On yearning, earning, learning and the alphabet

Hanging out in one of the watering holes in The Yeo!

or "part 5 of approximately 24"
or "Oh crap, where have the past two months gone?"
or "Death to the Alphabet Song, Long live the days of the week"


I am living in a time warp in South Korea. Time moves so strangely here, on the one hand it moves so fast that I cannot believe I have been here for two months already, on the other hand I can't believe how far away my next pay-check is! And there is still so much more I want to buy! I still intend to save as much as I can but I think it’s going to be harder than I anticipated. The group of foreign English teachers in my province are very close knit and have some sort of event every weekend. If it's not a birthday, it's ladies night or paintball, or some sort of Korean festival that the foreigners are more interested in than the locals. This party/drinking culture is not at all how I live back in SA and I don't have that much interest in it now (also it's heavy on the pocket).  However, I want to have fun here, I want to immerse myself in every opportunity I can. I will do my best to get in as much fun as possible but my priority remains paying off my debt so maybe I’ll have more fun when I have made a decent dent in my debt.

So, at twenty five years old I have started earning my very first stable income; a monthly pay-check that I manage and control. MY money that only has to cover MY needs, MY wants and MY nasty habits (like MY chocolate nesquick addiction; I’m up to two glasses a day on weekends and one a day on weekdays). I feel a little bit like a child playing with big money, also I’m super paranoid. I currently have three budgets drawn up. One on a budgeting app that I downloaded on my iPad, one in my personal organiser/diary and one in the folder that I store all my bills, receipts and bank slips. Now that my laptop is up and running in English I am sure a budget will appear there soon. I don't really know why I am compulsively budgeting, I think I just feel better doing something about the money and I don't know exactly what I should be doing. I still feel like I barely have enough money to make it to the end of the month but I’m not sure if that is true since this is the first month I was paid on time and started tracking my money. If I make it then I will be super happy and I will let you know. If I don't make it, well then I guess I will lose weight faster than I anticipated.

Korean money

I made my first big dyslexic mistake today; I taught the kindergarteners to write the letter J with its tail swinging in the wrong direction. It is not completely my fault, the dyslexic kindergartener threw me off, he did it first and it looked right to me so I just copied him (bad teacher, I know). Anyway, with any luck they won't remember it next week and I’ll be able to correct my mistake. The English alphabet sucks, it's pretty lame. I was actually a little embarrassed when I confirmed with the grade one teacher that the only difference between big "P" and small "p" is line placement. It's also really annoying that the name of the letter "W" does not contain its phonetic pronunciation.  So during phonics practice it sounds like I’m making stuff up. The name of the letter is "pee" the sound of the letter is "peh", the name of the letter is "kay" the sound of the letter is "keh", the name of the letter is "double you" the sound of the letter is ”weh". Which one sounds like I’m trying to trick them? It would even be fine if it was called "double v" because that’s how we write it. But no, we have to make things more tricky than they need to be, my poor kids. I have also spent an impressive amount of time on YouTube finding better versions of the alphabet song. My favourite one is called 'a' you're adorable, and is a song I actually had on my phone before coming to teach here. I found a kid friendly version on youtube, it is performed by sesame street characters. I looked for a takalani sesame version but did not find anything useful. English a really hard language to learn and it makes me feel so much better about the progress I am making with my Korean. Learning on your own is difficult because you never quite sound like the other Koreans do. I am thinking about setting up Learn-Korean groups where we will be able to study together as foreign teachers but at the moment their is little interest, especially because there isn't a Korean speaking person willing to set up and lead the lessons so how would we know whether we are pronouncing things right or not.

My favourite thing to teach so far is the days of the week, and that is mostly because of this awesome song that I use. It's called 'I never go to work' and it’s by a band called 'They Might be Giants'. Here's a link to the YouTube video I use. I would use it by breaking the kids up into groups (seven in each group) and then whisper the name of a different day into each child's ear and make then stand in line from Monday to Sunday without speaking. Its hilarious, it would be easy for you because you would just use numbers, but most of the kids are just learning which name is which day and where each day in the week is. It also got me into the nasty habit of calling one of my third graders 'Wednesday'. The name just stuck, it’s not my fault, and she responds to it.

The main living area in my apartment. 

Monsoon season has hit Korea and it will be raining for two weeks straight. The sound of the rain is wonderful to fall asleep to and it really cools the air, but mostly it is confusing. I don't know if this counts as culture shock but I'm struggling to adjust to summer rain storms. The rain starts and then I want to crack out the hot chocolate but its so hot already. I'm in the mood for soup because its rainy but I cant think about soup at the same time because I’m getting hot... sometimes I sit under the blanket in my bed and listen to the rain with a good book while I secretly sweat, I do this out of stubbornness... the moment would be so perfect if it wasn't so hot! It rains all day, for days on end and you don't need to bring a jersey with you because it's hot but if you forget your umbrella, you're screwed, you'll be soaked down to your onties (undies). It hasn't happened to me yet but it happened to my friend Silke. Also, because it is humid you never really dry. I used to think it was awesome that I had to take my shoes off when I went into peoples houses; I felt it was all fancy, foreign and cultural. Now I know the truth, it is just practical. Monsoon season means everything is wet. You're wet and full of mud, your shoes are wet and full of mud and you're gonna drag that mud all over their floors unless you take shoes off. I don't wear my shoes much inside anyway (as Aunty Margie will attest, I have left countless pairs of shoes at their house) and I think I'm going to take this bit of Korean genius and apply it to my life. So when I get a place of my own back in SA you'll have to take your shoes off when you come visit, time to buy socks that match and don't have holes. Mind you Korea has had underfloor heating since before Jesus roamed the earth, so maybe I should make some money and get a place with underfloor heating before I enforce that rule.

Me in my bedroom, working hard.

Last week I moved things in my apartment. I did this so that I could make the place feel like it belonged to me, and also because I wanted to use the space better. It feels a lot more cosy now and I really think I found a set-up that works for me. When I moved the fridge I found the grossest thing ever. It was a big glob of sticky, gooey, yellow slime stuff, that had started to harden. There were bits of old food in it and old pieces of plastic. I couldn't mop it up I had to spray it with detergent stuff and then get on my hands and knees and scrub it off the floor. It was so gross I had to leave the apartment for some air after I cleaned it. I don't think the previous girl ever cleaned under the fridge. I also stuck my hand down the side of the couch and found a whole pile of junk, and nothing valuable. I cant believe she didn't clean up when she left. I’d be a little embarrassed if I were her. The same situation is true for my classroom. I have been cleaning it for the past two months and I still haven't cleared up everything. Stuff has been stored in cupboards for ages, and resources are not organised or catalogued. Everything is covered in dust! I am not well known for having a tidy room, quite the contrary actually, but as my mother is my witness I never lived in filth. Underneath the piles of clothes, stationery and shoes that littered my carpet back home, the carpet was clean.


Liedfe,
Bashti Teacher
Ps. attempts to correct the Bashti teacher thing has dubbed me busty teacher, and since I am actually the bustiest teacher on the staff, I regret even trying to correct it