Archive for the 'Korea' Category

Nov

Happy Pepero Day!

Peperos Happy Pepero Day to all!

Pepero Day is celebrated here in South Korea by giving people “Peperos”. They are long skinny cookies sticks dipped in chocolate. Very yummy! If you’re a teacher, you usually end up with tons of them. Personally, I only eat Peperos on Pepero Day. By the time the tenth student offers them to you, you get pretty sick of them. Today, I actually got a hand dipped one. Not the bulk things that Lotte makes. It was dipped in white chocolate and had sprinkles on it.

I have a pile of these things sitting on my desk. I’ll probably throw some in the box I send home with Christmas gifts. The rest I’ll give out as treats to the kids, in moderation of course. The vast majority of my kids today were way high on sugar. Ha, and I taught a unit to C1 on healthy eating as they were munching chocolate covered cookies.

The legend is that Pepero Day started in Busan. A bunch of girls started exchanging the snack and wishing each other that they would become as tall and thin as a Pepero. Nice legend. But more likely it was started by the folks at Lotte who make Peperos. It’s a true Korean “Hallmark” holiday.

Pepero Day is always celebrated on November 11th. Why that day? When you write the date at 11/11, it looks like four Peperos standing side by side.

See Wikipedia (who else?) for more information and links.

posted by Kathryn in Food and Drink,Fun things,Holidays,Korea,Students and have Comment (1)

Sep

Rock Scissor Paper!

see more puppies

It’s amazing how popular “Rock Scissor Paper” is here in Korea. Here, it’s known as kai-bai-bo. It’s used for everything from picking teams, to settling disputes, to just having fun with the teacher (me).

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Fun things,Games,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Students,Teaching and have Comment (1)

Aug

Close enough

I’ve been in Korea for over two years now. I’ve tried numerous times to learn to read Korean with the the help of the internet. I’ve failed each time. At least for languages, I’m one of those people who need to be shown. I need a teacher.

So where does one find a Korean teacher? At her own school of course. I have a zillion kids running around who are expert Korean speakers. Kate, Shirley and Becky from D3 are my primary teachers. I’ve shown some of my November kids and my A5 kids what I’ve learned and they’ve helped by writing their Korean names and letting me sound them out.

For fun, I asked my November Speaking and Writing kids how I would write my name in Korean. This is as close as I’ll get because there is no “th” or “r” sound in Korean. It would sound like “ka-sa-lin” Of course, I don’t have Korean support installed on this computer (and I probably won’t) so I wrote it using the mouse and KolourPaint (this little KDE paint program kicks the butt of MS’s Paint).

ka-sa-lin

posted by Kathryn in Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Little Campus,Off time,Students and have Comments (2)

Aug

Opinions

Opinions are like…

It’s recently come to my attention that a former co-worker has black-listed the school. I don’t agree with what this person has said. This person had some severe interpersonal conflicts with another co-worker. I believe this person came to the school thinking it would be an easy job. Anyone who has taught ESL, especially at a Korean hogwan, will tell you that it isn’t an easy job.

I am happy here the majority of the time. Are there things at the school that need addressed? Yup. Are they being addressed? Yup.

Take what you read with a grain of salt. Contact or ask to speak to more than one teacher at a school you might be interested in.

That’s all I will say. This is my own opinion and does not in any way reflect the opinions of my co-workers or employers.

posted by Kathryn in Korea,Little Campus,Staff,Teaching and have No Comments

May

Teacher’s Day

Today is Teacher’s Day in Korea. I’m touched by the generosity of my students and their parents. It was such a treat to have kids come up, give me gifts and hugs, and tell me how much they appreciate what I do. There are good days and bad days in teaching. Today was definitely a good day. And those good days really do make up for the bad days.

Hera wrote me a letter
Sally gave me socks
Harry gave me an ebony keyring
Lizzy gave me chocolate
David gave me an aromatherapy set
Laura gave me a cake
Ann gave me lipstick
Charlie gave me a tin of ginsing candy
Michelle gave me face cleanser
Felix gave me a coffee mug and a tin of chocolates
Zena gave me sunscreen
Minnie gave me chocolates
Andy gave me a parasol
Flora gave me chocolate
Rose gave me breath freshener
James gave me a hand embroidered broach
Ellie gave me lipstick
Alex gave me socks
Maggie gave me flowers
Cindy gave me lipstick

Thank you to all of you. It really means a lot to me.

Many hugs,

Kathryn Teacher

posted by Kathryn in Fun things,Korea,Students,Teaching and have No Comments

May

New Blog!

Never fear, ESL Adventures isn’t going anywhere.

WordPress.com came out with a new theme a few weeks ago. It’s specifically for photo bloggers. OK, I’m not the best behind a camera, but I can point and shoot with the best of them.

I post a fair number of pictures on this blog. With a new theme that customizes itself to your images, I decided to put some of my best shots in a new blog.

I’ll still be publishing pictures here. The photo blogging theme doesn’t play nice with galleries or multiple images in a post. But it’s still something fun to play with.

Without further ado, I introduce

ESL Teaching: Adventures in Photos

posted by Kathryn in Fun things,Korea,Off time,Pictures and have No Comments

May

Children’s Day

Monday is Children’s Day in Korea. Children’s Day is celebrated on May 5th of each year. Kids love it for the presents (our kids left with huge bags of loot). Teachers love it because it means a day off. This year, because it falls on a Monday, that gives us a long weekend (which is sorely needed right now).

Dodoland Online has a nice little article on Children’s Day as celebrated in South Korea.

So to all my Korean students and colleagues, enjoy Children’s Day!