Fork It Over

It was almost six months ago that I left the familiar shores of one republic to live in another. Since arriving in the Republic of Korea, I have learned a lot about the world and myself. I can read and write in Hangul (listening and speaking is much more difficult). I’ve met some amazing people and made some wonderful friendships. And I’ve grown in ways not possible had I chosen to remain at home and can only hope and assume that growth continues over the next six months.

One thing that hasn’t grown since I arrived is my waistline. So far I’m 20 lbs slimmer and still going. My hope is to have dropped a staggering 50 lbs total by the end of my term here. There are a few reasons why this is possible and all of them are completely due to the cuisine of the Korean culture.

Chopsticks

The first reason is portion size. As many of you know, I previously worked at the theme parks of American restaurants: The Cheesecake Factory. During that tenure, I witnessed many people order (and subsequently ingest) meals of upwards of 4,000 calories and hundreds of grams per fat within one sitting. If any of you have ever eaten at a Cheesecake Factory, you’ll understand what I mean (and why I love that place so damn much); the plates are huge and often come to the table piled high with delicious food. Even most of the salads on the menu are over 1,500 calories each (I’m not kidding). By contrast, Korean portions are slightly smaller and by slightly I mean way freaking smaller. One standard portion at the “Cheese” is the equivalent of four Korean servings.

The second reason isn’t how much they’re eating but what they’re eating. Most of the dishes are fish and vegetable based although Koreans do enjoy their meat and chicken – I’m sure you’ve heard of Korean Barbecue. The difference is that while American dishes centered on one huge entree of meat and a few mini sides of vegetables, Korea has flipped that around. Many meals here are a series of ‘sides’ known as banchan (like tapas). On any given table, you’ll see a dozen small plates of various vegetables most of which are served at every single meal. The portion of meat eaten is about what the USDA has approved a single serving of meat to be – three to four ounces.

The third reason is rice. Rice is served for every meal and in snacks. Bap is the Korean word for rice and that syllable appears in so many names of dishes, I can’t even count them all. A lot of the anti-carb contingency in America swears off white rice but if you take a look at the fat and calorie content of this wonder food – that expands in your stomach as you eat it, thus preventing you from over eating – you’d most likely be surprised at what you find. A cup of steamed, white rice is approximately 100 calories. Compare that to other foods you may enjoy: potatoes, pasta, even meat and you’ll see that filling up your tummy with rice is far healthier than most American food.

The fourth reason is chopsticks. Navigating your food to your mouth between two sticks is a much more meticulous and an evidently slower process than using a fork and knife. For years, my Mom told me to slow down when I eat – from the time I was five until last year – when she could’ve just taken away my fork and replaced it with chopsticks instead. She’ll be thrilled to know that I’ve slowed down when I eat and that, combined with the rice expanding in my stomach, means I’m eating less per sitting.

Kimchi

When eating a Korean meal, regardless of the time of day, you’ll notice piles of leaves marinated in something that turned them red. That is the most popular Korean dish – pickled (fermented) cabbage with pepper spices and other ingredients. Kimchi is served at every meal and most Koreans will tell you it’s their favorite food. For westerners, kimchi is most definitely an acquired taste. I, myself have yet to really enjoy it. I eat it because I know it’s healthy and it contains bacteria that helps digestion. Rumored to cause stomach cancer in large portions, kimchi is best eaten in smaller quantities throughout the day – or maybe only a few times a week.

Bibimbap

Another popular Korean dish is called Bibimbap (there’s that bap again). This dish is a pile of rice covered in vegetables (and sometimes an egg), and mixed with sesame seed oil and red pepper paste. It can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature. I prefer mine, like most of what I eat, hot. But it is good cold as well. There are regional differences in all Korean food, primarily due to the ingredients available. Both bibimbap and kimchi have slight variations in almost every restaurant and city in the nation.

The popular Korean meat dishes are bulgogi, dunkass, and dakgalbi (beef, pork, and chicken respectively). Bulgogi can be prepared in any number of ways and put into many different dishes including noodle soups, rice, and even on Korean pizza (don’t get me started on their pizza toppings here). It’s the name of the dish and the sauce they use to create it. You can order bulgogi burgers at fast food restaurants and my buddy who owns the Philly Cheesesteak place makes a bulgogi cheesesteak.

Bulgogi

One noodle dish that goes well with bulgogi is called japchae (or chapchae) and is a bowl of noodles made from sweet potatoes. The noodles are served piping hot and mixed with vegetables, almost like a stir fry.

Pork Cutlet

Dunkatsu is essentially breaded and fried pork cutlets and before you ask, yes I have made it at home with spaghetti gravy and melted cheese. Dunkatsu parmigiana is my favorite Korean entree! Dunkatsu is typically served over a bed of – yup – rice and covered in a brown sauce that I’ve only seen labeled as ‘Dunkatsu Sauce’. My favorite restaurant in town covers it with an Indian curry sauce!

Dakgalbi

Dakgalbi is a very spicy chicken dish that wreaks havoc on your intestines as it passes through them. Most Koreans enjoy their chicken with beer, hof, and this obviously exacerbates things next morning. If you’ve ever ordered General Tso’s Chicken, that’s a lot like what dakgalbi is like… only much spicier.

Some Koreans also eat dog meat (nureongi) but it’s only a small minority and they only eat it certain times of the year and on special occasions. the dogs are raised to be eaten – like Americans raise chickens, cows, and pigs. Koreans do not eat other people’s pets. I promise.

Korean ‘Sushi’

The last Korean food for this article is called kimbap (bap again!) and it’s a snack food similar to the Japanese sushi. You take seaweed paper and roll it around sticky white rice and other ingredients (again, they vary) like hard boiled egg, vegetables, fish, cheese, and beef. The roll is sliced up and eaten in little round pinwheels. I prefer to dip mine in soy sauce but most Koreans don’t. Kimbap is the least expensive food I’ve bought – one roll is about $1.50 and is enough to hold you over for a few hours. Two rolls is an entire meal. One of my coworkers enjoys it so much, he buys a handful of rolls at a time just to keep in his fridge for when he gets hungry.

If you have yet to try any Korean food, I recommend hitting up a Korean Barbecue place near you. I’m sure you can find one if you look it up. I know for a fact there’s a good one on Rt 70 between Cherry Hill and Mt. Laurel-Marlton. So while you’re all enjoying your Thanksgiving leftover turkey sandwiches, I’ll be sucking down bowls of rice and vegetables. With any luck, I’ll come home swimming in my clothes!

Until Next Time…

-Justin

A Tale of Two Countries

I have struggled with the topic of this blog for months; carefully choosing just the right words to explain my point. These observations about modern day Korean culture are very hard to encapsulate in text without experiencing them first hand and synthesizing how they all coalesce. So, here goes…

Nations rise and nations fall. They experience periods of economic growth and of recession. Even the greatest empires are much more fragile than people realize, some only lasting a short handful of years. The empires influence most of the civilized world, including many countries that aspire toward great civilizations.

Developed/Developing

Our great empire, the American Empire, had it’s peak just after World War II. Since then it has been in a slow decline, with only sporadic periods of boom. One boom accompanied the defeat of Hitler and ushered in the Cold War, spurred the economy between 1946 and 1963 – affectionately known as the Baby Boom.

Was life during this pinnacle of time perfect for the citizens? Not even kinda. There was plenty for people to be upset about, particularly if you didn’t have white skin and/or lacked a penis. But economically, the nations of the world suffer through ebbs and flows regardless of social upheaval.

The many developed, or industrialized, nations have economic dips due to a variety of factors including:

• Low Birth Rates
• Over-inflated Economy
• Over-extended Military Presence Overseas
• Crumbling Infrastructure
• Wide Income Gap between Wealthy and Poor

Additionally one major reason for the decline of developed nations is due to the natural economic progression of developing nations. Around the world, many countries work hard to bolster their economic livelihood. Looking back through American History, one can make comparisons of many modern day developing countries to America at various stages of our developing history.

Some countries like Thailand and Saudi Arabia are where the United States was during the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. While others, like China and South Korea, are hitting their respective peaks in stride symmetrical to the post-WWII U.S. Now that I’ve been living in a developing country for five months, similarities have been springing up. The economic path of a country moves through the stages of growth:

• Non-developed
• Developing
• Developed (industrialized)
• Decline (or recession)

South Korea is, like many of its Asian neighbors, a developing country and as such brandishes certain likenesses; likenesses to America circa the 1950s. These are by no means scientific observations. They are but a few simple quirks that I’ve noticed since living here and I believe countries like Korea will continue to grow as they develop; their cultural path will follow that of their many predecessors – America included.

What gave me the idea to write this article was when I first noticed a difference in the students at school. Recently in America there’s been a growing trend of parents who side with their children in classroom conflicts. The call into school and scream at the teachers because, “not MY kid…” However, in Korea, the parents side with the teachers. When the student is reprimanded, the parents give them another punishment instead of calling the teacher to complain! It’s just like America was when I was in school, or when my parents were in school. So it got me thinking… how else is the up-and-coming nation of Korea, like the United States in it’s hay day?

The Samsung Lions

The first thing I’ve noticed is how the corporations here give back to the community. The Korean citizens rally behind these corporations. So much so in fact, that their professional sports teams aren’t even named after the cities in which they play – they’re named after their corporate sponsors. The Daegu baseball team isn’t the Daegu Lions… they’re the Samsung Lions. People are willing to give so much back to these corporations as well.

Another way in which Korea in 2012 is like America in 1955 is the dating culture (not that I have any first hand knowledge here – this is all hearsay and circumstantial). Women live with their parents until their late 20s (sometimes as late as their mid 30s). They rarely, if ever, move out to live on their own unless in the case of doctors or attorneys. Men may move out sooner and sometimes get their own places but never do they move in together. Cohabitation is reserved only for marriage.

But They Wear Matching Shirts

And speaking of marriage, many women wait until their married before consummating the relationship. And the ones who don’t wait that long, make their boyfriends wait months, sometimes years, before incorporating that kind of intimacy into their ‘romantic’ relationships. And I’m not just talking about sex. The word ‘dating’ itself is taboo in Korea. Innocent acts like holding hands don’t happen right away either. I can’t imagine any American men from 14-44, putting in a month dating a girl (without calling it dating) before being able to hold her hand, let alone kiss her.

Additionally, the music industry here is built a lot like the American music industry in the 50s. K-Pop is a juggernaut machine, cranking out over produced group, singing over produced songs, on over produced tours for thousands of screaming, rabid fans. You think you know anything about K-Pop after listening to Gangnam Style? Tip of the iceberg my friends.

Tip of the iceberg.

K-Pop, in fact, is so polished it reminds me of the type of acts like the Jackson 5, the Temptations, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I’m sure there’s a room full of unnamed songwriters cloistered up somewhere similar to the Brill Building in Manhattan.

Girls Generation – Overproduced Pop

Finally, the last thing that reminds me of the 1950s is some of the clothing styles. Women and girls wear pleated skirts and men walk around in three piece suits. I occasionally even see a fedora. The busier parts of town resemble a scene out of Mad Men during office hours. Often, households are single income households – the husband and father able to earn enough to support a family of three or four without his wife having to work at all.

Dad… Dad… Daddeo

I’m sure there are other, even more meaningful comparisons, but these are just a few of the observations I’ve made regarding the culture of Korea. I suppose that my point is that while America feels like the best days are behind us, Koreans are diligently working toward a future of economic prosperity for all their people.

In a way, I feel like Marty McFly who’s been whisked away to another world with rules he doesn’t entirely comprehend. I hope I just don’t bump into my teenage father…. or do I?

Until Next Time…

-Justin

(I didn’t want to bring up any negative aspects in this article but there is also some racial issues that mirror the U.S. in the 50s. There aren’t a lot of non-Asians here but the few who do live here carry stereotypes with them. If you’d like more details, I’ll share them in an email).

First Runner Up

It has come to my attention that while many of my blogs have been about Korea and traveling in Asia, I have yet to really write anything about the different aspects of teaching or the overseas hiring process. So this will be the first in a series of entries discussing various parts of being an ESL educator in a foreign country. I hope you enjoy them.

Can-merica

Overseas schools, whether they be public or private, that have an interest in teaching English as a second language have to get around one major hurdle to become successful: the hiring of native English speakers from other countries. The vast majority of these teachers from from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The question becomes, how can the schools entice people to move halfway around the world for a one year minimum for jobs?

The answers won’t surprise you but lead directly into my topic for this first article. My school offered me the equivalent of $2,000 USD a month – a figure that fluctuates with the decline in value of American currency – and some additional ‘perks’ to the job. The first perk is free housing. Each and every teacher is given a one bedroom apartment in a building affectionately referred to as, ‘Happy Town‘ because that’s basically what the sign on the door reads. The value of this apartment is between $300-$500 a month (we’re responsible for paying our own internet, gas, and electricity – totaling between $30-$70 a month depending on how frugal you are).

The next thing the school comped me was the round trip airfare to and from Korea. I didn’t have to save money to pay for my flight here (like some countries do) and I won’t have to use what I save during the year to pay for my return flight home. It’s just one other thing the school does for us. Thirdly, there is an end of the year bonus that amounts to one month pay and we also get our apartment security deposit back, roughly totaling an additional $2,600 – the icing on the proverbial cake.

A Runner

Finally, the school provides its teachers with paid vacation days, health insurance, and occasional bonuses during the year. But what do they get for all this investment? They get teachers who agree to remain for the duration of their one year contract. If a teacher quits midway through their contract, they forego all of these bonuses and in many cases are required to reimburse the school for their airfare to get here. Un-affectionately, the remaining teachers refer to these callow people, who selfishly decide to leave us all in a lurch, as RUNNERS.

Stories are passed around between teachers, between campuses, and between schools of the few, the arrogant, the runners. I have no idea what the statistics are but based on what I’ve heard, I’d say runners occur once out of every fifty teachers. 1/50 run. Reasons someone would ‘run’ are widespread from getting a job back home that pays more, getting homesick, perhaps a placement with a less than desirable school, or even something as simple as getting in over your head (a lot of people don’t understand just how difficult living alone in a foreign land can be – particularly one in which you don’t speak the native language).

A Pangolin

This week, my school had the pleasure (sarcasm) of experiencing our own runner first hand. It is my first runner and I hope it’ll be my last. Although this particular teacher won’t be missed (she had the personality of a pangolin), her departure has pretty much for all intents and purposes, screwed over the eleven of us who are still here.

A pangolin is anteater, armadillo looking creature voted the most boring and antisocial animal by a National Geographic poll.

Every teacher has a set schedule each semester. When we take a vacation day, classes continue. Therefore teachers who stay have to pick up the slack and teach those classes. Already most of the teachers have full schedules, meaning there just aren’t enough hours in the day to cover the classes. So when a teacher ‘runs’, until the administration – who runs around like chickens with their heads cut off as well – is able to hire a replacement (if you don’t remember how long the Visa process took, I invite you to visit my previous entry: Resident Alien), the rest of us are stuck covering for someone who, 99 times out of 100, doesn’t deserve it to begin with.

Run Away!!!

And so it is that for the next 2-3 weeks, my friends and I will be covering the classes for the girl who left. None of us are really sure why she left, although we have theories. But it was rather obvious when she neglected to join us for any social events after numerous invitations. The final indication was when the directors asked for her passport to set up her medical exam and she kept stalling bringing it in. For three days she made up excuses that she couldn’t find her passport and over this past weekend, conveniently scheduled a trip to Seoul. Arriving at work Monday afternoon, we discovered she had indeed bailed, turned tail, and ‘ran’ away over the weekend (we subsequently raided what was left in her apartment).

That’s the story of our recent runner. With any luck the next teacher we get will be cool and social. So my final thoughts to anyone reading this who considers teaching ESL overseas is to realize how much your decisions affect other people. Never run. If you’re unhappy, talk to people around you. Talk to people at home. This life isn’t always easy and it isn’t always fun. But I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. Live with your decision and make the best of it. No matter what, it’ll be an adventure!

Until Next Time…

-Justin