Slightly chubby New Zealander in South Korea feels the height of his position in the food chain.

Our mafia man

Different cuts and pricing

I haven’t been so morally conflicted as I am now for putting something in my mouth since O’Week 2008.

I heard there is a certain delicacy enjoyed by many Koreans and Japanese alike. It’s a part of their culture despite the public outcry and backlash they received from the rest of the world. .

I had seen and heard of whale meat in South Korea a couple of weeks ago and decided to try it myself after much mental and moral arm wrestling.

On one side is the fact most whale species are endangered and near extinction. If I was to buy and consume the meat I would be in a way condoning the slaughter of some endangered species. There are people willing to put their lives on the line to defend these creatures who am I to simply eat one. There’s the questionable conditions under which whales are caught and slaughtered.

The other side of the coin is this is going on regardless. How does my onetime purchase of whale result in the direct death of a creature? There’s the old “you eat (insert common meat or insect foodstuff here) why not whale?” argument. Also there was sheer human curiosity or ‘scientific research’ as the whalers would say in trying this meat.

In the end the latter side one out, love me or hate me for it. It’s done. I can sleep at night.

So I asked my girlfriend, to find us a place in Busan as a quick Google revealed it’s the place (apart from Ulsan) to go for whale.

We found a lovely little place only a quick walk from our base in Busan. We came upon the tiny little restaurant nestled among many other similar looking ones. The only thing that indicated this one was different were the words 고래 고기 (Gorae Gogi) whale meat and a cute cartoon of a friendly, smiling, some wearing a sailors hats -which I’m still suspicious about.

Unfortunately the place we chose was closed at the particular time we went but a quick phone call and the owner was happy to open shop slightly early on our account.

The owner arrived a short time later in a new model Bentley giving me the impression he was part of some kind of whale meat mafia. He turned out to be an awesome and more than accommodating host, forthcoming with information on our meal.

So let’s get to the nitty gritty what did it taste like and do I feel like a terrible human now?

We first off this was the priciest food item pound-for-pound I’ve bought in Korea. You can see the tiny slithers of meat we were served. The entire meal came to 50,000 won our about NZ$50. Previous I usually payed NZ $6-10 For a much more wholesome meal.

The taste was different, much different and not for the faint hearted. As you can see in the photos there’s a lot of fat. The actual flesh tastes and has the same texture as beef, if with a slight fishy taste. The fat is a different story. It’s super oily, it searches out every nook and cranny of your face and fills it with its distinctive whale flavour. It’s different. Words fail to describe it. You also have to consider all the different cuts of meat too. We were served four different cuts each from a different part of the whale and each with a slightly differing taste.

In truth I actually enjoyed the unique flavour it had to offer. I expected having to grit my teeth and persevere through sweat and possible gagging to finish the meal but I completed it with relative ease. Even after my girlfriend opted out, she didn’t enjoy it.

Now I sit here debriefing on the way home struggling to decide if I’ve reached a moral low point or an adventurous high point. I’m not sure.

Anyway it’s done now. Curiosity satisfied. I don’t need to eat it again and I probably won’t.

I suspect this won’t be topped until I try other Korean morally questionable meals such as k9 variety.

4.5/5 for taste.

5/5 for making you question everything about yourself after consumption.

And do I feel like a terrible human? Of course. But that’s not whale meat related.

 

 

TED Talks and Breakfast Cereals

As I look back on this blog, this ‘thing’ I have created I notice it’s rather light on teaching content. Considering teaching is the reason for my existence here I thought I should shed some light on it, I mean it is the second half of my ‘Living and Teaching in South Korea’ tagline.

All in all I’ve had a wonderful teaching experience here. But be warned. I have heard first hand some absolute horror stories such as; withholding pay, forced overtime without pay, seemingly unprovoked firing (especially in your 11th month), broken promises, turning up in Korea to your school being closed permanently, rude bosses, lack of basic accommodation and much more. These stories I’ve heard aren’t without merit, but it’s not everywhere. I mean you have to understand a lot of these 학원 (Hagwon) schools are private, for profit. Some bad people are prepared to pull you in, take you for a ride then spit you out all in the name of money. Remember you only have a one year contract, there’s no investment, they can get rid of you on a whim and replace you, easy.
A lot of people are happy with their schools and situations. They may not be the best, but no job ever is. It’s worth mentioning there are also as many amazing stories as horrendous ones; school flights to Japan, heaps of camps, relaxed working conditions, basically supervising kids in a classroom (if “teaching” isn’t your cup of tea), lots of free time, super easy work (i.e going through a textbook with the students), cool staff, no weekend work, good pay vs expenses etc.
I’m happy to say I have the latter. I’ve been lucky I think. Things could be a lot worse for me but they’re not. I enjoy my job. I enjoy the people.
If I’m being honest the work is fairly easy but that’s because I’m a trained teacher. I can imagine for an Arts Major or a General Science Major this would be a bit of work, but not impossible. I’ve been put through the crucible when it comes to teaching thanks to my degree so this by comparison is a walk in the cake. Not to say isn’t doesn’t have its challenges. I try challenge myself by pushing students and myself for more and better work, that’s how I am but you can get away with a lot less, if you can have that on your conscience.
The beauty of my job is it’s different every day. Others will have the exact same classes everyday for the entire 12 months. In one day I can teach kindergarten in the morning, primary/elementary at lunch, high school in the evening and adults at night. It’s fantastic!
Also sometimes we have camps. This could mean 10, 11, 12, even 13 hour days. Sometimes we have time in the office creating our lessons for the next year. So while sometimes hectic and confusing it is also a good challenge and chance to learn.
But mostly it’s the people that make it for me. My gut instinct told me to go for this job after I talked to the head teacher and he won me over with discussions about TED talks and Weetbix (a New Zealand breakfast cereal) this was a stark contrast to the bland, repetitive, generic nature of basically every other school I talked to.
My advice for those looking at teaching overseas is:

1) Definitely do it! At least give it a go.

2) Research as much as you can for lots of different sources.

3) Go with your gut.

4) Better pay doesn’t mean better situation.

5) Ask lots of questions before signing anything.

6) READ AND UNDERSTAND YOUR CONTRACT.

7) Look at the schools website (even if you can’t read Korean), ask for photos, try speak to a current teacher all to create a full picture of the school and it’s people.

8) Facebook is invaluable for finding information.
I hope this helps anyone looking at EFL or ESOL teaching overseas. Feel free to contact me if need be.

mattyjrcole@gmail.com