This first video gives you a double taste of Korean pop culture. The song is currently popular and the video is primitive machinema done with Maple Story, which is an extremely popular video game. Note the abuse of Pachelbel's Canon in D. I actually think it's kind of cute.
Second: me. A bit of info on my weekend.
I should add that today I taught my most aggravating class "shut your pie hole". The consistently speak Korean, act up, and fail to do their homework. They are not allowed to speak Korean and they use it for communicating pathetically simple ideas that they should know in English - I actually understood one of the students and told him to use the English word for the same thing, which surprised the students. Anyways, whilst putting important data on the board I eventually instructed them to shut their pie holes. Today's class with them was otherwise good because we read a piece on microscopes so I had the official Class Doodler draw one on the board and then confirmed their understanding by walking through labeling the parts of the scope.
I just had a horrible and sudden realization: iTunes is dangerous. I've been enjoying some wine and reading a website of passive-aggressive notes while listening to NPR. I realized that when you have iTunes and alcohol all those songs you wouldn't normally consider purchasing are a very real possibility. NPR played a song that I mildly enjoyed a little over a year ago in part of a piece and I burst into song and had a momentary flash of wanting to hear the whole song followed by the thought that I could easily purchase it instantly.[1]
My goals for Korea: 1. Some proficiency in Korean 2. Norebang (Korean karaoke) 3. DVD bang (You rent a room to watch a DVD, gotta be better than renting a video) 4. Japan for my birthday!!! 5. Stuff 6. Things 7. Junk
I am so utterly lucky. It is strange that my time in Korea is dominated by two contradictory feelings: that of utter loneliness and incredible love. I received a package from a Boston friend today that was beyond generous. I opened it at work because of the cheese. Yes, more cheese. I might have a cheese party. If this were prison my foreigner coworkers would by my bitches because I have cheese and chocolate. I control the spice.
The coworker whose friend crashed at my place brought me a giant bar of chocolate as a thank you for helping her out. I was surprised. It seems completely natural to help when you can so...it's weird being thanked for stuff that just should be done. I don't know. Anyways, it was nice. Here's my update from the weekend:
Oh and I made a student cry today. I made one cry last week: He wasn't paying attention in class and I gave him a warning and then I caught him flipping through the book (I have a class rule about not flipping through the book) and instructed him to step outside of the class (this is SOP). He wouldn't get out of his chair so I tried to use my understanding of behavior modification from my mother. I told him that he needed to step outside at my request or I would have the office contact his mother. I remained calm but the kid refused to leave the room and broke down in tears and after establishing that he had made the choice I continued with the class discussion.
Today one of the teenage students in my most frustrating class was extremely disrespectful and I told him that he was getting study hall because I knew he would never treat a Korean teacher that way. Possibly foolishly, I said, "I am 28, twice your age, I have a Master's degree, and I am your teacher and you will treat me with respect!" He started crying to himself. This is a continual problem with this student, I need to find the time and opportunity to reach out to him but I don't know him well. The teacher that is leaving observed that this behavior was unusual for the student and I asked him if he could find out what the problem was and he said, "I don't care." But he backed off and seemed to offer to assist and I told him that would be appreciated. I think a teenage boy will respond better to a male teacher he knows that to a new, female teacher.
First, I've made new friends. Sort of. On Saturday I ran into my coworker's friend (who crashed at my place Friday night when he lost his apartment keys). She and I were both attending classes in different parts of the neighborhood. She had made a friend at her reiki class so we were all wandering around and headed vaguely towards Indian food when it started raining. While we were walking a Korean guy in a suit (pictured below) dodged under our umbrella to get out of the rain and join us. It was pretty hilarious. He got his friend to dodge under the other girl's umbrella and then we got this picture:
On my way home I found the continuation of the vaguely sexual chicken campaign:
I received Easter chocolate from a sinning, hell-bound friend. I also bought an Engrish shirt. Things are up and down but I'm working to consistently improve my attitude.*
*I know my attitude has been bad to some friends and I'm working on it and I'm sorry.
