Kickin' it in Geumchon

James, one of the other English teachers that I work with, kept mentioning the EV Boys when we went to downtown Uijeongbu the other night. They're a trio of English teachers that work at a school called the English Village (hence EV Boys). It's a performing arts/English school, so needless to say the instructors there are rather creative when it comes to things like this. The great thing about this video is it's pretty much universal when it comes to the expat experience in a suburb area in South Korea. It's exactly what Uijeongbu looks like, and the cultural things they mention are everywhere. The article below is courtesy of www.Korea.net/news.

A quick side note: the chorus says
Kickin' it in Geumchon
Oh, Oh
Kamsa hamneeda
Anyong haseyo

These are the first two words I learned here. They mean "thank you very much" and "hello/goodbye" respectively, and are the two most common phrases i've heard.

All the other things they mention (pig faces, the 80's plastic visors, the dunkin donuts, kimchi everywhere, cass beer, saying uh after every word, fruitloop balls instead of peanuts at the bars, etc) are prevalent everywhere. 



Where is Geumchon?
About 20 kilometers northwest of Seoul is where the Gyeonggi English Village, Paju Camp is situated. Christian Zonts, the song's chief author and EV Boyz founder, Brian Petersen and Mike Nance all live and work there as English instructors/entertainers – the hip term these days is "edutainers." All three are from the United States and have been in Korea for 11 months, 14 months and almost two years, respectively. 

When they want to leave the sanctuary of the Village, Geumchon is the nearest large town. It is no different from most urban areas outside the major Korean cities, with a mixture of traditional and modern. In the words of the EV Boyz "Geumchon is a small town but we make the most of it." Christian was inspired one day to sit down and write a song about his experience as a foreigner living and hanging out in Korea. Brian and Mike joined and added their own flavor to the mix.

The result is a Beastie Boys soundalike with a cheerful and catchy refrain as well as playful lyrics. The EV Boyz make reference to the local movie theater "keeping it real" with no subtitles; then point out this is the very reason they don't go to the cinema. (In a recent interview, they did confess to speaking very little Korean. The phrasebook referred to in the lyrics is Christian's main way to communicate when he travels around Korea, as he does each weekend.)

Much is sung about food and drink, and the video clip shows the trio enjoying a few tasty treats as well as some brews. Pig faces for sale are immortalized in song, But when they went to the market to film some, they were nowhere in sight. The EV Boyz confess to loving Korean food and being adventurous eaters – they have even tried some dishes this author never has! Fittingly, the bridge in the middle of the song is an ode to kimchi, "the cabbage that we ravage with the chili paste taste."



The song was originally written to amuse themselves and their colleagues (over 100 native speakers of English work at Paju English Village), and the video was made to give relatives and friends back home an idea of what their non-work lives here were like. Audiences found the video so well made that it took a life of its own. Responses have been mostly positive, especially from colleagues and supervisors at the English Village.

A trip to the hospital

I only had to teach three classes today, since I went to the hospital to get my physical so I can apply for my alien card. My first class, lemon, was from 9:45-10:30. They usually have snack then, so Julie Teacher took over for me while I went to the hospital (I'm Breanna Teacher to the kids, only they usually pronounce it teachah). Lee, Julie's husband, drove me there, and took care of all the paperwork. It was a lot of running around between floors 1, 3, 6, and 8. Some of the elevators only went to even floors and some went to odd floors and some went to all of them. Only some of them were labeled.

The first thing they did was the obligatory pee test, then 4 blood samples. There was a very long conversation between two nurses and Lee before they took my blood, and the only thing I caught was HIV, which they would be testing for. Lee couldn't translate any of it, partially because his English is basic at best, and I don't know that anyone but a fluent speaker in both languages could translate medical terminology. Then we went downstairs where I thought they would do a physical, but their version of it was asking me "Do you have health ok?". Then we went back upstairs, since apparently the first set of nurses had to go to lunch and didn't have time to do the rest of it while we were up there. We got another form, went back downstairs, where they checked my teeth (no cavities, no missing teeth). Then back upstairs they checked height, weight, blood pressure, hearing, sight (all of which are fine), and did an x-ray of my chest. And then we left.

By the time we got back, it was almost the end of lunch. So I had lunch in the kitchen with Lee and one of the kids. Everyday there's soup, kimchi, rice, and then two sides. I can't eat the kimchi - it's way too spicy. Lee told me there's something called pakimchi, which is similar only made without pepper, so it's milder. But most, if not all, restaurants only serve kimchi. I do, however, love dried seaweed and rice. It's my new favorite snack. I had some sort of little silver fish that had been cooked, had it's head and tail cut off, and covered/stuffed with some sort of vegetable sauce thing. It was a bit spicy, but pretty good. Lee also showed me how to correctly hold my chopsticks, which seemed to work for the first time. It still amazes me that the kids eat such spicy food, and not only don't mind it, but they love it (the teachers eat the same thing as the kids, just bigger portions).

Julie teacher even taught my class after lunch, so I only had my two apple classes to do, which are pretty easy because one class has three kids and one class has nine, and they all speak English fairly fluently. Even though my last class is over at 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm not supposed to leave before 6pm (which isn't bad, considering my day starts at 9:45 and I get an hour break after lunch). So I spent the rest of the day working on my lesson plans for lemon and cherry for next week, and making sure I had all the materials I needed for the activities. They're pretty straight-forward, and everything is pretty much scripted for you from the teacher's book. They have songs that go along with storybooks, and activity books, and homework books, all relating to whatever story they're reading. I've learned such riveting songs as "Little Bear Lake", "Let's Go Camping", and "Hello, Ranger Joe". And tomorrow is Memorial Day, so Cherita, James and I are going out to downtown Uijeongbu (pronounced weejongboo) tonight since there's no school tomorrow. I did find out from Julie teacher that my birthday, which is the Korean Independance Day, is no longer a holiday off from school - apparently Korea has too many holidays and they changed it last year to a normal school day. :(

There's lots of little things here that I find facinating. Things like when you order pizza, they always tie it with a red ribbon to keep the box closed. Or how the cars have the right of way, not the pedestrians, and they can make a u-turn in the middle of the street, as long as there's no traffic going the other way. There doesn't seem to be any laws about where to park either, as people park in the street all the time with no permits. In their registers, they keep their money vertical, instead of laying down horizontal, and most bathrooms don't have toilet paper - you're supposed to bring your own.