toilets

Are you over 1.80 m? In that case, you might have some difficulty using toilets in this country. As I wrote in the last posting, technology is imported from the west, but that's not enough. In Korea, you find traditional toilets as well as western toilets. Now, as in Japan, the funny thing is how some of those western toilets are built. Instead of turning the front of the toilet towards the door, so you have space for your knees, the front is built sideways to the wall! Sometimes you have less than 15 cm between toilet and wall, so you can kiss your knees goodbye if you really have to take a dump.

By the way: Be careful when you try to find some information about toilets in Japan on the net. A lot of links are webcams and pay-per-view. Also, always carry toilet paper around with you, usually there's none waiting for you. Ironically, toilet paper is placed at home or at some smaller restaurants on the table. Elsewhere, you might find napkins. You might notice a dumpster with toilet paper next to the toilet, in Korea it's not flushed but left in a trash can. If you want to use a toilet, and the door is closed, don't try to open it just like that. Many toilets don't have a lock so you might surprise an Azumma taking a stinky dump. You don't want that to happen. People here knock on the toilet's door, if somebody knocks back, it's occupied.

fitness club

Since I'm in Korea, I started to practise again. Working out in the main hall is not too different from walking on the street, everybody is looking at me - although not openly. The place where I really feel like I'm under some kind of test tube is the showers. The men never saw a naked foreigner you might think. I don't want even think about what they were comparing under the shower... Sometimes one of the Koreans practising there walks up to me and says hello, but because conversation is not really possible, we can only exchange names and smile.

encounters

This evening I went out with my host to meet one of his friends, a veterinarian pathologist from a Slovakia, who was fortunately proficient in English and a very kind person to talk to. We went again to the egg-shaped restaurant, MCave. During our conversation, a retired American teacher stepped up to us and invited us to join him. We had a great evening with him and the Korean who was in his company. She did her M.A. in English so we could all talk together, and it was very interesting. Of course we also talked about Korea and what we think about it, what distrubed us or what surprised us. Lev, the scientist, mentioned how safe Korea is and how honest the people are. You can leave your wallet on the table of a restaurant and go to the toilet. The wallet would have been stolen in Slovakia, but not in Korea, he said. I was in Prague once, and I must agree - those guys are real wizards, they can pull out anything out of your backpack if you don't watch them closely. Anyway, compared to Japan I feel less safer, although nothing happened up to day. The American, Chuck, and the Korean, whose name I unfortunately can't remember (as usual, although I try hard not to forget names) talked about how they tried to establish a new way for teaching English at universites. It is impossible, hey said. Traditional ways are kept up, although they are obviously not efficient, and new ways to teach languages are not tried out just for the cause of it.

On the one hand, Korea is changing rapidly, technology is highly developed, telecommunication one of the fastest growing industries, but in some respect the traditional ways to do things are prevalent and very hard to change. It looks to me that some things are imported from the west, but everything else is kept as it is because it worked out. Until know. The Japanese have a similar problem in my opinion. Technology is not enough, society itself and the way how to deal with things have to change as well.

That's what I like when I go to foreign countries: You never know who you might meet, what you might learn and what might happen any given Saturday night. :-)

visit at a highschool

Today Ms. Choi and me went to a highschool to meet with a German language teacher who offered me a few hours of his German classes. So, perhaps I might get the chance to teach at a real highschool. It was funny to walk through the school, because most of the pupils were so surprised when I walked by. During our talk outside with the teacher, Mr. Kim, dozens of pupils were looking from the windows to see the strange foreigner. It's going to be a bigger surprise for some of them when they meet me again in class. ;-)

Mr. Kim is quite proficient in German, although he was only once in Germany and that just for a short period of time. I think when learning foreign languages personal interest and active involvement with the language is more important than staying in that language's country. As I had to leave Japan this gives me hope that I won't forget too much Japanese in the years to come.

culture and language

Today's second class was interesting. Not just because Ms. Choi tried something new to get away from the books, but because on some point one of the students gave a good example of how culture influences language so that it might be difficult for western foreigners to understand. The question was something like "What do you do, when...". The student answered in German "I play with friends". What she meant was actually meet with friends, go out with them and have fun. The latter is refered to as "playing". In English and German, you say "meet", in Korean and Japanese, it's "play". Now, a teacher who isn't familiar with Asian languages might misunderstand that answer. Although it is not completely wrong, the expression gives a strange image of what the student does or wants to do.

In a book I started reading yesterday, Psychology of teaching such problems are taken into account. Unfortunately it's out of print, but you could try to find it in a local library. Obviously there's no way to prepare perfectly for a lesson, there's always a situation when a student's cultural and lingual background translates into a foreign language giving misunderstandable signals. I guess that's a part of what makes teaching a difficult, but rewarding task. I had five lessons up to day, some o.k., some "not-as-good", but slowly I grasp what teaching is all about, and I think I like it.

logos

After class, I went to the meeting of a university club, organized by students. Logos is a club in the german department, for students who want to learn outside of the classroom in groups. I attended to the meeting of the beginners, on other days, a few guys from the advanced class meet. The difference to the normal lessons were quite ostentatious. The lesson has been held by a Korean, and although her German is good, the kept to explain everything in Korean. English has been used as well - which might have an advantage if all Korean students already understand the meaning and the grammatical structure of "I am..." and thus project it into German, but with the high number of "false friends" in German and English it is questionable if such an approach is useful.

kids and long hair

Usually kids I meet here don't get farther than the hallo and laughing about the strange foreigner with long hair. There's a school right next to my hostfamilies place. Everyday when I pass that school I get a few hallo's, but sometimes hallo, azumma!, too. People refer to strangers to which they haven't been introduced to with a title usually used for relatives. Azumma in this case means something like aunt. No respect, those little rascals. In the two weeks I've been here, I saw two guys with long hair, everybody else has a short hair cut, mostly with their original black color. Seems like long hair is automatcally associated with women, but times change and I bet I'll live to see it happen one day.

tourists

Today it happened again: I walked down the street, looking at people walking into the opposite direction, when suddenly a whitish face appeared in front of me. Noticing me, the guy waved happily and had an expression of relief on his face - but maybe he didn't like it that I just grinned and passed him. Tourists.
;-)

In Japan, that happened, too, but there I was not "helpless", as I'm in Korea. I don't speak enough to get along on my own, everything beyond using a cab is an adventure. In Japan, I had no problems with communication and tourists were like the pitiful outcasts in the foreign community living in Japan. Of course, if some American asked me for direction or help I would assist without hesitation. In Korea, I'm on my own, and so is every tourist. I wished I could speak Korean.

the Jeonju International Film Festival!

I got lucky. There's a film festival in town, and just because I'm a foreigner I got a VIP invitation for the opening ceremony, which I heard is hard to attend to for Koreans. "Positive" rascism, in this case. I wonder what the Koreans in Jeonju would say to that, but this time, well, I don't mind this kind of treatment. How hypocritical, eh?

I went to the city hall this morning, a quite interesting architectural building, because of it's combination of traditional and modern elements as you can see in the picture below. To my surprise there were so many polive men in heavy armor, I thought there's an emergency. It was a relief to see that the emergency just was a little demonstration of a hand-full of taxi drivers who demonstrated for higher wages. Strangely, the police had at least hundred people around, a total overkill.




The information center in the city hall was a surprise as well, nobody spoke English, German, or at least a little bit Japanese. Am I asking too much? I thought Korea is one of the countries which hire more English teachers than any other country - what are those people doing here? I wonder when I see how many efforts are made to learn English, but the result is like... well, it's the same in Japan. It looks like one has to live in an English-speaking country to be communicative in that language. There are exceptions though. Anyway, the women at the counter managed to find somebody who spoke fluent English, after that I had no problems getting my point across. The workers at the department for international relations were very friendly and helpful, too.