What an eventful year it's been! I took a long break from Facebook but I failed in my attempt to stay in better contact with the people who love me. I am very sorry. It has occurred to me that there are some people who are natural hubs; you know, the ones that seem to pick up and disseminate information as naturally as breathing, who have hundreds of real life friends and thousands of Facebook connections, and who seem to gracefully make others feel a part and valued. I so admire those people. Our lives are so much drearier without them. I, however, am not one of them. So, I write this now, like Sting's "message in a bottle," hoping that it reaches those hubs in my life.
Seoul has been a much better situation for me. I have been able to enroll in Korean classes, I have other foreign co-workers, and my students are ridiculously talented. My kindergartners are working at a 1-3 grade level through the course of the school year. This is amazing to me! As you might expect, it does create some interesting challenges. While their command of English is excellent, developmentally they are still pre-primary school. They sometimes have assignments in books that are impossible for them to comprehend, not because their English is inadequate but because they haven't developed enough cognitively to understand the parameters of the assignment. The best illustration of this was an assignment where they had to pretend they were Abraham Lincoln and write a letter to another famous person explaining something. I forget what. Their problem wasn't that they didn't know who Abraham Lincoln was or the person to whom he was writing. They also had no problem with the topic of the letter. Their challenge was pretending to be a specific person. Ask them to pretend to be an astronaut or a singer or a doctor and they have no problem. Ask them to be Abraham Lincoln and write a letter AS Abraham Lincoln and they just look at you like you are speaking Pig Latin. It has been such an enlightening experience!
Unfortunately, this school year did not end on the most satisfying of notes. With the spread of the Corona virus, the schedule was necessarily altered for the safety of the students and staff at our school. We were unable to hold our yearly graduation activities and say goodbye to our students properly before they enter elementary school. The teachers were also sent home for Spring Break, a time when we were supposed to be planning for the new school year. We should be returning on March 4th to do some planning and set up before the students come on the 9th. I will still be teaching the same grade in the same classroom, which makes me happy. I have a great co-teacher who will be teaching with me. I will miss my students and my former co-teacher but I am hopeful that we will have a great new year!
I am healthy and doing well! I know many of you have heard all kinds of sensational reports about the situation here in Korea. I can only imaging the disturbing images that you see on the news. Mostly, life is going on as before. Korea is full of people who are very aware of their health. The great increase of numbers in cases reported are more likely, in my opinion, to be due to the fact that nobody is trying to ride out their illness on their own. In the US, we have a tendency to wait until we are truly suffering from our illnesses before we see a doctor or go to the emergency room. In Korea, they go to the doctor at the first sign in hopes of heading it off before it becomes a full blown case of something nasty. That is encouraging to me. It means that the people who have contracted the disease are seeing professionals at the beginning of their illness and limiting the number of people with whom they come in contact. For most Koreans, this is how they deal with illness all the time. The masks may be in short supply right now but many people have their own supply at home. Don't worry.
This Fast Sunday, while we will be having church services in our homes, we are also focusing on those who are suffering and praying for a quick end to the disease's spread. If you feel the desire and don't know what you can do to help, please consider joining the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in fasting and prayer. Each first Sunday of the month, for those who are unaware, the members of the church fast for two meals and donate the money they would have spent on those meals for the support of the poor and for emergency situations such as this. All prayers for the people here are greatly appreciated.
Spring is on the way! I hope that you are enjoying the beginning of a new season. I love and miss you all. Happy March!
No comments:
Post a Comment