Teacher Mars

My friend told me this story about teaching in Korea: She works at a private middle school where the children wear uniforms. When her classes have field trips the students are allowed to choose whatever they want to wear. The students get excited to show off their individual style. On one particular field trip, one of her boy students(a 12 year-old) showed up with a t-shirt that said, "Too drunk to fuck". No one else could read English and the boy was excited to show her an English shirt, she decided to keep it to herself and not say anything.

I have now been teaching for almost 3 weeks. I really enjoy the students. They follow me around like I am a rock star and tell me I am beautiful everyday. Students bow to teachers and do not like to disappoint. They are always giving me "presents". I have received stickers, origami figures, gum, candy, energy drinks and one kid gave me a half bitten piece of popcorn.

I gave an introduction of myself over 30 times. "My name is Mars. I am from the USA. This is my family. These are my pets. I like to read." Then the students had an opportunity to ask me questions. The usual questions included, "Are you married? Do you have a boyfriend? How old are you? Do you like Korean food?" But in my third 4th grade class I had a student raise his hand and ask, "Who are you going to vote for? Obama or Clinton?"

I share an office with the other subject teachers. They are very entertaining. Drinking is much more socially accepted here. They often talk about how drunk they were the night before and how they have a headache or how tired they are. This is a huge change from the work talk that I am used to. They are also extremely generous. I get gifts every week. Yesterday, a teacher made vegetarian kim bap just for me. Another teacher found out that I did not have a phone or Internet. She kept saying, "You must be very boring" and gave me her old cell phone. I did not correct her and gladly took the cell phone.