Observations of the species "studentium Koreanis"

It's been a fairly hectic week - I'll explain later - but now I finally have time to update this here blog, and firstly I'm going to tell you some interesting things I have learned about Korean students. This "research" was gathered through some 200-odd interviews that I have conducted in the last few weeks for mid-terms and finals. I'll remind you that my students range from age 16 to 19, and are predominantly girls. Some of the things they told me were quite fascinating.

Because Korean students spend so much of their life studying (in fact, all of it) their biggest issue is with the Korean education system. And to be honest, I find it quite insane as well. These kids study around the clock for pushing 12 years, just to sit one exam - the Korean SAT. My school, being a boarding school, the kids are there all the time. For students in other schools who don't board, they go to private academies (hagwons) in the evenings, until 10pm or midnight. Kids these days start going to hagwons from when they start school - so six-year-olds are studying away from home until late at night. I've spoken to some kids who were sent away from home to live elsewhere, just so that they could be somewhere with more hagwons.

And when I say they study around the clock, I mean it quite literally. There is a saying in Korea that, "a student who sleeps four hours a night passes the exam; a student who sleeps five hours a night fails the exam". There is no concept that sleep and regular breaks actually aid study; there is no sense that so much intense study can cause burn-out. But parents say that if their children are not studying like this, other children are, and they will be the ones to get prestigious university places. There is also an idea in Korea that the only universities worth going to are those in Seoul; everywhere else is sub-standard. Thus, competition is high, and students (and their parents) believe that constant study is the only way to succeed.

But with this excessive study comes a lot of ambition. Most of the second graders (17-18), when asked what career they would like, say things like lawyer, diplomat, broadcaster, international lawyer, CEO, director. What's funny is that the third graders say they aren't sure what career they'd like, and when informed of the second grader ambition, they usually say, "just give them a year"!

There is a tremendous amount of school spirit in GFLHS. I have a feeling this could be unique to my school, the students being some of the best in the region tend to be more disciplined and respectful, and thus a greater bond is formed between teachers and students. It's things like the bowing that I've mentioned before. Also, on the day of the KSAT, the first and second graders line up outside the school, and cheer on the third graders as they head to the exam. There is even a supportive spirit between current and prospective students: on Tuesday was the entrance exam for next year's freshmen, and they would be sitting in the classrooms. Some of the first graders told me that they would be leaving candy and chocolate on their tables for the middle school students taking the exam. Which I thought was rather sweet.

What else? Oh, my actual observations from the interviews! Many want to study politics, and although they currently have no time to keep up-to-date with current events, they have an interest nonetheless. They have a lot of nationalist pride: they want the peninsula reunited, and if they could, they would go back in time and help fight the Japanese occupation in 1910. As a result of this, many of them still harbour a sense of distrust and disliking of the Japanese; although a good number think it's time to move beyond history and create strong ties with Japan.

There is also a frightening obsession with appearance; when asked about this, the first reaction was always to talk about cosmetic surgery, whereas in Britain we would probably mention weight first. Most girls, when they go to college, have plastic surgery. They all want to look more Western - they get the eyes done (they all want big eyes), and the chin and the cheeks - which I think is a great shame. When asked specifically about weight, there is an idea of the pressure. They all talk about being fat, when they're teeny! They complain about their uniform being too tight because they've put on weight (and I don't understand why they just don't get a new uniform!). In the course of my interviews, I managed to ask two particular girls their opinion on appearance, one of whom was anorexic in middle school, and one who had cosmetic surgery on her eyes in middle school. Hard to believe.

Oh, and lots of them also believe that aliens exist! In fact, one of them saw a UFO when they were younger! See, there were lighter topics in my questions!

As well as the interviews, I encourage students to come and talk to me between class, or during free time, just to chat, to practice their English. And a lot of them are starting to take me up on that, which I love. I get to know them better, and they improve their English. One of them told me last week of another "healthy" Korean idea (everything in this country is for health!). She told me that for meals, the ratio should be 3:2:1 - 3 for breakfast, 2 for lunch, and 1 for dinner. It makes sense, doesn't it? After dinner, you're not terribly active, so why would that be your biggest meal? And yet in the West, we're probably the opposite of that: a lot of people don't even eat breakfast anymore. Maybe that's why we're so unhealthy.

I do miss breakfast though: breakfast here is like any other meal, they have their rice and their kimchi and their soup. And I don't think I can handle that in the morning (a fry, yes! Spicy Korean food, no!) But it's hard to find things for breakfast, so I don't really get it much. And I miss bacon bagels from the Piazza! And cheese and pickle rolls....mmmmm! (It's almost dinner time, so I'm getting hungry!)

Right well those are my, ahem, few observations on Korean students! I still obviously have a lot to say about Koreans and Korea in general, but I've written lots already, so I'll save those for another day. Now I'm going to talk about my favourite topic: North Korea, and their most recent shenanigans.

I've had many e-mails in the last fortnight asking what the atmosphere here is like, and whether I'm already looking for my ticket home. But the truth is, people in South Korea have been through so many threats and scares from the north that they're used to it now. Apparently, back in the 1990s when the DPRK started its whole nuclear mission, people did panic, and there was mass stock-piling of instant noodles and water. But now, there is nothing. Some people are a little worried (especially the male students I spoke to who will have to do compulsory military service in a few years) but most don't think anything serious will happen.

Of course, this is a very interesting time for me to be here, what with my academic interest in all of this. It means the papers are overflowing with news and analysis, and the news from around the world is full of it too.

I also don't think nuclear war is likely to break out any time soon: the DPRK has made a lot of scary moves in the last 60 years, but it is unlikely to start anything without first being attacked. And a first strike against the state is unlikely: all the of the other nations involved - South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the US - have far too much at stake to risk a first strike. A broken and crumbling North Korea will severely destabalise the region, creating massive negative effects on the economies and status of the surrounding nations. As my dissertation said, "23 million North Koreans would emerge, blinking, into an alien" capitalist world they have no notion of, and this would be incredibly traumatic for the region. And the US is, amazingly, too frightened to make any move, I believe. Kim Jong-il is one of the most irrational and psychologically dangerous leaders the world has seen in a very long time. The world knows the DPRK has "weapons of mass destruction" - unlike the Iraqi case - but military action in this part of the world would be quite a bit trickier. I believe that if the US did invade, China would be obliged to support North Korea, and there's no way America wants to face China in war.

So that's what I think. I may be wrong, there really is no telling what the Dear Leader might do. But for now, I don't think I'll be rushing to buy a one way ticket outta here! There's no immediate threat.

I said at the start that I would explain why my week has been busy. Well it's simple really: the entrance exams I mentioned were an all day thing - exams, interviews, and then grading of exams. That was Tuesday; Monday was taken up preparing for this. And Monday and Tuesday evenings, some of the teachers went out for dinner, with the Principal and the Vice-Principal. Monday night's menu was delightful.....It was a kind of octopus stew, but the octopus (octopi?) were still alive when they went into the cooking pot, which was on the table. Nice. Now, I don't like octopus. I've tried it before, and although it really has no taste, it's the texture that I'm somewhat averse to. But I ate a few pieces of tentacle, to be adventurous, and to be polite. But even nicer was when I was offered the body of the octopus...innards, and ink, and all. Eek. Well, I ate it. It tasted more of the wasabi it had been dipped in than anything else, but was just ridiculously, horribly chewy. So, not my favourite!

The last few days have been busy as well because Tony, my fellow foreign teacher, has had to do something else the last three days of this week, so I'm taking all the classes by myself. And one of our teachers went home sick yesterday, and I had to take his evening class. Then I was called back to school to critique a business presentation! So, yeah, pretty busy week! And I'd like to say I have a nice relaxing weekend in front of me, but that just ain't true! I'm off to Daegu tomorrow evening to meet up with a bunch of people, go dancing, catch up, and go to Woobang Land! It's an amusement park in Daegu - woo-hoo for Woobang Land! The Gwangju Two (hee hee, I like that name!) are coming up, and they're a bit mad, so it should be an interesting weekend! Not a very restful one at all, but ah well, sure who needs rest?!

So I've spent a lifetime on this again, I'm hungry and I've got LOST waiting to be watched. So I'm off. Hope you enjoyed my research, and I apologise for spinning off into North Korean politics, but sure, it's what I do. Ta ta lovelies.

A very serious situation

Ladies and gentlemen, I find myself in dire straits. Perhaps the most difficult of situations, the hardest of hardships, some would go so far as to say it is an armageddon level event. But don't panic. I will find a way through this, I will struggle on, it is in my character to overcome all challenges. It will no doubt be a struggle, but I'm sure it will only serve to make me an even stronger person. What is this tragedy I speak of?


I have but one tea bag left.

And it's not even a nice tea bag from home, it's some sort of Earl Grey "flavoured" stuff I got when I first arrived in Korea. But it's the closest thing I have to normal tea. You'd be amazed how difficult it is to get normal tea here. And the tea you do get, Korean herbal teas and fruit teas...they're all granulated! No tea leaves to speak of. Granules. Instant tea. Which goes against all the rules of tea.

I'm not sure how to proceed: should I use my last tea bag today, given that it is cold and windy and I need warmed up; or do I wait until I'm having a really bad day; or do I re-use it until the only flavour left is of the bag itself? Tricky.

I know you will appreciate the depths in which I find myself. All I can hope for is that some kind soul recognises the gravity of this situation, and sends me some proper tea, post haste.

Regular programming will resume shortly.

It's finally raining!

I know, strange that I should be happy about rain. But it hasn't rained here in nearly 6 weeks, and the temperature has still been reaching the upper levels of the 20s, which for October, well, it's just wrong. So maybe now it'll cool down a bit. I have winter clothes, I want to wear my winter clothes! Anyhoo, enough about the weather.

Right, so I arrived back from Shanghai on the Monday evening (almost two weeks ago). That night, I spoke to a certain troublemaker from south of the border (that would be the Irish border): Miss Califf, currently located in Gwangju, over in the west. She informed me of a plan to visit Jeju-do the upcoming weekend. Jeju is an island, located off the south coast of the Korean peninsula. It's a "tropical", Hawaii-stylee kind of island, known as Korea's "Honeymoon Island" because, well, I'm sure you can guess why. She told me we should go while the weather was still good, and there were a few people meeting up there. At first I was sensible: I can't really afford it, I'm just back from Shanghai, I should take it easy for a while...but then I got thinking. And you know me, when someone puts an offer like that in front of me and I get thinking...well it's all downhill from there! So the next day, after numerous e-mails from said Califf along the lines of "go on go on go on go on go on go on", I booked a flight. And three days later, off I flew yet again!

Jeju was fun. It was great to meet with other EPIK teachers who I hadn't seen since orientation in August. Especially good to see Califf - got some quality Irish humour, I have been missing it! We headed straight out for dinner and drinks, and as the night wore on, met up with other EPIKers and other English teachers on the island. Throughout the night we managed to try chicken feet (very greasy, no meat at all) and get ourselves an Irish coffee! Ended up in a noraebang, singing 'til all hours of the morn.

The next morning was a bit of a slow start, however, and certain lazy and suffering members of the group took a while to get going. But we hopped on a bus to the south side of the island - about 45 minutes away - to the Jungnam Beach resort. After messing about in a playground for a bit - and a quick note here on Korean playgrounds, they're not like those we have back home, there are no swings or slides; there are various contraptions which all involve some sort of stretching or exercise, like primitive stairmasters and treadmills - we took a gander at some waterfalls, which involved traipsing up and down and around an unbelievable number of stairs. Henry and I partook in some very bad Irish dancing, Phillippa managed to insult a Chinese man over the quality of Chinese cameras, and we tried to get ourselves a blessing by chucking coins into a fountain. However, most of us missed, so we are destined to live poverty-stricken, honour-less, son-less, love-less lives! Jolly good! (We're not just bad shots: the coins had to go into a smaller pot within the fountain.)

We finally headed to the beach, after being laughed at by some taxi drivers when we asked them to drive us there. We weren't sure where the beach was, thought it was far away, they laughed and said it was just a little bit down the road, and we moved on feeling somewhat embarrassed. To be fair, it was a good 20 minutes walk away, so a taxi would have been justified (given how hungry we were also). The beach was nice, when we finally got there. The sun was starting to go down, and the waves were quite big, with strong currents, so no one ventured in for a swim. We lazed about for a while, snoozing and chatting and playing volleyball with a ball that kept getting carried away by the wind, before finally heading off for dinner. On the way, we stopped at a convenience store for a quick drink and some more chatting, and while there were given some oranges by a man who gestured wildly to explain that he grew and harvested the oranges. We assumed he couldn't speak English, and he kept chuckling and gesturing. His friend, the store owner came to explain that he couldn't speak. We thought it was incredibly nice of him to give us his oranges. Jeju is famous for its oranges: being a tropical island, it produces a lot of citrus. You can buy huge gift boxes of oranges; at the airport I saw people checking in - I'm not kidding - 20 boxes at a time. I was just wondering how they knew whose boxes were whose; they didn't seem to be labelled in any way!

It was a very relaxing evening: dinner in Jungnam, then back to Jeju-si for more drinks and conversation. But early flights and headaches lingering from the night before meant a relatively early night. Dandered around for a short while on Sunday morning, then hopped on a plane back home. Well...almost. Got to Daegu mid-afternoon, so met up with Char and Lily for a nice Western lunch - steak actually. Hadn't seen either of them in a while either, so it was good to catch up. I like relaxed weekends catching up with friends. So it was a bit of a manic weekend, seems like a long way to go for just two nights, but it was fun, and I take away some good memories.

Which still doesn't bring us up to date! But I'm very tired this afternoon, and I need to take a nap, so for now, this will be all. Perhaps tonight, more likely tomorrow, I'll write more. I still have my research on Korean students to reveal, my thoughts on North Korea's shenanigans to discuss, and this weekend to talk about! So, until next time, au revoir.

A busy busy bee, that's me!

Don't panic everyone, I'm still alive! Well overdue for an update, but I haven't been able to find time in the last few weeks to blog, been a little busy! I'll start with Shanghai, and hope that I can remember everything!

One of the last times I wrote was about the apples, a few hours before I left for the train. That train got me to the airport by 4.30am, an airport which wasn't quite open yet! A few others and I managed to get the attention of some security guards, who let us in, to sit in one area, with one light on, until the airport opened proper. It's fun to see airports opening up. I always used to like Aber at 7am, when the day was just getting started. Flight was grand (although I'm not overly impressed with Korean Air's food!), and I was met at the other end by brother Peter and his girlfriend, Miki. It had been 18 months since I had seen Pete, so it was great to see him again.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it was one of the biggest Chinese holidays while I was over. October first is a national day - the anniversary of the day the communists took over - and les than a week later was Mid-Autumn Festival, so the whole week was a holiday, which meant an incredible number of people descending on Shanghai and surround touristy spots for the duration. The first evening I was there was a massive fireworks display, as celebrations. I've seen a lot of fireworks in my time, but the biggest ones never fail to impress me. However, once this was over, the few thousand people who had been in the area to see it then obviously had to get home. And it was raining. So you couldn't get a taxi for love nor money, and thus you can just imagine the sights at the nearest subway stop! I couldn't quite get over just how many people were around; it was all I could do to keep my eye on Pete so that I didn't get swallowed up by the crowd! But it was during this stampede at the subway station that I witnessed one of the most amusing incidents ever.

Anyone who has ever been to China will know that they don't really understand the concept of queuing. And on the subway, that just makes life difficult. People don't seem to grasp the idea that if you let people off the train first, more people can fit on it. We decided to hold back for a minute, there were just too many people squeezing on, but as we were waiting, so many people tried to pile in that the doors couldn't close. So along comes a Subway worker, who starts peeling people away from this door. He reaches out for this one girl, and instead of pulling her away as we were expecting...he pushed her in! She put her arms out, crucifixion like, and just let herself be pushed. The doors were finally able to clost, with her stuck in this position with not even a tiny bit of space to move. I doubt she was able to move until the next station, where she probably fell out! It was crazy, never seen anything like it.

The next day was fun - we went to the Shanghai Formula One! Man, was it loud! Don't tell Mum, but it took about three days for my ears to recover! It's loud anyway, but we were sitting under shelter, which not only kept the drizzle off us, but amplified the noise. But it was fun. I know some people don't like F1 and don't see the point of it, but it was amazing to see these super-fast cars, and the overtaking on the corners. This photo is Schumacher on his victory lap....promise! I know, they weren't even going slow enough on the victory lap to give a non-blurry photo! It was a good day, something I wasn't expecting at all, it was a surprise to me.

The rest of the week went by in a blur of food, people and, "hello, hello, bag, watch"! We went shopping, tried out the foreign markets, where Pete used his handsome Western self to barter, persuading Chinese women to take lots of money off the prices. Bought a cheap small Chinese MP3 player to use when I finally start running (whenever Mum sends me my trainers!), a few cheap DVDS - some good British comedy and the latest series of Scrubs. China is unbelievable for pirate DVDs, they're everywhere. You go to take a look, and the vendor shoves pile after pile of English language films and series' into your hands.

We visited Yu Gardens, as well, which is a rather large garden area in the centre of Shanghai. As far as I remember, it's not actually original, and was created as a tourist attraction, but it's still a good example of traditional Chinese gardens. But it was amazingly crowded. Actually, I don't need to say for every place we went there were millions of people as it was national holiday, so I'll say it this last time, and from now on it will be a given: there were millions of people! The photo on my previous blog, the taster photo with the many people, that was the "traditional" shopping area around Yu Gardens. So that's how many people were around! The shopping area has all the tourist-y gift shops, and an underground antiques market, where you can pick up all the great retro communist memorabilia. (Mao would be turning in his grave.)

We made the obligatory pilgramage to Wai Tan, or The Bund. We popped up the Pearl Tower, luckily decided to go up on what was probably the clearest day I was there (Shanghai is sort of known for the haze/smog). There it is there, the Pearl Tower. Looks fake, doesn't it? I don't quite understand all these towers that get built in big cities; I get the feeling it's all just to get the biggest one. In fact, the Pearl Tower isn't the biggest building in Shanghai; the Jin Mao Tower is. And currently, right next door to that one, construction work on....the biggest building in the world!! There's an awful lot of construction in the city at the minute. Actually, from what I gather, there's a lot of construction all over China at the minute! Same with most places I've visited in the last few years. I want to go somewhere, someday, where there is no construction, or at least, where it's not very obvious. I know that's highly unlikely, but a girl can dream...

Right, I digress. What else happened? On my last full day, Pete and I went to Suzhou, which is a town about an hour out of Shanghai, and it's got lots of famous gardens and pagodas and whatnot. There is a Chinese phrase that reads, "Shang you tiantang, xia you Su Hang", which means something like, "In the skies, there is heaven, on earth, there is Suzhou and Hangzhou". (Thanks to Pete for the Chinese.) It was quite lovely, and it was a nice laid back day. It was the day Chinese people went back to work, so the crowds were a fraction of what they would have been earlier in the week, which made it a lot more pleasant.

In amongst all that, we had loads of great food. I mean great food! Oh it was tasty. So I'm on a starvation diet now! Pete had gaelic training a few times during the week, went to watch one day. There are so many Irish ex-pats in Asia that there are gaelic teams everywhere, so much so that there's an annual Asian Games. Pete was training so much in preparation for said games, which were in fact this past weekend, and I will pass on the happy news that his team won the whole tournament! Congratulations to him and the Shanghai Saints. So all the training was worth it. While he was off at that, Miki and I went out for dinner, shopped, and one evening had a lovely back massage. Oh twas nice. We also lost a day thanks to the legend that is Windows (most anyone who has been to Shanghai will know of this establishment).

Oh, one evening we had dinner with Miki's parents, and it was proper homecooked Chinese food. I always wonder how Asian people manage to cook at home, as they have so many side dishes, and countless main dishes, that it must be quite a skill. The food was amazing (especially the home-made spring rolls), and I tackled a whole crab for the first time! Not just any crab....a hairy crab, currently in season in Shanghai. They're not kidding when they say it's hairy. Now, I have a problem with bones, and shells, and hair. And so I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to cracking open a crab and sucking out the meat! But it was an experience...! I also tried frog while I was in China. Bit slimey, and a lot of bones. Other than that, I suppose it was fine! (Speaking of eating strange things, I have also in the last week had chicken feet - off the bone thankfully! - and some form of sea snail.)

Right well that's an awful lot written about my Shanghai adventure! There's probably lots that I've forgotten, but I think that's the bulk of it. It was a great week, nice and relaxing as well as being a new experience in a new city. I'm amazed at China: "red" China they say? It was hard to find any signs of communism in Shanghai at least (I'm told that it has always been the most Westernised city, and that it's not real China...whatever that is!). In fact, it's probably the most capitalist country I've ever seen. It's bizarre, as it's the very fact that the country remains communist that makes it so capitalist: there don't seem to be any restrictions on trade that I can see, whereas completely free market capitalism rarely exists, governments usually have some sort of restriction. Sorry, I've spun off into my politics and economics now, but as you know, that's what I find interesting. Honestly, the only hints of Chinese communism in Shanghai were in the underground antiques market! There didn't appear to be any propaganda at all, as is usually found in communist countries, a la Cuba. I just found it interesting....sorry...I'll shut up now!

Well, I've spent a lifetime and a half writing this, and I still haven't even fully updated everyone. I have yet to talk about last weekend's island adventure, what I've learned about Korean students throughout the 200 interviews I've conducted in the last few weeks, and, of course, discuss my view on the North Korean shenanigans! But, for now, I'm tired of typing, and I haven't eaten dinner yet and it's getting late! So now I'm going to go cook some dumplings, and settle down to watch the latest episode of LOST (thank goodness for illegal downloads!)

So ta ta for now, I might write again this evening, but if not, I'll do it as soon as I can (that is, before I have more things to write about and it all gets on top of me again!) Hope you've enjoyed my ramblings. xx

I returned triumphant from Shanghai yesterday evening, after ten days of hordes of people, shouts of "hello, hello, bag, watch" and lots of fabulous food. Oh twas good! And I promise I will write more about it soon, but right now I have a killer headache, so all I want to do is curl up in bed where it's nice and warm and cocoon-like. Until I do write more, I leave you with this photo as a taster. Do you see all the people, do you see?! Madness I tells ya. I guess that's what happens when you go to a city the size of Shanghai, during one of China's biggest national holoidays. Oh yes sir!

Anyway, good news is the apples are all still ok! Bad news is I'm rethinking the gym idea - yes I know what you're probably thinking, good intentions and all that. But I went today to find out price and whatnot, and although it's cheap, I can't really say if it's a good gym - I mean, a gym is a gym, right? - plus I'm not sure anyone can speak English, but most of all, when I walked in, I remembered that I hate gyms. So other forms of exercise will have to be found. I'll do it though, I promise!

Right, off to bury myself under a blanket.