Again….
If you’ve been reading my site for a while, you probably remember an incident that happened back in February. Some students came into one of my classes one day, saying they needed to take a picture of themselves with a foreigner for part of their vacation homework.
Well, it’s that time of year again.
Only this time, I played things a little differently.When this group of students, again, all girls (don’t they give this assignment to boys?) came into the office, I asked them why they needed a picture with a foreigner. They said it was part of their homework.
Duh. I knew that, but I wanted to know what the actual assignment was. Was it just “get your picture taken with a foreigner” or was there something more to it.
They couldn’t understand what I was asking, so I got one of the Korean teachers to speak to them so I could find out what the deal was. She had a quick talk with them and filled me in. It seems the actual assignment is to talk with a foreigner, and the photo is what you turn in as proof for having done it. They were just trying to scam a picture so they could say they’d done it.
No dice.
If they were willing to do the actual assignment, that would’ve been one thing. I know cheating is endemic over here, but don’t expect me to help you bullshit your way through school. And secondly,
What the fuck kind of assignment is that?!?
“Talk to a foreigner?” Give me a damned break! Can you imagine an American teacher in a predominantly white neighborhood giving “talk to a black person” as a homework assignment? They’d be out of work so fast they wouldn’t know what hit ’em.
I was all set to go off on this situation, but you know what?
I’m not going to.
I’ve got eight more days before I get on the plane and I’m not going to spend them thinking about how fucked up some things are here. I’m just going to count down these last few days, take care of the stuff I need to get done before leaving and then be on my merry way.
This place just isn’t worth the worry anymore.
(Probably never was in the first place, if you really think about it.)