Along with South Korea Sights, I will also start a semi-regular feature called This Would Never Happen in Canada. The title was inspired by the catchphrase, "This would never happen in Japan" from a message board I frequent.
The segment will be very short and will talk about... well, I think the title is self-explanatory.
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This would never happen in Canada: motorcycles regularly using sidewalks.
Here in Seoul, sidewalks are for pedestrians and motorcycles. Sometimes the sidewalks are wide enough for this to happen, but sometimes not. Once, I was on a sidewalk in Yongsan less than a meter wide, and a scooter decided to squeeze by me. This is not only normal, but expected. It's never a bad idea to be overly paranoid while navigating the sidewalks of Seoul. Sidewalks also double as motorcycle parking lots sometimes.
Similarly, motorcycles often use pedestrian crosswalks. It is not unusual to be standing there waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green, and looking next to you and seeing a motorcycle rider doing the same thing.
Motorcycles are also used as delivery trucks. We do this in Canada for stuff like pizza deliveries, I know. But here, they do it for anything from pizza to huge rolls of carpet. It's amazing how big a load they can add to a motorcycle without losing balance. And some of these guys drive the motorcycle with only one hand on the handlebars and often without helmets!
Seeing the traffic in Seoul (and its side streets), it's often understandable why a motorcycle would look like a wiser choice. I'm now trying to imagine how UBC would look if students used motorcycles instead of regular bikes to get from class to class...
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Living quarters
When housing is provided for you, you can't really complain -- especially if you're in a major city in Asia, where housing can be notoriously cramped. While there are situations where there would be cause to complain about housing, generally it's a good perk to have your rent paid for you.
With that said, I was not only pleasantly surprised that I didn't end up at the infamous Dongdaemun Stadium housing co-op, but also surprised that my place actually has wiggle room (if you don't think about the washroom). It's located near where Jung-gu, Yongsan-gu and Mapo-gu meet up, and close to the international district of Itaewon (a major meeting place for us teachers who got to know each other during orientation).
As you can see, there's a bit of room. Since this video was made, a new desk and chair were moved in (and I got the internet working). While the desk is rather large, there's still enough wiggle room. While it isn't exactly a penthouse, it's not a shoebox either.
The washroom is a bit amusing though:
Above: My cramped washroom.
The commute from my place to work is about a 7-minute stroll:
But this can be effectively cut down to 5-6 minutes if you take a shortcut (as I discovered by following some students the other day). This shortcut has a gentler slope and fewer cars, and features this fantastic view of the city:
Above: The view of Seoul and Namsan (with its famous Seoul Tower overlooking the city) from my new shortcut to work.
I wonder how that view would look like in snow.
I can also get this view from the cafeteria of the school I work at. It's nothing like the view from my apartment. My two windows open up to reveal the neighbor's roof or attic windows.
One of the cons about this apartment is that it has a slight ant problem. It's nowhere as bad as the problem my sister had at her place in California, but it's noticeable. Another issue is that the rooms aren't very noiseproof; if I play my radio too loud, you can hear it in the hallway. Likewise, I can usually hear whenever returns to their apartment because the doors in this building have very noisy locks.
Internet also requires a Megapass account but due to some holes in their authentication system (ie. you can use MSN Messenger and Vuze without a password), I managed to get around it using my still-active VPN account from my old university back home. So basically, I'm using high-speed internet for free. As another plus, because I'm using a Canadian-based VPN, websites are reading me as visiting from Canada instead of South Korea; this can be useful because I wouldn't have to repeatedly change some sites' default language from Korean to English. (Sites like Google, YouTube, Blogger, and Hotmail use your IP addresses to determine the default language.) Good times.
With that said, I was not only pleasantly surprised that I didn't end up at the infamous Dongdaemun Stadium housing co-op, but also surprised that my place actually has wiggle room (if you don't think about the washroom). It's located near where Jung-gu, Yongsan-gu and Mapo-gu meet up, and close to the international district of Itaewon (a major meeting place for us teachers who got to know each other during orientation).
As you can see, there's a bit of room. Since this video was made, a new desk and chair were moved in (and I got the internet working). While the desk is rather large, there's still enough wiggle room. While it isn't exactly a penthouse, it's not a shoebox either.
The washroom is a bit amusing though:
Above: My cramped washroom.The commute from my place to work is about a 7-minute stroll:
But this can be effectively cut down to 5-6 minutes if you take a shortcut (as I discovered by following some students the other day). This shortcut has a gentler slope and fewer cars, and features this fantastic view of the city:
Above: The view of Seoul and Namsan (with its famous Seoul Tower overlooking the city) from my new shortcut to work.I wonder how that view would look like in snow.
I can also get this view from the cafeteria of the school I work at. It's nothing like the view from my apartment. My two windows open up to reveal the neighbor's roof or attic windows.
One of the cons about this apartment is that it has a slight ant problem. It's nowhere as bad as the problem my sister had at her place in California, but it's noticeable. Another issue is that the rooms aren't very noiseproof; if I play my radio too loud, you can hear it in the hallway. Likewise, I can usually hear whenever returns to their apartment because the doors in this building have very noisy locks.
Internet also requires a Megapass account but due to some holes in their authentication system (ie. you can use MSN Messenger and Vuze without a password), I managed to get around it using my still-active VPN account from my old university back home. So basically, I'm using high-speed internet for free. As another plus, because I'm using a Canadian-based VPN, websites are reading me as visiting from Canada instead of South Korea; this can be useful because I wouldn't have to repeatedly change some sites' default language from Korean to English. (Sites like Google, YouTube, Blogger, and Hotmail use your IP addresses to determine the default language.) Good times.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Lucky streak in Seoul
I swear, I'm on a lucky streak with this Korea thing. I hoped to get Incheon or Seoul, and got Seoul. I read up on all the crap that other people have to deal with (granted, it's Dave's ESL Cafe, which is infamous for people with negative attitudes) and "what could've been" with the housing situation, and ended up getting a decent non-hotel place. I read about the evil co-teachers that are out there, and ended up with pretty cool co-teachers so far (as far as I can tell). While things could be better (*shakes fist*), it could've been a lot worse as well (like poor Eric with his shoebox).
In this entry, I'll talk mostly about the school. I'll get into the living quarters later.
Basically, my place is near Seoul Station (about a 15-minute walk) and the geographical center of the city, and about a 7-minute walk from the school (which is all boys). I'm their first-ever native English teacher. Something I was wondering was how the students will react to an Asian who is also a native English teacher; even if you're not the type of person to look into race, you have to admit this is an interesting predicament for a country that is largely homogenous (and prides itself in its homogenuity).
The result surprised me. At first, the students weren't sure who this new teacher-looking person was doing in the school. I was invited to observe a regular English class, and was introduced to the students. After that, word spread much quicker than I expected. Suddenly, students were bowing to me in the hallways and stuff. (Stewie: "You will BOW to me." One of my best friends told me on MSN that I'm going to let this bowing go to my head, haha.) A few students actually went up to me just to say "HI!!!" or "Hello!!!" just like what the Caucasian teachers described. I guess race doesn't factor in as much as I expected.
The school facilities are interesting. When they were giving me a tour of the school, I was wondering if I will have my own classroom and what it'd look like. The school looks quite old and is peeling a bit, so I was like, "Hmm. I guess I'm not getting my own classroom."
Boy, was I wrong.
Not only did I get a classroom, but it is the NICEST classroom in the school. I'm not even remotely exaggerating about that. As I said before, the school looks aged and peeling. However, the English room is spanking new and looks like it was renovated lately. It has a smartboard (a touch-screen computer on the board), new tables and chairs, its own library/reading room, a computer with new software, a webcam, and so on. I swear, my jaw dropped majorly when I saw it, because it was such a drastic difference compared to the rest of the school. Even the doors were high and made of glass (while the other rooms' doors are about 5 feet tall and are old sliding doors made of aging aluminum).
The co-teachers are also pretty incredible so far. One of them speaks English pretty well for the most part, one seems okay when teaching but has difficulty in producing speech in an actual conversation, and one is having no difficulty in producing speech but is good for the most part.
I also have to teach other teachers, and from what I can tell, they're not in it because the principal forced them to do it or anything. I may be wrong, but I think it was a voluntary thing and quite a number of teachers signed up. I wish we covered how to teach other teachers during the orientation, because I'm not sure what to do for it.
The dress code for the school is slightly bizarre as well. I was told to wear a neat shirt, dress pants and... slippers. Yes, you read that right. Slippers. Both teachers and students wear slippers in the school. I have to find myself a pair in the right size (since the North American shoe sizes are different and many slippers on sale on the streets are packaged).
Today, I mostly did lesson planning. A lot of time was wasted while I tried to figure out the Korean version of Windows, but it's going smoother now. I still need to pick up the pace for one class' lesson plan tomorrow though. Tomorrow is my first day of teaching. Originally I was told that I won't teach until after the first week, but they changed it on me today. First taste of the Koreans' "last-minute culture," I guess.
That's pretty much my school in a nutshell right now. I'll talk about the living quarters later.
In this entry, I'll talk mostly about the school. I'll get into the living quarters later.
Basically, my place is near Seoul Station (about a 15-minute walk) and the geographical center of the city, and about a 7-minute walk from the school (which is all boys). I'm their first-ever native English teacher. Something I was wondering was how the students will react to an Asian who is also a native English teacher; even if you're not the type of person to look into race, you have to admit this is an interesting predicament for a country that is largely homogenous (and prides itself in its homogenuity).
The result surprised me. At first, the students weren't sure who this new teacher-looking person was doing in the school. I was invited to observe a regular English class, and was introduced to the students. After that, word spread much quicker than I expected. Suddenly, students were bowing to me in the hallways and stuff. (Stewie: "You will BOW to me." One of my best friends told me on MSN that I'm going to let this bowing go to my head, haha.) A few students actually went up to me just to say "HI!!!" or "Hello!!!" just like what the Caucasian teachers described. I guess race doesn't factor in as much as I expected.
The school facilities are interesting. When they were giving me a tour of the school, I was wondering if I will have my own classroom and what it'd look like. The school looks quite old and is peeling a bit, so I was like, "Hmm. I guess I'm not getting my own classroom."
Boy, was I wrong.
Not only did I get a classroom, but it is the NICEST classroom in the school. I'm not even remotely exaggerating about that. As I said before, the school looks aged and peeling. However, the English room is spanking new and looks like it was renovated lately. It has a smartboard (a touch-screen computer on the board), new tables and chairs, its own library/reading room, a computer with new software, a webcam, and so on. I swear, my jaw dropped majorly when I saw it, because it was such a drastic difference compared to the rest of the school. Even the doors were high and made of glass (while the other rooms' doors are about 5 feet tall and are old sliding doors made of aging aluminum).
The co-teachers are also pretty incredible so far. One of them speaks English pretty well for the most part, one seems okay when teaching but has difficulty in producing speech in an actual conversation, and one is having no difficulty in producing speech but is good for the most part.
I also have to teach other teachers, and from what I can tell, they're not in it because the principal forced them to do it or anything. I may be wrong, but I think it was a voluntary thing and quite a number of teachers signed up. I wish we covered how to teach other teachers during the orientation, because I'm not sure what to do for it.
The dress code for the school is slightly bizarre as well. I was told to wear a neat shirt, dress pants and... slippers. Yes, you read that right. Slippers. Both teachers and students wear slippers in the school. I have to find myself a pair in the right size (since the North American shoe sizes are different and many slippers on sale on the streets are packaged).
Today, I mostly did lesson planning. A lot of time was wasted while I tried to figure out the Korean version of Windows, but it's going smoother now. I still need to pick up the pace for one class' lesson plan tomorrow though. Tomorrow is my first day of teaching. Originally I was told that I won't teach until after the first week, but they changed it on me today. First taste of the Koreans' "last-minute culture," I guess.
That's pretty much my school in a nutshell right now. I'll talk about the living quarters later.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The stages of dawning
Well... the teachers' orientation is over and now I'm at my new place in central Seoul (which I mean in the literal sense -- I'm in the geographical center of the city). After settling in and sitting down to the quiet of an apartment by myself, it finally dawned on me that I'm finally here and this is the real stuff.
Strangely enough, it isn't the first time that it's dawned on me. Nor is it the second time. Or the third. It seems that like grieving, there are always stages. Unlike the stages of grieving, I don't know how to characterize the stages of "dawning," exactly.
The first time that it dawned on me that this is the real thing came when I picked up my E-2 visa from the South Korean consulate in downtown Vancouver. Holding the passport with a newly-minted visa in my hand was my first realization that I was really leaving. I was so used to seeing nothing but US Homeland Security stamps in my passport (from the back-and-forth between Vancouver and California or Washington state) that a big honking visa seemed quite odd.
The second dawning came right before I left. I was all packed and was doing one last checkover to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. I was satisfied. I turned around, and my dog was sitting there in the doorway. I went down to pet him and give him a little hug. He's normally not a nice dog (quite a snooty dog, actually) but at that moment, he looked up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen from him. He's 15 years old, so that's saying a lot. I broke down right there and then, and just hugged him and had a nice cry/bawl for a few minutes. He normally doesn't let people hug him at all, but he actually let me hug him for the first time in his life; he just let me hug him and cry for a while. I actually still cry a bit thinking about it (like right now as I type this). That was the second time that it dawned on me that I was leaving a lot behind, and probably remains the strongest among my "stages of dawning." It's currently one of the two things (that's NOT from a movie) that can make me cry every time -- the other thing is memories of the Anaheim Ducks' Stanley Cup championship win.
The third time probably came during my stay at a hotel in nearby Incheon, where Seoul's airport is located. Just walking about and seeing everything written in Korean was quite a jolting shift, and the day trip to central Seoul was a further shock. Just seeing that made me realize that I'm in a new world now.
And yesterday was probably the fourth dawning. After seeing people I got to know during orientation get shipped off one by one to their respective schools and apartments, it finally dawned on me that we're all leaving the safe English-speaking confines of the orientation venue and heading out into the non-English speaking world. It was quite a scary feeling but not unprecedented; I guess the orientation reduced some of the scariness but it's impossible for it to remove ALL the scariness.
And now here I am, using a combo of a security-enabled network and my old VPN connection from my alma mater (which is still working) to access the internet, which will be installed later. I'm not sure whether this stage of dawning has ended yet... I guess we'll see. And I'm sure there might be another stage of dawning during my first day of actual teaching.
Tomorrow is my first day at work, although it'll mostly be prep work. If I have time, I'll write an entry about the school and the living quarters.
Strangely enough, it isn't the first time that it's dawned on me. Nor is it the second time. Or the third. It seems that like grieving, there are always stages. Unlike the stages of grieving, I don't know how to characterize the stages of "dawning," exactly.
The first time that it dawned on me that this is the real thing came when I picked up my E-2 visa from the South Korean consulate in downtown Vancouver. Holding the passport with a newly-minted visa in my hand was my first realization that I was really leaving. I was so used to seeing nothing but US Homeland Security stamps in my passport (from the back-and-forth between Vancouver and California or Washington state) that a big honking visa seemed quite odd.
The second dawning came right before I left. I was all packed and was doing one last checkover to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. I was satisfied. I turned around, and my dog was sitting there in the doorway. I went down to pet him and give him a little hug. He's normally not a nice dog (quite a snooty dog, actually) but at that moment, he looked up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen from him. He's 15 years old, so that's saying a lot. I broke down right there and then, and just hugged him and had a nice cry/bawl for a few minutes. He normally doesn't let people hug him at all, but he actually let me hug him for the first time in his life; he just let me hug him and cry for a while. I actually still cry a bit thinking about it (like right now as I type this). That was the second time that it dawned on me that I was leaving a lot behind, and probably remains the strongest among my "stages of dawning." It's currently one of the two things (that's NOT from a movie) that can make me cry every time -- the other thing is memories of the Anaheim Ducks' Stanley Cup championship win.
The third time probably came during my stay at a hotel in nearby Incheon, where Seoul's airport is located. Just walking about and seeing everything written in Korean was quite a jolting shift, and the day trip to central Seoul was a further shock. Just seeing that made me realize that I'm in a new world now.
And yesterday was probably the fourth dawning. After seeing people I got to know during orientation get shipped off one by one to their respective schools and apartments, it finally dawned on me that we're all leaving the safe English-speaking confines of the orientation venue and heading out into the non-English speaking world. It was quite a scary feeling but not unprecedented; I guess the orientation reduced some of the scariness but it's impossible for it to remove ALL the scariness.
And now here I am, using a combo of a security-enabled network and my old VPN connection from my alma mater (which is still working) to access the internet, which will be installed later. I'm not sure whether this stage of dawning has ended yet... I guess we'll see. And I'm sure there might be another stage of dawning during my first day of actual teaching.
Tomorrow is my first day at work, although it'll mostly be prep work. If I have time, I'll write an entry about the school and the living quarters.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
South Korea Sights: Dongdaemun Gate
I'm going to start a semi-regular segment called South Korea Sights to show off any interesting places I see.
Just one subway station away from the orientation venue is a place called Dongdaemun (동대문 / 東大門). It is basically the old eastern city gate of Seoul for the wall that surrounded the city during the Joseon Dynasty. The original gate was built in 1396; it was renovated in 1453 and rebuilt in 1869.
It is probably one of the key places to see the old and new structures of Seoul side by side. Around Dongdaemun Gate is a bunch of shopping centers, both above and below ground. There is also a market called Dongdaemun Market just around the corner, which I didn't visit.
It's also at a very busy intersection in the Jongno distruct of Seoul so the large traffic volume further contrasts old and new. It is served by Dongdaemun Station of the Seoul subway.
More photos:
Just one subway station away from the orientation venue is a place called Dongdaemun (동대문 / 東大門). It is basically the old eastern city gate of Seoul for the wall that surrounded the city during the Joseon Dynasty. The original gate was built in 1396; it was renovated in 1453 and rebuilt in 1869.
It is probably one of the key places to see the old and new structures of Seoul side by side. Around Dongdaemun Gate is a bunch of shopping centers, both above and below ground. There is also a market called Dongdaemun Market just around the corner, which I didn't visit.
It's also at a very busy intersection in the Jongno distruct of Seoul so the large traffic volume further contrasts old and new. It is served by Dongdaemun Station of the Seoul subway.
More photos:
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Settling in (sort of)...
I'm now out of the hotel and at the training and orientation venue in Jongno-gu in central Seoul. It's nice to finally have a place to settle down (the hotel in Incheon doesn't count). It's also nice to have English spoken around me that doesn't come from a TV, haha.
A lot of other people just arrived and want to check out the area. I've already been here for two days, so I'm one of the few who opted to stay in tonight instead. I think I've seen enough to satisfy me for the time being.
My roommate is a guy from Ireland, who I was coincidentally chatting with at Incheon International Airport prior to boarding the shuttle bus, so we were already acquainted. He previously worked for a hagwon (private tutoring center) in Jeju and this is his first time with the public school system, so he's done this before.
Anyways, I'm finally going to settle down for a while and enjoy the temporary (but more permanent than before) stability in location.
A lot of other people just arrived and want to check out the area. I've already been here for two days, so I'm one of the few who opted to stay in tonight instead. I think I've seen enough to satisfy me for the time being.
My roommate is a guy from Ireland, who I was coincidentally chatting with at Incheon International Airport prior to boarding the shuttle bus, so we were already acquainted. He previously worked for a hagwon (private tutoring center) in Jeju and this is his first time with the public school system, so he's done this before.
Anyways, I'm finally going to settle down for a while and enjoy the temporary (but more permanent than before) stability in location.
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