Hand Sanitiser Edition

Well, the traditional Korean over-caution about foreign threats is well to the fore with the H1N1 threat. I was in Seoul for an English teachers' conference, and there is controversy in the neighbourhood in response to a university plan to build new dorms.

The pic of the week shows a guy painting the apartment opposite. He's on the 10th floor, working alone, suspended by a single rope and sitting on something similar to a child's swing. And not a bother on him. You see a lot of abseiling for cables or maintenance, and workers dangling over moving traffic for street works.

Seoul conference
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I joined the Korea Teacher's of English to Speakers of Other Languages organisation (KOTESOL), and we had our international conference at the weekend. It was an excuse to have a big night out in Seoul, and it was a very late one.

Visiting 'the others'
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Most of the English teachers in Daejeon are in the new downtown area, called Dunsan-dong, which is where most of the private schools (hagwons) are. The town is quite divided between the old downtown, Eunhaeng-dong, nearer to me, and the new downtown. In 'Lost' parlance, I call the teacher's over there 'the others', and we rarely mix. Two English teachers that I worked with in Costa Rica are 'others'. They've been here since before I got here, and I'd only met up with them once. So I gave them a shout last week, and we decided to meet up. It was strange meeting them outside the tropical climes of Costa Rica. We all agreed that we're quite happy here money and workwise, but that we still miss Costa Rica a lot.

Ajuma protest
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The item that I've got most response from people since writing from Korea was about my summer ajuma class. The ajumas are housewives, but the term is synonymous with a small, older but strict woman. Anyway, there is a protest outside the university these days, because there is a proposal to build a new dorm. They're appalled by the idea of more dreaded 'foreigners' being housed there. On a Monday and Wednesday I have to go past them on my scooter, usually stopping right beside them at the lights. I hear the 'foreigner' word in the middle of their Korean. But if I smile at them, they're too polite to smile back. The other day they were all wearing surgical masks, with black X's on them. So I guess there's been some sort of a gagging order. Yet another example of the very healthy protest movements of Korea.

Swine Flu
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I'm not sure how things are back in Ireland with the swine flu threat. But here it's being dealt with in a very Korean manner. There are hand sanitisers everywhere. Whoever is in the business of making them must be getting very wealthy. Every public building has one at the entrance. In addition, many people are wearing surgical masks (and not for a protest). You see it from time to time here in public places anyway, but it's at a different level now. Most of my Chinese students were totally housebound when they went home, because their parents thought that the risk was too great to go out of my house. It's getting closer though. A friend of mine (and I was out with her on Wednesday night) went down with it over the weekend. And she's on 7 days quarantine.
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Well, that's it for this week. I'm off now to prepare for my classes tomorrow morning. I'm running a bit behind because I was away for the weekend, and have been marking the mid-term exams.

Well, that's it for this week. So until next week,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Kyunghyang Shinmun: Influenza A shows signs of pandemic