Dear Sal,
It was absolutely wonderful to see you last weekend. The overwhelming emotions of seeing you after well over a year was such a surprise. It wasn't until I saw that I realised just how much I missed you. I dread to think how I will react to seeing my family when I return to England in two months. I'm so glad to see that you are settling in to your new life over here and are enjoying the work with the tiny elementary students you teach, who are a stack contrast to the students I have.
For the last term I have been taking the highest level classes my hagwon provides, Masters. This class quickly became one of my favorites to teach. The skill level of these students is vast and I have a feeling some of them are far more intelligent then I could ever hope to be. The lessons focus on English literature and involve reading such books as Ender's Game, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and discussing the themes and tone of these novels in great detail. The lessons are a pleasure to teach but mean a lot more work for me.
The high level of these students allows for more flexibility in the subject matter and vocabulary that one can us within the confines of a Korean class room, including swear words. In one class the subject of periods came up, as well as attempted rape. This week we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird, focusing on the Jim Crow Laws. (I assume you have heard of them and I don't need to go into detail to explain it, if you haven't then Google it now, then come back and continue reading.) The students reaction to some of the images we looked at can be very shocking when you first experience it. They laugh at the sight of a golliwog, giggled when they saw a man in a minstrel show wearing black face, the discrimination of another race is all fun and games to a child who knows no better. It wasn't until I showed them an image of lynching that the laughter subsided.
Something you will soon realise since you've moved here is that the children may come across as, well a little racist. I found this out within a few weeks of teaching when I showed my students a video of a starving African girl who was crying after the death of her mother to malnutrition. They found this harrowing video highly amusing. I shouted at them for their disrespectful behavior, which seemed to go completely over their heads. But it's not there fault.
Up until about fifteen years ago, Korea was one of the most homogeneous countries in the world. And while we grew up in a culturally divers environment, they did not. Outside of the big cities it's rare to see a foreigner, let alone one whose skin is a completely different colour to their own. These children do not hate, they just don't understand. They don't know how to react to someone different from them and so, they laugh. Korea is a very proud and very hospitable country, I have felt completely safe and at home since first stepping foot here and I am sure you will feel the same once you've settled in. Just a heads up.
Love, hugs and what in the Sam Hill are you doing?
Samuel James
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