Yes, South Korea has a holiday called "White Day".
For Valentines Day in Korea, it is regarded as a day for girls to give presents to their boyfriends. And then, a month later (March 14) the boys reciprocate (in double) to the girls. This is known as white day.
This year, we did not have school on Valentines day (we were on "spring break") but we DID have school on White Day. I was given lots of candy and stickers from my students. But what was probably the highlight of White Day was the lesson plan a fellow teacher and I planned...
As you know, I teach at the all girl's middle school on Mondays and Tuesdays. Well, another teacher in town, Jaclyn, teaches at the all boys middle school on Thursdays and Fridays. And since White Day landed on a Thursday this year....she had her students write white day cards to my girl middle schoolers. Now, while that is cute in itself, what is even better is what happened during/after.
Jaclyn has a student who has a crush on my student. Like, a MAJOR crush. He decided to use this activity to express his feelings. After they made their cards with Jaclyn, he spent the day going back to forth to Jaclyns desk to "fix" his card. Sign his name, cross it off, sign again, etc. Fix the grammar, write more, etc. Of course, during this, he was chatting with Jaclyn about this dream girl...who in turn, was messaging me what was going on. When Jaclyn asked him how I would know which she was, he responded "she is the most beautiful girl in the school". Ok, we HAD to make sure I gave it to the write girl. He also made sure that Jaclyn told me "April Teacher, please don't ruin my life". Ahh, young love. How fragile.
So, to protect my girl I had to find out about him. Was he a big dork? Was he cute? and so on. Jaclyn gave him high reviews, so I agreed to pass the note along.
On Tuesday, when I had her class...I started my lesson with the cards. I called each student by name, and they read their white day card to the class. The cards were basically:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
You are beautiful
Be my girlfriend
(yeah, rhyming didn't seem to be their thing)
There were some pretty memorable ones too, though:
Dear future girlfriend,
I am handsome. I am very handsome. But I am handsome.
and then...
I love you.
I really love love love you.
(but I hate you)
and also...
You are beautiful.
I saw your white skin.
But I am fat.
You do not love me.
I have money.
so yeah...it was pretty awesome.
The card to dreamgirl? Yeah, it even had at the end "I will give up PC game for you" - even I was schocked! YOU MEAN YOU WONT PLAY ANYMORE COMPUTER GAMES?!?!?! WOOWWWWWW!!!
So, after class, I went up to dreamgirl to tell her about the card. She had a question as soon as I saw her..."Teacher, you write my name?" I replied "No! It was a boy, he wanted to make sure you got his card. He thinks you are the MOST beautiful girl in the school" Well, if that didn't make her day. The rest of the day her and her cronies asked me a MILLION questions about him. Of course, I had no answers since I didn't know who he was all. The only info I had was "he is handsome, plays soccer, and you have a reading class after school with him". She was to message him (he left his number on the card) so they could meet.
When I left school...she was still excited, but hadn't messaged him yet. Hopefully she has, and they have already fallen in love...I mean, I AM a great matchmaker (just ask the Jenn Fransen and Mike, Dawson and Brittany, Dave Lee and Cynthia = all 3 are still together, 2 of the couples are engaged!).
I'll be checking in with dreamgirl next week to see how this has progressed.
HAPPY WHITE DAY!!
Apes :)
For Valentines Day in Korea, it is regarded as a day for girls to give presents to their boyfriends. And then, a month later (March 14) the boys reciprocate (in double) to the girls. This is known as white day.
This year, we did not have school on Valentines day (we were on "spring break") but we DID have school on White Day. I was given lots of candy and stickers from my students. But what was probably the highlight of White Day was the lesson plan a fellow teacher and I planned...
As you know, I teach at the all girl's middle school on Mondays and Tuesdays. Well, another teacher in town, Jaclyn, teaches at the all boys middle school on Thursdays and Fridays. And since White Day landed on a Thursday this year....she had her students write white day cards to my girl middle schoolers. Now, while that is cute in itself, what is even better is what happened during/after.
Jaclyn has a student who has a crush on my student. Like, a MAJOR crush. He decided to use this activity to express his feelings. After they made their cards with Jaclyn, he spent the day going back to forth to Jaclyns desk to "fix" his card. Sign his name, cross it off, sign again, etc. Fix the grammar, write more, etc. Of course, during this, he was chatting with Jaclyn about this dream girl...who in turn, was messaging me what was going on. When Jaclyn asked him how I would know which she was, he responded "she is the most beautiful girl in the school". Ok, we HAD to make sure I gave it to the write girl. He also made sure that Jaclyn told me "April Teacher, please don't ruin my life". Ahh, young love. How fragile.
So, to protect my girl I had to find out about him. Was he a big dork? Was he cute? and so on. Jaclyn gave him high reviews, so I agreed to pass the note along.
On Tuesday, when I had her class...I started my lesson with the cards. I called each student by name, and they read their white day card to the class. The cards were basically:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
You are beautiful
Be my girlfriend
(yeah, rhyming didn't seem to be their thing)
There were some pretty memorable ones too, though:
Dear future girlfriend,
I am handsome. I am very handsome. But I am handsome.
and then...
I love you.
I really love love love you.
(but I hate you)
and also...
You are beautiful.
I saw your white skin.
But I am fat.
You do not love me.
I have money.
so yeah...it was pretty awesome.
The card to dreamgirl? Yeah, it even had at the end "I will give up PC game for you" - even I was schocked! YOU MEAN YOU WONT PLAY ANYMORE COMPUTER GAMES?!?!?! WOOWWWWWW!!!
So, after class, I went up to dreamgirl to tell her about the card. She had a question as soon as I saw her..."Teacher, you write my name?" I replied "No! It was a boy, he wanted to make sure you got his card. He thinks you are the MOST beautiful girl in the school" Well, if that didn't make her day. The rest of the day her and her cronies asked me a MILLION questions about him. Of course, I had no answers since I didn't know who he was all. The only info I had was "he is handsome, plays soccer, and you have a reading class after school with him". She was to message him (he left his number on the card) so they could meet.
When I left school...she was still excited, but hadn't messaged him yet. Hopefully she has, and they have already fallen in love...I mean, I AM a great matchmaker (just ask the Jenn Fransen and Mike, Dawson and Brittany, Dave Lee and Cynthia = all 3 are still together, 2 of the couples are engaged!).
I'll be checking in with dreamgirl next week to see how this has progressed.
HAPPY WHITE DAY!!
Apes :)
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