journal 15?

I know there are so many things I keep talking about writing about, things I need to finish, bridges I need to jump off... whatever. This entry is personal and largely due to the the blessing that spring weather is dropping on us. Those annual feelings that your turn your gut in excited ways leaving you senseless and unsure of which direction to look and even less of which direction to walk.

The Spring session at my school is divided into two parts. We're winding down the end of the first of these sections. Although I was expecting things to go by fast I'm taken aback by the fact that I've already been here over two months and the speed of which that time has passed. If I can keep jumping to new parts of the world like this I should have life taken care of in a cinch. Ready to turn to mud and start it all over again. I hope that does not sound morbid, it's actually supposed to be a hopeful thought.

To all those with un-responded emails, I apologize. Got knocked out by a cold last week and just started to feel myself the last week. Ok, anyways back to the school. I'm actually taking a request on this one.

Let me first give props to all my friends back home who teach and let them know that I don't have it as hard at them. I need to talk about the difference in my situation and what it means to be a teacher in a school in the States. I do not work for a public school. What I do should be viewed as glorified tutoring. All the kids I work with have English in their regular schools and go to my academy afterwards. Often this is but one of the academies that they go to. Usually the others include, Math, Korean, Science, Chinese Writing, Music and sometimes a general tutoring Academy that reinforces most subjects they are taking in their regular school. These kids also go to school six days a week. Most of the time their day starts around 7 when they get up and doesn't really stop till around midnight (there is a semi-explanation to this, see below). Between School and the academies there is studying and the understandable mountains of homework they have to try and deal with when they get home between 9 and 10:30. Most of us can't even think of comparing our school experiences with what they go through here. Sports are indulgences for the few. There is no drill team or cheerleading that I know of. Most schools require uniforms and the majority of students (I think all) have to pay for education after middle school. This is not as horrendous as it sounds (although not a system I favor either), but the way I interpret it is that in lieu of the various tax systems we have in place parents pay directly to the school for their child's education. On the outskirt this seems fine but then reality sinks in and you quickly realize that there are class divisions and income divisions like there are in any country that work against a system of social equity. The kids whose parents can afford to send them to the better schools, the better hogwans (after school academies) and/or expensive private tutors, DO. I'm unsure whether there are any scholarship-like opportunities for kids who excel but lack the financial means. But if there is I imagine that its depth is a bit shallow and that many kids with the capabilities are left out. Then again at the same time, signs of abject poverty are very difficult to find here. I'm still looking for stats on this but in general the have-nots don't seem to be as desperate as those from my home country meaning that they have something working here pretty well. Not to mention violent crime is all but non existent, but that's another story.

The school/hogwan/academy whatever, is not ideal. I do not pour my entire self into it. I realized that it would be a bad route to try early on. I feel that I would handle this differently in different circumstances, particularly if I were teaching in a public school in the States but it is unrealistic for a number of reasons here. First off, this is not a "real school" as I explained earlier. I can only teach and help the kids who have a desire within themselves to learn. Many are here only because their parents make them come. If this were just one after school activity for them I might try to find ways to make it meaningful for each and every one. But I've already explained the reality of their lives. And to put it quite simply, they are overwhelmed. I do what is asked, but the Hogwan system, at least in my school is systemically flawed. Largely in my part I think to my director who lacks most sense of leadership and whose grasp on English is not strong enough to allow for any cohesiveness between the teachers and the school. We don't have all the resources available to do what we could, and instead we do what is adequate. This is a system of mediocrity and I don't think if varies drastically from academy to academy (at least the English one, I can't comment on the others). They all do gain from the experience, some even greatly, but to say that they all are excelling leaps and bounds from the experience would be a blatant lie. At times our school is a release for the kids as I've talked about at different times. We don't hit the kids (evidently this is still acceptable in public schools), they don't have to wear uniforms, they have the freedom to act with more of their personality here and in general I think this aspect is rather enjoyable for many of the students. So, due to the fact that the foreign teachers don't speak Korean, they probably do get something from the necessity to express themselves in English in this "relaxed" atmosphere. They probably take some liberties, try to see how far they can push things with us at times, but this can likely be interpreted by what they are so much denied in the rest of their lives. It's late, there is so much to say. But I have to say I like most of my students and the majority are responsible for making me smile more in the last couple months than I did the bulk of last year. So on to a brief larger, social criticism.


If one knows anything about this country, or even thinks of the last 100 years you can realize that the country has been faced with some very trying times. If you go back further in their history (read: millennia) you see that oppression and aggression by surrounding countries, particularly Japan has been a constant obstacle. Then, add in the physical issue of the country. They are on a rather small peninsula about the size of Virginia. Herein lies the most densely populated country in the world. They have few if little marketable natural resources. There is a little coastal oil but nothing to make an industry out of. The former agricultural fuel of the economy is all but useless in a globalized age of modern, industrial farming. The rice can keep the people eating but that's about it. From what I have learned from my kids, and this is instilled in them, is that the people, the Human Capital, is Korea's most valuable natural resource. I was impressed at how well some of my students were able to articulate this and more impressed by their understanding what it meant and its implications. Basically, the government has emphasized that the heavy education is in order to make Korea competitive economically. By having an educated, modern population the country becomes both a better source of internal production but an attractive client for foreign investment. To say they are not in many ways modeling themselves after Japan would be a lie but something many Koreans would be likely to admit. They want to desperately put themselves on the map and provide security for their future. Education is the way to do this. Therefore, they push upon the young people an excess of education in an attempt to create very attractive job candidates. Part of this process, in the globalized economy, is obviously the English language which allows many leveraging opportunities in economic world. The way I see it is that the present generations are by others choice sacrificing their childhood (or much of it) so that future generations can prosper. I'm not going to go into it too much but this model has been tried for a while in Japan, and it has brought them a great deal of prosperity, the Asian financial crisis aside. But, recently I've read that there has been some subversion going on with the younger generations in regards to these ideas and norms. From my perspective (and it is as right now an admittedly ignorant one on Japanese affairs) this is partly a reaction of growing up as one of the "haves". The influence of western thought and culture combined with the strict norms of their country and the confining emphasis of large amounts of education has left a younger generation of Japanese thinking that they may just want to live life for themselves. The point is that I'm sensing that in some of my more mature students and I think that depending on how things unfold we might see a similar predicament in the following generation.

How's that for a10 minute cultural-anthropology lesson?

This was supposed to be about how the weather and my comfort level has got my eyes wandering on the streets and my body looking forward to sweating on the dance floor of a new Hip Hop club opening up tomorrow.... Blame it on Shannon. By the way, I'm half way through re-reading Le Grand Meaulnes.