Fulbright Features: Teacher shares experience, learns culture in South Korea

Penn State students and alumni are traveling around the world to conduct research, teach English, attend masters degree programs and more as part of the Fulbright Program, a highly sought-after nine-month international educational exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State. This is the fifth story in a series of essays written by Penn State student Fulbright winners who have returned from or have just embarked on their trips.

While the official total won’t be released until November, at least 15 students have been offered the scholarship this year, according to Penn State’s University Fellowships Office. Last year, 11 Penn State students received the prestigious scholarship. For more information about applying for the program, visit the University Fellowships Office’s website. Click here to read more Fulbright Features.

Penn State graduate Emily Sabo is a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in South Korea. She teaches about 500 students and sees each class only once a week. “It's a lot, but you quickly start remembering names and faces,” she said. The following are excerpts from a blog she’s keeping during her time abroad.

Field trip with the fourth-gradersI got to go along with the fourth-grade class to a famous folk village in Asan, a city adjacent to Cheonan (where I live). Its primary function is to provide Koreans as well as foreigners understand what life was like during the Joesan dynasty era. It’s considered a “living museum” because although it has preserved housing and depictions of what life was like back them (with informational plaques all over the place), Korean families actually still live in the village. It’s really neat. And families all over the country often go there for different festivals, some of which include making things out of hay or making traditional rice cakes. Interestingly, many Korean TV dramas are filmed here, as a lot of them are set in the Joesan dynasty era.

On the trip, we made taffy. We got the hot taffy in liquid form and covered it in sweet bean powder. Then we had to keep massaging it until it was relatively solid. It’s a traditional activity, and you get candy at the end so the kids were happy. I thought I hated taffy. But unfortunately for my waistline it turns out I like it. … Things I wish I didn't know.

Smartphones in elementary school?It’s almost expected that kids in elementary school have smartphones. During a field trip, the students got to do a scavenger hunt. And to prove they found certain things, they had to take pictures of themselves in different places. So, the teacher asked who didn’t have a cellphone so that she could pair people up accordingly. Yikes. It’s technological and sensory overload at such a young age.

Teacher/Parents classOnce a week, I teach one English class for parents and one for any interested teachers. While I like children, having this back-to-back comparison between adult classes and kids’ classes confirms my goal to teach post-secondary. They don’t pick their noses and wipe them on the desk. They don’t get up and jump around the classroom. But the main difference is that they are more advanced, and I can talk to them about real-life topics, current events and cultural differences. Teaching these classes is therapeutic because it’s my time to lead a class the way I want. There’s no textbook to constrain us.

The class focuses on free-talking, on conversational learning. At the beginning of class, I’ll have a topic to present a bit on, perhaps cover some prerequisite knowledge or words that are germane to the conversation. As questions or confusions arise, I’ll address them and write any corrections on the board so they can both hear and see the explanations.

Secrets don’t make friends and friends don’t make secretsI had been noticing a lot of adults blatantly whispering to one another in the presence of others. At first, I thought this was rather rude, but I think it has to do with the courtesy of covering one’s mouth while telling a secret. Koreans often use their hand to cover their mouths when they’re laughing, so I think this is actually a courtesy.

Go-stop Korean card gameThe cards are not normal playing cards. They’re called hwatu in Korean, but they actually originate from Japan. In Japan, they’re called Hanafunda cards, which means flower cards. The deck is comprised of 48 cards (and sometimes some extra jokers). There are 12 sets of four cards, each set representing a month. So, each group displays a type of flower that is associated with that month.

Why don’t they use the standard four-suit, 52-card deck that we do? Back in 1633 when Japan closed off all contact with the Western world, foreign playing cards were banned. Thus, the advent of the Hanfunda cards. Interesting, huh? The game is traditionally played with only two or three people, but current modifications have allowed bigger groups to play as well.

Essentially, you have cards in the middle of the table and the goal is to match your card with one of the cards of the table (like Go Fish or Crazy Eights). Once one player gets a certain amount of points (usually three to seven), they can decide to call “stop” and collect their winnings. It’s all about figuring out when the best time to call “stop” is because if you call it too early, you might not get as much money as you would if you’d waited. On the other hand, if you wait too long, maybe you’ll miss your chance. It’s much more complicated than that, but that’s the gist.