Local Knowledge/Language Study

This weekend, I went shopping in Myeondong, which has a lot of trendy and some expensive stores. I went with a Korean teacher, so she showed me around and saved me some money when I wanted to purchase a pair of shoes. I guess for certain stores you can buy money vouchers. On the street in little kiosks you can exchange won for a voucher that give you a 20-30% discount. I saved 50,000 won when buying a pair a of shoes that were nearly impossible to find. Brown shoes with a decent tone or style are very difficult to find. Black shoes are ubiquitous and come in every possible style wanted or not. I guess this voucher system gives locals a discount, but allows for the stores to make a greater profit on the tourists or unknowing expats.

This week, I will start visiting the Ewha Woman's University campus, specifically Ewha Language Center. Yes, the university is women only, but the language center is co-educational, so it won't be for sightseeing purposes only. I received a scholarship through the G.O.A.L (Global Oversees Adoptee Link) organization. So, instead of studying 2 hours/day, 5 days/week and spending nearly $400/month, I will study less, 2 hours/ 3 times a week and pay nothing. One drawback is that I will have to commute nearly one hour each way to the University. If I was still working in my first location (Shinchon), it would have only been a 10-15 min. wall.

My Korean is still poor, but I am hoping that I can start at a pre-intermediate level. It should be nice to learn at a new location with different teachers. It will allow me to get away from Gangnam area for part of the day, which is always nice, because it is a very "rat race" type area.

Another update

Well, the last couple weeks have been pretty uneventful. Work, work, study a little bit of Korean, work, and more work is all I have been doing. I am still teaching on Saturdays which isn't too fun. I am hoping that I won't have to teach Saturdays in July because that is the start of summer break and there will be more students during the regular workweek. My classes are still a challenge because I am constantly needing new material unlike most other teachers who can use most of the same material month after month.

For socializing, I went to an adoptee organization picnic. It was a long ways away from where I live, but it was at a campground near the Han River, which runs throught the middle of Seoul. I managed to meet quite a few different adoptees and some of the people who work or volunteer for the organization (G.O.A.L.).

Also, I found out that I received a scholarship to attend Ewha's Women's University Language Program (yes, the program is co-ed). For ten weeks starting at the end of June, I will be taking Korean classes for free, which will be nice because currently, I am spending about $350/month for Korean lessons. There is a trade-off for the free lessons. I will have to commute about one hour each way to get to Ewha and the classes are only three days a week. Limited days might be good because I have reached a point where language acquisition is difficult and not a novelty.

Last week, I have been given a couple more hours of work at Pagoda. I am finding out how good my English proofreading and writing skills are. I spend a couple hours a day in the R&D office helping with developing TOEFL material that can be used for Pagoda written textbooks to be used in the classroom. The work is different and challenging. It will definitely help increase my pay this month since I am only working about 25 paid hours a week. Normally, I have closer to 30 paid hours and too many hours of preparation that don't get paid, but that is the life of a teacher.

Music 101

Well, another month has passed. I am still teaching business English and still can't get a month off from teaching on Saturdays. They don't have enough business teachers, so I got stuck teaching again. The money is so, so because it is dependent on the number of students enrolled. I just wish that I could have a full weekend to relax and prepare for the normal week. June is supposed to be the calm before the storm (July). Summer vacation starts in July and there will be many more students. I doubt that my class numbers will change much, but I might be given a normal Speaking, Listening, and Expression class.

As for my social life, I don't have much of one, except this weekend. One of my Korean language classmates called and said she had an extra ticket to a classical music concert since her boyfriend had a family matter. So, on short notice, I joined her at the Seoul Arts Center and listened to Yoonyoung Kim play a cello with Eun-Ok Kim accompanying on piano. The concert was quite good even though I am not an expert. She played music by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and a couple other composers.

On Sunday, a former student invited me to a concert for the Seoul Jazz Festival 2007. To start, there was a Korean jazz group that played. For the main performance, it was the Pat Matheny Trio. They are from the States and Pat is an amazing jazz guitarist. If you have a chance to see him in concert, I would definitely recommend him. He plays a variety of different types of guitars, which provides for an interesting show.