Winter in Korea

It amazes me that so many girls and women in South Korea wear skirts and stockings in the freezing cold. What is even more surprising is how many of them will wear heals in the winter (regardless of snow/rain or slippery conditions). Oh, Korea and your obsession with fashion..




yes, i was creepy and took a picture of one of the MANY women on the subway .. i wish i had balls to take pictures of her upper body because she was wrapped up in three layers, a scarf, ear muffs and then a hat on top of that.. yet, her legs had to be sexy and "in style"

I'm all about assimilating .. but being warm is "in style" for me.

North Korean attack drills

At 2pm, the other day there was a national drill in case North Korean attacked. Should this ever happen in reality, all 545 students of mine, the teachers and I will move to the gymnasium.

During the drill, my co-teacher leans over to me and says, "This is stupid. I am sorry you have to see this. If North Korea attacks, there will be a bomb explosion and everyone will die."

At least someone in South Korea is honest about what is going on and willing to talk about it more than going along with the government and pretend that everything is okay.

Finally feel like I am making somewhat of a difference

I've said before that what I really wanted to do was to make my students think about their perception of beauty.. not to tell them what is right or but to have them think critically about it. My students are my life in Korea .. and even after that hiking trip with the “overweight program,” when I hang out with them in between classes or in their P.E classes, it's clear that too many students don't appreciate themselves.. and that just breaks my heart. I mean, I guess it makes sense because if you ever get on a subway in Seoul, you will this ad below (it shows before and after emoticons from plastic surgery).



This perception of a quick fix to attain the ideal type of beauty is widely accepted as a good thing. If you turn on a Korean TV, every single actress has big eyes, white skin, a small face, slim, a “clean face,” an S line and a V line (V-shaped chin). Where are the real looking people in Korean dramas and TV shows? Even the old mothers that get casted to be on these shows look superb. I think such attention on a narrow/specific ideal of beauty leads to discounting of so many other types of beauty, such as inner beauty.

I knew I wasn’t going to change a whole culture that is so focused on appearance, but I thought at least I could make my students have better self-esteem about themselves (which I really appreciate was a part of the American education system). This lesson took me 2-3 classes and maybe 10 hours of lesson planning and researching per each class, but it was well worth it – I think my students got more out of these lessons than any other lessons I have taught. Also, its been a long time since I felt this passionate about something. I honestly woke up every morning excited to teach during those weeks.. excited to challenge them.

To warm them up, I started with the different ideas of beauty in different parts of the world. Many were really amazed that their idea of white skin, small face, big eyes, straight hair, slim body is not shared all around the world. After that, I turned off the powerpoint and said, “okay, time to think – where do all these ideas of beauty come from?!” I wasn’t expecting an answer, so I shared with them this story my dad’s friend told me:

One day, there was a farmer who had a beautiful lamb. Three thieves saw the beautiful lamb and wanted to steal it, but they did not want to use any force. So what happened was the first thief went up to the farmer and asked,“Why do you have an ugly dog?” The farmer said back, “No, this is a beautiful lamb, not an ugly dog!” The first thief went away, and the second thief came. The second one asked, “Why do you have an ugly dog?” So now, the farmer was confused and started thinking if it was a beautiful lamb or an ugly dog. The farmer hesitated and said to the second thief, “it is a lamb.” The second thief went away and the third one came over. He said to the farmer, “Why do you have an ugly dog?” This time, the farmer was started to believe it was an ugly dog and said, “It is not mine!” and left, thinking it was an ugly dog. This is how the thieves took the beautiful lamb from the farmer.

This short, simple story really helped me have them think about where does the idea of beautiful or ugly comes from.. I asked them why did the farmer change his mind about the beautiful lamb. And everyone easily answered “because many people tell – UGLY!’ And then I asked the harder question – how is this similar to real life? Who is the farmer? And who are the thieves? I was really happy that most of my classes got it– that everyone is the farmer and other people, tv, internet, media are the thieves. For those that still didn't understand (for my students that do not know the alphabet), I showed them this dove ad, “beauty pressure”



I had them then write what they learned on their "exit tickets" and here are a few examples:


"I learned about different ideas of beauty. I think we must start to think 'I'm beautiful' by myself"


"I learned about prejudice of beauty. When we are young, we see lots of things from media so we lose our own"


"I learned beauty in many countries. And I saw the beauty in many countries were different. I know the beauty is made from someone. And I realized that I dont have to follow the fashion of beauty. I am who I am :)"


"Thank you teacher. Now I can get self-confidence of my beauty!!"


"I think I will not follow other people's beauty opinion."

Since I had made them think about different ideas of beauty in the world and where do these ideas of beauty come from (from a societal perspective) – the next class, I wanted them to think about their inner beauty. I started off with a math question (which most of the Korean kids were happy with that!) There was a study done by Harvard and London School of Economics about what % of women in this world think that they are beautiful. I had them guess and some were mindboggled that the answer was only 2%. I showed them the dove evolution commercial to help understand that one of the reasons why so few girls and women appreciate themselves is because of what they see from media. I then asked, “Well, why don’t you look like those models and actresses?” In almost all my classes, there was one girl that screamed, “because different mother and father!!” To which I laughed really hard and proceeded to show them the Dove evolution commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U). I stopped the Dove evolution video when it zoomed out of the billboard and asked, “So why don’t you look like her? Isn’t she so beautiful?” To challenge them even more, I asked, so is it right for you to compare yourselves to something that is fake (photo-shopped and that much hair and make-up)? I then taught and talked to them about “true beauty/real beauty" and showed them this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_PG4AL-7A

The the last and maybe the most important thing I did was I had my 2nd and 3rd graders (did something a little different with my 1st graders) write letters to themselves. “Write an honest letter to yourself. Include( 진정한 아름다움에 대해, 자기 자신에 게 솔직하게 써보세요. ): What makes you feel beautiful? (어떤 것이 아름답다고 느껴지나요?) What do you like about yourself(당신 자신에 대해서 어떤 것이 좋다고 생각하나요?) (inner beauty, NOT appearance:외모가 아니라 내면적인 아름다움)?


I think the 98% she is talking about is the % of women in the world that do not think they are beautiful


"Before I think taller woman and skinny person is real beauty. So I want to be thin and tall but now I think inner beauty is real beauty! So now I want honesty mind and self-trust."


I like the ending, "Don't forget today's pleasant forever. bye."


"Dear So Young, Hello So Young, Maybe you think "Oh I'm ugly, I'm not pretty." But the most beautiful thing is laughter. When you laugh, you look so beautiful. So, do not think "I AM UGLY" Cheer up! From So Young"


I think this happens a lot .. when parents "demand" their child to grow taller and thinner


I enjoy her "Be a real woman" at the end.


"To me.. Hello :) Um... I'll write a letter about real beauty this time. What have you been thinking about? To be honest, I have been thinking I'm not beautiful. But after I have listened to the class, I know about real beauty. I think real beauty i s to have a nice character and help poor and tired people and .. to be loved by somebody and love somebody"


"Dear Shreya, after you talk to me about true beauty, I think myself beauty. I am most beauty. Before I think beauty is big eyes and small face, but now I don't think. I will love myself. Thank you Shreya!"

A few weeks ago, one student who is actually very smart and cute wrote a thanksgiving card to Miss A (a pop group in Korea) because seeing them made her diet and she hopes to get plastic surgery soon to look like them. She came up to me after the 2nd lesson on real beauty and told me she didn't want plastic surgery anymore. I am not exaggerating at all when I say I got teary.

But don't get me wrong, I still had a few students in each class that believe plastic surgery is the best thing and that everyone should get it and tv or internet does not influence their mind at all, but I love when they are honest like that.. thats my moment to challenge them.. thats my moment to be a "cultural ambassador" and to put this diplomatic visa to some good use, hah.

I think I am going to hold on to these letters for a while and mail it to them later in the year. Because appearance is so central to this culture, I doubt that my two or three classes changed their lives completely.. I am sure this struggle with self-esteem will be on-going, so I think maybe mailing to them later when they have forgotten about it will help remind them there is more beauty than big eyes, a small face, slim body, S lines, V lines, white clean skin, etc.

Thanksgiving with the students :)

I have been really trying to encourage my students to "think outside the box." I find that because of the way the Korean education system is set up, my students are so programmed to find the 1 right answer to every question that all their imagination goes down the drain.

For Thanksgiving, I thought I would mix it up a little. Of course, everyone is thankful (or as my students have a bad habit of saying "thanksful") for the usual - family, friends, a roof over their heads, etc. So, I taught them the phrase "taking [something] for granted" and wanted them to start thinking of all other things that is left out of the "typical list"

It is interesting to see the outcome of trying to get them to think creatively because the smartest students often made mundane or typical thank-you cards and the students that don't know that much English at all were actually very creative with their answers. Perhaps, the "intelligent" students have only become really good at the rote memorization that the Korean education system thrives on :/

I took a few pictures of some cards that had both creativity and good English :)

North and South Korea

I forget that I am in a country that is still technically in war with N.Korea. I also forget that there has been recent shooting and there is all this talk about WWWIII and all. Honestly, I am only reminded of it when I get emails from family and friends back home about it. Its interesting that people back home are more concerned than the people actually in Korea.

The day of the recent firing, all the teachers gathered around one teacher's computer and watched what seemed to me to be some pretty intense stuff. But after 3 minutes (not exaggerating), everyone just started going back to work!

Now, I don't know if this was because there have been exchange of fire before or because they don't like to talk about things too much (always thinking about maintaining that "social harmony") or Koreans are workaholics.

I can imagine it is a combination, but more so, that they always want to maintain social harmony and keep things the way they are as much as possible.. even if it means not talking about their fears or recent happenings with North Korea. At the lunch table, the teachers still talk more about the rising price of kim-chi (Korea's staple food) and how cold it is outside than they do about difficult issues.

Jeju United Soccer Game!

oh, you don't have a balloon? no worries, just get an orange trash bag, tie it to a stick and wave that around ;)



Thanks to Dave and his hostdad being a soccer ref, we got free tickets and great seats!



aw, i like when they bring out the little kids in the beginning :)



game time.. eh, more like tying his shoe laces but same difference



yay! minus the fact that i cannot open my eyes



love running into students! Please note the balloon I made for my host sisters, which only ended up flying away :(



hehe, English mistakes "We are Green Family"




check out Jeju United's coach, rocking his mint velvet (i think that is the term) coat!

in a middle school girl's mind

brought some word magnets from America so the students can play around with sentences.. came in to find this today
"Some day a boy forget girl, but the girl don't forget him"