Paradise and Hell...

Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills
April 27, 2008
New York Times
By SAM DILLON

SEOUL, South Korea — It is 10:30 p.m. and students at the elite Daewon prep school here are cramming in a study hall that ends a 15-hour school day. A window is propped open so the evening chill can keep them awake. One teenager studies standing upright at his desk to keep from dozing.

Kim Hyun-kyung, who has accumulated nearly perfect scores on her SATs, is multitasking to prepare for physics, chemistry and history exams.

“I can’t let myself waste even a second,” said Ms. Kim, who dreams of attending Harvard, Yale or another brand-name American college. And she has a good shot. This spring, as in previous years, all but a few of the 133 graduates from Daewon Foreign Language High School who applied to selective American universities won admission.

It is a success rate that American parents may well envy, especially now, as many students are swallowing rejection from favorite universities at the close of an insanely selective college application season.

“Going to U.S. universities has become like a huge fad in Korean society, and the Ivy League names — Harvard, Yale, Princeton — have really struck a nerve,” said Victoria Kim, who attended Daewon and graduated from Harvard last June.

Daewon has one major Korean rival, the Minjok Leadership Academy, three hours’ drive east of Seoul, which also has a spectacular record of admission to Ivy League colleges.

How do they do it? Their formula is relatively simple. They take South Korea’s top-scoring middle school students, put those who aspire to an American university in English-language classes, taught by Korean and highly paid American and other foreign teachers, emphasize composition and other skills crucial to success on the SATs and college admissions essays, and — especially this — urge them on to unceasing study.

Both schools seem to be rethinking their grueling regimen, at least a bit. Minjok, a boarding school, has turned off dormitory surveillance cameras previously used to ensure that students did not doze in late-night study sessions. Daewon is ending its school day earlier for freshmen. Its founder, Lee Won-hee, worried in an interview that while Daewon was turning out high-scoring students, it might be falling short in educating them as responsible citizens.

“American schools may do a better job at that,” Dr. Lee said.

Still, the schools are highly rigorous. Both supplement South Korea’s required, lecture-based national curriculum with Western-style discussion classes. Their academic year is more than a month longer than at American high schools. Daewon, which costs about $5,000 per year to attend, requires two foreign languages besides English. Minjok, where tuition, board and other expenses top $15,000, offers Advanced Placement courses and research projects.

And, oh yes. Both schools suppress teenage romance as a waste of time.

“What are you doing holding hands?” a Daewon administrator scolded an adolescent couple recently, according to his aides. “You should be studying!”

Students do not seem to complain. Park Yeshong, one of Kim Hyun-kyung’s classmates, said attractions tended to fade during hundreds of hours of close-quarters study. “We know each other too well to fall in love,” she said. Many American educators would kill to have such disciplined pupils.

Both schools reserve admission for highly motivated students; the application process resembles that at many American colleges, where students are judged on their grade-point averages, as well as their performance on special tests and in interviews.

“Even my worst students are great,” said Joseph Foster, a Williams College graduate who teaches writing at Daewon. “They’re professionals; if I teach them, they’ll learn it. I get e-mails at 2 a.m. I’ll respond and go to bed. When I get up, I’ll find a follow-up question mailed at 5 a.m.”

South Korea is not the only country sending more students to the United States, but it seems to be a special case. Some 103,000 Korean students study at American schools of all levels, more than from any other country, according to American government statistics. In higher education, only India and China, with populations more than 20 times that of South Korea’s, send more students.

“Preparing to get to the best American universities has become something of a national obsession in Korea,” said Alexander Vershbow, the American ambassador to South Korea.

Korean applications to Harvard alone have tripled, to 213 this spring, up from 66 in 2003, said William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions. Harvard has 37 Korean undergraduates, more than from any foreign country except Canada and Britain. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have a total of 103 Korean undergraduates; 34 graduated from Daewon or Minjok.

This year, Daewon and Minjok graduates are heading to universities like Stanford, Chicago, Duke and seven of the eight Ivy League universities — but not to Harvard. Instead, Harvard accepted four Korean students from three other prep schools.

“That was certainly not any statement” about the Daewon and Minjok schools, Mr. Fitzsimmons said. “We’re alert to getting kids from schools where we haven’t had them before, but we’d never reject an applicant simply because he or she came from a school with a history of sending students to Harvard.”

South Korea’s academic year starts in March, so the 2008 class of Daewon’s Global Leadership Program, which prepares students for study at foreign universities, graduated in February.

One graduate was Kim Soo-yeon, 19, who was accepted by Princeton this month. Daewon parents tend to be wealthy doctors, lawyers or university professors. Ms. Kim’s father is a top official in the Korean Olympic Committee.

Ms. Kim developed fierce study habits early, watching her mother scold her older sister for receiving any score less than 100 on tests. Even a 98 or a 99 brought a tongue-lashing.

“Most Korean mothers want their children to get 100 on all the tests in all the subjects,” Ms. Kim’s mother said.

Ms. Kim’s highest aspiration was to attend a top Korean university, until she read a book by a Korean student at Harvard about American universities. Immediately she put up a sign in her bedroom: “I’m going to an Ivy League!”

Even while at Daewon, Ms. Kim, like thousands of Korean students, took weekend classes in English, physics and other subjects at private academies, raising her SAT scores by hundreds of points. “I just love to do well on the tests,” she said.

As bright as she is, she was just one great student among many, said Eric Cho, Daewon’s college counselor. Sitting at his computer terminal at the school, perched on a craggy eastern hilltop overlooking the Seoul skyline, Mr. Cho scrolled through the class of 2008’s academic records.

Their average combined SAT score was 2203 out of 2400. By comparison, the average combined score at Phillips Exeter, the New Hampshire boarding school, is 2085. Sixty-seven Daewon graduates had perfect 800 math scores.

Kim Hyun-kyung, 17, scored perfect 800s on the SAT verbal and math tests, and 790 in writing. She is scheduled to take nine Advanced Placement tests next month, in calculus, physics, chemistry, European history and five other subjects. One challenge: she has taken none of these courses. Instead, she is teaching herself in between classes at Daewon, buying and devouring textbooks.

So she is busy. She rises at 6 a.m. and heads for her school bus at 6:50. Arriving at Daewon, she grabs a broom to help classmates clean her classroom. Between 8 and noon, she hears Korean instructors teach supply and demand in economics, Korean soils in geography and classical poets in Korean literature.

At lunch she joins other raucous students, all, like her, wearing blue blazers, in a chow line serving beans and rice, fried dumpling and pickled turnip, which she eats with girlfriends. Boys, who sit elsewhere, wolf their food and race to a dirt lot for a 10-minute pickup soccer game before afternoon classes.

Kim Hyun-kyung joins other girls at a hallway sink to brush her teeth before reporting to French literature, French culture and English grammar classes, taught by Korean instructors. At 3:20, her English language classes begin. This day, they include English literature, taught by Mani Tadayon, a polyglot graduate of the University of California at Berkeley who was born in Iran, and government and politics, taught by Hugh Quigley, a former Wall Street lawyer.

Evening study hall begins at 7:45. She piles up textbooks on an adjoining desk, where they glare at her like a to-do list. Classmates sling backpacks over seats, prop a window open and start cramming. Three hours later, the floor is littered with empty juice cartons and water bottles. One girl has nodded out, head on desk. At 10:50 a tone sounds, and Ms. Kim heads for a bus that will wend its way through Seoul’s towering high-rise canyons to her home, south of the Han River.

“I feel proud that I’ve endured another day,” she said.

The schedule at the Minjok academy, on a rural campus of tile-roofed buildings in forested hills, appears even more daunting. Students rise at 6 for martial arts, and thereafter, wearing full-sleeved, gray-and-black robes, plunge into a day of relentless study that ends just before midnight, when they may sleep.

But most keep cramming until 2 a.m., when dorm lights are switched off, said Gang Min-ho, a senior. Even then some students turn on lanterns and keep going, Mr. Gang said. “Basically we lead very tired lives,” he said.

Students sometimes report for classes so exhausted that Alexander Ganse, a German who teaches European history, said he asked, “Did you go to bed at all last night?”

“But we’re not only nerds!” interrupted Choi Jung-yun, who grew up in San Diego. Minjok students play sports, take part in many clubs and even have a rock band, she said. Ambassador Vershbow, who plays the drums, confirmed that with photographs that showed him jamming with Minjok’s rockers during a visit to the school last year.

There are other hints of slackening. A banner once hung on a Minjok building. “This school is a paradise for those who want to study and a hell for those who do not,” it read. But it was taken down after faculty members deemed it too harsh, said Son Eun-ju, director of counseling.

Hey Jude...

So much fun... So so much fun!

I met a new group of friends... from Austria! I almost feel like I am marking off all the different countries of the world. Instead of traveling there, I just meet people from new countries and places! Fantastic!

And something really cool happened... a stranger bought me a drink from across the room. I was just talking to my new friends, minding my own business and a waiter walked up and handed me a drink and told me it was from a group across the bar. It felt like I was in some sort of suave movie. Of course, I went and said thank you. But, the group was so gracious that they said they didn't want to interrupt my conversation with my friends, they just hoped I had a nice night. This has never happened to me. And then, later in the evening the same group sent me flowers! Flowers! I'm not exactly sure of their motives, but they didn't seem to be intrusive or trying to lure me away from my friends. It was like they got a kick out of surprising me. And... I got a kick out of being surprised!

I know I have said it before... but you just can't ever predict what will happen in Seoul. One minute you're reading a newspaper. The next minute someone is bringing you flowers from a stranger across the room. (It feels very... black and white movie-ish.)

Okay... onto other news.

Saran wrap! I got a pedicure yesterday and when I went to put on my shoes the lady wrapped my toes in saran wrap so that my nail polish wouldn't scratch. How bizarre! I walked around with saran wrapped feet inside my shoes.

There is no deodorant in this country. I had to go to an underground, illegal black market to find a stick of deodorant! I felt very scandalous, breaking the law and sneaking around to get my Lady Speed Stick.

And finally, the big news... I'm going home! Not permanently, but for five whole days! I got the news just a few days ago and when I called home to tell the family I found out that my parents were going to be out of town the entire time I was in California. How awful! Luckily, my hagwon is awesome and they moved my flight to the next week. So I leave Korea at 11:10am on Monday the 12th and arrive in San Francisco at 9:15am on Monday the 12th. Gotta love the time difference... I arrive in SF two hours before I leave Seoul.

And ever since I heard that I was going home, I have been thinking about how great it will be to see family. There are lots of great things to look forward to... I'm going to see my Mom's new store. I'm going to drive, eat Mexican food, drink a Jamba Juice. I'm going to get all my cute summer clothes. I'm going to sleep on a comfortable bed. But, the best part of the whole trip will be seeing my family, especially Mike! There just isn't anyone else who is even half as much fun as my little brother. In fact, Mike and I are planning a vacation this summer. He is going to come to Seoul for a week and then we are going to Hong Kong for a week! It is going to be quite a trip!

And finally... I think I got asked on a date. I haven't actually been asked to go on a date for a long long time so I'm not sure if I'm picking up on the signals. But, a cute new guy called me and asked me out for drinks on my day off. That sounds like a date to me.

Oh... and you have to see this video. This kid is too cute for words!

Melody...

"I much prefer, in matters mystical and musical and deeply cosmic, to tell the logical mind to shut up and let the soul take over and say, wait wait wait, maybe most humans have this divine connection thing all wrong. Maybe God really isn't some scowling gay-hating deity raining down guilt and judgment and fear on all humankind after all.

Maybe she's actually, you know, a throb, a pulse, a song, deep, complex, eternal. And us, well, we're just bouncing and swaying along as best we can, trying to figure out the goddamn melody. "

Thanks, Mark. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Home...

I'm coming home! I'm so excited I can't think about anything else!

I have to return to the US to apply for a new VISA, so I'll be back in California from May 5-9th. Wow! I get to see my family.

I'd write more, but there isn't any news that is bigger or better than that!

Every Little Things She Does...

I finally finished my immigration paperwork. The rules to work in Korea have changed this year and the process for obtaining the correct VISA has become more complicated. It has been especially difficult trying to get the correct documents from California while in Korea. However, yesterday I got the paperwork signed, notarized and sealed by the US Embassy. It feels like a giant weight off my shoulders. And it also means that my paperwork is being processed, so when it is finished I'll have to go back to the US for a few days. A few days in San Fran on the company's dollar (or won)... sounds good to me!

I'm constantly surprised with how much I like Korea. Saturday afternoon I went to Itaewon to sit in a coffee shop, read and people watch. I was in my ratty, old Chuck Taylors, not looking for attention. As I was heading home, I decided to stop by Gecko's and get a beer and some dinner. I sat at the bar, started reading my Time magazine and some guy starts talking to me. We chat. He leaves. And a minute later someone pokes me. It's the guy and he invited me to drink with him and his friends. Um... okay? So, I start drinking with the group. And then we start making the rounds in Itaewon. Without any effort at all, I meet a new group of people and have a really awesome time. That kind of stuff just doesn't happen in the States. But, it can happen anytime, anywhere in Korea.

But, something else interesting happened last night... People asked me questions about Seoul. I wasn't asking the questions, following someone else's lead. I knew where to go on Saturday night, which bars had dance floors, hookah pipes or would be empty until later. I knew the best place to pick up a cab, which restaurants were open and how to get to wherever we wanted to go. It was a bit odd. I'm usually the one who is asking the questions. I've been here four months and last night I felt like I might actually have gotten the hang of this!

I've started a collection of matchbooks. Since everyone smokes here, every bar has matchbooks. Now, whenever I go to a new bar I get a matchbook. Light one of the matches. And have everyone I'm with sign the matchbook. I date it and put it in a fishbowl back at my apartment. I really like it. I already have quite a few and it will be cool to have matchbooks from different parts of the world with different people I meet when I'm there.

In other news... I love The Office. I really do. If you haven't seen the latest episode, then go download it. At the end when Jim shows what he bought after the second week... I about jumped on my bed! And then when they are walking home... I adore this show. Adore it. I am definitely going to "stay sharp."

A few other interesting (and not-so-interesting) things I've been noticing/thinking about...

I've been getting into a routine now that I started my new part-time job. After I finish my morning work, I go to a coffee shop (Starbucks, but only because they don't have any independent coffee shops... I'm not a sell out. I promise.) and order a scone and tea. I read for a an hour or two and then go to work. The guy at the counter is starting to recognize me and today he asked me if I am from England. I don't have an accent, so I was trying to figure it out... Then it struck me. I have scones and tea almost everyday. Ah ha! They might as well call me Sherlock Holmes.

I teach a couple (rotten) little kids in the afternoons. But, even they make me laugh. They constantly remind me that childhood is universal. Today my student, Tom, proudly made the statement, "Girls very very bad. Boys very very good." Even at six years old this little boy has got it figured out. And even more importantly, he is using his limited vocabulary to convey a kindergarten boy's universal truth. I'm just waiting for him to figure out the concept of "cooties."

I really want to learn more Korean. I'm not dedicating myself at all, but I know I could. I've got a great new book and clearly some spare time (that I spend eating scones and drinking tea) so there is no reason why I can't pick up a few more phrases. Not to mention, in the next two or three months I'm going to have some friends and family come visit. I want to be able to show off. It really isn't impressive when I say "Hanti Station" in Korean and the cab driver looks at me like I'm from another planet just before he realizes what I'm trying to say and then laughs in my face.

And just because I have this song in my head...

Mose...

Mose, pronounced Mo-Say, is adorable.

The other day I gave Mose a thumbs-up when he did a good job. Today he tried to give me a thumbs-up, but he got a bit confused. So, instead of putting his thumb up, he put his index finger up. I corrected him, but he has had a little trouble catching on. So, now instead of giving me a thumbs up, he keeps giving me a index finger-up and saying "Good job."

Oh... and high fives! The kids love high fives. I'll be across the classroom and Mose will yell "Five" and put his hand in the air and wait for me to give him a high five. I will have to get up, walk across the room and put my hand up, or else he'll just sit there with his arm up waiting. Of course, this is a bit distracting, but not really a problem. The problem is that the kids try and give each other high fives, but keep missing and slapping each other in the head. Ha!

Lucifer...

I started reading another new book called "The Lucifer Effect" and I am really intrigued. The writing is so eloquent that I find myself re-reading passages, trying to re-absorb the words and delicate construction of the thoughts and sentences. Just read...

"In contrast to the 'banality of evil,' which posits that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty and degradation of their fellows, I posit the 'banality of heroism,' which unfurls the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heed the call to service to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound assertion of human dignity opposing evil."

Goosebumps, right? I know.

The thesis of the book is that all humans are capable of evil given the right circumstances and social pressures. But, even more interesting is the claim that these pressures are not extreme or hypothetical scenarios. They are quite common and most of us have succumb to these forces in varying degrees and at various stages of our lives. I started reading the book today and I got an immediate sense of total fear. It was incredibly strange because it felt like I was in danger, but the book wasn't telling me about a terrorist attack, new contagious disease or government intrusion... it was telling me that I was capable of evil. I immediately started to fall into a classic logical fallacy as I assumed that I was the exception to the rule... But, there is no evidence to support this conclusion. There have been plenty of times when I have made the noble social choice, but there are also moments of weakness when I have made surprising poor choices.

The author of this book is the creator of the famous 1970's Stanford Prison Experiment (http://www.prisonexp.org). If you have never read about it, I suggest you do. It will startle you. A group of students were assigned the roles of prisoners and guards in a mock jail for two weeks. Both groups of students began to identify with their roles so strongly that the experiment had to be ended after six days for fear of both physical and psychological damage to the participants. And if that isn't enough for you, read about the Milgram experiment that was conducted during the 1960's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment). While neither experiment was perfect, they demonstrated a frightening side of human nature.

Nonetheless, I am going to continue my reading. Fear of human nature isn't an emotion I have ever felt before, so it will be interesting to dig a little deeper.

On a different topic... I really enjoy Wednesdays. I feel like they are my day. I don't have to work, but most everyone else does so I can just spend the day with myself. I wake up late, go to a museum or park, see a movie, read a book, go to the beauty salon, or just take myself to lunch. Most days I share with kids, coworkers, parents and friends. But, on Wednesdays I have nothing to do except enjoy the day. Saturdays I can clean and recover from my Friday night on the town, but Wednesdays are quite pleasant.

I've been thinking about my trip next year. I keep brainstorming new adventures or new things I'd like to do. For example, I'd like to spend more time in Buenos Aires. I also might like to go to Europe during the Spring and not during the Winter when it is going to be much colder. Originally I had planned Europe in January and February. Back home for March. Asia for April, May, June. And South America for July and August. Coming home for the end of August and starting school in Korea in September 2009. But, now I am re-evaluating. Maybe... South America in January and February. Europe in March and April. Home in May. Asia in June, July, August and then start school in Korea in September. Not to mention there are all the places I want to be... I want to go to the World Debate Championship in Ireland in December 2008. But, I want to be home for Christmas 2008. But, I also want to celebrate New Years 2009 in a different country. And there is a list of over 30 countries I need to whittle down in order to make a logical journey. But, for all my complaining... This is the fun part. My dad always said that for every trip you need to be willing to say, "We'll do that next time." Even if there may never be a next time, trying to include every single site and experience in one journey will ruin the whole journey. So, I'm just going to include the things and places that fit together and remind myself that if I can't do it this time, I'll do it next time!

Onto a different subject... I don't like being laughed at. I can't help it. I thought I got used to it, but I was at the police station today getting fingerprinted for some immigration paperwork and the snotty police officer started laughing at me. Come on! What does a girl have to do? I am dressed nicely. I am polite. I bring all the paperwork. I researched exactly which office I needed to go to so I wouldn't bother anybody. Cut me some slack! But, once again these experiences only increase my patience for other foreigners. I've never said it and rarely thought it, but there have been a few times when I have been annoyed by someone who couldn't speak English in the United States. NEVER AGAIN! Never. Learning another language isn't easy. And living in a world of unfamiliar words, expressions and social customs only makes the task of learning the language seem even more insurmountable.

Last tidbit... I have this semi-awesome, semi-annoying Korean pop song stuck in my head. Sing La La La by The Turtles. Youtube it. Or don't. It will be stuck in your head all day and you'll only be able to understand the chorus.

Singing Along...

On the way to my friend's house last night the taxi driver put in a cassette tape of American music. He looked in the rear view mirror and asked, "You like old pop?" I nodded and suddenly the tape began to play. The Beatles. The Righteous Brothers. The Carpenters. Buddy Holly. And I started humming along. The driver started humming along. Then we both started singing along. It was just me, an old mix tape and my Korean cab driver singing... Only in Korea!

Well, more chaos at the hagwon. Two more Korean teachers quit. There has been some internal struggles with the head Korean supervisor and the two teachers decided to leave. They both offered to stay until a replacement could be found, but the supervisor told them to leave immediately. It is all a bit ridiculous. It feels like my hagwon doesn't think more than 30 minutes into the future, so it is constantly making decisions without evaluating any of the consequences. Nonetheless, I expect more disruption. But, I'll just ride out this wave too. Afterall, I'm an English teacher in Korea; a country that is currently in need of 20-30,000 more English teachers. Job security is not a concern. But, if I do this again, I am going to work fewer hours, teach more private lessons and teach kindergarten or preschool at a small hagwon. That is the way to do it! If you know how to work the system in Korea, money practically grows on trees!

However, the price you pay is your health. In the past four months I have been more sick than in the past four years combined. Largely because of the pollution and yellow sand. When I first heard of yellow sand I didn't give it much thought, but that stuff will get to you. And the pollution... it is bad bad bad. Every few weeks I get this old-man cough where I wheeze and huff my way through the day. Not to mention, everyone smokes indoors in bars, clubs and restaurants. I've lived in CA for too long and have become quite spoiled. If I go out dancing for the night and suck in that smoke for six hours, I'll be coughing and hacking the whole next day. Lovely.

I just finished a book that I found pretty interesting and entertaining. It is called, "The Know-It-All" by AJ Jacobs. It is about a man who read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z. It is witty and filled with lots of useless information. My next book is "The Art of Travel" by Alain de Botton. Hmmm... It made some best seller lists somewhere.

I taught little Chloe today. I went into the class and was disappointed when I didn't see her with the students. I closed the door behind me and sat down on the floor with the kids. Then I heard a tiny tapping and scratching on the door and the Korean teacher opened it... Chloe was outside and too small to reach the door knob. She looked over at the class, looked right at me, exploded in a giant grin and ran to sit down next to me. There are very few ego boosts that compare to those moments. Everyone else can go jump off a cliff because at least Chloe thinks I'm a rockstar!

Oh... and we were learning about animals today. I pointed to a picture of a spider and Emma (another girl who is more precious than words could convey) started singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and tried to do the hand motions from last week. She remembered!

Finally, do you remember the scene in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" where Dorthy starts down the yellow brick road and all the Munchkins surround and her and follow her to the edge of Munchkin Land? When I leave the classroom, I am surrounded by my own Munchkins. I always wave goodbye and the boys jump up and follow me all the way to the door waving and shouting, "Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye."

Like I said... I'm a total rockstar!

Two for two...

I made another kid cry today.

Seriously, I can't possibly be that mean. Come on!

Beasts...

Some of my students are venemous, wretched, little beasts.

I made one of them cry today. I almost felt bad.

Eleanor and Chuck...

The hardest part about getting used to Korea is getting used to the social cues. In the United States if a man on the streets began talking to me and then asked for my phone number I would assume he wanted to ask me out. If a man in Korean begins talking to me on the street, I don't know if he wants to ask me out, practice his English, is amused by some ridiculous social mistake I've made or is just a friendly guy.

This happened today. A random man just started talking to me. I was walking on the sidewalk and he started asking me questions. (And let me preface... I was not lookin' good. I was dressed to go play with pre-schoolers, so I clearly wasn't looking for attention.) The questions always throw me off... They usually start with the obvious, "How are you?" "Where are you going?" But, then there are the odd ones like, "Are you Korean?" In fact, I've gotten this one more times than I would have thought. I never thought I looked Korean, but a lot of people (at least 10) have asked me if I am Korean-American. I don't mind... Koreans are some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen! Another odd question, "Do you have many Korean friends?" Who asks that kind of stuff? Why wouldn't I have friends? And, why does it matter if they are Korean or Australian or South African? Strange question, right? Nonetheless, these kind of situations happen quite frequently and I still haven't figured out the appropriate social response. Is the guy being nice? Practicing his English? Wanting to ask me out? (Not that I could blame him!) In the end, this guy asked for my number and without a good avoidance strategy, I gave it to him. I also labelled him as "NO!" in my phone so that I'll know to avoid his calls. Of course, I am aware that this is not the best way to handle these kind of moments. Was I being a bit rude and childish? Yes. Should I find a better way to handle these situations? Yes. Do I live by myself in a foreign country? Yes. Do I need to be more careful than I would be at home? Yes. Do I put myself in risky situations by going out with strangers? No.

On a different note... The Office returns this week. I love this show. I love it. Love. Love. Love. Love it. I hadn't watched a single episode for at least five months and I left my Season 1-3 DVDs at home. So, when I watched an episode last night I could hardly breath I was laughing so hard. But, the best part is that I wasn't really laughing at the jokes, I was laughing before the jokes because I remembered how funny they were going to be. Oh, I can hardly wait.

Speaking of things I love... I bought a new pair of Chuck Taylors. I think Chuck Taylors are an understated kind of cool. They are an old-fashioned kind of hip. It's like listening to the Beatles on your ipod. Everybody knows them. They are classic. But, come in such variety that you can pick and choose to fit your mood. And more importantly, they transcend time. Becoming brand new for each generation. Coming with you wherever your destination may be. I think I'm an Eleanor Rigby kind of Chuck Taylor.

I've started to be able to recognize the distance of a motor bike just by listening. There are so many little side streets and blind corners, that I can be walking and just instinctively know to stop and wait for a little delivery motorbike to come speeding around the corner. I think everyone in Korea picks up on this survival skill.

I sang the "Itsey Bitsey Spider" song to my pre-schoolers today with the clever hand motions. Let me tell you... I might as well have been Mick Jagger. These kids thought I was a rock star. And Chloe and Mose were as cute as ever. All the kids are starting to remember my name so all morning long I heard "Jacki Teacher. Jacki Teacher. Jacki Teacher." Good times.

Kindergartners...

I just started a new part-time job today. I am teaching kindergartners and preschoolers for about six hours a week. I don't actually need to work more or need the money, but it is awesome pay and I get to sit on the floor and color for two hours. It couldn't be easier. All the students are four and five years olds and boy, are they cute! One little girl, who became my favorite after about five minutes, is named Chloe. (That isn't her real name, it is just her English name.) She saw me around the corner and started giggling and waving. "Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello." That is the only word she could say. Chloe suddenly disappeared, but a minute later I heard her coming back "Yogi Yogi" and she pointed around the corner at me. "Yogi" means "here" in Korean and she had brought other students in order to show off her discovery.

Probably the cutest part of all is how small the students are. It's like being surrounded by Lilliputians. They are the tiniest, littlest people I have ever seen. When I walked down the stairs to one of the classrooms, a line of four year olds was coming upstairs. Each stair reached almost to their knee and they had to take giant steps to mount each one. And despite their long journey up one flight of stairs, when I walked by they stopped just to stare. I gave one of them a high-five and the boy's face exploded in a grin and he about dislocated his arm trying to give me a big high-five. And yet, despite their mini-size they have observant eyes the size of silver dollars. They are constantly looking and absorbing everything.

It occurred to me that the term "child like wonderment" or "awe" is an interesting concept. It isn't that children are more curious or inquisitive, but instead that they are surrounded by more new things. Their youth increases the number of new experiences they will encounter in a day, thereby increasing their propensity for astonishment and fascination. If adults were surrounded by an equal number of new experiences, I think they would be more likely to be confronted with daily curiosity and wonderment. Just imagine the first time you heard the alphabet song...

The alphabet song! What a brilliant idea! What a lovely tune! In fact, I'll sing it right now and a hundred more times after that! What a fantastic, delightful coincidence that we both can sing the alphabet song together.... Oh, how lucky we are!

That is the kind of excitement that comes from children. It is the excitement of something new. I know it's true. After all, I speak from experience.

Experience: Reading Korean letters
Jacki's Response: This is the greatest day of my life.

Experience: Ordering food at a Korean restaurant for the first time.
Jacki's Response: This is the greatest day of my life.

Experience: Taking a Korean taxi cab for the first time (without getting lost)
Jacki's Response: This is the greatest day of my life.

Maybe you are starting to notice a pattern.

There is no doubt that curiosity and wonderment are the defining characteristics of childhood. But, I think life is far more fun when curiosity and wonderment can transcend youth and become the defining characteristics of a lifestyle.

But, speaking of youth and curiosity... Let me tell you about another one of my students names Mose. (Once again, English name not his Korean name.) Not only do I love the name, but the kid reminds me of my favorite person. Mose is so bright. He picks up on colors, patterns and numbers very quickly and likes to answer questions. He is cute as a button and so tiny that he is about the size of a button! But, what caught my attention was his lazy eye. It isn't too prevalent, but it is definitely there. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term "lazy eye" it means that one eye will sometimes drift off to the side. Most people when they look at something, subconsciously direct both eyes toward the object. However, a person with a lazy eye will have one eye drift off to one side or the other, and probably won't even realize it. It will look their eyes are looking in two different directions. Mose's right eye has a tendency to drift in toward his nose. I noticed it immediately and that is about how long it took for me to come to adore him!

In other news... I found a bug in my apartment. God damn it.

The only reason I would be in support of global domination by a communist superpower is that I wouldn't have to deal with mountains of immigration paperwork... Enough already! Just let me live in Korea and leave me alone!

Finally, shout out to Cynthia who turned 175 today (in dog years). She is old and going to get married and have babies. Luckily she still looks 25, has a rockin' body and helps make the rest of us poor, miserable slobs into better, kinder people. Nonetheless, I still say ditch the guy and come to Korea. Soju is way better than career success, relationship bliss and financial stability. Come on... throw it all away and come color with preschoolers! (You're the best. Happy, happy birthday!)

The Letter U...

Watch this. And try not to fall of your chair.

It's not him. It's us...

The Very Best Thing About Barack Obama
No, not that. Or that or that or that. It's that other thing, deeper, crazier, intuitive

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 4, 2008

Nope, it's not what you might think. The best thing about Barack Obama has almost nothing to do with him as a person or as a leader or even as Oh My God The First Black President Who Could Really Change Everything I Mean Wow. It's not even the wondrous oratory power or the charisma or the sweet sense of deeper change overlaid with all kinds of sparkly utopian futuriffic goodness.

There is, I think, something more. Something richer. And it's rather startling.

See, I've read the profiles and the liberal fawnings and the intelligent analysis, the attempted takedowns and the right-wing smears, all the valiant attempts to dig up something dirty or problematic or frightening about Obama and his family, his past, his middle name, his beliefs and his pastor and his favorite flavor of ice cream — attempts that, rather amusingly, have all failed.

I've read, too, the glut of wonderment, how Obama is this generation's JFK, how he makes Hillary Clinton's brand of retro cronyist politics feel like the equivalent of rubbing salt on a paper cut. He is, they say, that once-in-a-lifetime candidate, a fantastically rare mix of intelligence, consistency, inspiration, hope, charisma, humanity, articulation, and an almost shocking lack of manipulation and sheen (well, relatively speaking), all packaged in a strikingly handsome unit in whose closet apparently live almost no skeletons at all.

I also nodded in agreement when snark-master Jon Stewart appeared slightly stunned and taken aback and very nearly jokeless as he pointed out, following Obama's remarkable speech on race in America, that at long last, here was a top-tier politician who dared to speak to us like we were adults. It wasn't just refreshing; after seven-plus years of humiliating, monosyllabic dumb-guy Bushisms, it was downright jarring.

And I even enjoyed the overall assessment that the fact that Obama is untested and inexperienced in the higher and more dire realms of government is actually a good thing, just the kind of wild card we crave and need, given how he shows absolutely zero signs that he'd screw it up, not to mention how the last thing anyone really wants is more of the same old-school, inbred crap we've had for decades.

Still, this wasn't what riveted me the most about Obama, still not what's most fascinating about this moment in political history. It was still something more.

Initially I thought the most impressive aspect of Obama's run was, well, how the guy made it this far at all. That someone of his caliber and obvious intelligence could survive what has become a truly caustic, brutal political system and still emerge into the international spotlight as, well, not deeply f—ed-up and insane, not possessing that creepy demonic gleam shared by so many politicos (hi, Sen. McCain!) that suggests they've had souls eaten whole by the same scabrous trolls of greed and war and corruption that birthed two Bushes and gave Bill Clinton that nearly intolerable aura of ego and slickness.

See, I've long believed that, if nearly eight years of the World's Worst President has taught us anything, it's that the American political system has moved well beyond merely deeply flawed and broken and sad, and is now wholly rotted, ruined from the inside out, a true moral wasteland barely suitable even for cockroaches and leeches and Rick Santorum. I thought George W. Bush had actually managed to do the impossible: make an already defective system truly unbearable, turning something already gray and murky to turgid and pathetic, toxic to all decent human life.

And I'm happy to report that the fact that Obama exists at this stage of the game is proving me very wrong indeed.

But I'll even take it a step further. Because the greatest thing about Obama isn't really about Obama at all, per se. It's actually about, well, us.

This is the great revelation: We still got it. The collective unconscious, the deep sense of inner wisdom, that intuitive knowing that borders on a kind of mystical proficiency, where millions of people can actually look beyond rhetoric and media spin and merely feel the presence of something great in the room? Yep, still there. Who knew?

See, this is what I hear most from relatives and readers and friends and newborn activists who were never activists before: Obama speaks to the intuition. It's about the sixth sense. It's not just what he says or how he behaves in the debates or the policy wonking or the "Change" banners or any of the typical, tangible factors — although those have proven to be remarkably positive, too.

It's this: People feel it. They hear an Obama speech or read the articles or talk to like-minded folk, and they squint their eyes and weigh everything and then dismiss all that surface crap and get that look on their face that says, you know what? This guy gets it. He feels right. It's not a trick of light. It's not complete bulls—. It's not the usual spin and manipulation and fakery. There is actual meat on this bone. What a thing.

Of course, I've plenty of readers who are die-hard cynics and jaded anarchists who say: What the f— is wrong with you? Can't you see it's just another vicious ploy? All candidates at this level are essentially the same, interchangeable, all abhorrent simply by default because when you reach that stage of the game there is simply no way to avoid deep corruption and rampant lies. They tell me that even just to write a column like this is akin to merely washing the windows in your little pod in "The Matrix." Sure, the world may seem shinier, but you're still just buying into the same old revolting corporate/military machine.

After all, once the vipers of big money and big oil and military spending and corporate cronyism get their fangs sunk in, it's pretty much "game over" for any candidate's remaining integrity. Has Mr. Perfect Obama spoken out against the insidious Patriot Act or taken on the absurd farm subsidies or talked up issues of global warming? No he has not. As nice and smart as he may be, strip away all the fawning and the oratory tricks and give him a year in office and boom, just another corrupted, compromised former visionary. Right?

Whatever. I'm not buying it. At least, not yet. For the moment, I trust the collective intuition. I trust the shockingly widespread sense, not merely of hope and change, but of collective wisdom swimming though the air like an electrical surge between every smart, creative person on the planet right now, a bolt of energy that says: Hey, we're still together. We still got it. Smart, intuitive people are still a force. There is life in the revolution yet.

And Obama? He gets it, too. Hell, he may have kindled it anew, all by himself. Either way, it's back. And it's powerful. And that, to me, is the most hopeful thing of all.

Instructions...

When you have a bad day, a wind-kicked-out-of-you kind of day...

Call a good friend. Cry a little on the phone.

Dance in your room until you feel better.
(I recommend Sting or The Police.)

Go to bed.

Try it again tomorrow.

Repeat if necessary.