work

more proof for those who think there should be tighter restrictions on english teachers.

in the 6 months that i've lived in korea, i've had virtually no paid employment. my early excuse was that i wanted to be a diligent korean language student. although i continue to take daily classes, once class ends at 1 pm, it's rare that my workbook will be reopened before the next morning. that, and a dwindling savings have forced employment upon me.

however, for the past two months, my only income supplement has been a once-per-week english lesson with two doctors in their early 40s. i look forward to our 90-minute conversations about same-sex marriage, the genocide of american indians and trying to explain everything that's meant by the saying, "blondes have more fun". sure, i was a little bit nervous about including "bestiality" and "necrophilia" in last week's vocabularly list, but they were included in the article about singapore's anti-gay sex laws and i doubted they would know them. but, before we read the definitions aloud together, dr. kim coolly preempted with, "in korea we usually call that 'zoophilia'.'" these guys are eager learners, surprisingly progressive in their social "values" and, above all, kind, generous human beings.

but today, thanks to another half-korean homo, i started co-hosting a radio show as part of kbs world's (korean broadcasting system) english language service. it's a little awkward being "conversational" when reading someone else's prepared script, but, having done a fair amount of writing, i think it will be fun to explore another side of journalism. and, depending on how things go, i look forward to also writing for the show and developing it with the producers.