Hello, I'm back

Life here has been slightly crazy. However I'm loving my job and I've been able to build some good friendships here with Koreans and foreigners. It feels strange to be the immigrant instead of the citizen. I have more respect for immigrants that travel to North America in search of better work opportunities. And I understand a little better why they sometimes tend to keep to themselves to the exclusion of other groups. That's a temptation I try to avoid.

Today I received an e-mail from my friend Steve who is currently teaching in China. He asked me if I had hit what is commonly as the "second phase" of culture shock. Yes, I have definitely hit that second phase. The stares that I receive on a daily basis are now less uncomfortable and definitely more irritating. Sometimes I think I'm really getting settled in and then something happens that frustrates me and makes me wonder what's wrong with "these people." It's difficult not to give in to the temptation to think in terms of me versus them.

It's hard to believe that only a few months ago Steve and I were driving home from a Jinny Kim concert, talking about all of our respective plans for China and Korea, and now suddenly we're out there doing it.

I mentioned that I've met a lot of great people in Korea and I've become friends with a number of students. These types of relationships make this place feel more like home.

Because it was relatively easy for me to get my job, I underestimated the amount of work I would actually be doing. Also, I have never had very good organizational skills and I'm learning on the job how to be more organized. It's a painful process. My performance evaluations have been very good. I've actually had students tell me how much they've enjoyed my class and would like to have me as a teacher again. This means a lot to me.

My Korean has been coming slowly. Studying Korean is difficult because many Koreans are anxious to use whatever English they know. Actually, under the best circumstances Korean is just a difficult language. Fortunately, Koreans are quite flattered when foreigners show an interest in their language, and are eager to help them out with certain things. Many people have complimented me on my pronunciation and penmanship.

Last week I finally began my first formal Korean lesson with Toby, one of my advanced students. When I discovered two weeks ago that he used to be an assistant to a Korean language professor at Sogang University, I was not shy about asking him to do a language exchange with me. He is a scientist and his approach to language learning is methodical but more practical than many Koreans I've met. We use a couple of Korean textbooks that Steve Kaufmann recommended me couple of my Korean textbooks, and we also do some spontaneous stuff. I help him a little as well. So far we've met three times. It's going so well that I often ask myself why I didn't start doing this earlier.

Part of the problem with my language study was trying to do everything myself. This is not inherently bad, but I realize now that I was not spending enough time on the basics and although there is some method to my madness, it definitely needed a little more structure. Basically I've been doing many of the things I criticize my students for doing. Ha ha.