Lost in translation

Walking to the morning meeting last week, all I could think about was swimming in the school pool after work. Swimming laps certainly beats hitting the treadmill in the non-air conditioned gym, but I had a problem, I didn't have goggles. No goggles, don't be a baby, you might say... and for most people it isn't, but someone who is infamous for swimming across all four lanes in a swim team contest the summer before high school needs goggles. I am significantly stronger in my right side, and without the use of my eyes can never tell if I have started swimming off in the wrong direction. In our neighborhood pool a few years ago, I was swimming laps with Kyle and once again, predictably, I veered. I grabbed onto who I thought was Kyle's hairy arm, but once opened after wiping the chlorine from my eyes, I found that instead in my grip was a random strangers arm. I am not afraid to be silly or make a fool of myself, but swimming into strangers is just plain embarrassing. And doing it more than once, well... I don't even know the word for it.

To combat this predictably embarrassing moment, I asked a fellow Korean co-worker if she had goggles.
"yes" she said
"Do you think Kyle and I could borrow them?" I asked sweetly
She stopped for a moment and thought. Her face was one of consternation. Thinking I had made a culture faux pa I quickly added,
"If you aren't comfortable lending them to us, it is perfectly fine. I really don't mind if you say no."
"No, no" she said, "I will bring it after lunch"
"Are you sure?" I asked. Asians often will not say "No" even when they desire to, so I wanted to make sure that this was not something that she really didn't want to let us borrow.
After lunch I walked into the office to speak with the hubs. Kelly, the co-worker, sits across from Kyle's desk.
"What you asked for is right there." Kelly said pointing to Kyle's desk.
I glanced and saw a container filled with blue liquid, but as I was in a hurry and didn't have time for chatting, I thanked her and ran back to class.
After work, however, I was able to get a second glance at it. I had thought maybe these were special goggles kept in liquid but as I stared into the blue, I could see nothing.
Smiling, Kyle explained, "She thought you said 'gargle'."
"That's why she looked at me so strangely?" I asked
"She said she thought it was a strange thing to ask for but she brought it anyways."
It has become the current office joke. "gargle!"

Lost in translation round 2

We have had 6 weeks of Russian students. Four of the six of those weeks, I have been their teacher. The way our programs work is that morning time is grammar and nitty gritty study time, while the afternoon is typically all theme classes. One of the theme classes is called INSECTS. It sounds boring or gross depending on your reaction to insects, but it is a favorite because the activity involves drawing on a plastic film, melting and shrinking said film in a toaster over to a small hardened key chain. The kids love it. However as we were going through the names of the different insects, a picture of a lady bug came up. One kid yelled out "flying cow!"
"Seriously?" I asked "This looks like a flying cow?"
"No!" another kid corrected him "God cow."
It turns out, that is the direct translation for ladybug in Russian.

Another strange and rather fitting translation is "flying rat," which I would have assumed referred to a pigeon, but it is actually the name for "bat" in Russian.

Living in Korea certainly provides for many mis-communications and mis-translations, but never a dull moment.

Popular Russian pop video

My first group of Russian students couldn't figure out how to show me Russian music videos. I think that the music videos show you so much about a culture. This time however, we figured out how to find a Russian keyboard on the internet allowing us to search for Russian songs. This is a very popular song currently in Russia. Enjoy.
Click here

Pirates of English Village

This is the long awaited drama video from my Russian students. Although we practiced in the classroom more than my students liked and more than the allotted time, the students never got practice with the microphones, which means the person running the microphones also didn't practice. Unfortunately in our play, the actors performances were nothing short of stunning (says the slightly biased director :) ), and yet, hardly anyone in the audience could hear what we was being said. Despite that slight hiccup of no one actually knowing what was going on in the play except for me and the actors, I was incredibly proud of my students. I chopped up the video quite a bit and only gave you tidbits of the major parts, but I will give you a run down of the story line so that you can follow along.

The characters are as follows:
Wendy- long brown hair
Tinkerbell- blond hair shorty
Jack Sparrow- white pirate shirt
The captain of the ship- yellow shirt
Peter Pan- girl in the green German looking pants
Captain Hook- red Jacket
crocodile- the dragon looking little guy on the side.
And other pirates and crew.

The storyline:

The Captain is having a birthday party
Tinkerbell keeps trying to get Wendy married off- Wendy says Peter Pan is too young
Wendy thinks Jack Sparrow is handsome but Tinkerbell disapproves.
Captain Hook crashes the party and demands to marry Wendy.
She refuses.
She spends two days in the brigg.
As Wendy is about to walk the plank, Peter Pan and Jack Sparrow rush in a save the day.
Jack Sparrow, instead of asking Wendy to marry him asks Tinkerbell.
Wendy in a furry jumps in the water and happens to save Captain hook who is being chased by the crocodile.
Wendy then proposes to Captain Hook whom she has refused for the entire play.
They are married as well.
Peter Pan is furious and jumps in the water to plan a revenge with the crocodile. Fun is had by all!

The students really enjoyed the play, as did I. And for the first time since being here, I nearly cried when my students left. I really loved teaching those kids. They were a fun bunch of enthusiastic kids, and I already miss them. I hope you enjoy them (at least their video) as well.

The Russians and the obstacle course

You thought we were done with the Russians didn't you? Well... I have been for two weeks, but I have been slow at editing videos. If you haven't noticed the blog is not exactly chronological. I put things up when I get around to it.
In fact, we have one last video yet of the Russians- their drama. So exciting isn't it!

As I have stated before, Russians and Koreans are not the same breed. I'm not sure they are even from the same planet, but that is a whole other topic for another day. One striking difference, is their need for physical activity. At one point in Korean history, the typical Korean spent most of their day farming outside under the blazing sun. This was of course before the technology bubble burst in Korea, contaminating all matter south of Seoul into a technology making factory. This technology contagion sent Koreans indoors, set them in chairs in front of a P.C. and turned them into gaming robots. Unless I am proposing soccer, the option of outdoors is clearly out of the picture for my Korean students. I one time had a girl say, hopefully jokingly but I am not sure, "teacher, too much green!" after we had gone outside for fresh air. The Russian students on the other hand were having a difficult time going to sleep at night from lack of physical exertion so it was deemed that they have obstacle course day at the random ropes course in the mountains right near us. This is the video of our day with the Russians at the obstacle course.




And pictures. I felt a little ridiculous in my overload of technology when following my students around with not only a camera with two lenses but also a video camera.

Disaster not avoided (at all!)

Walking out of the auditorium with 10 waggling Russian children high from the spirit of theater practice on an actual stage, I stagger towards the sunlight blinded by it's ferocity. The spirals of radiant light penetrate my bat-adjusted eyes so much more mercilessly after being enclosed in a cave like space I couldn't be sure of what my eyes were transmitting.
A crowd of Russian students hovered around the fountain like seagulls going in for the steal of breadcrumbs. I wanted to avert my eyes and avoid what looked like what might be a scene brewing as I was tired from yelling at my students to stop acting like monkeys while practicing their play. All I desired was my ten minute break. Just ten minutes. But then I saw it. I couldn’t tell if what I was seeing was an illusion from the sudden brightness of light or reality. One of the girls in the group we call “the glam girls” (nicknamed such for the way they dress and are constantly modeling as if anyone of us might take out our camera and start snapping away) stood in what appeared from a distance, her bathing suite next to the pond surrounding our miniature version of the Statue of Liberty in the middle of the courtyard. As if repelled by an opposing end magnet my exhaustion told me to run; run far far away and not look back, but my conscious dragged me kicking and screaming towards the scene.

It turned out that she was not in her bathing suite, but in her bra and underwear holding her dress in front of her. Her hair dripping with fountain water, her face hard, stoic even.

Baffled at this unexpected soap opera, I asked what happened.
"He pushed me in!" she exclaimed tears, whether true or no poured down her face. I followed her index finger pointing to a blond headed boy lounging smugly on the bank of the pond. (I don't really know what to call the water surrounding the statue as it stagnant so isn't actually a fountain, but it isn't a natural enclosure so it really isn't a pond either.) I took my sweater off, put it around her shoulders and walked her back towards the dorms.

The truth (or what we could gather): The two are in the high level class. They either love each other ardently and don't know any other way of expressing love except through vicious fighting, or they hate each other with the vehemence of a cobra and a mongoose and want to see each other die a long painful death, preferably by the other's hand. Simply said, they haven't stopped bickering and battling since they arrived in Korea. This particular feud ended with a punch in the face to the boy, and a splash in the statue of liberty pond. How her dress came completely off, I don't know, nor will I probably ever know. What I do know is that their punishment was to help clean dishes in the cafeteria. And despite the girl's insistence that she didn't deserve this kind of treatment for only a punch, the dishes were clean the next day and there wasn't anyone standing naked in the middle of the courtyard for all to gawk at. We shall see what tomorrow holds. One thing is for sure, these Russians sure are entertaining.

Pictures as promised!
(disclaimer: non of the girls in the pictures are in the story above)

This girl is what I imagine Russians looking like. (The girl in white in the back is in my class. She is very cute and enthusiastic)

These two lovely ladies are calm collected, but always participate. It is an interesting mix for I normally don't find all of those qualities in my students at the same time.

My boys who are always laughing.

My Peter Pan in the play. Look at the length of her hair.

More on my Russian program

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am teaching a two week Russian program. It has been very intensive and a bit stress inducing, but on the whole, I am thoroughly enjoying my class. Here is what my daily schedule looks like.

An intensive schedule:
9:00-11:00 We have basic learning with a focus on vocabulary practice. For example, today we learned about hobbies. We played a game where we all stood in a circle and passed a ball around. If you got passed the ball you had a few seconds to think of a hobby that hasn't already been said. My kids, desperate not to get out thought up some pretty crazy hobbies.

• collecting doors
• collecting windows
• walking your snake
• walking your cat
• walking your parrot
• collecting shoes

Yesterday we played restaurant. Kyle gave me the suggestion of allowing some of the customers and waiters to be rude while others were told to be polite, to liven things up. And boy did it liven the activity up. One boy rolled a paper and pretended to smoke even though he was told it was a non-smoking area. Security (me) was called several times insisting I escort the guest out. The boys wanted me to allow pretend guns and weapons to be used but I thought that would be taking the activity in the wrong direction. Never-the-less, it was a success, and they even used English almost entirely to express all of these ideas., but a welcome reprieve from active teaching.
11:00- 12:00 Reading and comprehension... Not very interesting
Lunch (seriously lacking in veggies)
1:30- Listening activities. The first day we listened to "You are my sunshine" which my Russian students had never heard before, but they requested to hear again and again, singing along with the music. Yesterday we listened to Lemon Tree by Fool's Garden (a German band) which is an extremely well known and popular song in Korea. I had never heard it in America, but we may be the only ones, as the Russians all knew the song as well. Interesting what we don't know about in our little isolated corner in the world.

2:30-3:30 Theme class. They love theme class because there is always some type of fun activity such as making and flying paper airplanes, making key chains, learning how to draw, etc.

3:30-4:30 Drama practice. The play they have picked is called "Pirates of English Village" written by an ex-teacher here. Characters include Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, crocodile, and Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and another Captain. Tinkerbell marries Jack Sparrow and Wendy marries the captain of the ship. Peter pan and the crocodile become allies to win Wendy back. It is a very silly play and the kids are so into it. I love that they are self-motivated and willing to be silly. I don't know if all Russian kids are like this, but if it weren't a massive icicle for 10 months of the year, I would consider working there.

4:30-5:00 time with the teacher. We are watching Kung Fu Panda- which they love!!

Interesting tidbits about the Russians:

• They have a very different fashion sense. Koreans besides wearing extremely short skirts (outside of school) are very conservative dressers. The style in fact is what you might see on a baby doll, loose, flowing, and showing very little chest. Russians on the other hand, have a very liberal sense of clothing. One little girl has worn swimsuit shorts for two days. One girl wore a tube top dress. Clothing that would be considered inappropriate in any school in the US, but typical summer wear. Maybe it is because they never see the sun or maybe it is because it just much more accepted in their culture to wear this type of clothing in school. Either way, it is an interesting hodgepodge considering that the Koreans and Russians are going to school side by side.
  
• The girls almost all have long hair. Really, they have some of the longest hair of girls I have seen in a long time.
  

p.s. I took pics of my kids today, but didn't have time to upload them. They will come soon, so I don't want to hear any gripping :)

The Russians are coming!!

Oh wait, they are already here. You read that correctly, I wrote Russians, as in the people originating from the largest country in the world. That icicle country that is both part of Europe and Asia. We have Russian students ranging from ten years old to 15 years old this week and next week. They have come to South Korea to learn English. Makes since right? When you think of South Korea, one naturally thinks of the hot spot of the world to learn English!

Last week was preparation week. You would think that less than a week to plan for two weeks of classes would be sufficient, but I assure you, my brain did somersaults attempting to organize and file away all that needed to be printed, copied, created etc for this upcoming group. The Russian program is very different than the normal weekly program. In a normal week, we have our classes basically prepared. There is still prep work to be done, but the difference is that this program had to be created basically from the ground up. I am thankful at least we had books available, and the internet is the best thing since butter as far as I am concerned. Most English teachers are familiar with this site but for those who are not; Dave's esl cafe is a LIFE saver. This site's entire purpose in life is to assist those who teach English with games, lesson plans, advice and those who want to find an English teaching job.

When I teach students, one of my main goals is to help them find the fun in learning English. According to the zombie students, sometimes actually having fun while learning seems less like actual fun and more like having open heart surgery. But I still try, regardless of the protests and their unwillingness to be moved by anything but a bulldozer. While preparing for the students, we weren't given a clear picture as to what their levels would be and although I was told to prepare low-intermediate, I couldn't be positive that these kids even knew how to read English.

When they arrived this morning, my jaw bounced a few times like a bouncy ball on the linoleum floor. It has been a while since I have seen so many Westerners, but not only that, they were all blond-haired, blue eye beauties. No joke! You could probably enter 80% of our students into "Russia's next top model" reality TV series (if they have a show like ours.) Who knew Russians were so breath-taking?

In Korea, Russian is synonomis with prostitute. For some reason, there are many Russian prostitutes here. I don't know why. But I do know, that if you are asked "Are you Russian?" by a Korean, they are basically asking if you are a prostitute, and yes, I have been asked that question. There are even t-shirts people wear that have printed in the Korean language, "No, I am not Russian," to keep people from asking.

And the way my students interact, I can never tell if they are yelling at each other or just speaking Russian the way Russians speak. The language which sounds to my unqualified ears to be a mixture of German and French, is spoken with such passion, it is difficult to distinguish the anger from typical speech pattern.

So far I like my class. We have had a short afternoon together and already we have had events:

• Daniel is pronounced differently in Russian. Daniel (my student) does not, I repeat, DOES NOT like the English pronunciation of Daniel. So he chose the English name Parker after yelling at me for my ignorance and mispronunciation.
• I thought I was going to have to break up a fight between Korean students and my Russian students, but when I reached the circle, I found the Korean students and Russian students trying unsuccessfully to communicate in English. The Russian students wanted to teach the Korean students some Russian words. Kind of sweet actually.
  
• Russian students have hobbies. It's amazing. If you ask a Korean student what their hobbies are, you are 99.99% likely to hear either or all of the following; computer games, sleeping and TV. Occasionally soccer is tossed in there for good measure. The Russians hobbies ranged from graffiti art, to scuba diving to stamp collecting. Amazing! Children with time to have hobbies outside of studying.

I don't have pictures of my class yet, but I will post some as soon as I do.