learning with literature

These days I read a lot of different blogs about language learning and language learning methods (like this one and this one). One thing they all seem to agree on is the importance of reading the language. So I'm trying to read a lot of Korean. I've found that children's books have the perfect balance of simple grammar, new vocabulary and interesting content.

I checked this book out of the Library at my school. It's called"재주 많은 다섯 친구" (The Five Super Talented Friends). I was told it's based on an old Korean folk tale.

They story begins with some old people who are unable to have children so a monk tells them to bury a pot in the ground for a couple months. They do that and then they pull this kid out. They call him "Pot Boy." His talent is being really strong. He decides to leave home after a while and meets a guy who can blow a powerful wind out of his nose. His name is "Nose Breath Boy."

They meet a third super talented person who can pee a waterfall. He's called "Urine Boy."

They meet two other guys, one who carries a boat around on his back, and one who has huge feet and wears iron boots. They are respectively titled "Boat Boy" and "Iron Boy." So they're all traveling together for a while. Unfortunately the house where they stop for the night is full of tigers (!!!)

Instead of eating them, the tigers trick the five friends into a building a tower out of logs and then they light it on fire when the guys are at the top.

I'll bet you can guess which guy saves the day...

Anyways, I'm becoming fairly convinced you have to become a child again to really learn anything, particularly a new language.

Holiday

Wednesday was voting day in Korea, and here you usually get the whole day off. We went to the sea and took a ferry over to a small island where we played volleyball, ate 회 (raw fish) and enjoyed beautiful weather and scenery.

recently

Wednesday was a Children's Day, and despite the fact that I'm quite obviously an adult I got the day off. Along with Lewis and Steve, I went hiking/sightseeing with a group of friends from church.


These are some of the friends from church we went hiking with.

Lewis ended up getting pretty burned.


I went on a field trip with the 4th grade students, and we saw some neat parks with great views of Seoul. We also visited a greenhouse containing a large collection of desert flora.

Visiting Seoul

우리 남동생 (my little brother)

Of course everyone wants to be proud of his family, especially if it's family that's a U.S. Marine. But to actually see a little brother standing with unquestioned integrity as a man among boys is something else. It's not surprising - the quality's always been there. But it is overwhelming.

The other guy is Haggarty, I think he's one of Eric's roommates. We'll be hanging out more this weekend, hopefully seeing some of the sights around the city.

of late

It was warm for almost days and then not anymore.

It was my second week in college. I stared coolly across the top of a blueberry Italian soda, reflecting on thoughts too deep for most people to understand.

He stopped suddenly, a sense of danger sounding through his brain like a Klaxon. There on the ground, immediately recognizable to his trained eye, was the soft shell of newly shed skin. He shuddered. The beast could be anywhere now.

늘사랑병원

For over six months now, Lewis and I have been going to the hospital (nursing home) on Tuesday nights for a short service/Bible study. But since we're starting classes at 서강 this week, yesterday was the last day for ten weeks.

The jacket-wearing couple next to Lewis and me are the Sun-ho's. I don't actually know their names, but Lewis and I like to call them that because their daughter's name is Sun-ho.

The zealous looking man (leaning forward) is Brother Jacob, the missionary who invited Lewis and I to start coming to the hospital. He's really helped us get involved in the church, and given us some good opportunities for ministry.

Jesus Paid It All

David, Lewis, Steven and I played for the young people's outreach night this Saturday.

Mostly 안산 캠프

The foreigner guys getting ready to make some foreign music (that's David with his back to the camera - he's Korean but most of the time he counts as a foreigner).



Eating dinner at the camp.



STEVE!!! wearing traditional Korean 한복. Unlike the brightly colored silk stuff you usually see, this 한복 is pretty tough - kind of like Korean Dickies.



A couple foreign guys who have been in Korea for a long time... the guy with the beard is Doug, the missionary gentleman from our church. The other white guy is John, who's also been a missionary in Korea for quite some time, but he's from a different church so I don't know him as well.

Swirling mists in the somber hue of morning...

He peered out the window at the end of the hall. Strange gray forms loomed in the distance: a chicken farm, a church, and further on nameless towers that blended into fog.


Below, a field of snow lay white and hung with dreary shadows...


The red figure of a man gleamed between bare branches, cutting the somber backdrop like 한복 on Goth night. His flashing glance was a warning... an ill omen... of something...

... But Lewis set his gaze grimly and stepped forward. His resolve, fixed as though by eternal command, would not be broken. No spell or enchantment could undo the force of his will.

I've got nothing...

I know most of my readership is familiar with Lewis's (one 's' or two? I can never remember) blog already, but lately he's been a lot more faithful with posting so I'm just going to link his site so you can see what we've been up to lately.

http://www.lewisknundrum.com/february10blog.htm

robots

Justifiably, Korea has an intense fascination with robots. Despite their constant struggle against domestic margianalization, Korea's robot population has already acheived remarkable successes intellectually and artistically. Robots are working to expand their dominiance in education as well.

We only ask one question, and it's one Koreans are refusing to ask for themselves: Are they giving robots too much power?

Pepero Day and other things more important

While many among our readership are proudly and solemnly observing Veteran's Day, the Koreans have another tradition (albeit nontenured and not necessarily revered). November 11th is Pepero Day in Korea - an unabashedly commercial holiday which enables the Lotte conglomerate to cash in on the sale of Pepero.




Here's to you Kristin. I hope you have a great day, and that you don't mind too much our feeble musical tribute.

more of the same

a touch of color

This is what it looked like when I walked home today. It's been gray skies mostly, but the trees have a touch of color that's nice to see. 가을냄새정말 좋아요.

a picture post

Here are some pictures taken by our new friend Alex. He's the co-teacher of our other new friend, Steven the Canadian. Alex is a great help with learning Korean and he's super encouraging despite my incomprehensible pronunciation, minuscule vocabulary and non-existent grammatical structures .



Once I was a yangban (양반).



Another time we were models for trendy Korean jackets.




That tepee is just like what we used when I was a young Korean boy growing up in the village. We were much shorter back then or maybe there was just food in it, I don't remember.


The point of the teeter-totter jumping game is not to knock the other person off or to break his legs, I learned. You're just supposed to keep jumping. It didn't make sense until I found out it was a girl sport.

Speaking English

I've got to say, I can speak English pretty well. I think it comes naturally to me, and I guess I've been doing it for as long as I can remember (missing from this video are the parts where I accidentally said "cheesebooger" instead of cheeseburger).

in other news

Outside

Here is a bit of the view outside my school. That's a chicken farm and church right next door. It smells really bad in the summer. The chicken farm I mean.

New Stuff

Here are some pictures of my new classroom and office. One of the wings of the school was remodeled during vacation and now we have a bona fide English Zone.