Paju City English Village & the Korean Laundry Experience

   
     Today was pretty cool. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves to an extent, but I'll try and paint it in words too. Paju City, home of the Paju English Village, is about an hour away from my school. Today, after my 40 minute bus ride from my apartment, I hopped on another bus with all of the students and teachers and headed for Paju. On the way there I saw what looked like a heavily guarded military training ground, but on further investigation found out it was the edge of the DMZ with North Korea! Must have been the closest I've ever come to a communist nation.

      Anyway. The English Village in Paju is basically a small enclosed town that was built specifically for the furthering of the English knowledge of South Korea's children. There were probably around 30 or so native English speakers working there today from all over... I met one guy from New Zealand (stamping mock-passports as we walked in) and another from Las Vegas who led our kids in a lesson on the Olympics. The kids had a great time. I thought the whole experience was a little weird, but I was happy to spend a beautiful day getting to know my students and fellow teachers a little better. Mrs. Jung (one of my Christian sisters at the school) brought a bunch of homemade Kimbab (basically Korean sushi) and shared it with me at lunch time. The children all just love to give me stuff and it is usually food/drinks so, even though I didn't bring my own lunch, I had way more than enough for one meal! God is good and I will always be a Baptist at heart and in my stomach.

     The sixth grade boys (a great group by the way) wanted to do a "jumping picture" before we left--hence the pic below. I was surprised it turned out so well! I think we are going to have a good time together this year.

These two little girls (in the second grade I believe) were always holding hands. They must be very good friends. I asked them for a picture and I got this! (You will probably see the peace sign in every single picture I take of my students ;) -- for some reason Koreans just love to throw up the sign!)

     So... Korea doesn't have any dryers. This was a realization that, quite simply, rocked my world. I spent about a week thinking about how to solve that problem, asking everyone I know how people survive here without a dryer and ended up going to Lotte Mart (Korean Wal-Mart) late last night to buy this drying rack. I must say, it's cheaper than buying a dryer and uses less electricity. You can also catch a glimpse of the view of Dongducheon out my window here.

Not only are there no dryers in Korea, but there is also no English on Korean washers. Go figure. This challenge was also on my mind over the past weak... It thought it could defeat me, but didn't know who it was dealing with. I conquered my washer because she forgot that my favorite thing in the world to do is translation!

Not only is having to set up one's life in Korea for the first time a huge challenge, but it is also the perfect opportunity to be absolutely forced into language learning. Normally it doesn't come so easily! I'm both figuring out life here and taking pleasure in the language-learning experience. I could still complain though... I'm only human. But God has taught me how to count my blessings--and this is one of them.

Sangsu Elementary School

I think now I will talk a little bit about my school.

My hope with this blog is that my family and friends would know where I am and what I am up to so that they know how to pray. Also, I hope it will be a means of accountability for me to all my Christian brothers and sisters back home watching my steps.

So, about my school. I teach English at Sangsu Elementary. It is small... super small. There is a total of 46 children in grades 1-6 and 15 faculty members. Miss. Kim is the best English speaker at the school and she teaches grade 5 (if I remember correctly). She and Mrs. Jung (the next best English speaker who is also my co-teacher for the English classes) have both been helping me as I make the transition to teaching at their school. Now, keep in mind that neither of them speak English "fluently." Communicating with others at my school has been a great challenge during this first week. That said, most of the faculty knows at least some English and they have all been as accommodating as possible to me in their willingness to attempt to communicate. Another teacher, Mrs. Nam, who teaches first grade, studied French in college, so she and I have had a great time exchanging sentences in some form of Franco-Konglish (the best term I can think of to fit the bill).

Not only has God blessed me with a working environment full of hospitality, but He has also placed (already!) two Christian friends in my life. Mrs. Jung, the fourth grade teacher, is a Christian who lives in my town (Dongducheon). She has helped me find a church nearby (in Uijeongbu) that has an English service--which I will be visiting for the first time later today! Another lady (whose name I can't recall at the moment unfortunately) who works in the office at my school is also a Christian who lives in Dongducheon. She gave me a ride home one day last week. That ride saved me about 30 minutes that I would have spent on a crowded bus! I am hoping we can car-pull more often ;)

Naturally, the kids at the school love me despite the fact they don't even know me. They are probably the most welcoming part of my school. If I leave my door open even just a crack, every time the students pass by I am greeted by a wave and a joyous "HELLO MR. WASSSON!"

The first step into a new world

You're right, I still chose the Eiffel Tower background even though I'm in Korea. I couldn't hold myself back! Besides, Google doesn't have any Korean backgrounds available. So don't judge too harshly.

If you don't know what I'm talking about or why I'm in Korea, I will give the short version of the story here.

It all started in high school when I realized I loved language learning thanks to my Spanish and Greek classes. When I got to college, I decided to continue in that direction and majored in Spanish and French. I love both Spanish and French, but when I graduated from college it didn't seem like the financially smart thing to do to pursue any type of employment in Europe or Latin America. I had heard of the many opportunities in South Korea for English teachers, so I decided to go in that direction. I made lots of friends from Korea at Anderson University and learned a bit of the language from them. So, I found a recruiter in Seoul, took a certificate program in teaching English, and found a job in Korea (super-simplified explanation of a super-involved process).

Why did I really choose to come? Money was certainly not the main reason. I could make that back home. What I most desire is to use my talents for the glory of God. Right now, I think being in Korea and undertaking the challenge of learning Korean (a much more difficult language for English speakers than Spanish or French) is one place where I can do that. At the same time I am learning the language and culture of Korea, I have the amazing opportunity to share mine with the students at my school. For some reason, it is easier for me (and many Christians I have spoken with) to talk about my relationship with Christ in a foreign environment. Maybe that has to do with what Jesus said in Luke 4:24: "Truly I tell you...no prophet is accepted in his hometown."
It would have been easy to stay home. It is not going to be a cake-walk here. If life were a cake-walk, I think I might be in danger of forgetting about God. I certainly don't want it to be too easy if that is the case!