My Physical (Their Culture)

So I went to the hospital this morning to get my physical. It was an interesting process really pointing out the power of sheer human population. I had my height and blood pressure measured, followed by auditory, visual, and colorblind tests. Question: If there is a chance you can have your residency rejected based on your height, why don't they check you weight? I was then led into the next room where they asked for a urine sample. When I returned, I put my cup of urine on a tray of a dozen other uncovered urine samples. Rather disgusting. Then they sat me down next to two other people and took all of our blood samples. The seat was still warm. Someone had just been there and the surfaces had not been wiped clean. I was worried I would pass out, so I just looked away during the drawing. The doctor (or, more likely, nurse) asked, "Are you OK?" I looked at him and nodded, then looked away. Then I had my teeth checked out. I walked into a room with another patient already under the drill and the nurse looked at my teeth. I got the go ahead, but I wasn't sure if that meant I had to wait to lie down for another inspection. Principal Kwak led me to the next room instead, where I got my chest x-rayed. No lead padding or covering. I tried to stand as tall as possible so my neck and head were not exposed to gamma rays. Then I walked into the last room called "Occupational and Environmental Health" and sat down. I asked the doctor what that meant and he said psychology. Fortunately, his English was better than most of the teachers at Jung Chul. He asked some questions about family history. I assume he was asking these questions for psychological reasons, but I threw some heart attack and stroke curveballs his way. He looked at the bottom left corner of my eyes and tilted my head in some strange way and washed his hands of me. Not very thorough I must say. All-in-all, it was a traumatic process. Why height and dental exams but no weight or cardio tests? Why test to see if I am colorblind? What was the purpose of the "Occupational and Environmental Health" questions? Anyway, I think I passed the test.

People keep referring to Majeong as a small town. I just don't see it. We like in a 20 story dong next to several other "uh-par-teh" (apartments). There are thousands of people living here and there is no wilderness between here and Incheon or Seoul. It's a 20 minute bus ride to either city, but Majeong is fairly self-sufficient.

No one speaks English except my students, who sometimes help me order food at a restaurant near the school. The approach taken to teach English is a very odd one. The Korean culture (much like other Asian cultures) places great value on the group. Students do not want to be selected out from the group. People do not want to be selected out of the group. Students very often copy from one another or the previous page. They seldom think for themselves and attempt to memorize the entire English language. Not just the words, but whole sentences. For example, instead of teaching that subject-verb agreement depends on number and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), the students memorize "I" statements, then "He" statements. Memorizing and copying serious problems for the students. I attempt to break them of this cultural habit, ingrained into them but a dozen years, by asking students to come up to the board and put their knowledge and creativity in front of the class. I cannot stress how little creativity matters. I don't think it is stifled, but it is simply not valued. I push the students to be unique and teach them that there are many right answers. For example:

They decided to build a statue.

They decided to build a statue in the center of town.

They decided to build a statue of Romeo and Juliet in the center of town.

They built a statue.

They built a statue in the center of town.

They built a statue of Romeo and Juliet in the center of town.

... (etc)

Forget about them writing "Mr. Montague and Mr. Capulet" instead of they.

In one of my younger classes, where the students don't understand anything except what I have taught them that day and "Quiet!", I told the students I would write their name on the board for talking out of turn. I wrote two students name on the board and they didn't seem to mind. I had been passing out high fives as tokens of appreciation (correct answer, being nice, helping a friend, shutting up). Grace asked why I wrote the names on the board. I told her I was going to let Kang Teacher see it. She asked, "You say, Kang say?" I nodded. She used Korean to explain that to the rest of her class and the owners of the two names on the board were visibly upset. I told them I would erase their names today if they said they would be good tomorrow. After they both said they would be good, I erased their names. Kate wanted a high five. Grace later kept asking me how many dollars I had, starting with billion. She shows signs of being an exceptionally motivated student.