4.) Field Trip
So last week was my first field trip with the school kids I started teaching at Kyle's English institute. As far as an itinerary or organization for the day, the owner of the school just said, "So you're going to Insa-dong, right? Try to be back around one o'clock." So I took my two students, and headed out.
First, we had to ride on the subway for 40 min, which was an interesting experience. I get a ton of strange looks when I'm walking around by myself, so just imagine the way people stop, gawk, stare, whisper, smile, and do various other things when they see me with two young Korean kids under my wing. Looks from people were further encouraged when Ace and Jessica, my two students, opted to stand instead of sit (an option that later in the day I vetoed). Ace, a 10-year-old who speaks to me mainly in Korean, causing no shortage of confusion on both our parts, is charismatic and full of energy, and yet very small, so he gets worn out quickly. That being said, on the subway he decided, since he could barely reach the handle-rings hanging from the ceiling while standing, 'why stand at all?'. So he proceeded to swing like a gymnast for the majority of the 40-minute trip. As for my prevention of a "scene," I had already deemed that impossible, and since the school seems to stress the point that 'as long as the kids have fun, they can do whatever they want,' I opted to simply sit back and enjoy the gymnastics show.
One more thing that the school's director failed to establish before we left was where exactly we were to go. And since I've only been to that area of Seoul three times, or so, we got a bit lost at first. Not lost as in we couldn't find our way, but I just couldn't remember how to get to the fun part of the city with lots of traditional shops and restaurants. So we walked around in front of car repair shops and back alleys for a little while before I finally righted my sense of direction and stumbled upon the area I was looking for.
At one point, when we had later stopped and took a break from walking because Ace was pretty worn out from the walking and his previous ring routine, an old woman stopped and talked to Ace and Jessica. Well "yelled" is probably a better choice word. When I asked what she said, although I had a pretty good idea based on my own experience and the stories of other teachers, Jessica shyly refrained from answering my question. Apparently, although practically everybody in Korea admires America for some reason or another, many seem to think that close contact will somehow taint one's culture, purity, or whatever. So the kids got a firm talking to about associating with a foreigner, to which I felt pretty bad for their sake, considering that even if they wanted to change it, they were stuck with me.
Based on the old woman's actions, gestures, and tone, I guess that she was telling the kids not to be close to me... little did she know that I was solely responsible for their survival that day (a pretty hefty responsibility, when you stop to think about it, and a albeit a little absurd, especially considering that I had just met the kids two days prior, and the school really had no real knowledge of my credentials before they shipped two students out the door with me.) Anyway, Jessica was visibly disturbed by her encounter with the old woman, but that wore off quickly, as I think is the case with most Korea children in relation to those people two generations before them.
To Ace, however, the trauma of the situation seemed completely ignored or unperceived, mainly because Ace was busy playing in puddles and splashing dirty water in his face to "wash" and cool down, which by itself garnered some, I suppose well deserved, looks from people passing by, looking for the guardian of this child, who was doing something extremely undignified. (Koreas have some sort of taboo about water... it's weird, but I haven't come to enough of an understanding about it to really expound in detail, so that will have to wait.)
A brief note about Old People: It seems like the old people in this country are treated quite well, and tolerated even when doing rather absurd things (which is very often the case, with examples ranging from loud grunts in crowded, otherwise quiet public places, to cutting you off in line, no matter where you are, to physically assaulting/handling someone, which will be discussed in greater detail later in this post), which is interesting, because that is not based on the older generation's contribution to the country's economic status, for that has been mainly developed by the middle-aged population. So I can only hypothesize, at the time being, that this extreme tolerance is simply due to the respect-based culture so prevalent here.
The day was a very interesting study of the personalities of the two students with whom I spent over five hours that day. Jessica, a cute, happy, and yet reserved young girl is slightly older than Ace (she's 11) and her English is quite good, so she takes it upon herself to translate for Ace when his mind is off in wonderland somewhere and he doesn't catch an instruction that I give him. Ace, of whom I'm pretty sure you have already constructed a pretty good mental picture based on his antics described above, is a very fun student, and I don't remember ever getting upset that he only responded to my questions and comments in Korean.
Another interesting note is that for these field trips the students receive all of their money for the day from their parents, so I have no idea how much they've been given or how they are expected to spend it. And from the instructions I received, mainly through what Kyle was told when he took some field trips, was to let the kids do what they want with their money. So I did. So when we stopped to look at some trinkets and Ace wanted to buy some, I didn't give much attention to it, after all, it was only a few bucks. Afterwards, I found out from my translator, Jessica, that Ace had spent all but $2 of his money, and we still hadn't eaten yet. Even so, he was not concerned, he just looked at me and said, "I'll just eat water."
Now if by now you are questioning my potential parenting skills, don't worry, I'm pretty much just taking advantage of the opportunity to see how a more liberalized form of guidance works. It's kind of like an experiment, with real people in the real world, something that most social scientists theorize about but can rarely put into personal practice. So it's kinda fun, and I still bought Ace some lunch, so he didn't collapse on the way home, even though that caused some irregular variables in my little experiment.
We walked around for a while and looked at cool little shops, and then we stopped for some traditional Korean food. Next we went out for ice cream, and then wandered our way back to the subway station to head home. Once we got to the subway station, both of the kids needed to use the bathroom, so I waited outside before I decided that I had better go too. As I walked into the men's room, I saw Ace coming out, not looking concerned but rather confused, with an old man's arm wrapped around his neck. I stepped in to see what was happening. It was pretty much just another case of what I guess I can call KOPGWA ("Korean old people gone wild, again"). Most old people seem to think that the country is their playground, and that all children are their toys. I've seen an old man, otherwise strange and a bit creepy, walk up to a mom with her two-year-old and start picking up the kid, playing with it like he was its grandparent, and finally ended up giving it several little swats on the butt. Personally, I wanted to say something like "hey, old man river, knock it off or I’ll do some swatting of my own," which looked along the lines of what the mother was thinking, although I'm pretty sure she was more concerned with her child's well-being to with thinking of any witty comment.
Anyway, the experience with Ace was not much different. They old man seemed to want Ace to leave the restroom with him - for what reason, I don't know, and since I'm pretty sure that either I wouldn't understand the Korean words Ace would use to explain or that Ace wouldn't really have even less of a clue as to what was going on. Anyway, I pulled him away from the old man, and took him back into the bathroom with me, and told him to wait where I could see him. I then proceeded to a urinal to take care of my own call of the wild. Whilst standing there, besides the obvious events that took place, two other things seemed to happen simultaneously. One, Ace abandoned his post for more interesting territory and began checking out the condom machine affixed to the wall, and two, an old man came up to use a urinal two places down from me, only to scoot one closer, and then lean over to make sure my mechanics were all working appropriately.
Subsequently, I had a response for each occurrence, as well as the auto-pilot employed in my personal endeavors in the 'little boys room.' Regarding Ace and his curiosity, 'how am I supposed to drag him away from there without striking more interest into his mind while also not opening him up for another encounter with a perverted old man in the Insa-dong public toilet?' And regarding the old man who was too busy scamming for a peek of Chip Jr. that I'm pretty sure he was missing his wall-mounted porcelain liquid receptacle, "do I slap him? and if so, with what?" Suffice it to say, we made it out of there alive, Ace and I both with a little less dignity than with which we entered, but alive nonetheless. And then we proceeded home, without any further encounters with KOPGWA's.
Overall, the field trip was great. I got to hang out with two really fun kids, walk around the city, see how people respond when they see a young, white guardian of two Korean kids, eat some good food, and get paid for it all at the same time. I seriously don't know if there is a much better job to have, at least in the short run.
First, we had to ride on the subway for 40 min, which was an interesting experience. I get a ton of strange looks when I'm walking around by myself, so just imagine the way people stop, gawk, stare, whisper, smile, and do various other things when they see me with two young Korean kids under my wing. Looks from people were further encouraged when Ace and Jessica, my two students, opted to stand instead of sit (an option that later in the day I vetoed). Ace, a 10-year-old who speaks to me mainly in Korean, causing no shortage of confusion on both our parts, is charismatic and full of energy, and yet very small, so he gets worn out quickly. That being said, on the subway he decided, since he could barely reach the handle-rings hanging from the ceiling while standing, 'why stand at all?'. So he proceeded to swing like a gymnast for the majority of the 40-minute trip. As for my prevention of a "scene," I had already deemed that impossible, and since the school seems to stress the point that 'as long as the kids have fun, they can do whatever they want,' I opted to simply sit back and enjoy the gymnastics show.
One more thing that the school's director failed to establish before we left was where exactly we were to go. And since I've only been to that area of Seoul three times, or so, we got a bit lost at first. Not lost as in we couldn't find our way, but I just couldn't remember how to get to the fun part of the city with lots of traditional shops and restaurants. So we walked around in front of car repair shops and back alleys for a little while before I finally righted my sense of direction and stumbled upon the area I was looking for.
At one point, when we had later stopped and took a break from walking because Ace was pretty worn out from the walking and his previous ring routine, an old woman stopped and talked to Ace and Jessica. Well "yelled" is probably a better choice word. When I asked what she said, although I had a pretty good idea based on my own experience and the stories of other teachers, Jessica shyly refrained from answering my question. Apparently, although practically everybody in Korea admires America for some reason or another, many seem to think that close contact will somehow taint one's culture, purity, or whatever. So the kids got a firm talking to about associating with a foreigner, to which I felt pretty bad for their sake, considering that even if they wanted to change it, they were stuck with me.
Based on the old woman's actions, gestures, and tone, I guess that she was telling the kids not to be close to me... little did she know that I was solely responsible for their survival that day (a pretty hefty responsibility, when you stop to think about it, and a albeit a little absurd, especially considering that I had just met the kids two days prior, and the school really had no real knowledge of my credentials before they shipped two students out the door with me.) Anyway, Jessica was visibly disturbed by her encounter with the old woman, but that wore off quickly, as I think is the case with most Korea children in relation to those people two generations before them.
To Ace, however, the trauma of the situation seemed completely ignored or unperceived, mainly because Ace was busy playing in puddles and splashing dirty water in his face to "wash" and cool down, which by itself garnered some, I suppose well deserved, looks from people passing by, looking for the guardian of this child, who was doing something extremely undignified. (Koreas have some sort of taboo about water... it's weird, but I haven't come to enough of an understanding about it to really expound in detail, so that will have to wait.)
A brief note about Old People: It seems like the old people in this country are treated quite well, and tolerated even when doing rather absurd things (which is very often the case, with examples ranging from loud grunts in crowded, otherwise quiet public places, to cutting you off in line, no matter where you are, to physically assaulting/handling someone, which will be discussed in greater detail later in this post), which is interesting, because that is not based on the older generation's contribution to the country's economic status, for that has been mainly developed by the middle-aged population. So I can only hypothesize, at the time being, that this extreme tolerance is simply due to the respect-based culture so prevalent here.
The day was a very interesting study of the personalities of the two students with whom I spent over five hours that day. Jessica, a cute, happy, and yet reserved young girl is slightly older than Ace (she's 11) and her English is quite good, so she takes it upon herself to translate for Ace when his mind is off in wonderland somewhere and he doesn't catch an instruction that I give him. Ace, of whom I'm pretty sure you have already constructed a pretty good mental picture based on his antics described above, is a very fun student, and I don't remember ever getting upset that he only responded to my questions and comments in Korean.
Another interesting note is that for these field trips the students receive all of their money for the day from their parents, so I have no idea how much they've been given or how they are expected to spend it. And from the instructions I received, mainly through what Kyle was told when he took some field trips, was to let the kids do what they want with their money. So I did. So when we stopped to look at some trinkets and Ace wanted to buy some, I didn't give much attention to it, after all, it was only a few bucks. Afterwards, I found out from my translator, Jessica, that Ace had spent all but $2 of his money, and we still hadn't eaten yet. Even so, he was not concerned, he just looked at me and said, "I'll just eat water."
Now if by now you are questioning my potential parenting skills, don't worry, I'm pretty much just taking advantage of the opportunity to see how a more liberalized form of guidance works. It's kind of like an experiment, with real people in the real world, something that most social scientists theorize about but can rarely put into personal practice. So it's kinda fun, and I still bought Ace some lunch, so he didn't collapse on the way home, even though that caused some irregular variables in my little experiment.
We walked around for a while and looked at cool little shops, and then we stopped for some traditional Korean food. Next we went out for ice cream, and then wandered our way back to the subway station to head home. Once we got to the subway station, both of the kids needed to use the bathroom, so I waited outside before I decided that I had better go too. As I walked into the men's room, I saw Ace coming out, not looking concerned but rather confused, with an old man's arm wrapped around his neck. I stepped in to see what was happening. It was pretty much just another case of what I guess I can call KOPGWA ("Korean old people gone wild, again"). Most old people seem to think that the country is their playground, and that all children are their toys. I've seen an old man, otherwise strange and a bit creepy, walk up to a mom with her two-year-old and start picking up the kid, playing with it like he was its grandparent, and finally ended up giving it several little swats on the butt. Personally, I wanted to say something like "hey, old man river, knock it off or I’ll do some swatting of my own," which looked along the lines of what the mother was thinking, although I'm pretty sure she was more concerned with her child's well-being to with thinking of any witty comment.
Anyway, the experience with Ace was not much different. They old man seemed to want Ace to leave the restroom with him - for what reason, I don't know, and since I'm pretty sure that either I wouldn't understand the Korean words Ace would use to explain or that Ace wouldn't really have even less of a clue as to what was going on. Anyway, I pulled him away from the old man, and took him back into the bathroom with me, and told him to wait where I could see him. I then proceeded to a urinal to take care of my own call of the wild. Whilst standing there, besides the obvious events that took place, two other things seemed to happen simultaneously. One, Ace abandoned his post for more interesting territory and began checking out the condom machine affixed to the wall, and two, an old man came up to use a urinal two places down from me, only to scoot one closer, and then lean over to make sure my mechanics were all working appropriately.
Subsequently, I had a response for each occurrence, as well as the auto-pilot employed in my personal endeavors in the 'little boys room.' Regarding Ace and his curiosity, 'how am I supposed to drag him away from there without striking more interest into his mind while also not opening him up for another encounter with a perverted old man in the Insa-dong public toilet?' And regarding the old man who was too busy scamming for a peek of Chip Jr. that I'm pretty sure he was missing his wall-mounted porcelain liquid receptacle, "do I slap him? and if so, with what?" Suffice it to say, we made it out of there alive, Ace and I both with a little less dignity than with which we entered, but alive nonetheless. And then we proceeded home, without any further encounters with KOPGWA's.
Overall, the field trip was great. I got to hang out with two really fun kids, walk around the city, see how people respond when they see a young, white guardian of two Korean kids, eat some good food, and get paid for it all at the same time. I seriously don't know if there is a much better job to have, at least in the short run.
posted by Chip at 4:15 AM
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