Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I finally got round to finishing this the other day. It's more for my personal recollections, but in case anyone's wondering how an overseas trip might go, here it is.



Field Trip to Canada
(or, the eight busiest days of my life)


(In front of my sister's house.)

When I first signed on with my school a year ago I would never have imagined that a year later I would be driving down the Trans Canada Highway through the Fraser Canyon with a carload of Korean teenagers singing Bohemian Rhapsody, or building the world�s most pathetic sandcastle on White Rock beach with a few of Korea�s giddiest high school students. Nevertheless I found myself doing many such activities and much more during one of the most exhausting but rewarding weeks of my life. Despite all my initial worries and a few small glitches everything went about as well as I could have hoped, playing tour guide on my school�s first ever school trip abroad.

At the time when I was first approached to plan a prospective trip abroad I never thought it would actually materialise. Apparently it was my principal�s idea, no doubt one aimed largely at school self-promotion and useful photo-ops. After doing some initial planning, cost estimations, and provisional itineraries, I figured that it would be financially and logistically out of reach of my small, small-town high school. About a month before the initially proposed starting date, several teachers finally informed me that yes, indeed, at least eight students and who-knows-how-many teachers and / or parents would be going with me for a week in Canada. I told them that the total number of participants would have to be no more than twelve and started scrambling.

My first step was to secure as much help as possible from family and friends around Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, where we�d be based. Since I had been away for almost two years, everyone was very happy finally to see me again and help me out, much to my relief. Getting things together on the other side of the Pacific proved a bit more frustrating, giving Koreans� proclivity for procrastination and their lack of understanding about what is and what isn�t important outside Planet Korea. After my repeated instructions it appeared that everyone going finally had passports, letters of permission, and there was time for me to go over some of the basics with students; I also made sure there was a Korean teacher with an international driving permit to help with transportation. We were finally ready to go - my biggest concern was now how to make the trip a rewarding cultural experience and not a typical Korean trip abroad that would involve getting herded around in a big, safe group, seeing the maximum number of tourist traps while wasting as much time on transportation and packing and unpacking as possible.

I had hoped to plan a trip that would involve a mixture of fun activities, top tourist sites, nature, and most importantly, cultural experiences and interaction. I�d say that I was at least partially successful in pulling this off. It came as no surprise to me that some of the activities the students enjoyed best were also the simplest: describing their school to my aunt (a former teacher), feeding the ducks at the park, doing children�s puzzles at a restaurant while waiting for food, etc. However there was one thing they enjoyed above all else: playing and interacting with my friends� litle children, and, in some cases, the children of complete strangers.

This started during our four-and-a-half hour lay-over at Narita Airport in Japan. Having tired of wandering around the airport saying �Hi!� to random Japanese people (apparently it�s not just whiteys who get this), they settled into a lounge when they spotted a blond, blue-eyed, fourteen-year-old Australian boy. It�s beyond amusing to observe teenage Korean girls� utter lack of social skills and grace when presented with an inter-racial, inter-sex situation. After brief consultation several of them got up and approached him outright with �Hi! � What�s your name? � Where are you from? .. How old are you? ��. Their interrogation was quickly diverted, however, when they discovered that he had a five-year-old blond, blue-eyed little brother. The rest of my students rapidly found their way over, and the rest of our lay-over was spend with an Australian family, my students wrapped around a bewildered little boy named Thomas while I had an adult conversation with a fourteen-year-old who was two or three years my students� junior. By now there must be many pictures of little Tomas posted on various Cyworld pages.

The long flight to Vancouver was made faster by TV screens in the back of every seat, complete with computer games and lots of buttons for the students to fool around with. Some of my students managed to strike up the acquaintance of a �very, very, very handsome� Japanese tour guide named Yoshida who unfortunately seemed somewhat less interested in dorky sixteen-year-old Korean girls than they were in him. I believe they tried emailing him several times later without success. The students handled the flight very well considering some of them had never flown before, and we arrived early at YVR with plenty of time to clear customs.

I had been a bit concerned about customs since laws concerning minors travelling into Canada seem rather vague, to say the least. I had rehearsed everything beforehand, including the order in which we�d go through, with me first and a Korean teacher last. I explained to the airport assistant directing traffic in the queues that I�d like us all to go through the same customs official, so that I could explain who we were and what we were doing. This worked well for me and the first three students, and then some other airport assistant (a woman) came along and started directing everyone in our group to various customs booths that were available, spreading them out considerably. Fortunately I had practiced likely questions with my students beforehand and they were able to cope fairly well. All but one made it through quickly with no problems. The one who didn�t got a customs officer (a woman) who for whatever reason couldn�t understand the purpose of her trip and sent her to a language interpretation booth, even though the student is one of the best at English at my school. I had been waiting to see that everyone got through all right and was able to sneak over so I could explain to the second customs official what we were doing. After a long wait and a brief explanation to the (male) customs officer she was cleared and we were on our way. If I ever take Korean students oversees again, instead of trying to go through in a single, orderly file, I�ll have us approach a single customs booth as one big gaggle; and I�ll make sure I choose a customs booth manned by an intelligent-looking male. Every single hassle I�ve ever had at Canada Customs has been with idiot female officers and this trip was no exception.

My ever helpful father and uncle were at the arrivals area to greet us and help drive some of our party to my sister�s house, where we�d be crashing for the week. We rented one minivan at the airport, and got a bit ripped off on the price quoted. It�s a shame there isn�t better transportation around the lower mainland and to and from the airport, as foreign tourists always seem to get ripped off on vehicle rentals at airports. It didn�t feel strange at all driving through Canada after being away for quite a while, though the Koreans felt like they were on another planet. Fortunately the Korean teacher who had agreed to help with the driving managed quite well; I had told him that driving in Canada was really very easy compared to Korea, with our long, straight roads and wide shoulders. He seemed very pleasantly surprised to find out that I was in fact right.

My sister had generously offered her house for us to crash. I had obvious apprehensions about the whole group of us staying at a medium-size house for a week, but I think that, even cost aside, it was all in all better than staying at hotels. It was a lot easier than moving from hotel to hotel, packing and unpacking, and finding suitable restaurants for breakfast. We were also able to make Korean food if necessary and teach the students how to make various Canadian foods. The one mother who came along with us quickly, dutifully fulfilled the role of housekeeper and so we always had someone on hand to cook and clean. The first evening we copped out and ordered in pizza, and the students got to see that for most people pizza does not include sweet corn, sweet potatoes, bulgogi or kimchi. I hadn�t slept much on the plane and was almost too tired to sleep by the time midnight rolled around.

For our first full day on the ground I wanted to amaze the students with some Canadian nature and the Fraser River and Coquahalla River canyons were not to disappoint. After getting my driving licence renewed (for a whopping $75 - welcome back to Canada) and picking up a second rental car I led our part first to Bridal Veil Falls along the way to greater splendour. There we ran into our first group of misbehaving Korean tourists, eager to climb as far beyond the no-go boundaries as possile. Then we were off through the Fraser Canyon. I didn�t take them too far up the canyon but instead headed up the Coquahalla Highway to the abandoned Othello Tunnels, the best vantage point of the Coquahalla River torrents. We even got to see steelhead jumping as they attempted to make their way up the impossible rapids, much to the awe and delight of all the Koreans. A brief stop in Hope on the way home proved gave them an opportunity to observe some trees that would be non-remarkable to Canadians, but unbelievable to them.


(Something you don't find in Korea.)

Unfortunately visa restrictions prohibited us from visiting the United States, a pity as Seattle was less than three hours away by car. We did, however, manage to make a brief foray two feet into US soil along the world�s longest unprotected border. My sister lives less than a mile from the US-Canada border and a stroll down to a stone border marker proved fascinating to the Koreans. Everyone had to take turns circumnavigating the four-foot high monument and having her photo taken, proving she had technically stepped foot on US territory. I had explained what the unprotected border was like but I think people really had to see it to believe it. Pointing to the narrow field separating Zero Avenue on the Canadian side from its parallel in the States, one student asked �Are there any [land]mines?�.

The next day was Saturday and with no rush hour traffic we were off to the big city. It turned out to be a day of real contrasts for the students, which is sort of what I had hoped for. On the drive in I took the students through the nicest parts of Vancouver, along Pacific Boulevard to Stanley Park. They were suitably impressed by the quantity of trim, topless men, something they only get to see on TV in Korea, I suppose. The weather was as hot as it gets in Vancouver, and when we drove past a muscular, topless Asian guy on a bicycle several of them applauded. It would take them the whole week to get used to seeing topless men and tattooed or smoking women. By the time we parked by the totem poles at Stanley Park they were noticeably awed by the visual over-stimulation of such a bright, clean city with impressive skylines everywhere one looked. Much to my disappointment and ignorance the Stanley Park Zoo had disappeared entirely, and we hadn�t the time to go through whatever is in the Stanley Park Aquarium these days. To cap off the morning we happened to drive right by a Korean supermarket in the downtown west end and secured a supply of apparently necessary Korean goods. I had definitely elevated the students� expectations considerably by this point. This was to change come afternoon.


(Yours truly posing for one of scores of photos against the Vancouver city sky-line.)

Lunch went all right. I had made a reservation at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, a great and reasonably affordable place for large groups. It was our first attempt at a proper sit-down-and-order western restaurant. I have to commend our waitress� patience. I had gone over restaurant procedure and decorum several times with the students - don�t just point at the menu item when you order, eat with your mouth shut, don�t reach across the table to grab things off others� plates, etc. This all went right out the window, with the adults in our party doing no better than the students. When I saw the one mother in our group using both her salad and entr�e fork to mix first her and then her (seventeen-year-old) daughter�s spaghetti properly, I resigned myself to the fact that eating with Koreans wasn�t going to change much on account of context.


(First time at a western restaurant for all but one of our party.)

After lunch it was time for impressions of Canada to change. Everyone had been very much looking forward to visiting Chinatown. I�m not quite sure what they had been expecting - a traditional Chinese folk village? In any event, it turned out to be quite a disappointment. I had directed us into a car-park in Gastown, a reasonably nice tourist mecca, to ditch our vehicles. Since Chinatown is only a short walk from Gastown I figured we could walk it - the only problem being that the walk, and indeed Chinatown itself, wasn�t exactly inhabited by the most respectable-looking people in this country. Carrel Street provides the most direct link between the two, and while it�s perfectly safe during the day, it�s nevertheless a twenty-four-hour taste of the seedier side of a Canadian city.

I was beginning to second-guess my judgement when, on the other side of the street, our walk was paralled by a junkie followed by a heavily tattooed man in the middle of what appeared the rough-sleepers� equivalent of a domestic dispute. The junkie was periodically turning around, screaming �*beep* you!!!� and throwing wild punches at the man following her. This distracted most of our party�s attention away from a drug deal which happened just as we were passing by. The student who had been sitting beside me in the passenger seat of the car as we were driving into Vancouver had been raving about how beautiful Vancouver was and how much she�d love to move there as we were driving in. �Do you still think Vancouver is such a beautiful city?� I asked.

By the time we arrived in Chinatown the students were not only tired out from a lot of walking, but also rather perturbed by the presence of so many substance-abusing weirdoes whom one would simply not find in such a high concentration anywhere on the Korean peninsula. I had allotted an hour-and-a-half to explore, which proved rather too much time for most of our group�s tastes. �Many strange people � afraid�� summed up the collective feelings of both students and adults in our group when we met up later. It was a hot day by Korean, much less Vancouver, standards, and everyone seemed happy to make our way back to air-conditioned vehicles to head back to the tranquil Fraser Valley. As I had anticipated, a brief and fairly sanitised foray through the rougher side of Vancouver had perturbed people a bit, but I still think it�s better that everyone got to see there are two sides to every coin. To cap it all off on the way back to the car we passed a couple snogging away, much to the students� amusement.

My long-time friend was hosting us to a barbeque that night, and this helped redirect everyone�s attention towards the nicer side of Canada once again. My friend may be a workaholic mortgage slave dependent on his renters and generous father-in-law for survival, but I think my students must have reckoned him a millionaire given the size of his backyard and spacious house. What awed them more than anything, however, was my friend�s one-year-old baby along with the one-year-old another friend of mine who joined us brought over. Hamburgers proved more popular than hotdogs, and ice cream more popular than either as everyone got stuffed. I cracked up when my friend asked me if it would be all right if we broke out a couple of beers, given that this was a school event. As someone who�s got drunk in the staff room on a few occasions I realised that I�ve developed quite different cultural attitudes about some things.


(My friend's wife serving up her and my students' favourite food, ice cream.)

The following day, Sunday, we were off to Vancouver again. I decided that we should take Vancouver�s light rapid transit system, Skytrain, rather than drive in, even though the latter would have been a bit cheaper. Few in our group had ever been on another country�s public transportation system and so I figured it would be a worth-while experience. I was surprised by how small Skytrain�s cars seemed to be compared to Korean subway systems. The students really liked the view the system afforded from its elevated tracks.

Our first stop was Science World. My sister and a few of my friends had figured that Korean teenagers wouldn�t really like it all that much. I know my students a lot better than them. As I expected, they absolutely loved it, and couldn�t get enough of the hands-on experiences.


(Korean students doing some rare hands-on learning at Science World.)

Not having enough time as always, we were off on Skytrain to the city centre, first for cheap pizza and then Pacific Centre / Chapters on Robson. Then we made a trek up Thurlowe to Canada Place, where we got a cheap group rate to rent comfortable chairs in which to have a nap while a 3-D film that had something to do with Africa played on the I-max screen. What had to be one of the world�s largest cruise ships was docked along Canada Place, opposite a group of over-awed Koreans taking dozens more photographs.

That evening we were feeding at my parents� high-rise condo, similar in idea but very different in design from hanguk luxury aparta. My mother had planned a traditional turkey dinner, and our party of twelve, aided a little by a few of my relatives, managed to devour an entire turkey plus almost all the trimmings. Perhaps one of these Christmases it will catch on in Korea. It was great to see my students interacting with my parents and a few other relatives and able to hold their own in conversations with foreigners not used to communicating with Koreans. While my parents� high-rise condo is nice by Canadian standards, the Koreans thought my parents must be extremely rich to afford a decent size aparta with such a view. I think the mother in our party, a leisured, upper-middle-class ajumma, was a bit jealous.


(It's convient hosting people who rather like sitting on the floor, isn't it?)

My sister took half the students down to the pool in my parents� building for a swim - apparently their complete absence of any swimming skills provided some amusement to pass the time. I took the others for a walk around Mill Lake Park, less than a block away from my parents� place. We had great fun feeding the birds, me choosing not to see the salient signs strongly suggesting that we not do this. The trip around the lake will best be remembered, however, for the appearance of big dog after big dog. It seems I got stuck with all the canine phobic ones, one of whom spent most of the walk hanging back, running forward, and cowering behind people just to avoid coming within two metres of such horrid beasts. After what was the longest walk I�ve ever had around Mill Lake Park it was time to head home and crash.

Enforcing a bedtime with Korean kids was, as I expected, a pointless endeavour, though a few times I was successful in getting them at least to vacate the downstairs after waking up the male members of our party who were crashing in my sister�s living room. I have no idea how late they were typically up chatting or playing with (and eventually crashing) my sister�s computer. It wasn�t surprising that the students in the car I was driving were fast asleep as soon as we hit the road.

When I awoke four sleeping girls the next morning we found ourselves at White Rock beach. They loved Stanley Park�s beaches but this wide expanse of sand was unlike anything they had ever seen. While the other adults in our party stayed safely back I had great fun venturing out with the kids to explore tidal pools, find crabs in various states of vitality, try to dig up burrowing clams, and eventually attempt a sandcastle or two. Informed that we were running well under budget, I had planned lunch at the Boathouse on Beach Street, a chance for our group to sample �traditional Canadian food�.


(It may be the suckiest sandcastle ever built on White Rock Beach, but it's ours, dammit!)

�We want to eat traditional Canadian food� was a request that I had heard a number of times. Just what the hell is �traditional� Canadian food? Meat and potatoes? Hamburgers? Poutine? Pemmican? In the end, paying deference to local tastes, I decided that traditional Canadian food would be salmon, and the Boathouse restaurant provided no shortage of variety - salmon fillets, salmon steaks, salmon burgers, salmon tortellini, smoked salmon linguini, salmon and seafood skewers - of the wild, not farmed, species. Our considerable order meant considerable time to wait for our food to arrive, which my young adult students filled by completing and colouring the children�s puzzles the restaurant so conveniently provided by the entrance-way. Our (also commendably patient) waiter was obviously faced with a puzzle, too, clearly attempting to figure out how old my students were, their mental ages evidently not corresponding to their physical ages.

After lunch we headed north as the crow flies to Simon Fraser University. Part of the purpose of our trip was to familiarise the students with education in the west, so I figured my alma mater would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, with SFU�s tri-semester system apparently operating very well, the place was swarming with students. I had hoped to teach the students how to use a library, having prepared a list of books and articles to find. However, the library was so full of students and us so short on time by this stage that I opted instead for a brief tour (making sure to take them by the history department so I could show of my name on several plaques outside the main office). They quite liked the SFU bookstore, and after a view nice view-points and photo-ops we were off to my Aunt and Uncle�s place for yet another �traditional� Canadian dinner.

My aunt made pork chops which went over very well. The students could recognise the taste but not the cut of meat. Watching some of them attempt to cut such meat with a fork and knife was an entertaining way to spend dinner. As was watching them fuse such culinary delights as salad with apple sauce dressing or fresh fruit and gravy. My aunt and uncle have an even better view than my parents, and the students were again pleasantly awed by the trip to the roof-top viewing area. After that we spent a enjoyable evening with my students quite fluently talking with my mom and aunt about Korea. It was really nice to see them gaining such confidence and needing little help from me. My aunt, who worked in quite a number of different teaching jobs, just loved chatting away the evening with them.


(Wow, you know how to use cutlery very well ... [not])

The following day, after a traditional Korean breakfast of doenjang-jjigae and sticky rice we were off in an eastward direction once again. Our first stop was the abbey in Mission, an anomaly sy Canadian standards, much less something Koreans would never have conceived. It was fun to try to explain some of the Bible stories carved on the walls, feeling briefly that we were touring Europe. Following this we stopped by a fish hatchery, my relatives� suggestion. I�m glad it was on our way to Harrison, as there unfortunately wasn�t much to see there in late July. Then we made our final stop of the day, Harrison.

I think I planned one too many beaches for our trip, and a few of the students found it a bit boring. I had hoped that those who wanted could have used the Harrison Hot Springs pool, but when I said they should bring �swimwear� it seems the students understood that to mean �beach wear�, not aware that one cannot usually rent swimsuits at Canadian pools - nor were they aware that at a North American hot springs / sauna one can�t just lounge in same-sex pools, swimsuits upsaeyo - so that idea was out. Where we did luck out at Harrison was finding a restaurant for lunch that happened to be owned by Koreans, not that there was any authentic Korean food on the menu.

That evening we were to have our last dinner at another Canadian home, this one owned by a friend with whom I went to elementary and secondary school. After devouring over 30 chicken legs and breasts it was time for more of my students� favourite activity: playing with little white kids. There were no shortage of these, as several other friends came over, tykes in tow. Included in one friend of my friend�s entourage was a fourteen-year-old, and it was again interesting to note the complete difference in attitude and mannerisms between western an Korean teenagers. It was quite impossible to believe that the calm, somewhat sullen, nose-ringed girl relaxing on the sofa was a fair bit younger than any of my students, as she patiently answered my students� predictable questions.

My sister's home proved such a useful base for a variety of activities, including this as mundane but entertaining as a photo scavanger hunt around the neighbourhood. After I took the students on a 'supermarket scavenger hunt' to find supplies for cooking,



my sister was able to do a few cooking classes with the students, her and I getting the students to do as much of the hands-on stuff as possible.



While what we turned out may have been rather unimpressive, it was a great reward for the students to be able to feast on what they had prepared themselve.

It was hard to believe that our trip was so rapidly coming to an end, and I�m glad I planned our last day as an open day to tie up loose ends. After a morning of shopping I managed to arrange some very impressive appointments in the afternoon. The first was at the high school where my cousin teaches. My school had really been hoping we could visit a Canadian school, despite my repeated assertions that Canadian schools close down for the whole summer with barely any staff available. Fortunately my cousin had been able to arrange a tour by someone from the administration office who happened to have been to Korea a number of times on business trips in her previous job. Were my students ever amazed when she greeted them in Korean. I don�t think they learned anything about Canadian schools that I couldn�t have told them in five minutes, but it was still probably good for them physically to be able to tour around one. We got a great photo to take back to Korea, complete with a ridiculous banner that my vice-principal had made for us to drag around entitled �A Trip Abroad for Experiential Learning� and some presumably pretentious Korean translation of whatever they thought the English meant.

From here we were off to Abbotsford City Hall and the mayor�s office. At the beginning of the week my sister had suggested I call the mayor�s office and try to arrange an appointment. I thought she was nuts; why on earth would a mayor of a city of over 100,000 care to do a meet-and-greet with a few visiting Korean students? Well in turned out she was right, and the mayor was happy to fit us in. The Koreans couldn�t believe it, though as I explained to them, if the mayor has time to do this sort of thing it means that he can�t be particularly involved in the affairs of his municipality. The elderly mayor, George Ferguson, an octogenarian who mumbles, uses lots of big words, and is hard of hearing, proved about the least suitable person to communicate with EFL students, leaving me to restate everything he or the Koreans said to each other in comprehensible English. He was, however, an extremely friendly and gracious host, and while our meeting at his office was in some respects pointless the Koreans were extremely impressed that someone in his position would take the time to make them feel welcomed.

Our last evening was spent packing and the following morning cleaning, and after some last-minute shopping we were off to the airport to see everyone off. It was a bit of a hurried send-off, which prevented anyone from getting overly sentimental, and then they were off while I was staying behind in Canada for another three weeks. I was assured that everyone was very satisfied with the trip and relieved that we had pulled it off with no major problems whatsoever.

All in all I can say in all confidence that the trip turned out to be a real success, thanks in such a large part to my relatives and friends, and I hope the students really benefited from the experience. I�m sure none of them will ever forget it - the one student who had done a fair bit of travel overseas later sent me an email saying that this trip was particularly special to her and she really wants to come back to �Vancuva� again some day. What made this trip so successful was first and foremost my sister, who not only lent us her beautiful, new home but also did a great job playing host. My students really loved her and she was able to help make it seem like more of a short-term home stay for them. Thanks to her they were able to get a much better idea of how ordinary Canadians live and we could avoid the fuss of trying to use hotels as our base. The other thing that made this trip so special to the students was the kindness shown by ordinary Canadians - a patient waitress, a kind mother letting the students play with her toddler, a mayor or school administrator taking out time for us, relatives and friends of mine being such gracious hosts - something I had rather taken for granted. I doubt I�ll ever have the opportunity to lead such a trip again, and despite the last-minute nature of some things the timing couldn�t have possibly been better. If you ever have the chance to do this sort of thing with your students I say go for it.

[Grotto]

Bravo...sounds like you did a bang up job!

Well written and entertaining...I give it two thumbs up

[Richard Krainium]

Yu, you are a saint. I read every single word! What a fantastic thing to do. I commend you, your family and friends for such a valiant and successful endeavor.

I'm pretty sure most readers won't take the time to read your whole post. I want to tell them, READ IT! This is the kind of stuff that proves there are many committed and PROFESSIONAL ESL'ers here in Korea.

Thanks for taking the time not only to do the trip, but for making this post. You've inspired me, at least!

[canuckistan]

Good job!

I used to take groups of French-Canadian business people to New York, Boston etc. As the Master of Ceremonies you run your butt off from 7 am to 9 pm making sure everything you've got planned goes down without a hitch and it's all very draining, BUT... it's really fun too Nice expense accounts and broadway shows.

I'll bet teenagers are much more of a challenge though.

I'd say there's a pretty giant market for running trips like that to Canada for Korean kids if you have good references to show parents. I thought about starting something like that up but we move around too much.
I think it would make a great business!

[bellum99]

What did you get for doing it?

[ttompatz]

[jajdude]

Great post! One of the best I've seen in a long time. I found that really interesting. I've often thought it would be great if the students could actually see where the teacher comes from, and of course experience a new place.

Once in 1998 a bunch of teenagers from Vancouver (or Surrey) came to Pohang, where I worked for a few months. The Korean students seemed more impressed by the foreign kids than the Canadian kids seemed with the Koreans or Korea for that matter. Still, cross-cultural exchanges like that are generally awesome for everyone. Nice to open some eyes.

[seoulsista]

Wow, what a fantastic experience for those girls and for you! Sounds like a lot of fun was had by all.

[SuperHero]

excellent post - I'm sure your students will remember that for the rest of their lives.

Did you get a vacation after your "vacation"?

[ahopfe]

Brilliant . Im just speachless, I find it hard enough getting up in the morning let alone doing something like that.

Great report and Hats off to Ya .

[TheUrbanMyth]

Very enjoyable reading. Another two thumbs up from this viewer.

[Captain Corea]

I did it with the in-laws and had a similar experience.


Ya did a great job here man... thanks for posting all of it.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yesanman]

Wanted to bump this post back up.
Mr Bum (I hope it isn't Mr. Suk) wrote an interesting long post and I thought more people should see it.
I also am taking some Korean kids to Canada. Most of the problems encountered (table manners, etc) I had thought of previously.
But one thing that you mentioned that I hadn't thought about was the maturity level of Korean students vs Canadian students.
I foresee this as a problem my students will encounter when they meet Canadian studetns of their own age. Hadn't thought about this before and must try to prepare my students for it.
Thanks for the interesting post.