Top Secret Meeting

Last Tuesday I travelled to Jeonju to take part in creating exams for prospective teachers in North Jeolla province. I wasn't really sure what to expect but was told that I would be spending three days in a hotel from which I wouldn't be able to leave, fearing that the teachers creating the exams may leak the questions to the exam-takers. I also would not be able to phone anyone nor use the Internet. It was a well-planned operation, meant to stump the most ardent cheaters. The first trick they played was to keep the final location from me. I assumed since the education office was in Jeonju and Jeonju is the most central location in the province, that the meeting would be held there. Instead I was driven to the outskirts of the province to Namwon, about an hour and a half south of Jeonju. Once I arrived I was immediately escorted into the hotel and shown my room. I was informed once again that I couldn't use any phones or the Internet and that all of the doors to the hotel were locked and I would not be able to leave. Since I didn't plan to leak any information, the isolation from the outside world didn't bother me a whole lot, with the exception of the boredom. In all I spent a total of about five or six hours over the next three days working on the exam, which gave me 50 hours to kill. Unfortunately other than an eating hall there was nowhere else to go in the hotel except to our rooms and to the roof to get fresh air. I went up to the roof twice but found no way to escape from the five-story building. I ended up filling the time by reading a book, a newspaper, and watching too much TV. It was a bit of a letdown after all the security and trickery. I was hoping for leaks, conspiracies and men in black masks rappelling down the side of the hotel, but in the end it was all very quiet. We finished off our time, got onto a bus which let us off on some dark street in Jeonju, and dispersed into the night.

On a completely different topic, my wife and I each got our top left wisdom teeth taken out yesterday. The total cost for the removal of two wisdom teeth with Korean medical insurance: $14

Dog Soup

Yesterday my wife was talking to her mother on the phone for about an hour. My wife talks to her mother almost every night and this was no different except that the conversation seemed to be much more amusing than usual (they speak in Korean so I don't catch much of it). When she got off the phone she told me the story.

One of her grandparents' two dogs recently died at the ripe old doggy age of 15 years. He was a little cranky old long-haired dog that would bark and growl at visitors although he was no bigger than a cat. My wife's father fed the dogs often and was attached to them so grandmother (his mother-in-law) called him up when she saw that the animal was sick and would not recover, so that he could visit the dog one last time. The next evening my father-in-law went to grandmother's house to see the dog. When he arrived at her home he couldn't find the dog in the yard. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

father-in-law: "Mother-in-law, where is the dog?"

grandmother: "He died last night."

father-in-law: "Where is he? I came to bury him."

grandmother: "I talked to our neighbor last night. I told him about the dog and he asked if he could have it to make some soup, so I told him that was fine with me. You're too late...it's already in the soup!"

Winter "Vacation"

I hope you had a merry Christmas and wish you a happy new year. Our Christmas was quiet with just the two of us and our cat. We saw a movie and went out for a midnight Christmas dinner of barbecued pig's neck...sounds a bit strange but very delicious and best of all, cheap. We went to church on Christmas morning and New Year's Eve. I've never been to a New Year's Eve service before but the idea is to start the new year right and dedicate the new year to God. The service was 3 hours long though which was tough for me to sit through considering I only understood a few words here and there, but my wife was glad I came with her.

Right now is our 6 week "winter vacation". This is the time when about 20% of the students take a break or study elsewhere, while 80% of the students attend supplementary classes at school. During vacation, all of us non-Korean laguage teachers have to teach a 40 minute class during lunch time but we have to actually be at school from 9 - 5 every weekday. I don't know what genius came up with this idea (rumour has it the principal is the culprit) but it's poorly managed and feels like a make work project to keep us foreigners from getting into trouble. Yesterday's class was the first and all of the students showed up 10 minutes later than expected because apparently 15 minutes is not long enough to wait in a long lineup in the cafeteria, get your food, eat and brush your teeth (I don't know what it is but I think every single person at my school brushes their teeth immediately after eating lunch and cannot begin another activity until they have done so).

Anyway, this makes my 40 minute class now a 30 minute class. I am still waiting for someone to explain to me why I have to spend 8 hours at school just to teach for 30 minutes. I thought this was to make things fair so that people couldn't complain that foreigners got more time off than them but Korean teachers are either taking a month off or teaching supplementary classes for supplementary pay...so obviously fairness has nothing to do with this.

During the winter holidays the principal has also decided that students should start studying from 8 AM instead of the usual 8:30, which has upset everyone. In Korean society though the top dog has all the power and can do whatever he wants and everyone else has to follow suit. Our classes only run until 3:00 though and then it's "free study" time until 6:00. Why the students have to get up even earlier during winter vacation is a mystery to everyone. I'm confused as to why I have to cram my class into 30 minutes when the students have no formal classes after 3:00. I could teach them from 3 - 5 PM. If I have to be here I might as well be teaching and there are 2 full hours each day that both the students and myself could be spending more productively.

Well I shouldn't really say I'm confused as I know what's going on. Appearances are arguably the most important thing in Korean culture and even more so at my school. The school can proudly announce that we have supplementary classes starting at 8 AM every day, running until 11 PM and that the students study languages with foreign native speakers. For parents eager to get their children into the best universities it sounds wonderful but the reality is that the students spend 7 hours per day free studying which is an inefficient use of time. Instead of really studying or really relaxing or playing like children should be able to do, the students are forced to stay in their classrooms and look like they're studying, which often means hiding a comic book or a PMP (personal media player for watching downloaded movies) inside a textbook. Also the time actually spent learning languages with native speakers is so small each day, it's inefficient and ineffective.

I've ranted long enough now that you might be able to tell how happy I am to be here during winter vacation. It's about time I got back to looking busy.