The Mouse is Only Human

So, The Mouse has been reading back through her blog posts, and would like to make a post about things that are not actually true, or are no longer true. Before she came to Korea, The Mouse did a lot of research on Korea, and it turns out that quite a bit of it is either false or misleading. Here are some things she has learned she got wrong since moving to Korea:

1. A rather small one, but The Mouse writes her name quite differently in Korean than she did initially. While it can be written the way it was in her third post on this blog, most native Korean names have 3 syllables (some have 2 or 4, but this is rather rare), and it makes things much easier to conform to that format on bank forms and other official things. So The Mouse has dropped her surname in favor of her single-syllable middle name and two-syllable first name, thus making her Korean name 앤린지.

2. Korean Phonetics
The Mouse has learned quite a bit more about the phonetic system of the Korean language since she moved here. This might not make sense to many, but while The Mouse once said that 시 sounds like [ɕi], it's actually [ʃi], and sounds quite close to English "she." Also, the sound 으, which The Mouse transliterated [ɯ] is actually [œ] (which she actualy knew at the time, so she's not sure now why she used [ɯ]).
From her "Learning Korean Pronunciation from an English Perspective" post, she claimed,
"몰라요 (I don't know), expected pronunciation [mol.ɾa.jo], actual pronunciation [mo.ɾa.jo] "
While this actually would have made sense, she has since learned that syllable-final ㄹ followed immediately by syllable-initial ㄹ actually sounds quite a bit like [ɭ]. It's a thick and somewhat retroflex l-sound.

3. Cultural Note: What and What Not to Wear in Korea
On workplace and casual-wear distinctions, much like in America, this depends on the workplace. At The Mouse's job, she definitely tries to dress professionally most days, but when teaching young children it is generally acceptable to wear jeans and a t-shirt. The Mouse generally just tries to wear things that are comfortable and look nice, even if they're not entirely "professional" by most standards. Just because you wouldn't wear it in an office, doesn't necessarily mean you can't wear it in a classroom, depending of course, on your school! The Mouse does have friends in Korea who are required to wear button-down shirts or even ties every day in their school, or who are not allowed to wear jeans.
Open-toed shoes are not a no-no and, in fact, most schools will require teachers and students alike to wear indoor shoes, which are usually sandals (even though Koreans call them slippers) with an open toe. It IS true that most teachers here do not wear a lot of gaudy or showy jewelry, but The Mouse does not get the impression that these are not allowed.
It is actually illegal to get a tattoo in Korea from someone who is not a medical professional, though this does not stop people from coming here with tattoos, or even getting them here. They are still frowned upon in the workplace, but seem to be becoming somewhat more accepted in the general public.
No one seems to notice when The Mouse doesn't wear makeup. She has friends and acquaintances who get told they "look tired" when they don't wear makeup, but The Mouse has surprisingly never been insulted for her lack of it.

4. Basic Korean Words!
In one post, The Mouse claimed these:
Please (formal) - 주시기 바랍니다 jusigi balabnida
Please (informal) - 부디budi
Well, please. No one says "please," at least not that The Mouse has heard. Adding -habnida or -seyo to the verb is perfectly fine for politeness. No "please" necessary.

Thank you (informal) - 감사 gamsa
While people do say 안녕 "annyeong" to friends for hello and goodbye, The Mouse has never heard simply "gamsa," even between friends. 고맙습니다 or even 감사합니다 is MUCH more common, even in informal situations.
Goodbye (formal) - 작별 인사 jagbyeol insa
The Mouse has never heard this. The two below are the most common, though there are several ways to say it depending on the situation.
Goodbye (General, formal) - 안녕히 가세요 annyeonghi gaseyo
This is actually only to someone who is leaving. If you and your coworker are at your home, and your coworker leaves, you would say 안녕히 가세요 (annyeonghi GAseyo). Your friend, who is leaving, however, will say 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi GYEseyo)

I don't know - 나도 몰라 nado molla
While this is technically correct, "mollayo" is much more common.
Where is the bathroom? - 화장실이 어디 있죠? hwajangsil-i eodi issjyo?
*ahem* i(ss)eyo. Not issjyo.

I apologize - 내가 사과 naega sagwa
Another one that The Mouse has never actually heard. She is aware that one can say simply "sagwa," but this seems to be extremely informal, perhaps between very good friends. More common is some form of 미안 (mi-an, informal), which is usually heard as 미안에요 (mi-an-eyo, polite) or 미안합니다 (mi-an-habnida, formal).

5. The Mouse keeps claiming she's going to update, tries to be a good blogger, and then falls off the face of the earth. Usually, when she has free time, she dedicates it to reading, sleeping, friends, or games (or a combination of these). She recently spent her 9-day summer vacation substituting for a friend, sleeping, and playing computer games. She's going to try to get back on top of this blog thing, but she's not going to keep making promises she can't guarantee she will keep. She WILL, however, definitely get to work on getting the pictures in the most recent posts working again. Facebook has changed its image storage format and so the links no longer work. Therefore, The Mouse will transfer the photos to a photo dump site and update the image URLs once that hassle is done with.

안녕 for now,

~Mouse

2013 Review, Part 2

Getting through this little by little. Here's the second half of 2013, which included a lot of awesome moments.

July 2013

The first days of July saw The Mouse bitten by her friends at the Cat Cafe and trying out something new: Yoga. Yoga was a lot of fun, but was somewhat short-lived because The Mouse and The Mouse Fiance felt slightly uncomfortable being the only foreigners in the class, along with The Mouse Fiance being the only male aside from Sung. Things got awkward really quickly when Sung tried to get us to teach English to some of the ladies or their children, but we'll talk more about that in a post all its own.

She had a rare easy week at work, since middle school students had been taking, or finished, their exams. So The Mouse either only had half of her classes, or was allowed to be lax and play around with her students.
However, she did end up joking around about the possibility of putting malware and hilarious desktop images on Jack's computer, and felt thankful that she only had four months left on her contract, simply because he threatened to make the teachers pay for any further classroom computer repairs that were needed, when most of the problems with the computers were caused by the computers' age and quality, rather than malicious software. That said, she never actually messed with Jack's computer before she left. She feels like maybe it was a missed opportunity, but also that she wouldn't have stooped so low just to get back at someone she'll hopefully never have to see again. The drama never really ended at Easy English, but just like Sung, more about that later.
Anyway, that week was followed by kitty cats, Yoga and 회식 (Korean for "dining together," what businesses call company dinners, which usually include barbeque and a LOT of alcohol) on Monday, and password protecting the computer in The Mouse Classroom. From then on, she refused to allow anyone (including Jack and Sung) to touch the computer without her direct supervision. Because that's how The Mouse deals with problems.

I bought a watermelon for the first time in Korea. Because watermelon in Korea is somehow even more amazing than watermelon in the states. We'd had watermelon at the start of summer at Easy English, and The Mouse bought one for her and The Mouse Fiance to have at home. It took up so much space in the refrigerator, but was SO worth it.

She also discussed the lack of "choice" in Korean food and other things, which wasn't so much culture shock as something interesting to note. As The Mouse is not a particularly picky eater and doesn't have any allergies, it wasn't a big deal for her from the start, but she can understand how some people might have a problem with the lack of customization here. More on that in a separate post to come later.

노미캣 (Norie Cat) became The Mouse's Sunday routine, if she hasn't said so already. She still goes back to visit sometimes, because the cats there will always have a special place in her heart.

The Mouse was also introduced (sort of) to honey bread. She had heard of it before, she'd tried it once or twice, but had never actually had a whole lot of it, because it didn't seem that spectacular. After having tried it (in the sense that it was given to her and one other person to share O.o ), she can say that it was good, strange, and neither over- nor underwhelming. It's basically a toasted half-loaf of bread covered in chocolate and caramel sauce, honey, butter, and a ridiculous amount of whipped cream:

The Mouse also discovered more joys of the language barrier (a whole post on things like "lend" versus "borrow," "admiration" versus "appreciation," "I forgot how to English," and strange English phrases on Korean clothing to come, I'm sure...) and the wonders of working at a school that places students solely based on their grade level, rather than their actual English proficiency.

August 2013

The beginning of August saw The Mouse's first true "vacation" in Korea - that is, the first time she spent more than one day outside of Cheonan, and it was to visit Japan - more specifically, Tokyo.
And it was AWESOME. The Mouse figured out the Tokyo subway very easily with the help of a very kind Japanese lady who spoke a bit of English, and it was off to Asakusa, only a block away from Bandai headquarters. The Mouse and The Mouse Fiance got to see awesome things like Tokyo Skytree, old temples that still exist in the center of Tokyo, the Prime Minister's official residence, Akihabara and its maid cafes, and Tokyo nightlife at a bar called Planet Boy in Asakusa.
We also had awesome food, from traditional sushi to proper Japanese curry, to interesting and nommy convenience store snacks. It was a great time overall, and even though The Mouse Fiance had gotten pickpocketted his first day in Tokyo(!), we made a lot of the money back when an executive from Bandai put a bunch of bets on bar games and then insisted on paying our insane tab at the end of the night. It was a truly awe-inspiring experience.

Upon returning to Korea, The Mouse settled back into routine life as best she could, counting down the months until her contract with Easy English was finished. It wouldn't be long. She enjoyed teaching (most of) her students, but the environment itself often left her feeling overly stressed, annoyed, frustrated, and sometimes downright sick.
June, The Mouse Friend and Former Co-worker, helped his niece choose her English name, and they settled on The Mouse's name, which June's niece LOVED. The Mouse felt incredibly flattered and is happy that somewhere, there is a Korean child running around introducing herself as "Lindsay" because of this.

The Mouse and The Mouse Fiance took a day out one weekend to head to Haeyundae beach in Busan, a nearly 4-hour journey by bullet train. We spend the entire day on the beach and ate at Outback for dinner. It was a lovely stress reliever. The Mouse even found a seashell on the beach that she still carries with her every day.

Again with choice in Korean food, as well. The woman at our normal hot dog place stopped putting pickles on my hot dog, because she noticed I always picked them off. At this point it's fair to say The Mouse was sick of both pickles and kimchi (although she never liked pickles much, anyway), but has since become quite accustomed to them. Anyway, I never asked her not to put the pickles them on there, and she didn't ask if I didn't want them. She just made my hot dog without pickles and said when she gave it to me "No pickle. You don't want, right?" Despite the lack of choice in Korean food in general, I love the way all businesses here, even chains, seem to be like small businesses, in that people seem acutely aware of their repeat customers, and will do everything they can to make you happy.

The Nom Nom Nom song became an ongoing theme in my middle school third grade class, and I met then-newcomers to Korea Robyn and Jerry at Norie Cat.

September 2013

I professed my love for anything with  떡 (rice cake) in its name. I still love rice cakes. They come in all forms, shapes and sizes in Korea, from sweetened rice cakes and stuffed, deep fried ones that are used as desserts, to spicy boiled ones, to ones that come with fish cakes and eggs and hot sauce and fried vegetables. They're my Korean version of comfort food.

Jack pressured me to write a Phonics curriculum for his sons and a few very low-level students, and I seriously considered writing a book on how to teach English Phonetics to native speakers of Korean. I may still do that at some point, but I don't feel pressured to, so that may come in its own time. He loved my curriculum so much that he started having the new Korean teacher teach it (Wait, what?), but at this point I feel like there will be an entire post dedicated to Jack's antics.

The Mouse also got challenged by The Mouse Fiance to make a Facebook album that wasn't allowed to contain cats, because 99.3% of her pictures at that time were of cats. Challenge accepted. There she showed antics with students, her new haircut, delicious food, drawings, and many other random things.... Then she created another album for more kitty cats.
The rest of September saw The Mouse horribly stressed due to exam preparation and miscommunication with Jack, who somehow felt that as a native English speaker she would be able to write 13 exam-prep tests in 30 minutes. She pulled all-nighters nearly every night for two weeks, and then would have to do it all over again in November, simply because he didn't want The Mouse to test students from the book's pool of random questions... which was what they were going to be tested on anyway. Sleepy and stressed at the end of one work night, she was trying to head out of the academy (finally, around midnight, with only half the tests for the next day completed) and missed the last step because the lights had been turned off to conserve power (I mean, like I said, it was midnight). The Mouse fell down the stairs carrying all 8 books she would need to complete the tests, landed on her arm, and badly sprained her elbow. Then had to continue typing up tests with a busted arm. It was NOT a happy few weeks, and the arm took longer than that to heal. The Mouse also got a horrid cold due to the stress and lack of sleep. Thanks a lot, Easy English.

September 19th would have been The Mouse Daddy's 68th birthday. He passed away in December 2011, but somehow the loss felt more profound being so far away from any of The Mouse Family. Rest in peace, Daddy Cat.

October 2013

The Hamster Dance and general antics with students, as well as Indestructable Ajummas, will need to be serious topics of discussion on this blog, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Also, working when you're sick. Korean hagwons don't really believe in sick days. If you're sick, you find a substitute (incredibly unlikely, given that just about anyone who can do your job likely also has to work), or you go to work anyway. I really don't know what they do if a teacher like... ends up in hospital, or something.

Anyway, my first entirely good day in two months came when we finally bought a blender and I started making smoothies like nobody's business. I need to start buying frozen fruit again.
Despite trying for a while to come up with a Halloween costume idea, The Mouse stayed up until 4am Halloween morning making a costume out of a disassembled umbrella and makeshift crafting materials because Cheonan does not have much in the way of crafts supplies, aside from school supplies that can be bought from the local Lotte Mart or E-Mart. However, her students loved it, The Mouse got them hooked on the song "This is Halloween," and taught them "Trick or Treat!?" is for ALL of the CANDY!!! They also enjoyed all the Halloween decorations The Mouse did entirely by herself because her boss was against the idea of celebrating a western holiday at an English Academy (what?)                       

 
The Mouse also met her friend Sean for the first time at Norie Cat. She held Simba for most of the day. He slept in her arms because he was sick, and seemed grateful for the warmth and lack of attention from other patrons.

November 2013

On the bright side, The Mouse got to relax the weekend after her Halloween antics, and she spent most of Saturday in bed before finally getting around to cleaning up the massive mess she made making her costume. Then she chillaxed with food and a smoothie while listening to music from Cats, her favorite musical, before spending her usual Sunday at Norie Cat. It was a good few days.



Then, Jack sat The Mouse down and explained that the academy was losing money and he couldn't afford to keep paying her salary, so her contract would have to end in December, despite her already having agreed to stay on until February. It was mixed news. The Mouse first went into panic mode, and then felt something she'd only very rarely and fleetingly felt while working there: freedom. She contacted her recruiter and began interviewing with different schools in Korea, and this is where Jack was actually a cool guy in all of this: he got The Mouse in touch with a recruiter who managed to get her an interview at a Seoul public school.

This year was The Mouse's first real exposure to Ppeppero Day, which celebrates the Pocky-like confection known as... you guessed it! Ppeppero. It's celebrated on 11/11, because the 1s look like sticks of Ppeppero.



I also got this little "random fact challenge" from a friend that I figured is worth sharing here, because all of it is still true:

1. My "almost-impossible life goal," as I call it, is to learn at least one word from every language in the world, even if it's just "Hello".
2. I'm legally blind in my right eye.
3. I sound like a little girl on the phone. Cute, maybe, but I recently learned that it hurts me in voice-only interviews.
4. My lucky number has always been 22. Why? I don't know.
5. When I'm bored, I write.
6. I'm ambidextrous.
7. I learned how to fly a plane before I learned how to drive a car.
8. I have a semi-secret love for clothes and fashion. The only reason I don't dress like that is true is because I worry what that would do to my wallet.
9. My favorite colors are red, white, gold, and purple.
10. With my English already being influenced by the Koreans around me (even though I speak very little Korean), I have this illegitimate worry that if I go somewhere where I am fluent in the language, I will start to lose my English.

Thanksgiving saw The Mouse Fiance cook a ton of food and bring it to the academy for everyone to enjoy, and The Mouse had a snowball fight with some of her students between classes. She became well aware that despite all the stress at Easy English, she would miss parts of it.

The interview with the school in Seoul went really well, and I found out near the end of November that I'd gotten the job and would be moving to Seoul at the end of December, less than a month after my contract with Easy English ended. Hooray for new beginnings!

December 2013

December brought so many bittersweet moments in saying goodbye to students and to Cheonan. The Mouse had students thanking her for teaching them, students telling her they loved her and asking her not to go, and one student who even bought her a flower and said he'd miss her.



It was made easier by the fact that The Mouse had several other friends leaving for Seoul at the same time. June had recently moved to Seoul, Sean was moving, and so were a few friends that The Mouse has since sort of fallen out of contact with.



December 20th and Christmas were harder away from family than the Christmas before or The Mouse Daddy's birthday had been, but The Mouse also spent a week in Osaka, on very little money but not so bad for all that. It wasn't a particularly relaxing vacation, what with knowing we'd be coming back to the stress of moving and a not-so-nice budget thanks to yet another miscommunication with Jack.

Learning Korean: Classificational Particles

The one thing I dreaded about Korean grammar is roaring its head, but I know the sooner I get them down, the quicker I'll be able to form sentences on my own and do pretty much everything else.

I'm talking about Classificational Particles. English has parts of speech that do some of the same things that classificational particles do in Korean. Korean is basically Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order, but the subject and object may move around the verb due to the use of classificational particles, or be dropped alltogether if contextually understood. A noun may NEVER stand alone without a classificational particle. 

Korean also uses particles, rather than separate words, as we do in English, because it is classified as an agglutinative language. That is, morphological markers (prefixes, suffixes, infixes) are attached to base words to alter their meaning. This can be done repeatedly in agglutinative languages. For example, the English sentence "I want to go to the market" is only three words in Korean (also, articles such as "the" do not exist in Korean): 나는 시장에 가고 싶어요 (naneun sijang-e gago sip-eoyo): I(subject) market(object) want(1st person)-go.

There is no true equivalent of particles in English, so if you find yourself confused, I will tell you that this is NOT easy. The Mouse herself is having a little bit of difficulty with this, even though she has worked somewhat with languages that use particles.

It seems that (I say it seems because I have not yet delved deep enough to be 100% sure) most morphemes (the morphological markers mentioned in the paragraph above) are "fixed" to the front of words - i.e. they are prefixes. Classificational markers, on the other hand, are all suffixes.

There are twenty-six distinct classificational particles in Korean (used in thirty-two different functions), though most of them take two forms, based on whether the preceding noun ends with a consonant or vowel sound.

There are six types of classificational particles:
1. Subjective Particle
2. Objective Particle
3. Adjectival Particle
4. Predicative Particle
5. Exclamatory Particle
6. Adverbial Particle

1, 2, and 3 are fairly straightforward. The subjective particle is 이/가 (i/ga), the first after a noun ending in a consonant, the second after a noun ending in a vowel. The objective particle is 을/를 (eul/reul), with the same rule. The adjectival particle is 의 (ui), regardless of of whether the noun ends in a consonant or vowel. The subjective particle makes the noun a subject (MARY went to the store). The objective particle makes the noun the direct object (Mary went to the STORE). The adjectival particle makes the noun function as an adjective, or to make it possessive (MARY'S friend went to the store)

The predicative particle is 이다/다 (ida/da), and makes the noun the predicate. I'll explain this one a bit more in depth, since it is a concept I've noted even native English speakers sometimes have trouble with. We'll use the example "I am a teacher." "Teacher" here is not the object, although it is in direct object position. The verb "am" links the word "teacher" directly back to "I," which means "I" and "teacher" are the same person, and thus "teacher" is a predicate rather than an object (Hence why we would say "I am she" rather than "I am her"). The predicative particle in Korean denotes this relation. (Side note: Korean also does not have relative pronouns, and thus the predicative particle becomes a fairly important part of speech in sentences that would take a relative pronoun in English)

The exclamatory particles are 아/야, 이여/여 (a/ya or iyeo/yeo). The Mouse is not yet entirely sure of the difference between the two, but as far as she can tell, a/ya is used at the end of a name, to indicate that it is a direct address (i.e. you are calling someone's name. You would not just call, "Mary!" but you would call "Mary-ya!"), and the iyeo/yeo used for other exclamations. Again, The Mouse is NOT CERTAIN that this is the distinction, but that is what she can surmise from what she has read so far.

Did you think that was hard? It gets harder. On to adverbial particles! There are eleven of them. The only thing that makes this vaguely easier is that we do have something similar in English. adverbial particles are fixed postpositions, like in function to the prepositions that we use in English.

1. Locative Particle: Destination - 에 (e) (place), 에게, 한테 (ege, hante) (person) - the first is attached to a place, whereas the second two would be attached to a person. These work like “on,” “to,” or “toward,” respectively, and show that an object is going TO this noun as a destination. The noun which takes this particle is the indirect object (or object of the preposition, depending on use). (Mary gave the pencil to HER), (Mary put the pencil ON THE DESK) .

2. Locative Particle: Aspiration - 에, 으로/로 (e, euro/ro) (place), 에게로, 한테로 (egero, hantero) (person) - These work similarly to the destination particle, except that they denote that the noun they are attached to is the eventual destination of the object. There is no exact equivalent to these in English, but they are similar to “toward." (She drove TOWARD THE HOUSE).

3. Locative Particle: Origin - 에서 (eseo) (place), 한테서, 에게서/게서 (hanteseo, egeseo/geseo) (person), 으로부터/로부터 (eurobuteo/robuteo) (place/person) - works similarly to the above two, except that the attached noun is the origin of something, i.e. "from." (I got the pencil FROM HIM), (She came FROM SEOUL).

4. Transition Particle: 으로/로 (euro, ro) - shows that the noun is a product or affect of a transformation, similar to "to," "into," or "become." (Night BECAME DAY).

5. Causation Particle: 으로/로 (euro, ro) - shows that the attached noun is the cause of something, similar to "because of" - (Her ear hurts BECAUSE OF AN INFECTION).

6. Instrumental Particle: Means - 로, 으로서/로서 (ro, euroseo/roseo) - shows that the attached noun is a means to an end, or an instrument in a process. Similar to "with." (He unlocked the door WITH THE KEY).

7. Capacity Particle: 로, 으로써/로써 (ro, eurosseo/rosseo) - shows that the attached noun is working in a certain capacity, similar to "as." (He spoke to me AS A FRIEND, rather than AS A TEACHER).

8. Companion Particle: 와/과, 하고, 랑/이랑 (wa/gwa, hago, ra/ira) - shows that the attached noun is the companion of something or someone. Similar to "with." (She walked there WITH A FRIEND).

9. Quote: Direct Particle: 라고 (rago) - shows that the attached noun (phrase acting as a noun) is a direct quotation. (She said "HELLO.").

10. Comparison Particle: 와/과, 만큼, 보다, 처럼 (wa/gwa, ankeong, boda, cheoreong) - shows that the attached noun is greater than, less than, or equal to another noun. Used like "like," "as," or "than." (His weight is greater THAN MY WEIGHT).

11. Quote: Indirect Particle: 고 (go) - shows that the attached noun (phrase acting as a noun) is an indirect quotation. (She said HELLO.).

PHEW! That was a lot. One of the largest things most speakers of other languages have trouble with in English, even after mastery of much of the language, is the use of prepositions. These are the Korean equivalent.

Learning Korean

So, The Mouse has decided that the next few days will be spent on basic grammar and sentence structure, and then the plan is to memorize 50 words and phrases per day until she leaves for Korea. Hopefully this process will continue while she is in Korea, but she may have to lower that number based on her existing workload.