Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

It's time for an up-date. I've had a request or two. Not more. But here in Swampville, one or two requests amount to 'overwhelming public demand'.

You may notice that I've changed the heading to be somewhat more direct. No point in misleading the unsuspecting into thinking this thread is about anything than what it is. Dostoyevski reported from the underground. We authors have to take what we can get. He had pre-revolutionary Russia. I have Swampville. Such is life.

Saturday Morning in Swampville

Yesterday morning I was staring at the weekend with no plan in mind when Miss Lee the teachers?aide called me over to take a phone call. It was J-H, my former student and present friend. He'd been the mysterious caller on Wednesday who wouldn't leave a name or number because he wanted to surprise me. What was the surprise you might ask. Not thinking of a phone call as a surprise, I wondered too. "What are you doing this weekend?" he asked. "Nothing on the schedule," I answered. "Good! Why don't you invite Sang-Ha (his 4 year old son) and me up for Saturday?"he asked. "You can cook for us and we can drink some beer and soju at your home." "What a deal", I said. "Can you prepare a place for us to sleep?" he asked. Being capable of throwing a yo on the floor, I said, "Sure!" So it was set. I now had a plan, and some un-scheduled shopping to do.

This disrupted my usual Friday ritual of going to Bugok Hot Springs for a long relaxing bath and then a supper of kan-poon-gi or tang-soo-yook with a bit of soju on the side to go with a good book. I don't mind really because we can all go to Bugok Hawaii on Saturday, which would give Sang-Ha something to do and tire him out so he'll go to bed early and his dad and I could drink soju in peace and watch "Old Boy" on the DVD player.

I'd like to tell you why J-H thinks he can invite himself over for food and a free bed anytime he wants. He was my student a couple of years ago when I lived in Jinhae. He always came out to chat during break time, but one day he asked if we could go to dinner without the rest of the class. Always up for that, I agreed. Somewhere in the second bottle of soju he said he wanted my advice. He said he had been going to the Seaman's Bar recently and talking to the bar maid there. She was beautiful and had made it clear she was ready for more than small talk. J-H said he was interested. He'd been married for 5 years and his only partner had been his wife, a childhood friend, who was pregnant with their second child. We talked about his feelings and over the next couple of weeks talked some more. In the end, he turned the woman down and stopped going to that bar. His friend, Mr. Koo, in a somewhat similar situation (married) didn't turn her down. He even started lifting weights so he'd be more attractive to her without his clothes on. Anyway, I was impressed with J-H for resisting the temptation. I saw the woman in question and I've met his wife. The bar maid would have been difficult to reject. Very difficult. But he did it. And by the way, Mr. Koo** lost several friends because of his affair. It's one thing for a one night stand with money attached. It's an entirely different thing when 'love' enters the picture and threatens the family.

I met J-H's family later. His older sister's husband has to carry J-H's younger sister around on his back because she is paralyzed from the waist down. The dad drinks too much and his mom died of cancer several years ago. At one point, J-H asked if it was OK to think of me as his ajosshi. He meant it in the more serious use of the word.

When I got back to Korea this fall, J-H called and said, "Lets take a trip together!" And he arranged for us to go to Hae-in-sa, where one of his friends lives. He said I could drive down from Swampville to pick him and Sang-Ha up and then turn around and drive up to the temple and some other places where we could do some sight-seeing. It turned out he and Sang-Ha are perfect traveling companions. Sang-Ha sits in the back seat and asks a stream of questions for 20 minutes or so, then falls asleep for an hour before waking up and repeating the process. J-H doesn't get upset when we get lost. I don't either. He also doesn't mind asking strangers for directions. That is kind of unusual for men and Korean men. We got lost at least 5 times on our two day trip. He also complained loudly about the county road sign putter-uppers who screwed up a lot of road signs. For example, we saw a sign for Jinju: 26 km, and an hour and a half later we saw another one, Jinju 24km. We were driving away from Jinju the whole time. We were able to laugh and cuss out the people in charge. (I would never drive in the Korean countryside alone for this reason--the signs have little to do with what is really in that direction.)

We arrived two hours late, which meant his friend was irritated at us, but he finally calmed down and we proceeded to get ajosshied by him. He dragged us to Taegooki movie location near Hapcheon Dam and then off to a really nice waterfall. After that we were on our way to a forest (as if there isn't a forest on every darn mountain in the country), but it was getting dark. He had me park my car (I was driving too slow) and we all rode in his car, leaving mine out in the boonies. (If I'd known that would happen I wouldn't have gone for it.) But anyway, he gave me the opportunity to teach J-H the meaning of the sentence 'Your friend drives like a 'bat out of heck'. The motel we stayed in (for free!!!) at the village was kind of neat. It is one of those buildings where the inside designer and the outside designer have never met, which means windows are half-blocked by brick walls, tiny doors appear in walls where they shouldn't appear--that kind of thing. But the neatest part was the creeks flowing on both sides. So with the window open--the part that was not blocked by the wall, you could hear the rushing water all night.

J-H's friend turned out to be an interesting character. He'd had a job as a chef but didn't like working evenings when everyone else was free. So he quit and moved to Hae-in-sa and opened an internet company where he sells information on how to get various licenses. I'm not too clear on that part. Anyway, after several bottles of makkoli, soju and some kind of ginseng wine ($50 a bottle), he said he hoped he'd never have to travel to another country. J-H, the friend's friend and I all tried to convince him he was talking like a frog in a well. About 1 am I kicked them all out and went to sleep. About 3am there was a knock on the door and J-H came in carrying Sang-Ha and mumbling something about an argument and his friend snoring too loud, and then they went to sleep on my floor. (The argument was about the friend giving away all his money and not getting it back and that money should not be allowed to ruin a relationship. I think you can figure out who was on which side of the argument.)

The next day the friend drove all around Hapcheon Lake looking for my car. I was chewing the back of the seat, sure the car had been stolen. We finally found it after looking for more than an hour.

Anyway, that is who my friend J-H is. He and the kid were coming to visit on Saturday (today). I went shopping after school to get enough garlic to make Garlic Soup, J-H's favorite thing that I cook and also to pick up a yo. When I got home it was late and I was tired. Not because I celebrated too much on Onion Day (last Monday) but because I had had a toothache for two days (and didn't sleep very well). One of the pleasant surprises about living here in Swampville is that the dentist speaks good English. That's always a relief when the guy holding sharp instruments speaks better English than I do Korean. The other reason I was feeling tired was because I went to Pelicana Chicken for supper on Wednesday. I hadn't eaten at all Tuesday and not much till Wednesday night because of my tooth. The Pelicana Chicken ajuma is cool. She speaks just enough English to mesh with my wretched Korean so that we can communicate. For some reason she likes to complain about her husband to me. He drinks too much and his friends are boring and drink too much. Anyway, when I got home I ended up in a chat online until too late.

So there I am in the kitchen at about 8:30, washing my hands after making up a new batch of Italian sausage for the spaghetti to go with the Garlic Soup and the phone rings. Unfortunately his wife is sick and he and the kid can't come up because he has to stay home and take care of the baby. So I ended up falling asleep on the couch early, which meant I woke up at 5 this morning and had all my housework done by 6:25. Sometimes it's nice to wake up on Saturday morning with energy. People should try it.

So what do you do in Swampville on a Saturday morning and you have no real plan? I went off to Bugok to a new sauna--I've been on a search for the perfect sauna and I may have found it. This one has a pool just the right temperature and has bubbles coming up all over the floor of the pool. Cool. A little bubble massage action all over your body. Nice.

On my way out I asked the man behind the desk about the jjim-jil-bahng sign. He took me on a tour--they not only have those domed rooms that are hot, they have a refrigerator room with ice on the walls. I'll never go in that one again, but it was interesting. A day at the jjim-jil-bahng costs W7,000, which I think is standard. The guy told me he and his brother bought the old building a year ago and remodeled it. That surprised me because I was sure it was a brand new building. Anyway, his brother lives in Auckland and got his MBA there. This guy worked for some company (LG?) in Indo-china for 10 years. When he found out I was a teacher and from the US he said I could come to his jjim-jil-bahng for W5,000. What a deal. (It's things like this that make me wonder about the stories about anti-Americanism and the low reputation of teachers. They must be true, but they don't happen to me.)

So here I am on a Saturday morning, squeaky clean from the sauna, the house work all done and my shirt collars are ironed, just waiting for my onion soup to get done (I found a terrific new recipe last weekend and that is how I celebrated Onion Day. It's so tasty I'm having it again for lunch today.)

And what is Onion Day? Onion Day is when all the farmers in this county, which is famous for onions, plant their crop. School closes for it, but none of the boys in my classes helped anyone plant anything last Monday. What did they do? They all played the usual computer games or "I'm sleeping"

The moral of today's story: When someone posts that young Korean guys are not worth talking to because they have nothing interesting to say, you now have another story to go with your own experiences with young Korean guys. The lack of an interesting topic of conversation may not be due solely to the Korean. The problem might lie closer to home. If all you can talk about is drugs, sex, rock 'n roll and sports, then maybe you need to expand your conversational repertoire.

Addendum: I went in to Pusan on Sunday afternoon to check out Young Kwang Bookstore. What a waste of time that was! However, something odd happened on the way. You know when you only know a handful of people in a whole country you will still run into one or more of them in the most unexpected places? I was standing in front of the subway ticket machines trying to figure out where to put in my chon won when I heard my name called out. It was J-H and his whole family. They were returning home from visiting the sisters. It was a tad bit embarrassing because wifey was supposed to be a little sick. Suspicion: J-H was forced into a white lie because his wife didn't want him to go off on his own for the weekend and leave her alone. But my main point: isn't it odd that in a country of 45 million people, two people from homes 40 miles apart run into each other in a different city (of 3 ? million people)? Especially when one told a lie? Very Happy

**If anyone asks nicely, I'll look up the heartbreaking story I once posted involving Mr. Koo. Although he is an adulterer, he has another side to him that does him credit.

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

*with hands clasped in front of my heart and pleading eyes turned directly on YOU, Ya-Ta Boy* Please?

was that nicely? Very Happy

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

What are all those Korean words doing stuck in my post. How annoying! I'll have to go through and edit it. Mad

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Win Mart Girls vs Jin Mart Girls

It�s been awhile since posting the news from Swampville because, let�s face it, news comes slowly in and to the burgs of this world. Most of life is just routine get up and go to work and then go home sort of stuff anywhere you live, but just more so in the wide spots in the road of life.

However, things have been picking up lately. I think it all started to improve the day before my co-teacher ran out of the room crying. We had a couple of minutes to kill before the bell and I asked her to translate. I wrote �man� on the top of the blackboard, �little boy� about two-thirds of the way down and �baby� at the bottom. Then I told the boys (I teach at a rural boys high school) that they often acted like boys. My hope was to embarrass them into a bit more mature behavior. Don�t laugh. It worked for me with American sophomores who are a year younger than Grade 1 boys here. (I think.) I discovered early on in my teaching career that if you say on the first day of school, �Girls, you are a delight to work with because you are a lot more mature than the boys. But boys, don�t worry. Hope is not lost. Santa Claus will bring you maturity for Christmas and then you will be fun to be around, too.� I have no idea why it worked, but it did. Year after year. Well, it seems to have worked here in Korea, too. I mentioned that I said this the day before my co-teacher ran out of the room crying. After she did that, I had the same conversation with the other half of the Grade 1 boys. We have had 90% fewer problems with the guys in both groups since I said that to them. I have filed this away for my opening speech next March with the new kids.

Anyway, today�s lessons went exceptionally well. We�re working on imperatives and I enjoy teaching those. I use a lot of TPR when teaching that, naturally. The boys have enjoyed it and my co-teacher keeps asking for my lesson plans after class so she can use them later. The only problem is that she still hasn�t figured out the difference between �explaining� something in Korean and actually getting the boys to the level where they can use that grammar, so we have a small struggle going on�she wants to turn the page and do the next one. I want to do lessons where the boys give the commands. One of the fun things I did today in one of the classes without a co-teacher was to start teaching giving directions to a place (we�ve been doing giving directions on how to make things). We made a timed race out of it and the guys really liked it. Now I�m trying to think of a way to develop that idea into a �bad taxi driver� scenario where he takes the long way around, so they have to say �turn left, go straight 3 blocks and turn right at the corner� more often. Any contributions will earn the reader my undying gratitude.

In addition to all that, quite a few new boys have joined the elective classes after school. To me, that means we have broken through the 'I hate English' attitude that was in play here when I arrived. I am not trying to toot my own horn. I think anyone who was friendly with the boys and put in a few activities during a lesson, as opposed to rattling on translating every line of every paragraph would be viewed as an educational innovator here.

Anyway, all day long I tried to think of what to do after work so it would be a special day (this is Thanksgiving after all) and I was struggling. I�ll be getting together with some friends this weekend for the traditional dinner thing, but still. Today is Thanksgiving.

After work I got in the car and still hadn�t decided what to do. My choices are pretty narrow. I could drive west over the mountain to Bugok and take a bath, just like Monday evening and then eat kan-poong-gi, or I could drive south to Namji and eat tang-soo-yook and then go home. I decided not to repeat the bath thing and headed for Namji. I get there and the restaurant is closed. It�s closed about 50% of the time. Very aggravating.

I cruised around the block feeling frustrated and then had an inspiration. I decided to try going in to a dahk-kal-bi restaurant. I�d tried this kind of thing in Taejon and Seoul with very limited success. In my experience, ajummas at Korean restaurants do not want to serve people eating alone. Too much work, not enough profit. For most of the last 10 years I have not tried it again. I just go to Chinese restaurants when eating alone�and drag the leftovers home and then throw them away. I decided to go for it tonight. I don�t know why. I just did. I�m just a wild and crazy guy sometimes.

And Bingo! The place was actually quite attractive. Freshly painted. New tables (all 8 of them). And the ajumma was a sweetie. The dahk-gal-bi was exceptionally tasty and there were no little kids running around screaming. I was the only one there until shortly before I left. I read my book in peace and quiet (Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson) and enjoyed my pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Very tasty. Only W14,000 for the main dish, a bowl of rice and a bottle of soju. Very reasonable. My conclusion: If you are living in a small Korean town out in the boonies, don�t hesitate to go in the local restaurants. The ajuammas are happy for any business. Something is better than nothing, seemingly. Those big city ajummas are not as accommodating.

Got in the car and started for home down a street I hadn�t been on before (there are only about 8 streets in Namji) and passed a street vendor with a hundred baskets of odds and ends. Decided, why not? Turned around in the middle of the street (you can do that in Namji because there are only about a dozen cars on all the streets in town�and that�s triple the number in Youngsan). I hit the jackpot. I found a nice tray, two wooden hot pad thingies, a pocket calculator, an air freshener for the car AND a thermometer with both Celsius and Fahrenheit---I will again know whether I am cold or hot--all for W7,000. And the guy is from Taejon, so we had a broken conversation about Tunsan. It felt like old home week.

THEN I started for home again and discovered there is a second grocery store in Namji�Jin Mart. What a night! They had peanut butter Oreos. I had no idea they made those, and they aren�t bad. But best of all�I re-discovered Jolly Pong!!!!!!!! I LOVE Jolly Pong.

The downside is that the two girls at the checkout counter are not nearly as cute and friendly as the 3 girls at Win Mart. And one of the Win Mart girls likes to try to speak English. She got the manager to stock peanut butter for me. Unfortunately, he ordered the kind with the jelly already in it. Yuck. But I do appreciate the effort. If you are ever lost in the wilds of backwoods Korea and are hard up for a date, go to Win Mart and stay away from Jin Mart. The hunting is better there. On the same note, if you are ever in the backwoods of Iowa and are hard up for a date, avoid the A & W in Washington. They have the homeliest carhops in the western hemisphere.