bibimbap july 15 3
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July 2014. Year two of the Jeollanamdo Teacher's publication. Production Team Chris Devison, Sasha Koegler, Lindsay Ross, Dinh Nguyen, Valerie Robinson, Justin Ancheta, Chris Damdar, and Tyson Vieira.TRANSCRIPT
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Classroom management and rapport building tips
bibimbap{ {A Healthy Mix of Jeollanamdo Teacher News and Information
How to make tea properly
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For questions and comments concerning articles please contact the writer via their emails listed at the end of the their articles
For general inquires please contact:
production team
Chris Devison [email protected]
Sasha Koegler [email protected]
Lindsay Ross [email protected]
Dinh Nguyen [email protected]
Valerie Robinson [email protected]
Justin Ancheta [email protected]
Chris Damdar [email protected]
Tyson Vieira [email protected]
copy editor Sasha Koegler
editing contributorsDinh Nguyen
layout and designDinh Nguyen
All non-credited photos, courtesy Wikimedia creative commons.
EST. 2013 • Volume 1 • Issue 4• March 2014bibimbap{ {
cover photo: Dinh Nguyen
Behind Coverthe
Breaking bad teaching habits
Engaging students part 24 568
The art of preparing tea properly
High and low power distance cultures
Dear Chris: Renewal evaluation and lesson planning
How to live past age 1009 101213
Unexpected teaching experiences
Top 5 Korean summer things
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Useful teaching tool: ClassDojo
Monthly photos
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Behind Cover
High and low power distance cultures
Dear Chris: Renewal evaluation and lesson planning
Top 5 Korean summer things
Korean Holidays
July 17 - Constitution Day August 15 - Liberation Day September 7,8,9 - Chuseok
Festivals
June 20-August 31: Everland Summer Splash & Fantastic Summer Night (에버랜드 썸머스플래쉬&썸머나이트; Gyeonggi-do)
July 17-20: Buyeo Seodong Lotus Festival (부여서동연꽃축제; Chungcheongnam-do)
July 17-27: Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (부천 국제판타스틱영화제; Gyeonggi-do)
July 18-Sept 21: Dong Gang International Photo Festival (동강국제사진제; Gangwon-do)
July 18-27: Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제; Chungcheongnam-do)
July 22-27: The 15th Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (서울국제만화애니메이션페스티벌)
July 24-August 3: The Great Mountains International Music Festival & School (대관령 국제음악제; Gangwon-do)
July 25-August 10: Geochang International Festi-val of Theater (거창국제연극제; Gyeongsangnam-do)
July 25-August 16: Taebaek Sunflower Festival (태백 해바라기축제; Gangwon-do)
July 26-August 2: Bonghwa Eun-Uh (Sweet Fish) Festival (봉화 은어축제; Gyeongsangbuk-do)
July 26-August 3: Gangjin Celadon (Pottery) Festival (강진청자축제; Jeollanam-do)
July 31-August 3: Pohang International Fire-works Festival (포항 국제불빛축제; Gyeongsangbuk-do)
July 31-August 6: Hamyang Wild Ginseng Festival (함양산삼축제; Gyeongsangnam-do)
July 31-August 3: Sacheon International Percussion Festival (사천세계타악축제; Gyeongsangnam-do)
August 1-7: Jeongnamjin Jangheung Water Festival (정남진장흥물축제; Jeollanam-do)
August 1-3: Incheon Pentaport Rock Music Festival (인천 펜타포트 락페스티벌; Incheon)
August 1-3: Yanggu Center Festival (국토정중앙 양구배꼽축제; Gangwon-do)
August 1-3: Mokpo Maritime Cultural Festival (목포 해양문화축제; Jeollanam-do)
August 7-10: Busan International Magic Festival (부산국제매직페스티벌; Busan)
August 8-11: Korea Music Festival (대한민국 음악대향연; Gangwon-do)
August 13-17: Suwon Hwaseong Fortress Theatre Festival (수원화성국제연극제; Gyeonggi-do)
August 13-17: Bucheon International Comics Festival (부천국제만화축제; Gyeonggi-do)
August 14-19: Jecheon International Film & Music Festival (제천국제음악영화제; Chungcheongbuk-do)
August 28-31: Goesan Red Pepper Festival (괴산고추축제; Chungcheongbuk-do) August 28-September 1: Chungju World Martial Arts Festival (충주세계무술축제; Chun-gcheongbuk-do September 5-14: Hyoseok (Modern Author) Cultural Festival (평창 효석문화제; Gangwon-do)
Upcoming holidays, festivals, and event Lindsay Ross
staff writer
During summer vacation, there are two national holidays that will likely go uncelebrated by
NETs in Korea. In a step to further un-derstand Korea, why not take a look at the reasons for the special days being cel-ebrated around us?
Independence Day (광복절; Gwang-bok-jeol)
A public holiday on August 15 that commemorates Korea’s free-dom from Japan’s colonial rule, which began in 1910 and lasted for 35 years. Japan’s occupation began as an initiative to integrate Korea
into the their Empire. During occu-pation, many Koreans experienced a loss of property, identity, and hu-man rights abuse. With the end of World War II came the end of Ja-pan’s occupation of Korea. Japan announced its surrender to the Al-lied forces on August 15 and Korea was liberated. Today, there are vari-ous ceremonies and events that take place on Korea’s Independence Day: Activists who were involved in the independence movement are par-doned of many fees on this day.
Constitution Day (제헌절; Jae-hyeon-jeol)
A holiday that lands on July 17 and historically follows Independence
Day. Although Japan surrendered its colonial rule in 1945, Korea found itself amidst the on-going Cold War between Russia and America. Three years after liberation, in 1948, a Na-tional Assembly meeting was held to establish a government system with-in Korea and implement the consti-tution. It is no coincidence that the date, July 17, coincides with the date on which the Joseon Dynasty was founded. Constitution Day came into being in 1949 and, although it is no longer a day off work, it is a na-tional holiday which commemorates the official establishment of the Re-public of Korea.
In terms of world history, Ko-rea’s is relatively recent which al-
lows people to see its’ progress over a few generations. Conse-quences of these historical events remain prevalent today. Following Japan’s surrender, the border be-tween North and South Korea was drawn and partnerships were devel-oped with Russia and America re-spectively. These partnerships have since led to the economic and cul-tural climates that Korea currently experiences. As visitors to Korea, it is important to understand these historical events in order to deepen our understanding of this culture that can at times seem bizarre and bewildering
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E ducation
justin ancheta
writer
There’s nothing wrong with teaching students about the wondrous power of the sonic
screwdriver, or showing them how to do the Vulcan handshake. At the heart of effective classroom management, however, is effective rapport-building, and that entails understanding our stu-dents’ interests, from Kpop, to Kdra-mas, to League of Legends. We don’t need to replace our Coltrane and Bow-ie playlists with EXO and TeenTop, but it is beneficial to learn who the latter are and what made them famous.
It also means understanding the culture and mentality of games. Video games in South Korea have been el-evated to the legitimacy of traditional sports and it is helpful to know a bit about League of Legends. Our stu-dents are a generation of gamers, brought up in a culture that speaks a language of games, even to adults. Where a +10 sword may be unlocked by slaying a few more demons in a Smartphone game, the purchase of a few more products will unlock a 10per cent discount coupon on Gmarket. How can we make sense of this and practically use it in our classrooms?
Acquire and engage student interest
The process of getting to know what students like is a great rapport building experience, whether it is outside of class, or formally through a student survey. You love to share your interests and your students are no different. This is also a great op-portunity for a formative assessment,
to see where your students are in their language level.
The process of engaging their interests can be as simple as making practice dialogs with their favourite video game or k-pop characters, or it can be as complex as full-fledged Pow-erPoint and bomb games. Making use of visual references to popular char-acters and personalities in lessons is a very easy way to add extra interest as well. K-pop stars are known for being very emotive and facially expressive in their videos, and you’ll find no end to funny pictures on Google Images.
Get them active
The attention span of a student at the elementary school level is very short and expecting them to sit still for something like practicing lines will be hard. They have a huge amount of pent-up energy. Use it to your advan-tage with games that involve motion or movement, like pass the ball, or information-gap games where stu-dents have to circulate and ask each other questions. This will also engage students who are kinaesthetic learners.
Increase student choice and diversity of games
Giving students an opportunity to choose the kinds of games and ac-tivities they can do is a great way to incorporate elements of games into your lessons. It also engages their ex-periences with games while learning.
We would also do well to think about the traditional roles that cer-tain types of games have played in our teaching practice. As anyone who
has perused Waygook.org will attest, there are hundreds, if not thousands of PowerPoint-based games available to EFL teachers. However, there are a myriad of examples of non-Power-Point games on many EFL websites as well. Games involving movement, props, or songs can be used alongside traditional PowerPoint games, thus reaching students who aren’t engaged by a PowerPoint game alone. This may even provide a better chance to practice conversation skills, as it gives a greater opportunity for students to focus on communication instead of what is on the screen. Additionally, such games provide an excellent back-up when technology fails.
In academic discussions, these concepts have undergone a tremen-dous amount of scrutiny and study. In professional parlance, you’ll often hear terms such as gamification, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Like with candy and extrinsic motivators, these concepts should be used with careful consideration and thoughtful-ness as to how they can help or hinder the learning process. A lesson solely focused on bomb games can be just as disastrous as one in which the con-tinual promise of candy is used as the sole impetus for learning.
When used well, games can be powerful tools for building student engagement and enhancing student learning. They may not be silver bullets for ensuring a 100per cent compliant classroom, but they can help encourage students to be more active participants in their learning. When students are more active in their learning, they are more invested in the lesson and in the material. Everyone wins.
Engaging Students (Part 2 of 2):
Building rapport through cultural language
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chRis devison wRiteR
We all have bad habits, it’s natural. As we be-come complacent, our habits can unknow-ingly develop into routine. When these hab-
its affect our students’ learning, they become problems. As teachers, many of us share common bad habits in the classroom. It is our responsibility to be conscious of our quirks and eliminate them.
Allowing insufficient wait time
It’s normal to be uncomfortable with silence, and being “conversation” teachers, silence seems almost ta-boo. On average it takes a second or two for a student to respond in their native language. Now imagine for-mulating a response in a second language in addition to thinking about the answer. As EFL teachers, we need to allow time for this process. Giving students the time to muster confidence and formulate a response will inevi-tably encourage them to participate more often. It also gives other students a chance to chime in and create dis-course amongst your students. As a side effect, student talk time will increase and teacher talk time will decrease.
Finishing your students’ sentences
Students need time to figure things out for themselves. That brief pause when a student is trying to complete a sentence is often when the real learning takes place. They may be trying to complete their thoughts by experiment-ing with language in their head, or recalling something previously learned. Even if what comes out is wrong, learning is taking place. Errors can be addressed later. If the student needs help, before jumping in, ask other stu-dents. They will learn together, communicate more, and spend more time talking.
Echoing your students
Sometimes we like to repeat our students’ answers along with a word of assurance (like good job).We may do this for validation, or so that the rest of the class can hear it. Regardless of why, we are training the students to only listen to us and to ignore others. They are learn-ing that input don’t come from other students who can
help create discourse. If you feel others haven’t heard the answer, ask the student to repeat it or get another student to. This is also more student-centered.
Using the same crutch repeatedly
I have go-to activities for backup or when I’m stuck for ideas. They’ve been repeatedly successful in the past, and I will likely have success using them again. Your crutch may be an activity (Simon Says), a game (bomb game), technology (PPT), or anything you do repetitively. They save you time and are easy to use, but reusing them can have a negative impact.
The crutch may only be engaging one learner type; it may cause you to lose creativity, and prevent your growth as an educator. Of course some things should be used again, but when a teacher has several crutches that make up their teaching repertoire, it will get boring for the students. Successful teachers need to be explor-ers, looking for new ideas and going new places. There will be some failures along the way, but as long as the general direction is toward improvement, you are mak-ing progress.
Teacher-centered classroom management
Even with pressure for a more student centered classroom, teachers often choose activities which keep them in control. And why wouldn’t they when class-room management can be one of the most precarious aspects of teaching EFL? If the teacher is leading in an authoritarian role, it leaves little room for disobedience. A traditional authoritarian role is less common these days, but aspects of teacher developing lessons or teaching in a way that helps control the class can sub-tly sneak into our craft unacknowledged. An example of this may be using the Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) pattern. Although it really helps in classroom management by keeping discourse well controlled, it stifles participation and free communication when the teacher’s feedback ends every discourse just as it began.
Lack of self reflective practice
There are many ways to be self reflective. In one of its simplest forms, taking notes on your lessons,
because you’ll use many of them or a portion of them again. These quick notes are great reminders of things you need to change and also of your suc-cesses, helping you to plan the lesson when it comes around again.
To go a step further, have a co-teacher or friend watch your class and critique it. You might not like to hear what they say, but if you use it constructively, it is a great way to make improvements. By recording your class, even with audio alone, you can learn a lot about your interactions with your students.
Blaming others
You are the teacher and should responsible for your class. Regardless of how satisfying it feels, avoid blaming others. Don’t blame your students, or co-teacher. It is the easy way out and will not improve the situation. If you have a defeated attitude, things will remain as they are or get worse. Look at what you have the power to change, put it into action, and then build on it. Little changes add up and you will be on your way to a much better class. It will take work and patience, but every situation can be improved.
Underestimating your students
Too many teachers have low expectations of their students. The students will realize it and only work to meet your expectations, no higher. Expect more and you’ll get more. Scaffold their learning along the way and you might be surprised what they can actually do, not to mention feel a real sense of satisfaction when you see how much they learn.
Fostering a negative attitude
If you don’t want to be in the classroom, neither will the students. If you are less than enthused, they will be too. If you don’t like teaching, they won’t like being taught by you. Try to break out of your funk. Look at the posi-tives of your position and at ways you can change the things you don’t like. Find an outlet so you feel better. Pro-fessional development, for example, is highly motivating.
Blasting bad teaching habits:
How to improve student learning and classroom management
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tyson vieiRa
staff wRiteR
ClassDojo is a free class management tool designed to provide recognition and
rewards for students’ behavior in a way that engages students. Ac-cording to the ClassDojo website, “more than 50 per cent of class time is spent managing behavior rather than delivering instruction; ClassDojo aims to greatly reduce this so teachers can do more teaching and less crowd control.” The website can be accessed by teachers and students with any computer, tablet, or smartphone.
It is a tool for teachers, that help redevelop class management, re-cord student behavior and student/class progress, and a way to send parents progress reports instantly.
For students, it’s a motivational “game-like” profile that allows them to view their progress and achievements, and reinforce posi-tive behavior in class.
The Good Stuff:
It’s motivational
Exploring the simple design, bright colors, and cute monsters of the ClassDojo site, it is under-standable how this tool can be appealing and motivational for students — especially at elemen-tary level. It creates a ‘video-game’ effect to classroom management, therefore creating competitiveness amongst students.
In her article, The Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool, Judy Willis (2011) advises, “The popularity of video games is not the enemy of education, but rather a model for best teaching strategies. Games insert players at their achievable challenge level and reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of incre-mental goal progress, not just final product.”
She continues to explain that all learners have a hardwired physi-ological response to not only feel
the pleasure of success but also recognize their progress towards success, therefore prompting rep-etition of positive behavior.
It it designed with the teacher in mind
ClassDojo is greatly influenced by and structured for teachers, thus providing great flexibility and consistent updates. The program is flexible in providing useful fea-tures and customizations for the teacher to use, such as deciding what rewards can be given for, how many points, and what crite-ria must be met.
Some Criticisms
Public shaming
Teacher Ace’s blog (2014) brings a very interesting perspective to ClassDojo. Is it another “cutesy” form of class shaming? Ace adds “Students can actually see how they are being rated – judged – at any given time” and students can com-pare themselves to others as well.
In the context of TESOL, this issue can be magnified in some cultures where shaming and sav-ing face are serious actions deeply rooted in culture. “Losing face” or “not having face” are negative so-cial standings regarding reputation in many Asian cultures, and can have an effect in classroom partici-pation and management. Despite these issues, my Korean elementary students are highly competitive and seem to favor competitive games.
Their competitive nature brings dramatic motivation and progress into the classroom amongst every student. If you are unsure to how your class will receive ClassDojo, I recommend examining your students’ competi-tive nature in games and activities, and how the entire class reacts (the winners and losers), before intro-ducing this classroom tool.
Immediate gratification vs. long-term goal pursuit
I suggest Teacher Ace’s blog. Although the writer has no expe-
Teaching Tools: My Korean experience with the Dojo
7images courtesy classdojo
rience in using ClassDojo, some interesting points are made. Stu-dents’ attention might be divided from the lesson to behavioral competition and it could teach students to focus on rewards and punishment more than learning moral lessons. It is a reward-based system; therefore a teacher has to be aware of immediate gratifications and long-term goals. Like most tools used in class, the effectiveness ultimately depends on how it is used by the teacher.
Great features but not for everyone
ClassDojo is a tool that provides mobility, connectivity, and easy navigation for every-one...however, that is if ev-eryone has such technological support. There are a number of countries around the world that do not have such techno-logical capabilities and access. Even many ‘first world’ coun-try’s classrooms and house-hold do not have such luxuries.
Considering the classrooms, I feel that this is best used with a smart board and a projector in order for the students to see their level and results in real-time.
Design limitations
The website is teacher fo-cused and updates regularly, so there are only a few design limitations that I’ve discovered through research and personal experience.
Dougherty’s (blog) ad-vice to ClassDojo on setting a seating-plan style template would be an improvement to save time and create a greater sense of order. The site only allows alphabetical order with first or last names. Having the access to move emoticons in the classroom page would be greatly beneficial to save sec-onds during class and arrange
order when the students enter a newer seating arrangement.
Since my ClassDojo start-up two weeks ago, I see two limi-tations with this tool. First, all student actions are not weighed the same, but the only value available to apply are +1 and -1? If I had one student show up unprepared to class and another student swore at my co-teacher, I would obviously attach more weight to the latter. I can give two bad points to the students but there is no way to record why two separate points were given.
Another limitation I discovered is the inability to share the entirety of the class statistics with other teachers. In order to have a teacher look at the class, I would have to give them my teachers’ code, which I didn’t feel comfortable with since
that is the all-powerful customiz-ing, editing, and connecting code.
Classroom Adaptation
Like every tool in a teachers’ journey, the effectiveness depends on how it is used by the teacher. In most cases, it takes “trial and error” and reflection to be exem-plary. ClassDojo is designed for classroom use; therefore, it takes little adaption to apply, but more effort from the teacher to make it adaptable to their classroom man-agement technique and teaching philosophy.
For further analysis of Class-Dojo, strengths and weaknesses and Korean class adaptation, visit my website: http://tyson-minire-search.weebly.com
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Photos
Bottom: An old tree stands out from the rest in a mountain forest in Yeosu City.
Top left: A statue of Jesus beside Cathédrale Jeondong.
Ther Cathedral built in honor of Roman Catholic martyrs of the Joseon Dynasty.
Top right: An evening view of a hidden lake in Yeosu.
photos by dinh nguyen
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When I visit my home area in eastern Canada, I notice that there is a lack of health
and well being compared to many oth-er areas of the world I have been for-tunate enough to visit. Not only is this disappointing, but it is rather surpris-ing when I consider that Canada has a health care system envied by many and is considered an advanced, well edu-cated nation.
This leaves me with nagging questions about health and longevity. Why is it that people in places you would expect to have more health issues seem healthier, especially as they age? Why do nations we expect to be healthier, grow old faster, become sick sooner, and seem to give up hope of contributing to society in any meaningful way? Why is it that although people of the world are living longer, they seem to be spending more time sick or dying as a result of chronic diseases, earlier and earlier in their lives? And how can people be content living 80 years when there are people living happy and healthy lives past 100? Life is a beautiful thing isn’t it?
It’s easy to look at reasons in my home area such as a lack of employment and education on health issues, but when I visit countries where people have little access to health care or even basic education, those reasons don’t carry much weight. There must be more to it.
In the past, I often contemplated how activity and diet affected the health of people in different geographical regions, but it wasn’t until my personal quest to learn more about increasing my longevity, that I discovered one of the books that influenced me most. The book, Healthy at 100, truly helped me to see things more clearly.
The author, John Robbins, a one-time heir to the Baskin Robbins Company and accompanying riches, left the family business after seeing what it was doing to his family’s health and the world’s ecosystem. Robbins decided to dedicate his time toward learning about living a healthier lifestyle, one in which people are friendly to the environment and those we share it with. He was also interested in how people can age with grace and health, both physically and cognitively.
He envisioned a life where the aged members of society could enjoy the beauty of old age and the wisdom that comes with it, as opposed to a general state of decrepitude common in today’s modern societies. He searched for answers as to how people could increase their life and health span and found inspiration in a 1970’s National Geographic Story on centenarians.
The study looked at three areas, the Caucasus area South of
Russia, Vilcabamba in the Andes, and Hunza of Central Asia, all of which were renowned for higher than average rates of centenarians and having fewer health issues, even in older age. Robbins further investigated a fourth study called the “Okinawan Study” to find clues to why these areas produced people that on average lived longer, appeared happier, and predominantly led healthier lives at old age.
The four studies showed that these areas were remarkably similar in their diets. The majority of calories were obtained through the consumption of vegetables, with very little calories coming from meat or dairy sources. The majority of fats were from nuts and seeds. This low calorie diet is free of processed food, artificial ingredients, and high in nutrition, feeding the body’s cells well. In contract, a typical Western diet is filled with high calorie, low nutritional value ingredients, and leaves the body craving more, due to a lack of nutrition consumed.
In addition to a healthier, low calorie diet, centenarians of the four areas led active lives into their old age with daily exercise ranging from farm work to daily swims. Robbins also went on to discuss the importance of relationships on health and discussed the often
undocumented problems associated with loneliness. He found that people in these four areas valued their elders, viewed age as beauty, and their elderly members felt less alone.
This book offered me valuable insight, some of which I incorporate into my daily life in an attempt to increase my life and health span. Life is a really a beautiful thing and I hope to enjoy as much of it as I can. If you feel the same, I highly recommend this book.
Why be satisfied with 80 when you can live healthily past 100?
Healthy Musingswith Chris Devison
courtesy ballantine books
Tech Talk with Julia Cheng will return in the September issue of Bibimbap.
To share tech tips and submit troubleshooting questions, contact: [email protected]{ {
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Dining with Dinhdinh dguyen columnist
Once upon a time I worked as a tea specialist at a gourmet cafe. Whether I
was at work or not, people came in at all hours requesting bever-ages I’d invented. “I’d like a Dinh’s Special” they would order. My co-workers would get irritated because they had no idea, which of the dozens of drinks named “Dinh’s Special” each customer wanted.
With tea-infused concoctions that tasted like banana bread and carrot cake, each time I in-vented a recipe, my ego would get a little bigger. I became a god of my own realm. People would request that I make their drinks over others baristas; and I was not humbled about it.
One day, my pride was shattered by a customer complaint. The drink in question? A simple cup of green tea.
I tried to brush it off by question-ing the customer’s sanity; after all, I’d given her what she wanted: “boiling water and tea leaves.”
The complaint steeped in me and turned my pride into bitter-ness. It wasn’t until much later that I realized anyone can pour water into a cup and make tea, but a good cup of tea requires more ef-fort than a fancy desert drink.
The art of tea drinking and prep-aration has been around since 2737 BC. Over the course of 4000 plus years, numerous cultures have ad-opted the herbal drink and perfected the techniques used to prepare it. The assumption that making tea consists merely of pouring boiling water onto some leaves is arrogant at best. Mainstream coffee shop cul-ture is ignorant of the complexity surrounding tea. And so, it renders the delicacy a trendy, second-rate persona-pleasing, energy booster for those who don’t enjoy coffee.
It was a Buddhist monk who awoke me to the complexity of en-joying tea. He served me the best
green tea I’d ever had. When I tried to recreate it using the same equip-ment and leaves, I failed. I realized then that I knew nothing about tea.
The monk taught me that tea is a process. It is a mastery of the detailed preparation that goes into making it, as well as the ability to separate and savor complimenting aroma and tastes. It is an of in-tent mindfulness-- a state in which you are aware of your every sense - taste, touch, smell- and their rela-tion to the tea. He spoke of a subtle sweetness available only to those fully present to the act of drinking the tea. It is a succulence hidden behind the complimenting flavours of the tea, and can only be brought out through the careful (mindful) preparation of it:
Mindfulness of Tea Quality
From oolong to green, over 100 varieties of tea are made from one plant, the Camellia Sinensis. Black, white, green, and yellow teas share the same mother. Distinctive types of tea and quality are derived from manufacturing techniques, unique characteristics of the plant, environ-mental conditions, and type of soil used. Black teas are created through a higher oxidization process, or by the - accidental- over processing of green tea. Green teas are treated very delicately as they are easily ru-ined. Dark and yellow teas are treat-ed with fermenting techniques that results in a variety of specific teas.
High quality teas have fuller, more distinctive flavours because of how the leaves were grown and processed. Some regions of tea pro-ducers will put more work into their products. Some have mastered the cultivation and oxidization process through generations of experimen-tal practices.
Not all teas are created equal. One brand of green tea may hold more flavour than another.
Tea generally comes from two types of Camellia Sinensis: China Jat (discovered in China) and White Jat (discovered in India). China Jat tea leaves are more flavour-ful but yield less when cultivated. White Jat teas are the opposite.
When selecting a quality tea, it may be helpful to understand where your tea came from, what region it was produced in, and the special charac-teristic imparted on the teas of that region.
Mindful Measure-ments
Too many tea leaves can cause a flavour imbalance and may mask the aroma and subtle components with bitterness. Too few leaves can result in a dull cup of tea. The same goes with too little or too much water. Different types of teas require dis-tinct leaves-to-water ratios. Instruc-tions are usually outlined on the package, or will be offered by the retailer.
Standard measurements are usu-ally one flat tsp per cup (8 oz) of wa-ter. This is not always true though. Some teas are larger in volume than others. White tea is 4 times the size of roasted gunpowder green tea. When unsure, one gram of tea per cup (8 oz) of water usually works out well.
When you’re comfortable with the standard measurements and fla-vour, you can begin to experiment by adding or subtracting tea leaves to fit your taste. Some experts refer to this as the intuitive and mindful preparation of tea. Changing the water level to alter the taste is not recommended as water, which is not the source of flavour, should be the constant, not the variable.
Mindful Water Selec-tion
The water you use can affect how your tea tastes. If the water tastes irregular (metallic or earthy etc...) after being boiled, that flavour will transfer to the final product.
Soft water that is low in calcium and other minerals is said to be the best when brewing tea. Some experts prefer spring or bottled water. When using bottled liquids, be sure to avoid hard water that is high in calcium or magnesium as these minerals tend to alter the taste.
Zen and the art of m
aking tea properly
11
Mindfulness of Equipment Used
For a more serious tea expe-rience, be mindful of the cups and pots chosen to serve your tea. Historically, in many Asian cultures, tea was served during social events. Having small cups instead of large ones allows the host a chance to demonstrate hospitality by refilling them.
From a more Buddhist per-spective, refilling the cups mul-tiple times should be embraced and is done as a practice of mindfulness. If you are aware of the moment, and of every sensation created by pouring the tea (the warmth from the heat, the sound of the tea hitting the cup etc.), you are truly living in the moment. Refilling the tea becomes part of the enjoyable experience, not a dreadful task.
What your pots and cups
are made of is also important. Green tea, which is more fla-vourful at lower temperatures, fares better in thinner drink ware like glass cups and teapots. Stron-ger teas are best served in thicker, non glazed, earth-made pots and
cups as they retain the higher temperature needed to keep the tea at its’ best. Earth-made pots also retain flavour better.
Mindfulness of Temperature and Time
Water temperature can be the difference between a great cup of tea and a bitter mess.
Different components of tea dissolve at different tem-peratures. Catechin, which is responsible for tea’s bitterness, seeps into the water when ex-posed to a higher temperature, while theanine, the source of sweeter flavours, requires less heat.
Green teas are not oxidized for long and cannot handle high temperature before Cat-echin is released. If made cor-rectly, the tea colour should be a light florescent green, and not dark or brown.
Water Temperature: When preparing green tea, a cooler temperature allows the flavour
to come out while prolong-ing the release of the bitter. Over steeping of green tea can cause the tea to turn bad. The standard guidelines are 160 to 180 F (or 70 to 80 C) de-grees. If you don’t have a ther-mometer, allow the water to sit for about five minutes after boiling before pouring it onto the leaves. The steam from the water should be minimal and rising high but not straight.
Steeping: To prevent it from getting bitter, green tea should not be steeped for more than 3 minutes. 1 to 3 minutes will do. In some cases people have been known to enjoy tea steeped for 30 seconds. If you purchased your tea from a cafe in Korea, it might be best to steep it for less time than longer. Black teas are highly oxi-dized and can handle a higher temperature. It is recommend-ed that you keep the pot hot as well so that the flavours come out at their best. Water Temperature: Boiling.
Steeping: 3 to 5 minutes, with five being favourable.
Puerh teas are fermented, complex, and versatile. Some people enjoy it at lower tem-perature water, while others like it with boiling water.
Steeping: 7 to 8 minutes.
Awareness of the Here and the Now
Enjoying tea requires more skill than putting something in your mouth and swallowing. It is about allowing each step in the process to affect the out-come of your tea. It is about being mindful of said process, up to, and including the mo-ment you drink your tea.
In his book, Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac paraphrases the Tang Dynasty poet, Lotung’s description on drinking tea:
The first sip is joy, the second is glad-ness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.”
The Vietnamese Zen Mas-ter, Thich Nhat Hanh once said:
You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea.
Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleas-ant warmth of the cup.
Only in the present, can you sa-vor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy.
If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experi-ence of enjoying the cup of tea.
You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone.
Life is like that.”
To truly enjoy tea, you must first bring out its best through proper preparation. Then, you must learn to savor its aroma and feel its heat. You must be aware of the warmth of the tea as it enters your body, and become mindful of the subtle sweetness hidden behind the obvious flavours. Each kind of tea has a pleasantness that is masked by layers of taste. When you are present to the sensations derived from drinking tea, you will enjoy a deeper decadence. And in the process, as Zen Mas-ter Thich puts it, you will experi-ence the joy of life.
“
“
dinh nguyen
12
Cultural Context: Power distance, the highs and lowsvaLeRie Robinson
staff writer
Power Distance: An index developed by Dutch sociologist
Geert Hofstede that measures the distribution of power and wealth between people in a nation, business, or culture. The power-distance index seeks to demonstrate the extent to which subordinates or ordinary citizens submit to authority. The power-distance index figure is lower in countries or organizations in which authority figures work closely with those not in authority, and is higher in countries or organizations with a more authoritarian hierarchy. — Investopedia.com
Perhaps just from reading the previ-ous paragraph you are already thinking about where your home culture lands on the spectrum of power distance. Here are some helpful bullet points to explain the opposite ends of the power distance spectrum. Please keep in mind that no culture is ever 100 percent on one end of the spectrum or the other.
In a high power distance cultures the following may be observed:
• Authorities openly demonstrate their rank.
• Subordinates are not given important work and expect clear guidance from above.
• Subordinates are expected to take blame • The relationship between boss and
subordinate is rarely personal • Politics is prone to totalitarianism. • Class divisions within society are accepted.
In a low power distance culture:
• Superiors treat subordinates with respect and do not pull rank.
•Subordinates are entrusted with important assignments.
• Blame is either shared or very often accepted by the superior
• Managers may often socialize with subordinates. • Liberal democracies are the norm. • Societies lean more towards egalitarianism.
Those who have talked to their har-ried co-teacher about their endless duties, and are aware of the protocol involved in addressing the principal, you may have de-duced that Korea tends to skew towards the high end of the power distance spectrum (HPD). Western cultures generally skew to the lower end of the spectrum (LPD). But in all cases, there can be sub-cultures within cultures that go against the grain. Think about how the US military compares with
general US business culture. Game of Thrones Spoiler Alert: At
this point, I would like to apply HPD and LPD principles to one of the most popu-lar TV shows currently on the air: Game of Thrones.
Let’s look at everyone’s favorite char-acter, King Joffrey. On several occasions, Joffrey has made bad decisions and laid the blame at the feet of his subordinates. In season 2 he institutes a harsh purge in King’s Landing once taking power, but re-fuses to take responsibility when it results in a riot. Joffrey also likes to demonstrate his rank. Clearly, everyone knows what power being king entails, but that doesn’t stop him from personally humiliating those close to him. How many times has a character been forced to be a cup bearer (Tyrion) or been beaten merely to demon-strate power (Sansa).
But HPD isn’t strictly the domain of villains, as the Starks prove. In season three, after a series of bad decisions concerning their captive Jaime Lannister, King Rob butts heads with his underling, Rickard Karstark. Rob’s mother released the captive Jaime without Rob’s permission, despite Jaime having murdered Karstark’s son.
When Karstark in turn kills other Lannis-ters, Robb executes him for insubordina-tion. Robb essentially ruled against those to whom he owed his power in order to pro-tect his own name and reputation.
There are relationships throughout Westeros that demonstrate LPD as well. Consider the highborn Arya Stark learn-ing from men of lower rank such as Syrio Forel and Sandor Clegane. Also consider Danaerys Targaryen’s relationship with translators and mercenaries in her quest for the Iron Throne. Glory for Danaerys means glory for her subordinates, and she accepts responsibility when things do not go as planned. This is not to say she is above extreme punishment when she feels she has been wronged.
Just think of HPD vs. LPD this way: Joffrey reminds lords that they are slaves and Danaerys asks slaves to follow her “if they want to.” It’s hard to say that these actions aren’t a result of personal motivations in-stead of culture, but applying this framework to fictional characters helps to demonstrate it’s relevance to our real world cultural expe-riences. I think we can see the difference in leadership styles clearly in Game of Thrones.
dinh nguyencourtesy hbo
13
Cultural Context: Power distance, the highs and lows
dea
r ch
ris
QUpon renewal time, it seems whether a teacher can renew or not comes down to that one evaluation at the end of the school year. If that evaluation is so important, why can’t we see the completed ones or be given the criteria so we know what areas we can improve on in the future? — evaLuation woes
I find lesson planning very time consuming and demanding with my already hectic class schedule. Can you offer me any advice on how much time I should spend lesson planning and how I can speed things up? — busy one
deaR evaLuation woes
I agree that the process needs to be im-proved and places too much weight on an evaluation that the teacher doesn’t
see. I discussed initiating a halfway point evaluation for all teachers with the super-visors so I would have the opportunity to let people know if they were going down the wrong road. Unfortunately, it was re-jected because the evaluation process is time consuming and the supervisors are already overworked.
This puts teachers in a difficult situ-ation because sometimes a person may think everything is good, until it is too late. The best thing to do is to try to get
deaR busy one :
I fully realize how time consuming les-son planning can be, and unfortunately, what a lack of preparation can result in. I strongly feel that the more you put into your lesson, the more you, and your stu-dents, will get out of them. However, due to the nature and the demands of our po-sitions, we are often faced with limitations. The key is balancing your demands with your schedule, putting as much as you can into your planning in the free time available.
The question of how much time you
should be taking to prepare lessons is a bit of a difficult one to answer. It depends on a lot of factors including your experience, type of lesson, your teaching approaches and methods, the students, the curriculum and so on. I used to have to follow the text book with my middle school students and it had a pretty tight script. I wasn’t a fan, nor were the students, but was instructed to use it regardless. Because everything was laid out pretty straightforward and fol-lowed the same format week after week, it took me about an hour to very thoroughly prepare a lesson which was taught several
some info from your co-workers. The issue is they won’t be direct; you really need to approach it indirectly.
If you have a workshop, have a class where you discuss traits of a successful EFL teacher. For best results, let them know this will be a future topic. Then, try to look at hidden meanings to what they say, possibly something you do not do, that they mentioned. Also, during class, look for subtle suggestions or instances when your co-teacher tries to model ways to do things. It would be very rare for a co-teacher to come out and tell you directly.
It’s always important to keep a good relationship with your school. This
{ {Dear Chris is a monthly advice column written by Chris Devison, the Jeollanamdo Language Program’s Provincial Coordinator and 9 year resident of South Korea. If you have questions to ask Chris you can send them to [email protected]
means making an attempt to be part of the school “team” taking part in group functions, always smiling, and being cor-dial. The collective attitude here is very prevalent and as strange as it may seem to some, can often be almost as impor-tant as your teaching ability.
This way, even if you don’t have the most harmonious relationship with your main co-teacher, as long as you are professional and others like you, you should not be refused renewal. The co-teachers’ know we check problems out with multiple teachers, so personal beefs usually don’t result in a refusal. If my of-fice receives complaints about a teacher at any point I am always in touch with
times over the week to all classes for that particular grade. I could spend as little as 3 hours a week planning for all 3 grades.
With an after school class it was a lot more time consuming, having to prepare my own lesson plans every day. I would often try to find related PPTs that could be changed to suit my lesson, but I found PPTs to be very time consuming to find, revamp, or make from scratch. And al-though they offer a nice visual, I believe they have become too commonplace in the EFL classroom with teachers often re-lying on them. I found using other visuals, such as posters and flashcards to be even more effective and time saving. The stu-dents could handle these and they could be moved around, offering a lot more flex-ibility in my teaching and activity choice.
When looking for lesson plan ideas,
it is important to keep in mind that it is often difficult to find a lesson that is per-fectly tailored to what it is you want or need to teach. What you really should be looking for are ideas, activities, and games that can be adapted to the lesson you need to teach. In doing so, you’ll come across
multiple ideas that can be used with future topics as opposed to several ideas for your one current topic.
I’ll admit, the more experience you have, the easier it will get. You’ll find that you can recycle topics, games, and activity ideas, sav-ing you a lot of time. You’ll also begin to look at things a bit differently in terms of lessons. Normal everyday objects will sud-denly become useful to you in your lessons and ideas will continuously be stored in your memory bank, retrieved when needed. It’ll take time at first, but you’ll accumulate a vast collection of resources, whether it be books, links, or documents.
It is wise to develop a standard lesson plan format that suits your teaching style and that can be used all the time. This ba-sic lesson plan layout will help you to es-tablish a foundation from which you can stray as you become more experienced.
You can incorporate a warm up and re-
view of past material, both of which should not be too time consuming to create. Then once you are clear on your learning objec-tives, you have a nice place to begin your
lesson’s main teaching point and activity before looking at how you can wrap up the lesson. If you are still stuck, try think-ing backwards from what it is the students will have learned to how they could possibly learn it.
Two other things I find very useful to save time when lesson planning are devel-oping multiple class lessons and student centered lesson plans.
Lastly, always avoid procrastinating. I have always been one to work hard, but I also relish my time off on the weekends. I’m allotted this freedom on the weekend because I work extremely hard during the week. I take the same approach with my lesson planning, trying to get as much done as early in the week as possible. I have a few busy days at the start of my week, but if I push the pace on these days I can usually easily complete what I need to accomplish. I end up giving the impres-sion of being busier than I actually was, and I’m rarely left scrambling to complete things at the last minute.
the teacher so they have a chance to im-prove or explain their side of the story.
If there was a problem, especially with a teacher who has been around for some time and who has continuously succeeded in evaluating high, I would speak to the supervisor about investigat-ing the reason why and ask them to con-sider the teacher’s previous evaluations.
The office is very secretive about the
evaluations so, unfortunately I cannot share copies with teachers. However, if requested, I can share their score or any problem areas the teacher may have had with them and discuss ways they can improve.
14
chRis damdaR writer
I thought it would be like the Sound of Music. The students would become so enamored with my humorous charm
and entertaining teaching style, so differ-ent from their Korean overlords, that they would lean forward, rapt attention with big smiles on their faces.
We’d eventually go picnicking on a moun-tain, and I would teach them to sing Do-Re-Mi (complete with actions and dance rou-tines). On some weekends we’d go shopping and romp around the streets in the clothes I made for them from curtains — still sing-ing and dancing. On second thought, I can’t sew, so I guess the clothes would be more like toga things, and the children would have to hold them in place with their hands as we danced. I imagined that on quiet afternoons we would lie on the grass and look up at the clouds. I would ask them if they were really happy and they would say, “Not until we met you.”
That did not happen. Instead, my stu-dents couldn’t give a crap about English, or me, or my lesson. I stand up there making a valiant attempt to instruct and educate and there they are, turned around in their little groups, talking loudly in Korean about this and that, throwing things around, putting on makeup, sleeping. They are oblivious to me or what I am saying. My powerpoint slides are ignored, my practice dialogues un-practiced, and the blanks on my handouts unfilled. And then the chime sounds and the period is over and I leave the classroom de-jected and tired and so missing home.
In university, teaching is much differ-ent. Students are well behaved and if any-thing, all you have to do is give them low marks so they don’t get into med school. But in Korea I have no such power. I will not be marking them or evaluating them, I will not be influencing the course of their careers. Most of these students know they don’t need English and so they don’t care to learn it. For them, it is the other subjects that matter. There is so much I don’t know about them and as such, it is easy for me to not like them. Can you blame me? Look at how they act. No respect for Teacher Chris.
I am trying to figure what I can do to get them to pay attention, and I think the best strategy is to learn about them.
In my first class I tried asking each stu-dent’s name but after the first girl just stared at me blankly, either in fear or disgust or bore-dom — I realized I would never get through all thirty girls. I scratched that idea. Now I am thinking of starting each class by asking them something about themselves. “Where do you get your face cream?” or “Is it better to put on cream in the morning or the night?” All these girls seem to like face cream, so they should be interested. I can tell them I have dry skin and ask what to do? What do they do? Is there a special product I should try? Does Korean skin get dry? Should men even wear face cream? I imagine they will giggle, and lean forward in rapt attention, and I will pull out my guitar and teach them a song.
I think my problem is I’m not realistic. It happens so often, that I slip into fantasy. But these girls are a dose of reality. At least that is what I keep telling myself. It makes me feel better.
All my Facebook friends describe their wonderful experiences and I think: these people are just making it up, they are really as disillusioned as I am and not letting on because they don’t have access to antide-pressants. There is really nothing they can do but smile and pretend and make me feel bad with their positive attitudes. If there are any teachers out there with an actual real-istic student situation, they aren’t talking.
Positive attitude. I am trying that. Before I enter the school I replace my panic strick-en ‘I want to cry’ grimace with my ‘I am so happy to be here’ smile. I used to do it at the school door, until I realized the teachers could see me through the staff room win-dow, so now I do it off school property. To facilitate the process, I try to say hello and bow to all the people I see on the streets. I in-tentionally look into shops and wave if I see anyone, and remarkably, people wave back. As I near the school, students smile and say hello, and I don’t look away and hunch my shoulders defensively, but say hello back. I suppose I should stop walking and engage them in a dialogue like the ones I attempt in class, but as of this date my legs are still pes-simistic about the outcome of such an inter-action. This week though, I will work on that.
This teaching experience is not what I expected. I am not surrounded by loving stu-dents who want to give me hugs and know about me and what I have to say. It is not like any teaching or tutoring job I have had before. But if I am going to make it for a year I have to do something, anything, to make this position bearable. And if the job won’t change, I somehow have to change myself.
Perspectives
Not the sound of music
15
sasha KoegLeR writer
I live at the school. In a shack. Like groundskee-per Willie.
The only things I’m missing are a shovel and a Scottish ac-cent. Students open my door and enter my house without warning, pleading, “Teacher, koyangi!” as my cats frantically scramble to hide under my bed. If I’m lucky I’m fully clothed, but that’s not al-ways the case. Last week three of my middle school boys stopped at my window to listen to me play guitar. “Teacher, six pack!” they complimented me, and I threw on a shirt and invited them in.
I’m not keen on having el-ementary school kids traipse through my house but with middle schoolers, it seems a good opportunity to get them speaking English outside of the classroom. It’s not the first time they’ve come by and ended up getting a guitar lesson. That’s the thing about living alone on an island with not another foreigner for more than 50 kilometres in any direction. Your school re-ally does become your home. And you have to be comfortable at home. You have to be your-self, otherwise you lose yourself.
There have been moments when I thought I was going to snap. I go sometimes three or
four weeks without seeing an-other westerner, constantly sur-rounded by drunk ahjussis riding obnoxiously loud tractors; being mobbed by ahjummas who pet my hair and attack my cats with broomsticks; working in class-rooms full of stubborn students who know full well they will grow up to tend to their family farm — English is not relevant to their lives. There have been moments when I have snapped. Being conscripted to attend teacher dinners three nights in a row and then forced to spend the following evening weeding the property in front of the staff accommodations, wondering all the while what I pay a property maintenance fee for. But this is what it is to teach English in what one of my co-teachers calls “the Amazon of Korea.” And so I let out a scream or smash a glass bottle or punch a wall in the pri-vacy of my own home and then continue on, enjoying what little time to myself I have available.
It’s hard. My students are low level and seem to care so little for English that occasionally I feel like I’m failing them. My activi-ties sometimes flop and I have no other foreign teachers to decom-press and exchange ideas with after a hard day. I am alone. And so when I’m exhausted and frus-trated and ready to have a temper tantrum, sometimes rather than smash something, I meditate. That’s what I did last night, after
a long day of failed classroom experiments. I needed to escape my school and town, just for a while. So I sat down outside of my shack, in an admittedly lazy half-lotus posture, closed my eyes, and focussed my attention on my breath.
Perhaps twenty minutes passed before I was able to concentrate my attention on my chosen point — the rim around my nostrils — witnessing the air flowing past them like the tide past a stake driven into a beach. And then my students came over. With them came half an hour of being poked in the face, having my glasses removed and put back on upside-down, having my ears screamed into - “Sasha wake up!” — until the screams were muf-fled by a steady ringing; children bouncing on a loose sewer grate right next to me; objects being placed in my nose and ears, my shoes being taken, perhaps never to be returned; having my shoul-ders grabbed and rocked back and forth. Finally they departed.
I sat alone, entering a deeper state of stillness, and as my breath slowed and grew deeper, I no-ticed an object I had not noticed before: a breath that was not my own. It was subtle but it was there, and my curiosity was immense. I sat a little longer and then chant-ed three “Oms” and heard not one but two voices mimicking my own. I opened my eyes and
there next to me sat two of my students. Their legs were crossed and they had their hands together as if in prayer. They looked at me inquisitively and I spoke softly, “I was meditating.” I paused. “We were meditating.”
“We were meditating,” they repeated.
“Yes,” I said.
We sat together in silence and then they got up, bowed before me, and walked off into the dark-ness.
That is what I’m here for. I don’t have to be a perfect teacher. I don’t have to have the patience of a saint. And I don’t have to, nor am I ever going to, enjoy every single experience I have on this tiny island in rural South Korea. But I am here to touch lives, to be touched, to be a part of a community, to give and to receive, to grow and to inspire growth, and if it were painless and easy it wouldn’t be the im-mense opportunity that it is.
I said earlier that I am alone here. The truth is that I am never alone. If I step out of my house in any direction my name is shouted from playgrounds and windows and street corners and shop door-ways at thirty second intervals. My students follow me to the grocery store, chase me on their bicycles when I go riding, bring snacks to
me when I sit outside reading,; wait longingly at my screen door for my cats to show their faces, and invite me to play soccer with them every time I step out of my door. I can’t escape them.
And then there’s the taxi driv-er, the middle-aged scooter driv-ing man who always wants to take me out for duck, my students’ parents, the bus driver, the town police, and even the guy who drives the mosquito truck. They all shout my name too. Everyone knows me here. I guess that’s what happens when you are the only foreigner in a town the size of a small airport. And even if some-times I’m muttering, “Leave me alone,” under my breath when yet another person has spotted me and wants a piece of my time, I know I would miss this if things changed.
I came to teach English and that’s something I do my very best at in the classroom. But I think I have more success beyond. It is on the street and in the soccer field and at the door to my house where I am engaged with my students most authentically. Outside of the school we all let our guard down, freed by the contextual limitations imposed by a classroom, and get to know each other a little bit bet-ter. After two years here, I can’t imagine a teaching position where I wasn’t living at the school.
Beyond the classroom
16
photos: dinh nguyen
Bingsu (빙수)
What better way to cool off this summer than by eating some shaved
ice with various toppings? Take your pick of redbean, fruit, coffee, cheese, or perhaps all of the above.
Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제 July 18-27)
Hosting one of the most popular festivals among NETs, Boryeong is lo-cated about 170km north of Gwangju in Chungcheongnam province (~3 hours and 12,000 won by bus). Get suited up in mud and enjoy other events before washing off in the ocean.
Beaches
One of the perks of living in Jeolla-namdo is our close proximity to beaches and islands. Two notable beaches are:Myeongsashimni Beach (명사십리해수욕장), Wando
Located 130km from Gwangju, you can take a bus to the Wando ter-minal (~2.5 hours and 17,000 won) then either take a taxi or take the lo-cal bus to the beach.
Top 5 Korean things this summer{ {
Korean Expressions related to travel
Shall we go to…?… 갈까요? (… gal-kka-yo?)
Ex.. 해수욕장에 갈까요? (hae-soo-yok-jang-eh gal-kka-yo?)= Shall we go to the beach?
서울에 갈까요? (Seoul-eh gal-kka-yo?) = Shall we go to Seoul?
Where is…?… 어디에요? (… eo-di-ae-yo?)
Ex. 화장실이 어디에요? (hwa-jang-sil-i eo-di-ae-yo?) = Where is the bathroom?
버스터미날이 어디에요? (beo-seu-tteo-mi-nal-i eo-di-ae-yo?) = Where is the bus terminal?
How long does it take to get there?얼마나 걸리나요? (eol-ma-na geo-li-na-yo?)
How much is this?이거 얼마예요? (ee-geo eol-ma-ye-yo?)
Have a good trip!좋은 여행 되세요! ( joh-eun yeo-heng toi-sae-yo!)
Gamami Beach (가마미해수욕장), Yeonggwang
Yeonggwang is located only 45km from Gwangju and you can take a bus to the Yeonggwang bus terminal (~1 hour and 7000 won) then either take a taxi or the local bus to the beach. Keep in mind that both beaches (My-eongsashimni and Gamami) are about 20-30 minutes from the main city terminals and may run you around 20,000 won in a taxi.
Scary Movies
During summer, people in Ko-rea like to watch scary movies to invite chills and ward off the heat. Perhaps the chills come from be-ing indoors with the A/C on high. Regardless of which theory you be-lieve, check out some of these great horrors this summer:
A Tale of Two Sisters (장화, 홍련; 2003)
Two sisters who, after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cru-el stepmother. Once there, in addi-tion to dealing with their stepmoth-er’s obsessive and unbalanced ways,
an interfering ghost also affects their recovery. (IMDB.com)
The Host (괴물; 2009)
A monster emerges from Seoul’s Han River and focuses its attention on attacking people. One victim’s loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches. (IMDB.com)
Killer Toon (더 웹툰; 2013)
After a series of murders are com-mitted that mimic a famous webtoon, de-tective Lee Ki-cheol places the cartoon-ist Kang Ji-yoon on the list of suspects. (Wikipedia)
Water-Eating Hippo Dehumidifiers(물먹는 하마)
Humidity is our mortal enemy dur-ing summer; not only does it cause us to need a shower 10 times a day, it also brings mold. These little contraptions can become your home’s best friend. Leave them around your apartment and especially in areas that are prone to holding moisture such as wardrobes and dark corners. They cost around 10,000 won for 8 units (or less for knock-off brands) and last for about a month, de-pending on the level of humidity.
Lindsay Ross
staff writer