I WILL LEAVE KOREA

I have decided to leave Korea. Most of you who are close to me know that I decided this several months ago. However, I just recently told my students as my company asked me to wait until they found a replacement.
I've been here for three and a half years. It has been an interesting experience and I've learned a lot. However, after so long in one city with the same job, the learning curve starts to level off. So it is time for a new adventure, a new place and a new challenge.
I haven't made any concrete plans yet. The most important thing is to spend some time with my family back in Northern Ireland. I've spent less than a month there in almost four years. I'll enjoy the long, and hopefully, sunny days with lots of hiking and biking in beautiful Newcastle. I will also take a few short trips to England and Europe; France, Spain, Portugal to see old friends and explore a bit.
And at the end of the summer I will most likely head on down to Africa. I was debating west or east and leaning toward western Africa. However the recent coup in Mali made that an easy decision. East it will be. Perhaps Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, etc. But I haven't looked deep into it yet.
Anyway, that's the plan. I'm sad to leave Korea, my great job, great students and great friends. But I'm very excited to start a new adventure and finally get to Africa.
I'll keep you posted.

ROAD FC

Yesterday some friends and I went to Road FC, Korea's MMA league. It's very similar to UFC and almost all the same rules except that there were no elbows and kneeing a downed opponent WAS allowed. Interesting. The venue was the Jangchung Gymnasium where Judo and Taekwondo were hosted at the '88 Olympics. There was a decent attendance, though not a full house, and many of the spectators including the noisiest, were westerners (Americans I guess). Overall it was a pretty good show. An amateur section first, seven fights. And then the pros later, seven more fights, stretching out over five hours. They had octagon girls and famous Korean comedians to entertain us between fights.
Most of the fighters were in the lower weight classes as can be expected. So there weren't many knockouts, but there was plenty of heart and technical skill. Even one substitute fighter who took his fight on two days notice against an opponent fifteen kilos heavier. He lost, of course.
There was some international competition; two Japanese, a Brazilian and a Canadian, but mostly Koreans.
One of the cool thing about events like this in Korea is that you can bring in your own food and beer. My friends stocked up on convenience store Cass before the fights and I a bottle of Gatorade.
The other cool thing about this event was the Korean audience. Most of my western friends and I have the opinion that Korean guys are a bit feminine and quite vain. Many of them seem to spend an awful long time looking in the mirror and fixing their hair. Not to mention the masses of young to old men that are fashion-conscious, trend-following, hair-dying and cleanse-tone-and-moisturize-three-times-a-day-ing. So, to see guys with cauliflower ears, misshapen noses and not sporting skinny jeans with New Balance sneakers was a breath of fresh air.
The atmosphere was pleasant enough, even when Japanese fighters were competing. However, I guess there might be trouble occasionally as there were half a dozen police buses lined up outside.
I would definitely go back and hope the next event is soon. Our 25,000 won tickets (cheapest seats) were perfectly adequate as the stadium is small.

驛馬煞 YUKMASAL

This week one of my students introduced me to the Korean word yukmasal (驛馬煞). My Korean English dictionary says it is "a person with itchy feet". However my students and Korean friends have several different opinions on the meaning.

The word comes from three Chinese characters. Yuk (驛) means station and ma (馬) is horse. Sal (煞) has been hard for me to understand and I've received different answers when asking the meaning. It seems to be similar to "destiny", and a bit like "aura", and most likely something in between. Although I've also heard it described as "bad spirit".

This history of yukmasal is very interesting. Many generations ago in Korea, before having such an awesome transportation system, horse and rider was the main method of delivering messages. Like many other countries, when the government had a new policy, or tax, or an order to send to another town, the message was delivered on horse back.

En route from the capital, and scattered around the country, were yukmal (驛馬) - literally horse stations. These were places where riders could turn in their tired horse for a fresh one before continuing on their journey. And interestingly enough, my closest subway station, Yanjaeyuk, used to be a yukma.

At that time in Korean history, being a messenger was considered unfortunate. There was a caste system, and only low-ranking citizens did this work. Thieves in the mountains made the job risky. And of course, Korea's extreme climate ensured a likelihood of becoming sick.

Korea was an agricultural society at that time, though not nomadic like Mongolia. So people settled in one place, and any digression from that life was frowned upon. Still today, there seems to be a strong mentality here that a settled job is a good job. But according to my student, Jin, the world, and Korea, is changing. Now a man will go abroad if he has the ability too. And because of this, the once very negative meaning of yukmasal, is becoming more positive. Often used in a joking manner, it can even be seen as a compliment in some cases to indicate a person has traveled a lot for enjoyment.

This word has really intrigued me and I enjoyed many a discussion with students and Korean friends about it. Some of the quotes that came out quite impressed me,

-"After leaving home, you will not come back".
-"It's your fate to be so active".
-"Just follow the wind".
-"You have lots of wind". (I had to correct my student on this one.)
-"It's an inherited illness".
'"If you meet a beautiful woman, you can't keep the relationship very long". (Damn!)


These talimans are typical charms for people with yukmasal. They are carried for protection against evil spirits, disease and accidents. They are also extremely expensive when bought from a temple. So feel free to print these off and tape to your arm before your next vacation.

IT'S A SAXOPHONE

I started a new private class last night. It's in one of the fanciest buildings in Seoul, the Gangnam Finance Center. My new student seems to have a status on par with the building in which he works. Mr Park oversees the construction of power plants. In March he'll move to India to build natural gas power plant. I was contacted to get his English ready for dealing with his Indian partners and staff.
Our first class was a little stiff, as it usually is when I'm attempting to teach business English to people who know much more about business, and often more about English, than me.
About thirty minutes into class I heard a loud beep. And then a boop. And then a bope. I ignored the beep and the boop, but the bope grabbed my attention. I looked at Mr Park inquisitively. "A trumpet", I think he said. "A what", I said. "Oh, no, not a trumpet," he said. I smiled. "It's a saxophone!", "My boss is learning".
And for the remaining thirty minutes of the class we both tried to keep serious faces. Discussing reverse discrimination and workplace glass ceilings as his boss slowly, methodically went up and down the saxophone scale, I had to bite my inside lip a few times to prevent an outburst of laughter.
Once in a while I accidentally smiled. Probably not very professional, but I think we broke the ice.