Don't Compare

OK, let me just start by saying, Hell Yes. If there's one thing that can make up for waking up at 4:00 a.m., in a hostel, after a lovely night on the town in Seoul, it's watching the Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeyes walk all over Miami in the 'shoe--if only they knew how to play special teams, the score would have been much more devastating, even if the game were less interesting.

But on to equally exciting albeit less important matters...This weekend I finally got away from Mokpo for a while, first escaping to Daejeon for dinner with Chang, then a stop in Cheongju where I sat in andintroduced myself to Jing's classes. As I mentioned in the last post, this was my first time on a train, which I took from Mokpo up to Daejon on Thursday. Despite the 30 stops and 4 hour ride (I took the

MUCH faster KTX train on the way back), I'm now a loyal fan of the Korean train system. A competitive price (~$13 for a 4 hour ride), tons of leg room, few people, and even a concession stand on board make it all worth my while. Oh yea, I guess if I'm discussing first times right now, this was also the first weekend I've been harassed by hobos looking for money--twice, in fact. I don't think I'm even gonna talk about that one since it'll just put me in a bad mood, but let's just say--in line withKorean culture in general--they think it's Ok to touch and grab random people on the street when they want money. But anyway, what I really wanted to talk about today was Jing's classes and the age-old adage, "Don't Compare."

Let me just begin by saying that everyone has a different experience over here. My students are a bunch of dicks but I love Mokpo and the homestay. Some people have amazing schools, but may work they're asses off in return. Checking out Jing's classroom let me see what a real, (for the most part) academically motivated high school is like. In most cases, the students were attentive, kind, interested, and even had some borderline knowledge of verbal English. The

irony is that I really didn't think my students were that bad, even if I knew they didn't really care about learning the language. The one "bad" class she had, in which the students were highly inattentive albeit quiet and well-behaved, was like a dream class for me. Anymore I'll happily take passed-out kids in the classroom--as long as they're not hitting each other and/or trying to talk louder than me. The flip side, of course, is that she teaches 25 classes a week and stays until 8 many evenings correcting essays and talking with students....My students can't write essays, let alone talk, so I think I'm safe in that department. I did, however, find it funny

how Jing's (English dept) boss made a big hubbub about showing me around the school and introducing me to various personages. That and her host mother, who's also a teacher at the school, took this strange and immediate liking of me--showing up and carting us off to lunch, getting tea afterwards, etc and inviting me to stay at their house next time I'm in town--despite the ostensibly cold welcoming that Jing's gets from her. I don't know if I'll ever take her up on that last offer, but it certainly would have been more accommodating than sleeping with 10 sweaty, snoring, Korean men in a bunk bed at the Jimjilbang--which, of course, I did (hey, for ~$4, that's hard to beat).

Oh, and I also wanted to mention (again, if I've already done so before) how Korean's LOVE ranking things. While at Jing's school (and this wasn't the first time) I was asked asked on multiple occasions to either pick the prettiest/most handsome person in the classroom or

rank such individuals standing before me. Naturally this is a bit awkward and, trying not to hurt anyone's feelings, I politely decline--yet teachers or other Koreans in the room act like it's completely natural to follow through on such requests. It's like they're (students, even adults for that matter) not comfortable unless they always know who the prettiest, smartest, most athletic...person in the room is. Though I also find it amusing how they a) actually care what I think and b) might be more comfortable knowing they're the "ugly" person in the room that not knowing at all. But alas, these are the kinds of cultural idiosyncrasies that I came over here to explore. And yes, they are being explored.