How can I help change...everything?

As you might know, I am a teacher at a university in the UAE. My job is a little different than most university jobs because my students are already employed. So the normal reasons for people to attend college - to get a job, to get a better salary, to learn new skills - don't apply to my students, as far as they are concerned. I have tried many different approaches to the material in attempts to engage them, but they are constantly resistant.

Needless to say, I am struggling.

I know it is my job as an educator to motivate my students and help them connect what they learn in the classroom to the outside world, to their future. But the way my students see it, they are perfect as they are. They don't need to learn English because they know enough as it is. Or it's too difficult. Or any number of excuses to shut down in class and just play on their cell phones, despite my best efforts to take those awful distractions away.

I am at a loss because everyone around me is saying is that it's too late for these guys (most of my students are men). That I should just go in, present the material whether the students are listening or not, and keep up with the status quo.

I know that's the easiest way to do it. I know that's the sanest way to do it. But I still want to change it, despite the frustration that I am adding to my life by following this path. I want my students to care about my class and improve their English and learning abilities. But I am facing many obstacles that I have yet to encounter in my students in other countries.

To give educators that are not familiar with the UAE education system an idea of what I am referring to, here are some links to peruse:
http://www.edarabia.com/22644/one-in-four-young-emirati-men-dropping-out-of-school/
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/student-cheating-is-a-serious-problem-in-the-uae-academic-says-1.1061287
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/world/middleeast/28iht-educlede28.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Now these problems may seem fairly straight-forward, but I think the biggest issue is that the country is only 41 years old and centralized education is still a fairly new idea. Many Emiratis are familiar with the "Lebanese style" of learning which is teacher-centered, testing heavy, rote learning. So to try and show them that learning can be fun and interesting is something that my students are very resistant to. I only have them for eight or ten week programs, so I need to figure out a way to open their minds in a fairly short amount of time.

So here lies the question: How can I help change...everything?

Start Today

The best time to start was a while ago. The second best time to start is today. -  Seth Godin

I'm interested to see what the B Team does, now that they've launched their initiative. I'm already thinking of ways I can bring this to Ras Al Khaimah! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/the-b-team-launches_n_3433538.html

I don't make life plans now. I make life directions.

So I'm currently a 27-year-old American who has been living/teaching abroad since I graduated university (or college, so my friends at home don't rag on me for adapting my lexicon while abroad). I love my time abroad. I've been to 30 countries (so far) and all the adventures that I've shared with people across the globe are priceless. I wouldn't trade a second of it. But now that I am facing 30 - which is daunting for some reason! - I feel like I haven't thought of the future while I've been working. I don't have a nest egg. I'm not ready to start a family. It's kind of set me in a depression.

I'm ready to move forward, though.

And as I look at where I am in life, I realize that maybe my goals weren't where they should be - I am successful. With a bachelor's degree, a CELTA and five/six years' teaching experience, I earned a full-time teaching position with one of the top-rated universities in the UAE. I'm the youngest teacher on campus, and I'd like to think just as respected as my more established colleagues. This was lost on me because all of my close friends at home are successful in the way that they were meant to be successful. They work for Twitter and Goldman Sachs. They are lawyers and actuaries. When I go home, they beg me to stop wasting my time and come back the States to start my "real life".

And I agreed with them.

Until now. Because I am successful, but in my own right. Teaching abroad is a career path, as evidenced by my coworkers, most of whom have lived the better half of their lives abroad. As I read this article today - http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/14646.aspx# - it made me feel better because I don't look back and wish I had told my 22-year-old self to do most of those things. At 22, I already was. And I'm still only 27. I have a ton more time to grow and learn.

As I look to the future, I can't even begin to plan the next 5 years. I honestly haven't the slightest clue of where I'll be living or what job I'll have. Perhaps that is what was so upsetting to me. But now I appreciate that. My life is an adventure that is moving ever forward. Maybe it's not moving toward a certain goal, but at this moment in time, can anyone move toward a specific target? Will the job that I want to have in 10 years even be there in 10 years? Why did I feel so much pressure to chart something basically unmappable? Right now, I'm travelling, teaching, learning and preparing myself for the general direction of where life may take me. And I know that it's going to take me to somewhere amazing.

Now I think that's pretty cool.

Quotes to Inspire

I like quotes.

"Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it (your final) target, the more you are going to miss it. For true success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Listen to what your conscience commands you to do and carry it out to the best of your knowledge." -- Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning.

Four Years Later...!

It's been four years since my last post and I wanted to write something deep and meaningful to reintroduce myself to the online community... But I know myself better than that. It would take me a week to create that post to the standards I would like, so let's just pretend that I did and jump right in. Otherwise, there will never be another post in Super Seoulful... Blerg.

Let me catch you up on my life:
- lived in Seoul until August 2010
- got my CELTA in Vietnam in September 2010
- traveled SE Asia until February 2011
- went home and saw friends and family for a bit
- hiked 500 miles across Spain, via El Camino de Santiago, and then backpacked around Spain and Portugal from April to June 2011
- moved to the UAE in September 2011
- and that is where I am now (April 2013)

Things that are the same:
- confused about life! (Right now, it's "should I be fiscally responsible and stay in the UAE"? Or "should I forget about my savings and move to Africa for a few years"?)
- confused about my career (I am trying to find a job where I can teach and be involved in education, AND be expected to travel, until I don't want to anymore AND make a good salary. At the moment, I haven't worked anywhere for more than a year or two. Now that I am closer to 30-years-old than 20, I'm beginning to think about how that looks on my resume.)
- missing home (I think people back home forget how much I love and miss them, since I am the one choosing to stay away. I just hope that I can see as much of the world as I need to before everyone starts having babies, since they're all pretty much married by now!)

Things that are different:
- I'm getting to know myself and how I operate (took me 27 years)
- I'm getting more focused on the future and my goals than I've ever been (although this has partly contributed to the aforementioned crises)
- I'm going back to school to get my Master in Education degree (more to come on this)
- I'm trying to become more internet saavy and use the internet - something that I previously felt created a huge distance between people and how they interact - to actually create connections with people so that we can help each other figure out life, reach our goals, and all that stuff that everyone wants to do.

I hope this works.

More things that are different in Korea!

Before I start the list, I must preface my blog by saying that I lost my camera! No more new pictures for a while, but I will try to use very descriptive language so you can create mental images when necessary. ;)

1. EVERYWHERE delivers! For FREE!
Most restaurants will deliver food at no extra cost. Even McDonald's delivers here in Korea. You can see scooters on their way to a delivery with food attached to the back of them all the time. It's funny because most of the restaurants are very close (even across the street sometime) but they will still deliver to your door. And just about every restaurant will give you real dishes - not disposable ones - for you to eat on. The restaurant gives you a plastic bag to put the used dishes in, so when you are finished you put the food/dishes into the restaurant's bag and leave the bag by the elevator or in the stairwell so that they can pick it up later in the day. It's so cool!

2. 회식!
A 회식 (pronounced kind of like "hwee-sheik") is when co-workers go out on the town together. I love that Koreans have a word for partying with the people you work with. I am not sure if the boss always pays for his employees to go out, but my boss always foots the bill when we have a 회식. Since it includes dinner, drinks and then some sort of post-dinner activity, it can get very expensive. They are always really fun. My boss, Mr. Lee, loves to try and get all of the teachers really drunk and he has devised a game that we just call "Attack" because if he hands you a drink (and he will hand everyone a drink), you HAVE to drink it and then "attack" someone else with a drink.

*Here is more about the game of "Attack" if you are interested. If not, then skip ahead. You dont care about me anyway.*

The drink is a glass of beer with a shot of soju dropped inside of it (JagerBomb style). Once you are "attacked", you have to cover the drink with a napkin and then twirl the glass around until a mini-tornado is sloshing around inside the glass. By then the napkin should be pretty wet. You then take the napkin off the glass and shape it into a large "spit ball", if you will. Next you throw the spit ball at the wall, a window or anything hanging from the ceiling and you chug your drink. If you finish your drink before the "spit ball" falls off the surface it was stuck to, you are free to attack the next person. However, if you do not finish your drink before the "spit ball" slips off the wall/window/whatever, then you have to do it all over again until you can. Mr. Lee is baller so we can do this at restaurants with him and get away with, but I wouldn't recommend playing this game in most establishments. The spit balls are mother to clean up.

Tom, a co-worker (and my current Korean tutor), standing next to some of the aforementioned "spit balls" that result from an attack.

The video below is a warning to all those who think they can handle "Attack". Watch with discretion, you might be disturbed. (PS This is Dong Oo, who also works with me. He is so fun!)

And now I lost my list, so I will have to think of more to add later, haha.

But I am teaching myself Korean until the new term for Korean classes start at the universities in Seoul (I am planning on taking classes at Ewha Woman's University. Hillary Clinton was just there to deliver a speech - http://secretaryclinton.blogspot.com/2009/02/ewha-womans-university-in-seoul-south.html). I found a really good site in case anyone is interested in browsing through the material I am learning at the moment.
This is what I am practicing: http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/korean/kkl101/lesson01/index.html (and I actually understood most of it!)
This is where you can click on your own level and start to learn Korean (and then you can practice with me on Skype!): http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

Love and miss you all!

Now my blog is totally 2009!

Hey all! Sorry for the delay! At first it was because I was super busy working the extra Winter classes (Winter break isn't a break for the children, it's a reason to sign up for extra classes so that they are still in academies all day, every day - poor kids), but then it was just because I was lazy. So I decided that for my first blog of the new year I would give a list of all the things that are different in Korea compared to the USA. I wrote out a long list, but I left it at work, so I might add things later, but for now here are some things that come to mind...

1. Dr. Fish cafes!
In a Dr. Fish cafe, you buy a drink or some food and pay an extra 2,000 won to let fish eat the dead skin off your feet for 15 minutes. Maja, Jo and I go to one in Myeong-dong called 나무그 늘. Maja says it's the best. It is really cute, check it out: http://www.restree.net/

2. Couples wear matching EVERYTHING.
They have matching shirts, socks, underwear, EVERYTHING. The above duo's shirt has a guy and a girl talking into can "phones". I stole this picture from another blog, though. I always try to get a picture, but my camera is too old and crappy so the couple has already walked away by the time my camera take the picture (see my attempts below). For a better collection of pictures featuring matching couples, check out this blog: http://www.rainydazeee.com/2009/01/23/korean-couples-and-their-matching-outfits/

In the picture on the left, all you can see is part of the matching orange and white striped hats, haha. And in the picture on the right, you can't see the design on the front, which highlights the matching-ness. I suck at taking pictures! ;(

3. Driving.

It's crazy here. First of all, the traffic lights only allow one direction to drive at a time. (In the US north and south have green at the same time, then east and west have green. In Korea, only north has green, then only west has green, then only south has green and then only east has green.) But this doesn't matter because cars, mostly taxis, drive through an intersection even if the light is red. I think that this link offers interesting insight: http://www.mathnews.uwaterloo.ca/Issues/mn500/curtis.php

4. The food.


As you have seen already, the food here is different, but it's generally really delicious. In the picture to the left, we are eating deep fried bread. Yummy! My favorites are ddeokbokki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddeokbokki), bibimbap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap) and galbi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galbi), to name a few. And of course KIM CHI!

It's all pretty spicy, but delicious!


This picture is sideways, but I had to include it! I don't know what it is, bird fetuses? I didn't try any, haha.

But anywho, you can check out more Korean food at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Korean_dishes.

MORE TO COME!