Climbed the highest point in South Korea yesterday!!!
We had chaps over from the mainland so used it as the best excuse to finally climb the mountain, although I think over the last week all the leaves have finally dropped off the trees so unfortunately there was not so many spectacular colours occuring BUT it was a mighty fine clear day so we could see the whole island.
Koreans love hiking and walking so for the best part of the way to the top we were in a queue of people slowly trudging upwards and then once we were at the top, there were people EVERYWHERE. They've fenced the top in so you cannot walk around the crater of the volcano so myself and John decided to get some good pictures and climbed the fence and walked to a rocky edge and were there maybe 5minutes and then got PROPER shouted at my a man in the fenced area. He was really quite mad with us; I think he was the angriest looking Korean I have met so far (the chap who we had the fight with looked more sleepy than angry).
AH so talking of the man we had a fight with, I went to his restaurant and he looked quite embarressed throughout
the whole chat, he apologised and then asked if I had had dinner. I said no, so he offered to make me some, so I said,
only if you guys (the man and the lady translator) eat aswell.
It was a BBQ style restaurant so we had a the side dishes and he brought out a plate of meat and began cooking it. Once it was all sorted he went back into the kitchen to cook some other stuff and the lady decided that she was too full so I had to eat 3 peoples worth of food. I slept so well that night.
Oddly enough when I was waiting for the lady translator (Su Young), a man was walking toward me and he looked really quite sturdy and I thought to myself (no lie)
"Man I'm glad we didn't get into a fight with him"
Then he says to me 'excuse me, are you Simon?'
I said yes, became a bit confused and then saw he was wearing an apron and everything came into place. We waited together for maybe 3 minutes and it was awkward. It was really awkward. He didn't speak any English and my Korean did a quick escape out of my head leaving me with one word which I could remember, 'Today....'
Today is a major day for me; I'm planning an offensive against my Grade 5' and 6's so that more of them come to my lessons as the numbers are up and down everyday which is making it so hard for me to teach. Some of them cannot even read English and a Grade 2 or 3 would have a better knowledge of the language than they SO its proving difficult.
My main idea at the moment is to have an 'English Talent Show' where they practice a song, drama or dance or something over the period of 1 or 2 months and then we have the talent show where parents come and watch (bit like primary school plays) and the teachers are judges and then the winners get some AWESOME prize.
I've spoken to the big boss of TaLK scholars on Jeju and they say once I put a plan together, then they will see if they will fund me or not. I just need to keep chasing the idea.
That's the big plan to raise the enthusiasm; the smaller plans are going to be drawn up this evening. The older grades are so much harder to keep interested; all bar one of the students in Grade 3 attend after school English and it is almost the same for Grades 1 and 2. Grade 4 always stay the same but they are awesome kids so if new ones came in I think it would confuse me a little.
Today I am drawing my inspiration from stairs; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
We had chaps over from the mainland so used it as the best excuse to finally climb the mountain, although I think over the last week all the leaves have finally dropped off the trees so unfortunately there was not so many spectacular colours occuring BUT it was a mighty fine clear day so we could see the whole island.
Koreans love hiking and walking so for the best part of the way to the top we were in a queue of people slowly trudging upwards and then once we were at the top, there were people EVERYWHERE. They've fenced the top in so you cannot walk around the crater of the volcano so myself and John decided to get some good pictures and climbed the fence and walked to a rocky edge and were there maybe 5minutes and then got PROPER shouted at my a man in the fenced area. He was really quite mad with us; I think he was the angriest looking Korean I have met so far (the chap who we had the fight with looked more sleepy than angry).
AH so talking of the man we had a fight with, I went to his restaurant and he looked quite embarressed throughout
the whole chat, he apologised and then asked if I had had dinner. I said no, so he offered to make me some, so I said,
only if you guys (the man and the lady translator) eat aswell.It was a BBQ style restaurant so we had a the side dishes and he brought out a plate of meat and began cooking it. Once it was all sorted he went back into the kitchen to cook some other stuff and the lady decided that she was too full so I had to eat 3 peoples worth of food. I slept so well that night.
Oddly enough when I was waiting for the lady translator (Su Young), a man was walking toward me and he looked really quite sturdy and I thought to myself (no lie)
"Man I'm glad we didn't get into a fight with him"
Then he says to me 'excuse me, are you Simon?'
I said yes, became a bit confused and then saw he was wearing an apron and everything came into place. We waited together for maybe 3 minutes and it was awkward. It was really awkward. He didn't speak any English and my Korean did a quick escape out of my head leaving me with one word which I could remember, 'Today....'
Today is a major day for me; I'm planning an offensive against my Grade 5' and 6's so that more of them come to my lessons as the numbers are up and down everyday which is making it so hard for me to teach. Some of them cannot even read English and a Grade 2 or 3 would have a better knowledge of the language than they SO its proving difficult.
My main idea at the moment is to have an 'English Talent Show' where they practice a song, drama or dance or something over the period of 1 or 2 months and then we have the talent show where parents come and watch (bit like primary school plays) and the teachers are judges and then the winners get some AWESOME prize.
I've spoken to the big boss of TaLK scholars on Jeju and they say once I put a plan together, then they will see if they will fund me or not. I just need to keep chasing the idea.
That's the big plan to raise the enthusiasm; the smaller plans are going to be drawn up this evening. The older grades are so much harder to keep interested; all bar one of the students in Grade 3 attend after school English and it is almost the same for Grades 1 and 2. Grade 4 always stay the same but they are awesome kids so if new ones came in I think it would confuse me a little.
Today I am drawing my inspiration from stairs; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
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