Monday of Break Week

Today was my first day off of class between sessions. I just had a break before our last week, but I'll take this one, it takes awhile to fully reset your brain. I'm happy to finally get a chance to reinforce what I've learned instead of being overwhelmed by it.

I started the day with a nice long NAP. I slept in until about 10am and then got up to check out what was going on in the world. I didn't eat breakfast so I got hungry around 12pm and contacted YJS to get up 8 Ho Gwan for some 점심 (Jeom Shim) lunch. I was pretty hungry, but instead of going for my usual I went with some Jjajangmyun. The Jjajangmyun at 8 Ho Gwan actually isn't that much better than at CJ, so I don't think I will get it again honestly.

After lunch we went back to the dorm and I had to leave for a meeting. I met up with one of the girls hoping to get an internship in the U.S. and talked to her in English. I think this is actually very important despite it seeming rather worthless. All the Koreans that I have come into contact here are very nervous and shy about speaking English to a native speaker, maybe just in general. I do my best to encourage them and help them overcome any confidence issues, because honestly a lot of them are pretty good.

After the meeting she drove me back to the dorm and I got ready to get ready. (Haha Dave-ism, one of my old hockey coaches). The student from the school newspaper who interviewed me last week needed more pictures so I was happy to help him out. He came over to the dorm about 4:30 and snapped some new pics in front of the dorm. Then, after he had to come back to get a few more. He said he would get me a copy of the newspaper when it was finished so I'll spill the beans to you guys here.

Dinner was about 5:30 at 8 Ho Gwan, Nathan had messaged me earlier to ask what time we would be going. We actually met up there just as we walked in so the timing was good. I ended up getting 냉면 (Naeng Myeon) which is a cold noodle dish with some vegetables in it. We talked a good while about our observations of the differences in our two cultures and how it pertained to education. The conversation was very interesting.

We talked about our final test and how half of it was basically new stuff. From what I could gather from sources that is pretty typical for the Asian style. We progressed into talking about how the educational culture here stresses work ethic and obedience. There is hardly any critical thinking being developed, but their other abilities are extremely impressive. A look at K-Pop is all you need to see what they are capable of. America may have invented pop, but the Koreans have pretty much perfected it. They have worked extremely hard at imitating the formula. Imagine what they could do if they supported and encouraged some creativity along with that.

Certainly America isn't perfect with regards to education, in fact we're slipping fast in the world rankings it seems, but one thing we do encourage is a back and forth discussion between the teacher and students. Together we postured that this was why American colleges are still the best in the world. Once you get to college, critical thinking skills are required and those who have developed them succeed. That and the fact that America is a melting pot accepting the greatest talent from all over the world.

Just so everyone knows I checked with another Korean source on this issue and they confirmed our theories. I am aware of the dangers of generalizing, and that's not what I'm trying to do. These are merely my observations from my experiences in both education systems.

So after dinner Heavy G dropped me off at badminton class and we supervised the students until it was time to go back to the dorm. When I got back to the dorm An Hyo Sang came in with some flowers for me. I forgot to mention that today was "teacher's day" in Korea. Apparently sometime last year they passed a law that made it illegal for students to give their teachers any gifts. I guess it used to be alright to make a flower and give it to them, but now you can go to jail for it. Some teacher's day huh? First of all you have to work, but you also can't get any gifts. Sounds pretty strange to me. Anyways, mine were ok because they were from Dr. Rhee.

My beautiful flowers.

That's about it guys! Thanks for stopping in and I hope you enjoyed another adventure! See you all tomorrow!

Bonus pic of "Pinky" An Hyo Sang's pink bike. (No it's not red An)

Double bonus! Bulgogi Kimbap!

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 음양 (Eum Yang) Yin and Yang. I learned today that this is the balance of negative and positive energy. I actually never knew that, though I suppose it had been explained to me.

TL:DR I am Blessed.