Day 43 -- School Visit, Duck/Dog, and Chinese Food Bonding

It's a day late, but since I didn't do anything today, I'm going to write about yesterday.

NICKNAMES
I got up early so that I could go to school with Sae Yeob. (EDIT: yes, he was Seo Yeob before, but I've decided to Romanize his name as Sae Yeob since that's phonetically closer that Seo Yeob.) Pink Shirt Maybe Cousin drove us and TOEFL Student Maybe Cousin. (These are their nicknames because the first time I met PSMC, he was wearing a pink shirt and Sae Yeob mentioned something about a cousin. When I first met TSMC it was that day, when he was going to school to study for the TOEFL exam but he may also be a cousin.)


TEACHERS
I met a bunch of teachers whose names and faces just blur together into a smattering of Korean stereotypes at the moment. I also got to see my classroom, which is named the "English Only Zone" and includes a virtual studio. The virtual studio is a blue room where students can tape skits, presentations, speeches, etc so that I can grade them on pronunciation and such. The graphic design teacher, the only other unmarried woman besides me, bought me a popsicle. It was a very nice gesture, despite it being about 10am at the time.


"HAVE YOU EAT DEOK?"
My coteacher announces she's taking me out to lunch along with Graphic Design Single Lady. She asks me if I've had pork. Yes. Beef? Yes. Chicken? Yes. "Deok?" Dog? "Yes, deok." "No, no, I haven't had dog, but I would like to try it," I tell her.

We get to the restaurant and the hostess brings out a big platter of raw, pink meat. The whole place smells overwhelmingly of ham, and it looks similar to pink ham, so I'm thinking "wow, cool, dog tastes a lot like ham." Wanting to be sure that this is, indeed, not ham, I ask my coteacher in Korean if this meat is pork. No, she says in English, it is "deok".

Okay.

I try again, this time asking in Korean, "Is this dog meat?"
"NOOOOO," she laughs, "this is not dog! This is deok!"

Ooooh, it's DUCK. I don't feel as proud and adventurous as I did before.


STUDENTS
In my classroom was a handful of students, all advanced English students studying to go to college in the States. They were pretty shy at first, nervous to introduce themselves to me and all. A little later, TSMC and friend started whispering.

Whisper whisper... "Teacher, Teacher, what is your name?" I answer, we go back to work.

Whisper whisper... "Lindsay Teacher, what is 'biosphere'?" I answer, we go back to work.

Whisper whisper... "Lindsay Teacher, do you have boyfriend?" I answer, we go back to work.

Whisper whisper... both boys go running out of the room, returning shortly with patbingsu for all their fellow classmates. TSMC friend walks to the desk, presents me with a bowl of patbingsu, and says, "Teacher, for you."

So. Effing. Cute.


CHINESE FOOD BONDING
Pink Shirt Maybe Cousin picked up Sae Yeob, TOEFL Student Maybe Cousin and I from school at around 4:30pm. That's right, these kids go to school for 9 hours a day DURING VACATION to study English. On the way home, they asked if I wanted to go get Chinese food with them. My nunchi senses were tingling so I said sure.

When we got there, the boys looked over the menu, arguing over what to get. My nunchi sense was still telling me that I should do something, so after they placed our order, I announced that I'd like to pay for everyone. They were a bit surprised at first and resorted to the typical Korean custom of saying "no, no, don't pay" even though they were thrilled. After the obligatory three rounds of going-back-and-forth arguing, it was settled that I was going to pay. Before you get too high an opinion of me, this was like a $10 check. It was more the gesture, but man, that gesture went a long way with these boys.



So, all in all, it was a good day. I'll post again in about 5 minutes with a list of faux pas that I've committed since coming here, but I'm anal about keeping things organized so the date will change.