My blog is starting to gain popularity. I am loving my school Hyeong-Nam. Everyone is nice and makes sure my basic needs are taken care of in the school; however I think that it is a common misconception that the food in Korea is not in the US. I have been asked multiple times if I eat apples in my country - yes Americans eat apples.
But Speaking of the Korean dining experience, I went to a really nice restaurant with other teachers from the school after being a judge in an English speaking contest (more about that later). The place was located in an opening in the mountains, that I would have totally taken a picture of it if it weren't for the fact that my battery is so dead. It must have been started by a white couple because there were pictures of a white family all over and there were no chopsticks. I remember sitting with my friends watching cooking shows and wondering what it is like to be a judge on those shows when the cooks put together the strangest things. I found out yesterday. In my nostalgia for cheese I ordered the "Sweet Potato Cheese Cutlet" What came to me was a fried pork patti with Korean sweet potato and cheese whipped together and placed together like Chicken Cordon Bleu, and a plain (not sweet) potato on the side with whipped cream and raisins on top. Right. So with this meal we get a free desert, the popular choice....Tomato Juice! WHAT IS THIS! I mean a chocolate chip cookie or something. The whole dessert menu was drinks. I got a Caramel Macchiato with whipped cream and caramel. I ate that thing like the Lost Boys in "Hook" if you have never seen the movie with Robin Williams you must. That will make my actions so much funnier!
Now to the contest. There is a contest in the county for the best English speakers, so yesterday we sat and listed to about 40 students read a script, they came in teams of two and had to act out the parts. My scores were a bit diffrent from the other teachers. They even said that they think I got some of the students mixed up which is very possible seeing as the list was in characters and I only read Korean so quickly. But some pronounce the harder words better than others and that is was I judged them on. Words like Resposible, Relationship, and Likely are harder to say with an Asian accent.
After being here in the school for two days it is very interesting to see the students reaction to an outsider. The girls duck and giggle and the boys yell random things in English and giggle. My co-teacher says she thinks I will be strict, I tell her maybe I will have to be. Sometimes it is hard to remember to speak slowly when I am speaking to adults but with the children I am better about it. As I sit at my desk in the teachers lounge I see them poke their head in the window to look at me. I don't know whether or not to feel like Beyonce or the Elephant Man.
The longer I stay in Korea I start to understand the things that seemed so different in the US.
- The Sandles - There are two pairs of shoes Indoor and Outdoor. The random sandles they often where everywhere in the US are the indoor sandles here and their outside shoes are actually very nice. Mostly Addidas are worn by the students inside and Converse outside.
- L vs R- There is no letter to distinguish between the two. Even if it is written with one or the other, it all comes out like R unless it is a double LL character. That's why they say "Engorish"
That's all I got for now. One of my co-teachers just asked me if I wanted to go to the movies today and I look forward to doing so. Making friends is going to be very crutial. And once I get paid I have got to get a cell phone. Getting lost in Gumi is not cute!
0 comments:
Post a Comment