Cheonan, Korea Rep.

My camera arrived today!! I was hoping it would, and just when I had given up hope, the principal himself came to my desk and put a box on it. My new camera is beautiful and oh so fancy. It is a pink Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX75 with a fantastic wide angle leica lens and a big LCD. I was wondering why there were so few buttons on the camera compared to my old Lumix and then realised it’s a touch screen – pretty hi-tech for me! So the I showed the principal and he got all excited for me and completely took over by putting the battery in and the memory card while I stood there itching to grab it back from him! He also insisted on taking the first photo…of me looking very happy at having my new toy. Tomorrow is a public holiday so I look forward to going out and about with it and taking some photos.

Today I only taught one out of 4 lessons. The first one was cancelled because the Grade 2’s had to go to the gym and play a game called “si rum” which is a Korean judo slash wrestling sport. It was very entertaining to watch! I was the only girl in the room and got given a chair to sit on and watch from. The PE teacher, an ex-judo champion, made the competitors bow to me before bowing to each other and then trying to smash each other to the ground. Each competitor has a long piece of fabric tied around the top of his right leg and then around his waist. The other competitor holds on to this fabric in a specific way, and when the whistle is blown they try get the other one on the ground. I had a good laugh! The lightweights just get flung around by the heavier boys. After everyone had had a turn Mr Judo himself (don’t know his name) had a go and of course smashed all the boys to the floor with ease.

The next lesson was interrupted by a training drill which was explained as being mainly due to the conflict with North Korea. Apparently it is a national drill (it sounded like the siren was being broadcast by the radio) and they do it once a month. After that I was asked to conduct interviews with some of the Grade 1’s and 3’s to see who is the best candidate for representing the school in English competitions. I had to ask them 2 questions and they could choose one to answer. They were all so cute. I haven’t been able to have any one-on-one time with students until now and it was really nice. I was also quite saddened by their answers, especially the grade 3’s. Their questions were: “what do you argue with your parents about?” and “what do you worry about?” Mostly their answers to the first question were: they argue because their parents think they play too many computer games, watch too much TV and sleep too much! Their answers to the second were: they worry about their grades, about which high school to go to and about their health. One boy said he has dizzy spells and is constantly tired and the doctors just say he is very tired and must rest.

The amount of daily schooling here and the academic pressure put on these kids is unbelievable. They actually fall asleep in class sometimes because they are just so exhausted. The school day is from 8:20am to 3:20pm and often they have extra lessons afterwards. Every second Saturday they have to attend school and after school every day at least half of the boys attend Hagwon – another private school which goes until evening. It’s crazy but I suppose it explains a lot about why this place is so technologically advanced…