Is This It? This Is It!

I've been on the receiving end of some gentle chiding recently on the old 'last gig ever' front. My first 'last ever gig' in Korea was in.... December 2007, or thereabouts. Yep - that's more than three-and-a-half years ago... Then there was our 'last-ever' with John and Kev, 'last-ever' with Jim, 'last-ever' UR Seoul, 'last-ever' Dead End Friends, 'last-ever' random gig, 'last-ever' at this/that venue... you get the picture. Of course, an element of it is trying to twist people's arm to come out. The whole 'pushing' part of being in bands is often pretty annoying (for you and me both!), but most of the time people seem to have fun, so I feel good about it more often than I feel bad. The real crux of the matter, though, is that I honestly never know that this or that gig won't actually end up being my last gig! I didn't really have any intention of returning to live in Korea when I left for South America in 2007 (I had been planning China as my next step, just as I am now). We had no idea how we could cope with the departures of Kev, John and Jim, before we were lucky enough to link up with other musicians who enabled us to keep the whole experience going that little bit longer...

I think the same can be said for any of us, in anything we do. I doubt FC Seoul's Ou Gyoung Jun had much of an idea that he was more than likely playing his last-ever game of professional football, as he started in our 1-0 League Cup defeat away to Gyeongnam on June 29th - although he may have had an inkling... I'm not going to go down morbid alley on a Friday night but we never know when we wake up in the morning whether or not this could be the last day in which we take a walk in our favourite park, listen to or favourite song, hold our favourite person's hand, or sing some of the best songs ever written with awesome musicians and wiggle around in front of an unsuspecting public!

This gig at Club FF tomorrow night will almost certainly be my last in Korea. Yes, of course it's not impossible that I might link up with someone in a future weekend trip to Seoul from Nanjing. Yes, I might end up hating my life in China and be back in a few months with my tail between my legs. Who knows? Still, the way I see it, I'm going to go into anything I love doing, with the thought that it just might be my last chance, and try to squeeze every last ounce of enjoyment out of the experience. If I don't see you at my latest 'last-gig', I'll see you a the next one...

How Does This Happen?

It's coming up on 1am and this day has just flown by. I had a fun class this morning with EunHee and ChaeYoung. The conversations I have with those two go places those with few others dare! This morning it was monogamy, the rule of threes, choosing your life partner, regrets, friendship between men and women... Any language teacher is happy when their students aren't backward about coming forward: that might be why these two are probably my favourite...

From there it was a whole load of report writing for my kids' classes, which was actually a pleasure because it gave me an opportunity to give a lot of credit where it's due. I hadn't taught kids before at Duksung, and I really enjoyed it this time around. Bright, enthusiastic, and refreshingly smart-arsed; I hope I'm as lucky with my next two groups.

Cram some ramen down my throat and it was off to see Bomin and Junu for their first class of my second month teaching them. They are great wee kids but it's hard for me to keep their attention for over an hour and I sometimes have to resort to just clowning around and acting the eejit to keep them on track. They are so young and have insanely busy schedules (Bomin has school, after-school academy, piano, violin, ballet, and English), so I know how important it is for them just to be kids sometimes.

An hour on the phone with Ji (who just bought me an FC Seoul season ticket); dinner in Suyu with Milan Kundera; a natter with Catherine about level tests, life, love, and card shuffling techniques; an application to International School of Myanmar (in keeping with the theme); finding some reading material for my dissertation; and my day is almost done. I wonder what creative ways I'm going to conjure to avoid working on my dissertation tomorrow? That's the spirit!

What If You Wrote...?

The end of a long and tiring week. Congratulations one and all. We're there. Kick back, relax, make it a good one. It's going to be Monday again soon. Too soon.

Another TEN international school job applications sent out tonight. Who knows what they want us to say, how they differentiate between the tonnes I'm certain they receive, how a candidate can put him/herself ahead of the pack in such a limiting and limited application process. You know my approach, I've posted it on here! A lot of the time, I'd love to go along the following lines...

Dear X,

you must read hundreds of these, so I'm going to spare you the agony of repeating what you've already heard dozens of times and avoid the need for you to go reading between the lines. I am eager, nay, DESPERATE to land this job. And let's not beat about the bush, I'm applying for your school AND a bunch of others, because I know there's a fair chance I'll never hear back from any of you at all.

As a teacher, I have my pros and cons. I think my biggest pro is the fact that I know that much. I can tell you that, in your staffroom, I'll be quiet and possibly scornfully cursing some of my co-workers under my breath because I can't handle how they openly don't care about their jobs or the students they teach. This will make me popular with some, and hugely unpopular with others. The truth of the matter is, I don't care about that. The reason being, I can guarantee you that I'll be popular among the students because THEY are the ones who see how much I put in, and how much it matters to me that I'm good at my job.

I feel as though I'm pretty well-qualified, but no doubt, you'll come across applicants who blow me out of the water. In my defence, I'm young(ish), I'm hungry, I'm chomping at the bit to start putting all the things I've been studying through my undergrad, PGCE, and MA, into practice. There are LOTS of things that I'm really, really not good at. I've lived in Korea for over three years, but can barely order myself food in the language. I have sung in bands for more than a decade, but can't play an instrument. I'm on the verge of getting a first class honours MA degree in Citizenship Education, but I can never seem to remember where I last put my pen down. I am, though, a good teacher. And I want to be better.

I will move ANYWHERE in the world to get back to teaching something I'm passionate about and inspire young people to be the best they can be, and have as great an impact on their community (local, national, global) as is humanly possible. Give me the opportunity to throw myself 100% into a new and exciting phase of my life.

I wonder.... Have a great weekend everyone.

A Thought Or Two

At times I think I have been here in Korea too long to really be shocked by any of the many cultural differences between what is considered 'normal' here and at home in Ireland. One thing about teaching adults is that it comes to a point when you can almost predict student responses on topics such as career, family life, food, politics, etc. Sometimes the danger is that, as a teacher, you then miss an opportunity to explore similarities and differences between your culture and theirs. A kind of apathy sets in, where maybe your ears are open to the language used, rather than the content communicated. I narrowly avoided just such a situation in class this morning.

Our topic was 'cosmetic surgery', something that is thought of quite differently here compared with at home. The opening exploratory questions revealed what I could have predicted; both students saw cosmetic surgery in a positive light because of the benefits it brings in terms of career, finding a partner, and so on. I almost left it there and went on with the reading activity but, for some reason, I told them how surprising those views were to me when I first came to Korea, and a little of how people think on the topic back home. The results were probably to be expected but, because of my own acceptance of the differences, I hadn't realized how interesting my students would find it all. They were particularly surprised at the idea that people would get breast reductions/implants and my vague suggestion that surgery might be viewed as vain by some people, and so less likely to be talked about openly. Of course, those are just my own views and I can't be sure how perceptions have been changing over the past five years or so.

The lesson from it all for me, as a teacher, was that, although blabbing on all class is not and never will be good teaching, there are times when it's right to point out some different ways of looking at things with one's own perspective. I'd normally try to plant ideas and hope that students elucidate new ideas themselves, however, I get the impression that our class today will stick in the minds of the students longer because they were opened up to views they may never before have encountered. I suppose, for those of us living and working abroad, that's something we might sometimes take for granted.

Jumping topic completely (it wouldn't be like me) to the heartbreaking story in the news these days of the murder of 27-year-old daughter of a well-known Gaelic football manager, Michaela Harte, on her honeymoon in Mauritius. It's just one of those totally unjust situations where the very worst thing imaginable happens to someone who, by all accounts, was one of the very best imaginable types of people. It has resonance for me in the memory of an acquaintance of mine who lost his life in tragic circumstances whilst stewarding at a rally around ten years ago. Like Ms. Harte, he was someone who lived life in such a way that he only brought positive things to the lives of those he loved and who, in turn, loved him. I'm also touched by the relationship between her and her father, reminiscent of my own sisters devotion to our Dad, perhaps even, "to a fault." It definitely makes you question the justice of it all, and I'll be honest in saying that sometimes leads me to question the point of it all, too. I suppose the only constructive way of dealing with the discrepancy between what ought to be and what is, is to appreciate the good things in life and live in such a way that you wouldn't have any regrets if this day was to be your last. My thoughts, and the thoughts of so many in Ireland, are certainly with the Harte family, her friends, colleagues and, of course, her husband. I hope she rests in peace. Sorry if I got a little carried away there, I hadn't intended to say so much.