My Adversary

For the doubters, I present...THE BUG!

The Wikipedia article can be found by clicking here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Asian_Hornet

Excerpt:

"The stinger of the Asian giant hornet is about 6 mm (¼ in) in length, and injects an especially potent venom that contains, like many bee and wasp venoms, a cytolytic peptide (specifically, a mastoparan) that can damage tissue by stimulating phospholipase action, in addition to its own intrinsic phospholipase."

The REAL Bug

I'm afraid my "Heart of Darkness"-esque post yesterday about the bug was either too long or too serious. It was supposed to be funny. o_O I hope people don't think I've turned into a malicious serial killer over here. (I mean, come on. The bug whispering his last words to me about the betrayal of his beloved colors? Comic GOLD!)

Anyway, this is what really happened.

A giant Korean hornet flew into my room. (That's not just a guess, it was a hornet and it was about 2 inches long) I left it alone for a good long while before I tried to shoo it out, but when it wouldn't leave I had to kill it because I had 3rd grade coming in soon and I didn't want anyone getting stung. I will say, it was quite an ordeal trying to kill it though, hence the epically overblown post.

Later today: Costco! (Though I think Sara beat me to it)

The Bug

All I ever asked of the insect world was to be left alone. I sat in the Dongbu English Village today at approximately 1130 hours. I was preparing as best I could for 3rd grade in the afternoon when I was rudely interrupted by sometimes. Not just any something--The Bug, a 2 inch long, black and yellow beast of an insect that looked like a cross between a hummingbird and a wasp.

For a short while, I left The Bug alone. Once I realized he would be hanging around for awhile, I began to research on the Internet what this potential bug might be. After not finding any results, I grew nervous of his presence. I watched him as he circled the ceiling of my room, ever aware that he could strike me at any moment, and with 3rd grade coming in a mere two hours, I knew The Bug would have to be dealt with.

But I am a fair man. It was time for lunch, and I shuffled off to the cafeteria, closing the door behind me. I gave The Bug ample time to clear my room, figuring that left alone he would simply fly out of the window.

I ate, I talked, I relaxed, and then...I returned. At 1240 hours I returned to Dongbu English Village. I cracked open the door, looked left at the restaurant poster on my wall, and saw nothing. I walked leisurely to my desk. *Bzzz* He immediately flew at me, beginning what I had hoped would never come to pass! I gave him time...I gave him a window...he decided to stay.

War.

Grabbing a book on my desk, I began to swat forcefully but with precision at the bug. After realizing that I would not easily reach him I came to the conclusion that he was drawn to the colors on my retractable posters. I rolled the vinyl English tools up to the ceiling and he was dumbfounded. His colorful paradise was ripped away, and all that was left was a sea of drab, brown, mahogany panelling. He began to roam again. This time, The Bug did not limit himself to the ceiling or the north wall, as there was nothing keeping him there any longer. With his altitude lowered I swung at him, as he flew at me, again and again, before I finally landed the winning blow.

He soared like a clay pigeon through the air and landed, on his back, in the middle of a sea of brightly colored stools. He looked left and right, knowing at least that he would die surrounded by the very things that drew him into my English Village in the first place.

"Betrayal," thought the bug.

But if I had any mercy, it was not that I would let him go, but end the suffering of his wriggling body. He looked at me and fluttered his wings. Fearing a resurgence, I grabbed a notebook, stood above my adversary, and crushed him once and for all. As his body fell away from this world, I heard a faint whisper of "the colors" before silence befell the Dongbu English Village once again.

I never asked for the battle. After all, whoever asks for violence and bloodshed? But this is my English Village, and I will do everything to protect it. It is the nature of men and beasts that we will breed war. Whether provoked by one side or the other...it is bound to happen.

War never ends.

And war--war never changes.

Youngnam

As promised, here is my post about Youngnam Elementary School.

In contrast to Dongbu, there are a lot of things that I wish were different about my situation at Youngnam Elementary. Since the school is six times the size of Dongbu, their entire building is understandably more busy. But since I only go there on Tuesdays, it's hard for me to settle in. I have so far only been to Youngnam twice. When we got here I started work on Tuesday and as a result was at Dongbu for the day. I was at Youngnam for the next two weeks, but then I got sick and missed the week after that. Since then they have had a picnic that I was told to stay home for and a holiday. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever really fit in there.

The good news is that the students and staff are every bit as excited as the Dongbu peeps when I'm there. Everyone is helpful and interested, so I never feel too left behind, though I do frequently feel very out of the loop. In fact, sometimes it would be nice to have a minute to myself, since I teach six classes there.

I am in charge of teaching English to 3rd and 4th graders at Youngnam. They have three sections of each grade, so I teach three 3rd grade classes and three 4th grade classes. This means I only have to prepare 2 lessons for the day. The major issue, though, is that I don't get to talk very much with the teachers. So even if I prepare a lesson, I might be told that I can't use it because they have a different lesson. Sometimes they want me to teach their lesson (which they have prepared largely in Korean) and sometimes I am reduced to a "talking parrot" as we say in Korea. That means I'm there to say words and have the students repeat me.

Of course, I can't complain too much because this job is wonderful. Even at its low points it's better than a lot of other jobs.

Either tomorrow or in two weeks (I don't know which yet) Sara and I will start teaching a Saturday English camp (after school English-language course) at Youngnam. My hope is that the English camp will give me a chance to get to know the staff and students there, so that maybe Tuesday will no longer be the day of the week that I dread.

Until then, I guess I'll suck it up. Afterall, I could be working at some university writing center or something... ;-)

Thoughts On a Month of Teaching

A new job can be scary for anyone. A new teaching job can be terrifying. A new job teaching in a foreign country where only a handful of people speak your language is downright enough to stop your heart. But here I am, over a month into this new gig, and my heart is still pumping hard. What I've realized now after starting a small handful of new jobs in my life is that there are always people there to help you, and they always understand just how scared you might be. If you get the right group, they will even find ways of harnessing your anxiety into positive energy. At Dongbu Elementary, that's exactly what the students and teachers have done for me.

You might say I got lucky here. I'm at a school with only 150 students, so I have ample opportunity to get to know each and every one of them. I may not know their names, but I recognize them all, and I feel like I've built some lasting bonds with some of the kids already. It's easy to fall in love with a school when the students seem so eager to learn and the staff are so excited by everything I do. If I bring in a chocolate bar from America or show the kids some pictures of my university, everyone is ecstatic. Literally everything I do is a learning experience because I'm so foreign to these kids. And the teachers are so excited to have me that I sometimes think I can do no wrong. Of course, that just motivates me to continue giving them a high caliber of results. I want to impress people every day, and am driven to show my students (and the staff for that matter) that I am excited on a daily basis because of that.

(Unfortunately, lately that has been hard to do. Because of my lingering bronchitis from being sick a few weeks back, the teachers all think I'm very sick and weak. I'm not, but that's hard to explain in a culture where your health is valued above almost everything else. Because I have a raspy voice and nagging cough, the teachers want to give me time to rest. They will sometimes take over more of the class or cut class short. Anyway this is a tangent, let me get back to teaching...)

Yes, I am stuck to the same boring and occasionally downright pitiful curriculum that is provided for all English education here. And yes, sometimes its hard to motivate students when the material is dull or doesn't make as much sense as it should. But finding ways to make that material fun or interesting is the best part of this job. For example, last week after the 5th graders had learned the prepositions on, under, above, inside, between, and next to (after 3 classes), I took the opportunity to teach them parts of speech. What good will random phrases do these kids if they don't understand how English works? So, with a lot of help from my brilliant co-teacher Mr. Choi, we talked about nouns, verbs, and prepositions. Now this week I am devising games to help them understand why they need to know parts of speech.

But none of it would be any fun, or productive in any way, if the students weren't so excited about learning so much of the time. I click most with the 5th and 6th graders, only because they can communicate the most with me. But I still love the 3rd and 4th grade students and their enthusiasm for learning even a new word or two to say to me in the hallways. In particular, there are a few 6th grade students who will come to my classroom between breaks or after class is done for the day just to point at things in the room and ask me what they are. Or arrange letters on my Velcro board to show me words they can spell. They also take the time to teach me a little Korean, though I make it clear that my classroom is an English only zone. These are the kids that send me home with a smile every day.

And so there you have it--any job is wonderful if you are surrounded by the right people. And at my job, I am surrounded by the perfect group of mentors, co-workers, dedicated students, and friends. I couldn't ask for a better situation.

Youngnam, on the other hand, is a completely different story--a story that I will tell you in the coming days.

Sara's Korean Drink

Here's a video from when Sara and I first got to Andong and got our new apartment. It needs no introduction.

Kids Climbing Mountains

Here is a video of my students climbing Youngnam Mountain last week. This is more of a test to see if I've got the video thing down than anything, but at least you can see some of my students! This is the 6th grade class at Dongbu Elementary School.