I went for a look round Seoul again today (I’m here till Wednesday as it’s a Japanese holiday so there are no flights back!). Yesterday I had a quick look at the Itaewon area, which I wasn’t very impressed with, but today was Insadong which is a really nice place! First off was the Korean Independence Park. And for the first time in 4 days there were no Japanese tourists! Which is not quite right I think. It’s OK coming for shopping or nice food, but it is really frustrating that so few Japanese people actually know about the places they visit. And judging by some of the things that are going on in the World at the moment, it also feel this could be potentially very dangerous. You’ve got to know your past so as not to make the same mistakes again. But that just makes my, and your, job the more important. It’s not about giving the kids language skills so that they can get a job or go on holiday, it’s about giving them the skills and opportunities to talk with children of other countries, to understand their differences, opinions, hopes, dreams and histories to come to an understanding of each other and to make sure the mistakes of the past don’t happen again. The thing is that thanks to the chances that we have been given and the technology of the world we live in today, this is something that can definitely be achieved! So in between bouts of shopping ( I got all my Christmas shopping done, there are some really cool things here!!) I spent a quite a bit of time planning out lots of new Genki English materials. It’s actually a great environment to work in as I not only get reminded of why I do this, or get such good reactions from teachers as I did yesterday, but I am constantly in the “got to learn the language” mode, which really boosts my creativity!! So I think I’ve got the new Genki English Genki Phonics stuff all worked out!! And if I play things right I might have some free stuff on the site very soon!