It's a Gas!

June 1, 2007

So...you think U.S. gasoline prices are bad? Koreans would change places with you in a second. Riding with another teacher today, we stopped to gas up his Kia. Gas has gotten more expensive here over the past month. I did the liter/gallon and won/dollar conversion while while the attendant was filling the tank. (Yes, they still have pump attendants who gas up, clean windshields, check tires, etc. --after all, that's someone's JOB your talking about). I redid my calculations several times to be sure I was right and it always came up $ 5.30 per equivalent gallon for regular. Koreans don't complain much and my friend's stoic upbringing with a true Confucian attitude led him to simply observe "It is what it is." In the U.S. you're probably looking at a tea party kind of revolt at such prices. In Korea, the government gets its pound of flesh tax-wise, too. However, people generally suck it up and consider they're contributing to the good of all. Obama and his minions would love these people.

They have another "for the good of all" tax here on garbage. That's right...garbage. Korea is a small country with no place to put a lot of waste. They have mandatory recycling and people work as hard to recycle as they do at regular jobs. It's a collective "national will" kind of thing. The garbage tax is collected on the only officially sanctioned government approved 100 % biodegradeable trash bags everyone is required to use. They are only available at licensed retailers and there's a heavy fine and possible jail time for scofflaws (that includes you Mr. Honorable Foreign teacher!). How much is the price of compliance, you ask? That box of 30 Hefty bags for which you'll pay about $2.99 at Kroger would run about twelve bucks in Korea. Fortunately, the school is exempt from the tax and since they're responsible for most of my living expenses (sure glad I'm not paying the rent on a 3/2 apartment in an Asian city!) they give me bags from the school's supply.

So, once again, I've found a reason to sing "God Bless America!", although if Obama learns about this garbage scam we'll all be in for it! I'll close with best wishes for all and a reminder to show some respect for that bag when you take out your garbage tonight. Luv 2 all.

Bill

It's a Gas!

The Zoo Story (Korean style)

May 28, 2009

Playwright Edward Albee (best known for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) wrote a one-act tragedy titled The Zoo Story back in the 1950's. We recently took all the students on a field trip to the National Zoo in Seoul where I lived my own serio-comic version of a zoo story. To set the scene properly, you have to realize that my school is in an outlying rural area just outsde an outlying small city (Yangju) which is an hour drive north of Seoul. Some of the students are recent transplants from the absolute boondoocks/jumping-off point in the middle of nowhere Korea whose parents have moved the family in search of better jobs for parents and the hope of a better future for children. It would be generous to describe them as unsophisticated. Some of the kids are behind grade level for their ages, but are catching up. Schooling out in the boonies is less a priority than just trying to survive. Anyway, we had a great day at the zoo, I taught English names for all the animals they didn't know and we had a picnic provided by the school's version of the PTA. One third grade boy I knew to be a relatively recent arrival from the hinterlands was evidently very impressed by the spectacle of elelphants, lions and a hippo or two but was, for the most part, silent. Through my teacher/interpreter friend I asked him how he liked the zoo. He said he really liked it, but asked "Who made all these animals?" It seems that his ten years of very sheltered, unspoiled living in a very closed off reality had led him to the de facto conclusion that the only creatures in the world were the ones he could see and that was limited to dogs, cats, birds, cows, pigs, chickens and a few fish. Thus, the dolphin show at the zoo aquarium was a real eye-opener for him. We tried to explain to him that most of the animals came from far away places such as Africa, but it was all a bit overwhelming for him. He'd seen lions in a picture book, but didn't make the connection to the fact that they were real animals. He thought they were something made up for the purpose of telling a story. So, his question as to who made these things was understandable. His reality now includes lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and he is really appreciative that somebody made these animals just so we could go see them. In college, I was a very astute student of philosophy and the study of the problem of knowledge and reality. However, seeing something basic through the first time eyes of a child is worth at least three semester hours credit. Maybe the experience will make me a better grandfather. I'd better get my grandfather act together because that reality is less than seven months away.

A good day to all. I'm going right now to dig up (no, not literally) some kimchee and a two liter bottle of Pepto to drink with it. Until later...................bd

A Big Onion to You All!

Actually, I mean to say hello. The Korean word for hello sounds exactly like "onion". The good news is that yesterday was payday in Korea for all government employees. The bad news is that the Korean won has tanked against most other currencies and now stands at 1257 to the dollar. Not as bad as its low point of 1550 last month, but a far cry still from the 1040 level it held on my arrival in February. (Memo to self: Next time insist upon payment in dollars.) The U.S. greenback may have more value as toilet paper or as a trash can liner, but at least it's stable (sort of) and Canada and Mexico aren't playing with fireworks within 50 miles of Washington. Rest easy folks--the North Koreans are truly nutballs, but locals think it's all about getting attention from the West in the form of food and development aid. People in North Korea are starving and the only way to get a guaranteed meal is to join the army because they're fed first. People in the South do their best to try and get provisions to family in the North, but the success rate is presumed to be low and almost impossible without building a distribution network that operates on bribery. I work with teachers at the school who have multiple generations of relatives in the North whom they've never met (much like East and West Germany before 1991) and probably never will. For a society in which the concept of family is the cornerstone of everything (and I do mean everything) it's especially saddening.

There is good news on the education front. All of my third graders passed their English tests this week although a few had to be coached through it. My first graders have progressed all the way to letter "F" in their workbooks and have functional vocabulary skills with about a hundred words. All students are becoming operational with "Damon's Basic 40" expressions that allow them to ask and answer basic information gathering questions, talk about the weather and have a rudimentary conversation. The smartest and most focussed among them are really flying with English and the rest are in various stages of trying to escape "no child left behind" status. All in all, a pretty typical bunch of kids.

The rice paddies around the school were planted and flooded about a month ago and rice stalks have already grown up about a foot above the surface. I've been told that in the upper part of South Korea they can havest two rice crops per year and in the warmer southern part of the peninsula where the growing season is longer and warmer they can get three crops in a season. The school has a big garden tended by the students and evry school's food budget is predicated, in part, on each school raising a certain amount of its own food for noon meals. Imagine trying to get U.S. students to do that. Students are also responsible for cleaning their school. Best of all, no one complains. The educational model has more similarities than differences with the U.S. However, where contrasts exist, they are very notable.

I'll wind this edition down for now and be back again later. Love 2 All---Bill

The Kaper Begins!

May 20, 2009

Greetings to all from the "Land of the Morning Mist"

(As Koreans fondly style their country)

The kaper actually began February 1 when I departed Atlanta for my 11,000+ mile flight to almost the end of nowhere Korea. I'm a few hundred miles from being exactly on the opposite side of the planet from all of you. I've wandered far and wide in this life to some pretty strange and wonderful (and not so wonderful--I'll detail my Saudi Arabia experiences another time) places, but this is about as far from home as I've ever been. Seriously, there isn't a barbrque joint within 8,000 miles of this place and if you don't like rice, bean sprouts, octopus, seaweed and the ubiquitous native dish, kimchee (see below) , you'll be hard pressed to find a meal here. I'll say more about food another time, but fear not for me. There is a grocery store across the street from my apartment building that stocks a reasonable variety of Western style products so I will survive. Since I don't know where to begin, here are a few strictly stream-of-consciusness thoughts.....

What is kimchee, you ask? First, it's the Korean national dish and baseball and eating kimchee are Korea's national pastimes and not necessarily in that order. It's made (usually) from pickled cabbage that has been wrapped in seaweed, buried in the ground and allowed to ferment for about a month. The cabbage and usually the greenery, too, is chopped up and mixed with a five-alarm concoction of hot red pepper, garlic and God only knows what else to make a vegetable salad mixture eaten by Koreans at every meal including breakfast. Let that be your introduction to kimchee. I'll say more about it another time.

Where do I reside? Housing in all of Asia is in very tight supply and people are literally stacked on top pf one another. So...why do I enjoy a fairly spacious three bedroom, two bath apartment on the top floor of the nicest high-rise in Yangju City? An extended family of nine people was honored to vacate their apartment to make it available to "our distinguished foreign teacher." Talk about feeling rotten when I found out about that! But to back up for a moment...

I'm living in Yangju City, Republic of Korea about thirty miles north of Seoul and twenty-five miles south of Panmujom, the DMZ and the border with North Korea. Since we all know me to be a tolerant, unopinioated sweetheart of a guy, I've thought about hopping a bus to Panmunjom (where recinciliation talks have been in progress since 1953), joining the peace talks and politely suggesting they get their act together and settle things because the world is finding their continuing animosities just a teensy bit tiring.

I'm teaching English in Duckdo-ri (a farming village just outside of Yangju) at Hyochon School. I'll have more to say about the school and students another time, but for now, I'll say I have been well-received and appreciated (if not venerated--at times it's almost embarrassing) by some truly nice people. Knowledge of English is a potential difference-maker for the kids in this village because English ability has much to do with how far you can go with your education and what kind of job you can get. My contract is with the education department of Gyeonggi-do Province and calls for me to teach conversational English and develop curriculum materials for both young and adult learners. As an undergraduate, I was an English major with a focus on linguistics (and Shakespeare and Medieval Literature, but that's another story....) so after 37 years, I'm finally using my education.

That's about all for the first installment. My arm is doing OK and I've mastered one-handed typing with my right hand although I tire easily and the length of this blog is about the most I can do at one sitting. I'll publish updates whenever possible because I have numerous stories both sad and funny to relate. Korea is a different kind of place. I'll end with that stunning revelation for now. Please let me hear from you either here or my e-mail, bdamon@bellsouth.net. Love to all.

Bill