To the End...

Man time flies! I can't believe that I started teaching these goofballs in March. March felt like yesterday. Now we're nearing July, and I must say, I have had a great experience so far.

There are good times and bad times, but that's any job, no matter where you live. And the experiences outside of school have been special...all I want to do is more.

As a rookie teacher, I learned alot on the job, with virtulally no experience. All thanks to the giver of wisdom, almighty God. Just like Soloman, God has revealed some common sense things to me during my teaching tenure (and some of you who know me personally, I'm not the most common sense guy). Things like, "don't overreact to little things such as a kid who mocks your voice in class," or "never play a game where only one-third play and the rest sit." (Thirty boys who are bored is not fun)

I have not had bad moments in this gig, except for last week, which was just shocking (the Mrs. Elizabeth incident). There were moments where I wanted to lay the smackdown on their candy's tails, but for the most part, I have to remind myself, "they're just kids!" I too was once a high school student. Even though, out of prideful humility, I was a little more well behaved compared to most high school students, I too sometimes was goofy in the classroom when I should not have been.

And the things I learned about Korean life is amazing. As a foreigner I can gain insight on a lot of things about the Korean people that I never knew before: hard working, intelligent, passionate, and group-oriented. Koreans are helpful, a strong people, and perfectionists. You can see it in their lifestyles. Early to rise, late to go to bed, they try to make the most of everyday. Give them a task, its done.

The food is great here: kimchi has helped me fight this ridiculous cold I just caught, and its energizing food. But mom's Korean food is still the best, even though she faces stiff competition from her sisters. But Korean food contributes to a healthy lifestyle, something I really like being here in the Land of the Morning Calm.

Also, I love my lifestyle. I'm walking to work, I'm walking everywhere. Again, out of prideful humility, I dropped some "google-loo" off my face since coming here. ("Google-loo" is a term my Indian grandma uses to tease her grandchildren when they get pudgy, and my brother has always used that word to his advantage) Korean people are very blunt when it comes to personal appearances: so I have been told by teachers, students, and even a banker that I lost some poundage. Thanks to a small country like Korea, I exercise wherever I go. I like walking. My father once said that "walking is a spiritual exercise," because when you walk, you can ponder, and when you ponder, you can access the day with God in your mind. Some people prefer to jog as exercise, but the only thing on your mind is not running into a pedestrian and trying to maintain a good, brisk pace. In other words, Korea is good for your health!

Also as a foreigner, I also have the advantage of dissecting the needs of the Korean people: more diversity, more open-mindedness, and more receptiveness towards change. These come from a half-Korean who will probably will never be accepted as a "true Korean" in their eyes, all because of appearance. This is because Korea is a nation that prides itself on its homogeneaity (if the spelling is wrong, go suck a lemon), and on lineage. Where you from, who's your family, determines who you are. I am proud to say that I am an co-heir with Christ (Romans) and an adopted son of God. That's my lineage. On a more human level, my Korean grandfather was also an English teacher at Gongju Boys' High School. What do I do? I am an English teacher at Yeonsu Boys' High School. Destiny is cool.

My Korean speech has drastically improved since coming here. I have still have a long way to go, because I have only studied the language for only a year, but given the opportunities, I have learned about the cultural and grammatical uses of this complex, tonal language. My goal is to be a decent speaker by the time my parents visit in September. My rating for my Korean speech so far: basic conversation level, way better at listening since day one at Korean 101 at UMD.

My goals for the rest of the year, and into the summer, is to become more spiritually stronger in Christ (to witness to more people about Jesus), more adept at speaking Korean, and to become more outgoing in the classroom, and also, out of it. As a foreigner, I can take advantage and use my "foreigness" to become more of a character that the Koreans aren't used to, and give them someone new to meet and someone unexpected in their lives.

Well, that's pretty much it...I'll post more funny stories in the near future, but this is just a quick "half-year's resolution" into a few paragraphs. Have a great day in the United States.

"From KBS News in Incheon, good night, from Korea."

Mark P. Soni

Long Time, No See!

Hey guys:

Its been a while, I know. Not my fault. Again, its those dumb Incheon Metro Educational Board Overlords: they blocked this blogsite at work...again. I guess they seriously don't want me to spread "information" about their school system to ya'll...very sensitive information indeed. Ya know, they don't want to hear how good and how smart their Korean students are...yeah.

I love writing this blog, its a creative avenue for me to express some things that words cannot express, and its a shame that these fools blocked this site at work, because I could write my experiences as they happen, but now I am stuck in this smoke filled PC Cafe in the middle of Yeonsu. Anyhow, what's been going in my life lately?

Final exams. This time not for me, ha ha ha...I remember them days...no more. Well at least, not for now. (Graduate school anyone?)

But teaching has been challenging this week, and not just for me, but for about every other native English teacher here in South Korea. This kids have final exams, adding to the factor that my class is taught for no grades on their records, what incentive is there for them to learn from my class? Zilch. I'm a glorified tape recorder for once a week, but I kid. My job is important.

Last Monday, I had one of the most toughest classes up to date. Long story short, I wanted to continue to do an activity from last week (each homeroom class has my class once a week), because we could not finish in time last week. Basically the activity was having the kids to split up into groups of four and create their own English dialog and act it out. Not that hard. I simply told this one class, class 1-9, "bring your dialogs back next week, because we will finish them and act them out, competition-style, the best team wins a prize." The co-teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth, even translated that order into Korean. Keep in mind, the other freshmen classes all remembered to bring their dialogs back to finish the class. Except this one black egg class I have.

Guess what? Class 1-9, about half of the kids, which is about 20, forgot to bring them. The result? Half of the kids are just sitting down and working, while the other half are sitting there talking in Korean. Suddenly, Mrs. Elizabeth blows up on them and made this "bad" half sit in the back, on the bare floor, hands raised, and knees on the ground. Its a form of Korean punishment for laziness in the classroom.

She was ticked.

"No materials, no interest, and no preparation, I am angry at the situation," she told me. "Mark, it'll be a good idea to start a new lesson every week because these kids will easily forget what they did the last week."

So, half of the kids are sitting in the back while she is giving them a Korean verbal bashing of a lifetime.

I never felt so awkward during my teaching tenure here: half of the class is getting punished (and keep in mind, Korean student punishment is ten times worse than in the United States), and me working with the other half on their dialogs...it was weird.

During lunch, Mrs. Elizabeth and I got into a heated discussion, but not an arguement, about the proper teaching philosophy of the class. We both were getting into it, but again, keep in mind, it was just a discussion, not an arguement. But it still raised the attention of the other teachers who were eating, who were looking at us, probably thinking we were going at it. We were discussing how we can improve the class and what are the best methods to motivate this particular class.

However, the issue at hand was that these kids came into class today, unprepared, not caring, and certainly not ready to do any English speaking today. I already blew up on the class once, with Mrs. Elizabeth putting her foot down with me, because class 1-9 is a tough class to teach sometimes. What's more tough is that there are good students in the class, those who speak English pretty well, but I feel bad because these kids can't really speak in a class that's full of misfits. Remember, Korea is a group mentality nation: deviate from the group, you get made fun of.

But other than that, it was a great week! The rest of the classes were on top of the game, despite this one black egg of a class. Well, I exaggerate, 1-9 are a decent class, but its frustrating when these kids think your class is not that important. Well, that's a discussion for another day. The other classes brought their dialogs, and alot of the classes were hilarious in acting out their dialogs, speaking with funny accents and acting out their parts really well...so the lesson was well worth it.

Yet life goes on, I'm loving my job, my experience in Korea, and each day makes me stronger. My life is sacred, and only the Lord empowers those who love Him, and we are heirs of God through Jesus Christ (Check Romans chapter 8). Next week is finals, so I can have a few days off to get prepared for the next stage of my teaching for the summer: summer camps...mwa ha ha ha ha!

Bobby's Birthday/The Korean Gangster

No, "the Korean gangster" is not me. I'll explain later. So today, the 9th of June, are two birthdays for two special friends of mine: James St. Clair and Bobby Leigh. James is my Sacramento friend who teaches at Yeonhwa Middle School next door to me. Bobby is the big black man who teaches at an all-boys middle school near Incheon Bus Terminal. We celebrated together last night in Bupyeong with a kalbi dinner. However today on their actual birthdays, James opted to go to "Everland" with his friend Doug, wheras Bobby and I did not want to go to an amusement park because it would not be that "amusing" to us (no pun intended). So James suggested to me to go spend the day with Bobby in Seoul, which I did.

Today, James is 26 years old, and amazingly, Bobby is a whopping 47! He's near my dad's age! But his attitude and demeanor really make him around 30, so I really feel comfortable hanging around him because of his outloud attitude and friendliness, yet subtle insights to life. Bobby is like an old hand on the ship: he knows the ropes of life and tells many good a story about his experiences around the States and the world (used to be in the Air Force).

So, I was sort of Bobby's tour guide to Seoul today, and I tried to find certain places we could hang out, walk, and enjoy some new sights of downtown. We went to three places today in Seoul: Apgujeong, Gangnam, and Insadong. However, to sum it up really quick, we ran into some bizarre incidences along the way that made his birthday really and special:

1. Before even meeting Bobby in Bupyeong, I went to the local Lotte Mart (Korea's Wal Mart) to get a new lamp for the apartment. I could not find the lamps, so instead of asking a Korean associate, I asked a white woman shopping down the aisle. I started speaking English, then all of a sudden she says, "wow! I thought you were Korean! You speak really good English!" I was like gee, wow, I guess there is a cultural stigma here in Korea that even though Korea spends about 2% of its GDP on English education alone, they don't actually expect Asians to speak English! But keep this story in mind, big time, because you probably know of a proverb in life of: "what goes around, comes around," or "what you sow, you will reap." So, for her assumption to think since I was Asian and I speak good English, will come back and bite me in the butt, later in Bobby's birthday (story 3).

2. Bobby is Black and I'm Half Indian/Korean, and along the way in a section of town called Apgujeong, a rich section of Seoul, we ended up meeting and talking to two foreigners, who also happened to be a black man and an Indian man from the States. So we talked to our "clones." We made jokes that these were our twins, which we got a good laugh out of because they looked nothing like us, we just had their respective skin colors. So we tried to ask these guys for directions, but the place we were in did not have much to offer and we headed to Gangnam, the Manhattan of Seoul. We spent an hour there, checking out some of the shopping sights, eating lunch, and making jokes about the fashion styles of Koreans, especially the women, who all look like plastic China dolls with make-up so plastered that they put Oprah to shame, and high heels so tight they tip over any minute with a gust of wind. We also had a really great, insightful conversation on how Korea these days is becoming materialistic, as the young generation do not know the hardships of the old Koreans (me too), and just like Americans, could slowly run into decay on the importance of life and truth. Materalism kills, and money only causes more problems in every society regardless of tradition and history.

3. "The Korean gangster:" this is one of those top ten stories for the year. Remember story one about the woman who was surprised I spoke English? Well, read this. On the way to a section of town called "Insadong," the art district of Seoul, Bobby and I were chilling, sitting in the subway car, talking about many of things, relaxing, until this Korean man in a suit, unbuttoned, shirt pop opened walks up, stands in front of us, and holds the handle bars above him for balance. I look up, and I see markings on his chest. So being curious as I am, I realize its a massive tattoo. You could not see much, but you knew that he had something marked all over his body. So, like story one, with the prejudice set in my mind now about how other Asians "don't know English," I fired out loud to Bobby: "see the guy in front us, he has a huge tattoo on his chest. He must Yakuza or something." I said this in a conversational voice, so you could hear me. Bobby looks at me in agreement, then he looks up...then I look up...and realize, this gangster-looking dude was looking at me as if he recognized what I said..."Are you talking about me?"

Mark's Mind: ("Ohhhhh crap.") That was the first thing I thought, as I suddenly realized that he spoke English! What comes around CAME AROUND! Thanks to that Aussie woman, I made an assumption about a man of my own race, that he could not speak English because he was Korean! But was remarkable was that I fired back in conversation like it was all normal, and I did not even apologize: "So, I noticed the tattoo on your chest, did it hurt?" He responded, "No, I'm used to pain, in fact, its all over my body (he nods his head that the tattoo ran from his head to his legs!)...so where are ya'll from?"

Bobby: "Ohio."
Mark: "Maryland."
Gangster: "I see...what do you do here?"
Mark: "Teacher."
Bobby: "Teacher."
Mark: "What about you?"
Gangster: "I was in the States...I was locked up for 13 years, until the government decided I was too dangerous and deported me."
Mark and Bobby's Mind: (Oh my gosh, 13 years, and the DEPORTED HIM!?)
Gangster: "Yeah, blah blah blah..." (He said something that I could not comprehend)
Subway Intercom: "This station is Anguk, Anguk. The doors open on the left."
Mark: "Well, nice to meet you, take care." (Gets up and leaves)
Bobby: "See ya man."
Gangster: "Alright dawg, see ya later."
(As Mark and Bobby walk away)
Mark and Bobby together: "13 YEARS!?"
Bobby: "What did he do to deserve 13 years!? Man, Mark, you almost got us killed!"
Mark: "I DIDN'T KNOW HE SPOKE ENGLISH!"
Bobby: "Dang, he was that dangerous that our government deported him?"

So, we had this infamous joke going all day that on Bobby's birthday, we were very close to getting clobbered by this Korean Yakuza guy, who looked as rough as they come. But I kid, in all honesty, he was not mad or anything, his tone of voice was normal, so we did not feel intimidated about him.

Yet I learned a valuable lesson that day: never talk about anyone on the subway, English, Korean, Spanish or whatever language. With a globalized world, you never know who might be listening, or if they might speak your language. Two, don't talk about a man who has a thick-mass tattoo on his chest, with gold earrings to back him up. Good thing that his 13 years behind bars did not get me roughed up today!

We honestly had a good laugh about the incident, but I do take this story to heart about the power of gossip and discussion: just don't do it, even if they do not or do know the language. That was a wake up call f'real.

But other than that, it was a good birthday for Bobby, because he said seriously would have been alone if I had not called him up. No one should be alone for their birthday. Its funny how life brings bizarre incidences, but God can use them to teach lessons for those who love Him.

Marky out...

Netherlands 2, Korea 0: A Dream Come True

Why would a loss for Korea be a dream come true? Well, this was the first time I ever went to a World Cup stadium with 50,000 people cheering at the same time for their beloved national team, and my first ever International soccer match. It was a friendly at Sang-Am World Cup Stadium between the Orangemen of the Netherlands vs. the Red Devils, aka Korea. The Korean fan base was raucous and crazy then ever, but two goals by seasoned forward Rafael Van Der Vaart flattened the atmosphere pretty quick. Yet it did not stop the faithful from roaring and cheering for their favorite players.

It was such a joy to go, because my whole life I got to watch my favorite sport only on TV, tape, and Internet, but never live. Soccer in America is slowly building, especially with the new David Beckham phenomenon coming to the LA Galaxy this summer. But overall, compared to the big four of franchised sports (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey), soccer was always a fifth-tier sport, so big matches and the interest never came to the DC area (only when the US played Guatemala in a 1-0 win for the World Cup Qualifiers in 2001). I also have a general judgment that the few American people who enjoy following the game of International soccer the most are people who are open-minded and have some knowledge about the world and its geography. I truly thank the Lord for the game of soccer, because the sport itself has taught me the vast geography of places like Europe and South America. Soccer is also a language, and you can talk to any international native about the game and its players (unless you go to America of course!)

But going live to Seoul was a dream come true, and my next step is one day to go to a live World Cup match. (South Africa 2010 anyone? Let's go!)

Other than that, just to fill you in on what else that has been going on...I had a great week. In fact, my best week ever during my tenure as a Glorified Tape Recorder. I ran the classes smoothly, with the help of my co-teachers, and even twice when two of my co-teachers did not show up at all to class, I still ran the show with some ease. God has really given me some wisdom on things of what to do and not to do in the classroom so far, and the room for improvement is becoming a smaller room. I'm trying to learn my kids' names more, so I can treat them like human beings rather than numbers (many teachers just call their students by their designated student serial numbers rather than their names, so they become just lifeless robots). With classrooms filled with boys who look the same (I'm not making fun, its a fact), its hard not to just to see each class as one organism rather than a group of 40 individuals.

Also, especially after the 2 goals I bagged in my own glorious soccer history last week, I'm gaining more respect and friendship from the kids. That's a blessing too. I know there are some classes who don't particularly have fun with me (but that's on them), but for the most part, I'm starting to gain a liking for particular students and classes. Even the loud classes, I sometimes adapt and improvise the lesson to get them involved in different methods.

So, that's pretty much it, a great week of consistency thanks to God's Providence, and a great Saturday night watching a live Friendly in front 50,000 people. Could not ask for anything more special.

By the way, to test your knowledge, can you tell me who Thierry Henry is? If you do not know who he is, then that just tells me you are either an American, or if you do know who he is, an American who actually respects the Beautiful Game or another foreigner. Actually, the big name star is in Seoul right now promoting his new Reebok line.