Dispatches by John P. Gamboa

It’s pretty safe to say that I’ve traveled a lot over the last 18 months.  I’ve been quite lucky.

From studying abroad in Singapore and traveling around Southeast Asia, to spending a few days a week in Tijuana, to South Korea to teach English, I’ve been able to take quite a few photos. If you haven’t noticed, the thumbnails on the bottom right of this site have finally changed.

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Today I made a fool out of myself in front of all my kids. While attempting to start a lesson, I smeared chalk dust all over myself, most comically, all over the front of my pants.

It’s pretty safe to say that I’m a bit of a klutz. I drop things, like all mere mortals. My problem is that when I drop something, or something falls to the ground, I attempt to catch it stop it from falling. My goal is to be like Skellen Skarsgard’s character in Ronin. While I can make amazing grabs once in a while, most times, I end up making things worse.

That’s exactly what happened today in class. Lately, I’ve been teaching this lesson about a BBC poll which showed that most people around the world believe the Internet is a basic human right. It’s mostly a comprehension and listening exercise sprinkled with some other complex thinking. Well, as I was writing some of the answers on the blackboard, I dropped a fairly dirty chalk eraser. It bounced off the wall and as I tried to catch it wiped down the left side of my jacket and precisely in the middle of my crotch. I had this pink-white chalk stain strewn about my dark slacks.

Right before then, my co-teacher had gone out of the classroom to make some photocopies of my lesson, so I was pretty much solo.

So, as soon as I chalked myself, the kids broke into uncontrollable laughter. I tried covering it up, but it was no use. It was impossible to control while my teacher was out for a moment. So, for the next two minutes, I practically did a Charlie Chaplin-like stand up routine employing my terrible sense of physical comedy.

It lightened the mood for sure and showed a clumsier side of me to the students, but it was worth it. That’s because when we started the actual lesson, the listened and had input. I guess they realized I wasn’t as much of an ogre as they thought.

Ok. Today technically marks my two full weeks “teaching” at Kumdan Middle School, but more importantly it’s my first full five-day teaching cycle. Which is to say, tomorrow I start a new lesson plan.

Teaching middle school kids is an interesting experience. I told people the reason why I chose middle school was because middle school kids are awkward, I was awkward in middle school and I’m still awkward. So it’s a perfect fit.

The way the system works is that I teach one hour of conversational English …Click to Continue Reading or Comment »

1. Kids These Days – One thing I noticed, that I haven’t seen in Asia really, or America over the last year for that matter, is the amount of young people in the service industry. Right before I left for South Korea I went to the Apple store in Roseville to pick up some accessories for my recently-purchased Macbook Pro. What struck me was the number of 40+ year-old people working there. I doubt any of them could accurately explain the difference between DVI, Mini-DVI and VGA. I guess when the economy tanks, American kids don’t get jobs. Not in Korea. From restaurants to 7-Elevens, people who don’t look much older than 17 are working behind the counter. The 7-Elevens are what surprised me, as I would just expect them to get robbed all the time. Well, at least in the States. Maybe the economic implosion didn’t hit Korea as hard.
2. The Starcraft Network – OK, I get it, East Asian TV is weird. …Click to Continue Reading or Comment »

So far, this first week in Republic of Korea has been an interesting experience to say the least. I have a list of some very odd anecdotes of my first week here. Sort of in a chronological order.

1. Drunk Korean Men Love Foreigners Who Don’t Speak Korean – The first night I went out and about around Eulji University (where the EPIK orientation was) made for an interesting experience. Myself, my roommate Jamian and eight South Africans went to a bar called C & C where a guy bought us three rounds of drinks and a plate of fruit. It was much appreciated, albeit impossible to understand.
2. “You Can Never Leave The Burbs, No Matter Where You Go” – Those were the words from my friend Nick, whom I traveled extensively with in Southeast Asia last year. …Click to Continue Reading or Comment »