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bibimbap{ {Volume 3 • Issue 1

A Healthy Mix of EFL Teaching Resources, Information, and Korean Culture

Expand your classroom beyond the limitation of textbooks page 4

How much power does your school have when it comes to your time off? page 16

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For questions and comments concerning articles please contact the writer via their emails listed at the end of their articles

For general inquiries please contact:

BibimbapNews@gmail.com

general managment

Chris Devison chrisofficeofeducation@yahoo.com Dinh Nguyen d11nguye@gmail.com

Lindsay Ross Ross6520@gmail.com

copy editor

Edward Chaneyedwardtchaney@gmail.com

art director

Dinh Nguyen

production team

Chris Devison Dinh Nguyen

Edward Chaney

Joe Campbell

Kenny Short

Lindsay Ross

Richard Tang

Justin Ancheta

photographers

Richard TangJoe Campbell

front cover photo : Joe Campbell

All non-credited photos, courtesy Wikimedia creative commons.

EST. 2013 • Volume 3 • Issue 1 • May 2015bibimbap{ {

Chris Devison is the Provincial Coordinator for the Jeollanamdo Language Program. He has lived in South Korea for almost 10 years, and has spent six of those years in his current position. Aside from assisting public school teachers with their contract and school life, he has a keen interest in health and wellness. Having lived in both Western and Eastern cultures, he has a strong under-standing of the healthiest practices of both worlds.

Before coming to South Korea, Dinh Nguyen was a Canadian journalist. He has 6 years experience as an editor, reporter, and desktop publishing designer. After obtaining his CELTA in 2012, he moved to Yeosu to follow his passion for teaching and traveling. He recently completed the CELTA YLE.

Copy Editor, Edward Chaney worked for the Hayden's Ferry Review, a literary journal published out of Arizona State University (ASU). He was exposed to the Jeollanamdo Language Program during an internship with ASU’s MTESOL program. Since then, he and his wife has moved to South Korea, and will be finishing up their first year come April.

After completing his degree and travelling around Canada exten-sively, Joseph Campbell recently moved to South Korea to teach English and immerse himself in a foreign and fascinating culture. He is always looking for something new to learn, and you won’t find many topics that don’t interest him.

Lindsay Ross is a Canadian teacher in South Korea. After get-ting her bachelor of education in 2011, she moved to South Korea, and has been living in Mokpo since. She has taught at the middle and high school levels. Among other articles, Lindsay also researches and put together the Holiday schedule and events calendar for Bibimbap.

Starting off in Hong Kong with a Canon 550D, Richard Tang ventured out to experience Asian culture. 3 years later, he is now carrying his Olympus E-M10 across South Korea. As a NET and photographer, he hopes to share the views and culture he experi-ences with anyone who is interested.

The Editorial Team

Justin Ancheta is a science and education major who is currently in his third year of teaching in South Korea. He has taught at the elementary and middle school levels, and is interested in under-standing student culture, gamification in the classroom, and ways to better engage students.

For over a year, Kenny Short has been a Native English Teacher in Yeosu. Prior to his time in South Korea, he has taught English in Colombia, Guatemala, and Seattle. He is currently completing his K-6 teaching endorsement through the online teacher train-ing program, Teach-Now. Kenny is interested in student-centered teaching methodology, ed-tech, and ed-policy.

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Upcoming holiday and event calendar 4 6

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Photo essay: Cherry blossom season in Jeollanamdo

Dining with Dinh: The perfect Vietnamese Chicken Rice Noodle Soup (Pho’ Ga)

Letter from the Coordinator: Unpaid leave and the principal’s power over your holidays

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A student-centred approach with SMART and Skype

Teaching without a computer

Behind the cover

9 Surviving the South Korean summer

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Feb - May 31: Yangpyeong Strawberry Festival (양평딸기체험축제; Gyeonggi-do) April – May 31: Spring (Flower) Festival of The Garden of Morning Calm (아침고요수목원봄나들이봄꽃축제;

Gyeonggi-do)

April – May 31: International CeraMIX Biennale (경기세계도자비엔날레;

Gyeonggi-do)

April - May 17: Icheon Ceramic Festival (이천도자기축제; Gyeonggi-

do)

April - May 17: Yeoju Ceramic Festival (여주도자기축제; Gyeonggi-do)

April - May 17: Gwangju Royal Ceramic Festival (광주왕실도자기축제; Gyeonggi-do)

May 1 - 17: Hapcheon Royal Azalea Festival (합천황매산철쭉제; Gyeongsangnam-do)

May 1 - 25: Busan Lotus Lantern Festival (부산연등축제; Busan)

May 15 - 17: Ulsan Soeburi Cultural Festival (울산쇠부리축제; Ulsan)

May 15 - 17: Lotus Lantern Festival (연등회연등축제; Seoul)

May 16 - 17: HangangSeoraeseom Canola Festival (한강서래섬유채꽃축제; Seoul)

May 17: Seongbuk Culture Diver-sity Festival (성북세계음식축제; Seoul)

May 20 - 24: YeongjuSeonbi Culture Festival (영주선비문화축제; Gyeongsangbuk-do)

May 22 - 25: Hadong Wild Tea Festival (하동야생차문화축제; Gyeongsangnam-do)

Upcoming holidays and events May 1 to 31

joe campbell

May 22 - 26: Boseong Green Tea Festival (보성다향제; Jeollanam-do)

May 22 - 25: NamwonChunhyang(Love Story) Festival (남원춘향제; Jeollabuk-do)

May 22 - 31: International Rose Festival Gokseong (곡성세계장미축제; Jeollanam-do)

May 23 - 28: International Cartoon & Animation Festival (서울국제만화애니메이션페스티벌; Seoul)

May 23 - 25: Seoul Jazz Festival (SJF) (서울재즈페스티벌; Seoul)

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June 12 - 13: Ultra Music Festival Korea (울트라뮤직페스티벌코리아; Seoul)

June 16 - 23: Gangneung Danoje Festival (강릉단오제; Gangwon-do)

July 10 - 19: BuyeoSeodong Lotus Festival (부여서동연꽃축제; Chungcheongnam-do)

July 17 - 26: Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제; Chungcheongnam-do)

Summer 여름 (yeo-leum) It’s summer! 여름이다! (yeo-leum-ee-da)

Hot (weather) 덥다 (teop-da) I'm hot 더워요 (teo-wuh-yo)

It’s so hot I could die 너무더워서죽겠다 (neo-moo teo-wuh-seo juk-get-da)

Monsoon season 장마철 ( jang-ma-cheol) Every year South Korea has a monsoon season한국에는매년장마철이와요 (han-guk-eh-neun mae-nyun jang-ma-cheol-ee wa-yo)

by lindsay ross ross6520@gmail.com

June and July

May 23 - 31: Ulsan Grand Park Rose Festival (울산대공원장미축제; Ulsan)

May 24 - 31: Chuncheon International Mime Festival (춘천마임축제; Gangwon-do)

May 28 - 31: EumseongPumba Festival (음성품바축제; Chungcheongbuk-do)

May 28 - 31: Ulsan Whale Festival (울산고래축제; Ulsan)

May 29 – 31: Busan Port Festival (부산항축제; Busan)

May 22 - 25: Yongdaeri Hwangtae (Pollack) Festival (용대리황태축제; Gangwon-do)

June 11 - 14: Hansan Ramie Fabric Cul-tural Festival (한산모시문화제; Chungcheongnam-do)

June 12 - 16: Busan International Dance Festival (BIDF) (부산국제무용제; Busan)

To list upcoming events for your organization, please contact Lindsay Ross or:

bibimbapnews@gmail.com

Want to get involved with Bibimbap? Good news, we’re accepting new writers.

Air conditioner 에어컨(ae-uh-con)

Is it okay to turn on the air conditioner? 에어컨틀어도되요? (ae-uh-con teul-uh-do twae-yo?) Please open the window 창문 좀 열어 주세요 (chang-moon jom yeol-uh joo-sae-yo) Please close the window 창문 좀 닫아 주세요 (chang-moon jom tad-ah joo-sae-yo)

Summer Vacation 여름방학 (yeo-leum-bang-hak)

It’s summer break! 여름방학이다! (yeo-leum-bang-hak-ee-da)

Korean Expressions:

For the summer

joe campbell

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Educ

atio

nGoing Global, Going SMART with Skype Engaging students in self-directed learning with the use of technology and the global community.

kenny short

writer

In 2012, the Korean Education Min-istry announced it’s “Self-Directed, Motivated, Adaptive, Resources,

Technology embedded (SMART) Educa-tion” plan. In an effort to create an edu-cation system which is less passive, more creative, and more adaptive, the plan called for wide scale integration of Infor-mation and Communication Technology (ICT). In fact, the plan set 2015 as the deadline for digitizing the entire school curriculum to make it more accessible to 21st Century learners. Yet, in spite of the reported 67% of Korean youth ages 5-19 that have smartphones and the widely touted high-speed broadband access in Korea, ICT is not leveraged for learning in most classrooms, yet.

This is where Skype in the Class-room comes in. Most of us have a broadband internet connection, a computer connected to a classroom monitor, a classroom document camera, and headphones with a microphone; or, if you are an online “J-Distance” teacher, you have a webcam with a built-in microphone. This is all it takes to get started and begin using the ICT in your classroom to connect your EFL students with native English speakers the world over. Where to start

If you do not have a Skype account, you should start there. If you already have a Skype account, you can use that as your login for Skype Education. You can create a distinct teacherly profile name, like “Mr. Short,” add a professional pro-file pic, enter your location in the world, and give a brief description of your aims for using Skype in your classroom.

Next, you can “find a lesson” or “find a teacher.” There is a really cool map with classes and teachers pinned all over the world. You can zoom in and out and more or less teacher pins appear as a result. If you click on a pin, it will automatically scroll down to that teacher’s Skype Education profile and from there you can select that person and message them directly.

My suggestion is to “find a teacher” first. I spent some time searching to “find a lesson,” first. I signed up for lessons and did not get any responses from those teachers. However, when I started search-ing for teachers in our general time zone, for example, classroom teachers in Aus-tralia and New Zealand or International School teachers in Japan and China, I had much more success messaging them directly and proposing a Skype classroom collaboration. A Global Lesson

The trending Skype lesson on Twit-ter is #MysterySkype. This is billed as a “global guessing game” where students in each class prepare questions, hints, show and tell items, etc. that allow the other class to guess their location. Skype Edu-cation recommends that #MysterySkype beginner classes start off playing 20 ques-tions, preparing that set of questions and a few hints to give to the other class. This is ideal for our EFL students because it allows us to pre-teach the target language; questioning, locations, directions, place specific vocabulary and more. You can scaffold the whole process and interac-tion for your timid Korean students by helping them fully prepare before so they know what language to expect once you are in the Skype call.

There are many more ways that inno-vative teachers are using this all over the

world to support a wide range of content learning. Students are brainstorming conflict resolution strategies via recorded Skype messages across the world and teachers are designing standards-based social studies lessons to compare and contrast their own customs and traditions with that of a foreign culture. The tool can be used as simply as a 21st century version of pen pals or as complex as a collaborative research and writing project. My plan

I am currently planning my first #MysterySkype lesson with a 6th grade teacher in Hobart, Tasmania. For my first lesson I want to give my students the best shot at success, so we have agreed to limit the lesson to the Austra-lian class guessing our location through questioning. This will allow my students to answer questions concerning basic facts about Korea, which they will know. And those questions and answers can be more easily supported by a bilingual Korean co-teacher. I suspect that the creation and translation of questions from Korean to English in order for my students to figure out where in Australia those students are would be very time consuming and possibly discouraging for both parties. At least this first time, I want to be able to scaffold this process so that both parties walk away feeling successful and encouraged.

The other way you can use Skype in your classroom is via a recorded mes-sage exchange with another class, similar to the old school pen pal programs. This allows for classes to have an exchange or do #MysterySkype in spite of impos-sible time zone differences. So, for those of you who know a teacher back home in Canada or the U.S., there is a way to connect with them even though they are in school there while we are asleep here.

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courtesy: unesco

I am working with two teachers right now to set up this kind of recorded mes-sage exchange, one classroom is located in Florida, U.S.A. and is interested in doing a basic show and tell cultural exchange, while the other classroom is in northern China and wants to do a #Mys-terySkype lesson over the long-term. In both cases we are planning on recording one short message per week. Final Tips

As you can imagine, considering the timidity of many of our Korean students to produce authentic language on demand; planning, preparing and practicing a recorded lesson might lead to a more fruitful exchange than a live Skype lesson. However, there are ways to prepare students for the live chat as well, introducing key vocabulary, sentence stems and making it completely clear, in Korean, the purpose and goal of the Skype exchange.

The planning and preparation will generally require significant buy-in from your Korean co-teacher, which I know may be a tall order for many of you. You may have to put a great deal of effort into identifying your cur-riculum’s target language that will be used authentically in the Skype lesson. You may also need to start with a baby step like recording a simple message for another class one time, and then checking in with the co-teacher about the possibility of an ongoing exchange. It is probably obvious to you that the value of the lesson and the time it will take to schedule and plan it may not be immediately understood and commit-ted to by your co-teacher.

Lastly, it is important to strategi-cally choose a class you feel has the makeup to do well and get something

out of this kind of global live lesson. You know your students best and you know the ones who are outgo-ing and who try and chat in English with you all the time. The first few times you experiment with this kind of lesson, you should lean on those students and those classes, if you have them.

I will check back in with more info and tips once I get a few Skype lessons under my belt.

kennyshort@gmail.com

Resources Skype learning home page Skype learning user guide How you can Actually teach beyond your classroom’s walls Educational technology in South Korea Twitter @mysteryskype@SkypeClassroom#skype2learn

The trending Skype lesson on Twitter is #MysterySkype. This is billed as a “global guessing game” where students in each class prepare questions, hints, show and tell items, etc. that allow the other class to guess their location. “ “

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justin ancheta

writer

It may be the worst-case scenario for any foreign EFL teacher in Korea: the classroom

computer is inoperable. Maybe the monitor is broken, or Microsoft Office is corrupted, or Windows has crashed, or the projector has turned into a black-and-white display circa-1950. Or maybe the stars have aligned, leaving a foreign teacher in a perfect storm of technological calamity; a place where everything, from the computer, to the mouse, to the projector are completely inoperative.

Such circumstances can lead to feelings of frustration and panic. However, all is not lost. In the ab-sence of a class computer, there are many low-cost, low-tech games that are easily implementable in a public elementary or middle-school EFL classroom. The only requirements are a small amount of preparation time and some basic materials.

Pass-The-Ball/Hot Potato

In this common game, students pass a ball amongst themselves to practice the key language points of the week's lesson. Key sentences should be noted on the blackboard.

One common modification has the students pass the ball while music is playing (usually a class favorite K-pop or English pop song). Without a computer or functioning AV system, a smartphone could be used to play the song.

To maximize class participation, the teacher can choose a student to call out or decide when the class starts and stops passing the ball. For A and B dialogues, two balls can be passed, with throwers being “A” and receivers being B.”

As the game is played, more balls can be added to heighten tension in the game. Also, a light penalty can be assigned for dropped balls (e.g stand-ing up before the game is finished).

Finally, added variety can come with other items used as “the ball”. Possibilities can include rubber chick-ens, plush dolls, or squeaky rubber pet toys (the latter may cost from 1,000 – 2,000won, and are found at any Daiso or dollar store). Before choosing items, the teacher should be beware of objects that may injure a student on impact.

The Kimchi Game

This activity was taken from a 2014 KOTESOL presentation by Jacob Boer. Here, the class is given a sentence (written on the board): the students have to speak

aloud each word in that sentence, in order (according to seating ar-rangement).

If the sentence is “I like bibim-bap!” for example, one student says “I,” the next says “like,” and the next says “bibimbap.” The next stu-dent says the whole sentence aloud (“I like bibimbap!”). The student after says “Kimchi!” and the next student is “out.” A light penalty can be given to students who are “out;” for elementary students, they can per-form a short dance, or say a goofy English sentence (e.g. “I love Justin Bieber!”).

For middle school students, mak-ing them stand until the end of the game is a possible penalty. Several modifications are possible: first, either the NET or KET can increase the amount of people who are “out” with each round. Teachers can also increase the pace of play, making students take their turns faster. (Stu-dents who fail to keep up are then “out.”) Additionally, you can have a “zero mistakes” policy after one or two rounds – if students say their word too quietly or misspeak, they're also out.

This game will need some scaf-folding – at least one example should be performed in front of the class with a small group. Then a class-wide practice round should be performed. Before using any modifications, teachers should be sure to warn stu-dents beforehand, lest they get blind-sided by the changes. Try varying the lengths of the sentences too, to retain the students' attention. It's also a good idea to appoint the KET and/or higher level students as “judges” to decide when students are out.

No computer, no problemEducational activities and how they can be adapted when the classroom technologies you depend on fail.

dinh nguyen

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Codes and Ciphers

Word decoding puzzles are a pow-erful way to engage a class. Exercises can start with a basic A=1, B=2, C=3...type of code. Later, the stu-dents and teacher can work their way up in future classes to more relatively complex codes like Number Shifts, Caesar Shifts, ROT-13, and Pigpen. Alternately, a teacher can use one code and provide messages of gradu-ally increasing length and complex-ity. The messages themselves can be simple modifications and/or exten-sions of key sentences or dialogues in the textbook (For scaffolding, a teacher could mention the specific unit or lesson where the sentences/dialogue is found). A simple Google search can yield a variety of tools and web-apps that provide easyencoding and decoding of any desired mes-sages.

This will also require some advance prep-time, as teachers will be photocopying sheets with the messages (and ideally with the code as well) for the students to work from. If NETs or the co-teacher have a class/student reward system, this activity can be tied this into this system to give the students an added incentive to finish. For higher-level students, have harder “bonus” mes-sages at the ready – modifications can include extra steps to get the final message, including fill-in-the-blanks, word scrambles, and letter scrambles; or even a combination of these ele-ments.

Word/Phrase Bingo and Beyond

It's tempting to dismiss bingo-type games as activities for use

only with very young students, but some modifications can be used to bring some life into the game for use with older and higher ability students.

The students can make their own bingo cards by drawing a 4x4 or 5x5 space grid, onto which they can copy their own words. Word scrambles can also be used here. Instead of basic vo-cab words, phrases or short sentences may also be used. Additionally, instead of announcing out the words/phrases, the teacher can assign random students to call out the words or phrases for the game (be sure to announce this ahead of time, to allow students to prepare themselves to be called upon).

This can be used as a lead-in to a battleship game (teachers may wish to change the context to “spaceships”). Ideally, this would be played as a two-player game, though c lass vs. teacher g ames i s poss ib le too. In th is act iv i ty, students would use key vocabu-lary words or question words to attempt to hit and destroy the opposing player's ships, hidden on a grid of words that both players know. This would work best with lessons involving interrogative questions, or questions that can be answered using simple nouns (e.g. favorite food, or hobbies) .

jancheta25@gmail.com

No computer, no problemTWord decoding puzzles are a powerful way to engage a class. Exercises can start with a basic A=1, B=2, C=3...type of code. Later, the students and teacher can work their way up in future classes to more relatively complex codes like Number Shifts, Caesar Shifts, ROT-13, and Pigpen.

““

joe campbell

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lindsay ross

staff writer

The summer isn’t here yet, but it’s well on its way. With the combi-

nation of heat, humidity, and frequent lack of air conditioning, summer can be a trying time for all of us in Korea. Here are some ways to combat it this year:

Water-eating hippo (물먹는하마) Use these little dehumidifying con-traptions to soak up humidity in your apartment and ward off mold. You can get 12 of them on Gmarket for about 14,000 won.

Food There are two ways to go about Ko-rean food during the summer: Eating cold foods or fighting fire with fire.

In terms of cold dishes, noodles are your best bet. Naeng-myeon is cold buckwheat noodles in a vinegar/mustard broth. You can get it in basic/water form (물냉면; mul-naeng-myeon) or spicy (비빔냉면; bi-bim-naeng-myeon). Cold kong-guk-su (냉콩국수; naeung-kong-guk-su) are noodles in cold soybean soup.

Hot foods are said to have restor-ative properties during the hottest days of summer. Boost your energy

Beating the Heat in South KoreaSome items and tips to make the humid summer months bearable.

with ginseng chicken soup (삼계탕; sam-gye-tang), eel soup (장어탕; jang-eo-tang), or grilled eel (장어구이; jang-eo-goo-ee).

Mosquito remedies

If you have a problem with mos-quitos in your apartment, consider getting a mosquito repellant. You’ll need the electric diffuser (홈매트코드롤러훈증기) as well as packs of “mats” (홈매트매트피) which each last about 12 hours. You can find these at marts or on Gmarket. When you’re on the go, you can also get mosquito-repelling bracelets.

Personal fan

Beat office heat and astronomical air conditioner bills with this cute thing.

As for the ladies (and/or gentlemen who are interested):

Oil blotting paper

Take care of oily or shiny skin with blotting papers. You can find packs at Daiso or most cosmetic shops, like this Oil Paper (기름종이; gi-leum jong-ee) from Innisfree.

Powder compact

After blotting with oil paper, elimi-nate the remaining shine with pressed powder.

Perfume bar During the summer, perfume bars can be a way to use the humidity for good. Against humid summers, the scent of perfume bars tends to last longer compared to the usual, liquid perfumes. Try the Pocket Bunnie Perfume Bar (포켓바니퍼퓸바) from Tony Moly.

Gauze cardigans

Without being able to bear shoulders at school, summer wardrobe can be tricky. A great option is gauze cardigans, which cover the bits you need covered and breathe really well (defending against both heat and sweat). You can get them in a bunch of different styles and colours on Gmarket.

ross6520@gmail.com

A hippo filled with water it absorbed. dinh nguyen

courtesy alan chan

dinh nguyen

Korean cold noodle soup is commonly enjoyed in the summer.

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Between the blossoms A photo comparison of cherry blossom season in the rural and urban areas of Jeollanamdo

photo essay

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photo essay

City blossoms and the surrounding area

Urban

richard tang photographer

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Rural

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The Perfect PhởA family brunch recipe my mother used to make on the weekends. This Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup is full of fresh ingredients and layers of flavours.

dinh nguyen

writer

One of the things I miss most about home is the selection of authentic for-eign cuisine. In Jeollanamdo, it’s hard

to find ethnic foods that haven’t been altered to fit Korean taste preferences. During my first year here, I would often miss my mother’s cooking and try to fill the void with Korean-made Viet-namese food. They never satisfied.

Restaurants like Pho’ Bay don’t often take the time to go through the steps needed to create quality Vietnamese rice noodle soup (Pho’). Here, it is common for traditional Vietnamese ingredients to be removed completely, or replaced by some-thing Korean (like kimchi and radish). Your best option for quality pho’ is homemade.

A good Pho’ Ga (chicken) is layered with a concentration of flavours and aromas created by fresh ingredients and cooking procedures.

There are three crucial aspects (each with their own required steps) that come together to create quality pho’: 1 Cooking the chicken in a manner that gets rid of impurities, and brings its flavour into the broth, 2 Charring ginger and onion to release a smoky natural sweetness. 3 Side toppings and garnish.

Ingredients

Broth

• 1 large raw (old) chicken, organs removed • 1 Large onion, • 1/2 to 1 fresh ginger root ( 3 to 4 inches) • 1 tbl whole coriander seeds • 4 whole cloves • 2 whole star anise • 2 tbl of rock or palm sugar • 2 1/2 tbl fish sauce

Noodles

• Pho’ (rice) noodles, 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch wide

Side toppings

• Spring onions ( green part finely cut white part peeled into long pieces) • Lime

• Cilantro leaves and stems (finely cut) • Bean sprouts • Mint leaves, • Dandelion leaves • Hoisin sauce • Sriracha or hot sauce of choice

• Sweet onions

Dining with Dinh (Dinh Nguyen)

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Directions

Broth Cut the onion in half and put it, along

with the ginger,on a pan onto the top shelf of your oven. Broil them for about 15 min-utes or until the skin is golden brown.

Note: If you don’t have an oven, you can roast them over a fire or coil stove.

While the ginger and onion cook, prepare the chicken. Remove the meaty parts of the chicken (the breast and drum sticks) and set them aside. With your knife chop into the chicken along it’s bones a few inches apart. You want to create cracks in the bone to help the marrow escape and flavour the broth.

After exposing the bones, fill a large stockpot 3/4 full with water and boil the chicken (excluding breast and legs) for about 5 or 10 minutes. Foam and muck should be rising to the water’s surface.

Remove the chicken and clean it with water, making sure to get rid of the residue on it from the boiling process.

Clean the stock pot and throw the onion, ginger, cleaned chicken and the meat you set aside into the pot. Add the coriander seeds, cloves, star anise, sugar, and fish sauce.

Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil. Once boiled, immediately turn the heat low and put a lid on it. Make sure you prop the lid up so that the steam can escape.

After 10 to 15 minutes, remove the breast and drum sticks. Set them aside and let cool. Put them into the refrigerator until you are ready to serve the pho. When ready, use your fingers to shred/tear the cooked meat into pieces. They will be used as a topping.

Note: this is the method I prefer. My mother would cook the chicken first and then removed the meat, as opposed to removing and setting it aside and then cooking it. I think it is easier to work with a raw chicken than a really hot.

Leave the broth to simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Check the broth every 20 minutes and skim all the foam and muck

off the top of it to maintain a clear appear-ance and smooth taste.

Note: My mother would leave the broth simmering at lower heat after the initial 2 hours. She would go to bed and wake up in the middle of the night and turn off the stove, or leave us to do it the next day when we had lunch.

When the broth is finish simmering, strain it, and get rid of the solids. Add more boiling water to taste. I usually end up pouring in another litre or two of water because the broth is too rich. If you do this, add the water slowly and taste to make sure it doesn’tbecome too diluted.

It is okay if the broth is a bit bland; remember you will be adding toppings to it, along with more fish sauce if you want.

Noodles *** Store bought rice noodles are usually very hard and not ready to be cooked in pho’. Soak the noodles in cold water for about 30 minutes to soften them up. Once softened, remove the desired amount (per bowl) and cook it in a strainer over boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds. Add it to a bowl.

Sides and toppings Note: Some toppings should go into the bowl before the broth does, others don’t.

Before the broth Add a desired amount of these toppings to your soup to build flavour:

• Cilantro leaves and stems finely chopped. • Spring onions • Bean sprouts • Mint leaves, • Dandelion leaves

After the broth has been poured over the noodles add the desired amount of:

• Lime (cut into wedges and set aside. • Squeeze into you pho’) • Hoisin sauce • Hot sauce of choice • Fish sauce

Note: Our family would leave all the top-pings out and add what we like during the meal, and again for seconds.

d11nguye@gmail.com

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Letter from the Coordinator

Unpaid Leave and Alternative Holidays

This past May was a logistical nightmare, with the Labor Day holiday on a Friday and

aworking day sandwiched between the long weekend and Children’s Day on the following Tuesday. Foreign teachers, because of their year-to-year contracts, are considered laborers under South Korea’s labor law and are therefore legally entitled to the holiday, while their coworkers at the school are full-time workers and therefore not.

With Korean teachers having to work on Friday, most schools wanted to ar-range the schedule so they could take the sandwich Monday off and have a 4 day weekend from Saturday to Tuesday. This is great for the Korean workers, but what about Native Speaking English Teachers (NESTs)?

In the principal’s eyes, a simple solution would be to ask the foreign teacher to take the holiday on Monday instead of Friday. However, national holidays are exactly what they are, national holidays, and cannot be moved because they don’t coincide with the wishes of a principal at a particular school. Regardless of thier wishes, the NEST was still entitled to Friday off.

Article 8(1) of the contract reinforces this, clearly stating that May 1, Labor Day, is a holiday.

Article 8 (Work Hours) (1) The Employee shall work eight (8) hours per day for five (5) calendar days per week from Monday to Friday and shall not work on Saturdays, Sundays, Labor Day(May 1st) and any national holidays of the Republic of Korea. However, temporary English programs run by the Employer (e.g. English camp or extra classes) may occur outside the Work Hours specified in this clause and on weekends. In this case, the Employer shall pay according to Article 8, clause (3) and (4).

With this stipulation came a lot of issues. Because many principals deemed as a lack of cooperation on the NEST’s part, the princi-pals tried to make taking this holiday a little more difficult than it should have been.

First came the ill-informed attempts at convincing the NEST to try to take Mon-day off instead of Friday. However, NESTs were instructed by the provincial office that they must be off on Friday because it is a law. Some principals then looked at making them take Monday as a holiday more dif-ficult or at least less desirable.

Most principals were granting the holiday to their staff this day regardless, but several principals asked the NEST to use a summer vacation day or threatened to deduct a day’s pay if the NEST took this day off. This was a very poorly disguised ploy to try to get the NEST to ignore the regulations and to change the holiday from Friday to Monday, but there were some inherent problems with this.

First, as mentioned, Friday must be a holiday. It is clearly stated in the contract and the school could be in legal trouble by making someone deemed a “laborer” work on that day.

Second, a day off during the semester can never be used in lieu of a vacation day in the summer or winter vacation periods; no ifs, ands, or buts. This is not clearly stated in the contract but it does however state that the em-ployee is granted 24 winter vacation days and 8 summer vacation days. There is no mention of vacation days in the semester or substituting vacation days for days off during the school year. The only way to take a day off during the semester is through unpaid leave, affecting salary for the month, but not vacation days.

Article 14 (Paid Leave) (1) The Employee shall be entitled to a vacation period of up to 32 days (inclusive of weekends and national holidays) during the Term of the Employment set forth in Article 5 hereof. The Employee may take up to twenty-four (24) winter vacation days and eight (8) summer vacation days. If the requested vacation period interferes with the smooth operation of the programming of the school or institute, the Employer and the Employee shall negotiate an alternate vacation date(s) during the vacation.

Third, the principal has the power to allow a NEST to stay home on any given day without the NEST being punished with loss of a vacation day or a deduc-tion in salary. This is clearly noted in article 14(4) of the contract. This would

What your principal can and can’t do when it comes to time off and moving your vacation.

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apply to Monday if the principal asked the NEST to stay home. However, as some obviously did, they requested the NEST to attend school on Monday even though staff would not be present. Although it seems petty, principals were within the legal grounds of the contract to do so.

14 (4) During the school semester, the Employer may allow the Em-ployee not to come to work on the day(s) when the school is closed for in-semester school holiday(s), school anniversary day(s), etc., and these days will not be considered part of the Paid Leave set forth in the forgo-ing clause (1).

By playing a little hardball, taking what was entitled to the NEST: having Friday off; most ended up having Mon-day off also. It often came after a few headaches, but that’s what long weekends are for- forgetting about the troubles of the workplace and the extra day is often well worth it.

From the Jeollanamdo Office of Education’s 2014 Contract: Article 8 (Work Hours) (1) The Employee shall work eight (8) hours per day for five (5) calendar days per week from Monday to Friday and shall not work on Saturdays, Sundays, Labor Day(May 1st) and any national holidays of the Republic of Korea. However, temporary English programs run by the Employer (e.g. English camp or extra classes) may occur outside the Work Hours specified in this clause and on weekends. In this case, the Employer shall pay according to Article 8, clause (3) and (4).

(2) The Work Hours of the Employee may follow the normal work schedule of Korean teachers; however, such Work Hours may be adjusted by the Employer as he/she deems appropriate within the bounds set forth in Article 8, Clause (1).

(3) Actual class instruction hours of the Employee shall not exceed twenty two (22) hours per week. If, however, the Employee's actual weekly class instruction hours exceed twenty two (22) hours due to supplementary class instruction, the Employee shall be entitled to a supplementary class instruction pay of about 20,000 won per hour.

(4) The Employer may require the Employee to work non-instructional overtime hours in addition to normal Work Hours. In this case, the Employee shall be entitled to supplementary overtime pay of 6,000 won per hour.

(5) If the Employee agrees to teach instructional hours that occur outside the Work Hours specified in Article 8, clause (1), the Employer shall have the authority to determine the appropriate supplementary pay.

Article 14 (Paid Leave) (1) The Employee shall be entitled to a vacation period of up to 32 days (inclusive of weekends and national holidays) during the Term of the Employment set forth in Ar-ticle 5 hereof. The Employee may take up to twenty-four (24) winter vacation days and eight (8) summer vacation days. If the requested vacation period interferes with the smooth operation of the programming of the school or institute, the Employer and the Employee shall negotiate an alternate vacation date(s) during the vacation.

(2) The Employee shall apply for and obtain the Employer's consent to take any paid leave a mini-mum of fifteen (15) calendar days in advance of the requested date of leave.

(3) The Employee shall note the difference between school vacation and Paid Vacation days; the Employee is expected to fulfill normal working duties during the school vacation period unless the Employee has received prior approval for Paid Vacation or Unpaid Leave during the school vaca-tion period.

(4) During the school semester, the Employer may allow the Employee not to come to work on the day(s) when the school is closed for in-semester school holiday(s), school anniversary day(s), etc., and these days will not be considered part of the Paid Leave set forth in the forgoing clause (1).

(5) Regardless of the number of days over which the Paid Leave falls, eight (8) accumulated hours of Paid Leave shall be counted as one day. This includes tardiness, early leave, other absences dur-ing the work day and/or half-days of Paid Leave. A total of less than eight (8) hours will not be counted.

Chris Devison is the Provincial Coordinator for the Jeollanamdo Language Program. He has lived

in South Korea for almost 10 years.

He also writes a health column for Bibimbap which is on hiatus

this issue.

Healthy Musings will return in the next issue of Bibimbap.

chrisofficeofeducation@yahoo.com

In the principal’s eyes, a simple solution would be to ask the foreign teacher to take the holiday on Monday instead of Friday. However, national holidays are exactly what they are, national holidays, and cannot be moved because they don’t coincide with the wishes of a principal...

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