Jen & Jeff's Adventures

We have some friends who say that Korea is just a little odd.

*Motorcycles drive on the sidewalk
*Koreans grocery shop on weekend evenings - the later the busier
*Dogs here have their ears dyed hot pink or lime green
*Koreans advertise using white people - there are so many ads with Caucasians!
*Rice is eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
*Couples dress alike as a sign of their affection towards one another
*Koreans use umbrellas to protect themselves from the snow
*Everything in Korea is healthy for you - anything you consume, as long as it is Korean, is good for you
*Banks are open Monday to Friday, 10am - 4:30pm, but most people work Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm
*You need your ID card for everything
*Koreans know their blood type (they judge personalities based on blood type)
*Konglish - a mixture of Korean and English that results in quite an interesting language

While these things are definitely odd, I am able to take them all in stride. Today though, we experienced a part of Korean culture that was just a bit too freaky for me.

                                     We went to the Paju English Village.

The village was financed by the Korean government in an attempt to improve the English skills of the Korean population. I was told that many Korean English teachers do not support the English Village. They feel that the village was a huge expense that does not pay off. This place is huge - and it must have cost a ton of money to create (and maintain).

The trip started off with us going through customs to enter the English Village - a fun activity, not too odd.

Next we visited a post office and a police station. The kids loved being locked up in the jail cell, though the programming left a lot to be desired. The hands on activities were sorely lacking - I could have taught a better lesson in my own classroom, but that wasn't the problem.

Walking through this village was just surreal. The village was designed to provide Korean children with the opportunity to speak English. Kids wander around the village (which is HUGE!) and participate in various activities with native English speakers (this could have been my job!) Throughout the village are speakers playing messages in English and English music - Pink, Britney Spears.... There are regular running coffee shops (we had coffee at Tom n Toms), pizza joints, and even a pub (though I'm not sure that they served beer... I hope not!)

The oddest part was the musical that we attended. The whole time that I watched this terrible show all I could think of was - this could have been me.... Think of the outrageous kids shows they have on TV in Canada - over the top songs, really uber energetic actors, and bad story lines. This was an attempt at that, but it kind of failed. The English was spoken too quickly, and the songs were terrible. Now, I love me a good show. I must admit, that even though I was appauled at the show, I was also intrigued. While some of the male teachers fell asleep, I couldn't look away...

I'm sure that I have not fully captured the oddity that was the Paju English Village. It was just freaky. Can't say much more than that... I wish that you could have been there to experience this oddity that is the English Village.

~Jen

So we've been out of touch for a bit.  But it isn't really our fault.  We lost our Internet for a week and it took three visits from two technicians to finally fix it.  We had two visits from an incompetent technician who said that Mac computers can't connect to the Internet and that you can't have more than one computer connected to the Internet through a wireless network (incidentally, we've had our two computers connected to the Internet for the past four months).  Anyway, we're just happy to have our Internet and our hot water back (did I mention that our hot water went AWOL again?!?  Three days of no hot showers in the middle of winter!!!).

So aside from our home problems, Jen and I have been really enjoying the winter camp at her school.  We have our fire back!  Teaching normal classes at our schools has been tough, since we have hundreds of students that we see for only 45 minutes each week.  But we get to spend our entire days at the camp, from 9 until 3, with the same students and we've been able to get to know them and form relationships with them.  The students get three hours of English instruction each day and then they have activities like sports, drama, and cooking in the afternoons.  So we're also a lot busier than normal and we don't have all the free time like we do during the normal school year.  We come home exhausted after interacting with energetic students all day with few breaks, but at least we come home fulfilled and having enjoyed our days.  We'd love it if we could teach camps all year long!

I teach 12 students and then run a sports club after lunch.  This is where most of the boys from all three classes (Jen has 16 students, and Justin, another English teacher, has 12 students) get to run around and use up their energy.  There are also three girls in the sports club too.  I'm having a lot of fun teaching and interacting with these students.  It's been a good week and I'm looking forward to the next week with them too.