This blog topic was inspired by a conversation I had with my host sister this evening. She asked me if students get hit in American schools and I told her no. I then asked her if she ever got hit in school. I had been warned that corporal punishment was pretty prevalent in schools, but I have yet to see any in my elementary school. My host sister told me that yes, she had been hit a number of times, and also endured some other forms of corporal punishment like wall sits and holding your hands up in the air for long periods of time. She said she not only experienced it at school but also from her tutors (one of whom is a man) and her mother when she was younger. This made me very sad. I have been able to reconcile most of the other cultural differences so far, but corporal punishment is something I can not agree with and honestly can't wrap my head around. Some of my other ETA friends have said that they have witnessed corporal punishment techniques in their schools already, but fortunately I have not. I'm not sure how I would handle it if I did. Luckily, my co-teachers already said they don't do that in their classrooms. I did a little research online about corporal punishment in Korea and most articles said that the majority of schools in the country use it. I even found a recent article about a high school boy who committed suicide after receiving harsh corporal punishment, and another about a student who killed a former teacher over a grudge he held about the punishment he had received. Check out this page of the Korea Times for more info:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/search/gsearch_result.asp?cx=000419429707569707003%3A8uxvb9suvga&cof=FORID%3A10&q=corporal+punishment#918


In other news, I started my after school teachers class today. I have about 20 English teachers from around the city as my students. I am co-teaching with a Korean American guy who is only a few years older than me. Hes very friendly and did the Peace Corps for the past two years so I can tell we'll get along well. He invited me to join him on Thursday nights at a English conversation group he attends. He and a bunch of college students and young professionals meet and have discussions in English, and then go out for drinks afterwards. I'm really excited about going and hopefully making some Korean friends. A bonus is that I'll probably learn a little Korean as well. I also started teaching my advanced classes today. I only have about 8-10 students in each of those classes which is awesome. Today my students created their own robots and wrote a paragraph describing them. My regular classes are going really well this week too. I'm playing some fun games and the students are really getting into them. My co-teachers said they are impressed.

I've started taking Hanji classes with my host mother on Mondays. Hanji is a traditional Korean paper art form. Hanji is similar to paper mache, but also involves using a razor to cut out intricate designs to be placed on whatever it is that you're making. The last two classes I spent working on a small tray/dish thing, and this week I am starting to work on a framed Hanji picture. It's relaxing and the other women there are really nice. I think they enjoy practicing their English on me. I've also started riding my family's bike for 1-2 hours everyday down by the river near my house. It's the perfect way to get some alone time and just take a mental health break from everything else that is going on here.

Here are pictures of the Hanji tray I made. I use paste to glue two layers of black Hanji paper onto the tray. Next, I cut out the flower design by hand using a razor. Then I used bleach to make the paper turn brown and antique-y looking.