Teacher’s Day!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

It seems like May has been a never-ending barrage of public holidays in Korea. Two weeks ago, Children’s Day and Buddha’s Birthday were celebrated, while last week was all about showing love for mom and dad on Parent’s Day. Today, however, was the mecca of public holidays, for me anyway, because it was all about the eraser clappin’, red pen circlin’, stink eye givin’ teachers of Korea!

My friends Jess and Maddie had spoken lore of this glorious day. Their stories about Teacher’s Day in May 2013 had me seriously excited when I woke up this morning.

Teacher’s Day in South Korea is celebrated every May 15th. The premise is pretty simple – students celebrate their teachers. This “celebration” can take the form of simple gratitude or sometimes gifts. And who doesn’t love that, amirite?

While I joked with my co-workers about the prospects of $100 Starbucks gift cards and skin products, this day was just a reminder of how fortunate I’ve been this year to meet such bright, young minds. I, admittedly had a bit of a rough day today, (highs and low are inevitable on Thursdays when I teach nine classes in row), but I have so many things to be grateful for and to be inspired by. Here are just a few:

– My homeroom class. The children of Happiness Class are simply in a word, “happy”. I’ve only taught this quintet for two and a half months, but they are consistently the highlight of my day. One of my students, Kevin, came into the teacher’s room early this morning and gave me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. He was trailed by little Aiden (“Aidy”) who gave me a rice cake that I devoured before he even had time to leave the room. These nuggets make it all worth it.

– My first grade boys. Formerly my daily kindy students, I now teach these four first-grade boys only three times a week. All four boys are so kind, intelligent, and well-behaved, which makes teaching them a dream. Earlier this month, one apologized for not being able to invite me to his birthday party because “he didn’t think I would have fun”. Even though we didn’t have class today, one boy named Jessy ran up to me in the hall with a toothy grin as he handed me a gift-wrapped box. This turned out to be a spill-resistant, vacuum coffee mug. Obviously the little guy knows me well, and I was astounded by his generosity on a day when I don’t even teach him!

– The sleepers. There are certain kindy students who I don’t teach as often throughout the week. As a result, I often feel that we don’t have a very close relationship; I’m just a blip on their radar. One example is little Sally from Pride Class, who completely threw me off today after presenting me with a $30 gift card to Starbucks. It’s always the quiet ones that surprise you!

– My former middle school students. Even though they are all gone now, my middle school students have been adamant about keeping in touch with me via e-mail. The best part of my day was receiving an e-mail from one student, Julia. Check below for a screenshot – this e-mail really did make me go “d’awuuuh” on my lunch break.

– My fellow co-teachers. Tireless human beings. Even when the fluorescent lights are too bright, and the air conditioning refuses to work, I can always count on them to listen to fifteen minute snarfles. Here’s to you guys.

As Teacher’s Day 2014 comes to an end, I want to wish my fellow teachers in Korea, from public schools to hagwons, as well as teachers from all over the globe, a happy and healthy evening. I’m placing a virtual apple on each and every one of your desks. Namaste!

Children’s Day!

Happy Children’s Day, everyone! May 5th is a recognized public holiday in Korea, which means I get this sunny Monday in Busan off! Yes, the irony of being an English teacher in South Korea and not having to teach on Children’s Day is not wasted on me.

Children’s Day has officially been celebrated since 1970 in Korea, and encourages children to grow and prosper without discrimination, and to hold only wisdom and bravery in their hearts. Toy stores, public parks, and department stores are apparently swarmed with kids, so you better believe I’ll be avoiding those places today!

In celebration of the up-and-coming generation of Koreans, my school hosted a full day event in dedication of the little nuggets this past Friday. This was great news for me because any day when I can derp around with my kindy kids and not teach from the world’s most boring textbooks is a fantastic one!

Each of my fellow foreigner co-teachers and I were responsible for a different station at the event. Shannon and Brandi ran the “Brown Store”. This is a basically a market where students can use the “Brown Bucks” they’ve received over the course of the month for good behaviour, and buy cute little knick-knacks. Brittany and Thomas were responsible for teaching the little noodles about food creation (read: making tiny little burgers). Robert was responsible for creating a balloon hat for each student, and I was tasked with painting all of their faces because “Dylan Teacher, you are such a good artist!” I’m not exactly sure where my head teacher got such an idea, but the misinformed sentiment was a cute one.

That said, I actually did end up having a blast painting my kiddies’ faces. I’m by no means quitting my job to become a professional face-painter, but I don’t think I was totally awful at it. Every single time I would finish, I would take a “poto” of each child’s face to get a sense of their satisfaction level and every single time their face would remain expressionless. I kept on reminding myself that this is a part of Korean culture (not letting your true feelings known through facial expression) and was eventually vindicated when the kids later thanked me for their awesomely painted face.

One of the best (albeit messiest and saddest) moments of the event came when I was painting one of my more rambunctious students’ face. A friend from his class came up to watch me as I attempted to paint a penguin holding an umbrella. I eventually required the yellow paint for the beak. When I reached over to dip my paintbrush in, I noticed that the yellow had disappeared. As I began to say “now, where did I put the yell-” I looked up to find the friend, the whiteboard, the wall, and the floor covered in yellow paint. The poor little noodle was so distraught, but I couldn’t help but giggle as I scolded him for getting too close to my work station. I guess we shouldn’t add “Compassionate Teacher” to my list of school nicknames…

After lunch, we assisted our homeroom classes with creating candy necklaces. Normally, whenever we “assist” our classes with any sort of project like this, it turns into me frantically assembling 12 candy necklaces myself. Thankfully, my class of six year olds are surprisingly resourceful and did it all by themselves. I like to think I’ve contributed to their resourcefulness but ego gets you nowhere.

Once the candy necklaces were done, I was responsible for hosting an “active” game in our auditorium known lovingly as the “Sky Room”. I basically created a version of “Corn Hole” with beanbags and hula hoops, and divided the classes into four colour-coded teams. The Pink Team (that no one initially wanted to be apart of because apparently “pink sucks”) ended up destroying all the other teams. After the game, we sang some classic songs including “Spring is Here”, “We All Go Travelling By”, and my personal favourite, “I Am A Pizza”.

Basically, Children’s Day was a total breeze of a Friday where my kiddies got to have fun without any of the pressures of English learnin’. While I will miss them tomorrow and Tuesday, (which I also have off for Buddha’s birthday, huzzah!), I’m sure their parents will treat them to all of the ddakji and patbingsu their meagre little frames can handle!

Happy Children’s Day to you and yours!