Being a foreigner in Korea means I encounter a broad range of reactions. Living in a racially and culturally homogeneous society, I am quite obviously different. Sometimes I am met with great kindness, while other times I am treated like a child or an outsider. These are a few of the encounters I have had, related to my foreignness.
Author: Janine Perri
The Cookie Game: Teaching Debate
“Teacher…Binch!”
I stood at the front of the classroom, in front of the rowdy students who were carrying their conversations from the hallway into Janine Teacher’s class. It only took two or three students to notice that I was holding a box of Binch cookies before the entire class was silent.
“Teacher, why cookie?”
“Today,” I told each second grade class as their eyes glittered with cookie-lust, “one lucky state group will win the Binch. We are going to have a debate!”
The Day I (Almost) Had a Class Pet
You know when your cat brings you a “present” and you just stand there because you have no idea how to react to it? That happened to me today. Except the “cat” was my student. And this story actually has a happy ending.
Jinju Lantern Festival
I glanced at my two sleeping sisters in the living room, and then I glanced at my watch. 6:15 AM. It was Friday, the national holiday of Hangul Day, and my ETA friends and I were meeting in Jinju for the famous Lantern Festival. It was going to be the first time in weeks that I had seen another native English speaker, let alone another American. It was also going to be my first weekend away from my host family, a thought which horrified Ye Bin.
“Where you stay?” she had asked me all week. “How many friends? You go Jinju alone?”
I scrolled down the list of contacts on my phone and pressed “call.” A woman’s voice answered, “Yoboseyo!” and I gave the apartment address. If the taxi pulls up in front of the gate in the next five minutes, I thought, I will have made my first successful Korean phone call.
I hung up the phone and saw Host Mom poke her head out of her bedroom.
“Odi-e kayo?” Where are you going?
“Jinju.” I held up my phone. “Taxi.”
She nodded, remembering, and waved goodbye. I headed out the door and saw the black taxi pulling up in front of our building. Success!
Top 5 Weirdest Words I Have Actually Written on My Blackboard
Ah, the blackboard. The staple of every classroom. Now that it’s midterms week and I don’t have a lesson update, I’d like to share some of the weirdest things my students have asked me to write on the board. To give some context, usually I use the board to write instructions, show grammatical structures, or help students with spelling. The pictures below fall into the last category.
Let the countdown begin.
Continue reading “Top 5 Weirdest Words I Have Actually Written on My Blackboard”
Reach the World – Logbook – Korean Thanksgiving
Originally published for Reach the World, October 2, 2015
How far did I travel this week?:This week, my host family and I traveled to Miryang, a small town in the countryside outside of the city of Gimhae. We visited my host dad’s parents for Chuseok. To get to Miryang, we drove down a highway outside of Gimhae and then through the mountains. It took about an hour to get there.
How far have I traveled on this journey so far?:Since arriving in Korea in July, the farthest I have traveled is Sokcho, a beach town in the northeast. Sokcho is known for its beautiful beaches, Buddhist temples, and some of the tallest mountains in Korea. I went hiking and walked along the beach. Now that I am settled into my school routine, I will do a lot more traveling this month.
Continue reading “Reach the World – Logbook – Korean Thanksgiving”
Vignettes from September
A series of brief encounters from the first half of the semester. This month’s mishmash of topics includes SpongeBob Squarepants, life as a foreigner, loneliness, North Korea, and Jell-O.
Reach the World – Journal – About Me
Originally published for Reach the World, October 2, 2015
Annyeong-haseyo!Mannaseo bangapseumnida!
Hello! It’s nice to meet you. My name is Janine Perri, and I am currently teaching English in South Korea as part of the Fulbright program.
If you had asked me when I was a kid or a high school student what I would be doing after college, I wouldn’t have told you that I would be teaching English in South Korea. I might have said I would be a writer. Maybe a lawyer. But moving from my home on Long Island to a country halfway across the world? It didn’t even cross my mind. So how did I get here?
Reach the World – Traveler Bio
Originally published for Reach the World, September 30, 2015
Hello! My name is Janine Perri. I am from Long Island, New York, and I studied English and history at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. It’s nice to meet you!
I love learning about new languages, people and places. That’s why I moved to South Korea to teach English to high school students. South Korea is a country in east Asia, right between China and Japan. South Korea is known for its pop music, beautiful festivals, and a very spicy vegetable dish called kimchi.
As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, I teach English classes for 600 Korean students each week. That’s a lot of students! But we still have a ton of fun. Sometimes, we even play games like Jeopardy, Hot Potato, and Twenty Questions.
Reach the World: Connecting Korea and America
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Fulbright about an opportunity to work with a New York nonprofit called Reach the World. Reach the World connects current students and teachers who are abroad with underserved classrooms in the United States, with the goal of introducing K-12 students to new countries and creating engaged global citizens. As of this week, I am officially a Reach the World travel writer!
Continue reading “Reach the World: Connecting Korea and America”
Janine Perri 