2010 Ulsan Cup

The biggest foreign football tournament in Korea was held at the weekend in Ulsan, and we entered.

There were 16 teams in all, 4 in each group. All of the teams had mostly foreign players except for one, "the Korean team." One team dropped out last minute so they were allowed to enter to make up the numbers. Oh, and all their players are near professional.

Saturday was the group stages and we had the toughest group with the Koreans, Seoul and Won Shot Wanderers from Ulsan. Still we managed to finish 2nd, only losing to the Koreans.

Never play soccer against the Koreans, with a Korean ref. My word you've never seen such bias refereeing. Proper anti-waygook decisions. And the Koreans go down easier than Ronaldo. They're terrified of breaking a nail.

That night the organisers held a buffet for all the teams, then I went to watch the North London derby with the gaffer. "Gonna have an early one tonight gaffer, go home after the game." 3 am I was in KFC!

Next day was the knockouts. We got to the semi finals and were knocked out by Jeonju who went on to win the tournament without conceding a goal. They were quality.

Barry had to go to hospital. He clashed heads with their striker clearing a corner. He had to have staples in his head and half his tooth fell out.

But enough about how good they were, let's talk about how good Busan were.

3rd place playoff against the Koreans. Final score 1-1 and we beat them on penalties.

 We won a big trophy in a glass case. It's sat in my room. Looks beautiful in the morning sun. Keep that quiet though, the gaffer doesn't know were it is.

Vayz vs Vahz

One of the 1st weeks teaching in Korea and I'm in a Grade 4 lesson. I'm teaching them some new words, and up pops a classic word which separates British and American English...vase.

For anyone who doesn't know, Ronald McDonald would say Vayz and Queen Lizzie would say Vahz.

It's no secret that in Korea, people are more accustomed to an American accent than a British. So without wanting to confuse their 9 year old Kimchi loving minds, I said Vayz.

Since then I've adjusted the way I say many words. I say soccer instead of football, I say Mom instead of Mum, eraser instead of rubber, trash instead of rubbish. I was writing favourite on the board the other day, and I rubbed it out and wrote favorite instead.

I told some British friends about it at the weekend and they were shocked at my treachery to a language "that is ours!" How do you claim to own a language? It's like a dog saying "Well, we invented barking. So if you humans want to woof, you're going to have to pay us in scooby snacks."

As of yet, I haven't pointed out to my students that there are other pronunciations for some words. I've simply said it the American way. These kids have enough vocabulary shoved into their tiny little Kimchi loving heads without having to learn different ways of saying it. After all, I have a much better command of the English language and it's not hard for me to switch between Limey and Yanky Doodle English.

But yesterday my co-teacher gave me a ppt about Thanksgiving and asked me to read it to the kids. The last slide said "Thanksgiving is celebrated every November." I was quick in pointing out that it is celebrated in October in Canada.

I then felt like a bit of a hypocrite and like I haven't been teaching them British things for fear of sounding like a Brit with a chip on his shoulder.

How do you do it? I'm interested to know. Is Kev la a sell out? Should I speak British English and nothing else? Or would that also make me a sell out for not speaking Scouse?  Or am I doing the right thing? I'm interested to know how the rest of you feel.

Kev La

Kev the Superstar

I was watching this video the other day, reminiscing about the good ol' days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISaOiO7jZFA&feature=fvst

A 5th grade girl came over to my desk, saw Alonso and said "Oh! Teacher, you?!" I nodded very nonchalantly.

Next thing, she goes and gets her mates, and 3 screaming girls come running into my office saying "Teacher! Teacher! Sign here!"

So I wrote Gerrard as though it was a signature, again very cool and calm as though I'd signed a million autographs before theirs.

They leave. 5 minutes later they come back with more friends wanting autographs. Without realising it I even signed the back of a girls photograph of her and her grandmother. I feel a bit bad about that.

It's so easy to tell these kids something which makes me look super cool.

We're using this video for one of our lessons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsNubOGv_mg

I told the students that the guy with the brown hair, the first person you see on the video, that's me when I was 18.

"Wow! Kevin teacher Ga Su(Singer)!" Now they think I'm an international football star and in a British pop band! I'm cool with that. So long as they don't stick a guitar in my hand, they won't find out that all I can play is Mary Had a Little Lamb, and this little performance can happily continue.

Try it. Tell your kids something outrageous and see if you get away with it. Show them a video of Justin Timberlake and tell them he's your cousin. Or show them a video of a popstar they won't know and say it's you. It works a treat and is hilarious. And it gets you more Pepero (빼빼로).

Happy Pepero Day folks.

I was going to say Happy Remembrance Day but I'm not sure you can have a happy one.