University Life

Hello again,

At the end of my last post I promised to write again and share something of my new life at university. Here goes then.

The building that I live in is pretty amazing. It's an 18 floor orange monster that towers over pretty much everything around it, even in a society as keen on high-rise living as Korea. I actually live on the 18th floor, the penthouse if you like, and work on the 9th. Throw in the fact that the gym and the screen golf are on the 6th floor, a pool hall on the 3rd, a bunch of restaurants and cafes on the first two floors, along with a convenience store, a bookshop, a hairdressers, a laundrette and a doctor's surgery, and there's very little reason to leave. In fact, I managed to stay inside for 72 hours straight last week without ever really noticing. If this sounds unhealthy, I'd point out that going outside involves gulping down great lungfuls of industrial smog, and probably isn't really a good idea.

I'm very definitely going to get lazy living here. Not only can I get three meals a day cooked for me in the canteen for a minimal price if I want, I also just have to hang a sign on my door if my room's getting dirty, and a lady comes and cleans it. Plus, all my utilities including internet are thrown in. Not a bad deal really.

The area around the university really doesn't have that much to offer. We're essentially perched between two of the larger industrial estates in korea and a container port. There's the usual collection of fried chicken shops, barbecue restaurants, bars and singing rooms that will be depressingly familiar to anyone with exclusive of urban Korea. I am however in a golden triangle of E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus (Tesco), meaning that most of my ex-pat specific shopping needs can be quickly and easily taken care of.

Professionally things are going quite well so far. I teach 18 class hours a week (in actuality these are only 40 our 50 minutes each) to three classes of 20 students. In addition, there are up to 8 "cafe hours" a week, where students can come and have one on one conversation practice. The difference in teaching is huge here; I am able to do things that I am learning about on my MA course in the classroom, that I was unable to do with large public school classes because of student levels, motivation, our simply the dynamics of a class of 30 students. I'm able to follow a proper conversation driven methodology, and it's heartening to see most of my new students enjoying taking to each other in English. Let's hope it continues.

There's not a whole lot of news really. University starts again tomorrow - sociolinguistics, which doesn't greatly inspire me, but maybe will if I read enough. I've also found a football team to play for, which is definitely the most international I've ever played for. Current playing staff include Americans, Canadians, Guatemalans, Mexicans, a Spaniard, a Moroccan and a Korean who lived in Tunbridge Wells for a year. Mental.

Will try to post some nice pictures of something next time. Until then...

A