travelogues - andy coates, south korea

 

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A YEAR IN SOUTH KOREA - CARRUTHERS

DECEMBER

At the start of December Carruther's flew out to South Korea to start a one year contract teaching English, these are a selection of emails conveying his experiences.

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Wednesday 11th December 2002

Hi everyone!

Well, I'm in Korea! There's a lot to say so please be patient - this may go on a bit. The flight was uneventful save for a lovely sunrise over China. On arrival in Korea I disovered that some dodgy Dutch or Korean baggage handler had seen fit to steal my alarm clock, woolly hat and gloves from the side pocket of my pack. This wouldn't have been so irritating were it not for the fact that it is about -7 degrees here! Anyway, Joseph (the guy who recruited me) met me at the airport and drove me through Seoul to Uijeongbu. He's excellent fun, really friendly and incredibly helpful.

First we went to the institute where I'll be teaching. He wasn't exaggerating when he said it was new - it wasn't even finished! The Director (who incidentally has now been promoted to The President) showed us
round, and we had to step over builders, under exposed power cables and round piles of builder's rubble! I asked the Director when it would be finished and he said, "Today" - (HA!). Anyway, it means that classes won't start until the 23rd, so I've got some time off. I'm still being paid as well, so it's easy money for a week. After the institute we went to my apartment. It's lovely! It to is brand new, and comes complete with Ondol, Korea's greatest acheivement. Ondol is basically a central heating system which turns your entire floor into one giant radiator. I can't describe the pleasure of waking up on a winter morning and putting your feet on a toasty floor. I have a TV (with cable - more on that later) a VCR, a washing machine and am soon to have a phone put in. Greg, my fellow teacher arrived later, and is in the room next door to mine.

On Tuesday I went into Seoul for a little firkle about - it was very funky, weird markets selling predominantly outdoor gear and gardening implements, 16th century city gates still standing in the mddle of heaving intersections, and only two Westerners all day. Aside from Greg I haven't seen a single one in
Uijeongbu. On that note, it's a very odd experience to wander round a place and have absolutely no understanding of the language, such that any given shop front could be proclaiming a supermarket, a massage parlour or a Ukranian basket weaving franchise for all I know!

Today we went to the institute (which has come on remarkably in the last two days) in order to attend the open day for parents of prospective pupils. We met our fellow teachers, two Korean women, Shanna and Audrey (because she likes Audrey Hepburn) both of whom are very nice indeed (in all senses of the phrase!) Shanna has already invited me to Seoul to meet her husband and get drunk with him, and go to a Buddhist temple (she's Buddhist). Also, the guy who drives us too and from the institute (because it blatantly isn't 15 minutes walk from home!) who is called Elder Brother Hung (!) has expressed his commitment to the idea of taking me out on a Soju bender. Soju is apparently some kind of hideously potent alcohol. During the meeting we were all asked to say a few words to the assembled parents (with no warning whatsoever I might add). Greg managed to speak very eloquently about personal development and the importance of language learning. I restricted myself to a simple greeting on account of the fact that no-one could understand a word I was saying anyway. Afterwards we were taken to a restaurant, where we had a slap up Korean lunch. It was a cultural awakening in every way. We had to take our shoes off before entering, and then sat on floor cushions. To start off we had Gimchi, which was basically cabbage that has spent three days stewing in very, very hot chilli and garlic sauce. It was really nice
if a bit fiery. This was followed by rice, and vast quantities of noodle soup (from which the management kindly removed the seafood especially for me) Shanna is also vegetarian, so I had a bit of solidarity and I think she campaigned on my behalf.

Later in the afternoon Shanna and Audrey also took us to the local video shop and signed us up there. Prior to this I had one video in my possession, which was in my apartment for some reason. It appeared to be a home video of some kind of Korean OAP's coach tour, complete with terrible camera work, mind numbingly awful direction, and indesribably appalling background music. Oh yeah, the cable..I have 33 channels, 32 of which are in Korean. The only one that isn't is AFN (American Forces Network) As you might expect it's a US military channel. It shows general US progs, but the best thing is that it doesn't allow commercials, so the add breaks are full of military infomercials on subjects like 'The history of the F-15', 'How to keep an efficient filing system', 'What you need to know about satelite decoders' and 'Don't forget to keep in touch with the folks back home'. It's too surreal to be true.


All the Korean's I've met so far have been incredibly friendly just as the book said they would be, although it wasn't quite so accurate about some other things. It said that blowing your nose in public is considered rude. This may or may not be true, but i think it unlikely, since clearing your
throat and gobbing huge amounts of phlegm onto the pavement clearly isn't! It's a major relief to meet some Koreans who can speak English. Shanna has promised to teach me Korean if I'll give her some further instruction in English. At the moment just buying food is a major exercise in mime and frustration.


Anyway, for any of those who are toying with the idea of visiting me, be assured that I have plenty of (warm) floor space, and by the time you get round to it, I should be able to function in society more successfully than I can at the moment. Anyway, I hope this finds all of you well and groovy, and not too
traumatised by my absence (as if!). Rest assured I am having a great (if ball breakingly cold) time here, surrounded by mountains, clean air and general funky oddness.


All the best, and have fun. I'll be in touch again soon. Çô¤Ç ¤¸´ú ¤¸¤§¤©Á®¤Ç That doesn't say anything, but I think it's funky that I can switch this keyboard between English and Korean!


Thursday 12th December 2002

Well - how much fun have I had today?!! I went into Seoul and visited Namdaemun market, the largest and weirdest of the lot. Everything you could imagine and lots of things you wouldn't want to were available there. It was just as you'd imagine a sprawling oriental market to be. Lots of pokey alleyways with indescribable things bubbling away in pots, various bits of various animals strung up all over the place, tanks containing (among other things) live octopus,terrapins,eels,crabs and squid, fish of all kinds frozen,live and dried, pigs heads, ginseng, spices, unidentifiable fruits and vegetables, tasteless xmas tat to rival anything you find at home, trinkets, clothes, fishing nets, incense, you name it, it was there. Then I went to Jogyesa, a Buddhist temple. it was stunningly beautiful, every inch of it was ornately carved and magnificently painted in the minutest detail. A charming woman told me about meditation classes conducted in English which are held every sunday at a temple close to Uijeongbu, by one of the four most important buddhists alive on the earth - how cool is that?! She was quite insistant that I should go along, or at the very least come and see her at Jogyesa again. Man these people are so nice!

Anyway, I'm starving and have got lot of very, very odd things to experiment with for dinner, so I'll be off. grooviness to all,

Saturday 14th December 2002

Hey all!

I'm still having adventures by the bucketload. Today I went to a part of Seoul called Itaewon. It's basically an ex pat ghetto, where all the Westerners tend to congregate. I didn't think I'd like it, but I thought I'd check it out. My suspicions were correct. The first thing I saw when I got out of the subway was a bloody burger king. This was followed in close succession by KFC, Pizza Hut and sodding McDonald's! Every bar was called something like 'Nashville' or 'Cowboy's' or 'Bald eagle', it was the most tasteless, tacky, artificial thing I've seen in ages. I walked up and down the main street, and had a little wander down some side alleys, which proved to be the best bit, because it got all pokey and residential, and thus interesting and tourist free. I was back on a main street, thinking, 'This can't get any worse', when a beautiful young Korean girl sidles up to me and says, " Hello, you come to my place, I make you happy, cheap price." At that point I had to get out of there. The worst of it is that there are hotels in Itaewon, and I bet some people go away thinking that Seoul is all like that - everything is written in English, everybody speaks English, and every second shop is a fekking McDonald's! Still, it's their loss, although they probably wouldn't see it that way.

Cultural Observations: Koreans CANNOT make red wine. I bought a bottle yesterday, and...sweet mother of Jesus.I struggle to find words adequate to describe the horror, but appalling is a good start, followed closely by cough medicine and methylated spirit. NEVER, EVER try it - it's beyond contempt.On a similar note, but a more pleasing one, the price of beer seems to be inversely proportional to the amount you buy. For example, an average sized
can costs about W2300. A bottle containing twice the volume costs W1900. This is logic I can live with!
In Korea, you drive your car on the road, and your motorbike wherever the hell you want to - the road, the pavement, whatever. God help any pedestrian who isn't paying attention.


Well, that's all from me, I'm off to meditation class tomorrow, so that should be interesting.

Thursday 19th December 2002

Well, I'm STILL dossing about! Have been into the school the last two days, but we haven't done nything much more than sit and chat. Today I've had the day off, because the Koreans, sensible enough to find any exceuse for a holiday, have one on general election day, which is today. It's all been quite exciting actually, as election campaigning in this part of the world is way more interesting than ours ever is. Lots of singing and dancing and old women making fools of themselves in public! Tomorrow I'm going to abserve classes being taught at another institute, which should be interesting. Our teaching begins on Monday.

I had a very funky day yesterday. After school Audrey (one of my Korean fellow teachers) took me out to Uijeonbu Old City - the groovy bit of town which actually looks authentically oriental rather than looking like a concrete abomination as does the New City. We had a good wander about and then went for dinner at a place called Woori Mandu. We both had this amazing thing called Bibimbap, a huge cauldron of rice, vegetables, egg and hot sauce, served with Gimchi and radishes - it was SO NICE! I am firmly addicted. She then insisted on paying as it was the first time we had been out together and i am a guest in
Korea. I have told her I will buy her dinner in return.

After eating she suggested we go into Seoul and go to Seoul Tower, a bloody huge great thing on top of a hill in Namsan Park, with an observation deck commanding mind blowing views of Seoul, especially after dark. The cityscape stretched out below was incredible - a million lights and neon signs, huge TV screens on the sides of buildings and one place the entire side of which was an enormous screen. We had a thoroughly groovy time, despite getting lost both on the way there and on the way back (she doesn't drive there very often!).

My Korean is coming on very well. I can now read and write the alphabet, and thus understand the pronunciation of written Korean, if not the meaning of the words themselves. I've also been taught how to say 'I Love You', and 'I hate You', but hopefully the latter won't be required! OH yeah, and I know
the Korean for 'fishcakes'!!

Monday 23rd December 2002

I've finally started earning my money - I had my first class today. There were five kids in it, all of
whom were 7 or 8 years old and very sweet. I was teaching them the alphabet (but only A-N, we are doing O-Z tomorrow!) It was great fun, and I am officially a hit. I know this because one of the kids is the nephew of Hyung, our driver, and he told him that he liked me very much! Cool! It was
quite weird actually, because I had to give them all English names. For some reason it is thought that as they are learning English, they should have english nicknames, so I had to make them up! Thus, my class consists of: Charles, Peter, Jack, Vicky and John. John was particularly awkward, and I went through Michael,Mike, Ben, Bill, and James before I got him to agree to John. At present I am teaching only one class a day, which means I am being paid a full time wage for 40 mins work a day (Hee Hee!).

Anyway, I have further adventures to report:

On Friday I went to Shanna's (Korean fellow teacher) apartment in Seoul for dinner with her, her husband, her two sisters, her sister's boyfriend and her sister's dogs (both of which were dressed in the most ridiculous 'dog clothes' you can possibly imagine). It was much fun, and after the meal her
hubbie brought out the Soju. This is one of those great drinks that has to be downed in one, and lets you think you're feeling fine until you try to stand up an hour later, at which point you realise that your legs and brain aren't co-operating with eachother anymore and in fact have severed all diplomatic relations in favour of the rule of chaos. Nice though! It also only costs 60p a bottle,ON saturday, after unexpectedly having to go to the school to test some prospective students, I went out with Audrey (whose real name is Yu Kyoung) and a friend of hers to a traditional Korean inn, with exposed beams, paper screens and a big fire in the middle of the bar. Here we drank obscene amounts of Soju, accompanied by mung bean pancake and acorn jelly (!) and of course the obligatory Gimchi, to which I am now thoroughly addicted. Yu Kyoung ended up passing out on the floor, her friend Chu No passed out on the table, and I, although succeeding in retaining conciousness, felt so indescribably dreadful all day Sunday, that the mere thought of Soju, even now, at 10.40pm on Monday night, is enough to turn me pale!

Undeterred however, we are going out tomorrow night to celebrate xmas, because obviously I have the 25th off. It's actually a fairly big deal here (for the christian population anyhow). Everyone else just views it as a decent excuse for a public holiday. In fact there's basically at least one a month every month except November. These range from Buddha's birthday, to Children's day, to Arbour day (a great one where everybody plants a tree!) to Independence Movement day, to Liberation Day, to Korean thanksgiving, to Foundation day to whatever else they can think off to justify a day off.

My Korean is coming on very well, today Shanna was teaching me verb formation and sentence structure. I'll be fluent by New Year (Hmmm...)I would love to send photos, but I don't think we have a scanner at the school - I'll ask the computer expert who hangs about (well, I'll get someone who can speak English to ask him for me).

Oh, by the way, we have a new president, Roh Moo Hyung - he seems groovy. I would've voted for him.

Right then, it only remains for me to say Merry Christmas to all of you. Have a great one wherever you are and whatever you're doing. I would say I'll be thinking of you, but quite honestly I intend to be too paralytic, hungover or both to give any of you a second thought! Seriously though, enjoy, be happy and have a fab time.

Wednesday 25th December 2002

Hey all!

Well, it's the end of Christmas Day, I'm most of the way through a bottle of red wine (imported I might add) and the snow is falling in seasonally romantic fashion outside. Despite the fact that for much of the population xmas is no big deal, it is a good excuse for a public holiday, and thus, with no commitment to work today, a group of us went out to celebrate last night. Greg, the American guy who also teaches at my institute, Yu Kyoung, one of the korean teachers, and two of her friends-Cho Nu and Yu Nyi. The
sparkling neon depths of Uijungbu Old City were our oyster, and we repaired first to a quaint little cafe, where we dined sumptuously on mung bean pancakes, gimchi, bean soup, black rice, seaweed, tofu, and an assortment of unidentifiable side dishes, all of which were delightful. Next we headed to a bar in which the beer was served in giant pitchers, which were not only illuminated by multicoloured lights in the base, but also had dry ice spilling out in plumes from the top! Later we found ourselves in a traditional Korean inn, drinking Soju, the national firewater. Last nights experience was infinately preferable to my previous encounter with this stuff (last friday night) when we all had rather too much rather too
quickly. Yo Kyoung passed out on the floor, Chu No passed out on the table, and I had a monumental hangover for the majority of the next day. With this still painfully in mind, I paced myself rather more carefully last night, and happily these events were not repeated. Just as I got out of the cab on my way home, the snow began to fall, and we have had a delightfully 'white' Christmas.

As far as other events of late are concerned, I've finally started teaching, although only one or two classes a day, because the institute only has about ten students on it's books so far. We have been engaged in tasks such as handing out flyers at local elementary schools and producing posters to try
and drum up trade, so we'll see how it goes. The classes I have taught have been great though. I've been teaching the alphabet, which has involved lots of singing, and ludicrous amounts of mouthing consonant sounds that don't occur in korean, such as V and Z. It must sound like a lesson in discordant
gibbering to anyone outside the room. I'm really enjoying it though, the kids are a delight, and the country gets more charming by the day, with all it's bizarre idiosyncracies. There are for example a plethora of ways in which to incurr bad luck. If you are a shop owner or a cab driver, it's bad
luck for your first customer of the day to be a woman with glasses. It's unlucky to write in red ink, it's unlucky to pour your own drink (although the person opposite you is the one who suffers). This can only be negated if someone touches the glass you're pouring into while you do it. If you pour a
drink for someone older than you, it's unlucky to use only one hand, you have to use two. With all this potential bad luck floating around, it's no wonder 7/10 Korean marriages end up in divorce!

Anyway, that's me for now, I'mm off to look forward to the first of my two New Years. I get 2002/3, and in Feb I get 4335/6!


Festive greetings to all

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