I just returned home from my 2nd official week of teaching English lessons to North Koreans at the Durihana church. The first week, was pretty shaky. I came unprepared because I didn't know the levels of the students. Turns out, most were beginners but a couple had studied English a year, and one woman had studied for about 8! So it was a hard balance making it interesting for the more advanced students, but not overwhelming for the beginners. There were about 8 students that ended up coming last week, but this week, only 4 (and the last 2 45 minutes late) because there are some serious exams happening for these students right now and they were all studying.
Today, I was somewhat more prepared, having spent 2 hours in Kyobo bookstore last Sunday shifting through shelves and shelves of crappy English books. Books, books everywhere, and not one to teach. I finally settled on one I found in the kid's section, though after becoming so frustrated and bleary-eyes, I can hardly say it was the best. In any case, it works for now until I get more of a feel for what to do with the students. Hopefully going to incorporate more cultural study type things. Songs, kid books (note to self: North Koreans don't know western stories, see idiot moment bellow).
Teaching adults, you realize more than ever just how difficulty and annoying English is. I was asked about glasses being plural and all I could say was... "Maybe it's because there are 2 lenses? English is weird. I'm not sure." Wonderful teacher I am.
Idiot moment of the day: In one of the exercises the name in the sentence was Peter and a student couldn't read it properly. I said "Peter, like Peter Pan." Doh! They probably don't know Peter Pan. In South Korea yes, North Korean, no. Though the more experienced student did laugh, so maybe she knew.
After class the same woman who laughed at my Peter Pan reference, and another woman who doesn't take English class asked the South Korean TA, Suyeon, and I over to try some traditional North Korean drink called 감주 (Gamju). Suyeon used her phone dictionary to find the right words and explained that it was a fermented rice and barley drink, supposedly good for your digestion in the way yogurt is (probiotics, I'm guessing). We felt pretty excited to be experiencing a piece of a culture very few people do. It was pretty yummy, it tastes a little like rice milk with vinegar. It looks like a sweet rice drink they have here called식혜 (Sikhye) that I drink all of the time in the saunas. They seemed so pleased that I liked it they offered to give me a bottle to take home with me, and ladled some into a spare thermos. Will definitely be sharing some with friends tonight!
On the way home I wandered around my neighborhood. Having finally had my first paycheck, I went into a store where I've been eying my favorite shampoo from the states for sale. It cost the equivalent of $15, so I was out the door pretty fast. No thanks... After that I walked by the Dog & Cat grooming place that is right after my apartment. There I saw at least 5 or 6 small dogs through the window, one of which was a white poodle with ears dyed bright pink, not uncommon here. There was a darling little dauschhund hobbling around missing a front leg. I couldn't help imagining some terrible grooming mishap that left the shop the proud owners of their customer's mangled dog. Hmmm... how grotesque. I'm sure it didn't happen like that at all. I wandered past to find a little restaurant called "Green Salad" making wild claims about its "Big American Brunch" now being available. We'll see about that. On the way back, I saw the poodle taking a mondo crap right on the grooming room floor. Big French Crap...
Capoeira is treating me well. I am doing it Monday and Wednesday afternoons and practicing some on my own because truthfully, I suck. And I really hate sucking. Unfortunately capoeira is at the same time as the Korean classes I wanted to take, so dilema. Guess I'll find a tutor. Capoeira is more rare here than Korean lessons, to the question answers itself in my eyes. :)
My attempt at growing veggies in my classroom is not going well, most of the seedlings have died, save the tomatoes. It was finally warm enough to move them to the roof, so on Wednesday I did that hoping more sun would be the solution. Wonderfully after weeks inside, I moved them out just in time for Thursdays bout of toxic rain! We'll see how it goes. This might be a pipe dream I have to let go to the wayside... but I'm trying!
Tomorrow, getting to the train station with friends by 7:00 am for a strawberry festival! My first time leaving Seoul since I've been back! Can't wait.
