Korean and Honguel

I have been learning some Korean and I'm getting better at reading Honguel, the alphabet system here in Korea.  I would like to get much better at both, so I am going to start studying on this website: http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/ 

So far my co-teacher Mr. Park teaches me some things, but it is still very foreign to me.  Here are some of the words and phrases that I have learned!

Basic:

ahnyung-haseo = Hello
ahnyung-ge-seo = goodbye (if you are leaving)
ahnyung-ah-seo = goodbye (if other person is leaving)
go-eye-o = I like (this or that)
gham-sa-ham-nida = thank you
yeh (or neh) = yes (or ok)
annio = no
sun-seng-nim = teacher
yo-gee-yo = here (say it at restaurant to waiters, where to stop for cab drivers)

Family:

apa = dad
uma = mom
abogee = father
o-mon-ee = mother
har-abogee = grandfather
har-mon-ee = grandmother
emo = aunt (on mother's side)
goma = aunt (on father's side)
sam-chun = uncle (on father's side)
wa-sam-chun = uncle (on mother's side)
luna = older sister (if you're a female)

There are lots of different words for brother and sister based on gender and age.. and I don't remember many of them!

Numbers:

yung = zero
il = one
ee = two
sam = three
sa = four
o(h) = five
yuk = six
chil = seven
pal (or par) = eight
gu = nine
sip (or ship) = ten

sip-il = eleven
sip-ee= twelve
etc.

ee-sip = 20
ee-sip-il = 21
etc.

Also there are 'primary' numbers that are often used.  When counting off at Taekwondo for stretches we use these.  It's still confusing when to use these versus the previous numbers.

hannah = first (1)
dual = second (2)
set = third (3)
net = fourth (4)
da-sut = fifth (5)
yah-sut = sixth (6)
ilgo = seventh (7)
yo-dur = eighth (8)
aho = ninth (9)
yuell = tenth (10)

Hanguel:

Vowels:  ㅜ ㅠ ㅗ ㅍ ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅐㅔ ㅣ ㅡ ㅇ

Consenants: ㅂ ㅈ ㄷ ㄱ ㅅ ㅁ ㄴ ㄹ ㅎ ㅋ ㅌ ㅊ

I am not an expert on Hanguel yet, but if you are interested you should check out the link at the beginning of this post, and watch the Hanguel lessons (part 1 & 2). 

Taekwondo!

Master Lee.

Taekwondo has been awesome, and intense!  I am about to begin my 4th week of it and I will be taking my yellow belt test this week.  I have been doing fairly well at the kicks and the sparring, but for the belt I have do a series of punches, blocks and kicks.  The punches and blocks are the newest things to me, and while learning them, I have to learn the whole sequence, which is pretty difficult for me.  I video taped Master Lee doing the sequence last Wednesday so that I could practice it.  I had one picture with lots of the other Taekwondo students, but it was accidentally deleted from my phone.  (I have experienced some problems with my camera, phone and laptop lately.. if you know me well, you know that I hate relying on technology, for that reason.)  Oh well, I'm sure I'll get more photos with them soon!

In full sparring gear here!



Here is the video of Master Lee demonstrating what I have to learn to pass the yellow belt test.  Please excuse all of my "mmmhmm"s :)

Busan Aquarium Field Trip!

This past Tuesday instead of teaching 5th graders I got to go to Busan for a picnic field trip!  It's about an hour bus ride and we were gone from 9-3 like a normal school day.  First we went to the aquarium which was awesome!  I really should go to aquariums and zoos more often because they are very enjoyable for me.  The kids had a blast as well :]

Right outside of the aquarium.

Busan! 

Some awesome students :)

Big big turtle.

Mr. Cheung and his son.

BIG shark.

This is a fail, I was trying to get a picture with the shark's head right in front of my face while looking terrified.. but there were so many kids running around and no English speakers to help take it lol

Mmm, looks delicious..

Outside (after) the aquarium.

Next we went to a power plant right around lunch time, which I thought was bizarre, but we had our picnic right outside this nuclear power plant. Nobody explained what we were doing there to me, so I just went with the flow. We went inside and watched a 20 minute video about the power plant that was entirely in Korean, so I didn't understand a word of it. Afterwards we went to another part of the plant and it was like a little science/electricity museum! It reminded me a lot of the Great Lakes Science Center, but smaller. This was very cool for me, and I took a couple really good videos of it all on my phone, but I'm still working out the kinks on uploading them. In the mean time there are plenty of photographs, and hopefully videos soon!

SO I HAVE THE VIDEOS! But with some glitches...

Picnic at the power plant with other teachers.  The teacher in the blue across from me is the volleyball coach who was originally giving me some attitude, but now we're really cool.  I've been practicing and I'm pretty good at volleyball now, I guess that's the golden ticket!  haha

Where we saw the video at the power plant.

Another gripe with technology.. my brand new 'smart' phone took this video and glitched in the beginning. Because of this, all of the audio is about 10 seconds behind, so if you pay close attention you can tell when my remarks are supposed to be playing.

 

Student exploring at the science center.

Students taking a photo outside the power plant.

Korea's got Seoul! Part II

The first trip to Seoul was fun, but since it was with the MOE for the Spirit festival, I did not have an opportunity to explore at all.  I made a trip back out to Seoul the very next weekend for Global Gathering Korea, a huge electronic music festival.  I had known about this since I arrived in Ulsan, but had no plans of going.  My friend Connie (I'll have to post about her soon, she's one of my good friends here) talked me into going on the Tuesday or Wednesday before the concert.  The tickets would have been cheaper in advance, but Mr. Park was going to Seoul with his family for a wedding that weekend, so I was able to catch a free ride with him! 

If I took the bus it would be about 5 hours to Seoul, and cost about 50,000 Won ($50) round trip.  If I were to take the KTX (Korean speed train) it would take a little less than 3 hours and cost 100,000 Won.  In this case I just gave Mr. Park 10,000 Won for gas and tolls to be courteous. 

I had a blast at the concert and met up with many of my friends from orientation.  When I first arrived it was about 4 pm and I was to meet up with Connie.  She was already at the concert venue with some friends, but she did not answer her phone when I called.  Because of traffic and Mr. Parks children (Chan-hee & Chan-yuk)  we were running a little behind schedule.  Since this was the case Mr. Park just dropped me off and I had to find my way, which was exactly what I wanted!  I was alone in the big city, and my contact was not answering, awesome! 

My first time on a subway (unless I was on one when I was very young in Chicago, don't remember)

This is where I emerged from the subway to meet "Conda."

Well I did want to wander and explore on my own, but I also did not want to be late to the music festival, so I walked around and called a couple other friends who were in the city.  I got ahold of a friend whose name is Ryan Forrest, and he was just about to leave his hostel for Global Gathering.  He put me on the phone with the hostel owner, and he gave me directions to get there.  I went down to the subway, and figured out how to buy a ticket at the automated machine, and asked 3 people on the way to the correct subway, 1 Korean worker and 2 random foreigners.  It was pretty cool just finding my way to my destination, then the hostel owner (whose English name is "Conda" short for "Anaconda" after the movie) came and picked me up at a meeting point a block or two from the hostel. 

This is Conda at the hostel.

I didn't know what to expect at the hostel, and my friends took a cab to the music festival when I got scooped up, but it was really cool!  There was a traveler from Germany who I talked to and a couple Koreans who were very nice.  I charged my phone for a bit (oh yeah, my phone charger was unplugged the night before, so at the worst time ever I was on a low battery all weekend!) and took a cab to the festival.  It was SO much fun, and there were 5 different stages playing until 4 am! 

That is my friend Connie sitting, and my new friend Marc (who didn't know I was taking this photo, lol)

This is our blanket spot where we relaxed between dancing sessions!  That is Mike and two Korean friends, all of whom I met at the festival.

This is a shot of the main stage :)

 

 

The next morning I walked out of the bedroom to the living room and there were 3 foreign teachers from Ulsan that I know, and we had no idea we were all in the same hostel!  It was such a small world, they were like "Ryan, you did not just walk out of that room just now!"  We ended up hanging out for a few hours with them (from England), my two friends that invited me to the hostel (one from England, one from Minnesota), two Hispanic girls who were studying in China (one was from Colombia and the other was from Argentina), and the hostel workers who were Korean (Conda and 2 others).  It was so fun talking about various topics, getting different world perspectives.  As people started leaving the Colombian girl started giving me and the Pete (from Minnesota) a Spanish lesson, since we both have studied it and want to become fluent.  This whole experience reminded me so much of my father Mike Manary who shared similar stories of when he backpacked across Europe at my age. 

From the left is the girl from Argentina, a random Korean girl, a very nice Korean gentleman, the Colombian girl, my friend Pete, my friends Stacy and Nathan from England, then me.  Everyone was not in this photo.

Stacy, Pete, Nathan, and breakfast (that the hostel provided!)

I was supposed to meet up with Mr. Park at 4 pm to head back to Ulsan, but I was late.. because I took a train instead of the correct subway!  To meet him I had to take two different subway lines, and Conda gave me pretty good directions (plus I had a smart phone), so I don't know how I messed it up.  I went with my two friends Ryan and Pete to the station, and on the first subway.  For the second I was to find the blue line, #4 on my own.  I was following the signs, and eventually was just following the blue signs, that didn't say #4.  I can't believe I didn't notice.  So I got to the train station that I thought I needed to be at, and waited for a WHOLE HOUR!  Just to find out as soon as we departed that I had gone the wrong direction.  So I got off, went the other way, and when I got back to the station it was the last stop, and I realized I had taken the wrong line all together!  I felt so bad because I was holding up Mr. Park and his family, and I still wasn't at the meeting place! 

This was after I took the first subway, and right before I wasted an hour waiting for the wrong train.

The wrong train. 

I stopped a young lady and asked for help; I thought a university student was best since maybe she had been studying English.  Well she didn't speak much English, but she was going to almost the same destination that I was attempting to reach, so she led me there.  Her name is Eunji (the 3rd Eunji I have met now) and we are staying facebook friends.  She can help me with learning Korean, and I can help her with learning English! 

Eunji and I on the RIGHT subway :]

I finally made it to the meeting place at 6 pm, two hours late!  Ugh, I felt bad, and got back around 11:30, but it was a fun weekend, and Mr. Park and I had a great discussion about Asian history on the drive home.  We discussed Vietnam, China, Japan, and North and South Korea.  It was so interesting getting his point of view, especially when discussing conflicts of these nations when the United States was involved (so.. most of the time).  I have to say some of what we learn in the United States is biased, and some of what he told me was biased, but it's good and fun to hear both sides. 

In any case, I learned that Korea has got Seoul power!

Korea's got Seoul! Part I

One of the things that I have not done enough yet, is travel around S. Korea.  I've been exploring Ulsan and getting very involved with the culture, but I have friends who are visiting Busan, Daegu, Andong, Seoul, etc.  It has been difficult because of how busy I am, but I managed to make it to Seoul twice this past week!  (Well I was in Daegu and now Busan on a field trip, but going with friends to explore is very different!)

The first trip was Monday a week and a half ago when I was invited by the MOE ("Ministry of Education") for a national holiday ceremony.  October 3rd is "Korea's birthday" so we had no school and I accepted this invitation.  All expences were covered by the MOE, so the bus tickets, the SPIRIT FESTIVAL tickets, lunch and dinner were all included.  It was nice because my neighbor Tamara (an American native English teacher like me) went as well, so we split a cab to the meeting place both in the morning and evening.  I'll be honest the Spirit Festival was fairly dry for me, but the trip was fun and they had side activities that we participated in (like drumming and cup stacking competitions).

The MOE had many Korean student volunteers come with us that ranged from middle school students to university students.  These are two of the volunteers, the one in the yellow's English name is Toni, not sure the other's.

This is Ji, the main MOE lady that I email about events and extra teaching opportunities.

The Spirit Festival was held in the old olympic stadium from the 1988 olympics.

Bad lighting here but I am in the stands on the middle level, then you can see the spectators seated on the field of the stadium.  You can see the stage on the opposite end.  The reason it was a little dry was because there were a lot of speakers, speaking only in Korean.  (even the Koreans that we were with were bored)  There was some chanting and dancing that we learned on the bus though, and there was a band.  However we missed the band when we went walking around. [bummer]

Here is Toni, Kristy, an awesome yellow mascot and Virginia.

Love this!

I was gettin' down on the galgo!

Me with the big blimp that was floating around the stadium :D

Notice the guy with white gloves!

He was helarious!

The different groups had signs to stay together, and it looked like a huge protest for a bit.  By the time I got this picture taken it had thinned out.. now I'll just pretend I'm a 99%er!

Some other native English teachers.

Talent show video from orientation!

Here is the video of my class' talent show performance back at orientation.  I am in the green shirt and this was in front of about 500 people!

http://www.youtube.com/user/SarahSuperSmile#p/u/8/DQv5bRJPfqk

Lots going on!

Ok so I feel like there are many things that I would like to post about, but I do not because I don't have enough pictures or time.  Since I would like to share more about my experiences I am going to get a little more "wordy," and hopefully this will still be enjoyable!  :)

LOTS GOING ON:

• I am taking Taekwondo now.
• I am going to my 5th session in about 15 minutes!
• I love it, and now that they know me they love me too!
• I am mostly with middle and high school students, and 1 of my own elementary students!
• It is 3 nights a week from 9-10 pm
• I MAY be able to earn my black belt during the year I am here if I work hard, which is not my biggest concern, but would be awesome!!

• I am instructing a breakdancing class for two of my 6th grade students!
• They are two young ladies, and after just 2 lessons they are doing very well!
• I instruct them for 30-60 minutes Fridays after school
• It is awesome for them and for myself.  I used to breakdance a lot in high school, but throughout college I only maintained some of my skill, but have not worked to progress in a long time.  NOW I am looking up videos, trying new moves, polishing up old ones, practicing, and breaking out at clubs!  This is truly a win-win :D

My two awesome "B-girls"

Their notes and moves to study/practice

• I just had my first acupuncture experience at an oriental doctor.
• My co-teacher Jack's uncle is a regionally famous oriental doctor, and my back has been pretty knotty since high school.
• Since I'm not seeing my chiropractor anymore my back is acting up, and Jack recommended I try this.
• It was a little painful, but more than anything interesting!  I managed to sneak a picture of my hand with needles in it!

There are 4 needles in my hand here, there were 2 in my foot, a few in my side and a few in my bum.  He wanted me to come back tomorrow but I can't make it, so next week he wants me in 3 more times.  Hopefully it does something good.  Jack claims this will 'cure' my back.  I'm a little skeptical that some needles will CURE my Scoliosis, but if it helps then I'll be satisfied.

• I bought a new electric guitar, an Epiphone Les Paul almost 2 weeks ago, and my parents just mailed me my old practice amp and peddle for only $60, which I got today!
• Still need a power converter that will fit the 3 pronged plug, but still great to have none the less.

Also I wanted a bedside table AND had nowhere to storr my suit cases.  This solution just sort of happened on its own haha

• I've been doing open mic nights here, like I did over the summer.
• There is a foreigner bar called "Somewhere" which I have posted about before that hosts open mic every Thursday. 
• I've been going and making friends with the guys up there and it has been a lot of fun.
• Honestly I miss the Nick Zuber open mics at Hooley House, but it is still cool.
• I am supposed to go with my co-teacher Eunji tonight, however I may skip out this week because I am SO busy.

So as I said I am very busy and need to relax a little bit, but no time for that now!  haha  I have actually left lots of stuff out, so I will post again soon to catch up with all that is going on, bye!

(Also I did find some decent pictures for this post, but I hope to get better ones with me in them, and some of Taekwondo soon!)