Singing In The Bahng!
Nothing much really happened this week. I taught at 3 different schools on Tuesday, Wednesday and today, Friday. Today the students here graduated and there were no classes in the afternoon. My co-teacher from Iryong Elementary school picked me up in front of the convenience store just beside my building. We arrived at the school about 20 minutes later.
This is a very small school...only about 50 students in the whole school, There were the usual meetings with the vice-principal, the principal and the teachers. Then, after a cup of tea it was time for class.
The kids were great...a very sharp bunch! After introducing myself, we talked about the weather and I mentioned the temperatures in Canada and noted that what they think of as cold isn't really all that cold after all when you compare it to -20 and lower. We covereed the days of the week, months, introducing yourself. Then, I showed them some magic. The kids here all love magic and the sort of sweet innocence that I've commented on before of people here, really helps pull off the magic tricks. They don't expect deception, and magic of course relies on deception. It's a great ice breaker and a way of getting and keeping their attention so they don't realize that they're learning at the same time. I ordered a book on coin magic a few days ago and it arrived today. I'll learn and practice more tricks while the kids are on spring vacation.
Then, we played a version of the old "Hangman" game that I found on the internet. I draw a picture of a parachut, a stick man figure that I usually name, "Fred", and then I draw 10 lines from the parachute to Fred. I put the spaces on the board for the word they have to guess and for each letter they get wrong I erase one of the parachute lines. When the lines are all gone, Fred is dead and I redraw Fred flat on his back, with a gravestone over him and as I pretend to shed a tear, the children laugh. After that we play again and the kids, usually boys guess letters like 'Z', 'Q', and 'X' trying to kill poor Fred. The kids love this game!
I did have a new experience this week...somewhere around 7:30pm my phone rang. It was a drunken teacher asking me if I wanted to meet him and some other teachers at a "Noreh Bahng". Teachers here can only stay at a particular school for a maximum of 5 years and then they have to move on. So, three teachers from Chilwon are moving to other schools starting in March after spring break. I know them all and will miss them. So, this little party they were having was a sort of send off for the three teachers.
I went to the ATM and withdrew $30 and then hailed a taxi. It only cost $6.70 to get to where they were at a restaurant waiting for me. They had already eaten and certainly drank, but one of them ordered some food for me and I drank a few little cups of plum wine. It's good!
A funny thing happened at the restaurant...as I entered the private room they were in, one of them asked me what I wanted to eat. It sounded like he asked me whether I wanted "dog" or "pig". An easy choice for sure - pig of course. It was delicious but as we all talked later that I misunderstood. He was trying to say, "duck", not "dog". It was a combination of my friend's mispronounciation and me not listening carefully enough and maybe me expecting to hear "dog". We all laughed about it!
In Korea people don't drink without eating. When I go to a bar, the waitress always brings me a dish of peanuts, perhaps some dried shrimp, and some other kind of traditional snake and sometime even a plate of those delicious Korean strawberries.
Then, we went to the "Noreh Bahng". Koreans love these places and they are all over the place. They are almost as ubiquitous as the "PC Bahng". "Bahng" and that's a better romanization of the word, means "room", and "Noreh" means "Song". Essentialy it's a karaoke bar, but instead of there being just one karaoke machine that everyone in the bar uses, there are separate rooms each with their own machine. These machines are neat! They are maybe 2.5 or 3.0 meters wide and 2 meters high. They have 9 video screens that display images of people, landscapes, animals and of course the words to the song that's been chosen. If an English song is chosen, then the words displayed are in English; if a Korean song is chosen, then the words are displayed in Korean,
It's karaoke, but there are separate rooms, very comfortable with large machines in them. You pump money into the machine and pick the songs from a book just like your regular run of the mill karaoke bar. This thing has 9 little tv screens that display images of landscapes, animals and people while also showing the words to the song that was chosen. If you choose an English song, then the words come up in English, and likewise for a Korean song. There are two mics so you can do a duet.
At first I was nervous and didn't do very well. You see, once you finish singing the machine gives you a score. My first try I sang "Hey Jude", and flubbed it. I didn't even get a score, just a message saying "Good singer". But, after a beer or two I was less nervous and sang "Green, green grass of home". I did that one a lot better and scored 92. Later, singing "Let It Be" I got a 98.
What a hoot!!
Tomorrow, Feb. 18, the principal of Chilwon Elementary retires and there's a ceremony followed by a lunch for everyone. I've been invited to go as well. The principal is about 65 years old, but could easily pass for 40, maybe 45 at the most.
Next week the kids begin a 10 day spring break. That'll give me a chance to fine tune and add to my lesson plans.
That's about it for this week. Till next time...
pae
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