Watching Movies in Paju

This weekend I headed to Seoul yet again. All of the new ETAs are assigned mentors to look after them for the first half of their grant year and this weekend my mentor, who lives in Seoul, arranged for our first mentor/mentee outing. Therefore the four Hwacheon made our way to Seoul on Friday night. Rachel and I enjoyed a really nice dinner in the Ewha University area. We were able to eat Indian food for dinner and split cheesecake for dessert. Going to Seoul is always nice because you can find any food you want. Our town only has Korean restaurants, which are good, but I do miss the variety of an American diet versus a Korean diet.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Paju for the 4th Annual International DMZ FIlm Festival. Paju is a city north of Seoul that is incredibly close to the DMZ. When we first arrived we walked through Paju Book City, which is a special part of the town that is known for the numerous publishing companies that are located there. We went into a few of the publishing factories but almost all of the publishers primarily published children's books. There were a few book stores with used books in English that we enjoyed paging through. The town was really quaint and yet there were children everywhere bringing Paju to life.

I then saw three documentaries at the two theaters. The first documentary I watched was by far my favorite and was entitled, "Call Me Kuchu". The film was about the struggle for LGBT rights in Uganda, where a law was nearly passed that called for the hanging of anyone who is LGBT. The law also mandated that anyone who knows someone who is LGBT must report them within 24 hours or they will be sentenced to 3 years in jail. The documentary specifically focused on David Kato, who was Uganda's first openly gay movie. The film was unbelievably heartbreaking and moving. You can watch a trailer for it here.

I also watched a documentary on the New York Times, which was really well made. The last documentary we watched was "If Hurt, Shout Out". This was a Korean documentary that chronicled the formation of the Youth Union. This is a group of people in their 20s and 30s who are fighting for better living conditions for unemployed and transient youth workers. The documentary definitely taught me a lot about how hard it is for many 20 and 30-somethings to find jobs and it was neat to be able to draw so many parallels with the job situation in America. I found the topic even more compelling since many of my friends are still looking for jobs and trying to get by despite the odds. The film festival was a really great time and I'm so glad my mentor arranged the trip for us.

The Hwacheon girls in Paju.

Us with our wonderful mentor!

On Sunday, before I headed back home to Hwacheon I was able to see one of my Korean teachers. She is moving to Germany for a year to teach Korean so it was probably the last time I would be able to see her. I was really glad she was able to meet me and the few other ETAs before we all left Seoul for the weekend.

This week is going to be a long once because my fifth and sixth graders both have exams. I am hoping the results are a little less spread than last time. One of the biggest challenges I am facing is the incredible gap between my students. One the last test 75% of the class got a 10 or better out of 12 but the remaining 25% received less than a 4. This showed me that the test was way too easy for most of the class but was way too hard for the other students. I am still trying to decide what the best way to tackle this problem is since the difference is primarily caused by some students attending hagwon after school and some not. 5th and 6th grade is when parents really start pushing their students and the gap between the top students and the bottom of the class becomes an abyss in all subjects, not just English.