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July 2009 
Chicken on a Stick for Dinner
Posted on Jul 9th, 2009
by 
michaelsits
michaelsits
Chicken on a Stick for Dinner
The rain has stopped. This time of year in Korea it rains most days. Fortunately he is let out of class a little early tonight at the Hag won where he studies math, Science and English. He can take his time walking home now to make it before midnight, his mom begins to worry if he is not hoe from class by midnight, even though she is already sleeping but not enough too not hear every time the elevator reaches the ninth floor of the building. Tonight she was not able to bring him rice, kim, meat and Kimchi for his twenty-minute break between classes at 6:15 because she had to bring her youngest son to a school performance tonight where he played the violin. So, tonight, Minsu ate two pieces of chicken on a stick for dinner during a day that included him leaving home at 7:50 this morning and getting home just before midnight with enough time to walk from his high school to the hag won without the teacher yelling at him for being late again. Today he made it on time! Now he can walk home and stop for some bread with red bean paste in the center at Paris Baguette. This is the highlight of his day.
Minsu, like his mother an father know that if he does not level up at least two more times this year, he will not be able to get into a decent local college. His grades are good at the high school; 3.87 but that is not enough any more. These days he needs to speak English somewhat fluently, receive nothing but 4.0 in both math and science and be ready to take the toesel test in august if he plans on being accepted at Nazarene University in the fall of 2010. And even then it is still along shot. His friends are mostly all receiving 4.0 grades and that is just his high school. He sometimes cries at night when he cant fall asleep from the constant pressure of knowing two or three wrong answers on a the next test are enough to exclude him from entering college. He dreams of living in America where kids play after school, watch TV at night and do all kinds of fun stuff at night on weekends with their friends. He attends another Hag won on Friday nights and Saturdays just to keep up. Sundays, they go to Church, lunch together as a family and maybe shopping at the E-Mart before he goes home to make up for all the time wasted with his family every single Sunday. He knows that if he doesn’t get his grades up to 3.96 or better, he will spend the rest of his life working at a local supermarket on the microphone calling out sale prices on vegetables or delivering merchandise on a truck. He just wants to be a businessman, not a doctor or computer programmer but he is well aware that tomorrows testing may sway his future one way or the other. Three cups of instant coffee with sugar and dried creamer, Xylotol and one can of cold coffee are usually enough to keep him going throughout the day. Then he takes two sleeping pills when he gets home to catch five hours sleep before testing tomorrow.
A deep breath before entering 815 Mart to get a snack and cold coffee for tomorrow morning. “I can do this. I have to. How else will I find a good wife that will marry me if I don’t get a 100 on the test tomorrow?” he fights back the tears in the bright lights of the store with Big Bang, his favorite group blaring in the background in the store. “I can do this. Today was only sixteen hours since it is summer and next week we start summer vacation and then I will only be in classes for six hours a day. I can’t wait for vacation so I can watch some TV and play video games between studying! One more week till vacation!”
The rain has stopped. This time of year in Korea it rains most days. Fortunately he is let out of class a little early tonight at the Hag won where he studies math, Science and English. He can take his time walking home now to make it before midnight, his mom begins to worry if he is not hoe from class by midnight, even though she is already sleeping but not enough too not hear every time the elevator reaches the ninth floor of the building. Tonight she was not able to bring him rice, kim, meat and Kimchi for his twenty-minute break between classes at 6:15 because she had to bring her youngest son to a school performance tonight where he played the violin. So, tonight, Minsu ate two pieces of chicken on a stick for dinner during a day that included him leaving home at 7:50 this morning and getting home just before midnight with enough time to walk from his high school to the hag won without the teacher yelling at him for being late again. Today he made it on time! Now he can walk home and stop for some bread with red bean paste in the center at Paris Baguette. This is the highlight of his day.
Minsu, like his mother an father know that if he does not level up at least two more times this year, he will not be able to get into a decent local college. His grades are good at the high school; 3.87 but that is not enough any more. These days he needs to speak English somewhat fluently, receive nothing but 4.0 in both math and science and be ready to take the toesel test in august if he plans on being accepted at Nazarene University in the fall of 2010. And even then it is still along shot. His friends are mostly all receiving 4.0 grades and that is just his high school. He sometimes cries at night when he cant fall asleep from the constant pressure of knowing two or three wrong answers on a the next test are enough to exclude him from entering college. He dreams of living in America where kids play after school, watch TV at night and do all kinds of fun stuff at night on weekends with their friends. He attends another Hag won on Friday nights and Saturdays just to keep up. Sundays, they go to Church, lunch together as a family and maybe shopping at the E-Mart before he goes home to make up for all the time wasted with his family every single Sunday. He knows that if he doesn’t get his grades up to 3.96 or better, he will spend the rest of his life working at a local supermarket on the microphone calling out sale prices on vegetables or delivering merchandise on a truck. He just wants to be a businessman, not a doctor or computer programmer but he is well aware that tomorrows testing may sway his future one way or the other. Three cups of instant coffee with sugar and dried creamer, Xylotol and one can of cold coffee are usually enough to keep him going throughout the day. Then he takes two sleeping pills when he gets home to catch five hours sleep before testing tomorrow.
A deep breath before entering 815 Mart to get a snack and cold coffee for tomorrow morning. “I can do this. I have to. How else will I find a good wife that will marry me if I don’t get a 100 on the test tomorrow?” he fights back the tears in the bright lights of the store with Big Bang, his favorite group blaring in the background in the store. “I can do this. Today was only sixteen hours since it is summer and next week we start summer vacation and then I will only be in classes for six hours a day. I can’t wait for vacation so I can watch some TV and play video games between studying! One more week till vacation!”
Access: PublicTagged with: life, boys, korea, culture, education, pressure, expectations, learning, challenges, men
so much pressure. it's one of the things i find difficult in my line of work, seeing kids stress out like this or their parents. of course it's not nearly as much of a problem here as in korea.
It is hard to see. I cannot imagone what it would be like to be a grammer school student or high school student here in korea with my programming and values from north america, the two worlds visioon of childhood are so distant and far apart.
I do not know thast i would consider it a 'problem' though, just a different way of viewing the world and what is expected of children. Tis concept of childhood is fr playing being pampered is new- maybe since industrial revolution or even since WWII? Kids had to take care of farms and build and be little adults till abundance hit the White world, Blacks and Latinos pretty much still have their children take care of other children, cook, clean, shop, do laundry. It is a modern luxury and privlege this idea of kids should have choldhood of fun and playing.
Nicole it is interersting to me how sometimes i post piece that in my mind deomsotrate flaws in western thinking and values and get responses that view it as weaknesses in the way others do and see things, funny how perspective is viewed through our own lens. Thanks fro sharing!
Peace,
michael
i have no problem with responsibility. but it's expecting everyone to be the best academically. it can't be done. the important thing is for each person to reach more and more his or her own personal potential. but that doesn't mean everyone will get 100 percent on every test - no amount of studying can do that for some people and the fear that if you don't perform, you won't be loved or marry the right person etc is very disturbing to me.
yes, i understand that you are trying to demonstrate flaws in western thinking and i see that we are too lax here, too indulgent. but i don't see the korean way as without serious problems as well.