So I was on a Korean TV show: Golden Bell

A few months ago, a teacher mentioned to me that our school would be featured on a Korean variety show, Golden Bell. It is a show that visits different schools, allowing 100 of the smartest students to compete for the prize, a full scholarship to university (also at stake, but not the grand prize, a trip to an English speaking country). I was told to keep it hush hush, since they didn't want the students getting too excited before midterms, but soon after, the rumor spread like wildfire! All the students were excited. They began studying past questions and practicing their "talents" (there is a portion on the show that students can be chosen to show off their talents, including singing, playing guitar, imitations, addressing a family member with a heartfelt speech, etc). I was then told that I would be asked to read the English question. Great. We all know how well I do with public speaking, and now I have to do it on national television?

So the day of the day of the recording, our students had to go to Keimyung University, which was close to our school, since the set couldn't fit in our gym. Luckily, I was on a bus with about 20 other students, so I just followed along until we got there. We were supposed to arrive at 7:30 and it was SUPPOSED to be finished by 4:30, however we were finally able to leave at 7pm. Let me tell you, controlling hundreds of kids for 12 hours, most of whom are extremely bored, is difficult.

The set up of the gym was actually quite neat. The 100 chosen students were on the floor with whiteboards for their answers, 10 students from each class were on either side of them with posters cheering them on, a row of teachers were also on one side, then the rest of the students and teachers were up in the second floor bleachers watching.

Students were asked questions and had to write their answers down on their boards, show them and were eliminated if they were wrong. However, there was a chance after Question 20 for students to be brought back into the game. In order to ring the Golden Bell, you had to answer all 50 questions correctly. Apparently it isn't that common, so we were excited when our students did well, however we were unable to ring the bell. But, the last girl standing did win the trip to Europe, a great opportunity for her (and she speaks pretty good English too so that is a plus).

Last girl left

In order to give students a second chance at winning, 4 male teachers and 2 female teachers had to do this sort of game where there was a stack of mats. The female teacher would bounce up and down on the mats and the male teachers had to pull the mats from under her. For each mat that was freed, a student could re-enter the game. Our school actually broke the record and rescued 82 students. Add the 10 students that were still standing by that point and we only had 8 students that were out of the game.

I got to spend my day hiding from the cameras, though I was unsuccessful and they made the blonde foreigner come sit in the front, got a HORRID shot of me, and played it on TV. Also, when it was my turn to read the question, I got nervous (of course), but made it through. I apparently read the question too quickly, because they repeated it several times for the students. Then, all of a sudden, I hear "Allie Teacher"? Huh? Me? "Allie teacher, sing a song! You know, norae ('song' in Korean)" This is when I began to FREAK out. My face got red, I nearly started crying, I knocked over a cup of tea on the set. I finally got the point across that I can't sing (but really I wouldn't, I couldn't think of ANY SONG other than 'Happy Birthday' because that day was my Dad's birthday... come on Allie, a song, ANY song other than Happy Birthday... nope? Ok just embarrass yourself and refuse to sing). Lucky for me, they cut that part out.

Filming my question

Miss Jane and I

Me looking like a freak

It was a really fun day. I got to hang out with some students and teachers in a laid back, non-classroom environment, which was awesome. And I also got to see who the "smartest 100 students" were. Some really surprised me, others I knew right away and a few I was surprised to NOT see. But what was really exciting was that I not only could tell who was who, but I recognized most students from the back corner of the second floor!

After the long filming day was finished a bunch of the teachers headed out to dinner, which ended up being the best BBQ I've had since I got to Daegu. And, of course, there was soju and beer, along with the Principal and Vice Principal. It was great fun, but a really long day, so I was happy when my ride decided to leave earlier than the other teachers. A great memory, and I have the entire thing in video to remember it by.