Yeon-san Dong: The English learning Environment

March 16th, 2010
As usual I made my way down to the subway station at 1pm and went to the transfer station at Suyeong. When transferring there its always interesting to see the big line-up. When getting on the subway we always rush to get the first seat. when getting off at Yeon-san dong there is the big push to the elevator...its like clockwork that this never ending cycle happens day in day out. Even now as I speak there probably is a long line of people forming at Suyeong as well as Yeonsan-dong.

After working in Yeonsan my wife and I dined at a kamja tong restaurant where we just sat and talked about the day. I didn't get paid yet so I am still angry about that. On a personal note this company is slowly showing me that it doesn't care to follow its guidelines. I will post more on that later.


To answer a comment I received earlier...


I have been living in Korea for 3 years. The Korean language was formed based off of the phonetic sounds. Thus the characters are written showing the placement of articulation with our tongue. In my experience I have read a few books, memorized the easy alphabet, am able to read everything and I can understand on an elementary level.

My wife and I converse in english most of the time except for the small talk jokes we share that are in Korean. I have a basic set of Korean vocab as well. However, there really is no way for me to use Korean. When koreans have befriended me and are actually comfortable around a foreigner then a real sense of cultural immersion can take place. When I am walking the streets and I am lost and I need to call on my skills I find most people are timid to say the least when responding to me. It must be real basic for example: Bathroom except the Korean word for that.

Living in Korea is difficult for foreigners. I have often felt that there is no purpose for us to be here unless we work. PLeasure is hard to define to a culture who is chasing dollars.

Kids- Maybe because they don't have an experience in a foreign country or maybe because they are too young are the reasons that they can't learn English properly. the parents push them into this program whether they are ready or not. It reminds me of a personal story when I was young. I was pushed into a program that I didn't want to do at first. This program was called Cross country and because of my mother I had to do it. Later, I enjoyed it and was actually successful at it. I miss it. Kids here have no sense of enjoyment with the English language. If we aren't playing a game its no fun. If its not class time its free time which means they can run around shouting, yelling, and calling me stupid. They truly get away with much more than I think they should and no one gives a rats ass.

Today-I showed up before 2, tried to get a lesson plan from the teachers to no avail and was told with 2 minutes to go that the korean teacher is just too busy. She needs to write up a report, check homework and prepare herself for the parents. This is to insure that they stay in the unorganized class. My 50 minutes are entirely up to me without so much as some discipline from the teacher.


So far my third job in Korea and yet again a disappointment. School house rock continues tomorrow where I make my 4th appearance at this school. Hope it goes better than today went.