The culture of the tongue

Haven’t updated this in awhile…but I guess I’ve been busy. This past weekend I was not in my apartment at all sans when I had to change clothes and take a shower. Not much sleep was had, but it was HALLOWEEN!
I don’t think many people necessarily get into Halloween as a true holiday as much as they get into it for a reason to party…not that you need a reason in Cheonan. I learned that Halloween was started in the UK. That’s pretty much all I learned on Halloween.
I am officially in the numb stage of culture shock. That is technically not a stage, but I’ve felt it before and know that it is part of culture shock for me. I think when I lived in Russia everything was softened by the fact that we were attending University, living, hanging out, eating, and talking with other Americans while in Russia. So while I felt some culture shock there…that didn’t come until I moved in with my Russian family. Right now it seems like I feel nothing. The only thing that jarred me out of it was when a kid got hit yesterday because I told my boss he was bad. He was being really terrible in my class, refusing to do anything. It frustrated me so much that I told my boss, the “principal”, that this kid was acting out. Instead of talking to him, like I THOUGH he would do, he hit him with a stick! I almost cried. I felt so bad that because he was bad in class, he got hit. Apparently, that is the norm here, but I hate it. I can understand a parent disciplining their child with spanking, but that is their CHILD! I guess in public schools they straight up beat the crap out of kids and it is totally accepted. I was a little shaken by it.
This weekend I am going to see a giant bronze buddha that is in my city. I’m pretty excited since I heard about it before I even came here, and now I get to see it!
I think I may be sort of getting the hang of teaching. I know I am still learning, everyday brings its challenges, but for someone who has never been trained to teach I think I’m doing okay. I don’t like being just okay at something, though. I want to be amazing. I want my students to speak beautifully. Speaking of speaking beautifully, I have officially had two Korean ‘lessons”. I use lesson loosely since it’s a language exchange, so we both teach each other. I can read (slowly), say basic greetings, and tell my taxi driver directions. I can also order random things like coffee, water, beer, and various other alcoholic beverages. It’s coming along! It’s helpful that I live in Korea, otherwise I would never learn this language. It is so interesting to see the connections between language and culture. They are absolutely knitted together. And that is exactly why I love learning languages.