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At my school, and I assume other private English academies here, children get tested to determine what level class they should enter as they enroll. It seems to me that these tests aren't very effective. I have at least one or two kids in several of my classes who can't put a sentence together, or even a semblance of a sentence, while others in the same class are writing whole paragraphs and stories that pretty much make sense and that have only minor errors. It's really hard to teach to groups like that.
Here is an example. The assignment was to write a short story using sequence words "first," "next," "then," and "last," and to elaborate in between to make the story longer than four sentences and more interesting. This is in a class at level C1 (out of 2), which I think, is a third grade level for native speakers. This is what one kid wrote:
of farst is and Next and last is it
or samtimes many differeurnt or farst
Next last is we are make is it
and coud sosoantime camel of this
it. camel hoses cam citen cat
cat an farst Next last have it
we pepol to. have it farst Next
last. We coudn't heve one day
live in here and die or today
times qacrouck camel to on life
It's pretty poetic, actually. This is what most of his homework looks like. I told him that he shouldn't vomit language onto the paper, and that he should get help from me or another teacher if he doesn't understand the homework, but they never do that.
This is what another kid in the same class wrote:
First, The Mrs. McNoch have big pump seed.
Next, the pump grow same as a soccer ball.
Then Mrs. McNosh have soccer.
Last, the Mrs. Mcnosh is happy.
We had just read a story called "Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash" about a woman who grows a squash as big as a house, who then digs it out and lives in it. I'm not sure if he misunderstood the homework and thought he was supposed to retell the story (the kids have trouble remembering the word "squash," but I mentioned pumpkin when trying to explain it, and they know that one), or if he was just being lazy and decided to rip off the story. Either way, the sentences are his own and they are easy to understand, albeit with a number of errors.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Pohang
Friday, June 6th is Memorial Day here in Korea, so I get a three day weekend. This will be my last day off until my vacation in late July, I believe. I had planned to go to an island called Ulleung-do with my friend from the air force. It's off the east coast, and the closest ferry to it leaves from Pohang, which is an hour and twenty minute bus ride from here. Ulleung is supposed to be not extremely touristy, but touristy enough that there are a few places to stay. It's a three or three and a half hour ferry ride from Pohang, depending on which ferry you get (I think only two go per day). There are hiking trails, waterfalls, beaches, rock formations, stuff like that. It's a good place to get away from it all.
We decided to go to Pohang this weekend to get the ferry tickets in advance, because the ferry might be full if we just went on Friday, it being a holiday weekend and all. So we took the bus over there, and got our bearings, sort of, at the Pohang bus terminal. We guessed at the direction the ferry terminal would be in, since the only maps we had were from my guidebook and not very specific. It's hard to read streets maps in Korea, anyway, because their address system is not like ours, nor do they give directions in the same way, so street names are not as important, and many streets aren't labeled.
We knew the terminal was at least two miles away, based on the vague map, but we figured sine it was a nice day and a new place to see, we'd walk it and see how we fared. We started seeing street signs after a bit, so we ended up getting there without getting lost. We walked through a big market with food, clothing, and other wares on the way. It took almost two hours to get there, so even though we weren't walking all the fast, I think it was a bit more than two miles from the bus terminal to the ferry terminal. Good exercise.
When we got inside the terminal, it was like a ghost town. It was a really clean and polished placed, with lots of waiting chairs, nice restrooms, and even a reading room (with a wall of filled bookshelves). But no employees at their posts. And no bells to call them. We kind of hung around for a few minutes looking at the schedules and fares on the wall, hoping maybe someone would come out from taking a break or something, but nothing happened. We thought about calling the number listed on the wall, but I was afraid they wouldn't speak English enough. I had written down a few key Korean words in order to communicate what we wanted and was hoping for the best. I hadn't expected there to be no one around.
Finally I decided to impose on the office I had seen when I went to the restroom. There was a guy in there working on a computer, and it didn't seem like he would be able to sell us tickets, but he could at least go get someone. I memorized the word for "ticketing" from the sign, and went in there and said it with the standard "confused foreigner" look. He got up and brought me over the the counter and went to find someone who could speak English. I asked him if we could buy tickets to Ulleung-do for Friday, and he said, "This Friday, June 6? Oh, no, that's been full since two months ago. It's a holiday weekend, you know."
Thwarted. We have now concluded that Koreans plan ahead. Way ahead. Which means, of course, that pretty much any other place we wanted to go will be full by now, too. We brainstormed for a while and decided that camping might be the only viable option, since the ground doesn't fill up, per se. We ended up choosing Byeonsan Bando National Park to try. That's about a six hour bus ride from me, with two transfers, I think. It's on the west coast, at about the same latitude at Ulsan, but there are no direct roads or train routes. I'm not even sure if that's going to work out, since I don't know if you can buy bus tickets in advance. I'm going to have to check on that.
After we were given the bad news at the terminal, we went out for lunch in front of the beach nearby. Almost all the restaurants were seafood, but I didn't feel like choosing my own fish or dealing with eating fish, or paying too much money for fresh fish, so we went into the first non-seafood looking place we could find. It looked nice, but I was too lazy to really figure out what was on the menu, so I just pointed to some soup and ordered that for us. It ended up being cold soup and wasn't very good. The whole meal was only ten bucks, though, including all the side dishes that are standard. So it wasn't like we wasted a bunch of money.
Then we went to the beach. It had been a hot day, which I was surprised at. If it weren't 5:30 when we finally got to the beach, it might have been hot enough to warrant swimming (we wore swimsuits in case), or at least wading. As it was, we just stepped a little into the water, and it was quite cold, like in Maine. We walked a little, but ended up just plopping down after a few minutes to look at the guidebook for a new idea and to just rest.
There were some windsailers and jetskiers about, and families with kids running around. Those were fun to watch. I made a little turtle sculpture in the sand. We left after like a half hour.
We decided to take a taxi back, since it was such a long walk and we were tired. There was a long line of taxis at the ferry terminal, so we went back there. I memorized the phrase (intercity bus terminal" from the big map outside and went over to the taxi's. The drivers were all out of their cars, playing some game and betting. We asked for a ride to the bus terminal, and we had kind of a mixed language conversation about where we were going eventually. One guy offered us a ride to Ulsan, but when we declined that far a trip, he directed us to the main road where we had seen a couple unmanned taxis and some city buses.
We walked back to the main road, and as we passed the taxis, at this point figuring we'd have to flag one down, a guy absolutely spuh-rinted from a food stand across the street and called "Tak-shi? Tak-shi?" to us. I told him where we wanted to go, and he said okay, so we got in. The guy from the other unmanned taxi came around and talked to our driver for a second and then walked away grumbling because he didn't get the fare. That was funny. Snooze, lose.
On the way to the terminal, the driver asked us where we were going, and when I said Ulsan, if we wanted a ride all the way there. I said no, now just the bus terminal (in my broken Korean). The reaction from this taxi driver and the first one led us to believe that ferry riders are rich enough to tend to just take a taxi from there all the way home, even if it's in another city. Any of the guys at the terminal could easily have taken us, but they apparently wanted to wait for bigger fares. But no way could we take a taxi all the way back home. It cost almost as much take the taxi the couple miles to the bus terminal as it cost to ride the bus all the way home. I can't imagine what the taxi fee would be.
So that was my trip to Pohang. I forgot to bring a camera, but there wasn't much to take a picture of, since the most interesting thing we did was go to the beach. You can see pictures of Pohang, though, at pohangcity.net, if you really want.
We decided to go to Pohang this weekend to get the ferry tickets in advance, because the ferry might be full if we just went on Friday, it being a holiday weekend and all. So we took the bus over there, and got our bearings, sort of, at the Pohang bus terminal. We guessed at the direction the ferry terminal would be in, since the only maps we had were from my guidebook and not very specific. It's hard to read streets maps in Korea, anyway, because their address system is not like ours, nor do they give directions in the same way, so street names are not as important, and many streets aren't labeled.
We knew the terminal was at least two miles away, based on the vague map, but we figured sine it was a nice day and a new place to see, we'd walk it and see how we fared. We started seeing street signs after a bit, so we ended up getting there without getting lost. We walked through a big market with food, clothing, and other wares on the way. It took almost two hours to get there, so even though we weren't walking all the fast, I think it was a bit more than two miles from the bus terminal to the ferry terminal. Good exercise.
When we got inside the terminal, it was like a ghost town. It was a really clean and polished placed, with lots of waiting chairs, nice restrooms, and even a reading room (with a wall of filled bookshelves). But no employees at their posts. And no bells to call them. We kind of hung around for a few minutes looking at the schedules and fares on the wall, hoping maybe someone would come out from taking a break or something, but nothing happened. We thought about calling the number listed on the wall, but I was afraid they wouldn't speak English enough. I had written down a few key Korean words in order to communicate what we wanted and was hoping for the best. I hadn't expected there to be no one around.
Finally I decided to impose on the office I had seen when I went to the restroom. There was a guy in there working on a computer, and it didn't seem like he would be able to sell us tickets, but he could at least go get someone. I memorized the word for "ticketing" from the sign, and went in there and said it with the standard "confused foreigner" look. He got up and brought me over the the counter and went to find someone who could speak English. I asked him if we could buy tickets to Ulleung-do for Friday, and he said, "This Friday, June 6? Oh, no, that's been full since two months ago. It's a holiday weekend, you know."
Thwarted. We have now concluded that Koreans plan ahead. Way ahead. Which means, of course, that pretty much any other place we wanted to go will be full by now, too. We brainstormed for a while and decided that camping might be the only viable option, since the ground doesn't fill up, per se. We ended up choosing Byeonsan Bando National Park to try. That's about a six hour bus ride from me, with two transfers, I think. It's on the west coast, at about the same latitude at Ulsan, but there are no direct roads or train routes. I'm not even sure if that's going to work out, since I don't know if you can buy bus tickets in advance. I'm going to have to check on that.
After we were given the bad news at the terminal, we went out for lunch in front of the beach nearby. Almost all the restaurants were seafood, but I didn't feel like choosing my own fish or dealing with eating fish, or paying too much money for fresh fish, so we went into the first non-seafood looking place we could find. It looked nice, but I was too lazy to really figure out what was on the menu, so I just pointed to some soup and ordered that for us. It ended up being cold soup and wasn't very good. The whole meal was only ten bucks, though, including all the side dishes that are standard. So it wasn't like we wasted a bunch of money.
Then we went to the beach. It had been a hot day, which I was surprised at. If it weren't 5:30 when we finally got to the beach, it might have been hot enough to warrant swimming (we wore swimsuits in case), or at least wading. As it was, we just stepped a little into the water, and it was quite cold, like in Maine. We walked a little, but ended up just plopping down after a few minutes to look at the guidebook for a new idea and to just rest.
There were some windsailers and jetskiers about, and families with kids running around. Those were fun to watch. I made a little turtle sculpture in the sand. We left after like a half hour.
We decided to take a taxi back, since it was such a long walk and we were tired. There was a long line of taxis at the ferry terminal, so we went back there. I memorized the phrase (intercity bus terminal" from the big map outside and went over to the taxi's. The drivers were all out of their cars, playing some game and betting. We asked for a ride to the bus terminal, and we had kind of a mixed language conversation about where we were going eventually. One guy offered us a ride to Ulsan, but when we declined that far a trip, he directed us to the main road where we had seen a couple unmanned taxis and some city buses.
We walked back to the main road, and as we passed the taxis, at this point figuring we'd have to flag one down, a guy absolutely spuh-rinted from a food stand across the street and called "Tak-shi? Tak-shi?" to us. I told him where we wanted to go, and he said okay, so we got in. The guy from the other unmanned taxi came around and talked to our driver for a second and then walked away grumbling because he didn't get the fare. That was funny. Snooze, lose.
On the way to the terminal, the driver asked us where we were going, and when I said Ulsan, if we wanted a ride all the way there. I said no, now just the bus terminal (in my broken Korean). The reaction from this taxi driver and the first one led us to believe that ferry riders are rich enough to tend to just take a taxi from there all the way home, even if it's in another city. Any of the guys at the terminal could easily have taken us, but they apparently wanted to wait for bigger fares. But no way could we take a taxi all the way back home. It cost almost as much take the taxi the couple miles to the bus terminal as it cost to ride the bus all the way home. I can't imagine what the taxi fee would be.
So that was my trip to Pohang. I forgot to bring a camera, but there wasn't much to take a picture of, since the most interesting thing we did was go to the beach. You can see pictures of Pohang, though, at pohangcity.net, if you really want.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Korean "Medicine"
I've been having trouble with my body lately, so I ended up going to a new hospital to see what they could do for me. My right knee has been numb for two or three months now, and the past few weeks my arms and legs, and other parts of my body, too, have been falling asleep very, very easily, like if I stay still for a few minutes, put even a tiny bit of weight on a body part, or raise my hands above my head for more than like a minute.
At the hospital, the doctor, who speaks English and lived in New Jersey and New Hampshire for a while, had me get X-rays of my spine and knees. My knees are fine, but my posture is bad, he said, because my spine is slightly scoliated, which I knew. No help there.
He recommended taking hot baths, which I and 90% of Korea can't do on a regular basis, since Korean bathrooms don't have bathtubs, unless they're in a really modern, Westernized building. He also gave me a bunch of pills to take, as is the practice with Korean doctors. Stupid pills.
He said I had to start seeing him two times a week for a few weeks, so the second time, when I hadn't gotten better, he put me on physical therapy, gave me more pills, and suggested I start jogging. I said no to the last part. I told him I do yoga four times a week and walk once or twice a week. That should be fine.
Physical therapy was silly. The nurse started me off with paraffin wax gloves. I had to dip my hands in hot wax ten times to make the glove, then she put plastic bags over my hands and had me lie down for fifteen minutes. At least it's good for the skin. Then she pulled off the gloves and put two suction cups on each forearm and ran electricity through me for fiteen minutes. This is what they did for my neck back in LA, except they used tiny pads, not huge suction cups. That was it the first two times.
The third time I saw the doctor (whose name I was never told, by the way), and told him I felt about the same, he told me to quit yoga, and do something more "oxygenizing." I said no. He also reiterated about the bath. I reiterated that I don't have a bathtub and he suggested a bathhouse. Bathhouses are like a two hour ordeal, and you have to pay. Screw that. I'd love to do it sometime for the cultural experience, but not twice a day. I don't have the time.
Physical therapy added a "massage" to my forearms, where my arm was kind of manipulated around and pulled a bit, and the nurse ground his knuckles up and down my bone. It wasn't too bad, but not a real massage. Then he put my right arm into this big sleeve that had inflatable compartments. The compartment at my hand inflated, then the one at my wrist inflated, and the first one deflated, then a third inflated, and the second deflated, and so on, all the way up to my shoulder. It was pretty cool. This lasted about another fifteen minutes. He didn't do my left arm. I have no idea why.
The fourth time when the doctor asked me if I had taken a bath before I went there and I said, no, I have yoga after this and it's silly to wash before exercising, he hung his head in frustration. Then I decided not to come back. He recommended getting an EMG to get my muscles checked, but we had discussed that idea at the beginning and it's a $600 procedure. No way. He last asked me if I take vitamins, and I said I take folic acid. He said I should take vitamin C and B. I said I get plenty of vitamin C, since I drink orange juice every day and eat oranges and other fruit with vitamin C. He still recommended the pills--they're better (what the crap?). So I asked him how much vitamin C is in a pill, and I don't think he quite got me, so he said the dosage varies. So I said, yeah, but how many oranges are in one pill? He still didn't get me. Even if I ate fifty oranges a day, he'd still recommend the pills. I ended up buying them anyway, because the pills are a B and C complex, with the various B vitamins, and I don't really know how to get those into my diet if they're not there already. After this little series of disagreements and misunderstandings, I really decided not to come back.
My last physical therapy session involved the wax and electricity, but no more inflatey sleeve. The nurse put these massive adhesive strips, like bandaids without the medical pad, on my forearms, and said she didn't know how to explain it in English. She said to leave them on and take a hot shower tonight. I'm not sure if she meant I should take them off before or after the shower. I also didn't bother to ask her if it was okay for me to take my regular noontime shower with them on. I'm almost positive the were just bandaids. They weren't even mentholated, like the muscle-relaxing patches.
So now I have an even poorer opinion of Korean medicine than before, when they were giving me tons of pills and ass-shots and steam inhalants for a cold. Heather took me to the oriental hospital today to see what they could do about it. More on that when I have time.
At the hospital, the doctor, who speaks English and lived in New Jersey and New Hampshire for a while, had me get X-rays of my spine and knees. My knees are fine, but my posture is bad, he said, because my spine is slightly scoliated, which I knew. No help there.
He recommended taking hot baths, which I and 90% of Korea can't do on a regular basis, since Korean bathrooms don't have bathtubs, unless they're in a really modern, Westernized building. He also gave me a bunch of pills to take, as is the practice with Korean doctors. Stupid pills.
He said I had to start seeing him two times a week for a few weeks, so the second time, when I hadn't gotten better, he put me on physical therapy, gave me more pills, and suggested I start jogging. I said no to the last part. I told him I do yoga four times a week and walk once or twice a week. That should be fine.
Physical therapy was silly. The nurse started me off with paraffin wax gloves. I had to dip my hands in hot wax ten times to make the glove, then she put plastic bags over my hands and had me lie down for fifteen minutes. At least it's good for the skin. Then she pulled off the gloves and put two suction cups on each forearm and ran electricity through me for fiteen minutes. This is what they did for my neck back in LA, except they used tiny pads, not huge suction cups. That was it the first two times.
The third time I saw the doctor (whose name I was never told, by the way), and told him I felt about the same, he told me to quit yoga, and do something more "oxygenizing." I said no. He also reiterated about the bath. I reiterated that I don't have a bathtub and he suggested a bathhouse. Bathhouses are like a two hour ordeal, and you have to pay. Screw that. I'd love to do it sometime for the cultural experience, but not twice a day. I don't have the time.
Physical therapy added a "massage" to my forearms, where my arm was kind of manipulated around and pulled a bit, and the nurse ground his knuckles up and down my bone. It wasn't too bad, but not a real massage. Then he put my right arm into this big sleeve that had inflatable compartments. The compartment at my hand inflated, then the one at my wrist inflated, and the first one deflated, then a third inflated, and the second deflated, and so on, all the way up to my shoulder. It was pretty cool. This lasted about another fifteen minutes. He didn't do my left arm. I have no idea why.
The fourth time when the doctor asked me if I had taken a bath before I went there and I said, no, I have yoga after this and it's silly to wash before exercising, he hung his head in frustration. Then I decided not to come back. He recommended getting an EMG to get my muscles checked, but we had discussed that idea at the beginning and it's a $600 procedure. No way. He last asked me if I take vitamins, and I said I take folic acid. He said I should take vitamin C and B. I said I get plenty of vitamin C, since I drink orange juice every day and eat oranges and other fruit with vitamin C. He still recommended the pills--they're better (what the crap?). So I asked him how much vitamin C is in a pill, and I don't think he quite got me, so he said the dosage varies. So I said, yeah, but how many oranges are in one pill? He still didn't get me. Even if I ate fifty oranges a day, he'd still recommend the pills. I ended up buying them anyway, because the pills are a B and C complex, with the various B vitamins, and I don't really know how to get those into my diet if they're not there already. After this little series of disagreements and misunderstandings, I really decided not to come back.
My last physical therapy session involved the wax and electricity, but no more inflatey sleeve. The nurse put these massive adhesive strips, like bandaids without the medical pad, on my forearms, and said she didn't know how to explain it in English. She said to leave them on and take a hot shower tonight. I'm not sure if she meant I should take them off before or after the shower. I also didn't bother to ask her if it was okay for me to take my regular noontime shower with them on. I'm almost positive the were just bandaids. They weren't even mentholated, like the muscle-relaxing patches.
So now I have an even poorer opinion of Korean medicine than before, when they were giving me tons of pills and ass-shots and steam inhalants for a cold. Heather took me to the oriental hospital today to see what they could do about it. More on that when I have time.
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