So…it’s been a hot minute. I would like to say that I got very busy (which to my credit I did) but in the spirit of doing my best to show my 5th graders what responsibility looks like… I will say I became very bored and unmotivated.
But now that I am trying to revamp my other blog I decided to update as well for the hell of it.
Now last time I mentioned fan events, classroom problems and principal gifts.
I will preface this saying that yes I looked up my last post to see what I had promised I would write about.
I am thinking of making fan events a seperate post because of how intense they are and the fact that there are many Korean words that you will need to know (and I left my Korean notebook at my house).
As for classroom problems I recently covered that on my other blog so you can check it out there.
So I guess all I am left with is principal gifts. Well seeing as how Chuseok just finished I guess this could be appropriate.
So will begin saying…each school is different…and it seems each year is different as well.
My first year I was basically scolded (this was about a month and a half into my first year) for not buying the principal a gift for Buddha’s birthday. 1. no one told me this was a thing 2. NO ONE TOLD ME THIS WAS A THING!!
So I felt badly about it and made sure I knew about all the other holidays that were big enough to buy gifts for your principal-I guess you are basically saying “thank you for employing me?”
Anyway I made sure I stayed on top of my gifts the rest of the year-I got the principal a nut set for Chuseok and hallabong and chocolate for him and my 1 VP’s for XMAS- they were clearly startled by it because to them XMAS is not a thing. For me it’s the most important holiday of the year. (yes i am one of THOSE people-if it helps my second favorite holiday is thanksgiving?) I wound up using that gift as the same timing for New Year.
So this year I was all set-except…no one bought the principal a gift for Buddha’s birthday. And apparently I was the only one to give him a gift for Chuseok too..HOw confused and frustrated was I? VERY!!!!
It goes without saying…Korean schools are in general very confusing of course their traditions would be as well. I haven’t decided about Christmas yet but I’m sure as soon as I don’t buy a gift it would be noticable.
So you might be asking yourself-what the heck do I buy my principal? and the VPP’s if they are expecting one too?
Well for starters unless you can divey up the products in those large display gift sets they have at the front of all the stores I would refrain from buying them.
Some of them you can take apart and still present a good product. For example there was a set of 3 bottles of olive oil (korean chuseok presents…bizarre is all I have to say)-you could buy the set and give one to each person. But another set that may have one olive oil, one box of seaweed (this is a weird one) one can of spam…it’s meant to be given altogether.
In my case I bought a box of 8 juices in glass containers-it was total about 9 bucks. I gave one to each my co teachers, my VP’s , my school friend and two to the principal-because I guess he wasn’t expecting anything (i don’t know why) he was very grateful for the two bottles of juice.
I wouldn’t go over more than say 10 for a gift because 1. it becomes burdensome to the reciver and 2. you don’t want to be spending a lot of money on your co workers and principal.
Another common gift is fruit-but in Korea this can be rather expensive. Big boxes of seaweed are popular but to me at least seem awkward to give.
So don’t be afraid to look around or even ask your co teacher if you need to buy a gift and what might be appropriate.
So all in all a short but informative post about the art of gift giving in public schools in korea.
Next post hopefully I will have my korean notes with me and I can explain what a fan event is, how to find it, what to bring -it will be a mainly kpop post BUT it will have some words that you will find when filling out paper work or just in general. So it can be useful for other than looking up fan events.
House of Lilacs 