So my house phone mysteriously rings and no one is on the other line....creepy. The best part is it plays
"Chim Chimney" from Mary Poppins ...pretty creepy after midnight if I do say so myself
Kinda mad at my dad for not sending my camera chord yet.....at the bottom of his list as usual. It won't happen until it has to....
ANYWHO, my routine is get up at noon, workout, go to work, come home, watch SVU, Bones, and NCIS....then drift off about 3 AM, I guess that's workin' nights though. I ain't complaining....I like not using an alarm clock.
Speaking of TV, there is an English-teaching channel here where young kids are learning English and answering questions at 10 oclock at night....part of a govt initiative to educate kids to be globally competitive....somethings our country is STRUGGLING WITH.....Im not ready to go back to America's schools....no.
There's even study videos on YOUTUBE that students watch on Saturdays.....I guess they treat it like a job
They also have FOX here and FX here. Even the FX man's channel here is cuter. Their logo is a banana that replaces one of the criss-crosses in the letter "X". Gender-stereotypes are cultural. Late at night on FX they have a show that only plays funny, racy, foreign commercials over and over. Don't get all awkward, they're just wicked funny!
And there is goes again....the house phone is ringing "Mary Had a Little Lamb".........its dull life here ; )
A few weekends ago I was waiting ....otherwise known as "people watching"...for my colleague and friend Jeremy who was a linguist in the Reserve and speaks Korean--enough said. I was waiting to go to the travel agency to talk about going to China ($1000 for 48 hours in Beijing....no thanks. I'm going to Japan for vacation in January instead PS) when 3 things happened while I was waiting:
1. a man dressed in a straight-up Mortal Kombat "Raiden" cone-hat and a traditional Korean men's outfit walked out of a glasses store wearing the most sophisticated, shiny, stainless steel glasses. I mean...I guess a monk needs to look good when he's reading his 1000 year old books.....
2. I saw a group of black people.....and NO...that's not the end of the story. But not only did the black folks stick-out because of their skin, duh...but because of their behavior...we all know that the phrase "quit ackin' so black" means....this time I wanted to say it more than ever. Amidst the Korean reserved demeanor even in downtown...these people were literally acting like a different species! The extremely large women in the group had hair that rivals the tower in Seoul and VISIBLE TATOOS.....that never happens in Korea. And the bald black heads of the fat guys shined as they sported studs in their ears, sunglasses, and NFL jerseys. These people were touching all of the street vendors merchandise...especially the shiny Beyonce shoes (stop is girl, you'll never be her)....with obviously no intent to buy anything or be respectful....no wonder people hate Americans...yet again. It made me sick to my stomach honest.
3. As I turned around to say hello to my friend Jeremy, I was arm-length away from a saucer-eyed Korean kid (yes Koreans can have big eyes) staring at me like I was on the other side of the glass at the zoo. It was like the kid was an Anime character. She was inhaling an "space frozen" milkshake from a pouch...I didn't know if I should move, or say hello...or what...so I just stared back. It was the "wow, I've just seen a black person for the first time" look. I'm getting to know that one all too well. I wish I coulda taken a picture of that moment without looking like a creeper.
OH MY GOD! .....Joel Osteen is on TV right now....the only reason I'm watching it is 'cause I'm lovin' the Southern accent...I haven't heard it in months! : )
My students, in an effort to try and use their English, always say TEACHER WAYYOOH (which means "why") OH MY GOD!!! ....They learn from K-POP songs all the time. K-pop wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is if the beautiful people who dance and lip-sync didn't throw in random English at least twice a song.
Dear Students---"oh my God" is not a phrase that makes you look cool. It won't make your more attractive--THE K-POP MACHINE IS LYING TO YOU AGAIN!
Some of my favorite compliments/brown-nose attempts so far include:
"GAME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE............HANDSOME SHINY-FACE TEACHERRRRRR!"
"Teacher, you look like an old man when you laugh....you know...they guy who sells chicken...just...blacker"
"Ohhh....You mean the KFC guy!!"....yup...except for the fact that they think I look old, I don't mind being compared to the Colonel
"You're eyes are so big and bling-bling!"........again with the Korean obsession with big eyes....
And apparently sticking a pencil behind your ear is a funny thing for a teacher to do....everyone: adults, my students, my Korean friends always act surprised when they see me with one behind me ear. I asked why and someone said that ONLY carpenters do that and that doing that demotes you to blue-collar socially. In the strict social hierarchy of Korea and Asia in general, one wants to appear like a white-collar University Doctor as long and as much as possible....wow
I have gone from "teaching" at "Freedom Writer's Middle School" to teaching night-classes to snobby rich kids who don't speak my language...literally and figuratively. One example:
I couldn't find the word I wanted to translate from English to Korean. When the students finally figured out what I was saying they tried to give me the syllables while I tried to write the sounds I heard as Korean characters on the board. When I couldn't spell it right, Gina, a good kid..simply came to the board and fixed my mistakes....I often learn from them as much as they learn from me....but then another little snobby girl in the back said "teacher, Gina is smarter than you"...UGHH NO I JUST DON'T SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE AND I WANT TO USE SOME REALLY CHOICE ENGLISH WORDS RIGHT NOW!! ...I wanted to say that, but I stayed professional......but seriously..... I really don't like that little girl............ : )
That's all for now....going to study my Korean before bed.
~CP
Who said that? Marissa or Stella? Surely one of those two would be my guess.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the thing you're calling the "house phone" that plays the bizarre nursery rhymes is the doorbell to the gate downstairs. Sometimes people ring if the gate is locked, or even if it's open and they want to ask permission to come up. Once it had a short and rang nonstop til I took the phone off the hook... then the upstairs neighbor's started ringing nonstop... Luckily that only happened once.
stella said that.....ugggh
ReplyDeleteMarissa straight up just tells me she doesn't like me....hey...at least she does it with good grammar ; )
And yes....the gate is shorted....It rings nonstop at 3 AM for about 15 minutes at a time if I let it go without taking the phone off the hook. How was the DMZ? I'm gonna go in the spring.
The weird thing about Stella - she would be so incredibly rude to me, but she has been the best of my former students at keeping in touch since I left Oedae. When i first started there, she had no friends, but was an awesome student. Somewhere along the way she discovered that being rude to the teacher gave her props with her peers, but I think inside she's still a decent kid.
ReplyDeleteThe DMZ was awesome. You should definitely go! And ask Samson to call the landlady about the doorbell.