shirt given out at Saturday's departure. The shirt is yellow. I like it. The trip would put us at the festival from lunchtime Saturday to late afternoon on Sunday, getting us back to Busan in the late evening.

This trip, which should have been a total blast from start to finish, had its ups and downs. Unfortunately, there were more of the latter. The first one was just getting there. I had to get up before 3am on Saturday to take a train into Busan, and a taxi to the meeting point. Luckily, my boss offered to drive me to the train station at o'dark-thirty, which was very nice of her, so I didn't have to take a taxi.

Once I got to the meeting point, I saw a bunch of white folks hanging around in a circle with backpacks. I asked them if they were going to Boryeong, and they said yes, so I stood around with them until someone indicated a bus to get on. After talking to this kid next to me for a while, one of the travel agents got up at the front and announced that there were too many people on the bus, and they should have enough seats, so there must be some people here who don't belong. It never occurred to me that there would be more than one trip going out from the same spot. I asked the lady if they were with Kangsan travel, and she said no, so I was on the wrong bus. As it turned out, the boy next to me, despite having shown the bus driver his confirmation printout, was also on the wrong bus. By the time he found that out, though, his bus had gone. He was actually able to get a one way ticket on my bus for not too much more than he'd already paid, so we ended up sitting together again. I told him not to feel bad about paying again, because he got breakfast, a t-shirt, and a last-minute bus ride for only 15 bucks.
We were supposed to leave at 7:00, but of course someone was late, and we ended up leaving almost 20 minutes late. We were scheduled to arrive at Boryeong at 11:30, but we didn't get there until 1:00. That really pissed everyone off. I'm not sure if the travel agency misjudged the actual travel time or if the bus driver (whose name was coincidentally Kangsan, same as the agency) was just a slow driver. Luckily, there was a group of Canadian teachers right behind me who were being very entertaining the whole trip. Unluckily that meant I didn't get to take a nap on the bus.

When we finally got there, I had a bit of a hard time finding Kent, who had been at the festival for two hours already, but we finally found each other and he walked me over to the main event area, where there were thousands and thousands of muddy people. I've never been to Spring Break, but it's pretty similar to this shindig. Probably 80% of the foreigners were drunk, and I'm sure a similar percentage of the Koreans were also drunk, whether or not they had children with them. People were allowed to walk around with open alcohol containers, too, which I thought was pretty cool and convenient. Apparently most people consider drunkenness to be a necessity at this event.

The beach was covered in neat little rows of umbrellas; umbrellas on tables, umbrellas on picnic platforms, and umbrellas stuck in the sand with beach chairs and/or picnic pads next to them for people to enjoy. There were even loads and loads of free inner tubes in neat piles on the sand, so you could just grab one and return it when you were finished swimming, or taking a nap in it.

The first thing I did was get in line for the mud vat with Kent. The picture on the side of it showed it being like chest deep, but when I finally climbed up the ladder and over the side, I found it to only be ankle deep. So many people had gone through by then that the mud had dwindled. There were buckets in there to dump mud on yourself or others. Kent went ahead and dumped mud in my eye like an asshole, and since I have issues with even clean water being in my eye, I had to walk right down to the beach to wash it out with burny salt water. I was a little grumpy by this time.

Here are some of the mud apparati. The first one, I think, is some sort of obstacle course. The second one might just be a mud pool, but it looks like it's losing air. I don't even remember taking this picture, actually.

Second, we decided to get in line for one of the mud slides. This line was about a mile long. That's the only big problem with this festival. You have to wait in line forever to do the cool things. There isn't just a huge pool of mud or anything. It's brought in and placed in vats and slides and pools and barrels and such, and not everyone can fit at the same time. We waited for over an hour for this slide, and then just as we were almost next in line, it suddenly lost a bunch of air. The lady doing the announcing for the slide kept telling people that it would take more than twenty minutes to fix and we should go enjoy the rest of the festival. But since most of us had invested so much time, and would just have to go get into another line, we sat our asses down and waited. It actually only took about ten minutes to refill the slide. It kind of burned my skin going down, since there really wasn't any mud on the slide. Oh, well.

After the mud slide, we wandered around a bit and ended up in the muddy pool. It was this shallow pool with about a foot of water and a fine layer of mud at the bottom. It also had this big spout overhead shooting muddy water into the middle. It was fun to stand in front of.

This is not the muddy pool I'm talking about, but it is a pool with mud in it:

By the time we exited the pool, it was rolling around to 4:00, and I hadn't eaten hardly all day. We decided to walk back to the minbak, take a shower, grab some food, and start drinking. I don't know how it was so easy for me to forget about the food and just start drinking, but that happened. Much of what follows is a complete blank for me, but I do remember spending a lot of time hurling on the beach amidst thousands of tourists, and I think I remember wailing, "Why did you do this to meeeee?" at some point. Needless to say, I missed the rest of that day's festival, which included fireworks and probably other cool stuff, or at least just more playing in mud. Kent said it was the fastest deterioration he'd ever seen. One minute I was fine, then three minutes later I was completely incapacitated. I don't remember the transition. Or much before it. Or after.

Because we had to check out of the minbak at 11:00 the next day, but the buses didn't leave until later in the afternoon, Kent and I and the other people staying in the room with us decided not to get muddy on Sunday. We could have taken showers at the public beach showers, but we would have had to take our bags with us to have something to change into, which wouldn't work, of course. The trip was poorly planned in that respect. So after breakfast at the convenience store, we left our bags on our buses and wandered around the beach and the outskirts of the festival, looking at the little shops and stands and such. It was wicked muggy, and awful weather. I wished I had put my bathing suit on, but I didn't think of it, as hung over as I was.

This is the first time I've seen this much haze in Korea without it being smog. It was quite foggy out. What you can barely see the catamarans in the water, but they're there, and they're all being towed in a circle for some reason.

Here are more of the neat lines of umbrellas:


Here are some sharks for Dana. I won't tell you for her sake what kind of establishment the tanks were in front of.



A little bit before 4, my bus left for Busan. It wasn't as long a trip this time, and I was able to sleep for most of it. Luckily the entertaining Canadians were on the other bus this time, and everyone one this bus was either boring or quiet. No one sat next to me, so I didn't have to talk to, or ignore, someone.

When we got back to Busan, one of the travel agents asked how I was getting home. I told her I was going to take the train home, but she suggested I take the subway to the bus station and bus home, since it's faster and cheaper. She pointed me to the subway station, but when she herself went over there once she had finished seeing the rest of the crew off, she found me wandering around it, completely confused. I'm not very good with the subways here. She helped me get a ticket from the machine, and rode with me most of the way, since she lives near the bus station. And she was glad to help me with all this. Koreans are like that.

So the mud fest could have been better, but I still had some fun. Maybe if I come back to Korea for another year, I'll try it again.

Stay Tuned

This weekend I'm going to the Boryeong Mud Festival, up on the northwest coast. I'm not sure if I'll be able to take any pictues, being as muddy as I'll be, but I'm bringing the camera just in case. In any case I'm sure I'll have an interesting story or two to tell. Here's the festival's website to check out in the meantime:

http://www.mudfestival.or.kr/lang/en/index.jsp

I noticed there was a live feed on there, so you should be able to see what's going on there, if you look at the right time (remember we're 13 hours ahead of the east coast). Maybe you'll even see me, although you won't recognize me, maybe...

Transferring English to Hangeul and Romanization of Hangeul

When I first started taking Korean classes in LA, my teacher said that Koreans pride themselves on their language being able to approximate sounds and words from any language. What he failed to mention was how poorly this is accomplished, at least for English. I'm going to forego quotation marks for letters and sounds in this entry because it's just too much work.


In addition to there being no letter to represent b, d, g, j, k, l, and r as we know them, you might also have noticed that Hangeul doesn't have letters or sounds for f, q, v, x, z, long and short a, long and short i, and short u. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure about that last one. The short o (eo)sound seems to either vary between sound like a short o and a short u, or simply be a sound that is in between.


Because of these sounds not being represented, translators have to get creative when transferring names of products, movies, people, and borrowed words from English to Korean. Sounds for f and v are replaced by the aspirated p, p'ieup, and sounds for x and z are replaced by the j sound, chieut. They even use chieut for z's that don't make a z sound, like in pizza. As I mentioned in a previous entry, they could easily say and spell peet-sa with what they've got, but instead it becomes pija, because they get thrown by the z, a double z, even. Q being somewhat rare as it is, I don't think I've encountered it yet, but I imagine they just use the g/k sound, kiyeok, plus the w diphthongs. Long a is made by putting short e and long e next to each other. Short a is replaced by short e. Long i is made by putting the a and long e sounds next to each other. Short i is replaced by long e. Short u is replaced by short o.


Lack of appropriate letters isn't the only problem turning English words into Hangeul. There is also the set of pronunciation rules to deal with. The salient rule is the one involving not combining consonant sounds in the same syllable, as English loves to do. The way they get around this is by adding the eu sound to the end of each consonant, making each consonant get its own syllable.


Yet another rule involves the fact that there are only seven consonant sounds a syllable can end with. The other letters can end syllables, but their sounds change to one of the seven sounds, based on the place the sound is made in the mouth. This is the only common occurrence in the language that I can think of that is not phonetic. There are others, but they're relatively infrequent (I think). So when an English syllable ends in a sound that can't be at the end of a Korean syllable, the eu sound is added there, as well. Sometimes they add he eu sound even if the letter can be at the end of a syllable, though I'm not sure why.

Before I can give you examples of what I'm talking about, I have to explain the Romanization process. Because I can't type in Korean letters here without cutting and pasting each letter from somewhere, I'll have to Romanize my examples, so you need to know how that works. The first thing to know is that some of the letters make different sound depending on where it appears in the word--beginning, middle, or end. I'll give you the Romanization for each instance and any other pertinent information.


ㄱ
initial sound k-
medial sound -g-
final sound -k

ㄲ
gg-
-gg-
-k

ㄴ
n-
-n-
-n

ㄷ
t-
-d-
-t

ㄸ
dd-
-dd-
Cannot appear at the end of a syllable

ㄹ
r-
-r-
-l

ㅁ
m-
-m-
-m

ㅂ
p-
-b-
-p

ㅃ
bb-
-bb-
Cannot appear at the end of a syllable

ㅅ
s-
-s-
-t
When ㅅ precedes ㅣit makes an "sh" sound, but it is never Romanized "shi." It is still written as "si" and you just have to know that rule.

ㅆ
ss-
-ss-
-t

ㅇ
Makes no sound at the beginning of a syllable
-ng-
-ng

ㅈ
ch/j-
-j-
-t

ㅉ
cc-
-cc-
Cannot appear at the end of a syllable

In the following few letters, the apostrophe indicates aspiration and is what distinguishes the Romanized letter from the ones for the unaspirated sounds:

ㅊ
ch'-
-ch'-
-t

ㅋ
k'-
-k'-
-k

ㅌ
t'-
-t'-
-t

ㅍ
p'-
-p'-
-p

ㅎ
h-
-h-
-t

And here's a reminder about the vowel Romanizations and pronunciations:

ㅏ
a
as in "father"

ㅓ
eo
as in "hot"

ㅗ
o
as in "home"

ㅜ
u
as in "assume"

ㅐ
ae
as in "bear"

ㅔ
e
as in "met"

ㅡ
eu
as in "put"

ㅣ
i
as in "meet"

ㅑ
ya

ㅕ
yeo

ㅛ
yo

ㅠ
yu

ㅒ
yae

ㅖ
ye

ㅚ
oe
as if you were saying "oh, well" fast, but take off the l's

ㅘ
wa
as in "water"

ㅙ
wae
as in "wear"

ㅟ
wi
as in "we"

ㅝ
wo
as in "wall"

ㅞ
we
as in "went"

ㅢ
ui
as if you were saying the French "oui" without moving your lips

So finally, here are some examples of what I'm talking about. Say them out loud. The common nouns are loaners assimilated into Korean. The hyphens separate syllables.

tent
t'en-t'eu

fork
p'eo-keu

tomato
t'o-ma-t'o

piano
p'i-a-no

coffee
k'eo-p'i

Angelina Jolie
an-che-ri-na cho-ri

Harry Potter
hae-ri p'eo-t'a

Matrix
me-i-t'eu-ri-jeu

Here are some with the Hangeul that I copied out of the tv schedule online:

Illusionist
il-ru-syeo-ni-seu-t'eu
일루셔니스트

Nanny McPhee
nae-ni maek-p'i
내니맥피

Land of the Dead
laen-deu o-beu de-deu (they always omit "the")
랜드오브데드

V for Vendetta
peu-i p'o pen-de-t'a
브이포벤데타

Consonants

Hangeul has 14 consonants. The design behind these letters has significance, as well. When King Sejong designed the consonants, he made them into shapes that represent the shape of the mouth as it makes the sound. Additionally, certain strokes represent certain things, such as aspiration and force of the sound. Pretty interesting.


Each letter has a name, of course, but I was told by one of my Korean teachers that when people say the alphabet, they don't say the name, they just make the sound of each consonant, followed by an "a" sound. So it goes ga, na, da, ra, ma, and so on. The way most of the letters are named is cool, though, and easy to remember. You simply start with the sound of the consonant, add the "ㅣ" (long "e") sound, then add the "ㅡ" ("eu") sound, then end with the sound of the consonant again. A few of the letters don't follow that rule, due to certain restrictions coming from Chinese at the time of Hangeul's invention. North Korea actually went on to regularize those letter names, but South Korea never did.


Alphabetical order is called "ganada" order, "ga," "na," and "da" being the first three sounds made when saying the alphabet. Compare to "ABC order" or even "alphabetagamma order." The actual order seems to be somewhat variable. According to Wikipedia.org, the order I am about to present the letters in is the current South Korean standard. In my Korean textbook, however, the index is presented with the "double" letters at the end. North Korea uses the latter order, except with the distinction between the two functions of the letter "ieung," which I will discuss below. Vowels are not mixed in with the consonants. They are usually placed at the end, I believe. When using the order to organize words, as in a dictionary, in the case of "ieung" appearing only once in the alphabet, the words beginning with a vowel are placed within that letter's listing (again, see below).

Here are the letters and some info about each one:

ㄱ
giyeok (기역)
This letter makes a sound that is between a "g" and a "k." It is not aspirated. The symbol represents the back of the tongue rising up to touch the back of the palate on the roof of the mouth.

ㄲ
ssanggiyeok (쌍기역)
This letter makes a really hard "g" sound. "Ssang" means "twin" or "double."


ㄴ
nieun (니은)
This letter makes an "n" sound. The symbol shows the tip of the tongue rising up to touch the ridge behind the teeth.

ㄷ
digeut (디귿)
This letter makes a sound that is between a "d" and a "t." It is not aspirated. The symbol represents the same tongue shape as with "ㄴ" but the top line indicates firm contact with the roof of the mouth.


ㄸ
ssangdigeut (쌍디귿)
When I was learning how to read Hangeul back in LA, my teacher told us that this letter makes a really hard "d" sound, but Rosetta Stone seems to pronounce it more like a hard "t." I guess either it varies by speaker, or my ear isn't enough in tune yet to understand what I'm hearing.

ㄹ
rieul (리을)
This letter makes a sound that is between an "l" and an "r," and is where we get the confusion with, for example,"rice" and "lice." It is formed by tapping the tongue at the center of the roof of the mouth, as opposed to touching it to the gum ridge for "l" or lowering and curling it for "r." In lingustistics, this action is called a "flap" (and so is the letter). This is a very hard sound to make, and evidently a very hard sound to leave behind when learning Western languages. The symbol represents the same tongue formation as "ㄴ," with the rop representing the flap.


ㅁ
mieum (미음)
This letter makes an "m" sound. The symbols shows the lips coming together to make the sound (a little abstract).

ㅂ
bieup (비읍)
This sound makes a sound between a "b" and a "p." I like to think of it as the alien head letter. It is not aspirated. The symbol represents the shape of the mouth, as in "ㅁ," but the extended vertical lines indicate the sound bursting from the mouth.

ㅃ
ssangbieup (쌍비읍)
This letter makes a hard "b" sound.

ㅅ
siot (시옷)
This letter makes a soft "s" sound, like in "snow." The symbol represents a side view of the (bottom) teeth. I'm not sure why it's drawn this way, since that sound has nothing to do with those teeth. I'd like to officially theorize that Sejong meant the line on the right to represent the tongue rising up to the gum ridge, and the line on the left to indicate the front of the gum ridge descending toward the upper teeth.

ㅆ
ssangsiot (쌍시옷)
This letter makes a hard "s" sound, as in "song."

ㅇ
ieung (이응)
This letter has two functions (yes, now we come to it). The consonantic function is that of the "ng" sound. It is more commonly used, however, as a "null" letter, to be placed in front of syllables the want to begin with a vowel. As I said in the Vowels entry, no syllable can actually begin with a vowel (I don't know why). So this silent consonant is placed before the beginning vowel to make it legitimate. The symbol shows the shape of the throat, which is near where the "ng" sound is made.

ㅈ
jieut (지읒)
This letter makes a "j" or "dge" sound. The shape comes from the shape of "ㅅ," with the top line indicating firm contact of the tongue tip with the gum ridge.


ㅉ
ssangjieut (쌍지읒)
This letter makes a hard "dge" sound.

ㅊ
chieut (치읓)
This letter makes a "ch" sound. The shape is derived from "ㅈ," with the small top line indicating aspiration.

ㅋ
kieuk (키읔)
This letter is much closer to our actual "k" sound. In English, "k" is aspirated, which is what makes it different from "g." Kieuk and giyeok have a similar distinction, The shape of "ㅋ" comes from "ㄱ," with the lower horizontal line representing that aspiration.

ㅌ
tieut (티읕)
This letter is the aspirated form of "ㄷ," which is what the middle line represents. Again, this letter is more like our "t" than "ㄷ" is, because our "t" is aspirated.

ㅍ
pieup (피읖)
Another aspirated letter, this one is much like our "p." It comes from "ㅂ," although the shape got a bit mangled in the process of adding that extra top stroke for aspiration. Maybe someone had one too many soju shots.

ㅎ
hieut (히읗)
This letter makes an "h" sound. It comes from "ㅇ." The top line represents the aspiration, and the middle line is from an obsolete letter, which was a glottal stop. A glottal stop is a cutting off of sound, like at the end of the first syllable in "uh-oh."


I did not include the Romanization of the consonants like I did with the vowels, but I'm going to have an entry explaining that process with both letters and words soon, so you'll see how that goes.