Holy Cow, Rain!

Hi all,

Title says it all. We went to Seoul to see Dave, our old coworker (now working in a public school in Banghak), and talk about downpour! It was brutal on Sunday morning trying to get back, and we were feeling a little tired.

We had met up to play some Settlers of Catan with Dave. For those that don't know about it, Settlers is an odd cross between Risk, Monopoly, and Empire Builder (an old train building game). It's neat, and highly interactive, and changes every time you play it.

Dave has highlighted in previous blogs of his the difference between public and private schools. It was neat talking to him and his friend Douglas about the fact that you can literally tell who goes to a hagwon and who doesn't: the level of English is like night and day.

It's a weird situation: Korea has a strong private system based on hagwons, although the reason they have the hagwons is the public school system is not very effective, emphasizing rote rehearsal of conversations in English. We therefore teach a lot to tests in the private system, helping students cram for the material that the schools don't make them ready for.

And of course, you still get students who can't speak English, despite having studied it for years, because they're expected to memorize words and grammar out of context. I have students in my advanced classes who are still blatantly struggling to find words, because they haven't learned how to speak fluently in class.

It's worse when you can't afford to go to a private after-school academy. Fortunately, the Korean government seems to be considering how to fix it, but whether it'll really change is anybody's guess.

For our part, Jen and I have our plane tickets back in hand. We have 30 working days spread across 6 weeks left, and we're feeling homesick for the first time in almost 8 months after the initial burst of it when we first got here. We're both pining for the return, but I know when we get there we'll miss Korea, too.

Weird feeling, all around.

Best to all,

Chris