A Little Moore Perspective AFTER Korea

Before we came to Korea we watched a video about the province we were moving to, Gangwon-do.  It was pretty over the top, and mixed in with all the other thrilling things to do and see in Gangwon-do was a brief intro to our city, Chuncheon.  The man in the video said, “Come to Chuncheon, home of the famous chicken ribs.  Once you find them, it’ll make you forget about…whatever else you were looking for in Chuncheon!” We had several good laughs about other things we may forget about because we were so enthralled with the chicken ribs.  Like one of our children, for example. 

When we found out we were placed in Chuncheon, we knew we had better try the chicken ribs.  Later we found out the Korean name to be dak galbi, which literally means chicken ribs.  And while the dish definitely has chicken, it is only chicken meat, no ribs or bones to be found.

The first night we went in search of it, some of my students helped us and told us one particular restaurant was “safe.”  That was a little weird, to say the least, but we braved it anyway.  In hindsight we think they must have meant that it was less spicy than other restaurants.  The ingredient list alone doesn’t make the dish sound that great, but we actually really like it and would like to try to recreate it when we come home. It’s made of chicken, rice noodles, sweet potatoes, cabbage, mixed with a spicy chili sauce.  We had it three times in the first two weeks.   Ezekiel asks for it by name. 

All of the dak galbi restaurants charge the same amount, and serve unlimited side dishes.  The side dishes in most restaurants are cabbage with kiwi sauce(very delicious), a cold radish soup (let’s just say I like the other sides better), garlic cloves and cut up chilies, and sometimes a crab.  And of course as with any restaurant, there is a difference in the atmosphere between them.  The restaurant the students recommended is the one that we really enjoy.  We sit at traditional-style Korean tables, sitting on a speacial raised floor. The people are so friendly!  Every time we have been one lady comes and takes Cadence from me so I can eat.  She personally goes to a nearby store and gets yogurt and feeds her.  She orders extra noodles for Ezekiel and another quiche type food for him because even though he likes the dak galbi, he can’t really handle the heat!  The other ladies are very sweet to us also.  We did try another place, but the only thing better about it was that there was more chicken!  The atmosphere makes such a difference! 

When we don’t eat out, we shop at both local markets and at a larger store, GS Mart.  From the local markets we buy all of our fruit.  There is one place in particular that we like, lovingly referring to the owner as simply, “Fruit Man.”  GS Mart is similar to a Walmart, as far as being all inclusive, but definitely has differences, too.  There is a food court on the top floor that we usually make part of our trips.  They have many Korean cafeteria-style places and a McDonalds.  I’m sure if David were writing this post he would add a complaint here that I always want to go to the McDonalds, but please keep in mind, I DO eat Korean food every day for lunch!  Sometimes I just want a little taste of home!!

We are able to find some American foods at the store, but even then we must decide if we are willing to pay the money to have it.  Cereal is about $4 a box.  A can of Pringles is about $3.  When we were trying to find ingredients for Mexican food, we found that a pack of six tortillas is about $6.  And there are no refried beans anywhere.  We couldn’t even find any dried black or pinto beans to boil and mash up to be refried beans!  Many of the foods we are used to are expensive, so we often pass them up for alternatives.  If we always shopped like Koreans, it is much cheaper, but as I said earlier, sometimes I just need some American food! 

My classes are still going really well.  My only complaints are that I only see my students once a week and that I have 40 students in each class, which makes it really difficult to learn their names or feel like I can really progress with them and get to know them.  I create all my own lessons, which is really nice, and again, because I only see students once a week, I can use the same lesson for each class all week.  I have no textbook or guidelines to follow.  The point of my class is just to get them to speak English.  In their regular English classes, taught by Korean teachers, they spend so much time learning vocabulary and grammar and reading and writing that that they have no time to actually practice the language. 

A few weeks ago, I created a unit that will last me until the middle of November.  It is a unit about stories—different kinds of stories and story telling, etc.  This week I talked about parables and was able to tell two parables that Jesus told in the Bible, the Prodigal Son and the Wise and Foolish Builders.  I would have never been able to do this in America!  And about two weeks ago I was even able to go pretty much from beginning to end through the basics of the Bible with Ki Eun!  God is totally blessing us with this opportunity. 

A few years ago I took a Linguistics class.  I have been re-interested in that class because of the Korean language.  It is all phonetic.  I WISH English was, too!!  For example, why do we need the letters “X”and “C” or “Y” as a vowel? 

Anyway, I am interested in the common mistakes I hear my students and other Koreans making.  In Korean, there is no difference between the “L” and “R” sounds.  I think it is easier to understand why if you think of how the “R” sounds in Spanish.  The way we move our mouths to make that “R” sound is similar to how we make the “L” sound.  I’m guessing that is the reason for the confusion.  We had a discussion one day about the country Singapore, how it is pronounced, “Singaporrrrrrre” and NOT “Singapole.”  In the same way the “G” and “K” differentiation is difficult.  Because the “Ga” and “Ka” uses similar mouth movements to create the sound.  For a long time, our province, Gangwon-do, was spelled Kangwon-do, and still is in the North Korean portion.  “B” and “P” are a similar problem.  And they have trouble with “E” at the end of words.  Orange is pronounced, “orangee.”  Sometimes they even add it to words that don’t need it.  One person asked if we found a place to go to “churchee.”

This week I had a dream that I was with Ki Eun and making her look in my hair.  She found lice!  Eventually we realized it was because I had been letting the students use my brush. When I woke up I was trying to figure out the cause of this crazy dream.  A few weeks ago I had the students sit in a circle and we created a story together.  I brought a tiara and said only the one wearing the tiara could speak.  I think this is where the whole brush sequence came into play in my dream.  But I was still confused about the lice.  Then I realized that when my students were sharing popular Korean stories with me last week, many of them involved rice.  Because of the confusion in the letters, they were pronouncing it, “lice!”  I am planning to really work on these and a few other commonly confused words next week.  I would hate for them to visit America and proudly tell people that they eat lice at every meal!