Another Inspirational Article About Korea

New York Times article on marines in Korea
Shit like this really bothers me about Korea. I think it is an continuation of the abuse that all of our student face at school from their teachers and at home from their fathers. When discussing what kids in elementary school didn't like about their parents one little girl that barely speaks, always looks terrified and apparently wet herself from nerves in one class said that she doesn't like it when her dad hits her. I can only imagine that if this poor girl wasn't beaten by her father she might be a little more inclined to make friends and be outgoing in class. As it is she perpetually looks terrified. I once hit the desk of a student that kept falling asleep in class and the look of fear in his eyes when he jumped awake totally caught me off guard. It would never occur to me that a teacher would ever hit me, and I could never hit a student, but to him it seemed natural that I would be planning on hitting him for sleeping rather than just trying to wake him up.
Also, every student tells me how summer is the worst time of year because rather than getting time off to relax their schedules become even harder. One of my middle school students spends Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at academies or traveling between them from 9 in the morning until 10 at night. I can't even imagine how much that would suck. When I told them that the most homework I ever had over the summer was summer reading in high school I'm pretty sure they wanted to punch me. But they seem so used to it that they never really complain or anything. Needless to say, every day that I spend teaching Korean kids makes me even more thankful that I grew up in America. Our education may a shadow of what they receive but unlike them I was able to have a childhood and a few life experiences under my belt by the time I was 18, something that I would not say of a single one of my students.
In other news we had one day of sun on Saturday so I finally got to go to the beach! It was a great day/night of hanging out, swimming, eating and drinking (so all of my favorite activities). Back to working 10 hour days but at least I got one day of fun in. It poured rain today but hopefully the weekend will be nice.