Round Round Get Around

The summer is here! Light teaching schedule (aside from eight crazy days, but that's not now, so I'm not going to think about it), warm weather, events left, right and centre, and something like a puny seven weeks left of my life in Korea. I actually had my medical for my Chinese working visa yesterday and I wasn't nearly as much of a baby about giving blood (or having blood taken!) as I usually am. Perhaps I might even be considered a 'man' by my 29th birthday, although I wouldn't count on it. Anyway, the Chinese authorities are pretty nuts with the old health requirements. I had to be tested for AIDS, syphilis and something else I hadn't even heard of. Fair enough, I guess. However, there's also a questionnaire where I have to own up if I've had such extreme disorders as 'mental confusion' (who hasn't?), 'plague' or 'leprosy'. The doctor then has to sign off that I haven't shown any signs of 'yellow fever', 'cholera' or 'polio'. Ah no lads, you're safe enough on those fronts. I think I need to tell them that I'm going there to teach, not live out the final few weeks of my rapidly diminishing life! Results back on Friday. Fingers crossed I'm all clear and that I can get on with the rest of the laborious visa process.

I'm trying to make the most of my remaining time on the ROK. I wouldn't bet much money on getting another gig on the go. Jeff is out of the country for the rest of the month and that would only give us a few weeks to train up a new drummer and get the show back on the road, only for me to up sticks in early-August anyhow. More likely is that I'll front a couple of shows as a Muse cover with Cheon's Korean band. I'd love the buzz of a show at FF one more time, but with so many other things to fit in before I hit the road, I'm not going to push it or lose much sleep over the issue either way.

This weekend I'm going to go over to Gangneung to enjoy the weather (not TOO hot... yet...), get a bit of beach time in, and (you've guessed it), watch Gangwon FC entertain the not-so-mighty-these-days FC Seoul. We earned a valuable point at home last weekend against high-flying Pohang Steelers, but appear to have lost the head of steam that came with the arrival of caretaker boss, Choi Young Soo. It was a very entertaining match with a HUGE attendance (the sponsors put on some sort of feeble promotion and the families lapped it up), but we have lost the air of invincibility we once had at home. We're still just four-points off the play-off positions, but it's getting pretty congested in there and we need to get a bit of a run together soon. Thank the good-but-non-existent lord for Dejan and Adi, who really do look out of place at times, such is the performance gap between them on their good days, and some of their team-mates on their bad days.

Some have used the word 'obsessive' to describe my relationship with the 'Soul of Seoul - FC Seoul' of late, and I guess I'm not helping my cause by planning to travel the 330km to Busan tomorrow to watch a last-16 FA Cup encounter with Busan Kyotang of the Korean National League. The way I see it is that I only have kids' classes this week (Tuesday and Thursday), that the weather is lovely, that it's something completely different, and that Adi promised to give me his shirt!! I'm going to go down by KTX early in the morning, check out the fish markets, bring a book to the beach for a few hours, take in the match, celebrate a thumping victory (tempting fate there...), love motel it up like the classy gent I am, and catch an early train back for my Thursday kids' class. Hopefully it all goes smoothly and I'll have a nice blog to write up about it all on Friday.

Random snippet from the match last Saturday: my ex-girlfriend's best friend was there totally unexpectedly doing interviews for Reuters about the recent match-fixing scandal in Korean football. Obviously it was nice giving an interview, but it was a really weird feeling too. Personally, you never know what the friends of your ex now think of you, right? Way more importantly, it's an issue that at least one player has chosen to take his own life over, and who knows how big or far-reaching it'll turn out to be? As I said in the interview, it's sad that people around the world may now only associate the K-League with cheating, as opposed to the standard of football and the quality of players that it has exported. For example, Jung Jo Gook and Park Ju Young were both at Sangam last weekend, paying tribute to their former employers and admirers during the Ligue 1 closed-season. As a fan of Korea and Korean football, I hope the authorities deal with the issue thoroughly and professionally and put measures in place to prevent a repeat.

I hope you're getting on well, whoever you are, wherever you are, and in whatever it is that you're doing.

None The Wiser

Hey all, hope the weekend treated you well and that the week hasn't started too badly. As Egypt continues to erupt, I'm still mulling over the possibility of moving to Cairo as a Primary school ESL teacher in August. One minute I'm sure I'm not, the next I'm sue I am. Some people have come straight out and said I'd be mad to (thanks for your forthright honesty as always Mary) and others have said I should go for it (although I can't quite remember who right now, and could well just have convinced myself someone did...). I'm keeping a close eye on the news, but the stumbling blocks in my mind lay elsewhere. I think I need to STOP thinking about it for a few days. I'm sure all our thoughts are with the people of Egypt in their struggle to overthrow Mubarak, or at least affect change in their country. It was interesting hearing Tony Blair talking of, "change, not chaos" in the country. He was fairly honest in admitting that 'the West' overlooked Mubarak's 'excesses' in return for his support of the Middle-Eastern peace process. Interesting how statesmen can do that once they have left national politics and moved to non-elected roles. Bill Clinton springs to mind in the same vein.

Moving seamlessly from international politics to... my weekend. I had my first show with 'Posh' (Cheon's band name....) on Saturday night at Club Spot in Hongdae. It went really well, to be honest. A few people took videos so I'll try to recover them and put them up on facebook. It was strange playing in a club to an almost 100% Korean audience. Mel came along and there were two random foreign rock-chicks up the front, but that was it. A Korean crowd really WATCH bands here - it was eerily quiet between songs but they were all going nuts as soon as the music started. There wasn't much I could do to break the silence with my crappy Korean so it was left to Mel to cheer us all up with her cricket impressions. Anyway, Cheon asked me to join them on a more permanent basis, if I could. So, as long as it doesn't clash with 'Dead End Friends', I'll be singing with them as they try to put together an album of original tracks (Cheon sang a couple on the night) and play gigs around Hongdae and Gangnam. I think it'll be an interesting experience, so I'm up for it.

No work today so I tried to get a good bit of dissertation work done and applied to another batch of international schools. Word back already from a school in Kazakhstan (I only do glamorous) and I even applied for a Citizenship job back in the UK, such is my complete and utter indecision and lack of focus. Ji and I are heading off to Shanghai for Lunar New Year on Wednesday morning so I'm going to come back 100% set on one particular course and just go all out for that! Perhaps...

EAL warmers, games, and activities (part two).

A lot of the ideas I wrote in the last post on this topic were class activities, rather than warmers, which was the request that originally encouraged me to write in the first place. So, the following activities are intended to act as warmers to get the students thinking, perhaps at the beginning of class, or in the morning, etc. A lot of them DON'T have clear educational outcomes but I have found that they can get people thinking and work particularly well with children and teenagers.

Zip Zap Boing
Ok, this isn't going to be easy to explain... Firstly you need to get your students into a small circle in the middle of the room. I don't recommend more than 12/14 students in one circle so you may have to divide the class if it's bigger than that. You need to let them know what a 'zip' is, what a 'zap' is and what a 'boing' is. Put your hand into the shape of a gun and point to the person to your RIGHT and clearly say, 'zip!' The student should do the same to the person to their right and so on until the 'zip' goes around the circle and comes back to you. Then you need to explain a 'zap'. Clearly point your 'gun' at a student ACROSS the circle and say, 'zap!' That student must then 'zip' the student to their right and so the game continues. You need to make it clear that you cannot 'zap' a 'zap' - only 'zip' to your right. Finally, you need to explain a 'boing'. Send a 'zip' around the circle and when it comes back to you, face the person who 'zipped' you and shout 'boing' while doing a star-jump. That student should then send the 'zip' in the opposite direction. You need to make it clear that you cannot 'boing' a 'boing'. You can either 'zip' it or 'zap' it. Have a couple of practice rounds to get the students used to the rules but the best way to learn it is simply by doing it. Students are 'out' if they make a mistake or hesitate. The aim of the game is to have it as fast as possible and ensure that the students' movements are big. The best way to do this is to lead by example. The last two remaining students are the winners.

Splat Bang
This warmer is similar to Zip, Zap, Boing in that the aim is to get the students going both mentally and physically. At first, you should be 'it' but after the students understand the activity, one of them can do it and you can simply adjudicate. Again, arrange the students into a circle in the middle of the room. Whoever is 'it' should stand in the middle of the room, and put their hand into the shape of a gun. That person will choose a pupil at random, point the gun, and shout "splat!". The student who is pointed at should duck (to avoid the 'splat') whilst the two students either side point their guns and shout 'bang!' at each other. The student who was slowest to 'shoot' the other student is out. You can also be out if you are 'splatted' but fail to duck, or make another mistake. Again, the two students remaining at the end of the game are the winners. This game tends to get better the more you do it, as students get smarter about how they can catch other students out. If you want to decide a winner between the final two, you can have them stand back to back and give them a count. With each count they should take a step apart (back-to-back) until the moment you choose to shout 'splat!', at which point they try to outdraw each other.

Numbers Game
I can't think of a better name for this one... Very simply, have the students walk around the class at a brisk (but safe) pace, constantly changing direction and avoiding contact with each other. Tell them that when you shout 'one!' they should touch the ground (and then continue walking). Try this out a couple of times until you're sure that they understand the basic premise of the activity. Then introduce other numbers (in order, up to five), and corresponding actions. It can be a good idea to review some things you have been doing in class (verbs, body parts, etc.). Some things I usually say are, 'do a star jump', 'change direction', 'shout a color', 'twirl around', etc. I don't usually turn this into a competition but, if you wanted, you could eliminate pupils who make a mistake. The main aim is that the students keep moving around and that the numbers you call out are suitably random and muddled out to get them focused and concentrating before the start of the lesson proper.

That's it for today but there's plenty more where that came from. Please share any ideas you have or give me feedback on the suggestions I have already made.

It's not that I can't work it, it just doesn't work!

Oh, technology has never been a friend of mine, I'm not going to lie. I'm the kind of person who gets an iPod when they're old news (got my first one in July - and didn't buy it to myself, of course), didn't have a mobile until I was 19 (a fair while after everyone else, a hand-down) and prefers to do things the way I know how to do them, rather than taking the small step of learning how to use something that could probably save me a fair bit of time. We all take the piss out of my Dad for refusing to embrace anything that has it's origins beyond the 90's, but I know I'm going to be the same. In saying that, technology is NOT all it's cracked up to be. Tom Hodgkinson in How to be Free, uses the example of the much-heralded dishwasher. Oh what a godsend! No more horrible washing dishes by hand! Instead, damaged dishes, cleaning the washer, buying detergent, less space in the kitchen, another thing to buy, another thing that can/will break down PLUS the fact that it doesn't clean the really horrible pots and pans anyhow.

His thoughts came back to me earlier, as I battled, unsuccessfully, with the projector in three of the classrooms in the language center here on the second floor (I live on the sixth, classes on the second, faculty office on the first. Confusing, I know...). I had put together a lovely (I hope) lesson based around thanksgiving, with Chuseok next week in mind. I prepared the TV show I'd need (a once-in-a-blue moon event in my classes), picked out the vocabulary to cover, made an activity to do so, wrote up some comprehension questions and an activity to identify the speaker in a selection of quotes. I selected some discussion topics that I could get the students to expand upon if time allowed. Easy! All I had to do was check that I could get the episode I needed from my laptop onto the projector with sound. What could go wrong? I've used it so many times before, it was just a matter of being sure (to be sure). Right? Wrong. An hour and a half I spent plugging in sockets, untangling wires, trying different rooms, different laptops, doing things in a different order before I swallowed my pride and asked for help. Unfortunately, (or, secretly, I was glad as I could deflect the blame onto someone else) she (one of the girls from the office) couldn't work it out either. I'm sure we'll find a way round it before I need it (7.30am tomorrow morning), but my war with technology rages on regardless.

Other than that, it has been a nice, productive day (so far). Eight hours of sleep last night. What a luxury! With enough sleep I'm a slightly moody but manageable person; without sleep I can be a negative, self-immersed, grumpy little shit. Aside from getting my lessons prepped for tomorrow (but not yet for tonight, as is my logic), I made it over to the gym and did a bit of cycling to start building my leg muscles up again, as advised. So far, no pain, although I'm sure that won't be the case in the morning. The gym here is a funny experience. One of the perks of the job is free use of the Uni gym abut 2 minutes around the corner. The strange part is that it consists almost entirely of females. Hmm.

We might even be finally sorting out some rehearsal time with the band for next Monday. It has been so frustrating not being able to get it off the ground, but maybe this, our latest new dawn, will create some momentum. With John coming this weekend, I've been thinking a lot about how much fun the U R Seoul days were. I even searched for us on youtube and found this old video that I didn't even know existed. Having a band to look forward to on the weekends, you just can't beat it. Cross your fingers for me (and Jim, equally eager to get back on the road again). The quality isn't good, and that's not our regular drummer, but it brings the memories back...



There were other things I had intended to write about today but time waits for no man and these lessons aren't going to create themselves. Thank you for your recent comments be they public, private, online, or in person. Keep letting me know what you think, what you like, what you don't like, etc. If you have a few spare moments today I recommend that you check out Matt's blog because he has been dealing with facebook updates, something I often chuckle about myself. I'm not expecting to be too busy tomorrow so I'll tie up those loose ends I mentioned before the weekend. I hope you're all doing well, wherever you are.