Turkey Time

Gobble gobble turkey lovers!! While the Americans feast on turkey today and reflect on the things for which they are thankful, I spent my day not eating turkey and teaching. Since my only option for finding turkey is on a sandwich from Subway, I chose to substitute chicken, and instead of baked, I chose the fried variety. My sides consisted of a delicious orange Fanta and a packet of salt that I didn't use. You may think that this sounds miserable (how can fried chicken be miserable?), but I'm ok with it because I'm so far departed from the States. There just isn't a Thanksgiving "feel" in Seoul right now. No orange and brown sweaters, no football, and no time off work. The only thing that reminds me of what I'm missing is talking to friends and family in the States. Sure, it makes me want to be home when I hear everyone's voice, but it's only one year and I'll have plenty more opportunities to break the wishbone, stuff myself silly, and drink copious amounts of fine wine and liquor before coming home to stuff my face with left-overs. So for all you enjoying this fine holiday, just remember that thousands of Native Americans lost their land and lives so we could have this annual celebration.

The difference in Korean and American schooling and culture became even more apparent today when I attempted to teach fourth graders about teen angst. The chapter in the seventh grade, American text book was about teenagers bored with school and, in particular, a kid that was preparing to fight another student. We have yet to read the book, but I prepared them for the story by having them look at all the pictures and write about how they made them feel, what the pictures remind them of, and what they think the story will be about. The responses were so far from what one would expect that it was kind of cute. Most of them couldn't understand why the teens looked so angry and predicted that they look that way because they have too much school work to do. Here's where our cultures differ. First of all, there is no way for a fourth grader to understand how a teenager is feeling because they haven't even started puberty. If they have, they are still in the "where did this hair come from" stage. This story should probably be saved for seventh graders, but the Koreans are so eager to learn at a high level, they end up reading about subjects far over their heads. So I was left to explain the confusion and awkwardness of adolescence to kids that think the biggest problems in life come from overloaded school work. Not for a moment did these kids even consider the fact that the kids in this story don't do a lot of homework, spend more time with their friends after school than studying, and are angry at the world for no apparent reason. They're not there yet and would have no way of knowing about it. Also, this story mainly takes place in an after school hang out that is a pool hall. Even if I was teaching this story to seventh graders here, they would not be able to relate to the fact that American kids hang out with each other after school instead of going to various private schools to learn a language, tae kwon do, or piano/violin. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to fourth graders.
Then I started thinking about how these kids learn in school. Rarely does the subject matter take precedence over memorizing vocabulary words and completing busy work. The Korean teachers drill the hell out of vocab and practically rip these kids heads off when they don't understand or study enough. Sure, when learning a language one must learn as much vocabulary as possible, but I also think it is just as, if not more, important to be able to read, comprehend, and analyze something in that language. These kids are at a high enough level to do that. I could spend the whole day trying to explain various words to these kids and giving them hours of homework for a test, but I've chosen to try to help them actually understand what they are reading. While we do that, we learn new words by applying them to the very text in which we find them. I will not spend my time making these kids memorize ridiculous words that I don't even use or hear in conversation or text. They get enough pressure from their parents and teachers; I'm not here to scare English into them.