I really don't have too much to say about what is going on. My supervisor is still being a jerk, but the director of the school is great. My kids are getting ready for their graduation, which is coming up at the end of February. I am working on finding a job for next August, but oportunities seem to be passing as quickly as they are coming. Next week I will be starting a small group bible study through my church. I am hoping that it will be a new positive thing in my life.
My favorite student quote from the week comes from one of my elementary students. On Wednesday, she looked at me, and completely randomly said "Teacher, I am made in America and born in Korea." I laughed so hard, it completely made my week. She then wanted to explain herself, but I had to tell her that I completely understood, she didn't have to explain at all.
I have wanted to do a post that listed a bunch of the really weird things that I have gotten used to here. Most of them are normal for me now, but they are still mildly humorous.
-Need a napkin? We don't have any, but here is some toilet paper... Many restaraunts don't have napkins. Instead they have a roll of toilet paper on all the tables. It is really impractical. I mean really, the toilet paper just falls apart when you try to wipe off your hands.
- Fan death, All fans here have a time setting. Most turn off after a maximum of 3-4 hours. It is believed that if you go to sleep with your fan on, and the window closed you will die overnight. There are a few different beliefs about why this happens. I think the most widely accepted belief is that the fan chopps up the oxygen molocules and you suffocate. Others believe that the fan creates some sort of vortex or something like that, which sucks all of the oxygen out of the room. Some think that the fan causes hypothermia, and some think that the fan overheats and causes a sweltering condition that kills the person. None of it makes any sense, but it is an actuall "cause of death" on people's death certificates. (Also, supposedly, if an animal is left in a closed room with the fan on, the animal will spontaneously combust.)
- Children are constantly talking about death. If a student is absent and we don't know why, they will say that they are dead. If I hesitate in the middle of a sentence, someone will jump in with "and it died." They also speak of heaven as "up-stairs" and hell as "down-stairs." This makes it really easy to talk about someone who has passed away. If we are learning about a historical figure, I can simply say that the person is up-stairs now.
- Name in red: I hate using red pens, just because it seems really harsh. I always use blue or green pens to correct. But.... It is believed that if your name is written in red, you will die. I have no idea where this idea came from, but your students will freak out on you if you make that mistake.
-Kai, bai bo: (rock paper scissors) This game is played about 800 times a day, and it is used to determine everything. The results of the game are never questioned. whoever wins, gets what they want, no questions asked.
-Public trash cans: they don't exist! If you are walking along the sidewalk, and eating something, there are no trash cans to throw away your trash. People just throw their trash on the ground, and this is perfectly acceptable.
- "three more sleeps until my birthday!" Instead of saying how many days or how many nights until something happens, they say how many more "sleeps." The sad thing is, I have started to say this.
-age: Koreans calculate their age differently. When you are born, you are 1 year old. Then everyone gets older on January 1st. This means that if you are born on December 31, you are 2 the next day. It gets really confusing when you ask someone their age, because their Korean age is either 1 or 2 years older than their western age.
-siblings: There are 4 different ways to say sister (a girls older sister, a girls younger sister, a boys older sister, a boy's younger sister) and 4 different ways to say brother. However, cousins are called the same thing as brother or sister. I have asked students how many brothers and sister they have, and they will say "5 sisters, 7 brothers, and 4 babies" I end up having to ask how many brothers and sisters they have that live with them, or have the same mom and dad. We have ended up calling cousins "cousin brother" or "cousin sister."
-Korean moms: Korean moms are seriously like high schoolers. They have little aliances. Some moms will hold social events for their child's class, but won't include one student because they don't like the mom. They will tell the school that they don't want their child in another mom's child's class. We actually had a mom tell us to tell another mom that they should pull their child out of the school. They have their little social circles that are their clicks, and it is completely rediculous.
There are so many other things that I could list, but they aren't popping into my head right now. The truth is I love it here, even with all the weird things that I encounter every day.
Hey Stacie,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading this, I realized many things are similar here in Japan too.
They use rock paper scissors all the time, but its called janken here. When playing you have to say "saisho wa guu, janken poi!" and show the symbol on poi. It took me forever to get the saying down right, even with playing it many times a day, haha.
The not having any trash cans thing really is annoying sometimes. Although here, everyone just carries their trash around with them the rest of the day. Other than on the sides of roads, where there is minimal garbage, I have only seen 2 or 3 pieces of trash lying around. Ever. Its actually kind of crazy how clean this country is.
And one other thing that bothers me about here, that I am not sure if you have or not, is no way to dry your hands in the bathrooms. You are expected to carry around your own little hand towel everywhere to dry your hands.