What's Your Biggest Fear?

Me: "Today we are going to talk about your biggest fear".
Student: "What is fear?"
Me: Fear is something that is scary... for example, I am scared of spiders. So I have a fear of spiders. What are your fears?
Student: I am afraid of my mom!

Sadly, about 9 out of 10 students in my class either answered their mom, their angry father or the principal of the school... and I wouldn't even blame them! Punishments for these kids vary from a wack on the back, a smack on the hand or...wait for it... 25 flicks to the forehead?! The other day I had a student who was acting out in class, throwing around a freakin paper airplane and completely disregarding my authority. After the students blatent refusal to leave the classroom himself, I decided to send up a note with another student, along with the paper airplane, in hopes that Mr. Ryu (principal) would call his name over the loud speaker and summon him to the scariest place on Earth... his office. However, things did not exactly turn out as planned. Mr. Ryu decided to physically walk into my class, stand at the front of the room with a long wooden stick, hit the table with the stick approximately 15 times (I was even intimidated), and called the trouble maker up beside him. He then proceeded to (infront of the entire class) flick this student in the forehead 25 times!!!! It was probably the most bizarre form of punishment I have witnessed yet!

Just to reiterate, as I have previously mentioned, I do not at all agree with their means of punishment. I have thought relentlessly about why it is necessary to be physically reprimanded, however there is value to be found in optimism. No use of continuously trying to justify or concur to a policy so obviously outdated. I have accepted the fact that there is nothing I can personally do to change it and living in their Country, as an outsider, I promised myself I would not enter into this experience with critial eyes. Maybe Korea is just a little behind of their time. People change. Change is inevitable.

Well on the topic of change, the World Cup fever cooled down a bit after Korea was brutally defeated by Argentina. The score was 4 - 1 and the atmosphere at school the next day was less then displeased. There is another game Thursday early morning at 3:30am and my students promised me they will be up and cheering on their team. Now if that's not team loyalty, I don't know what is? However, if they lose, my students will be pissed AND gumpy. Grrrrreat!

Today as I was teaching a grade 4 class about different foods people eat for breakfast around the world ("That's right Sally, not everyone in the world eats kimchy and rice"), I kept hearing a faint buzzing sound which was somewhat distracting. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I continued to ignore this seemingly familiar noise (remember I did live with 9 wasps in my kitchen not so long ago). Anyways, one of the girls in my class lifts up a clear plastic globe resembling a hampster ball with 6 bees trapped inside, flying around aimlessly, trying to aggressively secure their freedom. Now I am not by any means an insect activist, so my first thought wasn't that they were probably going to suffocate in their new undersized home, I just couldn't understand why in the world someone would try and capture a bee without the intent of killing it or removing it from ones personal space. And not only that, why in the world would you proceed to bring a ball of bees to class!? It was then that I realized this young girl holding a ball of stingers had more power and supremecy in the classroom then did her very own teacher. One wrong move of that plastic bees nest, and I was literally running out the door!

That's all for now...write more soon!

Signing off,

Gillian Teacha xx