Pepero Day, 수능, and home silliness

Tuesday was Pepero Day, which is sort of the Korean answer to Valentine's Day: completely useless and commercial, and an excuse to eat lots of candy. Pepero, or 빼빼로, is the Korean equivalent of Pocky, a Japanese snack that's basically a thin biscuit stick dipped in chocolate. There are many variations on the original chocolate, but the original is still the favorite. The holiday falls on November 11 every year because 11/11 looks like five pepero sticks lined up next to each other. Anyway, I got candy from some of my students, but more of them were sitting in class begging me for pepero: "Teacher, give me pepero!!" Unfortunately I only bought enough pepero for the teachers' rooms at the school, and some boxes for individual gifts, so no massive handouts of pepero for my students. Oh well! It seemed like most of them got enough anyway. My host siblings also gave me 2 giant pepero, which looks a little like this:



Only mine didn't have the fancy writing or sprinkles on it, just plain chocolate. Still delicious!




On another note, yesterday was the 수능, pronounced Suneung, which is the Korean equivalent of the SAT. In a few ways, the test is similar to ours, but in most, it's far more intense. It's only offered once a year, first of all, so ALL third graders in high school (the equivalent of seniors) take the test on the SAME DAY. On that day, government and school workers are told to go to work later than usual so they don't cause traffic jams that might prevent a student from getting to the exam on time. The second graders go and buy snacks for their third grade peers, some of whom stay up all night studying, and stand outside the schools where the exam is being administered, cheering and crying and praying. They're well aware that soon it will be their turn to suffer through this all-day ordeal of a test. Boys and girls take the test at separate schools, which I found surprising. During the 20 minute listening section of the test, planes and trains in the vicinity of the schools are stopped. There is so much pressure on these students: this is their one chance to do well on the exam, and it's all that counts toward college admission.That's another thing: the timeframe for the college admissions process is squashed into about 2 months. Once they find out their test scores in December, they send them off to the colleges they've sent applications to. Decisions are made quickly, graduation happens in February, and in March they're off to university (those who get in). In the US, the process goes basically from September to September! The school system here is still fascinating to me in how different it is from home.


Speaking of eduction, I totally surprised my host sister the other day when I looked over her shoulder at her math work and told her "맞다!" or, "that's right!" She turned to her mother, a look of profound shock on her face, and said, "에밀리 알아?!" ("Emily gets this?!") Hyeonhee was doing fractions. Of course I know fractions. But it was a hilarious realization for her that numbers and math are in fact the same across language barriers. I guess she assumes I don't know anything because I'm always asking about Korean. If I'm an idiot in her language, I must be an idiot in everything. Of course my host mother assured her that I must have learned these things in my school. When I told her that I used to tutor people in math when I was in high school (a fact that makes me shudder now...), she was amazed. When I told her I did Kumon, a Japanese math and reading tutor program that relies heavily on drilling and repetition, and also exists in the US, she was even more amazed.

Sample sheet of Kumon. Here's how I spent 10 minutes every day in elementary and middle school. In high school I worked at a center and corrected these sheets. I'd almost forgotten about it. My host family was so surprised that it exists in the United States! I had to explain, though, that my experience was different, and most American students don't do any kind of math or grammar drills like this. Yup, I was a true nerd.




Well, that's about all. Yesterday I took a beautiful hike with Colby and some of his friends from Busan, which was great, but I'll write more about that once I get pictures! For now, I'm back to teaching. This week my students are designing their dream high schools in groups. So far I've gotten a high school on an airplane, a "Special Space High School," an "Orange High School," a VIP high school, a high school whose buildings are in the shape of a sleeping elephant and a penguin, and my favorite, the "Flower Boys' High School," where the requirements are to be handsome and well-mannered, and the everyday uniform is a suit. Those girls wish they could groom their boys into such gentlemen...I think it's hilarious and adorable. We'll see what else I get in response.