Meet the Teacher

Several years ago, my children were highly amused by the pomp and circumstance involved in a university graduation ceremony. They marvelled at the professors vestments and headgear that bore more than a passing resemblance to those of the teachers in the Harry Potter series. Like many in the crowd, they slipped into boredom induced comas at the intonations of University of Winnipeg Chancellor Lloyd Axworthy (a former politician known to detractors as "Count Floyd Taxworthy). In short, they found it to be a hellaciously long, drawn out affair. I informed them that they would suffer through a good many such events before finishing their university years.


Well, the Koreans seem to do things differently. Today is the grand opening ceremony for the Summer Exploration Program through Chonnam University's Language Education Program. Husband and I expect to hear officials droning on at length, but instead, it wraps up in about twenty minutes flat. (And that includes teacher introductions.) While ceremony is important, business just cannot wait.


We notice a similar approach to the "Git 'R Done" Korean philosophy at lunchtime in the university residence cafeteria. We show up with our lunch chits (we'll be receiving lunch and dinner daily as part of the package during our stay), and make our way to a table. We are quicky redirected to the Teacher's Dining Room beyond the partition. The teacher's tables and chairs are covered in elegant seafoam green linen with fine lace trim. We leave our things at the table, and head for the buffet. The variety of foods include a number of spicy (need I add this adjective at this point?) vegetable dishes, a rich and vibrant soup which includes crunchy bamboo shoots, a cold pork cutlet, and for dessert, an icy sweet cinnamon broth. With all the red pepper, vinegar, and cinnamon on Korean menus, they've certainly got a keen understanding of how to maintain a healthy gastrointestinal tract. We are barely through the soup, while people next to us who started dining at the same time are already clearing their dishes. Mind you, they had approximately one-third the amount of food on their plates that we did, and we were rather moderate.


Once finished, we clear our plates into the garbage bin, separate our dishes into the appropriate wash basins, and grab a metal cup of water whilst exiting the restaurant. Koreans don't tend to take much liquid with their meals, and Rob tells me this quick gulp exit is also done in India. Perhaps they don't need water to aid in digestion while eating, given the content of their meals.


After lunch, Rob heads to teach his Religions of India class, and I hook up with Kathy, another Summer Exploration teacher, to check out one of the classes. Scott, our EMart guide, is doing an introductory exercise with his students. They are thoroughly engaged, so thrilled are they to have been selected for this intensive program. Over the next several weeks, these students will focus on English speaking and listening skills. Interestingly, they already have a strong grounding in grammar, and their reading and writing skills outpace their ability to actually communicate verbally. This program will give them the chance to develop speaking skills and enhance problem solving skills using English. Further, the Summer Exploration Program allows them to hone their skills while having some fun, which, as any good teacher knows, is the best way to learn.


And these students are certainly under some pressure to learn. Only 170 Chonnam students have passed the muster to get into this program. They've been told to take full advantage of this rare opportunity to learn from instructors from abroad. In the words of the university president himself, "the world has been brought to your classroom," so you must, "immerse yourself," to "increase proficiency," in preparation for a, "competitive and globalized future." There will be no dilly-dallying in the Summer Exploration Program.


Afterwards Kathy and I have coffee with her husband Daniel. This charming couple hails from the American west where Daniel is an Education Professor and Kathy is an audiologist in the public school system. Daniel beckons us to his table with his velvety, sonorous voice. With shining black eyes, and an impish grin, one can see how students would be drawn to him. Kathy is his physical polar opposite. While Daniel is big and very tanned, Kathy is very slender, with strawberry blonde hair, fine features, and gigantic blue eyes. I don't want to impose on their time together, but they insist that I join them. We discuss Important Pedagogical Matters, and the inherent flaws in the education systems in both our countries. (Oddly enough, just this afternoon I happened upon the following quote from Mark Twain: "In the first place, God made idiots; this was for practice. Then he made school boards.) We also talk about our shared loved of Winnipeg and Fargo, North Dakota, the frozen berg where Kathy grew up. We fondly recall trips to one another's home towns, and comment on the friendliness of the citizens. As we exit the cafe, I think to myself that I like the cut of their gib.


I sensed that I would enjoy their company when, upon meeting Kathy, she commented on the program assistants' kindness and deep desire to please. She said that Daniel was concerned how these underlings would fare when dealing with North American professors and their outsized egos. The paucity of humility in the ranks of academe is rather off-putting. Case in point: The other day we had the misfortune of encountering a Very Important Professor from the American Mid-West. He barged into the International Centre with his much younger wife and four year old son in tow, demanding items and services too numerous to mention here. In addition to his scenery devouring ego and bombast, the guy has a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder. When introducing himself, he felt compelled to explain that his Irish surname was given to his ancestors when they stepped off a slave ship. Taking a huge social risk, I burst his bubble by instantly countering that in Canada, we renamed people who were already there. Pause. Then a big belly laugh from Mr. Pompous.

In the afternoon, I head home to do a little prep, and before I know it, I see Rob's belly through the apartment entrance monitor. This device has been set up to capture faces, but at 5'11" Rob is far too tall to hit the mark. In older areas of the city we face similar challenges with doorways that are apparently designed for hobbits.

After a superb dinner, for which we receive 2,000 won change after handing over our meal chits, we decide a perambulation is in order. En route, Rob discovers a 10,000 won bill (a little less than 10 dollars Canadian) on the sidewalk. He picks it up, and then carefully puts it right back where he found it. Rob says with the bounty we're experiencing in our lives, it would be downright greedy to keep it; better to leave it for someone else to get a nice surprise. As we walk on, I glance back to see two young women staring at us, incredulously. Yet they also look at the money, and walk on. I wonder if this is a cultural point.

In Japan, when people find wallets on the street, they either leave them where they lay, or put them in a place where they can be found. That way, the owner can come back to claim the item. And the system works. In in the early 90's, when my niece's husband lost his wallet and passport in Tokyo, it was sent to him by post to Hirsohima-cho, just outside Sapporo. The wallet, with all the money and identification in tact, was mailed in a clear plastic bag. It's the Japanese/Korean version of what some might think of as creating good karma.

And it pays immediate dividends. After searched for days for reasonably priced, simple, yet stylish T-shirts in standard Canadian jumbo size, I finally find not one, but three of them in the exact shade of charcoal gray I'd been seeking. Total cost: 15,000 won! Thank you, God, for my virtuous husband. In the words of John Lennon, "Well we all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun." (Instant Karma)