Gone Seoul Searching in Japan: Show and Tell Presentations with my ESL students

Some of my funniest students goofing around with role playing costumes during the break.

There were many giggles, mistakes, and smiles today in my classroom as my students did a wonderful job giving a Show and Tell presentation. For many of them, this was their first presentation ever and they were extremely nervous in the days leading up to the presentations. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to give your first presentation at the age of 18 or 19 and to give it in a foreign language!

To be honest, I was quite surprised that many of them had never given a presentation before. In America, most students take a speech class in high school that is devoted to learning the art of giving a good presentation. Not all of the students were first timers, some of them had given presentations in their other English class a week prior and many of them had given presentations in Japanese in their classes in University or High School. But for the students that had never given a presentation ever, I was extremely overjoyed and impressed by their work.

They all chose an item that had some kind of meaning for them or significance in their lives. For example, a baby ring, a lion statue, a picture frame, a special letter, and even a famous soccer players jersey. They were given 3 class periods leading up to the presentation day to learn about what a Show and Tell Presentation is about, and to work on their speaking skills.

Two weeks before the presentations I devoted one class towards getting the girls comfortable speaking in front of others. This specific class required the girls to time each other talking about a specific topic for 1 minute. There was a lot of group work and we talked about what things were good for a presentation such as eye contact, posture, smiling, speaking slowly and clearly. I gave a sample show and tell presentation that day with a magic towel my friend bought me in Hakone. The presentation seemed to catch their attention and they loved seeing the video of the old man with a blow dryer as the hot and cold air magically removed a geisha's clothing and putting them back on again.

The two days before the presentation day were devoted to the show and tell writing and practice. I had them choose an item the week of and on the Wednesday before they had to talk about their item with a partner and then I gave time in class to write out their presentations. I also threatened them a little saying if you don't come to my class on Friday for the presentation day then you will present on the next class on Tuesday! This seemed to work as all of my students that have been coming to class regularly showed up for the presentations. On the Thursday before, I let the students finish their writing and practice their presentation skills with a partner. I strongly encouraged gestures and movement as I made funny faces and walked around the room coaching them.

I am so proud of my students. They have come so far with their speaking skills in such a short amount of time. I really do believe that the Westgate program provides a good short term English program. 40 minutes everyday is great as the girls get to speak English throughout the week which is key for developing fluency in any language. The chosen class goals are great and serve as a review for the students. They have all had English in high school and middle school for 6 years before entering university,but most of them have not had the opportunity to actually use it within a speaking context. On the first day of class, all of my students were shy, awkward  and nervous to say the least. They could barely utter a word of English and many of them freaked out when I simply asked them "how are you?" Now, they can give a 3-4 minute presentation entirely in English and have the ability to talk in English for up to 10-20 minutes straight without there being a giant lull in the conversation. They are asking each other questions, asking me questions,explaining answers, and teaching each other useful vocabulary and grammar.

If you have any questions or comments about "Gone Seoul Searching in Japan: Show and Tell Presentations with my ESL students" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Gone Seoul Searching in Japan: Teaching for Westgate Corporation at the University Program

Orientation day for the Westgate University Program takes place in central Tokyo with all employees present.

Robyn and I on our first day of orientation.

   My experience working for the Westgate University Program was to put it bluntly and keep it short, nothing short of amazing. Westgate is a private corporation in Japan that contracts to Universities and schools and provides Native English Speaking ESL teachers to work at those schools. If you have been teaching in South American Countries or Europe, you will be shocked to learn that Westgate employees earn    quadruple what you are used to making within a very high standard of living. You can save upwards of $1500 per month while traveling and seeing some great places. (Yes I know Japan is expensive, but its not as bad as everyone says it is if you are eating in the school cafeteria every day for lunch which is delicious and buying Japanese groceries for breakfast and dinner, if you eat out every meal like a dummy then yes, you will blow your paychecks).There are two terms, Spring and Fall and each term is a short term 3-4 month contract. The company will sponsor your work visa, reimburse you for a $1200 plane ticket, provide you with housing (deducted from you monthly paycheck), a rail pass to get to and from work everyday, and give you a work cell phone to be used for Westgate purposes only.
    During my Spring term I arrived the end of April and finished mid July. Such a short term contract is great for those that are not looking to commit to living in Japan long term, or can use this as a summer job between  semesters at home. If you haven't seen the tour of my apartment in Japan, click the link for a live tour.

There are so many great things I could say about Westgate. Here are some of them:

Some of my students with their daily planners.

1. The company is extremely organized. You will receive all of the contracts by express air mail. The visa process is a piece of cake. And you will receive detailed directions about your arrival, a detailed online training, a detailed plane ticket process, etc. EVERYTHING IS VERY DETAILED. You are moving to Japan. They are the home of organization, so get used to it.

2. The pay is great. All of the details are of course right on their website. Beware that your first 2 weeks of teaching and training are prorated as you have a few days to adjust to the country. Though your contract says $275,000 yen per month, you will not get that until after your first full month of teaching. The first 2 weeks are prorated for training and actual days spent teaching.

3. They provide you with a small welcome package. A pot, fork, spoon, etc is all in the box. Its a nice treat to get for moving into a new apartment and living there short term. The company really does make you feel like you are important and likes you to at least have basic living necessities upon arrival.

4. Your Japanese students will be among your favorite in your life time. They are the most hardworking students I have ever known, yes even more than my Korean students. They are always upbeat, positive, outgoing, and smiling. The first class expect them to be very shy and quiet, but they will open up quickly if you bring it out in them and show them who you really are. Since there is no homework in the program, nor grades, the classes are easy going and fun. There is little stress except for the end of the semester presentations that each student is required to give. If you would like to see what the students are like take a look at some of the videos from my students final show and tell presentations to gauge an idea of their level and personalities. I taught the basic-high level, or B class at my university.

5. You will most likely have a high tech toilet and fill up that tiny bathtub! Its amazing!

Delicious lunches everyday in the cafeteria!

There are some things that weary ESL professionals should be aware of before committing: 


1. You can find a cheaper apartment, a much cheaper apartment, than the ones Westgate recommends that you live in. Rumors are that the Leo Palace chains that all Westgate employees live in are owned by the company or that Westgate gets a kickback for housing so many employees. Yes, they are making money off of you through the housing 81,000 JPY a month is quite a bit to pay, but your apartment will be nice and you can rest assured it will be in a good neighborhood. But, it is super easy to go along with it because everything is arranged. You will also be living with other Westgate employees in the same building. In my building there were 9 of us which was nice because I never felt lonely and made great friends with many of them. While other Westgate employees told me there were only 1 or 2 other employees in their apartment complex.

2. You may feel that your PC or the company in general doesn't trust you. He or she will come once or more times per week and just hang around for hours to see how you are doing. This doesn't seem so bad, but my PC actually just sat in the lobby outside our classrooms and was either just hanging out or peeking in to see what we were doing. She was usually doing this for about 3-4 hours at a time. This made the other two teachers and myself feel like we were being watched for no reason. However, cultural norms in Japan are different. The point of the PC is to check up on you and to keep everyone connected as work partners are seen as a community rather than as individuals. Get used to your PC just hanging around, and don't let it bother you too much. They are mostly just there to be friendly. You will only actually be observed one time to make sure you are doing ok with the programs teaching methods and daily lesson plans.

3. If you are used to using technology in your classroom say goodbye. There are no computers, projectors, and in some cases no computers in your classrooms. The computers are very old and are only to be used for recording attendance. This was very difficult for me as I learned about a ton of ways to integrate technology into my classes, but the Westgate program does not utilize any technology as part of their lessons. If you bring in your own laptop you may be able to show video clips or pictures, but you will most likely not have wireless internet to connect too. Don't ask the staff about this, it will cause problems. If you don't have it, don't bother. Westgate is strict about their agreements with the Universities and they don't even want their employees bringing in zip drives or flash drives to print out materials.

4. You have a very, extremely, tiny, sized copy budget and in most cases no access to a printer hooked up to a computer. Yes, that means you must use mostly all of the Westgate materials provided to you. If you want to use your own materials, you must print them out from a manga cafe somewhere which means you need to pay by time to use the computer and to print things. Printing in Japan is a weird thing. They don't like it and don't do it. At least that's how it was at my University. They want to be very green and support the environment, I get that, but its a little inconvenient sometimes as a teacher. The program encourages your students to copy down the white board into their own notebooks so that they have notes from each class. This can be a huge waste of time, so I just allowed my students to take pictures with their smart phones. They seemed to like that strategy better than copying down things. I also used clear plastic folders and pens so that the students could write on activities and then erase them when they were finished and I could use them for the next class. That way, I would only have to make 6 copies of the handout for the entire day. The copy budget was $20 for the entire 3 months and it was 10 Cents a copy. You must use your own money for copies and then get reimbursed at the end of the program.

5. You will be assigned a book to use for your class and will have a daily lesson planner with each days lesson to teach. There are so many ways that you can adapt the lessons that you will have total creativity in your lessons. All of the classes are 50 minutes in length and most teachers will teach the same class all day. Yes, that means you might teach the same lessons 6 times in a day. You will also have English Challenge lessons in which you may do whatever you want with the students at that time. You have free reign in those lessons to focus on anything you or the students think they need to work on. Those classes are optional, so if students don't show up, you have an extra break.

6. You will most likely be commuting 1 hour on the train to work every day. Follow some of my tips about the daily commute on my article about surviving the daily commute in Japan. They will help you greatly. Also be ready to feel exhausted 5 days a week. The schedule is long and often times employees leave at 7am and return home by 8 or 9 completely wiped out. By the end of the program most teachers are talking about how tired they are to each other and how much work the program really is. So don't expect a walk in the park if this is your first time working at Westgate!

My daily schedule at Westgate. 

I hope you enjoyed my review of Westgate. If you have any questions don't hesitate to leave a comment below!

If you have any questions or comments about "Gone Seoul Searching in Japan: Teaching for Westgate Corporation at the University Program" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Vote for me as a Columbia Ski Bum!

   

Well, it's that time of the year where finals, presentations, and my Master's thesis is taking over my life. So I took a break to enter myself into a fun competition. There are literally only 2 days left in the voting rounds, so you can vote 3 times all at once or throughout the day for my video! The link is below to vote for me! Marie W is the name above the movie. If I win, I will go to Colorado for 90 days for free to become a ski bum, or if I am a finalist I will receive $200 to Columbia Sports Wear! I deserve a break after this crazy semester of work and school, so send me on the graduation trip of a lifetime! : )

To Vote click this link!!! You need to be logged in Facebook

You can view the video below  : )   But make sure you vote!!

Read more »

Crossing the border from Aranyapathet to Poipet: a sketchy bus journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap

Crossing the border from Thailand into Cambodia can seem like a harrowing experience for first timers.

If you read nothing else, here are the top 5 things to remember when taking a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap over the border of Aranyapathet to Poipet. 

1. Don't freak out. You're relatively safe. 
2. Give yourself one full day to travel over the border.
3. Expect long waits and many delays. (AKA you are being held hostage at restaurants, gas stations, and fake immigration offices and embassies)
4. Every stop is planned by the Thai bus company so they make more money.
5. Enjoy the ride, because you know everything that will happen in advance if you read this article and did your homework. Make some friends too!

Our packed mini bus.

      Lets face it, walking across the boarder in any 2nd or 3rd world country can seem a little sketchy but if you do it enough times it will seem like any other day. I grew up crossing the border between San Diego and Mexico several times a year over many different locations. As a young girl going on volunteer trips to Tijuana  the crossing didn't particularly phase me as we drove over in a car with a big group that knew the drill well. As a teenager, we were so hammered we had liquid courage of fear that had us literally dancing over the border past U.S. customs. And as an adult, I don't mind walking over and hopping in a cab to save a few hundred dollars on a plane ticket out of the Tijuana Airport.
      Now, as a person that has walked over the border several different times and some of them on my own, I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about my journey from Bangkok, Thailand into Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can get to Siem Reap from Bangkok by bus, plane, or train. A plane ride will cost you upwards of $400-$500 one way; a pricey ticket for most of us backpackers. So we end up  taking the train, or going the Khao San Road  mini bus scam route because of its low cost. A measly $10 or 350 Thai Baht at the nearest travel stand seems like a good idea for a one way ticket when your wallet is looking empty. Others head over to Mo Chit bus station to pay a little more money for a government run bus that leaves every morning. The government bus is just as sketchy as the mini bus scams as you will still have to hire your own tuk tuk from Aranyapathet to the border crossing. Although I have heard the government bus will not harrass foreigners too much about their visas trying to make a quick buck. See Jason Stearns article about taking the government bus. But I'm going to share with you my journey of taking the scam artist mini bus straight from Khoa San Road to Siem Reap.

The process

The Thai countryside on the journey to the Cambodian border.

1. Head to any travel company located in or around Khoa San Road for the cheapest mini bus ticket. Don't give into their crappy hotel deal and stay strong about a hotel or hostel that you have already pre-booked. They will take you to their hotel anyway off of one of the main streets in Siem Reap, and from there you can get a short tuk tuk ride to your destination.

Our bumpy journey to the Poipet border.

2. Hop on the mini bus and get ready for the journey! Its going to take you ALL DAY. No matter what the tour company has told you, you will be leaving around 7:30am and arriving by 5-6pm at night or even later. I arrived at around 8pm. The bus driver will most likely be a terrible driver as he drives on the opposite side of the road to pass people just in the nick of time before you get hit by a semi truck. But he's done this every day for the past week, so don't worry too much! : ) Expect a bumpy ride on the bus and a full passenger load. I tried to sleep most of the ride to save up energy, and alot of people read books or talked about places to see in Siem Reap. 

3. You are going to stop at a gas station before the border. If you want anything to eat or drink there is a giant convenient store comparable to 7 eleven on both legs of the trip. 

The fake Cambodia Consulate General on the Thailand side.

4. At Aranyapathet they will take you to a small restaurant. Here is where they will start hounding you about your tourist visa. DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR PASSPORT OR ANY MONEY. THIS IS A SCAM SO THAT THE THAI BUS DRIVERS MAKE AN EXTRA $20 OFF EACH PASSENGER THEY BRING TO THE BORDER. Also, would you ever give your passport to a stranger anyway? I wouldn't. So as they make up every single lie in the world about how long its going to take for you to get your visa if you do it on your own, or how the border ran out of visas, or how you had to get it before you came to the border, just say no thank you I already have it and do not give them your passport or even take it out of your bag. If you really don't want to face the attacks, hand it over and pay the money like the other 80% of the passengers on your bus that didn't do their homework, but you really don't have too. 

Strange posters inside the immigration buildings.

5. If you don't hand over your passport they are going to load you into another mini bus and tell you that they are taking you to the visa office at the embassy. They will take you to a fake building with a fake sign at the gate and ask you to come inside to pay. We didn't get out of the bus because we already knew the scam, so I don't have any pictures of the fake officers with their fake outfits on : )

Just hang out in the bus for a while and watch as the bus drivers smoke their cigarettes and hang out too. They are just dragging out the time as long as they possibly can to piss you off and make you pay the fee. But regardless of how long it takes, you will still get to the border at the same time as your other bus group members. They are just sitting in the restaurant waiting to get to the border as well, pretty much being held hostage. 

Inside the Thai immigration office.

6. When you get to the real border you will know. Duh! There is a line people, you walk down a street and eventually reach a line where you can visibly see the Thai border crossing. After you clear Thai customs you will walk over to the Poipet side. The bus drivers will take your official ticket and give you a little blue sticker while telling you that they will meet you on the other side. It took my group about 1 hour to get through the Thai clearance.

7. Once in Poipet, this was the weirdest part. You would normally expect another line of some sort to cross directly over the Cambodia side. However, it is just open land and roads filled with people selling things. There are several hotels and a casino is there for all of the Thai to go gambling. You can literally hang out in-between the Thai and Cambodia borders without actually crossing into Cambodia through their customs office. But yes, you are in Cambodia. Poipet is a dirty little gambling town where alot of Thai people venture to win some money and where Cambodia makes some extra cash. I'd compare Poipet to Sin City without the luxurious part.

8. Your bus drivers will direct those of you that need a tourist visa to the visa office on the right hand side of the road. It seems very sketchy, but it is indeed where you buy your tourist visa. The visa will cost $25. Bringing American currency is easiest because the immigration officers won't scam you for Thai baht. I literally had an immigration officer that refused to put my passport through the window to get my visa until I paid him a 100 Baht charge. This is also a stupid scam. Alot of people give in, but I refuse to give my money to dirty government officials that are making a buck. How much money do they make a day ripping off people at the border? I refused to directly give money over to such a corrupt government and after 3 minutes the pissed off immigration officer threw my passport under the window for my visa. Then after ten minutes he gave my passport back without my $25 change as I had given them a $50. I demanded the change with a strong voice and he hesitantly returned the money. 

The Cambodian customs office.

9. Now you will walk from the visa office to the extremely sketchy and almost non apparent line through Cambodian customs. This took my group another 2 hours as we made our way toward a measly little customs office with 3 windows and plenty of confused Japanese tourists that didn't know they were supposed to stop in the visa office and get their tourist visa.

10. You will now take a giant free government bus from the Poipet border to the bus station. Hop on and relax for a 15-20 minute ride and debrief before the final harassment and waiting period takes place.

Boarding the bus at Poipet bus station.

11. Yay! You made it to the bus station! This is the last leg of the journey. If there is not a large group of mini bus passengers to board the luxury bus, you will be waiting anywhere from 30 minutes up to 2-3 hours until the full VIP bus is loaded for the final leg of the journey into Siem Reap. So, the bus drivers will try and convince you to get a taxi, which at this point I was ok with spending the extra money. But if you feel more comfortable sticking with a group of people, hang out until the luxury bus gets loaded. At least you know that this is a normal situation. They will look for your colored sticker at this point, and if you lost it they will try and charge you a fee because that sticker became your ticket. They take your ticket away so that you can't report the bus company scam online or to the Thai government. A man will board the bus telling you all about the scams and how his company is a good one in Siem Reap. He will make alot of recommendations about staying at his hotel and using his safe and reliable tuk tuk drivers and give a full history on how corrupt the Cambodian and Thai border is. This guy is nice and alot of people are attracted to his spiel, but its just another way for them to make money. 

Our last bus of the journey to Siem Reap.

12. After you board the VIP bus you will have another 2 hours to relax on board. You will also stop at another restaurant for 30 minutes to an hour for a break. All of these stops are pre-arranged by the tour companies. Don't be surprised. Once in Siem Reap, take a tuk tuk or taxi from the bus company's hotel directly to your hotel.

Overall, this experience is one that I will remember for the rest of my life. The Mexican border now seems like a joke to me. I remember being afraid at some times while dealing with the pretty aggressive Thai bus drivers about the visa, but my friend and I as well as 5 other people refused to give into the scam. Lets face it, if the bus companies just charged a little more for the ticket over there then we would all probably pay. Its just the fact that they are ripping you off and treating you so poorly that I refuse to let happen to me. Also, my rule about never handing over my passport to anyone unless I cross over a "real" border and can see the line and officers in windows with a crowd of people. I believe if enough foreigners begin standing up to them, then the corrupt companies will eventually give up with the visa scam. Or, they will just realize they can charge more for a ticket by providing a reliable and enjoyable service with no hassling involved. Good luck on your trip and enjoy lovely Cambodia! The people are extremely nice at all of the hotels and restaurants. Make sure to stop buy the restaurants and massage studios that give their money to a good cause. There are several blind massage schools as well as a delicious restaurant called Butterflies Garden Restaurant that provides advanced restaurant training to disadvantaged youth. 

At Butterflies Garden Restaurant celebrating our first night in Cambodia all for a good cause.

If you have any questions or comments about "Crossing the border from Aranyapathet to Poipet: a sketchy bus journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Gangnam Style Halloween Costumes to take over this 2012 Halloween

Rent or buy a yellow suit for the car scene!

     Every year I do a post about home-made Halloween costumes as I was inspired by all of the creative costumes during my first Halloween in Seoul. This year nothing seems more fitting than a group Gangnam style Halloween costume. Many men will be dressed up as PSY himself, but a group costume is even more fitting for the crazy Korean song lyrics about old rich men in Gangnam hitting on young girls and one shoting their coffees to rack up the bill and seem cool. There are so many stores that quickly capitalized on the gangnam style offering different versions of the main characters many costume changes. Of the most popular is his blue suit and round sun glasses.

    For my group Halloween costume 4 people are needed including 2 girls and 2 guys. One man will be the yellow suit guy while the other is Gangnam himself. And the two girls will of course be the two sexy Korean girls.

    Korean girls: short sequined silver shorts, a long white backless top, white sandals, aviators, and silver cuffs or bracelets.

   Yellow suit guy: yellow suit, black wig, a toy red car.

See through blouse and silver sequined shorts.

   Gangnam: a bowtie, any kind of suit jacket and pants, dark round sunglasses, swag.

To make this group costume even better, carry around a portable music player so that you can bust our your gangnam style dance wherever you may be partying this Halloween. To learn the dance, there are several good tutorials on Youtube. Check out the latest article in the L.A. times about "Cashing in Gangnam Style: Halloween costumes, fashion...fries? Since this is a pre-halloween post, check back after the 31st to see our full group costume!

If you have any questions or comments about "Gangnam Style Halloween Costumes" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Teacher rapper: my research on music in ESL

 

A group of students during my research study inspired me to rap. If they can learn English by rapping I can rap too!

     Over 10 months ago the idea of music in ESL began stirring up a whirlwind of ideas, questions, and confusion in my head. As my graduate thesis proposal approached last spring, I finally settled on the idea of researching student and teacher perceptions on the use of music to enhance second language acquisition in adult ESL classrooms. My research question is directly related to my omoi and I have been a musician all of my life. My major was in ethomusicology, specifically piano performance and world music cultures. I played in a gamelan for 2 years during undergrad, and traveled to Ubud in central Bali to experience Balinese gamelan at the heart. As an educator, I have always wondered about the power of music in ESL, and what music's place is in the field of education and more specifically ESL. Never having the flexibility in my previous work places to use music freely in my lessons made me wonder how other teachers are currently using music in ESL. I want to learn from them and see how they are using music, why, the effects, and what the students think. 

     The exact whereabouts about the first implementations of music within academic subjects is unknown. However, integration of music with academic subjects is by no means a new notion in the field of education (Sporborg 1998). Teachers have been using music to teach academic subjects in science, mathematics, geography, history, and language arts throughout the 19^th century. Of the most famous examples and one that remains famous today, is introducing the alphabet to young children by singing the letters to the tune “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (Sporborg 1998).

    There is an abundance of theory and research that supports the use of music in educational contexts. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence's shows how musical intelligence could explain the ease that some learners have in perceiving and producing the intonation patterns of a language (Brown, 2007).  A current empirical study shows the effectiveness of using music to teach math concepts in San Bruno, California. (Esch, 2012) Music has been shown to improve communicative skills among middle school ESL students (Kennedy & Scott 2005). 

 However the overall phenomenon of music in ESL has not been deeply studied. The teacher perceptions have not been recorded in detail and most research focuses on the students. 

      As I’m in the final stages of collecting my data, I was inspired by a group of students that I was researching. While observing one particular class that was using music as a means of discussion and a writing activity, a group of students openly talked about their enjoyment of listening to music to improve their English skills. Several students began rapping to their partners and their groups egged them on as they busted out the lyrics. The student really sounded American while he was rapping, and I’m sure that he influenced his fellow students to start singing in English to improve their pronunciation, vocabulary skills, and overall fluency. I’m sure this particular student didn't know, but he inspired me, and as I drove home that day I turned on my I pod to some of the only rap that I had and started learning the lyrics. So my “teacher rapper” video is dedicated to all of the students out there learning English through music.

If you have any questions or comments about "Teacher rapper: my research on music in ESL" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Seoul Food Girl in Japan: How to make Takoyaki in true Osaka fashion

Forget spending a fortune in America or taking a trip to Japan, making your own takoyaki is easier than you think.

 This post can also be read at www.seoulfoodgirl.com
 How to make Takoyaki live video:

A takoyaki grill is needed.

      Bubbly balls of goodness shimmering with moving flakes and green sparkles is the best way to describe the famous Japanese dish takoyaki (たこ焼き). During my first trip ever to Japan, my friend and I stopped by the famous takoyaki restaurant in Dotonbori in Osaka. Osaka is the best place in Japan to try takoyaki as the delicious octopus fried balls originated in the coastal city in 1935. To be honest, I was very skeptical about trying takoyaki for the first time because of the crazy hype fellow travelers and friends expressed as they lost their minds telling me about it. Speaking from past experience trying popular food items in tourist locations usually turns out to be a let down and more of a tourist trap or experience rather than being popular for the actual taste and quality of the food. But all of my premonitions were wrong about takoyaki as I bit into a flaky and crunchy yet gooey ball of absolute joy and decided it was by far on the top 5 list of things I had eaten in Japan. Returning back to Tokyo to work 10 months after my short trip to Osaka, I found myself with a Japanese family making my own takoyaki for the first time. 

My great takoyaki teachers.

Takoyaki Ingredients:

-Batter
-Octopus
-Tempura
-Fish flakes
-Pickled ginger
-Green onion
-Seaweed flakes (kim)

Simply add all of the ingredients to the inside of the balls and turn them with a toothpick. Then season as shown in the video.

If you have any questions or comments about "Seoul Food Girl in Japan:How to make Takoyaki in true Osaka fashion" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Seoul Food Girl: Mappo BBQ is the Korean BBQ restaurant in San Diego that never sleeps

Mappo BQQ in San Diego stays true to Korean night life every day of the week.

   This article can also be read at www.seoulfoodgirl.com

The traditional round tables are just like in Korea piled with goodies.

    Six bottles of soju later, a free bill, and Korean Karaoke marked a wonderfully Korean night out on Convoy St. in San Diego. The small round tables at stools at Mapo BBQ Korean Cuisine keep the traditional Korean BBQ alive as many local California Korean BBQ's take a modern take Korean dining with Western style tables and chairs. Mapo offers both a traditional Korean experience with charcoal grills outside and a modern American experience with electric grills inside. Whatever you are looking for, the Korean cuisine will be delightful.
    After 2 kimchi jjigaes, bi bim bap, samgyupsal, gal bi sal, thin sliced beef brisket, shrimp, 2 steamed eggs, several bottles of soju and hite, my table was stuffed. We went a little overboard having a great Korean BBQ experience with my friends and their Korean students studying in California. One of our group members was also vegetarian so we ordered her the shrimp and vegetable bi bim bap. We ordered the set menu A which lets you choose 4 kinds of meat, 1 steamed egg, and 1 kimichi or tofu jjigae. We also ordered extras such as the shrimp and more jjigaes and rice to satisfy our appetite.

The grills outside in the traditional Korean section have charcoal.

     After a good two and a half hours of eating and playing Korean drinking games one of the Korean students got up to use the restroom. After a long departure, another one of our group members went to check on him only to discover that he had been sucked over to his Uncle's business meeting (drinking meeting in Korea) at another table. Our large bill over $200 was comped by the boys Uncle who explained that it was tradition for the oldest family member to pay the bill! The uncle had also encountered my blonde friend near the restroom which could have been another contributing factor to the free meal. Even funnier, we never saw our friend again as he was initiated into the business table and was stuck there until everyone had finished!

After Mapo head over to a local Korean karaoke room for some fun.

 
Price- Certain things on the menu seem outrageously priced for those of us that have lived in Korea. To see bi bim bap priced at $8-12 seems ridiculous when you can get a giant sizzling bowl with free side dishes in Korea for just $3. However, if you are going for BBQ the all you can eat is the best route to go. For $20 you get everything included. The set menus are also

Service- The service takes much longer than in traditional Korean restaurants. They serve you your side dishes first and the meat comes out much later. The trick is to not get so hungry that you eat all of your side dishes before grilling your meat as you should mix and match them along with the meat for extra flavor.

Atmosphere- At about 10 pm on a Thursday night Mapo will start to get really crowded. Interestingly enough my group was there at about 8:30 and the traditional BBQ tables were empty in the inner room. But the later it got, the entire room and outside portion with the charcoal grills were completely full. Mapo BBQ is like Korea at its best as it lives up to the night life in Seoul and every other Korean city. If you go to any big city in Korea the BBQ restaurants are at their full capacity at around 10 pm to midnight and even into the earlier hours of the morning. I'd say that Mapo is one of the most authentic Korean restaurants in San Diego.

Food- Once again, for those of you that have lived in Korea the quality of American beef versus Korean beef is non comparable. You can taste the difference in quality and the flavors are quite different. However, Mapo BBQ does a great job keeping all of its side dishes including its kimchi extremely traditional. The dipping sauces for the meat are perfectly made and if you are lucky enough to get a charcoal grill outside your meat will taste even more Korean. Cut those long pieces of kimchi up and throw them on the grill along with the garlic and mushrooms for added flavor.

Reviews- Most of the reviews agree that Mapo Korean BBQ can be quite expensive but well worth it for the quality of food and atmosphere. In relation to the well known Korean chain, Manna Korean BBQ, Mapo stays true to its Korean heritage without becoming too Americanized or mainstreamed.

Check out Mapo BBQ Korean Cusine's Facebook Page. 

If you have any questions or comments about "Seoul Food Girl: Mappo BBQ is the Korean BBQ restaurant in San Diego that never sleeps" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

What does it mean to be well educated?: A response to Alfie Kohn

Alfie Kohn came to USD last January to talk about what it means to be truly well educated.

      

     What does it mean to be well educated? My first experience with Alfie Kohn's simple yet complex question was last spring when he came as a guest speaker to the University of San Diego. At that time, my research fellowship required me to organize and plan for the Department of Learning and Teachings special events. My faculty advisor gushed about Kohn and made it clear to me that he was one of the biggest and most important names in the field of education today. After plenty of research and extensive readings, I found myself fascinated with his work and agree that he is one of the most knowledgeable and approachable writer and speaker in the field. Taking a look at his article titled "What does it mean to be well educated" (2003) answers many questions about education in a clear and precise manner.

1. Kohn's wife- After 29 years of schooling not including medical residency, Kohn's wife still cannot do basic arithmetic or use good grammar. Yet, what she is lacking is not preventing her from her professional success. Kohn's wife is a great example of the question of whether or not our schooling is flawed. If someone can go through such extensive schooling and still have trouble with the basics does that mean we have failed as educators? I believe the answer to this question is no and Kohn follows up by providing many great examples.

2. smart or book smart?- Kohn states that he has realized how many truly brilliant people cannot spell or punctuate. Does this diminish their value as a professional? Absolutely not. I agree with Kohn when he says that their insights and discoveries change the shape of their fields. Who cares if they can't use an apostrophe correctly to save their lives? As a journalist and writer myself, I admit that I am not the best at grammar. Every great writer still has an editor that focuses in on the minute mistakes that harm our writing but not our ideas. As an ESL teacher, I am still reluctant to say that I know all of the rules of grammar even though I teach many grammar points on a daily basis. Yes, I know more than most of my peers about grammar terminology, but that is just because of using it on a daily basis not because I'm smart. Of course knowing the foundations of any subject will help you to succeed, however if you still have the will to learn and challenge yourself every day towards learning something new you are on the pathway towards being well educated. We can pick up a dictionary and check our spelling and use a calculator to correct our math. Does that mean that we are dumb or just using our minds to focus on more meaningful things than the basics?

3. What is well educated?- How many times have you encountered someone that you think is smart because they know alot of names, ideas, and facts about a particular topic? In my personal history in life this person was an ex boyfriend. We would often talk together about his ability to recall a ton of random information and today I still wish I could recall names and cool facts like he can. Yet, he stated to me that I was smarter because I could talk in depth about the few topics I knew and could write about them better than he could. So who is smarter? One of my favorite quotes from Kohn's article on this topic states that familiarity with a list of words, names, books, and ideas is a uniquely poor way to judge who is well-educated. He says "to be well educated then is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends." We have to have the desire to keep learning in any context and to have the means or ability to do so. Thus in my opinion someone that is not well educated doesn't care or take the time to learn themselves or they do not know about or have access to resources that would make learning possible. With the internet I find it hard to believe that people in my generation don't know how to take control of their own learning and I believe they are easily distracted by the plethora of information available to them.

This article has brought me back to my latest post about whether or not getting a Master's of in Education in TESOL is worth the effort in our failing economy. To work at in the university setting I am required to have a Master's degree, however I strongly feel that the reason I have developed good skills as a teacher is because of my past work experience and observations of teachers in the field. My jobs in Korea and Japan are what have allowed me to make the connections and skills I have today. My future diploma has contributed to much of my background knowledge in the field and will allow me to begin applying to higher end jobs. But just because I have a Master's degree does not make me well educated. The program and many life experiences have inspired and equipped me to continue learning which is what makes me "well educated."

If you have any questions or comments about "What does it mean to be well educated?:A response to Alfie Kohn  " please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

Getting a Master's of Education in TESOL: is it really worth it?

My first job as an ESL teacher in Korea has helped me to secure more job employment than my Master's degree.

 

       Earning a master's degree program in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) can open many doors to your future as an educator, but does all the hard work and student loan debt really pan out in our failing economy? This is the question that has been ringing in my mind as my last semester of graduate school begins. With such a tough job market that has proven tough for many graduates, the line between reality and our dreams can become easily blurred. Many students are now entering into master's programs simply because they couldn't find their desired job right out of undergrad. They are sucking their parents dry and taking on enormous student loan debts only to graduate and still be jobless because they have no valuable work experience.
       There are always jobs out there for ESL teachers at many local language academies anywhere in the U.S. They usually pay between $18-$25 per hour and will offer 25-35 hours per week.  Craigslist had a total of 4 job postings last week alone for ESL teachers at language academies in Downtown San Diego. These jobs will pay some of your bills and allow you to survive, but most of them offer no health insurance or benefits. In addition, most ESL teachers starting out in California are working at 2-3 different language academies because of the limited or varying hours. Working a split shift from 9 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 9 pm is not unexpected for any local language school.
     ESL teachers with a master's degree have gone through intensive training as educators and will be able to apply for jobs at local universities and community colleges. However, they need plenty of experience first and so many young educators have to start out at language academies and then work their way up. Getting a salaried job at a local university right after receiving your master's is not going to happen. Most teachers work a minimum of 1-8 years as part time adjuncts at several community colleges and language academies before they ever get offered a full time faculty position with benefits. This makes my road towards becoming a full time ESL professional in California extremely difficult.
     My advice to anyone that wants to work full time as an ESL teacher in the university setting is to start teaching immediately at any school that will offer you a job. No matter how low the pay is, your experience as a teacher is invaluable. A master's degree in our society means nothing anymore. Many universities such as Miramar Community College will offer part time Instructional Assistant (I.A.) positions that will allow you to work as a teachers aid for 5-12 hours a week. Working alongside a full time faculty member allows you to get to know the university and the university to get to know you. This is my second semester as an I.A. at Miramar. Faculty member and Department Chair, Sheryl Gobble stated "the position is like a semester long job interview." This allows new teachers the opportunity to get their foot in the door for a part time adjunct position.
      The problem with my generation is that they all believe they will get  amazing salaried positions right out of college which is when they need to get their heads out of the sky and face the real world which is our lagging economy. Even worse, its easier to move abroad to Japan where an ESL teacher that holds a Master's degree can make $50,000 with six weeks paid vacation and a housing allowance making those that wish to stay in California feel torn and invaluable. The best thing you can do to achieve any dream job in this market is to work; and by working that means even at Mc Donald's or your neighborhood grocery store. There is an old fashion saying "it takes money to make money" and I believe it should read "it takes a job to get a job."
       So yes, in the long run getting a master's in TESOL is worth all of the hard work and high tuition costs if you are committed towards working and establishing yourself as a teacher over several years before getting a salaried position here in California. After gaining more experience in language academies and international contexts dream jobs at UCSD and local community colleges will be someday be attainable.

If you have any questions or comments about "Getting a Master's of Education in TESOL: is it really worth it?" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 

    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »