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A lot of the time the curriculum I use, as an English instructor, is theme based. What I mean is that a book will have a topic through which the student is supposed to learn.


Today I taught a lesson, the theme of which was "Holidays". As part of the lesson, I asked each student what their favorite holiday is. Most students said "Children's Day" because that's when they get gifts. However, one student, when asked what his favorite holiday was, responded thusly: "The day that my mom will die." I queried him further, to ascertain why exactly such a day would be a reason to celebrate. He responded that if his mom were to die, there'd be nobody to tell him to go to my English academy.

There you have it. A student would rather his mother die rather than learn English. Not even that, he would celebrate that day as his favorite holiday, were it to happen.

I've been away for a long time now. A quick google search tells me that it has been 529 days since I last saw home. Over that expanse of time, one can become quite disconnected from one's home. You know it's there, you remember it, but the memories dull over time. It's hard to put into words, but suffice to say the edges get worn down after a while, making your memories less limpid, more blurred.

Occasionally, however, a relic of home will jolt you. For instance, the other day, whilst in a cab, a song came on the radio. It was "Race for the Prize" by The Flaming Lips. I hadn't heard that song in a hell of a long time, and it took me back to a very specific time in my life, when I would listen to that song quite a lot. A time about 10 years ago. It brought back a lot of the senses of home, but along with those senses of home came the realization of how much "home" has changed. I realized that the "home" I was remembering no longer existed. Not only did that "home" no longer exist, the vantage point I was assessing that "home" from was before I ever even came to Korea. That's how disconnected I am from my home.

It's as if suddenly everything has changed. I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm just feeling myself disintegrate.