korean

1) Dong Chim: this is probably one of the most terrifying things here. It pretty much translates to ‘poop needle’. Kids clasp their hands together in a kind of gun shape and then…ram those fingers right up your butt. There are even statues dedicated to this madness. It’s basically the Asian version of the wedgie and they think it’s hilarious! The best targets have their back turned and are usually concentrating on something else. I very quickly learnt not to turn my back around little kids. You have to always be on the lookout for small children creeping up behind you. As violated as you feel you can’t really make a big deal about it because all of the adults think it’s pretty funny too. It’s just seen as a harmless, childish prank. You just need to be on the look out or you’ll end up looking like this: 2) A really odd thing (for me) here is that kids come to school no matter how sick they are. Adults also usually don’t have sick leave and will be at work no matter what. So it kind of makes sense why they would send their kids to school when they’re really sick, but still. As a teacher it is the worst. We have kids coming here straight from the hospital with plasters over their hand where the drip was, throwing up, with crazy fevers and most commonly a terrible cough. I feel bad for them, I really do, but mostly I want to run away because they somehow always end up right in your face and breathing/ coughing directly on you. I’m just like…. 3) These kids go crazy for ‘candy’! It can be a tiny little lollipop or the smallest chewy sweet and they will do pretty much anything for it. It holds a ridiculous amount of power and makes bribery a dream. They go from crazy little monsters to this as soon as I say the word ‘candy’: I have had kids follow me to class chanting “candy candy candy” and when I write 10 new vocab words that they need to use in a sentence they somehow manage to make each one of those sentences about candy. It’s actually pretty impressive. 5) On being spoken to in rapid Korean. In no way can I speak Korean. Buuuuut, if someone speaks slowly to me I can usually recognize a few words and put them together with their hand gestures to figure out what they are saying. I get stuck pretty often. The other day I went to the Pharmacy to pick up some medicine. The pharmacist asked me (in Korean) if I speak Korean. Now, I have a pretty bad habit of just saying yes and nodding if I have no idea what someone is saying. I wasn’t concentrating and said yes. And then I realized what she had asked me. But, by then it was too late. She was chattering away in rapid Korean and I just stood there like: 5) This last one is another one of the odd things my kids do. Whenever someone is absent and I ask where they are or even acknowledge that they’re absent the class launches into an explanation and tell me the craziest stories to explain where the missing kid is. Spoiler alert: it always ends up in them dead. It usually involves someone killing them, being hit by a bus or being eaten. These ridiculous stories are their favorite way to kill time in the beginning of the class. The more creative ones are actually pretty entertaining. Sometimes. Mostly it’s just