S*** My Korean Students Say

Curious things students have said…and sometimes they are not curious but just racist. There is a three part one at the end for Japan.

Teacher, you are easy and everyone is hard.

Teacher, boyfriend? No. What about James teacher *laughs while thinking ‘We’re not Pandas at the zoo’ from Community*

Teacher! I am no see! (sounds like Nazi).

Teacher! You are bling-bling!

You have eyes like a alligator! What? So many greens

Student 1: Your eyes are beautiful!

Student 2: Game! Think about the Game!

My sister has….*points at eyes* Eyes? *keeps pointing at eye* not glasses! Contacts? Yes! But they make her eyes look like yours!

Me:what country is east of korea?

Students: DOKDO! (explanation below)

Me: not a country…but east was what I going for so good job!

I want to go to America to see freedom.

Students: We don’t have to do work anymore because North Korea is going to attack.

Me: You know that’s not true.

Students: Yeah…it was worth a try.

Teacher! She (other student) is hip-hop (they were wearing a shirt that said Ebony)

Teacher, this boy has a big nose (black kid in the book) but this girl has hair like rockstar (black girl in the same book who had braids)

Students had to fill in the blanks about a photo where 3 people were at a train/bus station. It said ‘they are all’ and most students wrote ‘talking’, ‘having a conversation’ or ‘friends’ but one write ‘in danger’. A+ for creativity.

For another they had to write advice for what to do if you have problems studying because you’re always texting: I think you should be born to a smart mother and a smart father because if you are not then you cannot be smart.

What follows is the story of one particular student, who is hilarious but concerning because of what he thinks about Japan even now. Mini history: Japan invaded Korea and made the women into ‘comfort women’, kills tons of people, made it impossible for Koreans to move around the country (especially move to America because the US said there were ‘too many Japanese’ and since Korea was under Japanese rule, they counted), made Koreans learn Japanese and killed anyone who spoke out. Japan did reelect the person who said that Koreans should have been proud to be comfort women….Dokdo is an island (really 2 islands with one name…well one name in Korean and one name in Japanese) that Korea says is theirs and Japan says is theirs. Currently under Korean law and even the pact America signed with Japan does not protect Dokdo as part of Japan.

Part 1:

Me: What do you want to be your hobby?

Student: To destroy Japan.

Me: Okay….how are you going to do that? [following the book like I did for the rest of the students]

Student: By going nuclear.

Part 2 (unrelated, but the same student):

Student: Teacher, I don’t like the French.

Me: Why not?

Student: Because they said Asians are yellow. They say we have yellow skin.

Part 3:

Student: I want to give Dokdo to Japan.

Me: Really? I thought you didn’t like the Japanese.

Student: Oh, no, I want them all to move there. Then Korea will take over Japan.

Me: …But Dokdo is very small, everyone from Japan will not be able to live there.

Student: I know. *stares at me and smiles*

Part 4:

Me: I’m going to your favorite place for Lunar New Year.

Student: Really?? Where??

Me: Japan!

Student: ….but I HATE Japan

Me: I know. I was joking.

Student: Teacher, it’s a trap, you won’t come back.

 

Seoul Museum of History

This museum let me know that I don’t care too much for the dynasty era of Korean history. I tried reading the information but I would get bored less than halfway though reading the sign. That being said, there were some beautiful things throughout the museum.

On the bottom floor there are two exhibition halls, among other things (restaurant, information, gift shop, etc) and the rest of the museum is on the 2nd floor (realistically its the 3rd floor but visitors cannot go anywhere on the 2nd floor).

I first went to the right and there were exhibitions on Jeongdong: a Strange Coexistence and the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900: the Daehan Empire Met the World. The Paris one confused me at first because the sub-heading was not there so I expected some French art…not so much though, it was Korean stuff that was sent to Paris to show the world what Korea was like before 1900.

Below are pictures from Jeongdong: a Strange Coexistence was about the changing times from traditional to Western, which is exemplified in the second picture, of the modern man and the bike. The first picture is of Seoul at the time of 1899.

In the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900: the Daehan Empire Met the World there were many things from the time before 1900 (as the exopsition was in 1900) including the walls that Koreans would put up between rooms and instruments. There were also the chairs that kings were carried on, fans, chairs, pots and drums.

On the floor with the exhibitions, it starts in Zone 1 of Seoul of the Joseon Dynasty, then Zone 2 of The Capital of the Daehan Empire, Zone 3 of Seoul under Japanese Control, and ends with Zone 4 of Development of Seoul.  However, at the top of the stairs there is the Seoul Panoramic Theater, which has a mini-model of Seoul in it. It’s actually called ‘SEOUL: Now and in the Making’ which I thought was a great title for a city display. Very difficult to get pictures of without a tripod because of how bright it is. As I was looking a kid walked in and just went ‘WOAH’ and went all fours and stared down at what he had been standing on as his father and myself laughed.

What I enjoyed in Zone 1 were the models of the city, or models of how life used to be.

Zone 2 is the smallest of the zones and displays the start of modernization/Westernization. One thing that was prevalent was the numbers of foreigners, specifically Japanese,  was increasing–as you can see in the first picture–which lead to Zone 3 quite well. On the floor in one of the three rooms was a map of the Seoul that was before occupation. The final room had a photo show going on with descriptions of the photos. The ones I thought were most interesting were:

• 1907: Report on the national debt redemption movement, the Daehan Maeil Sinmun (Newspaper) and the Hwangseong Sinmun (Newspaper)
• 1907: Japanese army soldiers march in downtown Seoul when Emperor Gojong was forced to abdicate
• 1907: forced abdication of Emperor Gojong and enthronement of Emperor Sunjong
• 1907: Parade of Emperor Sunjong after ascending the throne
• 1097: Uprising of loyal army soldiers
• executing loyal army soldiers
• 1910: Japanese annexation of Korea

Zone 3 had more models, but this time displaying the way things were changing in specific areas, such as Cafes, Barber shops and Billiard Halls. There was also a lot of writing about the changes in culture and how things were under Japanese occupation. Department stores were created, people started to read more as it was a good way to find out about rebellion and young people who dressed in modern styles were basically saying ‘everything you wear is terrible, look at all the money I have, I am better than you because I dress like a Westerner’. At this time World War 2 was going on and Korea had to fly the Japanese flag.

Zone 4 starts with a short sum up of Liberation, US Occupation, and the War. There is a whole museum about the Korean War, so I think they skip over it here because there is no point in going over all the information twice. After that there is information about Seoul growing and expanding in number of people but not size, which lead to overcrowding, bad sewage, shanty towns (and fires in them) and food shortages. This lead into the dictatorship which lead to a lot of construction and helped Seoul become a booming city and Korea a booming country. After that it seemed like the museum skipped a bit, showed a 1970s dress and went to the Olympics, which was a massive deal for Korea to hold, less than 50 years after the Korean War.

Back to the ground floor, there is the Cartographic Achievements of Joseon, which are maps that were collected by a private collector and loaned to the museum for display.