Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Differences

I use a whiteboard in my classroom and I personally like to choose the blue and black markers. Well, my black markers were running out of ink, but when I went to replace them, there were only red markers left. So, I had to take the red marker.

I was having a lot of fun with my young, advanced class, and after break time we were doing a sentence activity on the board. I said "okay! I have a new pen!!" The entire class actually said "ooooohhh". I said "who wants to use the new pen!" and quite a few raised their hands. I said "Okay- Jaina! Your turn, come work on our sentence on the board!" Ha! She didn't realize she was actually going to have to do the sentence. It was quite funny.

There is some sort of "rule" or law of living here in Korea that you do not write peoples' names in red. I asked my students about this. I said "So, it would be bad if I wrote your name on the board in red?" and they all agreed "yes, yes!". I asked "why?". They all kind of looked deep in thought for a minute, and then Louise said "I think... blood." But, Hannah disagreed and said she wasn't sure. Someone mentioned Japan (seems to be Japan's color), and even Jaina said that it was a North Korean color, which makes sense.

In my next class I started the same discussion and jokingly (I'm bad) wrote someone's name on the board. The kids said "oh!", but I quickly erased it. Then I wrote my name on the board in red. I said "it's okay. I'm American... I don't care." Andy said "Why?" And I replied "umm. In America this is not bad." A few of the kids looked puzzled. It is always fun and interesting to get kids thinking about how different countries and cultures believe different things.

I moved the conversation along by saying "in America we also never do this..." and I bowed. Minsu said "what is..that?" and I bowed again, saying "Annyeong haseyo" (hello). Andy asked "why!?" and I said "umm. I don't know. why DO you bow?" and of course I got no answer :)

Andy quickly asked "what about... father?" He was asking what about when I meet my father? I don't bow? I asked "You BOW when you meet your father?" the kids responded "YES!! YES YES YES!!". I said "wow.... that's so nice. Remember- in America no bowing. So when I see my dad I say "HI DAD!"" and I waved my hands.

They were some fun conversations.

posted by Meghan @ 6:05 PM