Valentine's Day in Korea

I decided to decorate the big picture windows in the hallway outside the classrooms for Valentine's Day. Two of the teachers made a design out of red hearts and wrote "We Love You" on three big hearts. I wrote each student's name in either pink or red on a little heart--all 86 students' names. I was about to start cutting the little hearts out when I remembered reading somewhere that the only time you write a person's name in red in Korea (and some other Asian cultures) is when that person is dead! I didn't want to risk anyone seeing my mistake, so I stuffed all the hearts in my book bag, ran across the street to my apartment, and started rewriting the names in pink instead of red.

Then I started wondering, "Is pink too close to red to be safe? If you write a name in pink, does it mean the person is only sort of dead?" I found Nathan, a Korean guy who is 22 and works at the church, and asked him if it's okay to write names in pink. He said most people wouldn't have a problem with pink, but the old people might. I didn't want to risk it, so I rewrote all the pink names in blue and purple. I'm just glad I caught my mistake before I put them all on the window! I also made a heart for each of the teachers and for Nathan, who helps us out a lot. His English is really good so if we need an interpreter, we call him. He's also the one who drove when they picked me up at the airport. Look carefully, the big hearts say "We Love You!" and the little white hearts have the teachers' names on them.All the little white hearts have students' names on them.I didn't make hearts for the 4 high school students who come for extra homework help in the evenings, and they were really disappointed. The director usually teaches them, but she had to do parent-teacher conferences, so I was in charge of that class. I let each of the high school students write their name on a heart and put it up with the others. They were delighted, but the director walked in as we were cutting them out and threw a fit. She yelled at me in front of the students for letting them do something that wasn't directly related to their studies, even though we had only been doing it for a couple minutes. All they were doing was writing their name, cutting it out, and taping it up with the others.

Yesterday, the director interrupted me in the middle of the Lord's Prayer (we recite it at the beginning of every class) to tell me I was saying it wrong. She said "thine" isn't English, and I'd better learn the prayer the way she does it, which is her own paraphrase. She also interrupted me in the middle of teaching the kindergarten kids the "Apples and Bananas" song and hollered "That song is nonsense! We don't teach nonsense!" Right in front of the kids! All day, every day, it's one thing after another from this director. She seems to hate me.

I sent an email message to the coordinator of the mission program back in the US asking if he can find another assignment for me here in Korea beginning this summer. If not, I may see about coming home then or going somewhere else. It makes me very sad because I think about the people back home who are supporting me in my work here, but I think they'd agree that many of the things I experience here everyday are anything but Christian. I hope something can be worked out here, because I like Korea, but this director makes my life quite miserable. She says horrible things about all of us to the other teachers. She's constantly trying to pit us against each other.

The director just called and said she needs to talk to me and wants me to come to the school an hour early tomorrow. Wonder what that's all about . . .