Entry 29: Halfway there

It has been 86 days since I've been in Korea and 76 more days till my departure.

I ask myself the question, "is the second half of the trip going to be better than the first half?", and the answer that I come up with is an interesting one. "Unlikely, but just wait and see, that's the fun of it."

The first half of my trip consisted mostly of orientation. Although it has already passed the point where I have been teaching little kids longer than I have been learning how to teach kids, I still can feel the dread in my body when I saw the ridiculous schedule of the oh-so-infamous Kyung Hee Orientation.

With that being said, I will never forget the people and the interesting adventures that were so easy to embark on such as my trip to 동대문 or even the sheer novelty of my first weekend in Korea.

Even the actual orientation wasn't as bad as I made it sound to be in my previous posts, because it actually did make teaching a bit easier, knowing that what I am doing is pretty much what everyone else is doing. I will remember what it was like, the air a mix of the clean breeze and of cigarette smoke, as we all sat watching the college soccer games as we wait in-between our classes.

I remember what it was like teaching my very first class and the butterflies in my stomach helped me to conjure up a lesson plan on the spot.

I wont soon forget what it was like to be plunged into isolation and eventually becoming comfortable with long periods of time to myself.

But with all this being said, I'm excited for the second half of my trip.

I have 6 weeks of teaching left during the normal school days. and Seven days of winter camp. It should be easy enough to accomplish, and I am content to know that I have taught these kids a lot about the English language.

I also look forward to being reunited with friends from back home, starting sometime in mid-December. It will be nice to be able to hang out with friends that I usually see SUPER STRESSED OUT during finals time, in a very relaxed state of being (LOL, I think I'm talking about June not being at PCL but instead at Red Mango. I swear its going to be like seeing two completely different people).  It will be nice since I have the entire month of January as vacation to just hang out with friends.

I also look forward to spending some quality time with my girlfriend! Eunice is coming to Korea to visit her family (who wants me to join them for the holidays, talk about pressure....) and hopefully the two of us will be able to do all the fun couply things that people do when in Korea. I was talking to a friend and she basically said "everything in Korea is much more fun when you are in a couple. Subway rides no longer are tiresome, bus stops are cozy, coffee shops are little getaways, walking isn't a chore, etc.etc.". That was slightly paraphrased, but you get her point.

Connecting with the point above, Eunice and I booked the same flight back home. January 12th. Which actually worked out really well, since that was the earliest day that my school was going to let me go home, and since it was the day that Eunice decided to book home anyways. Thankfully we called the airlines and made sure to get seats next to each other. Cross your fingers guys, I think the second half of the trip might be even BETTER than the first half.

I'm also looking forward to this friday, Jubilee's Men's Retreat. It should be good. I'll be sure to write a post about it later.




So here I go!

Entry 28: 4th Graders

As I walk into the classroom, their face light up. Little did I know the reasons as to why they seemed so happy. I think as the months have passed, I understand why they like it when I come. The first reason is an obvious one, I bring the candy (not all the time, but often enough for them to pay attention and not enough to make them think it is a daily thing), but the second one somewhat backfired on me, I'm their friend.

I guess the reason why I say that this backfired on me because I started to lose respect with a few of the students, usually the male students. I play soccer the the kids before class and we have a grand Ole time. I joke and just mess around with the kids. My 1st graders find this as the most amusing thing ever, as they scream "Jeremy TEACHER 우리 팀!!! (our team!!!)" and even the 2nd graders laugh and giggle as I play keep away with the undersized soccer ball. With the older kids, they play much more competitively and they also like to play, but with a bit more seriousness. I become a teammate to them.

These kids come into class and they start to get away with the little things; not repeating what I say, not learning the new vocabulary, not participating in games, trying to play jokes on my during class, etc. (side note, these are 3 boys in the entire school, the rest of the kids are angels, seriously I am confused as to why they are so well behaved). 1 boy is my 4th grade class and 2 of them are in the 6th grade class.

I was trying to teach the class how to speak when talking on the telephone. The 1 boy, Sky, came up behind me as I was writing something on the board, and gave me a 똥찜 (literally translated poop needle). I turned around, laughed it off and just told him to sit down. I continued with my lecture. He did it again. The class roared with laughter. I turned on my "scary face" and told him to sit in the back off the room facing the wall. I felt bad after about 5 minutes, asked him a vocabulary question, and when he got it correct I let him rejoin the class. In 2 min, he gets up out of his seat and starts talking to one of the kids in the back of the room who saw me starring them both down and told Sky "SHUT UP!". I was getting pretty annoyed. I put him again in time out, and after about 5 min, I let him join the class. I prepared to play a game with the class based on the vocabulary, and Sky decided that it would be much more beneficial if he took out his comic books to read. The whole class was like "Teacher? are you going to hit him?", I just gave him the scariest look that I could muster up, and no one in the class dared to laugh. You could have heard a pin drop. I told everyone that we were no longer going to play. That we were no longer going to be receiving candy. Thankfully, the class understood my frustration. I gave them a little speech (in Korean btw) how I wanted to have fun in this class, but there was going to be no way that we could have fun if people were not going to participate. I wasn't angry at them, but they knew that I was frustrated.

The following school day, their teacher came to me and formally apologized for their behavior. She heard about the 똥찜's and was pretty embarrassed that it happened in her class. I told her that it wasn't that big of a deal, and that they are just kids. Thankfully, after that little lecture I gave to those kids, things went back to normal. The next time I saw the class, they did amazingly. We played games, had fun, laughed a bunch, and I had a huge smile on my face as I left the room.

When I become a dad, I know that I am going to hate getting mad at my kids, but I know for sure that I'm not going to be afraid to discipline them. I know for a fact, that I hate getting frustrated with my students for misbehavior (frustration over their English is a whole different story), but I discipline them when its necessary because I know that they will take it to heart and improve.

I like my 4th grade class. They are a lot of fun. They are really good students and they have lots of spunk.

Entry 27: Oasis

As fair warning, this post is about my faith and relationship with God, so if you if you have no interest in reading, no hard feelings, I'm just trying to save you some time. I will post an entry about my "wonderful" 4th graders soon enough, but this is what is on my mind and my heart.

Oasis: something serving as a refuge, relief, or pleasant change from what is usual, annoying, difficult, etc.

By this definition, Korea is an oasis for me regarding my spiritual walk.

I had conversations with multiple people about Korea before I even planned on coming to live here for half a year, and most of those conversations spoke of the spiritual decay of the country, how it is falling into a materialistic and selfish country. People spoke of the liberal ideologies of the next generation and the suppressed sexual frustration of pretty much the entire country. I have heard the stories of moral decay even while I spend my time living in this country. I saw Korea as my desert spiritually for a variety of reasons, but the one reason why Korea feels like my desert is simply because I am alone.

I am not in the bustling city of Seoul and I sometimes go days without seeing someone I recognize. This is a stark contrast to the way that I lived my life in Austin, where I was constantly surrounded by fellow brothers and sisters who constantly had been looking out for me, and to my home in Dallas where my parents and sisters would make sure that my walk with God was not stagnant. This isolation and harsh transition socially, has created a (what I feel is drastic) change in my personality. If you read before, this was partially the anguish that I was experiencing, the harsh realities of being alone and isolated.

But I have found an oasis. I have found clarity in my faith and a deeper understanding of my relationship with God.

When I wrote that post on the anguish that I was feeling, I was grieving over my sin, over my idolization of fellowship, over my pride, over my lust, over all the things that makes me human, over all the things that make me imperfect. During the following weeks, God was teaching me the lesson of grace. The lesson of His forgiveness when I deserve nothing but death. I understood to a deeper extent how my sin was leading me towards a life unfulfilled. He gave me His grace, and I was no longer suffocating beneath my burden. It was the anguish that led me to Christ. It was the blood of Christ and the power of the Spirit that gave me freedom from the burden of my failure. I was a failure, but I can honestly tell you know that I am moving forward.

The next phase of my spiritual journey in Korea was the realization that the Spirit of God, aka the Holy Spirit, wants to have a relationship with me. The Bible talks about the Spirit as being the Helper, the Comforter, as God. We know that the Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity, but honestly, as most of the church still thinks, the Holy Spirit wasn't as important to me as God the Father or Jesus. The Holy Spirit was one of those cool things that just made things better, but He wasn't necessary, to be honest, sometimes I even forgot that He was God or even a part of the Trinity.

The best way for me to illustrate what I have learned during this time of building a relationship with the Holy Spirit is this, He is my significant other.

Let me try to explain. You see, I have a girlfriend, her name is Eunice. The first time we met, we didn't exactly see eye to eye (she pretty much shut me up and put me in my place), but over time, the two of us started to talk. It didn't just happen overnight (no matter what anyone says), but our relationship grew more and more each day. What I am trying to explain, we weren't intimate with each other from the get go, but instead our relationship was based on the conversations and time that we spent with each other. We both agree that the conversations that we have had with each other were of more importance than that of any kiss we have shared. This isn't to say that the intimate moments we have had together are not important, because they are.

I've always known that God wanted a relationship with me. I just thought it had to always be miraculously intimate or earth shatteringly amazing. I thought that in order to meet Him, I would have to see visions or dream a crazy dream. But in the same way that some of the most intimate moments I have had with my girlfriend happen during the common moments (hearing her laugh, the way she says "hi" on the telephone, the way she looks with absolutely no makeup on) I have found that I am more amazed at the conversations I have had with the Spirit of God. Instead of trying to jump right in an intimate relationship with Him, I've really tried to get to know Him. He's a person, He has a personality, He has emotion, He loves me. It is the moments that it is just Him and me, that really remind me of the strength of our relationship and how good He is to me. Those times at retreats and mission trips where I was completely filled were AMAZING, don't get me wrong, because those were some of the most amazing moments with the Spirit, but it's the day-to-day things that really make our relationship special. Sometimes opening up the Bible and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is more powerful than the ground shaking. It's the little things about relationships that makes them so special.

I'm still getting to know the Holy Spirit. I'm still learning His mannerisms, what his dislikes are, what his likes are, what makes Him happy, what makes Him sad, what makes Him angry. Something that I am sure of is this, the more time I spend with the Spirit, the more I want Jesus. The more I want to see the Son glorified.

As I am in this oasis, this honeymoon stage of my relationship with the Spirit, I have one HUGE goal when I go back to school. Start spreading and telling people the benefits of a life completely surrendered to Christ.

I have a desire to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I don't want to be obnoxious, but when you are in an intimate, long term relationship with someone, you end up sharing the same interests. The Holy Spirit loves Jesus. He loves to glorify Jesus. I think His interests are starting to rub off on me.

I'm still learning. I'm still growing. I am far from perfect (just ask Eunice, she'll probably be able to give you a long list of all my faults [hopefully she also has a long list of my redeeming qualities]), but I just know that this trip in Korea has really ruined me for Christ.

Jesus is alive and He wants to give you the best life you could ever have.


I'm so pumped up about this that, here, email me.

jeremyroh@gmail.com

It doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, even if you don't know me (even if you know me), send me an email. Let's talk about God. Let's talk about what you believe even if it isn't in Jesus. If you want someone to talk to, if you want someone to just hear you out, I don't know. Here is my email. Just as fair warning, I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, but we are all entitled to our beliefs right?

Yo, church, yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you. We have an amazingly powerful God, who is on our side, why are we so quiet about it? Why is it that people are more interested in who is dating who, rather than what God is doing in our lives? I'm not condemning or judging. I'm just saying, let's live lives abandoned.

We are the bride of Christ. We have a fiancé in Christ so much better than Jim Halpert. Let's start acting like it.

I love you guys. Let's get excited about what God is doing.

Entry 26: 3rd Grade

I walk into my favorite class with a smile on my face as Sam yells at me in Korean "HURRY!!! LET'S START CLASS!!!". He grabs my hand and we run down the hallway. Thank God, that I have these kids every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. If it was up to me, I would teach these munchkins every single day.

Reasons why I love my 3rd grade class the most (I love all my classes, this class just is extra special):

1. It is one of my smaller classes. There are only seven students.
2. They are extremely motivated to learn English. In comparison to my other classes, this class really enjoys simply saying (yelling) vocabulary words. With my other classes, they become bored of repeating vocabulary words (even though the repetition really helps their pronunciation) which is fine, because I end up just playing games that accomplish the same goal. My third grade class has fun with the vocabulary repetition and they actually learn the words, THE FIRST TIME.
3. They are incredibly smart. You see, I made lesson plans for each grade level for the entire semester, and most classes I wish there was more time to teach each topic, but I must move on because I want to cover as many topics as possible. My third grade class is so quick that sometimes I teach two topics in one day. For example, the other day we were learning furniture (bed, desk, chair, dresser, sink, toilet, etc) and we spent the first 20 min going over the vocab (I drew a bedroom and bathroom on the white board and I pointed to each piece of furniture and said what it was). They memorized around 16 vocab words in about 20 minutes. After making sure that they really had memorized the words, I taught them how to read time in English (six fifty, seven oh five, twelve thirty). They got it down in about 3 min. So we proceeded to play the most difficult game that I have played with ANY of my grades. I wrote down about 20 times on the board from 8:00 to 12:00 (8:15, 10:23, 12:36, etc) and then had my Korean coteacher write down the furniture vocabulary in Korean next to each time. For example 8:03-침대. SO, they broke up into teams and I would save 8:03 and they would have to say "BED!" within 5 seconds. Remember, there were 20 different times and 20 different words written in Korean on the board. Each team missed 1 question. The game was too easy. So I switched it around. I would say the English vocab word (BED!) they would have to say the corresponding time (EIGHT OH THREE!). They missed about 2 each. This was a hard game for most of the 5th graders. 
4. They are freaking cute. Just take a loot at the pictures on facebook. They are adorable. Oh heck, I'll upload one.
   
   
5. Nicest classroom in the school. There is a flat screen TV and all the furnishings are brand new 

 I love this class.

John: Smart kid, but he cries if he loses. He loves when we play games.
Tony: So LOUD, but also really good at English.
Ginny: Super cute because she tries so hard! She always makes a really cute face and twirls her finger in the air when she doesn't know the answer to a question.
Rachel: Reminds me a of a mini Ahjumah. :D
Andrew: He's not in the picture because he was sick today, but he is by far the best at English in the class, but he is very humble about it. Very well behaved (the boys at the school are kind of wild, but that is to be expected).
Sam: Not very good at English, but definitely my second favorite student in the entire school. He is just a fun kid.
Julie: My favorite student. She is the one that is afraid of getting a question wrong so she always asks me to give her an easy question. I'm not sure if she realizes, but I've been giving her harder and harder questions and she's been getting them all right. She's super cute. If you have been keeping up, she is Paul's older sister. Straight up, this girl and her siblings are so smart, but they live in such a rural area that it is hard for them to really get a decent education. I'm doing this job for students like her.

I know for a fact that when I'm done with this job, I will miss this class the most. Thank God for pictures.