Living in Seoul, Korea - A Westerner's Experiences
Funny times in Seoul - Page 1
Probably one of the funniest situations I experienced in Seoul, was when a student walked into the room of a fellow teacher and stated that he had a 
very large c-o-c-k. It was only after a few minutes of hysterical yet controlled laughter, that the South African teacher realised as he looked around his room, that the student was saying ‘clock’. The ‘L’ sound in the word clock, was not clear for the teacher and this caused an unfortunate yet amusing misunderstanding. That same week, one of my students said I had "a small brain". He meant to say that I was forgetful because I didn’t recognise him, although perhaps I do have a small brain. I don't know.
Living in Korea as a foreigner was always interesting, funny, frustrating, surprising, exciting and many other emotions. I have many fond memories from my time in Korea and while living in Seoul I documented my thoughts with weekly emails home and with detailed notes. The first part of the book looks at my experiences and thoughts from living in Seoul; the second section covers a large sample of the emails home; and the final chapter gives the perspective of Koreans on Korea.
Having lived in USA for 4 years, Ireland for two years, being from the UK and having an Italian wife, it was then fascinating to get even more international and live in Korea for two years, as a teacher. There are great differences between each of these nations and also between East and West. In my job I taught one on one (i.e. teaching just one student at one time) and over two years, this has given me the chance to talk/teach over 2000 Koreans. The students were aged between 14 and 68 and the people I taught included students, many businessmen and businesswomen, house-wife’s, Olympic athletes, TV presenters and C.E.O.’s etc.
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