Seaweed Soup and first Hanji Class

Every food in Korea has some sort of health benefit, from making you lose fat, to better digesting rice, to helping hangovers, and they even claim that eating kimchi can prevent cancer (but then why do Koreans get cancer at all? They eat kimchi every meal! It turns out eating too much kimchi can actually increase your risk of cancer, according to the study I read). But, my favorite explanation is the one that I hear most often: that of seaweed soup. Bethany, did you know that seaweed soup is very good for pregnant women after they give birth? Because when you give birth, EVERY joint in the body expands, and seaweed soup helps your joints come back together. (WTF?) But it's not good to eat on the morning of an exam, because it is so slippery that all the answers will just slip out of your head. Really? They really believe all that? Judging by the fact that the number of times I've heard this is in the double digits, I must conclude that yes, they really do believe this here.

My first hanji class went pretty well. Our first project is a beautiful Kleenex box case. I will be finishing it next week. The next project, however, is a HUGE chest of drawers! I think it is like 3x2x2 ft plus some 2 ft legs it stands up on. I asked if there were any smaller chests I could make, bc that is too big to take back to the US! And I want my projects to be gifts for people back home. I enjoyed class, but so far it seems like its not going to be as creative as I would like. It's more like a kit that you put together. There is still a lot of work and time needed to do the project, but there just isn't that much room for personal changes. The class is held in the girls HS near my school. I walked in and small clusters of girls would all freak out. Whenever I talked to them, they would all simultaneously react. It was funny for the first day, but I bet that they are like this all the time, and I could see how it would get annoying to teach all girls. :-P I think I am secretly glad I got boys over girls (even though I originally wanted girls), although my ideal would have been to teach both.

On Thursday I met the rest of the first grade classes that I still hadn't taught. They chose some funny "English names". The short list includes:
z naked beach
ugly pig
titi
Bethany

Korea and Japan have played each other twice now in the World Baseball Classic. If you've been reading my blog, by know you know that Koreans have a rivalry with Japan in almost every aspect of their culture. (I think because deep down they are so similar) Anyway, Korea won in the olympics last summer in Beijing. But for their first game in the Classic, I guess one of the Japanese "stars" said that the Korean team was nothing to worry about. Then it turned out that Korea beat Japan 4-1. Well, they played again a few days later, and last I saw the score, Japan was winning 5-1. I wonder what my host dad thinks of Korea's loss this time? (Assuming they did lose)

On Friday my classes went really well! That always makes you feel good as a teacher, when you have successful and fun classes. I've started doing "Announcements" at the beginning of all my classes this year, where my goal is just to try to encourage the students to speak spontaneously. They can tell me a story, news, what they did last weekend, or anything. Well, a lot of the first graders have been talking about meeting with their girlfriends. I'm really surprised because most of my first and second graders last year told me they had never even touched a girls hand, let alone had a girlfriend! Anyway, one guy told me he went to Busan with his girlfriend this weekend. I always ask what they do with their girlfriends, and they are a little shocked and everyone giggles. Well, this dude blurted out that he kissed her on the beach! Of course everyone reached "OHHHHHHHH".

Another story I heard was that one kid went to his friend's birthday party, and they threw eggs at the birthday boy. I asked if that was common, and he said yes. So I explained that in America we spank them as many times as how old they are.

I taught my Friday 2nd grade classes what "idk" means ("I dont know"). Well, part of the lesson was giving them a survey about English class last year -- did their English improve?, what activities were the most/least fun?, what were the most/least helpful? Well, it serves me right, but many of the answers were "idk". Of course they remember that, but probably none of the other vocab we talked about that class. :-P

Waiting for the bus on Friday, an older Korean man came and sat down by me and said something in really fast Korean, and I told him I didn't understand in Korean. Then he says "man won...... ten.....sowsand?" I say "yes, 만원 is ten thousand." He thinks about this for awhile, then says "sheep man won...... ten.....ten....." and I say "십만원 is one hundred thousand." And apparently that was it. Maybe he just wanted to practice money numbers with me? (10 thousand won is less than $10)

Friday I was planning to go swimming, but the weather was so beautiful, I decided to go for a really long walk along the instead. I walked for about an hour and a half at a pretty good clip. I was actually pretty tired from it afterwards, but I think it would be a good loop to do after dinner on evenings when I don't have Korean class.

Today Anne is coming over and we are going to make pancakes (maybe with cinnamin and apples!) for breakfast, take a walk along the river, and explore the downtown shopping area here in Suncheon.