10 Things I Will Not Miss About Korea: Part 1

I love Korea, I love my school, I love my students, but not everything is perfect - it never is - and I know I could write a list at least double the size of this about things I have not missed about England. But with the good comes the bad, therefore I've felt like I had to write this to bring some reality into this blog.

Actually, what has ended up happening is that I could only really think of nine things, so I've had to fill it out a bit with little gripes that have no real significance. But I've still had to split the article into two parts of five because some of my thoughts, although they are shared by a lot of native teachers here, I've felt like I've had to explain in detail why I think certain things and it's taken up too much space.

1. It's number one on my list of places to visit, but despite it being a stone throw's away from Korea, I am yet to realise my dream of visiting Japan ㅠㅠ I won't miss being so close, yet so far... Maybe sometime in the future, eh?
   
   
2. I won't miss the frustration of drilling common English phrases into my students like 'How are you?', 'What's the weather like?' etc only for them to be too shy to respond to me when I try to talk to them...
   
3. Someone coughing in your face is rude, right? Someone coughing in your face when they're sick and you can feel spittle spray on you is even ruder, right? Well, Korean kids think it's completely normal just to spray their germs everywhere without a second thought. Sitting on the bus during winter is like the few days before scientists discover that there is a contagious disease that is threatening to wipe out mankind and that it could've been prevented if people had simply covered their mouths when they coughed.
   My students are the best at coughing, for sure. They even go to the lengths of stretching their neck out and aiming their long, drawn out coughing fit right at you.
   I'm sure they're not doing it for a laugh, I just think... actually I have no idea why they don't cover their mouths. No idea.
   
   
4. This leads on to something else I won't miss: being in a state of perpetual illness. I knew coming into Korea that I would initially get sick because you're around new people. But 2 years of having a stuffy nose, feeling tired and other cold symptoms, is a bit much... I was hardly ever ill in the UK to the point that I would hassle people for being sick. Rarely took a day off school, only really had a couple of days off work. Here? Ill all the time. Can't stop going to the doctors, medicine fills up the cabinets... it's annoying. Sarah's the same, and other people I know seem to always be sick, too.
   
   
5. I know why number 4 occurs, too. In fact, it's obvious to any native teachers here. Being sick in Korea is a faux pas. Actually, being sick is OK, it's taking time to rest and recover from being sick that is the faux pas. I've been lucky that when I've been sick, my school are understanding and allow me to stay at home with no bother or at least ease my work load for a day. But some of the stories I've heard about the hassle native teachers get for trying to take time out to deal with legitimate medical conditions is absurd. Serious things too, not just colds and migraines, things that they have to visit the hospital for like surgeries and scans. I shake my head to think what Korean's have to put up with.
   
   People have told me how their co-workers come in with the flu, high fevers, you name it. These aren't small things either, they're contagious and the whole school ends up getting sick. Then when no one goes home in isolation to recover, it just draws the whole thing out until a year has passed and you look back and wonder when the last time you were healthy was.
   
   I'm not sure how typical this video is, and I'm sure it's exaggerated slightly, but it helps me sum up a bit what I am trying to say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKfFooy0QTY
   
   Sometime my students have their head on the desk, asleep obviously. Some of the time it's because they're lazy or they were up late studying or playing video games, in which case I make them stand up until I think they are awake enough to participate. But most of the time it's because they are sick. Why don't they go home? I spoke to a student and they said that they get a black mark on their record for every day they are sick and this could affect what high school they go to. FOR BEING SICK! It's not like they have skipped school or had a fight or thieved.

Gas masks in the Korean subway. I propose that they have these in schools to combat Korean kids coughing in your mouth. (Photo by Miss Amy Sargent. Robbed from Facebook by Mr. Lee Whatling).

Part two coming up!

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