Fairy Tales Written by my Students

Two weeks ago our lesson was about fairy tales and I asked my grade 3 students (US grade 9) to write their own fairy tale beginning with "Once upon a time" and ending with "They lived happily ever after." They were also supposed to write one line and then fold the paper so they would only be able to see the previous line. Well in true teaching fashion most of them failed to do either of these things but the final results are pretty funny.

By the way lots of them are unfinished because we ran out of time, and I left in all their spelling mistakes because that made them even cuter. The first one is obviously my favorite.

Common themes I notice in these stories which also resonate in Korean culture as a whole:
Finding humor in cross-dressing (uh Coffee Prince and You're Beautiful anyone? And have you ever watched a variety show on TV? Obviously Korean people think men dressing up as women is hilarious, and women pretending to be men is a good way to get a rich emotionally-retarded hot boyfriend.)
Intense worship of Korean pop stars and celebrities
Making jokes and threats about murder/ laughing at death
A very strange obsession with chicken and chicken restaurants
A love for The Simpsons (or just those ubiquitous Simpsons pencil cases....)

Once upon a time there was a girl whose father had died. A girl was so sad with father’s dying and she became crazy. Someday she go to hospital. Than the doctor is G-Dragon and nurse is Taeyang. GD and Taeyang is so handsome. So she crashed on them. But GD and Taeyang was a couple. So she give up and GD and Taeyang lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time, princess live in school. Her stepmother hates her princess. So, stepmother kill the princess. But she didn’t die. So she meet prince. But prince is very ugly. Also very very fat! So she and he don’t marry! Ending!

Once upon a time there was a handsome princess. He is blind man. And he can’t hear anything. But he want to find his soul-mate, so he go to club. But he doesn’t find his soul-mate. So he is enjoying with girls, so he go to night and he meeting very pretty and sexy girl, and he eat coffee and bread. After eating, he knew he didn’t have money. So he ran away in a hurry. When he caught by cheff, he realize that was just a dream.

Once upon a time, there was a Simson family in the castle. Mouse Simson, devil Simson, rabit Simson, Dog simson, duck simson. Simson family is, they are very foolish. So the rabit has green poison in her hands. So Duck give the drug to rabbit. So they [something in Korean] Duck simson is very ginious magichine. But duck simson very crazy. But duck simson is kill.

Once upon a time there were five handsome boys. They were famous singers of Korea. However, they were sick. Everyday a doctor comes to their house and cure them. Suddenly, doctor said “He is the dragon warrior!” and point at him. “Who is the dragon warrior?” said one of them. “It’s me!” another one said.

Once upon a time there was a foolish king. Foolish king likes beautiful princess. But she doesn’t like him. So, he is very sad. He go to heaven and they lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time, live dog. The dog could speaking. The dog was person that’s surprised? But the dog was foolish. So, the dog was kill oneself.

[Crossed out: “Once upon a time G-Dragon and Do-Kyung lived in the apartment”] Once upon a time, very very handsome boy and very very ugly girl lived in school. But girl is ugly. Small eyes, big nose, big mouse.

Once upon a time Dan Ah was live at the hell. She was break out at the hell. She met man and married. But she was divorce with her husband. She was died and she was return at the hell. And she’s husband lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time, the man lived in the palace. He was a servant of the king. He loves the king. But king has a wife. So he divorces. He open chicken store. He lived happily with the king forever.

Once upon a time there is ugly princess and king. But she is very happy. And she is very rich. But she is foolish. But she was brave. She went to the forest with a baseball bat to kill a monster that live in the forest. But she can’t kill a monster instead of she is died by a monster. The prince was sad. He dance, and princess alive. And they lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time there was a student named Jeong Su Yeon. He was a very bright student but very very ugly. So he went to a famous plastic surgery clinic. He became a very handsome and sexy guy. He married a beautiful woman. And they lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time there was the magic rabbit. She was 786 years old. She couldn’t eat carrots.

Once upon a time there was an ugly princess. And the princess was very fat and dirty. She loves flower. But flower hate her because she was ugly. Very very good happy.

Once upon a time, there lived a ugly mushroom prince of the Kiwaki Mushroom Kingdom. Among all the mushrooms, he was the richest mushroom. Because he had a lot of female mushrooms. And there was a mushroom-eating herbivore doe.

Once upon a time, beautiful princess live in [something Korean]. Princess is man. Princess eating ice cream. But unfortunately she is killed by prince. Because prince is evil stepmother. But

The prince fall in love to the princess. But the princess was not a girl; he was actually a boy. Princess weared nice suit. All of the women loved her. There was one of the girl who is envy her. And they lived happily ever after.

So, if you didn't understand before why/how much I love teaching at a girls middle school, after reading that first story, I think it is very clear.




K I really didn't want to turn my blog into a dumping ground for all this weird Korean stuff I'm obsessed with but this SunDaraGon stuff is pretty convincing! But IDK I'm still Team CLDragon. WHAT DO U THINK???!

Lotte World

On Friday I went with some of my friends to Lotte World, which, besides Nam San Tower, is the number one place in Seoul I have wanted to go to. It was even better than I could have imagined! I took so many pictures and videos. The place is HUGE. Despite all the people there, we never had to wait more than 40 minutes for a ride (most waits were like 15 minutes; the longest was for Atlantis Adventure, the roller coaster on Magic Island). Later in the night, we only had to wait 10 minutes or less to get on any ride.

In honor of Halloween, there were Halloween decorations everywhere and a Lotte's Happy Halloween Party parade. The parade ran twice a day and we were actually there long enough to see the afternoon and evening parade. The evening parade was the best because all of the floats lit up. At night, because the only light for Lotte World comes through the glass ceiling, everything was lit up with rainbow Christmas lights.

Here are videos of my three favorite rides:
The Gyro Swing

Pharaoh's Fury (the coolest wait in line EVER. You walk through about 10 rooms that look like art museums and Egyptian tombs. On the ride itself you ride on a Jeep that goes really fast and wobbles. I almost fell out a bunch of times.)

Atlantis Adventure

The hot air balloon ride was also really cool because you could see everything inside Lotte World, but it was really creaky and kind of scary.

So here are some of my many videos. Titles are self-explanatory. For pictures, look at my Facebook album "Seoul."

Lotte World Main Floor from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Lotte World from the Hot Air Balloon Ride from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Lotte World Happy Halloween Parade from Hot Air Balloon Ride from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Entering Lotte World Magic Island from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Lotte World Witch Marching Band from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Lotte World Magic Island at Night from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Lotte World Carousel from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

We got him to scare Jessi. I think she screamed.

Outside the Haunted House from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

FC Seoul Soccer Game

I went to an FC Seoul Soccer game last weekend and it was really fun. They play at World Cup Stadium, and the subway stop there is really cool! Photographic evidence:






It was a special foreigner's game, so our tickets were about half off and we got a free drink and a free hotdog. There was also a special area outside the stadium with a music stage and an inflatable slide and a place where you could get your picture taken in hanbok and where you could paint a mask (that booth was weird.)

FC Seoul Soccer Game v. Daegu- Opening from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Seoul played Daegu and won 4-0! Every time we scored the fans went crazy. Video evidence:



Also, fans bring their own fireworks and flares to the game and shoot them off when they get excited. Just another example of stuff you can do in Korea that would never fly back home:

Fireworks at FC Seoul Game from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

It was a fun game! And I heard that they're playing a team from Japan soon which should be a REALLY good game.

FC Seoul Game from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

Teaching

I teach at a girls middle school in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. Our school is on a mountain, and Seoul University is literally on the other side of the mountain (yet I did not discover this until last week.) All schools in Seoul are public but ours, and other single-sex schools, are special and require a difficult entrance examination. However, the school is, I'm told, very cheap to attend.

Here are some pictures!

This is the building I spend most of my time in. It houses the teachers' office, the nurse's office, and the Buddhist temple on the fourth floor. I haven't made it past the first floor.


This is the building where my classroom is. Also inside are the cooking room, art room, music room, and a science room. There are other rooms but I don't know what they are. The music room is next door and sometimes the cute old music teacher comes in and teaches me Korean words and then we play Chopsticks on the piano.

This is my classroom, the English Zone. It was built last year. The English Zone is way more fun and colorful than regular classrooms, which at my school don't even have posters on the walls, other than the periodic table of elements. Unfortunately, as another teacher pointed out to me, this tends to make them think they can talk in class and not do real work.




The view from my classroom window:


Graffiti outside my classroom. So cute. She spelled it wrong. 2NE1 is a super popular four-woman Korean hip hop/pop group and their fans are called Black Jacks. Graffiti in America has a bad connotation but the only graffiti I have seen here is couples' initials at Lotte World and LOTS of Korean boy band names in hearts.


Our grounds are really nice. We have a ton of trees and bushes, a waterfall, a koi pond, and lots of statues.


School is a lot different from an American school. All the students wear a uniform of a knee-length plaid skirt and a white button-down shirt with a plaid bow at the collar. Sometimes they wear cute navy cardigans. All their shirts have their names embroidered on them. Also, they wear normal shoes to school, then exchange them in their lockers for Korean school slippers, which are like white slip-on tennis shoes. I'm not really sure why they do this because I have only seen them take their shoes off in the nurse's office. After school each day the students vacuum the school, mop the floors, and take out the trash. Before school they sweep the driveway as well.

Students arrive at school at 8 or before and school is over at 3:30. However, almost every student stays for after school classes until 5:30. Then most go home and eat quickly and then spend another hour or two in a hagwon, or private academy, learning more English. No wonder my students are always so tired! They tell me that they go to bed between 1 and 3 a.m. each night. I get tired at work and I never stay up past midnight.

I will write more about the social dynamics at my school later but I really love it. I think I might have ended up at Hui Gyeong because I went to a women's college (or maybe not... no idea how the selection process works) but watching my students in action really solidifies my support of women-only education. While other middle school teachers talk about how their female students clam up and can't talk around boys, my students are loud and confident and some of them are so good at speaking English (in terms of accent, grammar, and vocabulary) that I can't believe they aren't Korean-American.

My Apartment

I live in the Jungno Apartment complex in Hwi Kyung in Seoul. I live on the twelfth floor but all I can really see are the identical apartment buildings across the sidewalk and gardens. I can see some lights from the shopping area and part of a mountain if I look closely. My apartment is definitely not as nice as other peoples' apartments, but the size is bigger than most of them and the location is more central, and I would rather compromise quality for closeness to the center of the city. I really like my apartment, actually, and the only thing I would change about it is the floor. Why does it have to be yellow linoleum with yellow-orange flecks? It's kind of gross, but I'm getting used to it.

Right inside my front door is a tiny room separated from the main room with glass sliding doors where you keep your shoes. It is probably the nicest part of my apartment. The doors are really nice and the floor is like brand new, and there is a reproduction van Gogh on the wall.


Almost everything is in my main room: bed, desk, TV, closets, and refrigerator and microwave.




The kitchen is separated from the main room with two really big sliding doors. I don't have a picture yet but in there are cabinets, a sink, and a stove top. My washing machine is also here as well as my air conditioner and my humongous drying rack. Fact: Korean people don't really use clothes driers. I have no idea why. Oftentimes you will see big drying racks full of towels on the street outside of places like hair salons.

Last of all is my bathroom! It's small but nice. My toilet made a horribly annoying sound for the first two weeks I lived here. It sounded like there was always water dripping down its pipes. I called over my landlady (my apartment is actually part of their apartment that they rent out- you can see a door covered in cardboard and tape in the picture of the main room which connects to their apartment) because I was worried that it was driving up my electricity bill. She speaks a little English- definitely more than I speak Korean- and our conversation consisted of me pointing to the toilet and saying "Soh-ri!" which means "noise" in Korean and her saying "Because 12" which means "Your toilet is making that strange and annoying sound because of the water pressure on the twelfth floor". So I figured I would just have to deal with the noise, even though it sometimes woke me up at night. Then two days ago I came home from work and kind of freaked out because some stuff in my bathroom was not where I left it and I thought someone had been in my apartment but it was just my landlady and a plumber. Now the toilet no longer makes a soh-ri and I am happy.


So even though my apartment doesn't have a loft bedroom or a big kitchen or hardwood floors or some of the nicer amenities that my friends' apartments have, it's big and has a great location. The floor is gross but it could be worse!

EPIK Fall 2010 Orientation and Korean Folk Village

EPIK Orientation was exhausting but really a lot of fun. It was 10 days long. We would have class all morning until lunchtime, then more classes until dinner, and then Korean classes some days after dinner. Classes were about things like "Elementary School Curriuculum in Korea", "Co-Teaching," and "Classroom Management." I personally appreciated all the effort EPIK put into preparing us but hated most of the speakers and thought most of the information was pretty useless. Every school, classroom, and teacher is so different there aren't universally-applicable rules. Plus, some of the teachers were way too smarmy. I might have been grumpy all the time because we hardly got to spend any time sleeping in our hard, uncomfortable beds! CLICK ON THE PICTURES AND THEY GET BIGGER :)

The 'cozy' dorm room I shared with Sonya.

Unless you are in a building that caters to foreigners your shower will probably be like this. Your whole bathroom is your shower. I actually like it.

At the end of orientation we worked in a group and presented a sample lesson. Mine was "Where is the subway station?" There was an opening ceremony and a closing ceremony (with a photo slideshow which they gave everyone on a disc) and we got snacks between classes so it was pretty nice. Here are pictures from the opening ceremony:

Midong Elementary School's Taekwondo team

Midong Middle School Taekwondo Team from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

They were amazing!

Dancers from a women's high school

Kyung Hee University Global Campus is in Yongin and it was only about a 10-minute walk to the various restaurants and bars downtown. One day I took a cab with some people to the nearby Home Plus because we desperately needed hair dryers and hair straighteners. I didn't pack a hair dryer and my hair straightener blew out in Korea despite me using an adapter and converter on it. So for all of orientation except the last day I looked like a really unkempt greaseball with horrible bangs. This, added to the fact that it was really hot and humid outside and the air conditioning was not working in any of the classrooms, makes me really surprised that I even made friends.

The best part of orientation was probably the day trip to the Korean Folk Village in Yongin. Even though it was unbearably hot and humid and we all had to wear our matching EPIK polo shots it was a lot of fun. We saw traditional Korean music, horse-riding, and tightrope-walking. We also saw a traditional Korean wedding but I couldn't actually see anything because the guy sitting in front of me was humongous and there were a bunch of poles in the way. At Korean Folk Village there are authentic old buildings that were actually brought from their original locations to the Village and they are, restorations aside, originals, so that was pretty interesting. But the best part of the day by far were all the cute Korean babies and children everywhere! We kept being stealthy and taking pictures of them when their parents weren't looking. Except we think the parents of this adorable baby at the tightrope-walking show knew what we were up to because they took their baby away.

Here are some pictures from Korean Folk Village:

In America, we like to dress up like flappers and cowboys and take pictures at parks. In Korea, they like to put on old-fashioned hanbok.

Totem poles to defend a town.

Yongin Korean Folk Village Traditional Music from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

You make a wish and then tie a ribbon to the tree.


I don't know the exact word for this but people are supposed to lie down inside this patio -type thing during the day to nap and cool down.

If you follow a colorful bridge from the Village you end up in the Family Park. After seeing this sign across the bridge and all the rainbow pinwheels of course I led the movement to go here.