Time has flown by (up?) here at the good ol' Korea Lift College. I can't believe that I have already been here six weeks. If you're cool and in the know, it's just "The Lift." If you're Korean, it's Hanguk Seungganggi Daehak (Remember this. It will be on the quiz later.)
Korea Lift College is brand spankin' new, with March 2010 being it's first semester. It is located in a beautiful valley in Geochang, Korea.
"We are committed to turn Geochang into a `lift valley` -- with which we will try to emulate the success of the Silicon Valley in the United States -- a city of a lift standard and research bases," Korea Elevator Safety Institute president Kim Nam-deuk, said.
We have approximately 260 students, and enrollment is expected to double each year. The majority of the students are male, but we do have 12 female students. It is the WORLD'S FIRST college to specialize in elevator technology and engineering (impressed yet?). The college is currently working with Russia, China, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan to develop next generation "green" elevators, and they are hoping to recruit involvement from the United States and Europe, which I'm sure will happen sooner than later. No one wants to be left behind in eco-friendly, state-of-the-art elevator technology, right? I think not!
Mind-blowing Fact:
Korea Lift College does not have a single elevator on its campus. Two MASSIVE escalators are being installed, however, for hands-on instruction. The escalators freak me out a bit. They speak to you in a creepy female robotic voice as you walk past them. In my mind, they are saying "Going down??? To the fiery depths of Hell!!!" They are actually saying something along the lines of "Please keep to the right."
Please note that one must walk up concrete steps in order to reach the escalator. Ah, completely-blind-to-special-needs Korea, you make me chuckle.
We are also hoping to recruit students from all over the world in the next few years. Which means that all faculty and students will need to be fluent in English. There are three English professors at KLC, and, naturally, we speak English. But the other professors speak little or basic English, so we will soon be teaching the Korean professors, as well as the students. Considering we teach less than 20 hours per week, it's no sweat off our backs.
I think it will be extremely interesting to have students from all over the world. The word on the KLC street is that the first crop of international students will be coming from China and Vietnam.
Also, we are featured on the Elevator World and Elevator World India websites. Yeah. We're a big deal.
OK. Enough of the boring stuff....
Let's talk about my wonderfully hilarious students. They are so much fun, but it is very hard to imagine ANY of my students getting their hands dirty in order to repair an elevator. They are VERY metro-sexual, as are most Korean men, which I love. I wish more men around the world would jump on the well-groomed bandwagon!
The majority of my students are here because, and I quote, "My father told me I must go to Korea Lift College." I'm pretty sure, if given the choice, each and every one of them would drop out of school and form K-Pop boy bands. Because get THIS! Our college offers three elective courses: History of Cinema, Opera, and K-Pop Dance!!!! I, personally, am obsessed with K-pop and constantly ask my students to show me what they learned in dance class. I'm secretly wondering if it would be frowned upon if I showed up for the class!
This job is definitely a dream come true, and I hope to stay here for a few years. It provides two months vacation, so I will still be able to see my family once a year. I actually have not seen them in two years, so a trip home in June is way over-due!!!!
To sum up:
Love my job
Love my students
Love two months vacation
Love K-pop
