First though, I wanted to note that you can easily track when I update this blog by joining it like Lizzi did! If you have a Gmail account, just click 'join' on the right hand side of the page and you will receive a nice notification, by email, when I've entered a new post! A quick bit more on that and on Gmail...
Adding a quick Gmail account makes life for everyone so much easier and allows you to participate in so many other areas of the web like Youtube, Facebook and blogs like mine with much more ease. Almost all places are now hooked up to Google and Gmail and it's becoming a necessity to have a Gmail account. You have one then, don't you?
Ah yes, there's always this excuse:
"But Mike! I have to keep this ancient email address because I have to use it for work and/or for school... I can't just get rid of it! Plus, I'm familiar with it and it works for what I need it for."
Bologna, I say! My friends, there is a way that you can have your cake and eat it to, so listen up!
Gmail knows your stubborn concern. And Gmail has provided a clever solution for such concerned patrons. In fact, Gmail allows you to "absorb" other email accounts and hook them directly into a single one! (...Take a deep breath... don't panic... I'll explain by example!)
For instance, if you have an important work email address, a personal email address and/or a school email address that your electronic life depends on, Gmail makes life easier by giving you the option of redirecting all the messages sent to any of those accounts to your single Gmail account. So people can continue sending messages to your ancient email account if that's the one they know, you can get them AND you can enjoy all of the benefits and advantages of being Gmail user because those emails also get sent to your new account. If you really want to, you can even continue to use and check your old account(s)- they still work independantly like they did before. It's really quite simple and quite nice. I finally made the switch last year and immediately realized that it was one of those things that I had put off for wayyy too long. I felt dumb. I felt lazy. Sort of like when you finally switch from dial-up internet to high speed internet...or from watching black and white TV to color TV... or from copying books by hand to copying them using the Gutenberg Press... or from being a Vikings fan to being a Packers fan. Life is just better. So do yourself a favor- take a few minutes, click this link and sign up for a Gmail account.
Now onto some Korea stuff!
Today they sent a nice primer packet to all of us "TTGers". They call us TTGers because the name of the program, officially, is "Teachers to Gyeonggi-Do". Gyeonggi-Do is the name of the Korean province that the UW is in partnership with for this program. It's the province in and around the capital city of Seoul. They have a deal worked out with the Department of Education in Gyeonggi-Do where Korea will employ recent grads of the UW if they supply them every year. And supply them they have for about 10 years now. I applied and was accepted earlier this year. There are about 20-30 other UW grads going over with me to Gyeonggi-Do.
The primer had a lot of helpful tips on living and teaching in Korea. Here's some of the topics they suggested becoming familiar with before arriving:
Alphabet
The Korean Alphabet (called Hangul) is a phonetic alphabet just like English is where there are letters that represent sounds. This makes it a lot different than Chinese and Japanese which have symbols or pictographs that represent entire words or phrases or ideas. I've tried to learn a bit of it and so far so good. There are 14 consonants and 10 vowels. You combine the letters to make words. Here's an example one word ์กฐ. Can you pick out the different letters (there are only two) in the word and in that word and sound it out? That's all there is to it!
Food
Koreans are really proud of their food. I keep hearing over and over that it is a really big part of the experience as well as a part of being a polite guest. There is no such thing as refusing politely in Korea and guests are expected to try and like at least a bit of anything that is served. The national dish is Kimchi which is served with every single meal. It's a dish of fermented and seasoned vegetables like cabbage, onions, radishes or cucumbers that comes in lots of different styles. Sort of like a basket of bread in Italian meals or a plate of cheese for us proud Wisconsinites. Hopefully my taste for fermented cabbage gains some steam once I get there! With that said... there are some dishes that I'm not so sure I'm quite ready for... Koreans believe that the fresher food is, the better for you that food will be. Now, I'm all for fresh food, but when they say fresh, apparently they mean FRESH:
The Classroom
"Well this must be a good sign... here's the first thing I'm told about being a teacher:
"You will be teaching large classes, most likely around 40 students. Unlike some people
might think, the children are not perfectly behaved – not even close. Imagine 40 fifteen-
year-olds, 1/3 of whom cannot understand you and 1/2 of whom can barely understand
you. Of course they will goof off. Be prepared. Usually, it is your co-teacher's
responsibility to discipline the students but not all co-teachers are very good at it."
might think, the children are not perfectly behaved – not even close. Imagine 40 fifteen-
year-olds, 1/3 of whom cannot understand you and 1/2 of whom can barely understand
you. Of course they will goof off. Be prepared. Usually, it is your co-teacher's
responsibility to discipline the students but not all co-teachers are very good at it."
Strange Questions Often Asked In Korea...
What is your blood type?
Koreans think that blood type says
something about personality. Whatever you
do, don’t say “B”.
Did you eat breakfast?
Koreans used to be very poor and they
didn’t have enough to eat. A common
greeting and way of showing concern for
people was to ask “Did you eat?” The
tradition has stuck.
Koreans think that blood type says
something about personality. Whatever you
do, don’t say “B”.
Did you eat breakfast?
Koreans used to be very poor and they
didn’t have enough to eat. A common
greeting and way of showing concern for
people was to ask “Did you eat?” The
tradition has stuck.
Are you a Christian?
Don’t be offended and don’t think they will
judge you either way. For whatever reason
religion just isn’t as private an issue as it is
in the U.S.
Here's the entire primer if you want to read the whole thing and be more familiar with my program. It's pretty good and easy to read.
That's all I've got for now! I'm anticipating getting a lot more information including the exact assignment sometime later this week. Leave your comments and questions!
-Mike
