My ridiculous Korean kids.

As I write this there's a boy getting punished in my office. He did something very serious (something involving stealing money), but I don't care... He started crying and all I wanted to do was give him a big hug! It's really a good thing that I'm not in charge of any kind of (serious) discipline, because I just wouldn't be able to do it. I'm too crazy about these kids. I don't even know why. It's not like they're always little angels or anything remotely close to that.

I'm going to miss the third graders like crazy when they graduate. I really don't know what's going on... It's not like I particularly like kids or something like that. Maybe it's because we're so close in age and I'm an only child that I think of them as my little brothers and sisters, haha. (But be careful not to say that to a Korean, because they take that to mean you like your students in some kind of romantic way. It's their own fault... having the same word for "boyfriend" and "big brother." Oi.)

Corporal punishment is something that has long since been shown to be a terrible disciplining method, but it's still going on full-swing here in most Korean schools. I have a favorite student here, third grader, and probably the only reason he's my favorite is because nobody else likes him. I mean, everyone needs SOMEONE on their side, right? Anyway, he's a big trouble maker (outside of my class); teachers take out their anger on him by beating him harder than usual. He gets beaten probably every other day. Do they honestly think they're doing him any good? He obviously hasn't changed his behavior... and he's probably going to grow up to be a really violent person because of it. Don't get me started on their education system here, and how this boy is going to go to a high school filled with kids just like him where he will have no motivation to better himself...

I wish I could take him away from this place while there's still a chance of giving him a good future. But what do I know, I'm just the foreign teacher. *roll eyes*

And of course as I'm writing this, my office is FLOODED with students. There comes a point when a person can no longer handle this. :-p So now I'm listening to some trippy song by Enya just to try to calm myself down, hahaha. (Actually it's not a bad song. Caribbean Blue.)