ESL Adventures

Today is March 1st, and thus a national holiday here in South Korea.  March 1st is a day commemorating one of the earliest instances of Korea’s resistance against the Japanese.  The events took place on March 1, 1919.  On that day approximately 7000 Koreans were killed by the Japanese.

A group of 33 people gathered at a restaurant in Seoul to read the Korean Declaration of Independence.

For more information see:

• Wikipedia – March 1st Movement
• Wikipedia – Korean Declaration of Independence
• Text - Korean Declaration of Independence (pdf)
• Photo – Korean Declaration of Independence

Newton class is a group of 6 year olds.  I teach math and science to them.  Over the last few months in science, we’ve been talking about the five senses.  The unit finishes with the sense of touch.  I mentioned as we were talking about soft and rough that my cat Ivory is very soft.  The kids wanted me to bring Ivory in.  I checked with their charge teacher and got her blessing.  All last week was rainy so I didn’t want to talk Ivory out.  But today was lovely.  It helps that I live directly next door to the school.  So on my break right before I taught Newton, I ran upstairs and brought Ivory down.

The kids were so excited.  Even so, they behaved wonderfully.  I was somewhat worried that they would be rough with Ivory, but they were very gentle.  I held Ivory while they came up and stroked her.  Tina, their charge teacher, was kind enough to take pictures.

Enjoy!

Today is Seollal (설날), or Lunar New Year.  It’s a time when Koreans travel to the homes where they grew up and celebrate the new year.  In that way, it’s similar to Chuseok.  They dress in Hanbok, the traditonal Korean dress.  One traditional food eaten during Seollal is tteokguk, which is  a soup with rice cakes.  Although I didn’t have it this year, I did make it last year.  A student’s mother gave me a number of packages of rice cakes as a gift.

One traditional activity is kite flying.  I was wandering around Ulsan today, but I didn’t get to any of the parks.  At least that’s where I assume people would be flying kites.  Another tradition is called Sebae.  Children show respect to their elders and wish them a happy new year by bowing deeply and saying “saehae bok manhi badeuseyo” which translates to “please receive many blessings in the new year”.  Children are rewarded with money, usually in the form of brand new bills.

More information can be found at the following sites:

• Wikipedia
• Korea.net
• VisitSeoul.net