She said: The word ‘graduation’ conjures up for me images of hot polyester gowns and hats that refuse to stay on heads, with Pomp and Circumstance playing, people giving relatively serious speeches, and a generally serious tone. For our Korean kindergarten, ‘graduation’ is a completely different affair. Three of our six kindergarten classes are graduating…
She said: We’ve officially been here for four months, and we finally got a real vacation – and boy, did we need it! A full eight days to relax, forget about the stresses of school, and not hear anybody call me ‘Sarah Teacher.’ Eight days means plenty of time to enjoy a lazy Christmas in…
She says: There have been many moments here where I’ve felt pretty helpless because I can’t speak or understand much of the language. For example, every time someone at school makes an important announcement for teachers to say, bring all of the kids downstairs, all in Korean. I then look like an idiot in front…
She Said: While people in the U.S. were celebrating Veterans Day, in Korea yesterday was Pepero Day. Pepero is a Korean cookie – a thin crispy cookie stick dipped in chocolate (just like Pocky from Japan, except not quite as good). Pepero Day is somewhat similar to Valentine’s Day, where couples and friends give each…
He said: “Oh my God, he just said something in Korean; actually said something!? No way! My mind is so blown! What is this madness? Somebody pinch me, this can’t be real. Guys for real…for real tho guys, did you just hear that white guy say a Korean word. I mean what!?” This is the…
She said: One of the most frustrating things about dealing with people here is that sometimes they treat me too much like a child who knows absolutely nothing, and sometimes they expect me to know everything about how everything works in this country. And they always assume these extremes at the worst or most annoying…
She said: When you think of a kid’s first birthday party, you probably think of the kid sticking his entire face in a cake while his parents take millions of pictures, right? Well, that’s not how it goes here! Last night Ryan and I went with all the other SLP teachers (Korean and foreign) to…
He said: Last night, all of the teachers at our school attended a very swanky reception celebrating one of our student’s sister’s birthday. When I refer to the reception as being swanky, I mean pretty extravagant. This was the nicest reception I have ever been to, and for a one-year-old child. Apparently a child turning…
He said: During my first week in South Korea, I was required to take a health exam at a local hospital. They checked my height and weight, my hearing and eyesight, and they drew blood. I was told that the purpose of this health exam was to check my overall health; to check for things…
She said: Vacation!!! It’s our 4th week of teaching and it was only a two day week. And we only really taught for a day and a half – on Tuesday we spent the morning painting masks, dressing the kids (and ourselves) up in traditional Korean clothes – hanbok – and playing games/taking pictures outside.…
He Said She Said: Gwangju 