Here is a fun unforgettable story I took home from Korea, and will be able to share with friends for a long time. Only a few people know this story, but I gladly invite you to read and share the experience. Enjoy.
As I walked up the steps that brought me from the subway in Itaewon, I was curious to see if the rumors I’ve heard from this part of town were actually true. Allow me to inform about the general stereotype I heard about this area. It is essentially the international district of Seoul, meaning there are lots of Americans. There is a US military base near by, and lots of English teachers hang around there. Basically, it's a place where Americans get hammered and give all white people/Americans their negative reputations.
I was meeting Ben, my childhood church friend from my old church Rock of Ages. We were planning on meeting at this particular subway exit at 3:30. We were just going to walk through this gong-show of an area, then see some other stuff before we met up with Joe and Marie for New Years Eve celebrations. While I was waiting, I saw a large CD display, since it was close to our meeting area; I went over to browse the selection. As I was looking at the unfamiliar titles a Korean woman approached me and said, “you won’t find Katy Perry.” I was a little put back and confused by that comment. Does this lady work here? Or is she one of the many Koreans that practice their English on foreigners. I assumed the second based on how she was dressed. My next thought was, “what a strange way to start a conversation with someone…assuming that they are looking for a Katy Perry CD.” I kindly replied, “oh, thank you, but I’m not looking for Katy Perry, I’m just looking at CD’s while I wait for my friend.”
“Are you American?” she sharply asked
“Yes”
“Are you in the military?”
“No, I’m an English teacher”
“Here in Seoul?’
“No, I actually live and teach in Japan. I am here visiting some friends”
“Oh, cooool. Whats your name?”
“My name is Kris, What’s yours?”
I forgot what her name was, but she seemed to have taken a fond interest in me. There were many obvious signs that this could not a potential relationship…the main deterrent right off the bat was that she looked like she was in her 50s. As we kept talking…let me rephrase that. As she kept talking, I soon realized that this lady was kind of a nut job. If this had taken place in Seattle, it would be a pretty easy assumption that she was on drugs. But, being that I was in Korea, the possibility that she was on drugs was significantly less. Anyways, the conversation continued, and spiraled to new lows the longer we talked, but I continued to be friendly and light-hearted (Let me remind you, I can’t leave this area cause I’m supposed to meet Ben here, but he doesn’t have a cell phone, so I couldn’t simply call him up and tell him a new meeting place).
“I had a husband, he’s in the AMC (American Marine Corp), I hate him, he a bad bad man. He left me and my daughter, I want to punch him in the face.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” I replied, “but I think punching him in the face wouldn’t solve anything.”
And then it happened, I figured out why she approached me. “Me and my daughter need some food for dinner tonight, can I have $20?” I quickly responded by saying, “WHAT? $20, no, I can’t give you that much…remember I’m an English teacher…and I’m traveling, I don’t have that much money. I’ll take you to the bakery right over there and I’ll buy some bread for you and your daughter.”
“No, we need real food.” She said that she wanted to go to the super market across the street and around the corner to buy enough food for dinner. I told her that I needed to stay here because I’m meeting a friend. “Then can I have $20?” she asked again.
“I’m sorry, I can’t just give you $20, I can maybe give you a few dollars”
She then turned into a street saleswoman. “Here, I’ll give you this ring if you give me $20.” She proceeded to pull out a nice looking engagement ring.
“I don’t need a ring, how about you sell that to someone else who could use it.” By this point I have already invested 10 min talking to her I was just trying to get her to move on, but I didn’t have the heart to just start ignoring her and blowing her off. I told her that I could give her $10, then told her to go sell that to someone else for $20, and then she could have $30. She did not go for it because she “HATE Korea, F@%k Koreans. Korea is too cold, I hate cold!”
“Ok, well, I can’t give you any more then $10, so here you go.” She wasn’t impressed that I didn’t give her more. You would think that anyone who is given $10 should at least seem somewhat happy, yet she still complained. She was very determined to get $10 more dollars. I proceeded to change the subject and ask her questions about her daughter. Doing that bought me 10min from being asked for ten more dollars. Ben still hadn’t shown up.
Next, she pulled out a beanie/toque and said, “Do you want this hat? I just bought it for my daughter, but I’ll give it to you”
“No thanks” I said “I don’t need a hat, I’m warring one right now. Your daughter could use it more then me”
“She won’t like it, she doesn’t like green, she likes pink.” My thoughts were, Why would you buy something for your daughter that you know she wouldn’t like. She was a terrible lier, and I assumed she didn’t buy it for her daughter, or maybe didn’t even buy it. I suggested her to sell that to someone who needs it and then you can have more money. But, she still seemed focused on getting money from me. We started chatting again.
She didn’t have a very good memory because she started asking me stuff I already told her. “So, who are you staying with?”
“I’m staying with my old roommate and his wife from my old University”
“Are they American too?”
“You know, you probably won’t like me anymore…they’re Canadian”
“Canadian!? I hate Canadians, its too cold there!” There was an awkward pause then asked a bold question. “Kriiiis, can I come over and stay with you tonight?”
“WHAT? NO!! What are you thinking, of course not!”
“Come on Kris, its New Years eve”
“Yeah, I’m aware of that, but that is for sure not going to happen.”
Now, I’m thinking, great! Ben, where the heck are you? Its after 4:00, and I’ve been talking to this lady for like 25mins. I said, “Ok, I need to go find my friend, Happy New Year.” “Kriiiis, come on, I need $20.” “Sorry, I can’t give you that much. Bye” Korean is a very winey sounding language. Every time she said my name, it sounded very winy…like it was my fault she was having a terrible day.
I walked back down the subway so that I can walk up a different exit and be on the opposite side of the street as her. As I was walking I began thinking to myself about how I just gave some stranger 10 bucks, and I didn’t get anything. At this point the extra $10 for the hat did not seem so bad, but I didn’t want to go back. I walked around for a while, but as I was crossing the street, we happened to pass each other. “Krriiiiiiiis!” Shouted, “Nice American man.” She turned around and followed me to the corner of the street. Now, at this point, we are more out in the open because we didn’t have cover like we did at the CD stand. Using my peripherals, I gathered that this whole thing was becoming a bit of a scene because this lady was beginning to get more obnoxious. It was kind of a weird setting. Even though I was in Korea, the majority of the people in this area were Americans, they looked like military people because they had a bigger build…and all looked pretty BA. I was feeling pretty uncomfortable.
This lady asked me for more money. So I asked if the hat was still for sale. She said, “Yes, of course.”
“Where did you buy it?” I asked.
“At Addidas, right over there”
“How much did it cost?”
“$20” She said.
Hmm, interesting she needs $20 when she just bought a hat for $20. So I asked her, “Why did you buy a hat for $20 you didn’t need, and now you want $20?” I don’t remember what she said, but I didn’t really care, whatever she said. I gave her $10 more dollars and she gave me the hat. It was all very suspicious because it was in a plastic grocery bag. I definitely didn’t want to get caught with a stolen hat, so I stuffed it in my jacket pocket. At this point you would think we would go our separate ways. Unfortunately that was not the case. She continued talking to me about her problems and how she hated her ex-husband.
“I want to kill him! If I see him I want to punch him in the nose. Can you kill him for me? If I had a gun and I saw him, I would shoot him 30 times.” She pretended to be shooting an automatic machine gun at me and made sound effects “Bang, bang, bang, bang! I want to shoot him 30 times, in the face and in the chest…but not his coconuts, just the face and the chest.” I’m Dead serious, that's what she said. I was just looking at her in aw and thinking, “who is this person.”
She quickly changed topics and said, “do you have a cell phone?”
“Nope”
“Can I get your phone number?”
“What? I just told you I didn’t have a phone”
“Oh, right. Let me give you my phone number and you can call me.”
“No, that's ok, I don’t need your phone number.”
“Call me when you bet back to Japan.”
“Well, you can give me your phone number, but I won’t call you.”
“Kriiiis, what? I don’t understand what your saying.”
“Okay, give me your number and I’ll call you when I get back to Japan”
She then gave me her number, but I obviously had no intention of calling her…ever. I was scanning the area to see if I could see Ben, but I couldn’t see him.
“Ok” I said, “I really need to go find my friend.”
“Kriiis, I’ll call my daughter and we will come stay with you tonight.”
“Yeah, again…not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“Really? You don't know why? I need to go.”
“Kriiis, you can’t just leave, Americans hug.”
FRICK! I said in my head. I turned around and said “no, sorry.” then she started repeating my name over and over again all winey like, “Kriiiis, Kriiis, come on!” I finally broke down. “Fine.” I walked back and gave her what was the most awkward hug ever…with a stranger, and uncomfortably long. “Ok, bye” I said, “Kriiiiis, we need to high-five.” So to top off this uncomfortable encounter, we exchanged high fives. “Happy New Year, and God Bless” I said as I turned and walked back to wait for Ben.
Instead of waiting on the side of the road, I waited inside a store and looked out the window. I defs didn’t want to run into that lady again. At about 4:30, one hour after our original meeting time, Ben walked up out of the subway. Boy did I have a story to tell him. And boy, Itaewon sure lived up to its gong-show expectation
In a previous post, I mentioned that on Christmas Eve I hopped on a night bus bound for Yokohama. Today, I will pick up right where I left off.
I was going to Yokohama to spend Christmas with my family down there. For those of you that do not know, my mom’s younger brother James lives there with his wife and 2 daughters. He too is an English teacher, but with many more years of experience. After my last visit down there in August, I was invited to come back for Christmas. It would have been nice to get down their earlier, but when you are on staff at a church; it is a little difficult to be gone at Christmas time. None-the-less, I arrived on their doorstep at 7:30 Christmas morning.
The bus ride was much better this time then last time. Unlike last time, I had no one sitting next to, or in front of me. I did not need to worry about someone reclining their seat into what was already zero legroom. I could also stretch out across my two seats. The unfortunate part of this first leg of my trip was that my cousin Cellie, and Aunt Sayuri were sick, and my other cousin Ellie had to work. I got to see everyone, but it made it a bit more difficult to do stuff because everyone’s energy was a low. But, it was nice to be there with family, catch up and talk and get to know my uncle a little more.
We went to church on Christmas for a Christmas candle light service in the evening, and then the next day (Sunday), there was a little coffee house concert by Japanese Gospel singer, Migiwa. I met Migiwa about 4 years ago when she stayed at my Mormor and Pa’s (grandma and grandpa on my mothers side) house for a month. It was nice to see her again, and chat for a little bit before she played.
Monday was nice and relaxed. We didn’t do anything or go anywhere, but it was really great because it was the first day in a long time where I didn’t need to be anywhere doing anything. So I got to let my body relax and recover from the busy month. Awwww…vacation, what a beautiful thing!
cause they were at work. The only thing that was familiar to me was the train from Hiyoshi to Yokohama station. Everything after that….brand new….which was a little scary to think about because it would be been really easy to get on a train and not know its going the wrong way. But, my uncle helped by giving instructions of what trains to catch…but still, not the most relaxing travel day.
Well, I made it to the airport with no problems and was there 2 hours early, so I was feeling good…for a while. When I went through immigration in Japan, my Alien registration card was taken away. I didn’t really know the rules about how I was supposed to get a re-entry permit, but I guess I need to get a new one now. I asked the customs agent if its going to be a problem getting a new one, or getting back into the country, and he reassured me that it will not be a problem. But, I sure didn’t like the feeling of traveling around without my card.
Enough with all the travel drama, I’ll just fast forward to where I met up with an old friend at the Express Bus terminal. Ben Olso, a friend from back in the days when our family went to Rock of Ages. I just found out that he was teaching in Korea before I left and so we got in touch and planned to meet up there. He had the week off, so while my old roommate, Joe, and his wife Marie were teaching, Ben showed me around Seoul.
I can’t express enough how awesome and good it was to see and hang out with people that could speak English, and were the same age as me. Joe and I were roommates our last two years at Trinity, and I got to know Marie though Joe, as they were dating at the time, and now married. I am so lucky to have friends like these that are willing to let me sleep on their couch for 5 nights, and take up space in what is already a small apartment. That being said, we had lots of fun together as the brought me to some of their favorite restaurants for dinner, showed me some cool markets, and places to sight see. Everywhere we went, there was always some sort of laughter, something to share about teaching English, or just fun, good ol’ conversation.
It was really nice to see and hang out with Ben too. The last time I saw him was at my cousin’s grad party two years ago, but even then, we didn’t catch up on all that much. So, there was lots of ground to cover in that standpoint. Like I mentioned earlier, while Joe and Marie were teaching, Ben took me around, and showed me lots of stuff. I don’t really remember any of the names of the places we went to, but you can check out some of my photos from places I visited.
I found that getting around Korea was much easier and much cheaper then in Japan (well, Sendai to be more specific. I haven’t spent enough time in Tokyo to give it a fair comparison). They have these little things that dangle from your phone called ‘T-money,’ and you can use it to ride the subway, bus or taxi. Once you preload your money, you are good to go. Another thing that I found interesting is that Korea has seemed to adopt western culture more than Japan. There was much more familiar food, and English is more second nature then in Japan. It seems that everyone in the service industry had some handle on it, and people are much more willing to come up and talk and practice their English with you (which is a story that I will save for another post). Well, there can probably be much more said about the trip, but I will leave it with that for now. Perhaps if we ever skype, I can get more into detail about places I went, or stories to share.
I was riding the bus to Gimpo Airport at 5:15 in the morning, I was reflecting on the past week, and how this was a vacati
on and a trip that I will never forget. So many good memories, made with great people. We had good laughs, and created stories to share with each other the next time we meet.
Thank you Ben for showing me around, and Thanks you Thank you So much Vrooms for letting me stay with you guys. I will miss you guys, but I hope that we will continue to keep in touch!
God Bless!
In my previous post, I briefly shared what has been keeping my schedule busy. This post will reveal the mental side of things that kept my thoughts busy throughout the month of December.
Towards the end of November I was thinking about my classes, other English teachers, and the difference between their job and my job. What I believe it comes down to is that there are completely different motivations for students to learn. Teachers at public/private/cram schools get to give out homework and tests, so the kids are motivated to learn so they can receive a good grade. For me, I do not have that luxury of motivating my students to learn by threatening to give them a bad grade. My students are motivated by the pure fact if they are having fun and if they like me. I tend to like this current method better, but it has its challenges. The major difficulty is being able to look back and track how each student is progressing, and which classes are progressing faster.
Throughout my six months of teaching, I have learned what my classes enjoy, and how to make the class fun. But, if you try and base your class purely on enjoyment, and you ignore what you have taught in the past, and where you want to teach in the future, your are doing your students a disservice. At the beginning of December I began thinking more seriously and, designing a more effective way to plan my lessons, so I can better track what I’ve done in each class. The trick I found was the “Notebook Layout View” in Microsoft Word. Instead of creating a new document for each class, I have made one file for each class in the notebook view. Each class has there various speaking exercises, review, textbook, vocabulary things that I review. I have tabs for each section in each file, so that I can turn to the tab and easily look back at what I worked on in each section, which then gives me a better idea of where I’m at in the material, and how much they should know. I add voice notes about each lesson I teach, so that when I come back to plan the following week, I know who did best at what, who wasn’t really focusing very well, and what exercise they were good at, etc. I still do not give out grades, but I can track what I’m teaching them more effectively this way.
For the first couple of weeks, it took about 2 or 3 times as long to plan my lessons because I was trying to modify and think of what would work best. Also, I needed to transfer a lot of lesson info from previous lessons. The fruits of my labor will not really be evident for a little while, being that its hard to get an Idea of progress after 3 lessons. But, since I have changed my lesson plan format, and worked out the little bugs, lesson planning has been much faster, easier and more effective, which I guess you could say is a success. Before this, each lesson had its individual document. Once you get a few weeks into a class, its hard to remember what you taught them, what kind of things you were working on, and as you probably know, its not the most fun fishing through dozens of documents to find a specific piece of information.
Another thing that I have recently realized that as a teacher, it’s not what you teach them, but its how you teach them. I could easily look and think of things they can learn and we could blow through material very quickly. But, I have found that it saves so much energy to think of a few concepts and really make sure that you are clear in your teaching. If I were to teach many new things, it would be like games of connect the dots, but the dots would not be connected, therefore the picture is unclear. But, if I take my time, and help them connect the dots, the picture becomes clearer, and they can remember things better. As I start teaching in this New Year. I look forward seeing how my students progress, and new things that I will learn about teaching English, and sharing God’s love.
Happy New Year Everybody!
