Being clever is difficult...

I'd like this blog to be clever. I'd like it to a place where, if anyone actually reads it, they are amused, entertained and against all odds, informed. Let's be realistic however. I'm no genius. I'm not as amusing and clever as I would like to think I am. So if you're reading this, gosh, I kind of feel bad for you. But thanks for coming out anyway!

Korea. Hmmmmm..........how do you describe this place? You don't. I'm enjoying myself, just know that. I like teaching. It's one of the funnest and easiest jobs I've ever had. It's kind of like Korea itself: difficult and easy at the same time. I have 40 minutes in each class to teach 40 prepubescent children how to say, "Is this your cap?" or some other such basic phrase. Not as easy as it sounds. Not when some of the kids speak English very well and some of them can't even say hello. Not when they are more preoccupied with hitting each other and screaming. It's all about the games you play with them as teaching tools, and each lesson planning session I undertake basically revolves around the question, "how do I trick them into learning English this time?" Regardless however, I am getting better as a teacher, and for this I am very grateful.

A dear friend of mine suggested that I blog at least once a week with the strangest thing I've seen. I am disappointed to say that I haven't seen that many strange things. Maybe it was the sea slugs that I ate. Or the old legless man who wheels himself around my neighborhood on a dolly with a radio playing and collecting alms. It could be when some kids were fighting this week at school and the vice-principal got some boxing gloves and make them duke it out in front of their homeroom class. It could be the English names kids in my classes give themselves: Optimus Prime, Bart Simpson, Mr. Hot Dog, and Hitler. Yes, Hitler. We had a little chat about that one. He's Brian now.

Here's a good school story: As I mention above, the kids give themselves English names because their Korean names are just ridiculous to try to pronounce. Quite courteous of them I say. Some of them just shorten their Korean names, for example, Kim Chung ham becomes Chung. Now, Korean pronunciation is very subtle. I have two kids whose English names were Jung and Chung. Seems simple right? Let's see how that unfolded;

"Jung, please sit down."
"Teacha, my name Jung, not Jung."
"Isn't that what I said?"
"No teacha, you say Jung! My name Jung!"
"OK, very sorry, Jung please sit down and be quiet."
"Teacha, name not Jung. Name is Jung!"
"Yeah, that's what I said. Jung sit down and be quiet."
"No! Name is Jung, not Jung!"

Oi. This is difficult. And of course he sits next to Chung, with whom I had the same name trouble. So I say to them;

"Alright fellas. I'm very sorry I can't get the pronunciation of your names right. I feel terrible. However we need to learn English, not argue about this, so you have until the end of class to come up with new English names or I'm going to give them to you myself."
"Teacha give name! Teacha give name!"

I give each a long, studious look, deciding...

"OK, Jung you're Tito and Chung you're Jermaine."

Yep.

They love the names. I told them the next day that they were the names of Michael Jackson's brothers and now they love them even more (Koreans love Michael Jackson). So now I have Tito and Jermaine in my class. The sit next to each other. I get to see them 5 times a week. I love this. Especially when exchanges like this happen;

I'm sitting there lesson planning, frustrated. Jermaine walks in,

"Teacha, Tito sick. Tito won't be in class today."
"Thanks Jermaine. I really appreciate you telling me. I would have worried about Tito."
"It's OK teacha. Teacha?"
"Yes?"
"I like being Jermaine!"

A large smile finds it way back to my face.
Ahhhh, teaching in Korea.

Well now that my first two posts are novels, ensuring most won't return for more, let's post a link to some pictures! These are just a small sample of my work here in Korea so far. Most of them are my best images, some of them are in there simply to give you a diverse cross section of what this country feels like. That is what I long to master: how to photograph not what a place looks like, but what it feels like.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejcallanan/show/

Basically, I come from a family of photographers. My mom is an amazing wedding and portrait photographer. My dad runs one of the top photography schools in the world.

Please check out their websites:

www.cmcphoto.com
www.santafeworkshops.com

I grew up around photographers. As a child I spent time with the best and most renown photographers alive, their images subconsciously soaking into my brain. As a result I'm very blessed to have a decent eye for making a good picture. I probably should have just gone into the family business after high school instead of going to college. Oh well. Now, at the age of 30 I find myself very drawn to the medium and have begun pushing myself to make good pictures. I'm just a baby in the long process of mastering the craft and I hope you enjoy seeing me progress as a photographer.