Taking Photos: Koreans' #1 Pastime

Koreans love taking photos.  It's as simple as that.  Almost anywhere you go you will see Koreans toting around their pricey, new, digital cameras with their multiple lenses.  Being in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, Koreans generally love their gadgets.  Galaxy Tabs, ipads, and smart phones of all sorts are everywhere.  Expensive cameras are no exception.  If you didn't know better you might think that this country has more professional photographers per capita than all other countries, but then you realize they just all look like professional photographers.  I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the only countries in which the natives take more pictures than the tourists.

Not only do Koreans like to take pictures, but they like to take pictures of themselves.  Tourist destinations are set up with photo opps so that people can take as many pictures as they want in various locations, with various objects.  One of my first excursions outside of Daegu took me to Gayasan mountain (which I wrote about in a previous post).  On the short hike up to Heinsa Temple there was a designated area, complete with a sign telling the photographer and model that this was a good spot to take a picture.  The sign was posted right at the entrance of a small foot bridge that was obviously built to take photographs on, as it was next to the pedestrian route and completely unnecessary (besides for taking pics).  As we stood by the bridge examining the mountain map a few couples and families posed for pictures on the bridge.

I snapped the above picture at a small theme park in Daegu called Herb Hillz.  It's a really wacky park built on hills, as the name suggests.  I guess the point of the park is to learn about nature, specifically different herbs.  There's also a small petting zoo and the main attraction for foreigners, zip lining courses.  While we were waiting for our zip-lining time to arrive we walked around the park to see what it was all about.  Basically the entire park is for people to take photos.  The above photo shows that I was at 'photo point 8' when I took the shot.  I swear the park designer must have been smoking some type of herb when building the park.  Here's a photo taken of me at one of the designated photo areas:

Here is one of my favorite examples showing the extent to which Koreans will go to snap the most perfect picture:

As you can see, the boyfriend (i'm assuming) has got his small digital point and shoot camera on a big ass tripod.  Like I mentioned before, Koreans love to take pictures of themselves so often times they haul around tripods so couples and families can have pictures together without someone being left out or having to ask a random person to take the photo.  I guess if you don't mind carrying a tripod around it's a good idea.  This photo shows the extent to which one will go to get a good photo of their significant other.  The guy is holding the camera, still on the tripod, trying to get the best shot of his girlfriend at the photo zone.

Couples here loooooove to take photos together.  Awhile back I was in Seoul at a park by the river where a big festival was going on.  There were lots of people gathered for the festival, sunbathing on the grass by the river.  I was walking around trying to figure out where I was going when I see a couple laying on an incline on top of a blanket, with their camera sitting on a tripod about 3 feet in front of them, pointed at them.  They weren't doing anything but cuddling.  I don't know if they were filming themselves laying on a blanket at a festival or if they had previously taken pictures of themselves laying on a blanket at a festival.  Either way it's pretty wacky.  I wonder if they will go home and look through their photos of themselves laying on a blanket at a festival and show their friends and say, "Oh, and this one's of us laying on a blanket at a festival."

Another funny photo-related anecdote takes place at my school about two weeks after an open class.  One afternoon my coteacher tells me, "we go to meet with other teachers to talk about open class and take picture."  As always, I obey like a trained dog and follow her to a nearby classroom where two other teachers await us.  I really have no idea what we are doing.  All I know is that we are talking about our open class we had a few weeks before and "taking picture".  I sit down with the two other teachers and my coteacher makes a phone call then sits down.  The teachers pass out blank pieces of paper and pens, then start talking in Korean.  About 3 minutes later a coworker comes in with a camera.  The three other teachers pick up their papers and hold them out in front of them so it looks like they are reading something.  They keep discussing whatever they're discussing and I follow suit, picking up my paper and acting like I have some sort of idea what's going on.  After about one minute of photo taking the lady with the camera leaves and my coteacher stands up (I follow like a good dog) and she says goodbye, we bow and walk out.  I am so confused by this point and beg for an explanation.  My coteacher tells me, "we have meeting with other teachers to discuss open class."  I'm confused because no teachers even watched our open class.  She tells me that they watched the video tape.  Alright, that makes sense.  Then I ask why the lady came in with the camera to take pictures. She says, "For proof that we had conference about open class."  Wow.  So we had to have a fake 5 minute long "conference" so that pictures could be taken to prove that we had a real conference about open class.

After experiencing and pondering all these situations in which photos are so important I wonder, why?  Could it merely be the fact that Korea is so hyper techno obsessed that they want to incorporate technology into their lives in as many ways as possible?  Is it because they want to flaunt their latest and most expensive gadgets?

Maybe Koreans just like looking at photos of themselves.  Any foreigner and Korean will tell you how obsessed Korean culture is with appearance.  Plastic surgery and cosmetics are huge markets here.  People are constantly looking at their reflections in windows and their mirrors they carry around in their purses, always touching up their hair or makeup.  Do they just like to see how good they look in photos, act like models for a little while?  I honestly don't know how they have the time to go back and look at all the photos they take.  I kinda wonder if they even do it.

As in the story above, are pictures merely a way to prove that someone did something, went somewhere with someone?  Obviously it's a way to prove to the principal that we had a mandatory conference that we really didn't have.  Is it a way for couples to prove their love for each other to others?  To themselves?

Maybe it's as simple as preserving memories.

I'll probably never know.

Open Class Illusions

This post is for all the teachers in my family back home.

In Korean public school systems exists a phenomenon called 'open class.'  It is well known to all native Korean teachers and foreign teachers alike, as everyone must participate throughout the school year.  Open class is basically when people are invited to come observe a teacher 'teach' a class.  Sometimes the visitors are the vice principal, principal and coworkers from the teacher's own school.  Other times they are parents of the students in the class or teachers from other schools.  But on occasion the people that come to watch the class are people in high-up positions at the Office of Education.

Open class is basically a Korean teacher's worst fear.  The nerves that build up over weeks of preparation are enough to break a person down.  When a Korean teacher finds out the date and time of her open class she will spend weeks planning and preparing.  Unlike in the U.S. this is not a time when the principal comes in, sits in the corner unnoticed by students and takes a few quick notes on what the teacher is doing.  It is far from that.  Instead, the teacher creates an extremely elaborate illusion of what their class would look like in a perfect world where the teacher has an infinite number of hours to plan and prepare for their classes.  And this is what it is expected to be.  It is no secret.

Let me give you an example.  Three days ago one of my fourth grade classes was cancelled due to the fact that our head teacher, who is a P.E. teacher, was going to have an open class the next day.  The head teacher and his class needed to 'practice' the lesson the day before so they would be prepared for when the important people from the Office of Education would come the next day to observe.  Yes, they actually practiced the exact class that they would be having the next day and held their students out of my class to do it.  The next day I walk up to school having completely forgot about the head teacher's open class, but am quickly reminded of it the second I step foot on school grounds.  Groups of students are scurrying around with little brooms and dustpans sweeping up all the fallen leaves and dirt off the driveway.  The dirt field in front of the school, which is used for P.E. classes and sports, is completely covered in sports equipment.  Let me just tell you that I have NEVER seen anything on this field besides the two permanent soccer nets that it houses and elementary schoolers playing various sports.  On this day the students would have the greatest P.E. class of their lives.  They would get to participate in an cornucopia of sports ranging from badminton to bowling to balance beaming.  On the field were various types and sizes of nets, mats, stools, big, wood things that looked like a bean bag toss without a hole in the middle and special equipment at each station.  Someone had even gotten out chalk they use on baseball fields to designate each area. I too had to sacrifice for this class.  My coteacher and I were asked to haul our oversized dry-erase board down three flights of stairs out to the field.  Who uses a dry-erase board in the middle of a dirt field?  When the decorating was finished all I could really do was laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole affair.  But I was the only one laughing.

To make matters even more extreme, the school apparently bought over 20 two-foot potted flowers.  As we were lugging the dry-erase board outside the vice principal would stop every 10-feet to indicate where the students should place each pot.  It was someone's genius idea to place these directly in the middle of the hallway, as if it was totally natural to have barriers in the middle of the hallway of an elementary school where students are constantly running, jumping, sliding, hitting, kicking and participating in outrageous activities I've never even seen before.  There is no way that on a normal day these flowers would have lasted 10 minutes without getting knocked over and destroyed.  At the end of the line of flowers there was a table set up with various books, binders and student creations all on the subject of P.E.  The Office of Educationites could explore the wealth of knowledge belonging to our beautiful, perfect school, students and staff.

And the next day the beautiful illusion ceased to exist.  (How'd you like that one sentence paragraph, Jay?)

 The school's field on a normal day. 

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on open class day but you can imagine.

Now I'll briefly tell you about my own open class, which I have yet to do.  Well, originally I was supposed to do it on the 6th of October.  Then it changed to the 13th, then the 12th of November and now it is scheduled for November 19th.  Since it was originally supposed to be the 6th of October my coteacher and I will naturally be teaching the lesson that we would have taught would it have been that day, 4th grade Chapter 11 Part 2.  Instead, when we actually teach our class, our students will be on Chapter 14 Part 1.  Oh, and did I mention that November 19th is a Friday and I don't even teach 4th graders on Friday?  Yes, we will be having a class that day that doesn't actually exist.  We will be teaching a lesson that the students learned a month and a half before and that we already practiced with them.  I'm sure we will practice it for a second time the day before.  For this class my coteacher spent hours creating the lesson and laminating and cutting out paper and I pretty much did nothing.  This is not because I am lazy or don't care.  It is because Korean teachers take this so damn seriously and get so stressed out over it that they won't let their coteachers do anything because they could screw it up.  If they screwed it up then what would happen?  Probably nothing.

I just have to mention again the fact that EVERYBODY knows that this happens and it is expected.  If a teacher's open class lesson didn't look so overtly outrageous the people at the Office of Education, and everyone else, would have a fit.  I'm sure the whole school would learn about it as soon as it happened (or before) and everyone would be talking about it.  Maybe my criticism is too harsh because I come from a different culture and am used to things a different way, but I really have thought long and hard about this trying to think of the reasoning and I just don't believe it is the best way to evaluate a teacher's ability and success as an educator.  It also causes so much stress on the teacher and takes time away from the students' learning, as they have to practice the same lesson multiple times in an unnatural fashion.

On the plus-side, students will be so well behaved there will be no corporal punishment in the classroom the entire period.

The next day the flowers (this is only half) had been moved to a more practical location.

Maybe I'll get to take one home with me.