January 13th

The first words I ever heard from a student during the year I taught English in Korea were "Ahh, Monster Teacher". It's not surprising. The youngest kids come first in the day, and I'm not the first or last to be referred to reverently as "monster teacher", "ugly teacher", "바보 ("babo", fool) teacher"... In my case I remember "giraffe teacher" was quite popular. The first group of seven year olds that terrorized me were few and innocent enough. One kid was named Lion, and he tried hard and had fun, good kid. Regardless, though, he called me "ugly crazy teacher" as an honorific as much as the rest combined.

Except on my birthday. On my birthday, I was "very handsome teacher" and I got a handwritten card and a cake his mom had bought that we shared with the class (pictured). The card said "Thank you Jasper Teacher, you are very handsome man".

Thanks Lion, it means a lot.