Work
This is more or less my entire life these days, at least Monday to Friday. As I've griped about previously, I get up, start working, stop and go to bed. Actually it's not that bad, but I would think by the time 2011 finishes I'll have put as many hours into professional activities as I did in two when I worked in England. This isn't a bad thing - a lot of those extra hours are put in voluntarily and are aimed at making me a better teacher, which is often a very engaging and enjoyable process, which doesn't really fell like work.
At school I am two days away from being finished for the semester. Realistically, I am already done, as I'm spending this week doing listening discovery exercises with episodes of The Simpsons. Not a very tricky way to spend a week. However, teaching never really stops here, as the following two weeks I have summer camps to work. Korean education tends to view quantity of education as more important than quality, so there's never much of a chance to rest for student or teacher. I shouldn't complain too much though, some of my Korean colleagues get no summer vacation at all this year.
Similarly my studies are winding down. I say winding down, they're more winding up, as I have a little under 4 weeks to produce my final project for this module. For once I have made a decent start already, and I'm already 3,000 out of 6,000 words in. This weekend I have to listen to and transcribe 28 student interviews though, which is not going to be a lot of fun. Still, I'm confident of coming out of it with a decent grade.
Life
I am still finding time to have a little fun outside of work. It's been raining on and off here for the past three weeks which has dampened things a little, and completely wiped out football. One of the times it rained on was Monday evening and I was 8 miles away from home on my bike. I don't think I have ever been out in heavier rain. I could barely see 50 yards in front of me.
This weekend I was out and about in Itaewon. That's the district of Seoul where foreigners are almost in the majority, and where many of the embassies are based. It's actually a pretty nasty place a lot of the time as it's where all the American army members go out, but it's sometimes necessary to go there as it's possible to get essentials like lime pickle and mango chutney that just aren't available anywhere else in Korea. It also has a surfeit of not-shit (I'm not giving the American fruity muck they serve any better than that) beer on tap. I stayed there drinking until the baseball hats indoors crew turned up, then I cleared off to Hongdae instead.
What is pleasing me these days is Korean. I'm still not much good, but I can converse pretty easily with my friends as long as the topic is simple, and get along fine in everyday life. My MA is seriously limiting study time, but I've reached that wonderful stage in language learning where you start to pick up things just through exposure, rather than having to study them. I still want to get much better though.
Staying in Touch
I know I haven't been particularly good at keeping up with this blog, or with people who I should write to. I'm afraid that isn't that likely to change any time soon either, though if anyone is moved to send me a message of any kind I promise I will get back to you. These days I seem to be tumbling into a maelstrom of social media, but it's part of the job. Thus, if you want to contact me, or just read about me, there are a number of ways to do it:
- Email is the same as always.
- I still spend too much time on Facebook, so you can always get me through there.
- I now have a Google+, and invites to give away. Add me if you like.
- I will endeavour to write a blog post here every couple of weeks. You can always subscribe and leave me comments.
- My teaching blog is at http://breathyvowel.wordpress.com -this is mostly stuff I've been up to in the classroom, but may have the occasional interesting / funny piece.
- There is also an accompanying Twitter: @breathyvowel - I'm planning to use this as a general one from now on, but there will be quite a few ESL related tweets.
I think that's more or less it. Visitors are still welcome here if you fancy an exotic Asian getaway.
Was this post a bit needy? Oh well.
Until next time,
A
