Chastisement

I'll call him Sam, a student of mine. Last night, while matching antonyms to words from a novel, Sam kept whining that he couldn't concentrate. Finally, I asked him what was on his mind. He was going to be chastised (one of the words we were learning) today in school by his teacher. Apparently, she had asked him a question and because he didn't hear her the first time he turned to his classmate sitting next to him and asked, "뭐래?" (What did she say?). Teacher thought he had failed to use the polite version of the question, and she told him that he would be punished today. The punishment would take form in one of two ways. He would either be asked to join 30 other delinquents in doing one thousand and six hundred squats (bending the knees down and up) or wearing a sunflower in his hair and SKIPPING in and out of all the classrooms. After my laughing fit, I told him that she was probably just threatening him so he would pay attention to her for the rest of the day. But like him, I'm not so sure...these Korean teachers carry bizarre philosophies and methods for classroom control. I'll just have to wait and see if Sam comes into the academy limping or with an orange face from a mixture of yellow sunflowers and red blushing.