Le Premier

Introductions: I have finally started a blog.

안냥하세요!

This is the standard Korean greeting, used for "Hello", "Goodbye", and the rhetorical "How are you?"
Literally it means "Are you at peace?", and so should technically be followed by a question mark.
However, I am an English teacher and so allow myself grammatical incorrectness; I am also a writer and so allow myself poetic license.

The more one studies English, the more one recognizes the absurd number of inconsistencies and situational discrepancies which make learning a language so challenging. English is ranked among one of the most difficult languages to learn because of its bastard background. I mean this literally, in that English is the illegitimate offspring of Latin, French, and German, reared in a country fought over by several different people groups and slowly unified by creation of a common language and king. It has continued to develop, filled with unfathomable extraneous letters and syllables, awkward homonyms, synonyms, and idioms, and a vast array of irregular verbs.

Short story: English is tough.
"Difficult, Teacher!" is a phrase I hear often from my English as a Second Language (ESL) students.

In return to this truth I reply, "But it's not impossible!"

This exchange is also a good summary of my life: Difficult, but not impossible. The reason for the possibility is God's grace.

Teaching English in a foreign country where one cannot speak or yet understand the language is awkward. Living in a place where one's looks deviate from the norm and attract constant stares is also awkward. Miscommunication and this status as "exotic other" can be tiresome, frustrating, and wearing on one's nerves.
Lately every time I catch eyes following me in the blatant "Look at that strange creature!" fashion, I mentally retort, "Keep watching: I might do magic!"
I have yet to say these words aloud, thankfully. Although their exact meaning might be lost, the tone of utterance would be clear. And I would only confirm the suspicions of many that foreigners are rude barbarians who redden too quickly, sweat excessively, and disregard civility.

Praise the Lord, God's grace includes many wonders, including patience and ever increasing empathy and compassion. Those qualities are what dam the flow of impatience and intolerance, granting instead gratitude and humor.

I am starting this blog as a regular greeting to those who are far away and so graciously think of me, pray for me, and send letters and cards. It is a genial letter of response in which I will share of my experiences, from mundane to thrilling (mostly in-between.)

This week will mark my fourth month in Korea, and the close of October my fourth month of teaching English for SDA Language Institute in Daejeon. I teach juniors (children) and adults, from 6:00 AM until 7:15 PM (yes, I have time off in the afternoon). The schedule is grueling and the teaching can be exhausting, if only in effort to keep smiling and encouraging the students and co-teachers. But, God is good all the time, and for every challenge He pours out blessings, if only in the satisfaction of that title: "Teacher!"

I never wanted to come to Korea; I never wanted to teach in a boxed-in room; I never considered life in a tiny studio apartment in the midst of a city in a country of an unknown language--but here I am.
This is my life now.
And although it is awkward and exhausting and fraught with frustration, I am glad to be here.