Want to help out the awesome students of Kids Land? Take on a travel notebook and help them learn a bit about your part of the world! The project goes like this...
-My kids write in a notebook about who they are, and about life in South Korea.
-I send this notebook to someone (maybe you?!) living in a country other than Korea
-When you receive the notebook, you send the student a postcard letting them know where their notebook is, and then write a few pages in the notebook about who you are and where you live.
-When you finish your entry in the notebook, you send it on to someone you know living in a different country, and they repeat the steps. (When the journal arrives in the 6th country, that person sends the notebook back to the student in Korea.)
If you would like to take on a notebook from one of my students, please send me a message with your address, and I will get one in the mail to you soon! My email address is... PeterWest.87@gmail.com
We have received postcards from all over the world, and the kids are so excited to see where their books are going and to learn about new places. More notebooks are in the works as we speak, and I need the help of more people to keep this project going! Here are a few small catches...
1. Because I am paying for this out of pocket and I am a poor poor seoul with a shopping addiction, I unfortunately can not afford to pay for the shipping of these journals to all of their 6 destinations... so I have to ask those who receive journals to pay for the shipping of both the postcard to Korea and the notebook to its next destination. That being said... the notebooks are small, paperback books that are very cheap to send internationally!
2. The kids are very excited about this project, and it has been hard for some of them to watch their classmates receiving postcards from all over the world, wondering why they haven't received a card from a journal sent several months back. Your kindness in accepting a journal is appreciated to no end, but please only take one if you have the time to fill in pages and get it sent out within a week or two of receiving it!
If you would like to take on a notebook from one of my students, please send me a message with your address, and I will get one in the mail to you soon! My email address is... PeterWest.87@gmail.com
Thank you so much for your help
Sincerely,
Peter Teacher
Monday, November 5, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Totally Not Scary Ghosts of Halloween Past, And the 2012 Kids Land Halloween Extravaganza
Halloween in Korea is a day recognized seouly by members of two distinct demographics, those involved in the Western bar scene, and those working in or attending an English academy. As an active member of the latter, I have found myself heavily involved in a holiday that I normally would choose to shy away from. Kids Land, my place of employment, celebrates the day with a class cancelling event, a party that allows our students and their friends who don't attend our school to frolic in Halloween festivities for 4 hours of spooky fun, 4 hours which annually have proven to be some of the most exhausting, bruise-worthy hours of my whole damn year.
The amount of time I have remained in this country is testimony to the fact that I really do love my students, and most of the time, I am blown away with their ability to understand foreign concepts. Exceptions to this statement include such instances as disgusted gags and groans as they tried Guacamole for the first time, including Los Angeles, London and Costco in their list of U.S. states, their firm belief that I fly home to Colorado after work every day and back to Korea in the morning... and finally, the Korean child's ability to rock (or, not rock) Halloween.
A key element missing from the Korean Halloween experience is the Halloween costume, a market that is a massively untapped in the Republic of Korea. Most grocery stores will have a bin with a few witch hats in it, hats which most children will not purchase. Despite the fact that really most of them will not be in costume, the it is a simple expectation of the students that the foreign teacher, being the only who has truly experienced Halloween in its costumed glory, will arrive decked out in terrifying monster gear. Before we continue with my tale of Koreaween, (Hallowea? help?) allow me to demonstrate with photographic historical evidence, just why exactly I am not really up to the challenge of creating a costume intended to terrify...
This year I decided to arrive at work as an Angry Bird, a costume I was told before the event, was not scary enough to fill my expected role of scaregiver in Kids Land Halloween Extravaganza 2012. So plans were changed, I became Angry Bird Zombie, and the costume was given the official Kids Land seal of approval. When I arrived at work the day of the event, I found Lake, my boss, decorating the room with a cheery banner that read 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN' in bubble font, a banner which would actually never be seen by anyone as it was being placed in the room with the windows blacked out and the lights turned off. Lake turned to me with a devilish grin, and giggling, she said, "I think they will cry!"
Traditionally, at the beginning of the party the foreign teacher is locked in the dark room. They are told to scare the children, entering two at a time, ask each child three level appropriate English questions, DJ the scary music (downloaded on my phone), pass out candy, be extra entertaining for the friends of our students so as to encourage their future enrollment, and keep each pair in the room for aroud a minute. The first challenge presented itself in the minute allotted time in the dark room to free scary music track on my phone ratio. The one song I was able to download lasted :48, and when it ended, the next on the playlist was none other than the track downloaded for last week's lesson on generational fads...
you guessed it...
The Macarena.
Finally, because your average Korean child probably hasn't spent much time around big foreigners in bird costumes, their sugar infused instincts naturally tell them to do one thing... beat the living daylights out of said foreigner, who, let me remind you, is me.
So, to review, the task list is as follows:
1. Be really scary, bonus points awarded for making kids cry
2. Ask grammar questions
3. Prevent the impending Macarena
4. Make sure each child ends up with only one bag of candy
5. Be a marketing guro/entertainer for potential future students
6. Deal with hundreds of tiny fists beating you senseless
At the end of the day, I was able to make several kids cry (a big plus in the eyes of my boss), learned that in the year of growth since last Halloween, lil' David no longer pees when scared, AND received several compliments on a much scarier costume than last year's Shrek. Who knows... if I stick around to see another Halloween, I may even be able to one day pull off something truly terrifying.
Until then, I move forward with a smile on my face, only slightly suffering from abused teacher syndrome, but still quite satisfied with life as a teacher in South Korea. Until next time...
Squaaaaak.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
PETER TEACHER
The amount of time I have remained in this country is testimony to the fact that I really do love my students, and most of the time, I am blown away with their ability to understand foreign concepts. Exceptions to this statement include such instances as disgusted gags and groans as they tried Guacamole for the first time, including Los Angeles, London and Costco in their list of U.S. states, their firm belief that I fly home to Colorado after work every day and back to Korea in the morning... and finally, the Korean child's ability to rock (or, not rock) Halloween.
A key element missing from the Korean Halloween experience is the Halloween costume, a market that is a massively untapped in the Republic of Korea. Most grocery stores will have a bin with a few witch hats in it, hats which most children will not purchase. Despite the fact that really most of them will not be in costume, the it is a simple expectation of the students that the foreign teacher, being the only who has truly experienced Halloween in its costumed glory, will arrive decked out in terrifying monster gear. Before we continue with my tale of Koreaween, (Hallowea? help?) allow me to demonstrate with photographic historical evidence, just why exactly I am not really up to the challenge of creating a costume intended to terrify...
 |
| Clockwise From Top Right: 1989 Raggedy Andy, 1994 The Year of the Peacock, 1991 Wizard, 1990 Mickey Mouse, 1992 Pinnochio (Missing Photos: The Blueberry, Free Willy) |
This year I decided to arrive at work as an Angry Bird, a costume I was told before the event, was not scary enough to fill my expected role of scaregiver in Kids Land Halloween Extravaganza 2012. So plans were changed, I became Angry Bird Zombie, and the costume was given the official Kids Land seal of approval. When I arrived at work the day of the event, I found Lake, my boss, decorating the room with a cheery banner that read 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN' in bubble font, a banner which would actually never be seen by anyone as it was being placed in the room with the windows blacked out and the lights turned off. Lake turned to me with a devilish grin, and giggling, she said, "I think they will cry!"
Traditionally, at the beginning of the party the foreign teacher is locked in the dark room. They are told to scare the children, entering two at a time, ask each child three level appropriate English questions, DJ the scary music (downloaded on my phone), pass out candy, be extra entertaining for the friends of our students so as to encourage their future enrollment, and keep each pair in the room for aroud a minute. The first challenge presented itself in the minute allotted time in the dark room to free scary music track on my phone ratio. The one song I was able to download lasted :48, and when it ended, the next on the playlist was none other than the track downloaded for last week's lesson on generational fads...
you guessed it...
The Macarena.
Finally, because your average Korean child probably hasn't spent much time around big foreigners in bird costumes, their sugar infused instincts naturally tell them to do one thing... beat the living daylights out of said foreigner, who, let me remind you, is me.
So, to review, the task list is as follows:
1. Be really scary, bonus points awarded for making kids cry
2. Ask grammar questions
3. Prevent the impending Macarena
4. Make sure each child ends up with only one bag of candy
5. Be a marketing guro/entertainer for potential future students
6. Deal with hundreds of tiny fists beating you senseless
At the end of the day, I was able to make several kids cry (a big plus in the eyes of my boss), learned that in the year of growth since last Halloween, lil' David no longer pees when scared, AND received several compliments on a much scarier costume than last year's Shrek. Who knows... if I stick around to see another Halloween, I may even be able to one day pull off something truly terrifying.
Until then, I move forward with a smile on my face, only slightly suffering from abused teacher syndrome, but still quite satisfied with life as a teacher in South Korea. Until next time...
Squaaaaak.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
PETER TEACHER
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