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In The West we often refer to the commercialisation and ultimate corruption of special days like Mother’s Day and St Valentine’s day by companies like Hallmark. The direct comparison in Korea is Pepero day - November 11th.
Firstly one must explain what a Pepero is. For in New Zealand we do not (as far as I am aware) have them. They are long thin buscuits that have been dipped in chocolate. Put 4 of them next to each other and (supposidly) it makes "11 11" - the eleventh of November if you will.
And so throughout Korea in the week leading up to the eleventh convenience stores and supermarkets country wide go on a marketing binge - aimed pretty squarly at kids, pushing these little chocolate goodies. The Kids in turn take them to school and exchange them with their friends and give them as gifts to show appreciation and express friendship. Really a beautiful concept - but as a teacher it is a double edged sword.
So far this week I have detailed how difficult it is to teach while hungover - it is near impossible when all of your students have steadily munched through (literally) a shopping bag of chocolate for most of the day. And shopping bag is no exaggeration .
Julie, Chris and Liz show of their loot
Alice and Jean are also pumped up on the Choco buzz
Pepero is actually a paticular brand name (made by Lotte) that was originally behind the whole concept. By in large no one seems to care but I did manage to observe some Pepero snobbery towards non-brand name chocolate sticks. And like everything else in Korea there are plenty of knock-offs.
Julie demonstrates her disdane for "hello kitty" non-brand name generic chocolate sticks.
The whole affair turns out to be an interesting microcosim of capitalism with kids bartering and making deals with sometimes thousands of Won at stake. (W1000=NZD$1.30). In other respects it just turns out to be a bit of a popularity contest. Last year I was somewhat ambivilant to the whole concept. This year I went out of my way to make a bit of a stokepile of the things to give out in class. In return The kids gave me hundereds of the things in all shapes and styles.
Stafford shows off his haul at 3pm.
Final tally 8pm
Several comments were passed as to how popular I am (feed my ego pleeeeease!) with the kids - which is quite a good feeling as I am always under the impression that all of my students hate me for being the strictest bugger in all of Korea. And I have to say I got more than Sophia and Clair - I’ll be eating the fucking things until Christmas.
In other news: Either ‘The Boss’ has learnt a new word or on Thursday I was looking really shitty. He described me as looking Melancholy. And that my face reflected the autumn.
Is it any wonder when I have had to wake up to this gloomy scene lately?
Thursday was of course Amelia’s birthday so I was acting a bit sulky. Thursday night however I got a call from one of Yunhee’s friends. Suh Pyungju (병주) or ‘PJ’ is the head of English at St Pauls Girls (The Catholic Girls School in Nonsan). And I also met his friend (whose name escapes me currently) who is the head of Science. As is the style here in Korea, I had quite a lot to drink, and didn’t have to pay. (아싸!) And I have been invited to go fishing. Very cool. (What do you fish for in Korea? Bass?)
I would like to note also that today - being the 12th of November - I saw the first Christmas story on the news - some one month and twelve days before Christmas. Some irrelevant piece on inverted Christmas trees on CNN. I mean upside down Xmas trees - what a crock!
