On the Sale of U.S. Beef

South Korea has a President and a Vice President. The President is Lee Myong Bak. Unlike the United States which has a Senate and a House of Representatives, South Korea has one group of people that makes the laws. It is called the National Assembly. According to Sean, President Lee looks like a bird with small eyes. He has short hair, and his face is oval. Sean thinks that President Lee is bad because he allowed imports of beef from America. People believed that if they ate this meat they might get mad cow disease. Cows that get this disease have brains that become like sponges.

Sean said that when President Lee allowed America to start selling beef to Korea again, many people started bringing candles in paper cups as a demonstration. People gathered for forty eight hours near the entrance to where the king's house door was. There were many people there, and the demonstration is very big. Sean saw it on television. People who raise these cows should have the meat inspected to see that the disease cannot be spread. Many people think that the meat has not been inspected.

Messages from Su Sil & Da Hee

My name is Su Sil, and my friend's name is Da Hee. We are both sixteen years old, but in America we would be fifteen years old. Here, you are one year old when you are born. In America people aren't one until a year after they were born. We are both very quiet. Editor's comment: They admitted this very, very quietly.

Da Hee's hobby is playing the piano. Two years ago she played in a concert. She play a sonata. She got a lot of applause. Da Hee only likes to play the piano as a hobby. When she grows up, she wants to become an elementary school teacher. She likes kids.

Su Sil's favorite music group is Epik High which plays hip hop. Epik High is Korean, and has three members. Su Sil wouldn't say it, but Da Hee suggested that maybe it was because they were extremely handsome. Su Sil said that they sing very well. Her favorite song is Umbrella.

Polyglots

Yesterday morning I went with Jocelyn to a school where she learns Korean. All the students were Filipinas so it was quite an experience hearing Tagalog, Cebuano, Korean and English all in one setting. If Koreans are quiet and reserved, a class of Filipinos sounds like constant chatter. And the students and teacher were amazed to see that I could actually speak in Tagalog and even add some Cebuano phrases. The fact that there are cognates in Tagalog and Cebuano makes the vocabulary easier to understand. With Korean one has to learn the vocabulary without these aids. I know the Korean alphabet, but have real empathy for young kids learning our alphabet because by the time I have worked out the syllables in a word, I have often forgotten the entire word. Argh. ha ha.

In the evening we went to a wonderful ballet which included both dance and singing. I only wished I knew more of the words. One of the major roles was played by a girl who was classmates with our friend Cindy. The subway system is so well-organized, but we ended up doing a lot of walking. I think it says something about their system that the doors open to phrases from classical music. As we came to one stop, the Brandenburg Concerto played.

Today I had three of the quietest students I have ever seen. I had them interview one another, and they eventually told me about a well known hip-hop group which one can find on the internet. Amazing how things can be so different but so similar from one country to another.

Thoughts from Cindy and Candy

This page of the blog was written by Eun Bee Ko (°íÀººñ). She is called Cindy. Her sister is Chai Yoon Jee (ÃÖÀ±Áö). She is called Candy. Cindy is twelve years old, but in the Korean system of years she is thirteen. When a person is born, she is considered to be one year old. So at New Years the person becomes a year older. Candy is ten in international years but eleven in the Korean system.

My name is Cindy and I have been to the Philippines four times to study English. In school in Korea, the students learn only phonics, but in my case I wanted to learn how to speak and read in English. English is an international language which can be used for my future. Most of my classmates can't speak very well. They don't like English because it is too hard. Reading and writing in English is difficult because of the pronunciation. It is hard to get used to the alphabet. Writing is difficult because of the word order. For example, the verbs in Korean are always at the end of a sentence while in English they are in the middle.

My name is Candy, and I find speaking English hard. It is hard because of the pronunciation. For example, most people call Zeus, Juice. We don't have a Z in our alphabet. I think that there are many mosquitos in the Philippines, and it is much hotter than Korea. Sometimes you have to worry about robbers, but lots of the people are very kind. Even though it is very hot sometimes, I like the weather. The ocean is very, very clean, and I can see lots of starfish. I really liked Boracay. The sand is really white, and the water is just the right temperature.

Comments from Phillip and Sean

Today's blog is written by Phillip and Sean. Sean is a student from Seoul who is thirteen years old. Phillip Lunn has come to Korea with me. He is going into his sophomore year at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago.

Phllip has noticed that Seoul is a cleaner than Chicago. People seem friendly. People in Korea seem to eat much healthier. There are lots of vegetables. Sean says his favorite food is kimchi. He told us that Thanksgiving in Korea is in the fall. During Thanksgiving people eat songpyawn which is made from rice meal, honey, water, and sometimes beans. It is delicious. The Korean word for delicious is masheda. We get together with family for tradition. Thanksgiving is a holiday with no school and on the road there are many cars. Many people are traveling to see their family which includes aunts, uncles and grandfathers. In respect for the elders according to Sean, it is courtesy to bow 45 degrees and to say anyonghaseo. After Sean ate everyone socialized.


In America Thanksgiving Tradition is very important and different than in Korea. People eat vast amounts of food including turkey, stuffing and apple pie. Afterwards people lounge about watching football games and soon fall into a deep sleep.

Teaching Begins!

Today was my first full day of teaching in Seoul, and it was great fun. Most of the students here start off being shy, but that ends pretty soon if you start juggling for them, telling jokes, and playing games. I have been seeing small groups of kids for an hour at a time, and we read and write. But perhaps I should backtrack.

Why are they learning English? I would guess it is because English is the language of business. In Korea students have been learning English grammar for some time, but they are really weak in actually carrying on conversations. Jocelyn and Tom in fact met because many Koreans go to the Philippines to learn to speak English. As my Korean teacher, Sang Shin, told me, the government now wants to see students learn how to speak, and this requires something more than learning grammar. Jocelyn and Tom have started their school with about twenty students who come during the afternoon and early evening. Phillip and I are helping with the classes, and thanks to Phillip's mom, Laura Lunn, we have lots of children's books that we have added to the library.

When I asked two of the older students why they wanted to learn English, they said that knowing how to speak English would help them with job opportunities. This reminds me of the Philippines where I asked a 13 year old girl what she wanted to become and she told me an accountant. This would be a pretty unusual response for an American at the same age. For the little girl in the Philippines, education is a very specific means to an end. It is a way of getting out of poverty in the Philippines, and here in Korea it seems to be a way to get a better paying job.

The focus in the past on phonics and grammar, however, has had limited success in achieving these goals. And it doesn't surprise me. My old track coach, Ted Haydon, was an Olympic coach, and in explaining his philosophy of training he said, "You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar." I am not sure that I liked the idea of being referred to as a fly, but I think he was correct that you do better if you like to train, and similarly you do better if you like learning. So rather than stressing phonics, I have the kids read from books that make language interesting--Dr. Seuss is one example. The phrases in his books are fun to memorize because they are so memorable, and the students here had a great time just hearing the music in the writing. They also had a good time writing biographies of themselves in English. I have come to believe that learning a few things well each day works much better than trying to learn a great deal all at once. Sang Shin told me some of the sounds that kids here find difficult, and we also spent time pronouncing "all" so that it didn't come out "arr".

After teaching we went to dinner which is so much different than eating in America. Everyone sits down together on the floor crossing their legs. This will really get my joints working better than any yoga class. And there are vegetables everywhere. At 9 p.m. Tom suggested that we go climb Mount Achon. I assumed it was a short hike, and when his two nieces--Cindy and Candy--asked if they could go along, I was sure it would be a really short trip. Well, after an hour of steep hills, we did get to the top of the Mountain and got a beautiful view of Seoul at night. The hike was wonderful, and it was great to find this wilderness in the middle of such a busy city. Both Phillip and I marvelled at how athletic these two girls were. We were trudging up the hill, and they would periodically burst into a run! It is so much fun being around kids who like to adventure.

Well, the day is about to begin so I will end here...
Zeus

Korea

Yesterday I arrived in Korea with my student Phillip. We are staying in Seoul with my friends Jocelyn and Tom. It was a great flight. Asian Airlines is wonderful. The fact that the stewardesses reminded me of my student Dani Fregia is my way of saying that they made the whole flight enjoyable.

The flight actually came in an hour earlier than I expected, and no sooner did I leave customs then Tom appeared at my shoulder. He was there with his absolutely charming niece Cindy, and they took us from the airport in Incheon to Seoul. Tom is Korean, and is the most polite person I can imagine--well tied with my friend Sang Shin. Cindy has become my Korean tutor, and she enjoys laughing at my mispronunciations.

Yesterday I did my first teaching. I loved it. Today I will have more students. I have been juggling for the kids and playing the flute. Nearby is a huge children's park where we ran. There was a place for climbing and another place where for a small price you can go and pet a collection of about twenty dogs. They loved it almost as much as we did. Phillip saw two cute girls last night about his age and so he is motivated to learn Korean. ha ha
See you later!