Introduction to Korean Pop Culture

I think there are a few easy ways to learn a foreign language. One way is to be immersed in the language by living in a place where it is often used. This could be accomplished by living in another country or studying abroad where the language is used by the community. It could also be done by having parents that speak the other language and raise you to speak it from birth. Another way is to have something wrong with you so that you have an intrinsic motivation to study another language that won't be immediately practical. There are a number of things wrong with some of the students, such as the inability to remember that a pencil or pen might be useful for class, or the unconscious prodding, and punching of one another, but none of them seem to get too giddy when it's time for English grammar. Out of the 800 students I teach each week, I believe only one of them has lived outside of Korea, and she hasn't done a very good job of convincing the rest of how wonderful the English-speaking world is and how they should all do their best to learn English. However, English has a lot to offer in terms of entertainment and it seems that all kids wants to be entertained these days, right?

Yes and no. The students certainly do like entertaining things, but that's true of just about everyone but baseball fans. What has been particularly surprising is how little of a direct impact American pop culture has here. When I was in Spain and Greece, I heard the same drivel of pop and rap songs (with a few crazy European techno songs thrown in) and saw the same movies that were available in the United States. However, Korea is kind of like a bizarro United States. The Koreans are very self-sufficient in producing their own television, music, film, fashion and sports. A lot of it has emulated aspects of American culture, but it's still definitely been made into something fairly unique and zany. It also mirrors the United States in the exportation of the culture. The spread of Korean entertainment throughout Asia is a phenomenon called the "Korean Wave." I had previously been misusing this term for when the students vigorously wave at me using both of their hands.

So, what exactly is the hullabaloo about all of this Korean entertainment? I set out to find out by learning what my middle school students are interested in. For my first class, after going over the rules and procedures, I introduced myself and told them my interests, and then taught them how to convey their interests using the reliable "I like..." phrase. The students kept track of their partner's responses, which I got to look over later. The results were astonishing.

The students seem to enjoy pop music. The most popular music group is The Wondergirls with their blockbuster hit, "Tell Me."

I taught the students what "tell me" means, but after that I'm kind of lost.

Here's another group the students like. This is Super Junior.

It's pretty much like the Wondergirls song, except these guys are wearing shorter skirts.

It's not really my cup of tea, but if you're enjoying these videos, then some other performers you might like are Big Bang, Sg Wannabe, EPIK High, and FT Island.

My students also like computer games quite a bit. There are a lot of free internet games you can play if you have a Korean ID#, which is like a social security number. This helps prevent pesky foreigners from playing and annoying the locals with their gibberish. This game is Sudden Attack, which looks a tiny bit like the American game, Counter-Strike.

You don't have to watch the whole thing if you're like me and get bored after about 15 seconds. I don't think anything interesting ever happens.

Other free games the students like are Dungeon & Fighter, Maple Story and Crazy Arcade. Some of the students also like Warcraft 3 and Starcraft, which are played as professional e-sports here in Korea. It's kind of like a paradise for my 13 year old past self. If only my parents hadn't made me turn off the computer every couple of hours then, I could be achieving greatness as a professional athlete here instead of wallowing as an English teacher. Here's some guys living the dream in action.

Finally, my students like television as well. Korean dramas are a pretty big deal here and look like cartoony soap operas. I made the mistake of turning on the TV during my first week here and I saw a guy eating kimbap (Korean sushi) while sitting in a car and crying as a woman walked away while a piano and violin slowly played. The guy wasn't really crying, rather his eyes were leaking profusely. Here's an example; I couldn't watch the whole thing, but if you're up for a challenge then you can try.

There is also another type of drama, but this type is considered to be historical.

I sure wish this idea would cross the Pacific. It would be pretty awesome to see Ben Franklin and John Adams fighting the British in hand-to-hand combat while being tempted in various love triangles.

My students seem to really like this comedy show called Muhandojeon. It's about six guys who participate in odd challenges and talk to famous people.

I actually watched all of that clip after learning that my students liked this show, and the ending was very disturbing. Ever since watching that, I walk with my back to a wall at all times to prevent the students from emulating their television heroes.

As you can see, the realm of Korean entertainment is vast and vibrant. I didn't even go into Korean films, which might be right up your alley if you like romantic comedies or crime dramas. It's actually really refreshing and exciting to get to experience a different popular culture. There's a novelty to it all that makes just about everything at least somewhat interesting. However, the unique Korean entertainment culture also makes my job as an English teacher a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. As mentioned before, an easy way to learn English is to immerse yourself in it, and English entertainment is normally an easy means for doing this. Unfortunately, it just isn't as appealing as the easy-to-understand product that is already available. It will be my last week of teaching this next week before the school goes on winter break for two months. That's a long time to go without any language practice, so I think I'll still try to see if I can pique their interest in English culture. I have a plethora of English music to offer, and I think that some of the students who play instruments, like the guitar or piano, might be interested in that venue. One of the kids was telling me today that he played guitar, but that he had never heard of Jimi Hendrix. Blasphemy! Another interesting part of our English culture would be literature. Harry Potter and His Dark Materials are good kids books, but they might be a little too advanced for most of my students. I was thinking that comic books and newspaper comics might be of interest, but Japan might have filled that void. I have access to some TV shows and movies that I could share with the students as well. The Simpsons can be funny for all ages and abilities, and it is even drawn right here in South Korea! The students also seem to be pretty internet savvy, and I think this might be a good opportunity for them to practice their English. Korea has its own bizarro internet (they don't use google), but I think the students would find some things they would like if they ventured into the English parts of it. There's a number of flash games they could play as well as many videos and homemade cartoons to watch on sites like youtube and newgrounds. I'm not sure how it will go, but if you, my loyal readers, can think of any other ideas for the Korean middle school student who already has everything, then let me know.

Cooking in Korea

Every weekend is bittersweet for me. Sure, I get to sleep in. I get to play soccer, or hike, or go to Seoul, or read, or pretty much do whatever I feel like. Yet there is always something missing that makes me look forward to Monday. No, it's not the students. I see them all over the place on the weekend. (They're always shocked to find out that I do other things in life besides teaching.) What those weekends don't have is the special hour where I can say the magic words, 배고 파여 (paygo pahyuh, which I think translates to something like "I'm starving"), and I'll be taken to the place with the warm floor to eat as much food as I can in order to impress and also because I don't know when I'll be eating that well again.

One of the biggest surprises of my adventure in Korea has been how good the food is. I'd eaten at many of the Japanese, Chinese and Thai places on the Ave back in Seattle, but I never knew how different and good Korean food is. Even the first meal I had at the school, which included a soup that had cut-up hot dogs and onions (the Korean teachers told me that in Korea it is called "Chris Ferns guk"), was delicious. Delicious or in Korean, 바싰인미다(sp?) (bahsheesheenmeeda), is really the only word I can think of to describe Korean food. I mean that literally too, because that's the only word I have learned to say while eating. I'm going to be in a lot trouble when I finally eat something that I don't care for, but I'm hoping that will just never happen.

The food here is great, but it's not all peaches and kimchi. One problem for me is that restaurants only serve portions for two or more people, and asking for a doggy bag is fightin' words. Since there is currently only one of me this has made my after school meals more of a challenge. That first week I was able to survive on a steady diet of french toast, eggs and popcorn. However, for a growing boy like myself I needed more sustenance than that. While my hunting skills hadn't reached the level I was hoping for, my gathering ability had improved tremendously. While wondering around in the nearby mountain I discovered that the pine cones have nuts in them. Here is a picture to help you picture the nuts because television has probably rotted your imagination:

Now don't get too excited just yet. There is actually a durable shell surrounding the meat of the pine nut.

Luckily, I managed to create a special tool for opening pine nuts:



Give the nuts a good hard whack, but try not to follow through too much or you'll squash the nut against your cell phone.

Just pretend that you're disciplining a misbehaving student.

A naked pine nut.

Don't forget to eat it.
Now you smile and say 바싰인미다

I kind of think that I may be spending more energy into opening these nuts than I'm actually getting out of them. Some of the teachers might have noticed my emaciation over my first couple weeks here too, because one day I was invited by the home ec teacher to learn how to cook some Korean food after school. I graciously accepted her invitation and later met her and some other teachers in a kitchen classroom. She taught me how to make 떡볶이 (tuhpokey), or as I call it, "dinner for November." I'll return her kindness by paying it forward to my loyal readers and giving you the secret recipe.

First, you'll need some vegetables and meat.

Here are some exact details:
1 onion
2 green peppers
2 ginormous carrots
4-5 big mushrooms (try to find an Asian variety because they actually taste good)
1 lb ground meat (I used ground pork because that's all I could find)
1 package of glutinous rice cakes (called 떡 or duhk or if you're a jerk you could call them by a Japanese name like mochi rice cakes)

Peel apart the rice cakes and soak them in cold water for 15-30 minutes. While you're doing this, you should find a soccer game to watch, and start cutting your vegetables. For the green peppers, big mushroom and ginormous carrots, you'll want to cut them into about 8-10 cm long strips that are less than half a cm in width and depth.


Chop, chop.

I forgot to tell you to cut the onions into 32nds. Do that too.

You should also start boiling some water for the rice cakes during the preparation of the vegetables. Boil the rice cakes for five minutes. Then drain and rinse the rice cakes with cold water.

While this is going on you can make the sauce, here is the recipe for that:
2/3 cup soy sauce
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 Tbl sesame seeds
2 Tbl sesame seed oil
2 shakes of black pepper
2 Tbl crushed garlic

Mix that up really well and then add four tablespoons of it to your rice cakes which should have been boiled and rinsed. Take the rest of the sauce and poor it onto the meat and mix it in.
Be sure to use your hands to mix the sauce in. The teacher told me that it helps add flavor.

Add some oil to a wok. Brown the meat and stir it into bit sized pieces. Then add the carrots and cook those for about 3 minutes. Add the other vegetables and cook those for another 2-3 minutes. Add the rice cakes last and cook them for 2-3 minutes too.
Be sure to be stirring constantly and not taking pictures of yourself so that nothing burns.

Why I am in Korea

An astute reader of this internet web log made a comment that I am in Korea and not somewhere else, such as in Morocco or the United States. I was going to try to think of an amusing story involving me taking the wrong plane and then faking as some other teacher that was suppose to be here. However, I'll try to be serious since this is a legitimate question and I don't want to discourage those yet.

The culmination of coming to Korea can't really be based on a quick decision or a single event, but rather an accumulation of events. It's kind of like the old board game, mouse trap, except it didn't take me as long to make the decision as it takes to set up all the pieces in that game. If you don't really care about the long process leading up to my decision, and you just want to know why Korea and not Morocco, then I'll make this like a choose your own adventure book, and you can skip down below to the *s.

I suppose the first inkling of my future can be attributed to my old dormitory freshmen roommate, Ryan. I remember that he had an online quiz for how well you knew him, and since I was always looking for ways to distract myself from my studying, I took the quiz. The only thing I remember from it was a question about what Ryan wanted for his future. It was a multiple choice quiz and I chose one of the ambitious answers like being President or beating the Super Mario Bros video game in under five minutes. However, I was surprised to learn that my friend's dream was to graduate from college, start a career, find a wife and have 2.2 children. He could have at least picked the President option. (It's a tough one to get if you don't happen to have a father that can buy you a professional baseball team, but I feel I still have a chance with Christmas coming soon).

I have since learned that apparently a lot of people aren't interested in being President, and they want the career and family type of life and I think that's great. As long as you're not doing something that is harming someone or something else, and it's going to make you happy, then I say go for it. I just feel like there would be something missing if I chose this path. The world is such a huge place, and I practically won the lottery being born into the family and place I was. What is it like for the rest of those in the world who weren't as lucky as I was? Sure, I can read about it or see it on television, but I feel like both of those mediums are so normally intertwined with fictional situations that one might psychologically lose or forget the power and truth that reality is. I think the best way to learn about something isn't to read or watch it, but to do and experience it. It probably will be as bad as what I've read in the newspapers or seen on the news. If that's the case, then I would like to do what I can to change it for the better. Is that naive and arrogant? Possibly. However, after 23 years of doing nothing but taking from the world, I feel a mix of guilt and responsibility. I want some sort of meaning in my life. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm never going to waste any opportunity I ever have here. After finishing Ryan's quiz, I realized that even though I wanted to do something a little different from Ryan's future plans, I hadn't thought of how I would exactly do this. After a couple of minutes of thinking, I decided the Peace Corps would fit into what I wanted.

The next person to blame for me being in Korea would probably be the professor I performed research with, Dr. Sibley. She knew about my plans to join the Peace Corps, and see the world and make a difference, but she kept suggesting that I look into some scholarship called the Bonderman Travel Fellowship. So I humored her and looked into it. It turns out the scholarship is for $20,000 and the rules are you have to travel for at least eight months and you have to go to six or more countries in two regions of the world. The other rule is no participating in any type of formal school or research work while you are traveling. Not too shabby of a deal. I had traveled for a month with my friend Jeff to Greece and Spain and I had a great time. It was an unexpected surprise to learn how different and wonderful the world and other cultures can be. I don't think I'll ever forget being in Madrid when gay marriages were legalized, nor will I forget being in a small gypsy cave and intimately listening to a passionate flamenco guitarist. That was only a couple of weeks of traveling and the scholarship was for at least eight months! So I wrote an essay and applied for the fellowship. I was named a finalist and had an interview. I made a few costly mistakes then, such as not answering a question of "what do I have a burning desire to do while traveling" very well (should have mentioned the flamenco concert and some other humanist experiences). I think I really blew it when I was asked about the Peace Corps. I had been already applied to the Peace Corps and was nominated to be a biology teacher in Morocco. The panel of interviewers asked me if this was what I wanted to do and I said yes. Neither they nor I could see that I was wrong at the time since the proof would only come in the future. I was rejected and it hurt. It was especially annoying to see that our student body president had been chosen, which is a position nearly everyone except for the student body officers see as an unfunny joke. We could elect no one and the same amount of nothing would get done, except for maybe we'd miss a music concert in the basketball arena where sound echoes off the walls like a ping pong ball (and it's not like Seattle is short on concerts or venues). So I am a bit jealous, but I guess I am of anyone who can work smarter and not harder. Anyhoo, not getting the scholarship wasn't so bad because I had the Peace Corps and Morocco to fall back on, right?

**********

The Peace Corps told me that I was nominated for a biology teaching position in Morocco and that it would start on the first of September. I was told this back in February. I got all of my and medical checks and paperwork in during April and I e-mailed the Peace Corps recruiter with some questions about my departure date. I received an enfeebling e-mail that I was only nominated for my position, and until I received an invitation, I shouldn't assume that I would be going to Morocco nor even Africa. Well, great. I wish I would have known that before my Bonderman interview.

It was getting closer to September and I still hadn't heard back from them about this position. I started looking into alternatives. I could do Americorps or just go wherever else the Peace Corps would send me. However, another alternative sprang up from my ladyfriend and from the visiting professor at the lab, Ho Gun. Angie had been sent an e-mail with information about teaching English in Korea. Ho Gun is from Korea and he told me quite a bit about it. I did some research on the internet about it, and found that to be a teacher I didn't need teaching experience and I only needed a bachelors degree, which didn't even have to be in anything related to teaching nor English. The school pays for round trip airfare as well as for my rent at a furnished apartment and I would be getting paid 2,000,000 won a month as well as getting 50/50 medical insurance. If the prospect of being a millionaire didn't ensnare me, the possibility that I could save at least 1,000,000 won a month ($1,000) did. What wouldn't go into my mouth would go into my pocket. I could save up and have my own Bonderman trip the next year. Sure, the money isn't a whole lot more than I could have saved up while continuing to live in Seattle, but that was the other great facet of the Korea idea; I could experience a whole new culture and way of life at the same time. Just like being in the Peace Corps, I could be immersed in a world I knew nothing about in terms of culture and also, language. Being in Korea could also be a bit more challenging, too, because I wouldn't have the Peace Corps holding my hand.

Two weeks before September, I received a call from the Peace Corps extending an invitation to go to Morocco and teach biology. They told me that I would need to confirm by the end of the weekend. They also told me that by joining the Peace Corps I would have a designated site that I wouldn't be allowed to leave. This meant that if there were no electricity or internet there then I would have to be content with writing letters. Can you imagine how many letters I would have had to have written so that all of my loyal readers could have stayed up to date on the latest happenings of yours truly. This bothered me a little. I met the greatest girl in the world while at school and it would have been difficult to be so out of touch for two and half years. It also really bothered me that I would have so many restrictions placed on me by the Peace Corps. Hand holding, more like holding back. These restraints combined with the unhappy stories I have heard from my ladyfriend's sister, who was in the Peace Corps, and also from one of my high school friends in the Peace Corps now, really discouraged me. At the same time, Ho Gun and my ladyfriend were very encouraging towards me going to Korea. I called back the Peace Corps at the end of that weekend and we had a conversation where I told them to go to hell. Well, that's not exactly what happened because it's not really a conversation when you just leave a message on the voice mail.

I spent about a month doing a lot of research and having a lot of interviews until I found a school that seemed like a good fit. That is how I ended up here in Korea. To reiterate my nonexistent thesis statement, I felt the Peace Corps was rather restrictive and also very demanding that I make a quick and big decision for what I was going to do for the next two and half years. That's a long time, especially in dog years for a UW Husky like myself. If I had received the Bonderman scholarship then I would have chosen it over the Peace Corps without a doubt. Why not spend an extra year saving up so I can have that trip? At the same time, I get to challenge myself and experience a new culture without any of the limitations that I would have had in the Peace Corps. I also get to talk to my ladyfriend so I really have no excuse for ever not being happy here. The Peace Corps would have been nice because I could have tried to make a difference. However, I'm in a poor area of Korea and have a chance to make a difference here as well. By traveling next year, I'll be able to get an idea of what problems my abilities should best be applied to. I'll have plenty of time afterwards to try and make a difference.

Whew, that's a lot of words. I promise I'll sprinkle some pictures into the next post.