Jon's Korean Experience

Baseball Plus

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:04:44 GMT

I've done so many things lately, and I just haven't had any time--or any energy--to write about anything. The fact that this blog entry tool doesn't like to keep up with my typing and I frequently have to go back to add letters it couldn't keep up with doesn't help...

Anyway, a few weekends ago, May 17th to be exact, myself and a couple friends from Jinju went to a baseball game in Busan. The Lotte Giants vs. the Woori somethingorothers. The game started at 2, and the seats were all "festival seating." I hadn't heard of this before, but apparently it means first come first serve. So we aimed to show up at 12pm, which we almost did. On the way out of the train station, there were people selling roast chicken everywhere. I bought a box, but then realized something very important. I didn't see a chicken roaster anywhere... Often people sell them off trucks with an oven in the back running off a generator, but not this time. I was hungry enough at that point though, a little salmonella only meant flavour. Us coming from Jinju had to meet up with 2 of my friends from Suncheon--a town in the southwest province--so when we arrived I called them up. We eventually found where they were supposed to be, and my friend asked "don't you see us?" Now, my friend is short for Korean standards, has olive skin and black, shoulder length hair. Her friend has similar features, but is shorter. And I, of course, am a six-foot-tall, white blonde man. The only one around, oddly enough. Thus I felt it made more sense for her to look for me. Which we did, and in we went.

Now when my friend who bought the tickets said we had to arrive so early, I just assumed there'd be plenty of seats. It made sense.. 2 hours before the game, who would be there, right?? Yeah, it was half full already. We got decent seats in the front row in the left field and settled in for roast salmo... err.. chicken and waited for the game. People wandered by selling the traditional beer and other drinks, but also more roast chicken, cardboard hats--which we bought for 50 cents each--and of course dried squid. Before the game started, the cheerleaders--yes, they had cheerleaders--came out and got the crowd going. They were led by a guy jumping around like a maniac, and there were also some guys playing drums. And naturally the mascot running around and doing tricks.

Once the cheering started, it didn't stop. The first batter came up, and the crowd started to sing a song with the batter's name in it. Then they started to sing songs that translated simply to "get a hit" or "home run!" and things like that. They obliged often. The score in the end was something like 9 to 2. Woori went through 3 pitchers. The number of cheers and songs that everyone seemed to know was really amazing. And the fact that they sang a song for every player as they got up to bat was really cool. My frieds and I decided on songs for ourselves were we sports players in Korea. One chose something by Wagner, another chose Beethoven's 9th, and I just chose Beethoven's 5th.

After the game, we headed to the Haundae beach area for some tacos, which were amazing as always. After a beach dinner, we split up with some of us going off to other places in Busan, myself and one friend heading back home to Jinju, and two other friends heading back to Suncheon. Got back in time to meet up with friends for a usual night out on the town.

Last weekend, the Canadian Embassy gave an information session in Gwangju, the capital of Jeollanam-do, west of Gyeongsangnam-do where Jinju is. We asked a bunch of people if they wanted to go, and lots were willing, until they found out we'd have to get a busat 7am to make it there on time. So only Carolina and I ended up going. It actually wasn't so fantastic. The consular information was stuff I already knew, at least, and the Korean government informtion offered was delivered in some pretty poor English which made the topics, difficult to understand already, even more difficult. Some people came clearly just to complain about some things that the Canadian and Korean governments do. Like, the whole residency thing for taxes which is ridiculously confusing, and labour laws in Korea (which are actually quite good but few people bother to stand up for their rights, and Korean employers do tend to try and steal money from foreign employees trying to say some laws don't apply to us).

After the information session, a local brought us to a place for lunch and showed us how to get to some points of interest in town. Gwangju was the site of pro-democracy demonstrations in... the 60s I believe, and one day--May 18th--the military government sent troops to quash their protests and fired on the protestors, killing hundreds (I think..). Thus, there are parks and memorials everywhere, and Gwangju is often called the seat of Korean democracy. We only got to see one memorial park among many, then headed downtown for some good, western style food for dinner and a bit of a night out. Hotels were really hard to find, but we eventually found one good enough that didn't gouge us. The next day, a light breakfast and heavy, steak-filled lunch. Hard to turn down really.

I swear I did something cool on the intervening weekend between these two events, but it mustn't have been too amazing because I really can't remember what I did. If I remember I'll write something. Tomorrow I plan to go to Seoul with a friend to listen to some jazz, without interruption, and do some palace tours. I'm probably going to have to stay in jimjilbangs though. These are places like spas, with public saunas and baths, as well as different rooms to make you sweat in different ways, apparently, and places to sleep at. I always have a picture of people sleeping with wooden blocks as pillows, which is a definite possibility if you get there late and all the pillows are gone... hope that's not me!

Buddha's birthday?...

Fri, 16 May 2008 05:20:57 GMT

For a long time, I'd heard of this temple called Bul-guk-sa. Since I started here, really. All my students would talk about it and say how amazing the place is. I was told that the picture of the really giant Buddha from the cover of my Lonely Planet came from there. So I was psyched when I got a long weekend off with nothing else on the go. Everyone had Monday off for some, at the time, unknown holiday, so I got a couple of friends to come down with me.

So saturday afternoon, myself and a friend head to the bus station for Gyeongju, the town with this giant temple complex. It's particularly famous for being the capital of the Silla empire. Quick Korean history lesson: back in the day (I think something like 400BC), the Korean peninsula was neatly divided into 3 seperate kingdoms: Silla in the south east, Baekje in the south west, and Goguryeo in the north. Well, the Sillan king Munmu was the one that finally conquered the other two and brought about the first united Korean peninsular nation. As you can then imagine, there's lots of cool stuff around Gyeongju to see!

We arrived late in the afternoon--evening really, around 5:45pm--and our first order of business was food. This is when we discovered the disturbing lack of restaurants. That's not to say there weren't any, but they were quite sparse, to say the least. We eventually found a doaeji-galbi (marinated pork barbecue) resturant and ate there. Next order of business, hotel. There seemed to be plenty of new ones about, so we didn't think we'd have trouble finding one. Well, all the new ones were either booked up, or much too expensive (like W130,000 for one room for one night!). After going to somewhere between 12 to 15 hotels, motels and yeogwon's (like a Korean-style hostel, but usually with single rooms and no dorm option), we found a small yeogwon with a room for the night that wasn't going to cost us an arm and a leg. Unfortunately, it didn't have a business card, but there was a nice, big, new hotel across the streert, with a tall sign, called Hotel Business. We figured this was a good a landmark as any and headed off for some sightseeing.

Our first stop was a series of parks known to have a large number of Korean traditional tombs. These things aren't really exciting to look at, aside from the fact that these particular tombs were everywhere between 5 meters to 5 storey's tall. Otherwise, they just looked like large mounds of grass. We couldn't really take pictures because of the lighting, but that didn't stop us from trying. After the first section of park, we went in to a temple area to have a look. We were greeted by an eager monk who wanted to know where we were from, a made sure we'd eaten and found a place to stay. He said it was very busy because of Buddha's birthday celebrations. It finally clicked. That explained why it was so busy, Gyeongju essentially still being the capital for Buddhism in Korea, given it's large temple complexes (more than just Bul-guk-sa). The monk let us know that there was a free "Korean traditional music concert" just down the street that was scheduled to start soon. We thanked him very much and wandered off, deciding to detour throuh the rest of the park--whose gate was half open--on the way to the concert. The park was better maintained and landscaped than the previous sections, but again too dark for photos. We found our way out of that section to a third, larger, flater section, which also went past which I believe they said was Korea's first observatory. It was made of stone, with 12 layers, each layer with 30 stones or some such thing, with 366 stones in total. One layer a year, one stone per day for the whole year. Sort of strange actually, given that those numbers are for a solar calendar and the Koreans used the lunar calendar at the time (as far as I know).

Eventually, we made it to the park with the concert. It wasn't actually free in the end, we had to pay a whole dollar. The park was actually an old sight of a palace that, naturally, had been completely destroyed by the Japanese in the invasion from 1592-5. They had restored some of the pagodas and the pond it was on. It was interesting, as were the relics on display in the pagodas that were dredged up from pond when they restored it. The music was... well, Korean folk music played by a concert band.

After the concert, we started the walk back in to the town center--at least, we hoped. We actually got back in to the town reasonably easily, but we didn't recognize where exactly we were or where to go next. We walked around for quite a while, then decided to stop at a police box to ask directions. I asked, in Korean, where the Hotel Business was, and the police officer said he had no idea. He didn't think it was in Gyeongju at all. I assured him it was. He called many places, and as he was talking, my friend and I found a map, found out where we were, and found a good idea about where to go. I tried to tell the officer that I had an idea where to go, and he told us to sit down. Eventually, he called a consulate of some sort to translate. I told them we had an idea where to go, but the officer was really intent on helping us. Well, that didn't work, we still had to wait. Eventually he said, in Korean, "Oh, I know the hotel! It's that way!" And he pointed vaguely off in the direction we thought we had to go. So we said thanks, and went on our way. We got back to the area we knew the place to be, but still couldn't find it exactly. After another hour or two, we finally found the place and discovered we'd been close to it for the past two hours, we just had to walk a few feet further down a road. Our room found, we decided to get a drink at a bar called "Perhaps." A small, nicely interiored place with cheap drinks and a nice owner who spoke some English.

The next day we eventually got up around 9:30am to go out and meet another friend at the bus station. After breakfast we hoped a cab for the famous Bul-guk-sa temple. We knew it'd be about W20,000, but figured it reasonable between the 3 of us, especially given it'd save us the hassle of getting lost taking a wrong bus, or getting off at the wrong place. We got there easy enough, the driver trying to convince us that the hiking trail between the temple and a famous grotto was closed. We thanked him and got off. The temple complex was pretty amazing. I got some great photos of the grounds, and a lot of Buddhas. I've never seen so many Buddha statues in one spot! So much gold! We were allowed in to almost everywhere to pray if we wanted, but none of us were Buddhists, and felt uncomfortable going in just for a photo op. Actually, many places, though not all, prohibited photos from the inside. I dealt with this by taking photos zoomed in from the outside. ;-)

After seeing wandering around the really crowded temple complex for an hour or so, we started the hike towards the grotto. Much harder than I anticipated. Though it was paved, it was entirely up, usually steeply. That took us about an hour or so, whereupon we had to wait for almost another hour in line to see this thing. I had thought this was going to be where my big giant Buddha was, but I was sadly mistaken. Almost wasn't worth it, though it was free, so hard to turn away. We also saw another temple on the other side of the grotto, so it was like a bonus feature. We hung out for a bit there, then decided to head to this place called Girimsa, which the guide book told us was nearly as big, and so just as impressive, as Bulguksa, but much less visited owing to it's difficulty to get to. We looked around to see if there was a bus or taxi we could get, but couldn't seem to find much. Eventually, one of my friends managed to chase down a cab, and we got in and headed towards Girimsa, for another W20,000. The ride was much longer than I had anticipated--it looked like it'd be a 10 minute drive on the map, but it turned out to be almost 30. As we were talking about stuff, the cabbie saw the cover of my guide and figured we were talking about it, and mentioned that statue I`d wanted to see was actually in Daegu. Oh well, next time. As we were getting closer, the cab driver said that getting a cab from there would be hard, and offered to take us there, to another place called Golgulsa, and back to Gyeongju for anothrt W40,000. At this point, we figured we could either do that, or risk getting stuck, so we agreed.

Girimsa was similar to Bulguksa, though the area it sat in was flatter, and the temples weren`t as tall. We went through a bunch of the different temples, and as we were walking through we heard some Buddhist chants off in a side temple. We wandered around to have a look to find a monk praying. Kind of cool to hear that sort of thing for real. We left him to his own peace, and carried on towards a bit of a museum in the middle. Everything was marked in Korean, though, so we weren`t entirely sure of all the significance of everything. Though the one Buddha in the center we surmizedto be the one mentioned in the guide book, made of saw dust and paper, and lacquered over, about 500 years ago or so. Though it really just looked like any other statue.

Off to our awaiting cabbie, and the ride to Golgulsa. This was a series of `caves,` though they were mostly erroded, in a cliff face. There were monuments and carvings in each of the twelve caves, and a large carving of Buddha in the stone at the top--I believe it`s the largest such carving in Korea, though I could be mistaken. Climbing around the mountain was pretty cool. I was disappointed that my camera battery had died before going to the grotto, and I was stuck with only a quicksnap I`d bought, with no more photos left at this point. The view from the top was pretty amazing.

Back to town--not sure how long the drive was to be honest, but I wouldn`t be surprised to find it was an hour. One of my friends had a craving for chicken from a place called Kyochon, so we had the driver find us one and drop us off. We offered for him to come with us, but he wasn`t interested. This time, when we went to find a motel, we just got the closest one we could, that didn`t seem to dodgey. The one we settled for just had a couple of Korean traditional sleeping mats for the floor, but we were just happy to find a place to sleep that wasn`t too expensive or crowded.

Monday, our final day there, and the day Buddha`s birthday is actually celebrated. We decided to hop a bus this time to the sea tomb of King Munmu, credited with uniting the Korean peninsula under the Silla banner. It`s also credited with being the `worlds only sea tomb,` officially I guess. We got there easy enough, and say the tomb: a series of rocks about 200m off the shore. Ultimately, not too exciting. We couldn`t get any closer at all, even if we had a boat, because the sea was quite rough. After hanging out on the beach a bit, we decided to seek out a pagoda built on the spot where, according to legend, King Munmu transformed into a dragon and went in to the sea to defend his kingdom from foreign invaders (ie, the Japanese). We weren`t sure how to get there, so we asked a passing monk, who was very happy to give us directions. Though he told us to go along the street and cross a bridge, we decided to walk along the beach, and if we couldn`t cross the river from there, we`d just walk up to the bridge.

Well, the river was extremely narrow when we came up to it, but still a hair deep, and the rocks weren`t great for crossing on. However, as a wave swept back, one friend hopped across, getting only slightly soaked on one foot. Having little choice at this point, I waited for the right moment and hopped across myself, though I missed the second rock and went in to the drink. Not too bad though, only up to my knees and I was out quickly. Next came my other friend, but before he went over, the first friend to go over suggested he take his backpack off so he`d get better balance. Before I could point out that holding your heavy backpack in one hand would hardly give you better balance, he was hopping across. He almost made it perfectly, though in the last skip he missed and also ended up soaked a bit.

We wandered up the other side of the beach, and eventually found the pagoda, where we took our shoes off to dry, and changed in to dry socks. We hung out there a bit--not an amazing spectacle, but a decent view of the ocean, and it was empty so it was quite relaxing. After a while, we caught a bus back to town, and then, after some lunch, headed back to the bus station. Buses to Jinju ran every 2 hours, but we were fortunate enough to be there about 40 minutes before the next bus. Got our tickets and waited. The bus comes in, and it`s already packed from the previous towns, with only one or two seats left--and of course there was 3 of us. So we decided to head to Busan first and get a bus from there. We swapped our tickets and got on the next bus to Busan, which had only 5 seats left.

A quick trip, but it didn`t take us in to the main Busan station, but instead to one in the east. Still, we were able to get another bus to Jinju easily enough, though we were told it`d come at 4:05, and it came at 4:40. And, it wandered through Busan for at least an hour before heading on the expressway, not stopping for any more passengers at all, despite the fact there was a gate to the expressway 5 minutes from the station.

Anyway, made it back just fine! And that was my latest adventure. Pictures to come soon. I have yet to develop my quicksnap--hopefully I can get the photos on a CD as well as prints. Photos from my digital camera that I did manage to get will be coming soon.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I`ll be heading to Busan for a Korean professional league baseball game. Should be exciting!

EDIT: Photos are up, and yes, I know my captions are lame. A tumuli, by the way, is the name of the giant tombs that Koreans use for burial. These ones are for kings and stuff, so they`re huge of course. Common people also use them, though they`re much, much smaller.

Where the heck have I been?!

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:51:26 GMT

Well, it's a long story really. It boils down to work craziness--and not in a good way--and me becoming single after a year long relationship that had been really quite good (if anyone's concerned, there's actually no hard feelings there in the end, and we're still good friends!). These things combined really didn't help me see the funny side of things, or anything at all that was really entertaining. As such, I felt that the wider internet society, who might just wander in to this site for entertainment or informative purposes, would not enjoy another person complaining about how horrible life treats them, and only them, and why does fate have such a vendetta against them anyway? But now, things are better. I feel better, my job has achieved a state of tolerableness, and I've been doing fun things!

Ironically, my computer troubles, which had been fixed, are returning. Turns out my system just loves overheating itself. I've ordered a new one, but it could be some time before I see it (a week or two). Until then, I have to deal with a computer that my overheat and turn itself off at any moment (and I even have it set up so that air can move freely beneath it so it can cool down better...). But, once I DO get my new system, I'll likely be doing more things like gaming... we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, last weekend (12th to 13th) I went to Seoul with some friends, because one of them was going to pick up his buddy visiting from Canada. Did that, went to a bunch of clubs and stuff. Went to the jazz bar I'd gone to before. It was awesome, so naturally my friend leading the expedition said we had to leave after only an hour. Then, a $40 cab ride later, we went to another bar, that had a decent atmosphere, pool tables, and $2 drinks. We had to leave there after 30 minutes. And only 2 other people paid their bar bill (of 8) so I was stuck with the rest. Yay for cheap beer! After that, we went to a club with a $10 cover. Went in, full of a couple of hip hop Koreans, and some gaggles of girls that wouldn't give anyone the time of day--even when I just asked if they knew any other good bars around. We stayed here for a couple of hours, because apparently it was fun. Next, we had to go to Itaewon. Regulars to my site might remember how much I dislike Itaewon, because it's the foreigner district. Full of pretensious people, much too good for Korea, and American servicemen who have a reputation for fighting and being general, well-rounded jerks. It cost us another $10 cab ride to get there, too (cheap, actually). Went to a club where we were promised beautiful women, and we got a large number of gay men and some average women who looked like they may have preferred the hooker trade, except they were much too good for men.

At this point, myself and two of my friends who were tired of this sort of thing went to a lounge next door, then outside for some schwarmas (mmmm schwarmas! I didn't realize how much I miss those!) and to another bar to relax with people who didn't feel they were too good for us. The whole while I had maintained that because I had to go to Busan for a friends birthday the next weekend, I wanted to stay on a $100 budget. So, I had always planned on leaving on the first bus around 6:00am or so to avoid an expensive hotel. And so I did, with one other friend from Jinju. A friend from Seoul that had come to join us started his hour long subway ride home at the same time. Well, despite how this might sound, I did enjoy myself. It felt good to finally get out of Jinju for a bit, see other things.

This, as you might have guessed, brings us to the Busan birthday party. Now, a bunch of us went out on Friday night to begin birthday festivities--it was a 30th birthday after all! We finished work at 11:00pm, so we didn't get to the bar until quite late. But, after a few hours and a few long island ice teas (I know it sounds like a pansy drink, but YOU have 4 of them and see how you feel!), we went off to norae bang (karaoke/singing room). Were there until 5:00am or so. The guy just kept giving us more and more free time. We kind of go to that one a lot, and we're always really nice to the owner, so he's really nice to us!

The original plan was to meet at the bus station for noon. Got a call at around 11:00am saying that, given 3 of the 6 people were really quite hung over and tired, including the birthday girl, we'd push it back to 1:00pm. No problem. Set an alarm for 12:15 and went back to sleep. Of course, my alarm is set for Monday to Friday, and it was Saturday. I woke up at 12:50 with a text message asking if I had coffee. I cursed, answered back that I slept in, and got a move on. Fortunately, because so few of us were coming from Jinju, a friend offered to drive us in her giant, US-style van/suv. So, that gave me time. We left around 1:30, and after a bit of a detour for various reasons we got to Busan at Haeundae Beach around 4:00. Met up with friends from Daejon, and we went for the ever famous Mexican taco restaurant. It's pretty much the only place in Korea that has any mexican food at all--I heard that day there's another in Daegu or some such place, but not nearly as good. Carolina said they were as good as any mexican food she's ever had. And, from someone from a mexican family, that's a good rating. But, of course, they were closed for an hour. And we were hungry! So we went for Thai food instead. Met up with another friend down from Seoul (not the same as the one I'd met, who couldn't make it), and back to the hotel so that the girls (most of the group ;-) could "prepare." They were damn good looking too. Why I forgot my camera this weekend, when I KNEW there was going to be so many more good looking women, and I brought it to Seoul, I'll never know.

Anyway, all ready, we went to a club with a live band that was average for Korea--read, amateurish but they could play guitars alright and sing as well as anybody. Hung out there for a bit, then actually out to norae bang quite soon! But it was really nice. While we were waiting for our room to be cleaned, a drunk Korean in a suit wanting to practice english wandered out of a room (likely a hagwon director) and asked where we were from. I said Thailand. He seemed to believe me... Once we got in to the room, it was awesome. Had a giant window out over towards what would have been the beach, had the sun been out. And it was quite large. Though I found the song selection a little skimpy, others found it better. I guess it's just a little different (this is rare in Korea--most places I've been have the same song choices...).

The next day (Sunday), we finally got a chance to get our tacos, after about a 30-45 minute wait--it's only one guy in the shop, and he's REALLY popular. Some people took off towards their homes in various parts of the country, while those of us from Jinju went for some ice cream to take to the beach. We didn't actually get a chance to sit on the beach too long, but it was worth it. At this point, we had to leave to avoid big traffic. We got back around 6:00pm. And that's that!

In other news, people may find it interesting that I now have a beard. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it, but most people like it so far so I'll keep it for now. Also, I'm looking to come back to Canada to work. I'd really prefer Ottawa or Vancouver, but I'm not overly picky. I'm toying with the idea of seeing if some big corporation, that hires people from overseas often like in the tech sector, might need/want an ESL instructor for some employees to help with every-day sort of things. I mean, I'm sure all these people can communicate well enough for their jobs, but a little help here and there could boost productivity, yes? Even if it's just water-cooler chat in some cases. Anyway, other than that, I'm not interested in a job teaching ESL any more. I need a career change! Any suggestions with what someone can do with a BA in poli sci and 4 years teaching experience (with no TESOL) can do in Canada, I'll be happy to entertain. Outside of business-to-person sales (I could do business to business, in the right context) and call centers of course.

So, I'm back! I'll put up random photos I've taken recently soon.

Computer troubles

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:26:10 GMT

Well, it's about the end of 2007. Some people might've noticed my lack of blog entries for the past month or so. I've just been busy with random things, and plenty to do with Christmas. Everything was great until, on Christmas Day, I discovered my harddrive had crashed. I managed to get it to a technician and found that it was actually a virus. Most of my stuff will be saved, but I won't get it back until later on this week. If all my photos are still there I'll try to put some up and actually tell you all what's been going on. Needless to say, lots of fun stuff! I hope I remember it all. For the moment, I'm forced to use Carolina's computer or the one at work, so I don't want to spend too much time writing here when it's not my computer to use... Soon though!

Photos! The End is Nigh!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:04:55 GMT

Yes, I've actually posted some photos! Amazing isn't it? I have some from the lantern festival this year. As last time, I only posted a fraction of what I took. I wanted to get some pictures in the daytime this year, but it never happened. Things kept coming up. Anyway, I also have photos from the Pusan International Film Festival. Film festivals, by nature, don't tend to be very photo-y events, so not many there. And of course, I also have plenty of photos of my new kitty, now named Jigae (pronounced Jee-gay, and it's the name for a spicey soup most often made with kimchi :-) She went to the vet for the first time today and had some tests done. She's all good and healthy, but not heavy enough to get her vaccines yet.

I'll try to get some apartment photos up. This place really is 100 times better than my last one, you'll see (eventually...)!

Enjoy the new pics.

PIFF and a Tall Waygook

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:22:08 GMT

Well, a couple weekends ago, as I mentioned, we went the Pusan International Film Festival (yes, I know it's spelled Busan now, but they didn't change it for the festival name). We could only order tickets in advance for one movie we wanted to see, called "Le Ring"--a movie from Quebec (oddly enough), and yes, in French with both Korean and English subtitles. We (being myself, Carolina, and four other friends: Jenni and her boyfriend Philip, and Archer and his coworker Chris) figured we'd head there early to go get tickets for some of the other movies we wanted, if we could. I also had the idea that I might want to buy a cat there.

We got to Busan and headed straight to the Haeundae beach, where a bunch of the theaters were. When we finally found the theater we were looking for, and the area where the PIFF stuff was, we found most movies sold out. We had just decided on one that was not sold out, and as Philip ran to get tickets, someone came over and crossed it out (thus indicating it's sold out). So, we only got the see the one movie, which was stereotypically Canadian: ie, it sucked. It was depressing, and there were no real endings in the whole movie, with all these other plot lines open. It was supposed to be about a kid who finds some sort of meaning in a church wrestling group (odd I know, but that was it), and the wrestling was only a very small part of it. It's worth noting on that day that after we finished realizing we couldn't get more tickets, we found a great Mexican restaurant, that was big enough for only about 4 stools and a counter, but it was hugely popular. We got some great stuff from there for lunch. After the movie for dinner we went to a Thai restaurant that, I thought, didn't really meet expectations.

Anyway, everyone else went home and Carolina and I stayed the weekend in Busan. So we got more photos, some more freebies and stuff. Also, I bought a kitty! Now it's been just over a week with her, I'm actually starting to regret it. It wasn't so expensive to buy her and all the stuff required (cage, litter box, etc), but I didn't check before I bought her to see how much other things would cost, like food and litter. Litter costs $15/8kg, food I have no idea yet because she has barely begun the bag I bought for her to begin with, and shots, I'm about to find out today. Hopefully not too bad. The biggest problem is that she likes to climb my legs, thus shredding either my pants slightly (she even managed to start causing damage to my jeans), or my legs a lot. Pictures will be forthcoming, I promise.

Last weekend, a bunch of us went to the Lantern Festival to see it out. Had some great roasted pork, and saw a bit of the circus. While we were at the pork tent awaiting our bounty, we noticed a guy trying to get a balloon down from the top of the tent that his daughter had let go of, but he just wasn't tall enough. I figured I was tall enough, so I hopped up on a stool and tried to reach it. But I was just a few inches short. So I grabbed a pair of chopsticks (it was in a restaurant after all) and made a few dabs at it. Eventually I got it down, to some applause. Apparently everyone was watching me. And naturally I was wearing my black shirt that says in English and Korean "Foreigner." Carolina got some pictures of that and if she gets them up on her site I'll link them here.

Started Korean lessons last Monday, and again yesterday, and I gotta say, it's damn hard. I'm not so sure I'm cut out for it. I never have been able to really learn any other language... Still, I'll give it a try for a bit.

I swear there was a ton more that I wanted to write, but I can't recall any of it now! If I remember, I'll write. Please hold your breath until then ;-)

Up to date

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:12:52 GMT

The last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. It all started 3 weeks ago, when we were mostly expected to "supervise" the students' studying. At other hagwons, this means sitting there reading a book and answering any odd questions that pop up. At this hagwon, we not only were expected to not read, we were also expected to stand, and, if you can believe it, not answer any questions! That's right, we were instructed to tell students to ask the Korean teachers and keep everyone quiet. Strange, but if that's what they want, I have no trouble with it.

The beginning of that week, our director took us (myself, my girlfriend with whom I work, and the other foreign teacher) with his wife and son to a place called a "jim-jil-bang." These generally have a sauna (which we skipped, being a place where clothes are frowned upon), as well as various theme rooms. The one we went to had a gold room, jewel room and a salt room, among others. The first two were just panelled with a bit of gold, or gems like jade, quartz, and amethyst (very common in Korea they tell me). The salt room had giant salt stones that you were expected to not just lay down in, but cover yourself with. Apparently it's very good for your health. The killer though, was this room that looked like an oven from the outside, and was probably as hot. This was painfully hot, and my director and his wife loved it. It was interesting. It seemed nicer to me once I got out and went to the cold room. Anyway, also in the jim-jil-bang was a restaurant, and if you really wanted, sleeping rooms. But there were no blankets, and only a hard floor and a small pillow. And if was busy one night, you might not get a pillow and have to get a hunk of wood for your head.

After that week was Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok. For this we got Monday through Wednesday off (Tuesday being the actual Thanksgiving day). Didn't do too much but do a bit of shopping for things we still needed, and played some ultimate frisbee on Wednesday. There was also a friend's party the Tuesday night which was pretty fun because there were a lot of people there that were new to Jinju. Thursday and Friday that week was more studying by the students. Then another 5 day weekend. This one because we don't work Monday anyway, Wednesday was a national holiday, and most students would be studying on Tuesday anyway so we weren't needed. Fine with me!

Sunday I got a little bored and went for quite a walk. Walked clear across town, from where I live in Pyeong-geo-dong (west end of town) to a village out the east end of town called Geumsan. Three hours, but fun. Monday we went to the Lantern Festival (hopefully I'll get photos up, but you know me...). It was great so far this year. It's way bigger than last year. Lots of really cool stuff to see. While we were looking around, I got asked by a videographer from KBS news to interview me for "my feelings about the lantern festival." Yet again I demonstrated my horrible interviewee skills. Of course if I was prepared for it... Anyway, we met up later with some other friends who we sort of lost track of earlier in the evening and found that one of them got interviewed as well. Pretty cool stuff. Though I never saw if my interview made it to air.

Tuesday night Carolina and I went again, and met up with some friends again, to see a Korean show called "Nanta." It's a kind of music/percussion show with kitchen stuff. So all four actors where chefs clothes and do cool things with knives, pots, pans, and even food. It was just as much a comedy as a musical idea. Probably more comedy, I think. I thought it was hilarious myself. Most of the comedy was in the actions rather than words so it was easily understood, and the bit where they did speak we could get most of it.

I should also mention at this point that Monday I started going back to the gym. So, after that huge walk on Sunday and the gym Monday and Tuesday, by the time Wednesday rolled around, I didn't want to do too much. Just tried to allow my muscles to recouperate. Today, the gym again to start off with. We expected that we'd be teaching again today, with all the exams over with. We really need to get to it because we're told we need to finish the textbooks by the end of February and Carolina figures we need to do 3 to 5 pages a class in order to get done in time. On average, getting a page and a half done has been considered good for me. But, we get there, and the teachers said that we didn't expect the classes to be very full so we should just have discussions with the students.

Well, my first class was changed for today so instead of a low level class of 10 students, I got a single student whose English was quite good. Nice start. My next couple of classes were cancelled because nobody showed. I taught one more normally scheduled class, then the little kids like normal, then my last class was cancelled! So I got home early, which is always nice. Tomorrow, they say, we start the textbook again like normal. Hopefully we do, because man do we have a lot of work to get done!

This weekend, we're planning on going to the Busan International Film Festival. We're having a bit of trouble getting tickets for the shows we want to see, but I'm sure it'll all be good once we get there. It's possible, as well, that I may get myself a cat while I'm there (I can't find any in Jinju :-S ) I'm not positive I'll get one, but I might. I'll definitely let the world know if I do. What else is a blog for other than informing the world of my trite little life changes? ;-)

Back to Work

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:40:36 GMT

Well, I've finished my first week back here in Jinju. What a different experience this time. First off, I only have a 4 day week. So far, it hasn't meant that things are particularly easy. The work day is still significant: 3:00 I teach a couple of the Korean teachers for a bit, then break until 5:00 or so when I start teaching the middle school kids. This continues, with short breaks here and there of anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes, until 10:45. I teach all the same classes twice a week (thus making a 4 day week rather sensible, actually), and I teach a class of elementary kids every day. That's quite the challenge because the age range is 5 to 10, and there's six kids. They're all super smart, but even so the material they're covering is pretty advanced for children, particularly the littlest kid (who, incidentally, has some of the best pronunciation I've ever heard).

The kids, more or less, are awesome. Some annoying ones here and there, but way fewer than in other schools so far. Some particularly great students too. The whole school uses one series of books, which are quite decent, and they're all making fairly consistent progress. That's one day a week per class. The other days they study a newspaper published for ESL students. I think this is a great idea. It helps them study English in a more practical sense. The only problem is that it's clearly written and edited by Koreans, or people who don't speak English as a first language, because there are often problems in the text. But that's just another teaching tool to me. I get more annoyed with the journalistic mistakes that are rampant, but it's only for students...

The other teachers and the director so far have been absolutely great. Really friendly and helpful the first week. Carolina and I spent most of both of our weekends here getting our apartments to our liking, adding dishes and stuff that we felt were lacking, cleaning and stuff. The apartments are bachelor, but they're really nice, fully furnished with quality furniture--not the used stuff I had last time. I even got left another musical instrument: this time a classical guitar. The biggest problem I have is that I have a little much stuff, including a spare TV (I had bought a nice large new one before, that I kept, and now there's a nice TV here, so I'm probably going to end up selling the one I bought, even though it's bigger).

Got a bit of planning to do for the classes this week but I think I'll make it without too many troubles. The biggest is just remembering student's names. This time around there hasn't been a single thing that has annoyed me at all really, aside from not yet getting my hands on a scooter. I'm somewhat nervous that things are so good for me now, because usually things never stay good for too long before blowing up in my face... here's hoping!

Sorry I took so long to post anything. Hopefully I'll get things a little more consistent now. I think I'm going to try and get myself a go-rang-ee (cat!) so if I do I'll probably put some photos up. But, as we've all discovered, I'm really bad at putting photos up... We'll see. Also, the lantern festival is soon so I'll hopefully get some good photos there, too.

Still here, heading there

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:02:50 GMT

Just thought I'd drop a note to let people know I'mm still around. I'm in Vancouver now heading back to Jinu. We'll start our new jobs at the beginning of September. I've been pretty busy the last month and probably will be until a few weeks after getting back to Korea. Given we'll be back in Jinju, it's not like I'll need a ton of time to adjust to the place. Just the new job and apartment, which both promise to be pretty cool. I'll start writing more soon!

Soccer in Canada

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:01:21 GMT

I admit, I'm more of a hockey fan than a soccer fan. Football, voetbal, futbol, whatever you want to call it. But, that doesn't mean I don't like the game. You hear everywhere that soccer is growing huge in Canada, and I don't doubt that there are more kids enrolled in soccer programs in the summer than there are in hockey programs in the winter. Think about it: hockey goalie equipment: Helmet, pads, gloves, stick, skates, plus the normal protective gear. How much, $800? $1000? Soccer goalie equipment: shin pads, shoes (like everyone else) and gloves. $100 maybe? Cheaper, easier to play and understand for kids.

That's one thing. But when it comes to watching soccer, I still don't get why people think it's not going to be big in Canada. The Toronto FC in the MLS (Major League Soccer) I've heard time and again on the news is sold out for their season (yeah, mostly because people want to see them play LA so they can see Beckham I'm sure). But did you know there's the USL--United Soccer League--in North America (Canada, the US and the Caribbean), where Montreal has made the finals in previous years, Vancouver is presently on top in the first division, and Toronto has another team in the second division? And there's also the Western Ontario Soccer League where all sorts of towns have teams around here, including London (called, uniquely, London City). My biggest problem with this latter league is the names of the teams. Like Bosnia, Hungarians, and America. Really? Where do these teams play? Does team Bosnia, for example, allow non-Bosnians to play? Why the hell is there a team called America that plays in Ontario? Or do they? The website they have has precious little info on the league or the teams. That stuff sort of annoys me, but it's good to see what seems to be a reasonably successful league in my own back yard. Now only if London would get it's act together and give us a good field for these guys to play on, and help them out with a little promotion, you'd totally see people going to watch. I think there'd be more interest in them than in the London Majors, our local inter-county baseball team (sorry guys, but we know how baseball goes in this town).

All this comes up because of the U20 tournament happening right now. Canadian soccer should be not so bad. Fifa thought so, obviously. They never award tournaments to countries they don't think have a reasonable chance of doing well in them. But we haven't scored a single goal. Our team has been playing like dirt. Sorry guys, but really. You have the skill, you have a decent coach, you've even played well before. What the hell happened?! I'm also disappointed with South Korea's performance. I do sort of have an affinity for them, and they did play well. They just drew a hellish group. Guess for me it's Japan all the way! Anyway, I think Fifa in Canada, and whatever ministry is responsible for sport, should do a bit to help out the leagues and teams we got so we can get to training out players here in Canada so when it comes to playing at the national level, our good players actually come and play for us (as it is now, a lot of players don't or can't because they play in Europe or South America, and it's too hard to travel to Canada for team practices and stuff).

Anyway, that's my soccer rant. Bet you didn't know I cared about soccer, did you? ;-)

Typically Korean

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:38:27 GMT

Ran across this story today, about Naver, a Korean search engine: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/04/business/naver.php . The way that works in really typically Korean. I love the quote from the guy who says he spends an average 3 hours a day helping people online, which he takes from his sleeping time. Of course, you couldn't take any of the time you're at work, sitting waiting for customers doing otherwise nothing, to do anything else other than sit there and wait. Great stuff!

Canadian Citizenship?

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:19:21 GMT

Okay, with all the hubub about Canadians not answering questions about Canada correctly, I decided to take a practice citizenship test from http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/index.cfm . They offer to give you anywhere between 5 to 100 questions at a time, presumably randomly chosen from a totally collection of 100 (I took 20 at a time because they said that was the length of the actually test). Some of the questions actually had the wrong answers, officially! This is mainly because there was a huge discontinuity between the de facto answer and the technically correct answer. For example: Who's the head of state for Canada? Technically, Queen Elizabeth II, in proper political practice the Governor General, but really neither of them wields any power in Canada so you could almost easily say it's the Prime Minister.

Another one that was confusing: it gave a question which of the following two things were the responsibility of the municipal government; the answer was policing and snow removal. But, just because there's municipal police doesn't mean it's their responsibility. Isn't that federal? The RCMP was all there was for ages. Many small towns rely on provincial police where they exist, or the RCMP.

Yet more greatness: "Give an example of where English and French have equal status in Canada: a. in schools, b. in the workplace, c. in the parliament of Canada, d. at city hall" hmmm.. let's see: the constitution says we're a bilingual country, thus shouldn't the answer be e. everywhere? I guess this one is a little nit-picky, but I'm sure you see my point.

Last one, I promise: How is the Prime Minister chosen? Technically, by the queen. Practically, by the Governor-General. Remember, political parties didn't exist oficially back in the day, they were just sort of alliances of people that shared the same ideas and were slightly more fluid. The Governor-General, as the Queen's representative, would choose the person who they felt would best hold the confidence of the House of Commons. It just so happens that the leader of the party with the most seats, most often, fits that description. But, what about minority governments? If the Liberals and NDP teamed up right now in a coalition government, then someone from those parties should be chosen as PM because they'd have the confidence of more of the House than the Conservatives alone. But, if the GG really feels like it, she could appoint someone else anyway. That's what she does, and is about the only power left that she's supposed to have and use, especially in these days of minority governments. It's possible that if the governing party loses a confidence vote in a minority government, the GG can ask the Opposition to form a government, which would usually, I'd assume, be a coalition government. This happened when Arthur Meighen became PM after WL Mackenzie King in what's known as the "King-Byng Affair." (Meighen had more seats, but King, as previous PM, didn't resign and instead formed a minority coalition government. He lost confidence, asked for an election, but was denied, and GG Byng asked Meighen to form a government). Granted, Meighen didn't last long, and people were non too pleased about it, but it happened. Oh, the answer on that site, by the way, is the leader of political party with the most seats. Heh.. okay, long rant for a simple thing.

Anyway, lots more examples I could give, and things I could say. Have a look at that site I referenced above anyway. Some questions are ridiculous (like who's the leader of the Opposition in BC? Why would I, from Ontario, care?!) and as I said, some are slightly wrong or confusing whether they mean de facto or technically, but most of them are good. Have fun!

Congratulations!

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:28:46 GMT

I just wanted to say my own congratulations to Jonathan Kealey and Caroline Spittle on their wedding today! It's really unfortunate we weren't able to get in to contact earlier and I had to miss the whole weekend of festivities. I'll try to make it up to Ottawa before I leave to congratulate you properly!

You know, I can't figure out this whole wedding "season" thing. Among my friends, this year at least, there was one wedding April, another today and of course one in mid-July, and another in November. For me, the "season" seems to be the entirety of 2007.. If anyone else I know is getting married between now and August, I'll be happy to come, just give me a couple days notice if I gotta travel ;-)

Busy times, Unexpected Events!

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:35:57 GMT

For someone who is currently on "vacation," or at least between contracts, for whatever reason I feel unbelievably busy right now. I've got Craig's bachelor party on Saturday--which will be, in part, flagswipe with giant, arse-whoopin', military-training laser guns instead of the traditional paintball gun. A few days after, on the 5th, I get the wonderful experience of all my wisdom teeth being forcably removed from my face. That should be great fun I'm sure.

On the 18th--and to be perfectly honest this is what I'm most excited about right now--my girlfriend is actually coming to Ontario! Yay! Who knew?! The original plan was that she'd be visiting family in Regina for a good part of July and we'd meet up in Vancouver in August, but because our jobs start now in September, she figured she'd have the time to come by. After what will be about 3 months apart, this is going to be the most awesome thing ever. My poor friends here will now have to suffer through me talking non-stop about how happy I am she's going to be here in 3 weeks. Well, 20 days, really. ;-)

And then of course, the most awesome thing ever in the life of Craig to this point I'm sure: his wedding! That happens on the 21st. My first time as a best man. Should be awesome. I feel like my job should be something like a linebacker--or whoever the hell it is that protects the quarterback in football--for the day. Any time someone tries to approach either him or Amanda with anything other than a congratulations and shot of sambuca, I intercept them and get to take care of it myself. Then there's the requisite embarrassing speech. Thing is, through 22 years of knowing Craig, it's really been me doing the stupid, embarrassing thing most of the time with Craig rolling his eyes in the background. And given the likelihood of Craig being my own best man, some day, and the fact that he has WAY more ammunition on me than I have on him, I think I'm going to tone it down and give the nice, heartwarming speech instead.

After that, tour around London and area for a couple of weeks, then off to Vancouver. People in Sarnia, Guelph and Toronto, I haven't forgotten you! I will definitely get to these places before I leave. Whether it's sooner or later depends on how fast I heal from the aforementioned teeth-removal. Oh, and I figure the family is going to want to perform the standard Mak interrogation. She's be forewarned. Warm up the Army of Darkness.

Did I mention how excited I am to have my girlfriend here so soon?! Yay!

EDIT: I just got an e-mail from a good friend from university who said he's getting married tomorrow (Friday) in Ottawa! I was originally going to try to get to this, but we had some missed communication due to a bad spam filter, so I hadn't heard anything about it until now (Thursday afternoon). So who knows, I could end up having a nice, looong weekend driving across the province a couple of times.

What to look for in a Hagwon

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:17:22 GMT

I've been getting a lot of e-mails lately asking for help finding work in Korea. Of course everyone that knows me knows I'm always happy to help. But, to be honest, I've pretty much run out of open positions that I know of to hook people up with. I have a couple more, but if these directors ever get back to me, I have quite the list of people that want them. So, I figured it'd be useful to post something to help people choose a hagwon on their own if they choose to go through a recruiter. A lot of people say working at a hagwon is horrible, and I have to say, sometimes it can be. But, if you get a good school, it can be even more rewarding. Smaller classes means you get to know your students, teach more effectively (those students that want to learn, anyway), and get to know people in your community more than those that work at public schools. And these days, the pay can be better, too.

Please keep in mind before reading these tips: Nothing is universal. I usually make an effort to say that something "tends" to lead towards a better experience. For example a school that's been in business for a long time tends to be better to work at than a new school. That's not to say that all established schools are good and all new schoools are bad. I know of some great newer schools, and some horrible established ones. It's just a trend. And, in the end, common sense is always important! So, with that in mind, let us begin!

When deciding to go to a hagwon, it's often a good idea to go through someone who works in the country now, or an established recruiter. The reason is that if you apply to schools directly, you only get the perfect picture of the school and not a realistic interpretation of how it is. For example, a school may say you'll get paid on the 5th of each month every month. You may take this to mean that at midnight every 5th, you'll have the money deposited in to your account. What this could mean is that on the 5th, if they have time, they might decide to go to the bank and get you a wad of cash (getting paid in cash, I think, is awesome, but some people hate it), and if they don't have time, you have to wait for a day or two until they do. A good recruiter will tell you more details about the school and the director that the director may gloss over. However, a less established recruiter may tend to make even the worst school seem as easy as a cushy government job. After all it's the schools that pay the recruiter, not you, and a new recruiter may be more concerned with getting money at first than a perfect placement record. People that work in Korea, like myself, will often hear which schools are good to work for and which have issues, and what they are. So, we can help steer people towards those schools that are known to treat teachers well. This boils down to: make sure your information about the school is reliable.

Get assurances about the amount of work you're supposed to do for the pay. Keep in mind that most often verbal agreements in Korea are worth more than the written agreement (though please keep in mind that a written agreement is just as valuable legally as it is in Western countries, so if it comes down to nastiness, written stuff is very important). For example, a lot of contracts will say that you have to work 6 days a week. My last one did, but not once did I have to, because my director promised it would never happen. And it didn't. Also keep in mind that if it says you teach so many classes a day for however much salary, if you have to teach more regularly, you should get overtime (though you might be expected to teach one extra on a one-off, which though might not always be rewarded with overtime, will often be rewarded with a night out on the town later in the week--basically, if you do them a favour like that, they often very much appreciate it and will reward you some how to your liking). Ask a current or past foreign teacher about this and make sure the pay and work conditions are to your liking. It's important to find out from a foreign teacher that's been there a while, or a recruiter that's recruited for the school before, because you'll get a naked truth out of them.

Schools that have had foreign teachers for longer tend to be better. This is mainly because they know how you, as a Westerner, will expect to be treated, they'll know what will offend you, and they'll be able to accept your akwardness that is inevitable if this is your first time overseas. Also, the students will be used to a foreigner and will know what to expect, and in some cases, even help you out. The director will also have a clear idea of what he expects you to do. Whereas if you're the first one, you may find that the director changes your responsibilities as he realises what he should've been asking you to do all along, which can get in to some contract disputes. As well, if they've had a foreign teacher for a while, they know that they can afford to pay your often comparatively large salary and pay your rent. It's always nice to know that you'll get paid!

Schools with many subjects are gold. The ESL market in Korea is huge, and very competitive. You'll find that some students come and go often in your school. I had a student leave for another school for a month, then come back for a couple of months, then leave again. They do this for a million reasons: they want to go to the same hagwon as a friend, another school is offering a more competitive tuition fee, or even that their parents decide they don't want them going to any hagwon anymore. If you are at a school that has only English, especially if it's smaller, and in a particular month a bunch of students leave for whatever reason, this may put a strain on your school's pocketbook. Now I've never heard of someone not getting paid because their director lost so many students per month, but if they have math and Korean language students as well, the odds of them being short on any particular month are pretty low. This tip isn't so important, but it's great if you can get it.

A director that speaks English well is often an advantage. If they have some problem with something you're doing in class, they can tell you themselves so you can resolve it. Or if you have a problem with your apartment or a student or something, you can go to them directly. This makes things a million times easier than having to run to a translator all the time, especially if you can't find one when you really need to. Or, if you can't find anyone that can translate reliably.

Finally, once you get a job, keep in mind: no matter what, always be polite and professional as possible, and know your rights as an employee. Disagreements happen, but they can often be talked through so long as you keep your head, remain polite, and know what you're talking about. I had a pretty big disagreement with my last director once, but we sat down and talked it out, and then no problem. I even stayed at the school for few months after my first contract was over. Cultural misunderstandings occur as well, but if you're polite and understanding of what they might be thinking, these to can be resolved.

I hope this information helps when choosing a school. It's by no means a complete list of what you need to look for, just some tips, but I think they're good ones (otherwise, of course, I wouldn't bother, would I?). Of course, I'll always answer questions you might have if you e-mail me!

iThink iGoogle is iAnnoying

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:17:02 GMT

For whatever reason, I find today that my "edit blog" button disappeared off my MSN Messenger. Of course, never really having to type in my own address, I forget some of the bits in it. Is it .spaces.live, .msn.live or what? So I decided to do a simple Google search. I've done it before and I always used to come up top 10 looking for Jon Mak Jinju, or some such thing. Makes sense, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with my name in Jinju, and certainly the only one blogging about it!

Of course, you see "used to." I did that this time, and I didn't come up at all! I typed in a few other search strings that I knew should produce my page, and no hits! Google seems to have wiped my page from it's list of addresses. And just a few days ago I had a bunch of people find my site using them. I've been having great traffic lately, and now that's probably all going to disappear because nobody can easily find my site. Bah.

Anyway, I'm working on a post to help people in choosing a hagwon. I want it to be a useful guide, so I've sent it off to others to make sure there's no crucial tip I'm missing. Hopefully I'll get that up soon! Until then, sucks to the newly named iGoogle and it's Communist iCensoring (*smiles in anticipation of people who think there's a contradiction there*... ;-)

EDIT: I just realized, the whole iGoogle thing may not be apparent. If you use Google as a homepage, which you can set up with your own news feeds and stuff, it displays its logo as iGoogle. Obviously, there's a Mac/Google partnership going on there for the service. Perhaps the reason my Microsoft blog has disappeared...

"Easy" eBay...

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 23:33:45 GMT

Being home for a bit, my brother and I decided that it'd be a good idea to sell a bunch of our old junk.. err, quality merchandise on eBay. Well, I had signed up for a paypal account a few months ago for other things, and I had an eBay account (...I don't know why, I hadn't used it) so off we went. I posted things okay. A couple of things sold. And then it came to the whole pay me part. Well, someone tried to pay me, and I never got any notification, no less any actual money.

Couldn't figure out why. Then, another item sold and they tried to pay as well. Twice. Wouldn't work. I figure that the problem COULD be that my eBay account is set up with my hotmail address, while my Paypal account is set up with another address. Mainly because I realize eBay is likely to "lend" my address out to "partners" for my "benefit," and I wanted to keep the other address for personal things only (and, I suppose, for the use of things that are quite secure... given that paypal deals with my money, if someone breaks in I have more concerns than them just spaming my address). Anyway, I ended up changing my eBay account to register with my other e-mail address, opening the door to all sorts of spam I'm sure. Hopefully, this will enable people to pay me the not insubstantial funds some of them owe me (one guy owes me more for shipping than for the actual item, which I think is kind of funny). And, hopefully, these people will refrain from being horribly pissed off at me for all these troubles. They're TRYING to pay me, but eBay and/or Paypal won't let them. And it's possibly my fault... though eBay wasn't very clear about that whole process...

Here's hoping it works, and people across the continent aren't trying to find me to lynch me....

Notes on last post

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:47:09 GMT

Just a quick note about a message I got about some info in my last post. Someone thought my Yen to Canadian dollars quote was off. I use www.xe.com for my conversions, and I quoted a ball-park figure from that site. Should have quoted that I suppose, my apologies. Also, they noted that the biggest employer in Japan is the US government, given the large number of US troops. I don't really consider that, given it's not so much a business as a government (foreign government at that) operation. Even so, my understanding is that most troops spend almost all their time living on the US base, where you can get US products, use American dollars, and even send postage to the US using domestic rates! So, not so much a foreign employer in Japan as foreign land in Japan. If you catch my meaning.

Glad to know people are actually reading this stuff though! I noticed a flurry of activity in my stats lately. Good to know my hours of writing up a comparison isn't going to waste (though it was fun to write and think about). Any more comments, whether you think I made some mistake, or I'm just a big dumb idiot filling the web with useless drivel and you feel the need to tell me, feel free (though I may not respond ;-) If you can't post a comment, the message button seems to work. And keep in mind I tend to be rather dry and possibly harsh sounding when I respond to something and I know, or at least think, I'm right (though I generally admit it when I'm wrong). Don't take it personally if you think it's offensive. I'm not angry or mean. Just overly analytical

*prepares for a barrage of criticism*

Japan vs. Korea

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:25:30 GMT

After careful consideration, I've decided to skip my Engrish Lesson for Americans, and keep my little annoyances to myself. Instead, let's move on to the important bits: a full comparison of working and living in Japan vs. Korea. Keep in mind this comparison is for living and working in these places, not visiting! People in Tokyo used to say "I love living here, but why the hell would you want to visit??" So, I'll give an account of each using these catergories: Language, Cultural Issues, Cost and Quality of Living (including transportation), Immigration and Saftey Issues, and Workplace.

Please keep in mind this one very important fact: In Japan, I lived in Tokyo, one of the biggest, most advanced cities in the world. Very cosmopolitan, even to the degree that many experts in Japan are predicting that within the next decade or so, there will be more non-Japanese than Japanese people living there. In Korea, I lived in Jinu. A small town, where non-Korean-looking folk are regarded, on occassion, as a circus act. That said, I'll try to take that into account as I write so you don't have to so much.

****DISCLAIMER: I just gotta, you understand. The following is based on my experience and my opinion. For most of what I state below, there are exceptions. If I say Korean people are really friendly, it doesn't mean there's not one or two, or even a whole group, who are evil people who'd just as soon tar and feather you than give you help. Just the same, if I say Japanese employers are hard to deal with and cold corporatists doesn't mean you won't find some that are the warmist, fuzziest, greatest places on earth. Always exceptions. And, my standard disclaimer: I'll tell you my opinion today, but I reserve the right to change it tomorrow. /end disclaimer /begin rant... err... useful information... *****

Language

Japan

Japanese uses 3 scripts to write their language: Katakana, Hirigana and Kanji. They also occassionally use English letters for businesses, or to be trendy. Katakana is used for foreign words imported in to the Japanese language, so this is what you use to write your name, for example. Kanji is the Japanese form of the Chinese script that is common between many languages of the region. Hirigana is for Japanese-only words that have no root in Chinese. The first two (Katakana and Hirigana) are fairly easy to figure out how to read and write if you're willing to study and practice regularly. I'd sit in the office of the school on my break writing random things and asking the Japanese staff if I'm doing it right; remember, the Japanese language is written with pen strokes in certain orders and directions. Reading and writing Kanji is immensely difficult, and will require a proper course of study over a long time to fully appreciate and use. Fortunately, sometimes you'll see the hirigana over kanji that isn't very common so you can read that.

Speaking Japanese is comparatively and strikingly easy. It's a wonderful sounding language, and the sounds take only a little practice to get (aside from the r/l thing). This is made easy by the fact that all consonants in Japanese must have a vowel that follows, aside from "n." In common speech there are a multitude of exceptions, but for the beginner, this is kind of useful. The basic grammar is also comparatively easy, with fewer rules than in English. Though, once you start to study, there are many different levels of it's use, and grammar rules for the higher levels of politeness can get quite difficult. This all said, I really enjoyed learning the Japanese that I did, though I never studied, and I think it's a great language to listen to. Which is nice, because this IS the culture that invented karaoke after all.

Korea

The Korean language, called Hangeul, is dirt easy to learn to read and write. Using a website (whose address I unfortunately lost) I learned the basics to reading and writing in about 3 hours or so. With a bit of practice, I'm able to read most signs and menus. Hangeul is written using between 2 to 4 characters to form a syllable, and a series of syllables thus makes a word. Unlike Japanese, Koreans use Hangeul for pretty much everything, and only rarely use Chinese characters, called Hanja, or English letters. Pronounciation can be quite difficult, however, with some difficult sounding consonants in the language. Unlike Japanese, a syllable can end in many, though not all, consonants, and can also start with any consonant, leading to some ocassional tongue-twisters. Being able to read signs makes thigs a million times easier when getting around town or finding a motel, however, when you can easily read "비치 모텔" as "Beachi Motel" and when I see "존맥" on mail at the hagwon I know it says Jon Mak, and is for me.

Korean, however, doesn't sound very nice, I find. Though easy to read and write with a little practice, the grammar seems to me to be impossible to understand, even with proper instruction. A textbook and teacher are a must to get in much past the basics of conversation in Korean. As well, though easy to transliterate written Korean in to English, a few of the sounds are incredibly difficult to get, with some pairs of them sounding almost the same. Having some 13 vowels means there are sounds there that most westerners have never considered.

Cultural Issues

Japan

Japanese people I've always found to be extremely polite and friendly. I've often been able to wander up to someone on the street for directions, for example, or at a bar for whatever reason. For example, a friend and I were at an izakaya (Japanese-style bar) wanting to go to some karaoke later. I wandered over to a nearby table and asked if they knew directions. They even tried to answer in English, though I asked in Japanese (and, if I recall, the answer ultimately was in Japanese). Half the people in the bar then proceeded to have what I'm told was an intellectual conversations about the role and rise of English Japanese society. Also on occassion, I've experienced Japanese people coming up to me on the street or on a train asking if they could practice English with me. Some people find this annoying, but I find that in general people are so polite, I don't mind. People would often engage us in conversation in either language just waiting for a train or in bars, just because. Now, a lot of foreigners felt that often Japanese people were "two-faced." That is, they say and act one way to our (foreigners') faces, but as we leave insult us or be otherwise mean. This does happen, and it can get to you, but it's not as common as it can feel sometimes.

Japanese people are often regarded to be a universally good looking people. I've dated Japanaese girls, and I have western friends married to Japanese women and men. There are stories I've heard from western women, however, that suggest that the men don't always treat them as they'd expect to be treated in a western country. This attitude of maltreatment toward women in a relationship, as far as I know, is fading.

Cultural differences of course occur, and often a Japanese person will let little cultural mistakes slide. Though not always. Westerners often have more trouble accepting some Japanese issues. Examples: It is impolite to blow your nose in public in Japan, no matter what. A teacher at my school, while teaching a kindergarten class, had a student who had an unbelieveably runny nose. She made him blow it because it was just getting much too gooey, and the parent was livid that her son was made to blow his nose in public. In the other direction, Japanese people can be quite blunt, and I've heard a student say to a teacher "gosh, you look oftly fat today!" Believe it or not, they don't mean this in a rude way. They just want you to be aware so you can improve yourself. I guess. The girl was pretty angry at that, though, understandably!

Korea

Korean people, by and large, are pretty much as polite as Japanese people. However, in smaller towns, foreigners are not as common as in the larger centres. If you read my blog much, you'll know that I've often been pointed at, yelled and, and swore at on a regular basis. Now, most of the yelling is done by children (up to teenagers) yelling "Helloooooo!!!" at me, often after they pass me, because they're too afraid to speak English right to your face, and this seems to be the "cool" thing to do with your friends. On ocassion, and not too often, you'll get the odd teenager swearing in your direction, because they think it's a joke, just to see what you do. They don't, I believe, really understand the offence that such words mean to someone. Just because they don't understand isn't much an excuse in my opinion, given that I don't stand there and swear in their faces in Korean, just for fun. But I chalk it up to being an adolescent with a culturally insensitive upbringing. Being so uncommon, and with this last part in mind, it's not too much trouble, though I've been made extremely angry if someone does this on a bad day.

As I said, Koreans in general are still getting used to non-Koreans being around. In larger cities it's no trouble, but again in the smaller ones, you can be seen as somewhat of a circus act. Some people love this, though. Even me. I call it the Super-Star effect as most of the time if Koreans make a deal of you being around, it'll be wide-eyed children thrilled at the fact of seeing a westerner, or Koreans proud of their English skills so wanting to show off to their friends by having a little conversation with you.

All told, Koreans are very friendly, though in a different way than in Japan. In Korea, all Koreans are family, and often you get treated as family to people you see in the community you live in. My girlfriend even described the people who ran the restaurant she normally had lunch at as "like mom and dad," and a lot of younger people working in Korea have some people they would say the same about.

There is one more important factor about Korean culture that's not so much personal as societal: Korean society is based heavily on Confucianism as practiced hundreds of years ago. For work, this means that your male director (they're all male, even though a good deal of the time it's their wives that actually run the school), being older than you, is always right. If you're older than him, then you have some leeway, because age is important. Unless you're a woman, as women are often seen as less important outwardly (though, as I said, often given the most important jobs so long as the man can be seen to be doing it). This can be bad for women of course, and can lead to some occassional misunderstandings. This sort of societal structure is changing slowly, however, and is not found everywhere.

One last, rather fun, note about Korean culture at work: it's generally standard practice for your boss to take the whole staff out for drinks every month or so. It's a family bonding experience, you see. Always a great time, and when you do this, this is the time to tactfully err grievances with your boss. They feel that you're able to do this because the alcohol sort of levels the social structure, in a way. It's complicated and doesn't make much sense, so unless you're REALLY interested, just take my word for it ;-)

Cost and Quality of Living

Japan

There's no doubt about it: Japan, especially Tokyo, is expensive. The company I worked for dealt with this by giving people a cost of living bonus depending on what city you lived in to off-set the increased costs associated with it. I'm not sure how wide-spread this practice is in the ESL school community. Once you get settled, it is possible to save significantly while living there, but you have to try. I have a friend who worked part time at the school I did, made about a third less than me, but managed to save the same amount I did (which was significant, per month). But, he didn't go out much aside from the odd baseball game or drink with co-workers.

Though the cost of living is high, the quality of living is fantastic. As far as Tokyo goes, everything you could need is there, with few exceptions. On occassion you may have to look a little hard, but most things can be found. The prevalence of 100 Yen stores helps offset the costs you'd have, and they generally have a cool selection of stuff. I got a lot of really tacky, yet wonderful, ties there myself. Lots of nightlife for those that are interested. Lots of interesting museums and historical places to check out in most major cities (even in the country as far as historical places). Travelling withing Japan can be reasonable if you shop around, which can lead to some great experiences. Travelling from Japan to other countries isn't just reasonable, it's cheap! I got a ticket once from Narita (Tokyo) to Heathrow (London, England) for about CDN$800 at Christmas! High speed internet and cable are aslo very common and priced comparably with Canada. Public transit, in Tokyo at least, is fantastic, though it can get a little pricey. Rent is also generally very expensive. The company I worked for supplied an apartment, but I had to pay rent, which came straight from my salary, and it was far from cheap.

Eight dollars Canadian is about 1,000 yen. A regular sized draft beer will generally cost around Y350, which is about $3 Canadian right now. A coke from a vending machine I believe is about Y150, or CDN$1.30. A meal from Matsuya, a Japanese fast food place that gives dishses such as ginger pork and rice, costs about Y500, or about CDN$4.50. I'm just sort of pulling these prices from memory, so if one of you still living out there sees a mistake, let me know!

Korea

Where Japan is really expensive, Korea is really, really cheap. To the degree where so far the biggest bill in Korea is W10,000, which is about CDN$11. I've gone out for dinner with a friend, eaten to my hearts content, and had a bill less than that. Wages for an ESL teacher are increasing these days. This is for two main reasons: Hagwons have long had a reputation as being horrible, corrupt places to work, leading governments to reverse a previous policy, and suggest that working in Korea may not be a good idea for their citizens. The other reason is that the Korean government has started to hire teachers en masse for the public school system. More on this later. For now, this means that you can get quite a good wage either place you go, and hagwons, facing all people going to the very reliable and well-paying public school system, are starting to clean up.

It's standard for a school to supply you with your airfare to and from Korea from your native country, and with an apartment. That's right, no housing expenses, which means that your biggest concern is where and what to eat, and should you buy that PS3? Given wages are relatively high and costs relatively low, saving is easy, and you really have to try to spend all your money (though I've seen it done, and it's not pretty). The standard of living, depending on where you're at, can be a little lower than Japan however. Clothes and shoes in particular can be hard to find in Western styles outside the big 5, or even the Big 2 (Seoul and Busan) cities. I went to a giant shoe market in Seoul to buy new shoes myself, and I found that they only had basketball shoes my size (11.5 American/Canadian size). Western food is also hard to find, though very large American chains such as Outback and TGIFridays can be found in the major towns. Even so, western food restuarants are very uncommon.

Travelling to and from major cities is very cheap and easy, Korea having a great bus system. This makes the previous downers easy to deal with as you can get to places to get what you want pretty easily, though you may have to spend your weekend somewhere else. Motels are very very cheap, going from W20,000 in a smaller town to W80,000 in Seoul. I always recommend these versus hotels, as the quality and service is often better for a significantly lower price. Also, it's very common to see people on scooters, which are easily attained and, though technically I'm sure you need a special licence, I don't know anyone that has one. If you drive a car, you definitely need a proper Korean license, though. A bit of a pain to get, but it could be worth it for some.

A beer in Korea at a restaurant will often cost W3,500, about CDN$4, though for a larger bottle than what you'd get in Canada, and more volume than the draft beer in Japan. The average price for a coke from a vending machine is about W1,500 or about CDN$1.75 and a bibimbap (traditional Korean meal of rice and mixed vegetables) is normally W3,500 to W4,000 if you want a hot pot.

Immigration and Safety Issues

Japan

Getting in to Japan is relatively easy for a Canadian. To work as an English instructor full time, you must have a university degree. Last I was there (2004) you could get a visa to work part time with just a high school diploma. It's not uncommon to go in to Japan as a tourist and get a job once you get there. You can then go to Korea or Taiwan or something to get your new visa from the embassy in whichever country. Every foreigner in Japan for more than 3 months must carry around an immigration card, which you must always have on you, because you will be asked for it by police. Your freedoms aren't restricted, but if you decide to do something stupid, you're going to hear about it. That said, Japanese police are relatively good, and from my experience it's a very safe country with a low crime rate. Terrorism has occurred in Japan before (by Buddhist extremists, if you believe that!) but I don't believe it's a concern these days. Security personnel are pretty serious and well-trained folk. So as long as you're not an idiot and think punching someone randomly is a great idea to take up some spare time, you're very well off ;-)

As far as work and immigration go, you're allowed to teach private students as far as the government is concerned, though it's often in contracts that you're expected to forgo this practice. Once you get your visa, you're good to work in the country for a year, even if you change companies, and thus visa sponsors. You just need to have them sponsor you when you go to renew the following year.

Korea

Korea is in some ways more strict than Japan to work in. You must have a university degree to work as an English teacher, and they do not give multiple year visas (in Japan you can renew for up to 3 years). As in Japan you need a foreigner's registration card, though I've never heard of anyone ever being checked. There have been clamp downs on people teaching with fake degrees, and people have been fined and deported for the practice. As well, teaching private students outside your contract is strictly prohibited and people are also caught and fined, and on ocassion deported for this.

However, police and justice officials in Korea are generally at least a little corrupt. Police, most of the time, are not very useful individuals, except maybe to get directions from. This doesn't matter so much because there's pretty much no crime to speak of. You'll hear of a few cases of major crime, but almost no minor crime like pick-pocketing and such. In Korea, money talks. If someone is richer than you, they'll almost always win in court. The fact that you're a foreigner will also mean that you'll almost always lose. This can go both ways, though, as I've heard of cases of officials being paid off to ignore things. Remember, though, so long as you don't break any laws involving your job, and you don't punch out a local, you'll never see the police and they won't bother you. Again, Korea is one of the safest places you could live in.

Workplace

Japan

I worked for a company in Japan lovingly referred to as McNova. Nova Corp is the biggest ESL school in Japan, and at one point at least was the biggest employer of foreigners in Japan. When I started, teaching there required a bit of work. By the time I left, I was a glorified, and quite well paid, compact disc. Still, lots of room to vary your lessons so everyone has more fun if you so wish. Or not, if you're hung over or otherwise having a bad day. In this school most people teach mainly adults, with some kids tossed in here and there, and there are a wide variety of schools you'd be placed at, from the middle of Shinjuku with 15 teachers there every day to smaller country towns where you could work on your own (both extremes can be GREAT fun by the way). There are other schools and businesses to work for as an ESL teacher, and I haven't heard too many bad stories about any of them. I've actually heard the worst stories about Nova, but really, it's not that bad. I'll be happy to give details of my experiences there upon request! One last note, every Nova branch is run by Japanese staff, of course. And though some of these people were evil incarnate, most of them were the nicest most helpful individuals you'd ever meet. Always willing to translate things and help out with pretty much everything. In my experience, they were all great people.

Korea

Working at a hagwon, that is, private after-school school, in Korea is a touch and go experience. Some are great and you could work there for years. Others will make you want to leave within the first few hours. Korean hagwon directors often feel that they own the world, and can at times be trying to work with. And at hagwons, training is rarely provided. Generally at a hagwon you get reasonable freedom to teach how and what you see as most useful. Often, pay is not always on time, though I always got paid within a few days of my official pay date, and I always got paid in full (in cash, too!). Hagwons also tend to go in and out of business pretty fast sometimes, so it's best to only go for an established school if you go this route. Like the directors and schools, there's no generalizing about co-workers either. I got along pretty well with mine, and they'd often help me out with things when I needed it, and were friendly. Other people only talk to their co-workers on a strictly professional level and did not, or sometimes could not, communicate with them other than that.

The other option in Korea is the public school system. I have no experience about this, but I'm told it's a lot of fun. It's also more consistent than hagwons. Your contract is the way it is, where in a hagwon your contract is always open for verbal renegotiation. Often, either way, you can be as much a class entertainer as a teacher, depending on your school.

So, there's a bit of comparison between the two. In my opinion, they add up to be just about even in terms of advantage vs. disadvantage. You really can't go wrong either way. Hope this helps anyone considering going over. And if you do go over, I hope you have as much fun as I do!

Engrish Lesson for Canadians

Mon, 28 May 2007 21:34:22 GMT

Okay, I'm tired of something that happens in Canadian media. I'm really annoyed with how people use English talking about politics here. I'm talking about the term "playing politics." You see this everywhere. CBC news. CTV. Local news stations. Most recently I saw it on a Facebook group started, seemingly by CBC, for the "Great Canadian Wish," where people explain some wish they want for the country. One person said that they wanted politicians to "stop playing politics." I've heard good ol' Rex Murphy (a Canadian journalist who, for whatever reason, is seen to have a useful point of view about pretty much everything that we need to hear about) saying that politicians shouldn't "play politics" over whatever topic.

Two ways to look at this: English language, and real-world practice. First, English language. The root word here is "politic," meaning "shrewd or prudent in practical matters; tactful; diplomatic" (www.dictionary.com), or more accurately I think, "politics" meaning "The art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external affairs" (also www.dictionary.com). I hope you all don't mind in my taking the version with the "s" as the basic form here, given we're dealing more with the kind of politics of dealing with a country rather than personal poltics. Macro-, rather than micro-politics if you will.

Thus, by extension, a "politician," then, is one who uses politics to govern the country (nation, state, etc etc). We used to say that what they were doing was "politicking," which is simply "activity undertaken for political reasons or ends." Remember political reasons are those having to do with the governing of our country. Now the term has devolved (I really don't think of it as an evolution, as we seem to have taken dignity from the term) to the current form on which I'm ranting. So really, it's a politicians job to "play politics." Really, this is what's happening: On the government side, now in any case, they need to make sure their bills and policies get support of enough members of the House so that they can pass a vote and become law. This means that they have to talk about it, a lot, to come to some agreement with many other people. On the Opposition side, their job is to ask questions of the Government to make sure that they're doing what's in the best interest of the entire country. This normally slows down the process of passing bills in to law, but is required to make sure the Government doesn't do something stupid, like pass something as unbelievably dumb as the "Patriot Act" like the Americans let Georgie do.

Now, people think that any time a politician asks questions and "slows down" the political process on an issue that they think is prime importance (which may not be have that prime importance to other people) they are "playing politics," which they think is bad, though you now know simply means that they're doing their job as a politician. Furthermore, this is specifically part of our system of governance, which is called the Westminster System, inherited as it was from the British. This system involves the two houses: the House of Commons (akin to the American House of Representatives though ours changes formation as the population changes) and the Senate (a body of people appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister). Both of these Houses have a government side and an opposition side. Every bill must be discussed in each House before it becomes law. I don't know exactly every detail of how many readings, but basically it's read and discussed in the Commons a couple of times, bumped up to the Senate to be discussed at least once, then if it's all good, back down to the Commons to be dicussed one last time before it's sped off to the Governor General. That's a lot of talking. But we do it to make sure nothing stupid happens.

So, people aren't merely "playing politics" with issues. They're making sure people they represent have a voice. And ensuring that the laws that are passed far fair for all Canadians (this includes people who own businesses, both large and small, to people who are unemployed or on minimum wage). It's not perfect, but when was the last time we passed a law where at any time the national police force could watch our evey move, listen to our phone conversations, and arrest us based on what they overheard from some other person, for as long as they need to get us to "confess?"

That's my rant for the day. And I didn't even bash some other people, trying to be "communist" I think, but failing miserably because they probably don't know exactly what it is. Ah well. Some other time. Next lesson though: Engrish for Americans.