12.15.2014

You Know You're Teaching in Korea When...

  1. Anything ending with "ge" and "ch" you subconsciously add a y to the end. Lunch becomes lunchy, change becomes changey.
  2. Your shoes are gathering dust in your shoe closet. Because you bought all these pretty shoes knowing how stylish Koreans like to be everyday. And then you realize you're going to wear slippers in school the whole day, and you revert to wearing your comfiest shoes with socks no matter how silly it looks. Pink socks peeking out of my Chucks in an otherwise nice outfit? Yup. 
  3. You know if Waygook.com ever went down, life would be over. You might have a panic attack. Everything is on Waygook from lesson plans to winter camp ideas to where to buy tampons or black tea in Korea... -cough-
  4. You've mastered the art of online shopping. Oh and not just online shopping, online shopping in Hangul. G-market deals anyone? The beauty of the online shops, the interesting job of Google Translate, you've been through it all. You also appreciate iHerb and its low shipping rates.
  5. "Heol," "Aigoo," "Chincha," "Eeotokke?" mean something to you. Those little Korean expressions have crept their ways into your vocabulary without you even realizing it.
  6. You've come to expect little candy presents from students. What, don't kids everywhere just give their teachers pieces of candy or pieces of their treats all the time? No?
  7. You bow all the time. Saying hello, thank you, goodbye... Anytime you want to show you're grateful. Your kids will run passed you in the hall and pause to bow and say hi to you. You know this is going to be an embarrassing habit to break when you re-enter your respective home countries.
  8. You know the top K-pop groups or songs. Even if you're adamantly against K-pop and its sheer manufactured pop, you know the groups. And you know how seriously your female students take those groups. EXO ring a bell?
  9.  You've mastered the art of public transportation. Subway systems, bus systems... You know the drill. You probably spent a lot of money on taxis your first week getting lost and trying to figure out where everything is. But now you know. The bus doesn't stop at your stop unless you explicitly ask him to, and you know you pay after your bus ride when leaving your city and before your bus ride entering the city. 
  10. You question the Korean diet constantly. They're so thin, right? But there's so much processed foods, rice, sugary coffee packets, snacks, peppero... Eetokke? It's gotta be that kimchi.
Anything I'm missing? I've only been here for two months so far!

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