New site

I have been meaning to post this for a while since I have been back, but oh well...

As I am no longer in Korea, I will not be posting anything on this site.

I do have a Bible study that I do on livejournal at the following link:

http://esfes1025.livejournal.com/

Bye Korea

I am leaving Korea in about a week in a half. My flight leaves on October 22.

Still unsure

I am still unsure at this point if I am styaing at this point in or around December, or if I am heading back to the USA. For those of you who do not know I am in Korea with a "teaching" job. I quote teaching because in all realitiy it is not teaching. It is just not what I thought at all. If all you care about is making some money, then this is a great job. I will admit money is irreveleant. I don't care. Money is smoething that is gone quicker thean one actually gets it and when you die even if I had as much money as someone like Bill Gatees then its all gone anyways. If I am hired to do a job, then I want to do what I am hired to do. I came to teach English not baby sit, and at least at my job I feel like this is what I do with the majority of my time. At the very least the textbooks should be accurate and up to date. I find at least one mistake a page, which then I have to take 5 minutes to correct that mistake and another 5 minutes trying to explain to a class that doesn't understnad me that well that the book is wrong and why. In a 25 minute class, this is too much time. Maybe I already know my answer at this point, and maybe I just want to vent right now. Maybe Korea needs to get with it if they want to learn English otherwise scrap the whole program and do better things with their education.In a lot of ways this is a major disapointment to me as I thought Korea was very interested to learn English, but it is clear to me they may want to... but they do not want to do the necessary things to allow the kids to learn the language. Most of my life I have dreamed of coming to Asia, and then it eventually became Korea. I am really sad about this. In a recent newpaper that I read in Korea, it even said that "9/10 Koreans are frusterated with their English Ability." I even shared this article with a class of 30 year old women. The thing that frusterated me was the article talked about more programs. The issue is not needing more programs, as Korea has enough programs. The issue is that they need to improve the programs they already have. For example have books that are acurate (as already stated). I know at least in the USA, we cannot have books that are not accurate and up to date. If it has a mistake it cannot be used by law. Next, they need to get rid of (Korean) teachers whom do not speak it well. I find it mind boggling that the teachers do not speak it well at my hagawoon. In this kind of logic, I feel I should go and teach a Korean language class. Next, at a certian point, there should not be any Korean in a class. Maybe not the first year, but perhaps the 4th year at the minimum. The students are required to take it for 10 years. If you see a class that is the students 7-10th year, 90-100% of any given class is done in Korean. Lastly, they will have the students spend about 2 weeks memorizing a "script." The students do not have any idea what they are memorizing means, and as soon as you move on, they forget it. I would much rather see more focuus on vocab or better yet do what I did in Spanish class. I had to come up with my own dialogue with a partner for tests. And ever test this became more and more, so if we didn't get the material in the chapter, our converstation would be hurt in the test. In any case I really feel like me staying and continuing is a cheat to the students, and I do not think I can be one of the people responsible when these students one day try and use their "English ability" and realize that all those years were a waste of their time.In closing I would like to ask:

If you are one whom believes in prayer and the power of prayer....Then I would ask that you pray that God would help me with this decsion. If I can find clear reason from him of if I should stay, then I will stay. But if not then I think I will come back in December or around then.

hospital visit

Well, I finally had to go to the hospital tonight. I have not been feeling well most of my time in Korea. Today, I ate dinner, and then just fell asleep at about 7ishpm and then woke up at 8:30 pm with severe stomach pains I never had before.

"F" students

How is it students can go through 16, 20, 24 levels of text books and not know English language. Its messed up!

Every student I have needs to go back to book one.

Also the Korean teachers, if they really want the students to learn the language, need to quit speaking Korean in the class.

I feel that teaching English in Korea is just a big waste of time. This alone is why I may come home in December.

23 minutes in Hell

I may have to change the theme of this blog as I don't talk to much now about korea, but maybe I will try and add something this weekend...

Here is a video testimony of a guy who spent time in Hell. I encourage any to watch this.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/852697/23_minutes_in_hell_reference_edition/

2 months and homesick

Well on the 20th of August, it marked my second month in Korea. It has been decent. Its amazing how God has been there. This is something that I am learning, and I think one learns in a life time.

In two months I think I have a glimpse to know what it must have felt like to be at Babel when God confused the language. In this culture I am pretty confused. Most people despite all the years they spend and hours they spend learning English... Does not speak English (they spend about 10 years minimum and anywhere from 4-8 hours just doing English classes every day).

Do I have worries? Yes. Do I get angry at times? Yes. Do I feel isolated at times? Absolutely. Do I regret coming here? In some ways yes. But in the end I am glad I came. You can really appreciate things. Such as in your native language country (for me English if you don't realize this), how easy it is just to ask for a meal at a McDonald's. Where as here I can say it in perfect Korean and they still do not understand.

What are some things in America I miss? Well for starters, Baths. I will admit in America, I never was a fan of baths unless I was sick. But in Korea... They usually do not have baths. If you live in a country that has baths... or if you have a bath... do me a favor and just take a nice warm bath for maybe 30 minutes and savor the moment. I miss some things you can only get at American restaurants. Sure they do have McDonald's in Korea, but it just tastes different. Outback doesn't even have the bloomin onions all the time.

So I guess Lord willing... I will have 10 months left in Korea.

Veri chip

Okay for those of you who do not have some information about this here are is a link:

http://www.verichipcorp.com/ (this is the site that makes the veri chip)

Here are some other videos, now bear in mind these two are done by a group of non Christians, but I think it is something that as Christians we should take notice of, the first link is just the discussion of the chip and the second one is from the whole video (2hours long). I really had to pay attention once they got to the American Revolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBo4E77ZXo
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

according to the research I have done on the chip, and various other things like could it be the Mark that Revelation 13 talks about, and why people want it, etc. I have come to these conclusions:

In all honesty there are some good ideas with the chip, but each one has various bad things with it:

1st it can have your whole medical history, and medications on it. This is good. If I was an a accident or something similar and cannot talk... they can just scan it and all that information is there. But what if the wrong thing is stored? What if a mistake is made. For example, lets say I am allergic to Penicillin , and the doctor who stored it forgot to indicate this. Or Lets say that I need blood and they enter my blood type as A+ when it is actually A-, so they give me a blood type that does not agree with me. That could happen, people make mistakes all the time. Another interesting point is that the verichip cannot handle extreme temperatures and certain types of radiation (such as micrwave and ones they use for when you get cancers). So if you have the chip in you, and you get cancer, then it is destroyed with your first radiation treatment. And it is highly likely when you have the chip inside you, you will get cancer, as they have found that rats, cats, and other animals they have tested it on, have come out with cancers.

Second: The government can track people who may be doing illegal things. But at the flip side this means you. Do you really want everything you say and do to be documented? I know people cringe at the thought of a god doing this, or as a kid Santa Claus perhaps. But that is what is happening. What we do and say can be recorded and documented. (I also realize the irony of using the internet to post this but if I was arrested for questioning this thing the government is allowing and wants to eventually have everyone with then so be it).

Third: again they can scan you and have an entire history of you. But what if someone built there own scanner and started doing this. If people think its easy for identity theft now... think about someone with a jump drive attached to a scanner and just walking around a city and randomly scanning areas where the chip may be. This will contain once again, medical history, credit cards, bank money, account numbers etc. Is this really a good risk?

fourth: if there is a terrorist attack, or a disaster, you can be found easily. Good idea again, however... if there was an attack, I am very doubtful of that you would be at the top of the list. They have other objectives that would be ahead.

Are we really a society that needs to have a chip think for us? Are we really a society that is so paranoid that this is the only solution? Are we really a society that does not want to think at all?

update

I think it has been some time. I have been traveling around Korea lately. I went to Chenchun tow weekends in a row and Seoul last weekend. In Chungju I went to a museum and took pictures, but when I changed the picture format... it deleted all the pictures, up to that point. But I did get a lot of good pictures at a Buddhist temple so it was not a complete loss.

While in Seoul I just walked around and looked at different things. I thought it was amazing how big it was. The only thing is that I expected bigger buildings. The buildings only seemed a little bigger than the ones in Chungju, of course I may have been in the wrong part of Seoul. I found out after the fact of going that I should have rode a number 2 subway to this area that had many shops and such.

I ended up buying one of the top three things that I wanted to buy while in Korea where it was probably cheaper than the USA, an I-Pod Nano. I really like it. Last I checked in USA it was about 250, but it was about 100 here. I think it was a worthy investment.

I also ate at outback. Yes they have an Outback in Korea. I will admit it is a little more expensive then the USA, but it was good. I was disappointed as they were out of the bloomin onions. But other than that it was really good.

Korean Rant

I have been here about a month and a week now, so I feel I am entitled to a little rant session.

Even though I love Korea, and the people and various other things I think that there are some serious problems with the country:

1. With the fact that English has been a requirement for every student to do for 10 years, you think that the country would be more English friendly. First, none of the restaurants have English on their menus, or if they do it is a rarity. Second, the people here cannot speak English at all. The only person whom I have met who speaks English somewhat well is my boss. I mean come on! They wonder why there is a shortage of teachers that come to teach conversation English, when the people in the country do not want to speak it or make it a little bit more English friendly, by at the very least printing menus in both Korean and English

2. I was going to go out to eat, but it was late (by Korean time) I went to a restaurant at 8:30 (actually my third one) and they were all closed! 8 ish?! On a Saturday? In America that would not last as between 8-9:30 ish is one of the busiest rushes in the week for many places. Yeah I know that this is not America but okay.

3. I think that the teachers who come should all be able to give grades. All of my elementary students would pass their classes. Now as far as middle school students go, they would all fail, every single middle school student. They don't ever pay attention, I spend 40 minutes of a 50 minute class or 20 minutes of a 25 minute class trying to get them to pay attention. All they want to do is talk and goof off!

You know you have been in Korea to long if when going back to a Native English speaking country you:

1. Everyone complains that you speak to slowly.
2. You get lost in a small city (on foot) and realize getting into a taxi is not an option
3. You go to McDonald's and say Hamburger, fries Jusayeou (get me).
4. You find it wierd when you eat a meal and there is niehter rice nor soup or kimchi.
5. You bow to everyone when saying hello.
6. You forget how to use a fork
7. When you go to a bar you say: "Makju Jusayeou" (beer, bet me).
8. When you go to a restaurant on your hot date: you say: "poduju jusayeou" (whine, get me)
9. instead of asking for a glass of water you say: Mul.
10. When saying yes, people think you mean no, because yes in Korea is Ne.
11. You get lost while driving with someone and you tell them to use the GPS system.
12. You speak with the sentences order mixed up: ex. "I (Name) am."

I may continue to add to this list as I am here.

New glasses

I don't know if this counts as a Korean adventure or not but...

I went today to purchase glasses. The doctor could see me right away and only charged 20,000 won. My lenses were 60,000 won. Finally the frames were about 10,000 won. All together the price was about 90,000 won or 90 dollars. Now here's the kicker. I was able to wait 15 minutes and get them right away; in 15 minutes!!!

Let's see how this compares to American eye glasses:

1. Eye doctor lowest I have seen is $80
2. Frames: lowest I have seen is about $50-100 so lets say $75
3. Lenses usually $200-$300 so lets say $250
4. One hour wait usually charges maybe an extra $100-200 so lests say 150

$80
75
250
150=
$555 or 555 Won

Korean glasses once again
20,000 won
60,000 won
10,000 won=

90,000 won or 90 dollars

Why the heck is America so freaking expensive on this?!!!!!


Or maybe it is the other way around:

How the heck can Korea charge so freaking little?

its been a while since I updated but...

Let's see...

I have not updated in a while.

My classes are good for the most part but I have noticed that the later in the week it is the more stressful it is and the less students listen. So, in other words really try to teach on Monday and Tuesday. My older students seem the most troublesome. I am not sure why that is.

I am getting settled for the most part... I actually used a Korean style public bathroom. It looked like a urinal that they just layed on the florr and you are supposed to stand and squat to go. I hated it. I only used it because I was teaching and could not wait anymore.

Other than that not much else to report

I have started to try and learn Korean on my own since I cannot find a tutor... although if my students see me studying at school they sometimes help. I also had some help from some people in the park where I go daily to write in my journal as well. I also go there to work out. If I remember I will try and take some pics of the equipment I use...

I also got my alien registration card today. So tomorrow Mr. Lee is going to take me to the bank to set up an account.

Kae go-gi

Today, in Korea I had perhaps the best meat I ever had. The name of it was Kae go-gi which in English means

Kae=Dog
Go-gi=meat

Yes, I have eaten dog meat. I must say it may be the best meat I have ever eaten. The first bite was the wierd one, maybe even the second one. I think it is because I have grown up in a country where this is deemed as abnormal. But anyways, it was great. It was in a type of soup. It tasted like a combination of beef and deer (Maybe any who read this are now thinking about changing to not eat beef and deer?) I definatly recomend to any American who goes to Korea to at least try it once. I think you will like it.

Classes

I taught most of the classes today. The main problems is that I go way to fast and talk fast. I wish the kids would be more open when I am going fast, but I guess they are to afraid to. The classes typcially go by real fast though. Usually from half hour blocks. The longest class is the one right after dinner. Usually this is because you eat a ton of really tasty Korean food, then the last two classes are hour long classes.

I went and worked out today at the park and got lost on my way back. I tried to find my way back for about 2 hours and finally hailed a taxi and told the driver C-Mart and he took me there. It was only a 1.25 so thank God for cheap taxis in Korea!

Another long day...

Not that I am not enjoying myself. Quite the contrary, I love it here! The main issue I have is jet lag. Yesterday I made the mistake of resting my eyes for five minutes and I slept from 6pm until about 10 pm. After this I woke up and watched a movie and then could not sleep until after 3 am.

I decided to go exploring on my own at 6:30 and saw quite a bit of the city. I was also looking for a good church service too. I went to one and struggled to ask what time the service was and finally got an answer. which was 11 am. I had plans at this time so I decided to look around. I walked around and found one and the guy told me 8 and it was 7:45 am so I stayed.

Saw more of the city still getting acustomed. I saw dead dog to eat. I do plan on eating that and getting revenge on the dogs that have bitten me over the years, Mwahahahahahaha!!!

Korea, I am finally here!

Well since the day and times are all messing with me it is hard to say the days these happened so I will do my best:

Wednesday evening: I could not sleep at all, to nervous about the flight. Mary and I spent a lot of time together. I think I fell asleep about 3 am.

Thursday: This was the big day. I got three hours of sleep though. We drove strait through to the airport with no problems. I got to the airport in Chicago about 9:45 am Chicago time, and the flight took off about 1:30 pm. I am not sure why I was told to have a three hour wait because I got right in the airport and was waiting from 10 am until about 1 pm. Maybe it is in case there are problems.

The flight was very uneventful. The bad thing was they sat me next to the wing in between two people. I was sick the whole trip due to motion sickness. The food was great. They served noodles with Korean beef for lunch and for dinner chicken and rice. They had this interesting roll with meat in it. Not sure what it was, except that it was delicious. The flight went over Michigan, Wisconsin, and several of the Rockie states, Canada, Russia, Japan, and finally Korea. I got several hours of sleep on the plane toward the end of the flight though.

Arrival: When I got there, there were these cards that I was given on the plane and I thought it was to fill out in front of the immigration (the way it worded it on the back of the paper made me think this. So I waited in line for about 20 minutes and then the girl told me I had to fill it out, so I went and filled it out and had to spend another 20 minute wait. I had a hard time finding the right baggage claim area for my stuff, but it may have been because the set it to the side because that is where I found it since it took a while at immigration. Next I went through customs and that was quick. Just handed a card to this guy and I went out. I was met by a teacher who has been here for a couple of years. We rode a bus to Chungju from Seoul. The Bus ride was 7 dollars (I did not have to pay for it and he bought me kim bop (Korean sushi). It was very delicious. There were two things that blew my mind on the trip back:

1. The roads were narrow and there were several times on these highways were the bus and two other cars were in the same exact lane.
2. I counted about one hundred cars in a row that had some kind of digital screen by the driver (this was when I started noticing a trend). I am not sure what it does except it may be a GPS system, a radio, newsbroadcaster, and a autopayer at toll roads.

We got to Chungju about 10 pm Korean time where I met the director Mr. Lee and he took me to my apartment. He gave me a cell phone to use with his number in case I had questions or had problems in Korea. I was thankful for this. He also had a few odds and ends for me such as bottled water, juice, milk and bread.

Today I am going to see some of Chungju and buy things for the apartment such as food.

Another Change but for the Better

I will be leaving the 19th!!

Korean dinner

Well, the family that I have been helping, mostly the husband to learn English since October had a huge meal for us. It was spectacular. I ate so much. The meal was to celebrate that I finally got my visa and that my departure date is May 20th. Here is a link to my pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/esfes1025/KoreanDinner

New Camera

Well, I went out today to see about getting a camera I have fixed. I was going to put off getting a camera until after I get to Korea, since they are generally cheaper there. I decided to get it now though so I can take pics as I am leaving the airport, a few with me and Mary, and finally pictures of me in the country sooner rather than later.

When I got to the store, they said it would be between 100-150 dollars to fix and I paid 100 for it. I find it fascinating that it is more expensive to fix a digital camera than to buy one. In any case I bought one that was 140 and chargeable batteries that are meant for cameras.

One thing that I will not miss about the USA is that the bus system here sucks. I spent an entire day trying to do a 15 minute thing. I got to Kroger where the bus picks you up. The first bus did not show up on time and it was the wrong bus, and the right one did not show up for an hour later. Then when I bought the camera I went out to eat and then waited 30 minutes just for it to be late and the wrong bus and had to wait another hour for the right bus. In any case, only about 21 days until I head over to Korea.

Departure Date

Well, I finally got a depature date:

June 20th. It has been put back since the school thought my visa would take longer. But It is coming.

Interview

I was finally able to have my interview with the Korean Counsel. To be honest I don't see the point since he only asked me 3 questions and none of which could not be asked in person. He asked me: When I am thinking of leaving, how long I have been thinking of going, and what a counseling degree is. but in any case I should be getting my passport back and stamped by either Wednesday or Thursday.

Good News

I got my Visa Number finally, so now I can apply for the little stamp on my passport, but I just need to find a way to get to Chicago.

Korean Name and update

Well, a week ago there was a delay. I missed something so it may or may not be June when I leave, or sooner. It is still happening.

I received a Korean name today from the Korean family I help: Chulem which means strong one.

This will be updated after I move to Korea

I am hopefully going to be there in a month give or take a few days