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Monthly Archives: March 2010

Finishee

31 Mar

I’ve been back in Canada several days now and am feeling the effects of jet lag still. My last week of teaching at Mokpo Girls High School went great. I said goodbyes to my students, shipped things to Suncheon, and said goodbyes to close friends in Mokpo. I had two good years at my school as well as two in Mokpo. I am looking forward to living in Suncheon. In order to come back to Korea, I have to reapply for my E2 visa. This is a tedious process but one I have to do. I’ve started it the second day I was back and am really hoping it takes less than two months to complete. Knock on wood that the process will go smoothly and not hit any snags.

Home will be nice but coming back to Korea and Jeollanamdo will be even nicer.

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2010 in Jeollanamdo, South Korea, Suncheon

 

Aspartame in Kimchi?

14 Mar

Found on the Cool Hunting website. Is anyone else a bit worried with seeing her add all that artificial sweetner?

 
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Posted by on March 14, 2010 in Awesome Korean Things, Food, Korean Adventures, Random Korean Things, South Korea

 

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Can One Marry A Pillow?

11 Mar 
In Korea, yes you can.
	A Korean man has married his dakimaura, a.k.a. a body pillow with a
Japanese anime girl drawn on it.
	The girl depicted on the newlywed pillow is Fate Testarossa from the
anime Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

Recently, a man in Japan also married a character from a computer
game. These two marriages to inanimate spouses has me wondering
several things. Are these marriages considered legal? Do both
“couples” receive marriage benefits from their respective countries if
their spouses are inanimate or virtual? How does one divorce a pillow
or video game character? Is sleeping on another pillow considered
adultery?

There are petitions in Japan to make it legal to marry their favourite
characters, whether they are pillows, cartoons, or from video games.
The man behind the petition is Taichi Takashita, who fell in love with
the character Mikuru Asahina. He is prohibited from marrying her by
law and started the petition to try and change the laws to permit
marriage between the real and the virtual. Takashita said that he
prefers virtual life over real. There are also many groups on Facebook
that discuss marrying characters from games, comics, movies.
 
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Posted by on March 11, 2010 in Awesome Korean Things, Korean Adventures, Korean Things, Random Korean Things, South Korea, Uncategorized

 

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10 Mar

Last week was my first week back at school. There have been many changes over the winter break. Changes I thought would never happen at my school. For the past two years, I have been teaching (or trying) to teach classes of 30 teens English without the support of the Korean teachers at school. Some teachers would come to class then sneak out the back door as soon as class begun, leaving me trying to keep a class in order. Usually I could hold my own in the class and keep the class going, but sometimes having a Korean English teacher there would have greatly benefitted the students with learning. My Korean is pretty limited and I can’t often translate things effectively into Korean or English for them sometimes. This year, I have FOUR teachers to help me in class and so far the difference is night and day compared to the past two years. The students are learning more and the classes are flowing much smoother and I am also enjoying teaching again. It’s also been great to see my students again too.

Seventeen days to go! I’m off to Suncheon this weekend to explore where I’ll be living in two months and meet some people. It should be good. Have a good weekend!

 
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Posted by on March 10, 2010 in ESL, Jeollanamdo, me, Mokpo, South Korea, Suncheon, Uncategorized

 

Class Sizes for Grade 1 in High School

03 Mar

At my high school for the past two years, there have been eight of each grade (1,2,3). Korean teachers across Jeollanamdo have been laid off and as a result, high school first graders have been compressed into seven classes at my school. I now teach fifteen classes a week instead of sixteen. Both classes I visited yesterday had around thirty seven kids on average per class in them. Yowza! But there is a silver lining to a larger class size. I will finally have Korean teachers in class to help me with teaching and coteaching which will be a very welcome change from teaching solo the past two years. The downside to a much larger class size is students will get much less time with a teacher than before and (perhaps) a slightly reduced quality of education. I also feel for their homeroom teachers who have even more kids and even more responsibility as well.

I don’t know about cities outside of Mokpo and whether this is the norm at other schools but all my friends teaching in high schools have said that their first year classes have been cut down to seven as well. I would be interested in hearing what other people are experiencing.

 
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Posted by on March 3, 2010 in ESL, Jeollanamdo, Mokpo, South Korea

 

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Roboseyo’s Open Letter To New Teachers In Korea

03 Mar

This should be read by anyone who will be coming to Korea for the first time or is thinking about coming to Korea for the first time. Roboseyo’s open letter can be found here.

 
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Posted by on March 3, 2010 in ESL, South Korea

 

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