Month: March 2017

Spring is coming!

The Korean school year began this month, and Lena started in a new class at her kindergarten. Despite the growing number of expat kids at the school, Lena is the only English-speaker in her class. There are pros and cons to this.

On the pro side, it really pushes me to learn and practice Korean. At this age, my brain is more of a pumice stone than a sponge, so anything that forces repetition and memorization is a good thing. Lena’s teacher is super sweet and understanding, so she’s patient with me and offers thumbs-up when I get something right. Although, sometimes, she beats me to it. I’ll spend the entire walk on my way to pick up Lena mumbling, 내일 뵙겠습니다…내일 뵙겠습니다…내일 뵙겠습니다…* to make sure I get it right, then just before I can say it, her teacher will blurt out, “See you tomorrow!” She doesn’t speak much English, but apparently she is also using this opportunity to learn more. Usually, we just text each other, since Google Translate helps with that.

On the con side, we sometimes have communication issues with the school on technical issues. A couple of teachers at the international school have kids at this kindergarten, so they have been amazingly helpful, but there’s still a communication gap there. For instance, we need to pay our milk fees. We keep offering to pay our milk fees, but they won’t give us a milk fee bill. We also had to fight to get a bill for education expenses (and, no, it didn’t include milk fees). I don’t care if the bill is in Hangul, just take my money!

And lastly, on both the pro and con side is Lena’s lack of Korean. The school is a great place for her to learn some Korean, but she kind of doesn’t care so isn’t really trying. We now have put the kids in after school Korean lessons in our home, so that should help. But because she’s not trying, she’s missing out on opportunities. For example, one day in music class the kids got to play with ribbons on sticks (the type rhythmic gymnasts use). I noticed later in the photos that Lena was standing to the side without one when all the other kids were dancing around and laughing. I asked her why she didn’t have a ribbon stick, and she told me that the teacher handed her a yellow ribbon and she said, “aniyo,” (“no”) because she wanted the red ribbon stick. But the teacher thought she didn’t want any ribbon stick so didn’t give her one. Lena and I talked about what she could do next time (even pointing would help), and I’m sure she’ll eventually get more comfortable expressing herself. I’ve actually already seen improvement just this month.

But overall I really like this little school. They do a lot of fun things with the kids. I signed up Lena for their weekly ballet class, which she loves. They also have PE classes, posture and health classes, cooking classes, art and music classes, field trips and nature walks, English lessons… they even started ukulele lessons this week. There’s lunch and two snacks each day, and lots of play time. Lena usually plays house or teatime with a couple of the Korean girls.

I’d love to help in class, if possible. There’s not much I can do with my crummy Korean skills. Maybe read a book in English to the kids? I need to figure out how to ask about that.

*“See you tomorrow,” in formal speech, is the tongue-twisting “naeil bwepgetsumnida”… I can say it in my head, but it doesn’t always come out of my mouth correctly.

**Fun fact: “Ballerina” in Hangul, 발레리나, includes Lena’s name: 리나  (ㄹ is both L and R)

A couple weeks ago, Korea celebrated Samiljeol (literally, “three one festival”) or Independence Movement Day. It takes place on March 1 (hence the 3-1) and commemorates the Korean people’s mass demonstrations against Japanese colonial rule that began on March 1, 1919.

A full discussion of the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) will have to wait for another day, but suffice to say: the Japanese were total jerks and Koreans hate them to this day. Well, the first part is a bit of an understatement and the second is a bit of an overstatement, but there’s still a lot of bad blood there. Some people say, “It was 100 years ago! Things are different! Japanese young people weren’t involved in all that…” While this is true and the world is a different place today, it’s also true that the Japanese were really, really big jerks (read: monarch assassination, destruction of cultural artifacts, banning the language, stealing land, and eventually forced prostitution, slave labor, and even concentration-camp-style medical experiments), and they haven’t fully atoned for it, and they kinda whitewash it in school history books, so… yeah. It’s a complicated situation.

But on that day, a group of Christian,* Buddhist, and Cheondogyo** religious leaders and nationalists read out a Korean Declaration of Independence, inspired by US President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points.” This sparked a series of mass protests throughout the country. An estimated 2,000,000 Koreans participated in largely peaceful protests over the course of several months.

Japanese response was, not surprisingly, rather harsh. (Colonial rulers are never nice.) Thousands of Koreans were killed, thousands more wounded, tens of thousands were arrested, tried and executed, and hundreds of homes, churches and even a couple schools were destroyed. Many of the movement leaders fled to China and began the Korean Provisional Government, a sort of Korean government in absentia.

And while independence was not granted, many historians believe this movement and its nationalist fervor signify the beginning of modern Korea. After quashing the protests, Japan appointed a new governor-general and even gave Korea a bit more freedom. At least, until Japan started up its military war machine in the 1930s and colonial oppression got way, way worse. Independence finally came when Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945. But Korea was then divided up between the Americans and the Soviets, which led to the Korean War in 1950 and millions more Korean deaths… But, again, that’s a discussion for another time.

Today, Samil is a national holiday with schools and businesses closing, so both Aaron and the kids had the day off. We took the opportunity to visit the Goseong Dinosaur Museum. It was pretty busy, as many other families had the same idea.

There’s not much to say about the museum itself. It’s a dino museum, with a bunch of dino bones and dino statues. One room full of animatronic dinos required entry through a large, gaping dino mouth – you pass under sharp teeth and walk along his tongue. It’s dark, with growling noises, and my kids wanted none of it. Lena eventually took my hand and squealed her way through, but Connery required a bit more coaxing. Aaron pointed to the wall behind him and said, “What is that??” Connery turned to look and Aaron took the opportunity to grab the boy, hoist him over his shoulder, and run through the mouth. After that, Connery said the dino mouth was his favorite part. … Sometimes, I really wonder how child minds work.

We didn’t spend much time in the museum, because the highlight of the museum is actually its grounds. The property sits along the top of a hill right on the coast. The views are fantastic (though it was somewhat smoggy the day we were there), and dino-themed playgrounds are scattered everywhere along the hill. There are walking paths, a hedge maze, a collection of random animals (deer, peacocks and rabbits), a small coffee shop and a cup-noodles café, picnicking areas, and a (currently under construction) observation tower. One path leads to a nearby beach with one of the world’s largest dinosaur footprint fossil sites. We skipped the fossils this time around, because it was a kilometer away and we ran out of time after our GPS sent us to some random town a half hour past the museum. But at $3 a head, we’ll definitely be back.

*I kind of wonder if the reason Christianity took hold in Korea is because of this association with Korean nationalism. In most other Asian nations I’ve visited, Christianity was historically seen as a religion of colonial oppressors or foreign influence.

**Cheondogyo is a Korean religion with Confucian and shamanistic roots that began in the 19th century. It emphasizes improving oneself and bringing peace and justice to earth, rather than a belief in a supernatural God or afterlife. There are about a million followers in South Korea, and apparently triple that in North Korea.

We’ve settled into a somewhat predictable and boring, though for me quite enjoyable, Saturday afternoon ritual: our weekly trip to E-mart.

E-mart is Korea’s oldest and largest hypermarket chain. It was created in 1993 as a division of Shinsegae, Korea’s oldest and largest department store chain. (And Shinsegae Centum City in Busan is literally the largest department store in the world, according to Guinness.) E-mart became its own company in 2011.

Side note: The first department store in Korea was built in 1930 by Mitsukoshi, a Japanese chain, during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945). (Mitsukoshi began as a kimono shop in 1693!) When Korea was liberated after WWII, the store became independent and changed its name to Donghwa department store. In 1963, it was purchased by the Samsung group and renamed Shinsegae (“New World”). Shinsegae separated from Samsung in 1991, though it was run by the daughter of Samsung’s founder.

Side side note: The oldest hotel in Korea is The Chosun Hotel, opened in 1914. It was purchased by Shinsegae and called the Shinsegae Chosun Hotel, but they joined The Westin Group in 1995 and it is now called the Westin Chosun Hotel (still owned by Shinsegae). This was the first hotel we stayed in upon arriving in Seoul, and where we returned for Christmas. Shinsegae also owns Starbucks Coffee Korea. You’ll see ads for the Westin Chosun and, frequently, find Starbucks shops in E-mart locations. Unfortunately, my local E-mart does not have the latter.

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, “hypermarket” refers to a large store that is both a supermarket and a department store. They’ve been around since the 1930s, but exploded in popularity during the 1980s and 90s thanks to Walmart, Kmart, and Target developing hypermarket versions of their stores.

I’m sure you are familiar, though, with the much-ballyhooed detrimental effect of hypermarkets on smaller neighborhood retailers. In 2012, Korea’s government sought to protect their mom-and-pop stores by introducing mandatory Sunday closings for their super- and hypermarkets (E-mart, Home Plus, Lotte Mart, Costco, etc). On the second and fourth Sundays each month, these stores must remain closed for the day. We learned about these closings the hard way, after driving down to E-mart and finding it dark and roped off. Assuming it was a holiday we were not aware of, we drove instead to Bi-Mart (a small grocery store nearby) and found it busier than usual. So maybe the closings work? I’m not sure. I haven’t seen any statistics on whether or not these closings are having an effect, aside from annoying shoppers.

E-mart reminds me a bit of Target, but with Korean flair. It is important to note that “Korean flair” is a key factor in E-mart’s success. Walmart moved into Korea in 1998, but after continuing losses sold all 16 of its stores to Shinsegae in 2006 to be revamped and reopened as E-mart locations. Koreans apparently were not very big fans of Walmart’s lack of emphasis on food or its bare-bones discount vibe. What little I’ve seen leads me to believe that Koreans want quality and service, and, sorry Walmart, but when I think “Walmart” I don’t follow that up with “quality and service.” In fact, some of the worst service I’ve ever encountered in my life has been at Walmart. I try to avoid the place myself.

Now that I think about it, most American retailers have pretty crappy service. Korea kicks us in the bootie when it comes to service in general. They still have full service gas stations here; we’ve yet to even get out of our car when fueling up. And even their “discount” retailers like E-mart are swarming with extremely polite and extremely helpful employees – people who act like they don’t mind at all when you pick up a bag of spaghetti noodles, not realizing one side is open, and proceed to drop a million noodle sticks all over the floor.

Anyway, our local E-mart is a few stories high, with parking and specialty shops on each level and the main store in the basement. Our E-mart is smaller and has a more provincial feel than other E-marts I’ve been to in larger cities. For example, ours has a coffee shop and a café, but the E-mart we stopped at in Busan had a Starbucks and an entire food court with at least a half dozen chain restaurants like Baskin Robbins and KFC. Ours also has a kids’ play zone (this is extremely important, and the reason I shop at E-mart and not Home Plus), a salon, some kind of health clinic, some kind of studio for home economic classes, a dry cleaner, and several stores-within-a-store for specialty items like camping gear, cosmetics, baby gear, watches, home goods. They’re all brand name mini-stores, but I’m afraid I can’t remember the names right now.

The main shopping level has about the same variety of items as Target, but with a larger share for grocery. The grocery section has a vibe that’s like ‘a modern take on a bustling outdoor market.’ Salespeople wearing shirts with product logos offer samples of their products. Other employees offer samples of fruits or yogurt or potato chips. Butchers shout out the daily prices for fish and meat. Employees also shout out veggie prices, and if they have a seasonal area (as they did for Lunar New Year), there’s usually somebody shouting there, as well. There’s a large meat department with various tanks of fresh seafood, usually massive crabs. There’s also a bakery and a tiny pizza shop. Last week, they introduced a new bulgogi pizza, and the constant stream of people walking through the store with fresh bulgogi pizzas made the entire place smell of delicious cooked meats. (And made hungry shoppers buy crap they didn’t need.)

I really like our E-mart excursions. We check the kids into the play zone (they love, love, love it – it has a climby thing with a slide and a ball pit with pneumatic tubes!), and then Aaron and I spend an hour or two wandering around, hungry, buying crap we don’t need.

We finish up with dinner in the café. It’s comfort food, at best, but very yummy. The kids’ plate has katsu, rice, french fries, canned fruit, shredded cabbage, and ice cream. Aaron and I usually get the katsu and omurice plate, with cabbage, kimchi, pickled radish, and seaweed soup. I mildly suspect we got a touch of food poisoning there last week, but whatevs. Still yummy.

And I’ll be going back next weekend for more.