I am running behind on my posts once again. I meant to put this up about a month ago, but I have had a lot on my plate lately. I just got back from a great vacation in Bali and the Gili Islands, which I will be blogging about in the future. I want to dedicate this post, particularly the part about Chuseok, to my Grandfather, who passed away just before Christmas. Grandpa was very excited when I told him that I had decided to go to Korea, and he encouraged me to make the most of this great opportunity. I was lucky enough to visit with him one last time before I left. I will miss him very much.
Chuseok
Chuseok is the Korean harvest festival and is celebrated in September, but the exact dates depend on the lunar calendar. Most Koreans explained it to me as the "Korean Thanksgiving." It is mostly a family holiday where Koreans feast on traditional foods and honor the harvest. It is the most important holiday I have been in Korea for so far. During Chuseok, Koreans return to their home town and visit the graves of their ancestors to perform rituals. I had to resort to Wikipedia to find the connection between ancestors and good harvests, and it is this: good harvests are attributable to blessings bestowed by one's ancestors.
Our school devoted an entire day to our Chuseok celebration before closing for four days (giving me a six day weekend in China). During Chuseok, Koreans wear elaborate traditional outfits called hanboks. Many students wore them for the day's festivities.
Our school devoted an entire day to our Chuseok celebration before closing for four days (giving me a six day weekend in China). During Chuseok, Koreans wear elaborate traditional outfits called hanboks. Many students wore them for the day's festivities.
The photo above features Lina, Jenna, and Jenny; all girls from the Kindergarten drama class I teach once a week. The women's hanboks are flowing colorful dresses. On my way to Excellence class (my homeroom), I stopped in Dream Class (my support class) to snap some pictures. Ryan and Jack (right) provide an example of what a man's hanbok looks like. Still colorful, but more of a robe. Sally and Adela are on the left.
The first activity planned for the day was making songpyeon, the pumpkin pie of the Korean Thanksgiving. Songpyeon are sweet rice cakes stuffed with sesame. You begin by rolling the dough into a ball. Next, you hollow out the ball into a bowl, fill it with sesame, and seal it up. Naturally, some of the kids were better at this than others. There were some perfectly oblong rice cakes with no filling visible. There were also some mashed up balls where you could hardly differentiate the filling from the cake. After we completed our songpyeon, the cakes were collected, cooked, and returned to the students at the end of the day. Real songpyeon is steamed over pine needles, but I don't know if that's how ours was prepared. Below is a picture of Ian and Henry making songpyeon and a picture of the filled treat before it is sealed up.
After the songpyeon making session it was time for the talent show. I usually decide what my class will do for the talent show, whether it's a song, speech, or play, and spend a week or two before the talent show preparing and practicing. I had no clue what an ideal Chuseok performance would be, so I differed to my Korean partner teacher. She suggested having them write a letter to their ancestors, memorize it, and recite it to the rest of the school. This seemed like a steep task to me. It would involve teaching my kids how to write letters and teaching them the concept of "ancestor." These would probably be difficult concepts for American kindergartners to grasp, let alone those that don't speak English as their first language. I began by drawing a big family tree on the board, ending with the word "you," then branching off to mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, etc. When the tree grew several layers, I circled it all and said, "ancestors." I got a lot of blank stares. This was going to be difficult. After several failed attempts, I realized they would not be able to complete the letter and the rest of the lesson in time. I decided to have my partner teacher explain the assignment to them in Korean the following day, and moved on to the next part of the lesson.
Once the kids understood the assignment, they were able to do a very good job. They all chose to write the letter to a specific ancestor, which made an assignment that may have seemed ambiguous to them more concrete. It was actually very touching to hear all of them read their letters. One student of mine, Henry, had a grandfather who had passed away within the past month. His letter included his memories of his grandfather, like being taken to the barbershop. I almost choked up when he turned in his letter. I was able to get some video of the students giving their performances, but many were difficult to hear. Christine has never had a problem with projection, so I decided to include her performance. She wrote a letter to her great grandmother, who died when she was young.
Once the kids understood the assignment, they were able to do a very good job. They all chose to write the letter to a specific ancestor, which made an assignment that may have seemed ambiguous to them more concrete. It was actually very touching to hear all of them read their letters. One student of mine, Henry, had a grandfather who had passed away within the past month. His letter included his memories of his grandfather, like being taken to the barbershop. I almost choked up when he turned in his letter. I was able to get some video of the students giving their performances, but many were difficult to hear. Christine has never had a problem with projection, so I decided to include her performance. She wrote a letter to her great grandmother, who died when she was young.
After the talent show, the ssireum wrestling tournament began, but I already wrote about that in my last post. Ssireum is a tradition during Chuseok as well.
HalloweenChuseok, with its colorful costumes and ancient rituals, is the quintessential Korean holiday. Halloween, with its costumes and high-fructose-corn-syrup-infused candies , is an uniquely American institution. It was time to hold up my end of the cultural exchange. After a September talent show which emphasized somber reflection and respect for one's ancestors, I decided to lighten the mood in October. Excellence Class wrote a Halloween story, two lines at a time. I wrote the first two sentences, each kid added two lines, then we repeated the process. I gave them some help with syntax, grammar, and word order. The only other guidelines were that we were writing a Halloween story.
We ended up with a powerful saga of good and evil, trials and tribulations. Against staggering odds and countless villains, a hero emerges. Being plot driven more so than character driven, our tale is more of a timeless epic than a modern novel. Without further ado, I give you Excellence Class's Halloween Story.
Eric: Once upon a time there was a man named Eric Teacher (That is what I'm called. Don't ask why, that's just how all the kids address their teachers). It was a spooky Halloween night.
Rena: Eric Teacher was making ghosts by cutting out paper. Some scary bats knocked on the door.
Harry: Eric Teacher opened the door. The bats flew into his house.
Henry: Eric Teacher was scared, so he hid. A monster came in the house too.
Brian: It had three big, green eyes. It had an ugly red nose.
Rodin: A black and red vampire was in the room too. The vampire attacked Eric Teacher.
Christine: The vampire ate the bats. The monster fought the vampire.
Justin: The vampire and the monster died. Eric Teacher ran out of his home.
Ian: A ghost was outside. The ghost threw Eric Teacher's house.
Eena: Eric Teacher's house was gone. The ghost was a monkey ghost.
Rena: The villains shot fire at the world (yes, that's a direct quote). Witches flew in the sky.
Harry: The witches attacked Eric Teacher. Eric Teacher attacked them back.
Henry: Eric Teacher was scared. 100 monsters fought 100 Eric Teachers.
Brian: A tornado blew away the 100 monsters. The 100 Eric Teachers were blown away too.
Rodin: The vampire wasn't dead. The vampire attacked Eric Teacher with lightning.
Christine: Eric Teacher shot fire our of his mouth. The vampire died.
Justin: A girl turned into a ghost. The ghost fought Eric Teacher.
Ian: The ghost won. Eric Teacher was hurt.
Eena: Eric Teacher shot laser out of his mouth. The ghost flew away.
The End.
Each kid read his or her lines for our talent show performance. It was riveting. While he is able to fend of monsters and shoot fire out of his mouth, Eric Teacher was unable to remember the camera on Halloween. The kids came in costumes, we did Halloween activities, and we trick-or-treated quickly.
We ended up with a powerful saga of good and evil, trials and tribulations. Against staggering odds and countless villains, a hero emerges. Being plot driven more so than character driven, our tale is more of a timeless epic than a modern novel. Without further ado, I give you Excellence Class's Halloween Story.
Eric: Once upon a time there was a man named Eric Teacher (That is what I'm called. Don't ask why, that's just how all the kids address their teachers). It was a spooky Halloween night.
Rena: Eric Teacher was making ghosts by cutting out paper. Some scary bats knocked on the door.
Harry: Eric Teacher opened the door. The bats flew into his house.
Henry: Eric Teacher was scared, so he hid. A monster came in the house too.
Brian: It had three big, green eyes. It had an ugly red nose.
Rodin: A black and red vampire was in the room too. The vampire attacked Eric Teacher.
Christine: The vampire ate the bats. The monster fought the vampire.
Justin: The vampire and the monster died. Eric Teacher ran out of his home.
Ian: A ghost was outside. The ghost threw Eric Teacher's house.
Eena: Eric Teacher's house was gone. The ghost was a monkey ghost.
Rena: The villains shot fire at the world (yes, that's a direct quote). Witches flew in the sky.
Harry: The witches attacked Eric Teacher. Eric Teacher attacked them back.
Henry: Eric Teacher was scared. 100 monsters fought 100 Eric Teachers.
Brian: A tornado blew away the 100 monsters. The 100 Eric Teachers were blown away too.
Rodin: The vampire wasn't dead. The vampire attacked Eric Teacher with lightning.
Christine: Eric Teacher shot fire our of his mouth. The vampire died.
Justin: A girl turned into a ghost. The ghost fought Eric Teacher.
Ian: The ghost won. Eric Teacher was hurt.
Eena: Eric Teacher shot laser out of his mouth. The ghost flew away.
The End.
Each kid read his or her lines for our talent show performance. It was riveting. While he is able to fend of monsters and shoot fire out of his mouth, Eric Teacher was unable to remember the camera on Halloween. The kids came in costumes, we did Halloween activities, and we trick-or-treated quickly.
Thanksgiving
I'll keep this one brief since we didn't celebrate the holiday in school. If you want to celebrate Thanksgiving in Korea, you really have to seek it out. Several bars in Itaewon (the foreigners neighborhood) offered buffets on Thursday, and we hit up one of those. There is a Costco several bus stops from where we live that sold pumpkin pies, so I bought a few throughout the course of November. On Saturday, one of the other teachers hosted a potluck, which featured some tasty food. About the only thing missing was the chance to watch the annual sacrificing of the Lions at Ford Field. At least Tom Brady got to pad his stats.
Many more posts to come (including one about vacation), but I am incredibly busy right now. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.
Many more posts to come (including one about vacation), but I am incredibly busy right now. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.
