Au milieu entre les deux It’s all very cliché, 맞죠? Je mets mes pieds dans l’eau qui n’est pas aussi froide que celui de mon 고향. 어디예요? I fumble in the vagueness. Je suis d’origine… ben d’ici. 할머니 할아버지는 한국인인데… 제가 미국에서 대어났어요. Vous venez d’où? Vous n’êtes pas chinoise? Fingers pull back the corners of… Read More Miscommunication
The reason I’m most dreading returning to the U.S.: the return to endless catcalling and street harassment. One of the reasons I’m most eager to leave Korea: the utter disregard with which many older men treat me and the unquestioned rightness with which they ignore my existence. I’ve been fascinated for years (ever since men… Read More We are not flowers: Mapping violence
The internet abounds with language learning Personalities with a big P–individuals, overwhelmingly male, who market their language learning applications, websites, techniques, based at least in part on their own multilingualism and language learning success. It’s one of the strange, yet common patterns of gender inequality. My language classes in college and in various community programs… Read More Why do men keep telling me how to learn languages? And other questions
After a mostly literature-starved first semester in which I read only two books (Asian Englishes beyond the Canon by Braj Kachru and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, I recommend them both), I’ve finally gotten back into reading. Here’s what I’ve been up to: The Hundred Year Flood, Matthew Salesses I read this book mostly because of… Read More January’s Reading
Transportation cards connected to your debit card: When I made my bank account I was given the option of making my debit card able to also be used as a transportation card and it is genius. I can just tap my debit card on any public bus, subway, or taxi /anywhere in Korea/ and the… Read More Commonplace marvels in Korea
It’s (sort of) my last day of school before winter break! We have a strange, staggered winter vacation at my school. December 29th is the last day before break, but then during the second week of January I will teach a winter camp for some of my students. On January 29th we will go back… Read More Half-way-ish
I have avoided writing about learning Korean because it’s been one of the most difficult and, at times, disappointing parts of my grant year so far. As I’ve written about before, learning Korean was my primary motivation for coming to Korea. I want to be able to speak to my family members in Korean, read… Read More Learning Haphazard Korean
Today, I asked my 6th graders to write down as many reasons they could think of why they were happy. One group wrote, “I’m happy because I wasn’t born in North Korea.” When I told another teacher, she got very quiet. “Ah, that’s sad. … Actually, I feel very lucky that I wasn’t born in North… Read More North Korea
With the women who have taken a liking to me here, I float somewhere between the role of a daughter and a sister. Their attentions towards me shift between collegial and concerned minute by minute. “I taught in China for two years,” one of my colleagues tells me, “so I think I kind of know… Read More Grateful for women
“Are you currently on an up week or a down week?” one of the other ETAs placed in Jinju asked when we met up this weekend. And it’s really the most honest way to describe this experience. When someone asks how I am, I generally can only say, “eh…up and down,” or maybe, “um…okay…,” cause… Read More Ups and Downs
Miriam / Soo Young 