even with the language barrier.. we still pull out the funnies
Saturday 28 August 2010
Thursday 26 August 2010
first week of teaching!
I have been teaching for a few days now! I guess my experience is a little different from most of my fellow Fulbright ETAs. Most of them are gloating in the celebrity status that they get at school. Why do they get this immediate rock-star status.. you ask? Well, blonde hair, blue eyes or even a white face will do the trick. You see, S. Korea is a very beauty-obsessed culture and there are very specific things that make you beautiful. There was this Korean girl at Orientation that I thought was gorgeous, but according to Korean standards, her face was not white or small enough. This explains why a majority of Koreans get plastic surgery to get “better” eye-lids or nose. Anywho, it is interesting to be Indian-American in S.Korea to say the least. Instead of getting that burst of excitement upon seeing me, it is more of a VERY CONFUSED look when I am introduced as being from America. In that sense, it is somewhat exhausting being “ON” all the time because 1) I am so conscious of how I am being judged on my appearance and 2) I have to work harder to prove myself to them because I do not get that American-card unless that is brought up in conversation but even after.. not really.
But, maybe this is the reason I have a “diplomatic visa” or it is my duty as a “cultural ambassador.” In a sense, I am a walking example of how diverse America is and every confused look I get is another chance I have to break the stereotype that Americans are all white. Just hopefully after a while, it won’t be so exhausting …
Even showing my students pictures of my friends BLEW THEIR MIND – they did couldn’t grasp at first that the person that looked African,, Filipino, Irish, Mexican and me were all, in fact, “American.” In one class, I had to go back and forth with this one students who just would not believe that my friend who was black was American. She pointed to the picture and said “African!” and I said “No, American!” She looked puzzled and pointed again, African!” It became screaming-fest back and forth of “African!” and “No, American!”
I guess another upside is that the compliments I do get are very thoughtful ones. There are less students petting me or wanting to touch my hair and more of the “You are a very diligent and hard working teacher,” “Can I be your friend, teacher?” or “All the teachers think you have the sweetest heart.”
As for my students, they are very cute girls. I was told before that students on the Island are much more naïve and sweet. Why that is... I am haven’t fully figured out but when I do.. I will surely write about it.
I spent an hour at the moon-bang-gu trying to figure out how to decorate my classroom and came to the conclusion that the classroom isn’t really for me… it is for the students. And so, I decided to do a “Cube Activity” for my first lesson. There is a cube cut out and they have to answer 6 BASIC questions about themselves. I thought this would be a good lesson for a couple of reasons: 1) I can learn about the students 2) obviously, use it as decorate the classroom .. hang it off the ceiling and staple it to the bulletin board 3) I can also gauge how much English they know
I am glad I did this activity first because I was SO SURPRISED the fact that in ALL my classes there would be one girl who knew EVERYTHING and could write multiple sentences.. and she was sitting next to a girl who looked at me as if they had never heard English before. Its not that I had too high hopes for my students.. I will surely teach and love them at their level, but how do you “teach to the middle” when half the class has a great grasp of English and the other cannot even spell the world nurse or know how to answer “What is your name?” Yesterday was a tough day.. I taught five classes, almost back-to-back with just one break. And after a whole day of seeing this extreme range in abilities all day, I was just quite discouraged. The pouring rainstorm didn’t help either. I am thinking of dividing the class half and half based on abilities. Sure, I’d have to spend that much time more creating different lesson plans but it would be worth it.. I think. The only thing I’d feel guilty about is having my co-teacher be responsible for the other half of the class. Sure I would give her instructions of what I want to be done with those students, but I am worried I would be asking her too much. gah, okay time for hopkido with the host sisters.. i'll finish my thoughts later and put up pictures too :)
But, maybe this is the reason I have a “diplomatic visa” or it is my duty as a “cultural ambassador.” In a sense, I am a walking example of how diverse America is and every confused look I get is another chance I have to break the stereotype that Americans are all white. Just hopefully after a while, it won’t be so exhausting …
Even showing my students pictures of my friends BLEW THEIR MIND – they did couldn’t grasp at first that the person that looked African,, Filipino, Irish, Mexican and me were all, in fact, “American.” In one class, I had to go back and forth with this one students who just would not believe that my friend who was black was American. She pointed to the picture and said “African!” and I said “No, American!” She looked puzzled and pointed again, African!” It became screaming-fest back and forth of “African!” and “No, American!”
I guess another upside is that the compliments I do get are very thoughtful ones. There are less students petting me or wanting to touch my hair and more of the “You are a very diligent and hard working teacher,” “Can I be your friend, teacher?” or “All the teachers think you have the sweetest heart.”
As for my students, they are very cute girls. I was told before that students on the Island are much more naïve and sweet. Why that is... I am haven’t fully figured out but when I do.. I will surely write about it.
I spent an hour at the moon-bang-gu trying to figure out how to decorate my classroom and came to the conclusion that the classroom isn’t really for me… it is for the students. And so, I decided to do a “Cube Activity” for my first lesson. There is a cube cut out and they have to answer 6 BASIC questions about themselves. I thought this would be a good lesson for a couple of reasons: 1) I can learn about the students 2) obviously, use it as decorate the classroom .. hang it off the ceiling and staple it to the bulletin board 3) I can also gauge how much English they know
I am glad I did this activity first because I was SO SURPRISED the fact that in ALL my classes there would be one girl who knew EVERYTHING and could write multiple sentences.. and she was sitting next to a girl who looked at me as if they had never heard English before. Its not that I had too high hopes for my students.. I will surely teach and love them at their level, but how do you “teach to the middle” when half the class has a great grasp of English and the other cannot even spell the world nurse or know how to answer “What is your name?” Yesterday was a tough day.. I taught five classes, almost back-to-back with just one break. And after a whole day of seeing this extreme range in abilities all day, I was just quite discouraged. The pouring rainstorm didn’t help either. I am thinking of dividing the class half and half based on abilities. Sure, I’d have to spend that much time more creating different lesson plans but it would be worth it.. I think. The only thing I’d feel guilty about is having my co-teacher be responsible for the other half of the class. Sure I would give her instructions of what I want to be done with those students, but I am worried I would be asking her too much. gah, okay time for hopkido with the host sisters.. i'll finish my thoughts later and put up pictures too :)
Monday 23 August 2010
as much as i am at peace in Jeju and constantly smiling from ear to ear, at times .. I find myself longing for the familiar - mostly old friends and other Fulbrighters.
but then i got to thinking: isn’t it just the unfamiliar until a new unfamiliar comes into our lives? Then, don’t we long that familiar once unfamiliar again..
idk .. gnite, kids.
but then i got to thinking: isn’t it just the unfamiliar until a new unfamiliar comes into our lives? Then, don’t we long that familiar once unfamiliar again..
idk .. gnite, kids.
Saturday 21 August 2010
Transition
This “adventure” began with meeting my old, yet very cute vice-principal and my sophisticated and wise co-teacher, song-sunsangnem, at the Departure Day ceremony at orientation. My vice-principal is VERY QUIRKY – he kind of reminds me of my dad. He told me:
“if you ask me a question, I will not answer. But if you do not ask me a question, I will answer.”
In an odd way, this made me really happy because 1) I miss my dad terribly 2) I love quirky people <3
My co-teacher and I ended up talking for the whole two hours until the meeting with the Fulbright Executive Director, Mrs. Shim. Of the many things we talked about, I told her that I want to 1) learn something new every day and 2) laugh at least once every day. She really liked that and said she wanted that as her goal as well. I then introduced the idea of “accountabilibuddy” to her. And guess what?! I am so happy to say that co-teacher is now my accountabilibuddy :)
picture from the plane of some smaller islands/large rocks? off the coast of Jeju
picture of the sunset on Jeju and my co-teacher, song-sunsangnem, on the side!
I then met my principal and my other co-teacher, yungenyang-sungsangnem, at dinner. I have to admit I was quite nervous to meet my principal.. the principal has extraordinary power in the school in South Korea. Emilee L., an OC who was at my school the previous year, also told me that she doesn’t speak much English. So when I finally met her, she said:
“PRETTY! You have a small face! In picture they sent, looks big face! You look like movie actress!”
My honest thought at this moment was “am I being pranked?! Where are the hidden cameras?!” You see, the whole plane ride over I had envisioned the conversation with the principal and co-teachers and kept practicing all these things to say in Korean. I mean.. I was almost SWEATING (okay, I was.) from this initial meeting because the first impression means so much in Korea. And, I did not for once think that she was going to say that! And out of all things say something like “YOU HAVE SMALL FACE!” South korea, you keep me on my toes. As for the rest of the conversation, the principal’s English was limited to those first sentences but the co-teacher helped translate. She told the co-teachers to tell me that I was very funny and charismatic. Win.
And then at 10 at night, I met my host family for the first time. At first, I was a little disappointed when I realized that both my hostparents do not speak English, especially because I envisioned having a very strong relationship with my host mother. While it does not mean that we cannot still a strong connection, I just didn’t realize how hard I’d have to work to overcome the language barrier. Yesterday, my host mother and I spent about 10 minutes passing back and forth my Korean-English phrasebook just to understand where on Jeju Island we lived (and yes, this was all in front of a map). This was a really humbling experience because towards the end of Korean class, I was FINALLY beginning to feel like I was understanding Korean.. that when someone was speaking korean, it wasn’t some terrible BAD joke that I wasn’t understanding the punch line to anymore.. but now, it really feels like I’m back to square 1 ..Though I am grateful that my host sisters know some English and translate as much as they can.
I have two host sisters – Kwon En (14 years Korean age, 13 years American age) and Kwon Ah (12 years Korean age and 11 year American age). Kwon En is very mature and loves to read. I really look forward to reading with her at coffee shops nearby. Kwon En is very playful and loves games. I ADORE them. The other day, we bought a small soccer ball and we played throwing/kicking games together, which just ended up in them teaming up against me and me being the goalie. I taught them HOP-SCTOCH today! Now, Kwon-Ah can’t stop skipping on foot haha.
Its funny how at orientation we kept hearing how Korean mothers will NOT let you in the kitchen. Well, I guess “it really does depends” because my host mom grabbed me for our first dinner and put gloves on my hand! I made kim-chi from SCRATCH. YES, that’s right.. Shreya Trivedi was in the kitchen and made KIM-CHI. I did a little bit of charade hand gesturing and signaled my hostfather to take a picture with the camera. I am pretty sure he was confused how this was exciting enough to take a picture. Mom, I hope this makes you proud.
i taught my host sister and her cousin how to french-braid hair and they were trying it on each other.
our (my host sisters' and mine) hands! its funny how you can bond over just about anything.. even about having two bracelets on
after dinner, we went to go see the waterfalls at night!
Off to Gapado Island (and very small Island off the shore of Jeju Island) for a small family vacation!
Always,
Shreya
“if you ask me a question, I will not answer. But if you do not ask me a question, I will answer.”
In an odd way, this made me really happy because 1) I miss my dad terribly 2) I love quirky people <3
My co-teacher and I ended up talking for the whole two hours until the meeting with the Fulbright Executive Director, Mrs. Shim. Of the many things we talked about, I told her that I want to 1) learn something new every day and 2) laugh at least once every day. She really liked that and said she wanted that as her goal as well. I then introduced the idea of “accountabilibuddy” to her. And guess what?! I am so happy to say that co-teacher is now my accountabilibuddy :)
picture from the plane of some smaller islands/large rocks? off the coast of Jeju
picture of the sunset on Jeju and my co-teacher, song-sunsangnem, on the side!
I then met my principal and my other co-teacher, yungenyang-sungsangnem, at dinner. I have to admit I was quite nervous to meet my principal.. the principal has extraordinary power in the school in South Korea. Emilee L., an OC who was at my school the previous year, also told me that she doesn’t speak much English. So when I finally met her, she said:
“PRETTY! You have a small face! In picture they sent, looks big face! You look like movie actress!”
My honest thought at this moment was “am I being pranked?! Where are the hidden cameras?!” You see, the whole plane ride over I had envisioned the conversation with the principal and co-teachers and kept practicing all these things to say in Korean. I mean.. I was almost SWEATING (okay, I was.) from this initial meeting because the first impression means so much in Korea. And, I did not for once think that she was going to say that! And out of all things say something like “YOU HAVE SMALL FACE!” South korea, you keep me on my toes. As for the rest of the conversation, the principal’s English was limited to those first sentences but the co-teacher helped translate. She told the co-teachers to tell me that I was very funny and charismatic. Win.
And then at 10 at night, I met my host family for the first time. At first, I was a little disappointed when I realized that both my hostparents do not speak English, especially because I envisioned having a very strong relationship with my host mother. While it does not mean that we cannot still a strong connection, I just didn’t realize how hard I’d have to work to overcome the language barrier. Yesterday, my host mother and I spent about 10 minutes passing back and forth my Korean-English phrasebook just to understand where on Jeju Island we lived (and yes, this was all in front of a map). This was a really humbling experience because towards the end of Korean class, I was FINALLY beginning to feel like I was understanding Korean.. that when someone was speaking korean, it wasn’t some terrible BAD joke that I wasn’t understanding the punch line to anymore.. but now, it really feels like I’m back to square 1 ..Though I am grateful that my host sisters know some English and translate as much as they can.
I have two host sisters – Kwon En (14 years Korean age, 13 years American age) and Kwon Ah (12 years Korean age and 11 year American age). Kwon En is very mature and loves to read. I really look forward to reading with her at coffee shops nearby. Kwon En is very playful and loves games. I ADORE them. The other day, we bought a small soccer ball and we played throwing/kicking games together, which just ended up in them teaming up against me and me being the goalie. I taught them HOP-SCTOCH today! Now, Kwon-Ah can’t stop skipping on foot haha.
Its funny how at orientation we kept hearing how Korean mothers will NOT let you in the kitchen. Well, I guess “it really does depends” because my host mom grabbed me for our first dinner and put gloves on my hand! I made kim-chi from SCRATCH. YES, that’s right.. Shreya Trivedi was in the kitchen and made KIM-CHI. I did a little bit of charade hand gesturing and signaled my hostfather to take a picture with the camera. I am pretty sure he was confused how this was exciting enough to take a picture. Mom, I hope this makes you proud.
i taught my host sister and her cousin how to french-braid hair and they were trying it on each other.
our (my host sisters' and mine) hands! its funny how you can bond over just about anything.. even about having two bracelets on
after dinner, we went to go see the waterfalls at night!
Off to Gapado Island (and very small Island off the shore of Jeju Island) for a small family vacation!
Always,
Shreya
Saturday 7 August 2010
Placement for the Grant Year!
Well here I go again … another rushed attempt to record the inner monologues that have been racing through my mind the past few weeks. But as I keep writing, I just keep pressing delete. I guess this attempt is somewhat futile because although so much has been going on the past few weeks, it all seems trivial at this moment… compared to what I found out on Wednesday. Fulbright office came on Wednesday and announced our placements for our grant year. I found out that I will be teaching at …
Drum roll please ...
An all-girls middle school on JEJU ISLAND.
To be perfectly honest, my first thought was “WHAT.. is this for real?” I don’t even want to know what my face looked like as I gave that bow and took my first steps to walk to the stage. This was a surprise for a couple of reasons. 1) I had requested to be placed somewhere outside of Seoul because I will be fasting for Shravan Bhagvan soon and would have liked to attend the ceremonies at the only Hindu temple in South Korea, which is obviously in Seoul. And so because it was a legit religious reason.. I thought I would get that. 2) Apparently, a LOT OF PEOPLE want to be placed on Jeju Island (or so I have been told). It is the Hawaii of South Korea. Koreans/tourists go to the island for there for their honeymoons! It is arguably the most beautiful part of South Korea. And so, I didn't think i'd be on Jeju.
After the initial surprise, I “pulled a typical shreya” (as Dalmas would call it). Being a big believer in karma, I tried to figure out what this meant in the grand scheme of things .. and, if I really deserving of such a beautiful, exotic placement? I really hadn’t pictured myself going to school every day seeing palm trees on my way. Or, having the opportunity to go scuba diving, learn surfing, have access to so many beautiful beaches or take a boat to Japan! I just can’t fully describe just how humbled I was by the thought of it or the grateful feeling I had after hearing Erin’s (one of the OCs) talk about her time in Jeju.
But I think the magnitude of the “this is too good to be true” feeling or those emotions from being humbled and so grateful were so overwhelming that in my own convoluted, contradictory way .. I started to look for the negative aspect of being on Jeju Island. And oh yes, if you look for anything hard enough.. you sure will find it. I soon realized that many of my close friends that I had made during orientation were on the mainland on South Korea. I think I let it weigh on me a little more than I should have. But soon enough, I did find that perspective. And honestly, it is like having the best of both words. We get 3 free round-trip plane tickets to the mainland and the plane tickets are just about 25-30,000 won (so a little less than $25-$30), so I can visit people on the mainland as much as I want. And on the other hand, there are some really wonderful people on Jeju with me and the “Jeju crew” always gets really tight!
WAIT, speaking of which, how did I forget to mention this?!?! So, soon after hearing my placement .. DAVE GETS CALLED AND HE WAS PLACED ON JEJU WITH ME ! you see, the hilarity/irony in this that we went through four years of Villanova (Biology/Philosophy/OrientationStaff/BuzbyLab!/WomeninSciencehaha/commiserationoverfindingoutaboutfulbrightsolate) together. Then, we have/are surviving four hours of Korean class at Fulbright orientation (yay class E!), and now on Jeju island together for our placements. I told him before we headed upstairs for the placement ceremony that I would laugh so hard if we were placed in the same province together. And sure enough.. oh, and it couldn’t have been any better that his name was called right after mine because I couldn’t help but burst out in a little bit of a giggle of joy (that phrase sounds weird but I think it accurately describes it). Well, one thing is certain, Dave Ederer and I will just never part ways haha.
All in all, I feel blessed. It still hasn’t sunk in that I will be on Jeju Island in two weeks (Aug 19th) and begin teaching middle school girls shortly after. And, I’m not sure it will until I get there.
speaking of feeling blessed, I need to thank some awesome people for their support and always looking out for me. I don’t say it enough but it does mean a lot to me, especially now with this big transition. I am quite lucky to have such amazing people in my life. I hope, one day, to be as inspirational to you guys as you are to me.
Also, I have put some pictures below of Jeju Island.
Always,
Shreya
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
One of the waterfalls at Jeju
There are two parts of the Jeju Island.. I am on the tourist side (vs. the city side)
This is the trail near Halla Mountain,the highest mountain in S.Korea
the island :)
palm trees!
Drum roll please ...
An all-girls middle school on JEJU ISLAND.
To be perfectly honest, my first thought was “WHAT.. is this for real?” I don’t even want to know what my face looked like as I gave that bow and took my first steps to walk to the stage. This was a surprise for a couple of reasons. 1) I had requested to be placed somewhere outside of Seoul because I will be fasting for Shravan Bhagvan soon and would have liked to attend the ceremonies at the only Hindu temple in South Korea, which is obviously in Seoul. And so because it was a legit religious reason.. I thought I would get that. 2) Apparently, a LOT OF PEOPLE want to be placed on Jeju Island (or so I have been told). It is the Hawaii of South Korea. Koreans/tourists go to the island for there for their honeymoons! It is arguably the most beautiful part of South Korea. And so, I didn't think i'd be on Jeju.
After the initial surprise, I “pulled a typical shreya” (as Dalmas would call it). Being a big believer in karma, I tried to figure out what this meant in the grand scheme of things .. and, if I really deserving of such a beautiful, exotic placement? I really hadn’t pictured myself going to school every day seeing palm trees on my way. Or, having the opportunity to go scuba diving, learn surfing, have access to so many beautiful beaches or take a boat to Japan! I just can’t fully describe just how humbled I was by the thought of it or the grateful feeling I had after hearing Erin’s (one of the OCs) talk about her time in Jeju.
But I think the magnitude of the “this is too good to be true” feeling or those emotions from being humbled and so grateful were so overwhelming that in my own convoluted, contradictory way .. I started to look for the negative aspect of being on Jeju Island. And oh yes, if you look for anything hard enough.. you sure will find it. I soon realized that many of my close friends that I had made during orientation were on the mainland on South Korea. I think I let it weigh on me a little more than I should have. But soon enough, I did find that perspective. And honestly, it is like having the best of both words. We get 3 free round-trip plane tickets to the mainland and the plane tickets are just about 25-30,000 won (so a little less than $25-$30), so I can visit people on the mainland as much as I want. And on the other hand, there are some really wonderful people on Jeju with me and the “Jeju crew” always gets really tight!
WAIT, speaking of which, how did I forget to mention this?!?! So, soon after hearing my placement .. DAVE GETS CALLED AND HE WAS PLACED ON JEJU WITH ME ! you see, the hilarity/irony in this that we went through four years of Villanova (Biology/Philosophy/OrientationStaff/BuzbyLab!/WomeninSciencehaha/commiserationoverfindingoutaboutfulbrightsolate) together. Then, we have/are surviving four hours of Korean class at Fulbright orientation (yay class E!), and now on Jeju island together for our placements. I told him before we headed upstairs for the placement ceremony that I would laugh so hard if we were placed in the same province together. And sure enough.. oh, and it couldn’t have been any better that his name was called right after mine because I couldn’t help but burst out in a little bit of a giggle of joy (that phrase sounds weird but I think it accurately describes it). Well, one thing is certain, Dave Ederer and I will just never part ways haha.
All in all, I feel blessed. It still hasn’t sunk in that I will be on Jeju Island in two weeks (Aug 19th) and begin teaching middle school girls shortly after. And, I’m not sure it will until I get there.
speaking of feeling blessed, I need to thank some awesome people for their support and always looking out for me. I don’t say it enough but it does mean a lot to me, especially now with this big transition. I am quite lucky to have such amazing people in my life. I hope, one day, to be as inspirational to you guys as you are to me.
Also, I have put some pictures below of Jeju Island.
Always,
Shreya
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
One of the waterfalls at Jeju
There are two parts of the Jeju Island.. I am on the tourist side (vs. the city side)
This is the trail near Halla Mountain,the highest mountain in S.Korea
the island :)
palm trees!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)