Teachers' Day
Handmade paper flowers
Teachers' Day has come and gone in Korea, with everyone at our academy receiving presents from students save the other foreign teacher at our academy. A coworker told me that this girl got upset over all the birthday presents students gave me last month, which leaves me wondering how she took things today. I get along better with the students and she has more friends than me in Korea. Not sure if that makes us even.
Unfortunately, I slept in past my alarm this morning and subsequently showed up ten minutes late to my Korean class. However, despite my own tardiness, I still made it there ten minutes before my classmates, who usually show up 15-30 minutes late. They live within fifteen minutes of the academy while my commute takes roughly 80 minutes, so it's kind of off-putting to be the only student who shows up on time. Of course, this does mean getting some private tutoring before everyone else arrives, so I probably shouldn't complain too much. The carnations I'd bought for the teachers and secretary went over really well and it was amusing to see the looks they generated from other commuters on the train this morning.
The envelope pictured above includes the following letter complete with drawings:
- Poul teacher -
Poul teacher! My name is Sally (3)
And you hair are gold.
Why you hair are gold?
And good bye teacher!
- Sally (3) -
This particular student is the third girl with the name Sally in her class. Rather than change names the students adopted numbers to differentiate one another. Using last names would have worked for me, but numbers also get the point across. I was one of three Pauls in my fifth grade class; what made our situation particularly unique was that one was the only Paul in his family, I'm named after my father with the roman numeral II listed on my birth certificate, and our classmate shared his name with both his father and grandfather -- making him Paul III. Convenient!