Introduction

My intent is for this blog to read slightly more like a book than like a daily journal, so think of each entry along the lines of a chapter. It is my story of the year I spent teaching English at two middle schools in South Korea.

Whether through economic globalization, Hollywood and mass media, or the Lee Myung Bak administration's legacy of importing foreign English teachers by the planeful, Western culture has taken off in Korea like a catchy pop song. In fact, I had an student whose English nickname was Beyonce, and several, including a sixth grade boy, named Britney Spears.

Learning Hangul, the Korean writing system, was immediately helpful to me without understanding a word of Korean, as I found that the Korean letters adorning buildings spelled out "Dream Mart" and "Honeymoon Hotel." The Korean language is laced with English words such as computer ('compu-teoh'), coffee ('coppee'), and 'Konglish' such as 'handphone' for cell phone and 'mense' for menstrual cycle. The best part about shopping in this country is not the low prices nor the warm greeting from every employee in the store, but reading the English on the T-shirts. I bought my friend a shirt that read, without any spaces to separate words, "Wearejustflowersinspace," and recently purchased another asking, "Hi God...Where is a pungent My Boyfriend?" Of course, language isn't all that is permeating the culture. Aspects of Western food, fashion, ideology, and lifestyle are gaining momentum in South Korea.

One of the questions Koreans ask me the most is why I came to Korea. The first time I heard the question, I was not prepared with an answer. When offered the job, I hadn't considered why I wanted to do it, I just knew that I did. Surely the Koreans did not want to hear that I came to Korea because the government was recruiting English teachers at perhaps three times the rate of any other country of which I was aware. So, I came up with another truth, which is now my standard answer. "I didn't know very much about Korea, so I came here to learn more about it."

And learn I did. So, considering the growing presence of Western culture in Korea, I thought it only fair to reciprocate by sharing the knowledge and experiences I have gained during my year of teaching. Of course, this is by no means intended to be a definitive commentary on the Korean culture. Afterall, what is culture anyways? Wearejustflowersinspace.