Children’s Day

Today is a national holiday here, called Children’s Day. Families take time together to celebrate the blessing of children. Many plan outings or visit grandparents in other cities.

In light of this, I decided to write this mid-week blog update to honor my students here. After all, the children at the school have been a constant source of joy. Of course, I have also come home with headaches on occasion. But, as the Chinese would say, “You cannot taste the sweet without also tasting the bitter!” And, the time I have shared with these students has been very sweet indeed.

My most entertaining student is a first grader named Rafael. His family lived in Slovakia for 5 years, and he speaks English well. My first week in class, he had to get used to hearing my accent, as he was previously taught by British teachers. Any time I used a new word, he would exclaim, “What this mean?” When I tried to explain that word, he would then yell, “Too much!” And, he would slap both hands on his head, as if to say, “Teacher, my brain is full!” I couldn’t help but laugh.

One time, during a lesson on feelings, I asked him, “Rafael, when do you feel afraid?” His eyes grew wide and he replied, “At night, my room becomes ZOO!” His mother would later tell me that Rafael feared his toys coming alive at night.

We were doing a lesson on animals when I asked him, “Rafael, the cow moos, the dog barks, and the cat meows. What does the pig do?” He stood up in his chair, stuck his arms out like wings, and yelled, “Pigs FLY!” Apparently, he was greatly entertained by somewhere hearing the English phrase, “When pigs fly…”

Last week, he asked me, “Do you speak Korean?” I said, “I am learning Korean, but I cannot speak it fluently yet.” He laughed and proclaimed, “I speak English. And I know Korean. I know everything!” Though, when I asked him to tell me his ABC’s, he left out the letter W twice. When I asked him why, he said, “Oh, I hate W!” I am not sure what exact grievance W could have caused, but you should have seen his look of disgust!

Of course, he and another classmate Anne (whose family lived in Thailand previously) also like to make trouble. One day, during Simon Says, they found it funny to only do the opposite of what I said. If I said, “stand up,” they would sit down. If I said, “sleep,” they would pretend to wake up. Honestly, I grew frustrated at first, feeling like they were disrespecting me. But then I thought, “Their English is now good enough to comprehend a word, think of the opposite, and then act it out. That is really a compliment to me, not an insult.” So I started laughing with them, and I grew proud of their efforts.

Anne is very creative. And she reads beautifully. For our show, she read a poem called, “I Do Not Want to Go to Bed,” while the others students did funny actions. One week, when we were doing lessons on prepositions of location (like under, in, on, in front of, etc), I asked them to draw a picture that answered the question, “Where is the cat?” She drew a beautiful castle, along with a cat wearing a princess hat, and she proudly told me, “The cat is in the Cat-sle!” Only the minds-eye of a child could think of such a thing!

Principal Yu also has two great children. Their English names are Audrey and Matthew. Audrey is as sharp as a knife and as tough as nails, with a competitive drive unrivaled by the others. Matthew is a class clown. And he doesn’t mind that he can’t speak English very well. He talks to me constantly, often in Korean, using charades when necessary.

My second day here, when we were out together for dinner, they asked if I was hungry. I said, “I am a hungry, hungry hippo!” Matthew found that hilarious. And he thought to translate it into Korean. So, thanks to him, my first Korean words will forever by “Baega go p’da, baega go p’da hama!”

He also gave me one of the kindest compliments. That same night, he put his hands on my cheeks, brought my face down low to his, and he just stared at me for minutes. He whispered something in Korean, and I asked Principal Yu what he said. She replied, “He said he wants a face like yours. You have the face like a full moon.”

Another student I treasure is a fifth grader named Yu Bin. His English gets better by the day, though I have had to drag him kicking and screaming. His first fluent phrases included, “I don’t want to study! I want to go home! I cannot speak English, so I will teach you Korean!” But, his frequent sighs are often endearing. When I was teaching a song, he changed the lyrics from, “I will be your friend forever” to “I want to go home forever.” I laughed out loud, and we ended up changing the whole song to a lament.

Yu Bin decided not to show up on time one day. He arrived 30 minutes late, after spending extra time on the playground down the street. I asked him, “Why didn’t you come to class?” He pointed to his head and explained, “My mind talked and told me that I did not have to come to class today, so I listened.” I was supposed to discipline him, but I was too busy enjoying the Konglish (Korean-English) version of the bumper sticker that reads, “I do what the voices in my head tell me to do.”

Yu Bin is also a skeptic. I did a lesson based on David and Goliath (small versus big). When I told the students that the story is true, Yu Bin retorted, “I think that this story is not true. That man is too big!” I said, “But God is bigger!” He looked at me in disbelief and said, “Not bigger than that guy!” I just smiled and prayed quietly in my heart.

…

One day, when doing word pairings (like fruits, vegetable, etc), Yu Bin asked me, out of the blue, “Do you pray?” I have come to expect what Jesus said, that the Holy Spirit is like the wind, and you cannot predict when He is going to move. So, I stopped his lesson and replied, “Yes, I pray. Do you?” He said, “No. I think that God is not alive.”

“Oh,” I said, “So you believe that God doesn’t exist?” He replied, “Yes, I think you cannot see Him, so he is not real.” I pointed to my heart and said, “Perhaps you should look to see God with the eyes of your heart, not your physical eyes.” He inquired, “If I see God, will he look like a person?” I said, “Actually, Jesus is God. So, yes, if we want to know what God is like, we should learn about Jesus.”

He asked, “Does God make poor people?” I was silenced, until I replied, “This world is not our true home. God has prepared a perfect home in heaven, if we believe in Him.” He asked, “Why don’t my grandparents go to church?” I said, “They may not know about God. Maybe we can invite them!” He said, “Yes, we should invite them!” He then resumed his interest in the English lesson.

When I returned home, I thought to myself, “How amazing that God is working on his heart, and all I have to do is show up and be available!” But, wow, what difficult theological and cultural questions! How exactly does God reveal Himself? Does God cause suffering? If God is real, why don’t the oldest and wisest people in my family believe in and worship Him? Even if we communicated fluently, those are tough.

For now, I am resting in the truth that God’s love can overcome language barriers and that He is faithful even as we face the questions that keep us from coming to Him. So, let us thank Him for the gift of children on this Children’s Day! Would you also please pray with me, that they will know Jesus and be His children eternally?