Korean Job Discussion Forums

[krats1976]

So today I took my kids (grades 7 & 8 ) to the 나비 festival in Hampyeong. Overall we had a great day, but I couldn't believe this part. We're wandering around near a performance area and we see one of the groups getting ready to go on. As they're rushing to get lined up, one of the ajosshis in the group tries to hand a big bottle of OB to some of my boys. The first two boys he tried to hand it off to don't speak much Korean so they didn't know what he was saying. The third did, but he took the bottle out of sheer shock.

OK... seriously?? I'm standing right there (also completely confused at what he's trying to do), so it's not like the kids are unsupervised. And, while some of the kids are pretty tall, they're in their freakin' school uniforms!! DUH!!

What in the freakin' heck would motivate a middle aged guy to hand a bottle of beer to a group of middle school students in front of their teacher??

I'm still scratching my head about that.









PS... no, I didn't let him drink the beer...

[cruisemonkey]

Chill out... he was probably inebriated and his judgement impared. It's K-land - no harm done.

My middle school kids brought beer to school for a party and were 'choked' when it was confiscated.

[dogbert]

Yeah, "나비" means beer in Korean.

[krats1976]

[Ekuboko]

I've heard of homeroom teachers buying soju for their middle schoolers to drink whilst on school trip...

[itaewonguy]

I remember doing a summer camps years ago..
and some of the older kids would come hang out in the korean/americans rooms and smoke and drink..I was DAMN!! then again
when I was 14 I had done things you couldnt even imagine so I like COOL
have another one!! the kyopos were doing it so roll with it..

[kangnam mafioso]

lighten up!

you're in korea. if you hadn't noticed, drinking is the national sport.

[animalbirdfish]

It's easy to say, 'lighten up,' but you can imagine the ensuing hell if a teacher - and a waeguk teacher at that - knowingly let his/her students consume alcohol. Perhaps I'm coming at this from an American perspective, where everything is grounds for litigation, but I'd have been pretty pissed at the adjoshi, too.

[On the other hand]

When I was a tot(like maybe three years old), I would occasionally wander over next door, and the guy who lived there would be sitting on his porch drinking beer. I don't know why, but a couple of times he handed me the bottle and let me take a sip. One time my mom came over and saw this. I don't think she was overly thrilled, but she didn't make a huge deal about it. Probably just asked the guy not to do it again. For years afterwards my mom and I would chuckle when recalling the incident.

[Qinella]

Hey Kratz, what do you mean a couple of your students don't speak Korean? What kind of school do you work for?

[mindmetoo]

Was he a conehead? Reminds me of that old SNL skit where the coneheads would give out six packs of beer for Halloween.

Sometimes I'll take a class outside on a nice day for ice cream. We'll do the class on a patio, eating ice cream. Never fails that some ajussi comes up to our table and just stares at us for a solid 15 minutes. Freaky.

[krats1976]

Point of clarification: I wasn't pissed off so much as completely mystified. I can't imagine anyone thinking that it was OK. I confiscated the beer and we laughed at it the whole way home.