Soju

Today’s post is about soju, the national liquor of Korea. I sent a few people back home a bottle and if you like it I can always send more. I can’t really imagine you will like it though. But don’t be afraid! It isn’t really that bad. In truth, soju closely resembles a 20% alcohol by volume vodka. It’s clear and mostly tasteless but like cheaper vodkas has a strong alcohol taste. So there is nothing to be afraid of. I am not going to bore you with the history or specifics of soju. Wikipedia has a great article if you are interested in that, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soju.

Okay the basic way to drink soju is to shoot it out of a standard shot glass. “One shot!” is a common phrase here. There are a few points of drinking etiquette but the most important one is that you don’t fill your own glass; somebody else always fills it for you. So if you ever see that a person’s glass is empty the polite thing to do is fill it back up. Generally the younger person will fill the older persons shot glass full of soju, the older person will drink it and then fill the younger persons glass. Repeat until desired effect is achieved. There are more rules and exceptions of course that I won’t list but you might be wondering how with the above system you don’t spend all your time pouring and drinking. Well you can always refuse a refill obviously and this is common. The other way is simply not to finish the drink; you don’t refill a glass that isn’t empty. You can enjoy your soju with anything but common snacks are dried anchovies, peanuts and dried squid.

Laura and I don’t drink a lot of soju. For me it is mostly because beer is just as cheap and you can find rum and vodka for just a little more at the Home Plus. Laura and a lot of other people say soju gives them a terrible headache the next day. I don’t know if it is because of the way soju sneaks up on you, being low in both alcohol and taste, or because of how and what it is made of. Probably both as I am sure there is a similar preservative that gives wine headaches as well. The times that we do imbibe in the soju offers some other popular, if not traditional, ways to drink it. At my teacher dinners all the male teachers mix it with their beer. You pour about a shot of soju into your glass and then fill it up. This is called “somak”, a mix of soju and mekju, the Korean word for beer. I don’t know why they do this but it certainly makes the beer a lot stronger and you can’t taste the soju at all. When Laura is out with the ladies she will sometimes drink ‘soju smoothies’ which are just soju and a fruit juice. Mango, orange and kiwi are popular choices. We also witnessed two young couples, in Busan, mix their soju with a coffee drink (like a Starbucks cappuccino) and cider (like 7-up) in the original soju bottle and then drink out of standard shot glasses. You can pretty much do with it whatever you can do with vodka.

So that is a quick guide to soju. I suggest you try it the traditional way a couple times and then just mix it with whatever you prefer. In Korea cheers is ‘gun bae” similar, but not the same as the Japanese ‘kom bai’. When you clink glasses, you touch according to age, the younger person touching lower on the glass. The kind I’ve sent home is called maple soju, don’t be fooled though, maple is a brand not a flavor. Don’t worry we sent you the good stuff. Here is a picture of the maple soju spokes model. Very risqué shoulder bearing. 

Another quick soju fact is that it is sold everywhere in every possible format. At the Home Plus you will see it in 10 Litre containers and in juice boxes. Last fun fact is a popular way to shoot soju is a ‘love shot’. This is when you link arms with the person and then drink the soju together. I don’t know why this is so popular as it most commonly done with the same sex. Just a Korean thing.  

Friday

This is the Friday edition of my days of the week post. Obviously I made an error in my last post when I said that my school day on Thursday was identical to my school day on Thursday. What I meant to say was that Thursday was like Tuesday but that is not quite true either. I have the same number of classes at the same time but Instead of grade five and six I teach grade three and four on Thursday. Friday is grade three and four again but has a different schedule. All four classes are in the morning in a straight shot so all the lessons are done by lunch. I don’t know why Friday is different and neither does Moon but I am sure somewhere it makes sense, probably for the homeroom teachers. For the rest of the school day it’s pretty much planning for next week.

As for the average Friday night there really isn’t such a thing. Our weekends are almost always filled up with some event or trip. Last Friday was a Chinese culture festival down at the new Mokpo waterfront (which is called ‘Peace Park’). We headed down and saw some singing, dancing, a noodle eating contest and a fashion show but unfortunately missed the kung fu demonstration. After that we headed to the Munich Ice Bar which is the spot that serves the beer in ice mugs. The ice actually comes in a plastic setting with a handle and there is a plastic sleeve inside so your beer stays cold but doesn’t leak out and the handle doesn’t melt away. I hit the target and won a free beer and Jason and Shelby both won themselves a sweet orange juice. This Friday Laura is headed to Gwangju with a gaggle of other Mokpo ladies to partake in some shopping and spa time. I haven’t made plans yet but perhaps the Mokpo men can find something as fun maybe screen golf or riding tiny motorcycles at the peace park. Something Korean men do is eat raw octopi straight from the tank, just wring them out so they are dead and then slurp them down. Mmmm!

Thursday

This is the Thursday edition of the days of the week post. As far as school goes, this day is identical to Thursdays for me. Four classes plus the extra class with the grade ones and twos. Since there isn’t anything to add to the school day I’ll talk about teaching in a bit more in depth.

I’ve mentioned my co-teacher, Moon Hae Jin, before. She is young, 23 in Korean reckoning, and in her first year of teaching straight out of teachers college. She is great and I owe a lot to her. She handles a lot of the normal responsibilities of a teacher from the west; she does the paper work, goes to meetings, makes and marks the tests and doles out the discipline. I help with us much as I can but without being fluent in Korean there is only so much I can do. I do my best to keep the kids in line during class but when they need a good yelling that falls to Hae Jin. Our teaching style is 50/50 both in the planning and teaching in the classroom. If I plan grade 5 lesson 13 part 1 she will plan grade 5 lesson 13 part 2. In truth we probably don’t teach 50% each day since I’ll admit that whoever is planning the lesson is not the best at including an equal part for the other. I often use Hae Jin to translate instructions and advanced concepts and she has me read and pronounce sentences correctly. She also prefers me to do Simon says. It averages out to 50% though.

I’ve mentioned that Wednesday and Thursday are in flux a bit for the events after school. Thursday night is Tae Kwon Do as normal for Laura and it used to be guy’s night for me. We have a few regular friends here in Mokpo and all but one of them is a couple. So the guys would spend Thursday night out without the ladies. However the ladies have now started knitting on Wednesday nights (I believe it is called a ‘stitch and bitch’) and of course they wanted us to move our night to Wednesday as well. So far it has worked out but things come up, like teacher dinners that occasionally make us move it back to Thursdays. Anyway I can’t talk much about knitting or Tae Kwon Do but here is an average guy’s night.

Guy’s night is great because we get to drink beer, eat meat and play sports and video games. A few of the woman are vegetarians and a few of them don’t drink beer. So it is the only night of the week we get to chose where to eat and drink without restriction. Most chicken places for example only have beer, soju and fried chicken. That is their entire menu and it is great. Another example is that we always start at Song’s beer which, no surprise, only has beer (also food but we rarely eat there). Song’s is one of the best for beer since Song himself became a brew master in Germany, studying there for 18 years, and has since returned home and opened up three beer halls (two in Mokpo and the original in Gwangju). It is the only place to get dark beer on tap. After a few beers at Song’s it is supper time.

There are more restaurants than you can count here but we generally go for a grill place. A common style here is that the meat is brought to you raw and you grill it yourself at your table. The grill can be gas, electric or coal. You throw your plate of meat on the grill along with some sliced up garlic and when it is done you pick it off with your chopsticks put it in a lettuce leaf along with some spicy red bean paste, hot pepper, green onion and whatever else you like. This is done with beef, pork and duck. It is really delicious and easy way to eat dinner. Food and liquor are very cheap in Korea as long as you are eating and drinking Korean. A large bottle of beer is 3.00 dollars and a single serving of pork is 2.00 which include all the side dishes. An average dinner bill for Thursday night (with 6 guys) is around 60 to 80 dollars. That is every guy full and a few drinks each. 

After dinner it is time to go and play. There are a lot of diversions in Mokpo but some of the most common we participate are batting cages, the shooting gallery and pool. Batting cages are common in new Mokpo and you get about a dozen or so balls for 50 cents. The same places also often have video games like ‘time crisis’ or a racing game. The bar we shoot pool at offers pool for free as long as you are drinking and I am not so sure they are very strict about that. Most often the bartender is on the computer chatting or playing ‘World of Warcraft’ and is too busy to see if the foreigners are drinking enough. That’s a pretty average night but sometimes it is another bar instead of games or there is a festival or a laser show. There is a chain bar here with beers of the world, another that serves beer in an mug of ice that you throw at a target for prizes and multitude of others with different gimmicks. Thursdays are never boring and I am always surprised by the bill at the end of the night. Including taxis, drinks ($1.50 at the 7-11/GS 25/Family Mart), entertainment and dinner I rarely have to spend more than 50 dollars. Back in Halifax that would be either the taxis or dinner.

Wednesday

This is the Wednesday edition of our average week. Wednesdays and Thursdays may be changing soon but I’ll just tell you what has been happening.

Wednesday is, in my opinion, the toughest day of classes. I only have 3, all in the morning, making it my shortest day. However they are all three grade 6 classes and they are a handful. I’ve already talked about 6-3 but 6-2 is almost as bad. Well, not really but they are difficult to control at times and very loud. 6-1 is usually no problem and in fact one of the better classes overall. Looking at 6-3 and 6-2 today, I noticed that they both have a high boy to girl ratio. Maybe that is what makes them louder and harder to control since, no question, the girls are far better behaved than the boys. Most of the trouble with the girls is having them stop combing each other’s hair and say anything at all. I just try to keep smiling and doing the best job I can. It is over by 12:20, lunch time.

Every Wednesday in almost every school in South Korea is volleyball day. The teachers all have the afternoon off to gather in the gym and play volleyball with each other. My school is no different and we start at 2:30. Each school differs in its level of competiveness from the super competitive to the just for fun. My school is definitely at the ‘just for fun’ end of the scale. I am not a very good volleyball player but I do give it my best and that is pretty much all they ask for. I am put in the same position, right in front of the net for spiking and blocking. As far as I have gathered it is the same for every other foreign teacher. We tend be taller. I make my share of mistakes but all the teachers make a big deal if I do make a nice block or a nice spike so I always look forward to Wednesday volleyball. Volleyball usually ends at 4 and then I am allowed to go home. So that is another perk.

After volley ball is different for Laura and I. I usually get to go home early but she has to play till 5 and then the teachers usually head out for dinner. Teacher dinners can be quite the event here. Again it depends a lot on the school and it is not the same each time. Typically dinner also includes drinking and drinking leads to norabong (karaoke) and more drinking. I hate to group everybody together but all Koreans love norabong.

The reason why Wednesday blog post is a week late and there was no Thursday or Friday blog post was teacher dinner. I went to the chrysanthemum festival with the other teachers in the afternoon (no students). The festival was fine, lots of pretty flowers and butterflies. Afterward was dinner and it was a thing. The main course was raw beef served with raw cow stomach, raw cow liver and of course kimchi. In this case you wrap the beef up in a lettuce leaf, with a thin slice of garlic and soy oil with salt. It wasn’t too bad. I don’t think I would order it again (it would have tasted great cooked) but it wasn’t bad. For dessert? Raw octopus fresh out of the tank chopped up but still squirming. I’d passed on this dish once before at a school picnic. This time though I was half full of soju, the traditional Korean liquor (20%), as well. The traditional way of drinking soju is for somebody to fill your shot glass up, you then drink it in one gulp, you are then obligated to fill up there glass. Then it goes back and forth with each other filling the glasses. I drank at least twice with each of my male co-teachers (the woman sat at a different table). So I had the squirming octopus. It wasn’t too bad till one of the tentacles got stuck between my teeth well the other one was going down my throat. Luckily I managed to get it down without too much embarrassment. After 2 or so hours of dinner we did end up at the singing room. I sung Tik Tok by Ke$ha one of the few options in English on the list. It was a wild night and made for a rough morning. 

Tuesday

This is the Tuesday edition of a standard day in our week. The morning starts out the same. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days of the week teaching wise. I am school for 8:40 and start teaching my first class at 9:00. All the teaching planning and prep (photocopying, cutting and pasting) either has to be done or quick to do. I have four regular classes, two grade 5s and two grade 6s and then extra class. Extra class is just a few weeks old and it is great. I teach 10 grade ones and twos. They are the cutest and best behaved kids in the school. I don’t know how they were picked, or if their parents chose for them to attend, but they are great. It is the same 40 minute format, but there isn’t a curriculum so I can do what I want. Right now it is mostly alphabet, phonics and preschool basics (shapes, colours, etc.) They are little sponges for language and can mimic anything I say. Also they LOVE bingo game. After that my co-teacher has another small extra class of grade 4 and 5 girls. I don’t have much to do with it unless she needs help, which is rare since they are all smart and well behaved. That is my school day, long but with overall good classes.

For me Tuesday is soccer night. The foreign teachers have been playing soccer for years and invite new Mokpo teachers as they come to Korea. We start at 6:30 so that give me about a half hour at home to get ready after school. I ride my bike to the field, about a 20-30 minute ride depending on traffic. We play on a school field made of artificial turf that is smaller than regulation. The English teacher who works at the school arranged it all through his principal, including turning on a couple of lights for us, which is essential since sunset is around 7 now. Turn out depends on the night, we average 10 vs. 10. It is a fun league with widely varying skill levels including a couple of girls who scream when the ball comes close. So I am not the worst player. We play to around 8:30, sometimes later, and then it is off for a beer or some food. Afterwards I cycle back home and depending on how many drinks I am home around 10. Lately I’ve needed a hot shower to warm back up from the cold and then it is relaxing with Laura time.

 Laura will have to write her account some day, but Tuesdays are Tae Kwon Do night. She goes with our friend Lisa to the gym directly next to our apartment building. The girls picked this particular gym (there are hundreds of Tae Kwon Do places) because Lisa’s students are its main customers and a few of her students found out that she was looking for a place to learn. So Laura and Lisa not only got a dozen free and eager translators but also the gym was so happy to have them that they let them train for free (including the uniform). So every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30 they train with the little kids (I think grade 3s but not sure) for an hour. Laura is really enjoying it; she is learning some martial arts, getting a work out and lots of laughs from the kids. Laura and Lisa have become quite popular and they get a tonne of hellos from all the kids in the neighbourhood. Lisa had her hand held when she walked to our place last night.

So that is our average Tuesday. Wednesday might be late since I just found out I have to go to the town of Haenam with my school tomorrow. For what exactly I am not sure, details are forthcoming. Or as the Koreans say “Yes, maybe, no.”

average monday

We are obviously finding it hard to keep up with the blog. So much goes on and it is hard to write about all of it. So I thought I’d just write about my average week here day by day. I’ll start with Monday.

Our Morning routine is pretty much always the same, up at 7ish. The first one out of bed makes coffee, the people before us left a French press, and feed Kimchi the rabbit. We shower, dress (with no dryer I have to iron everything first) and if I am lucky Laura makes a snack, toast or fruit. We have to be out the door at 8:20 and at work by 8:40, usually I ride my bike and Laura taxis (about $2.50).

Monday is a three class day, grade fives and six. Grade fives are great, decently behaved, smart and will participate in most things. They don’t dance and sing like the younger kids but they still become excited for Simon says and power point games. 6-3 is the only grade 6 I see on Monday and easily my worst class of all. They are almost teenagers now so all they want to do is chat, preen and pout. Still I like them (most of them) and there are some great kids. Lunch is at 12:20 everyday except Friday and my next class at 1:30. On Mondays I am finished teaching by 2:10 and have to stay at school till 5:00. This time is generally called ‘desk warming’ by the foreign English teachers. It’s unsupervised time that I am sure the school is hoping you put to good use. Every teacher has a different amount of it and everybody uses it differently. I generally use it to plan lessons but I also do a fair amount of web surfing, chatting and watching tv shows and movies on the computer.

At 5:00 I take off my work slippers and put on my outdoor shoes and bike back home. Mondays are orphanage nights and we have to be there at 7:00, so we don’t have much time for dinner or relaxing. I like to change, since it is more casual at the orphanage, and then we usually head to old downtown for a quick bit to eat. Last week it was pizza. You can get a pretty decent pepperoni pizza for 5000 Won (easy conversion approx. 5.00). We taxi to the orphanage which is about a 5 -10 minute ride, it is somewhere between old and new Mokpo. Laura and I each teach with a partner, Me with Lindsay and Laura with Nadine. My class has six students around grade 3 & 4 (it is difficult to tell ages because of the Korean system). We teach for an hour and the topic and style is totally up to us. Materials are supplied by the orphanage program set up by foreign English teachers. My kids can be quite a handful. Their English ability is varied and at times it can be difficult to keep their attentions. But like my grade sixes they are still good kids.

            Orphans anywhere are a pretty sad story but Korea has a unique take. Some of the orphans actually still have parents. When Korean parents divorce the husband automatically gets custody and has no obligation to give the children to his wife. If the father is looking for another relationship the kids will be a big determent and he can give them to the orphanage. Even if he does this the mom still can’t claim them. In addition to being abandoned by your original parent these orphans cannot be adopted since they technically still have parents. This will be an anchor around them for their entire lives since family ties are very important in Korea and play a factor in future education and employment opportunities. So part of the idea of English teachers coming in is too try to give them a leg up in their future. Pretty sad eh? However you can let go of your images of a bleak Charles Dickens orphanage filled with cruel nuns. The kids are well cared for, the building is new and roomy and the nuns seem caring and warm.

            Generally after the orphanage that is the end of the night for us. Sometimes we will grab a snack or a quick drink with our friends Chad and Lisa (originally from Ohio now one of the few couples in Old Mokpo). Then it is back home to finish planning, cleaning and just general relaxing

my students

Some people have said they want to hear about my students. Well they are all little monsters. Nah just kidding, they are alright. Honestly my kids are a lot like any elementary kids back in Canada whether you know them from teaching or remember being a kid yourself. I have some kids whose hands go up for every question and I have some who never want to answer and go beet red if you call on them. I am fortunate to have Moon Hae Jin, my co-teacher, teach every class with me. There are always two teachers and she already knows the kids from last semester. They gave a lot of information out during orientation about the differences between Western and Korean kids. That they would make personal comments like you’re fat, you’re pretty, you’re handsome etc. and that they are more respectful since teachers are more respected in general over here and that you might be treated like a celebrity since you’re the only foreigner they know. So far none of that has been true for me although I have heard it occasionally from the other English teachers I hang around with. I do get a lot of “Hello teacher!” in the hallways.

I think the biggest difference is the way they do ages over here. Everybody is born 1 and then everybody turns a year older at the same time on new years. So if you were born late in the year, say December, it is possible to be 2 years before your actually 2 months old. They stick to that and so you can see some really young kids in your classes. This might be a slight benefit in learning English however, as the younger you are the easier you absorb it and the more likely you are too participate. My grade 3 class will dance and sing all the time well it is impossible for the more shy grade 6’s to do the same. They get more nervous in front of their peers as they get older.

I’ll post good student stories as I live through them.

Greg