Seoul International Fireworks Display (Saturday October 13 '07)

Last night I attended the annual Seoul Fireworks Display. There were THOUSANDS of people who gathered for the spectacular display. 2 friends and I trekked to a bridge in Mopo, where we felt like hearded cattle as we tried to find the perfect spot to take photos. Children, couples, entire families and groups of friends oooohed and ahhhhed at the bursts of colours that lit up the night sky.

Here are a few pics....

Special children...

Today I started teaching the Kindergarten and Special Needs Class (children with learning disabilities). I had no idea what to expect, since I've never taught such young children before.

To back track quickly, there's a little boy in 3rd grade (who I don't teach) who is SO cute. He always greets me and this morning, he saw me as I was walking to school and he wanted to hold my hand while he walked. >
Here he is on the right:


I arrived at my Kindergarten class a few minutes early to chat with the Kinder..teacher. Before I even walked into the class, the kids were hugging me, stroking my arms, poking me, inspecting my bindi and just being plain adorable! I introduced myself and had them each say... "My name is..." I didn't really have anything solid in mind to teach them, cause I wanted to first see the level they were at.

They didn't know parts of the body, so I taught them "eyes/ears/nose/mouth etc..." Their Kinder teacher and I couldn't believe that they had already memorized about 10 body parts in 10 minutes. I'll teach this again next week...

Here's the Kindergarten class:

After that, I had my first class with the students with learning disabilities. There were only 5 students today, 3 of which are in my regular English classes, so they are familiar with me by now. I did the same thing as with the Kinder's... intro'd myself and taught them parts of the body (very basic).

It came as a surprise to me when the teacher told me that the children want me to give them English names. First I said no, because their Korean names are beautiful, but they still wanted it.... I didn't want to name them with generic names. Because I think they are so special, I wanted to give them names of people that are very close to me.

So...introducing my extra special students:

Jay Jay

Barry

Trudy

Sylvia

Damage (Darmesh would have been too difficult) and this guy seems cool just like my bro ;)

Unlike most days, where I feel drained after back to back classes, today I felt really good. I think it's because I felt like I made a tiny difference to a few children today. The fact that they could differentiate various parts of their body within minutes was great! And as for the Special Needs class, I'm grateful that it's small so that I can give individual attention to the children.


On another note... I am learning Hangeul (Korean).

Now that's what you call customer care...

So after having dinner with a few teachers after school today, I stopped at LUCKY MART (literally a minute away from my apartment) to pick up a few things - coffee, cereal etc.. and I needed more bottled water, so I bought a pack of 20 bottles.

...and the kind man at the store put my groceries in the basket on his scooter and (drove/walked) me to my place which is just around the corner from the store!

That's Korean hospitality for you right there...

Jamming to Timbaland

Let the kids do the disciplining

Me: Do you like candy?
Students: Yes
Me: Do you want candy?
Students: Yes
Me: Then you'll have to be good.

I've split my classes up into groups and allowed them to come up with their own group/team names... some of them are: Death Note, Fire, Happy, Smile, Blue Sky, Angel etc...so cute!

I laid down the basic rules of English class with them, and invited them to also add to the rules...

My rules:

• When it's time for English class, desks must be clear of EVERYTHING (not a single pencil / eraser/ book). This is great, cause then they have no distractions
  
  
• Don't talk when the teacher is talking
  
  
• No fighting
  
  
• Bring English books to class...
  
  
• Smile & be happy
  
  
• Speak only English in English class
  
  
• ....and various others...

I explained the point system to them... if I ask a question and someone answers it correctly, their entire team will get a point. (this rule will be flexible)

It's easier to lose points than it is to gain.

If one person misbehaves during class...the entire group loses a point.

If I hear someone speaking English...the group gets a point. If I hear Korean, they lose points. the only time they can speak Korean is to ask the Korean teacher a question / clarification (got this idea from my friend, Dim)

Once the group has accumulated 20 points, they will get candy...

It's amazing how this has worked... my children are suddenly so attentive and willing to listen...all in the name of candy !!

I also love this method because the kids themselves discipline each other. Imagine how one child will be ratted on by his peers because he's misbehaving. So....if A is trying to distract B, C will intervene to get them both quiet and listen to the teacher. Why? Cause if one person misbehaves, the whole group loses out.

Gasp! It's an Indian girl...

I have slowly gotten used to being stared at by Korean's...but now I'm trying to overcome being stared at by the Indians I see when I go out.

So far, I've only seen Indian men - majority of whom are migratory labourers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The stares I get when I go out are mind-boggling. If they were friendly it was another thing, but some of them just look dodgy!

On Sunday, coming home on the subway there was this Indian guy near me. I just kept thinking, "Please don't see me....", but he did and he slyly made his way to where I was sitting and although there was ample space around him, he stood right in front of me. He tried talking to me, but I couldn't understand him. I kept looking down....THEN....I heard a "click" - like a camera clicking sound and when I looked up, he put his cellphone down with the most guilty look on his face!

Sigh.... thankfully my stop was next, and before I caused a scene I departed the train swiftly...hahahaha

Another Seoulful w'end...

Because of Chuseok last week, we only worked on Friday...and the week-end was upon us once again! Friday night I met Dimitri & Louis (also South African) for dinner. We found this awesome little restaurant called Agio in Hongdae. Good food and a really nice atmosphere...

Our food...

...and we met up with other friends and partied till the wee hours of the morning

This is Seoul station @ 5am...eerily quiet!

Saturday afternoon, we went to a city called Gwacheon for an arts festival. I have been corresponding with the art director since last year when he visited South Africa and attended the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown where I was working on CUE TV. Here we are on our way to Gwacheon. (Yang, Peter, me & Dimitri)

We were blown away by the stall selling African curios!

Tae, Dimitri, me & Peter leaving Gwacheon for Seoul

My friend told me about this amazing place called Carne Station in Hongdae. You pay 24,000 Won and you can eat and drink as much as you want to. There's almost everything imagineable there - from fruit to salad to meat to tuna to hot dishes... and drinks include almost everything as well.

Not sure of the name of this fruit, but it's similar to a litchi...