Tuesday Again

I have to be honest, yesterday felt like Tuesday.  So today feels like a repeat.

Anyrate, after the lovely rainstorm we had yesterday afternoon, the weather is cleared for the next several days.  I loved the rain.  It sounded wonderful, looked beautiful, and had the comical effect of making my student scamper for the dorms at the end of the day.  Few had umbrellas.  What is more, this rain was like back home - torrents.  The rain fell heavily with a strong wind shoving it under the umbrellas.  I rode into town and was pleased at how hard it was to see the road.  Something you find hard to understand I am sure.  We just had an honest to goodness rainstorm and I loved every aspect of it.

My juniors have their Korean finals in three weeks.  I'm surprised at the timeframe and worried for them.  We were talking last night and they have had nothing but tests all semester.  I promised them they would have no more tests from me this semester.  They literally have to choose which tests are the most important and they study for those ones.  That means they fail the other tests.

I had night conversation class and worship in the girls down with the juniors.  They told me more about their lives and asked what it was like for me growing up.  I was blunt honest.  If I studied at all, it was only for an hour.  Two max.  I have good grades in high school.  Tests were not the big deals that they are here.  American students think so, but truly they are not in comparison.

These students have their whole lives focused on doing their best on the next test.  High grades means becoming wealthy.  To do that, they need to get into the best schools.  One girl pointed out though that though they try to get into the best schools so that someday they will be rich, the rich people can hire tutors to teach their kids so it was an unfair advantage.  The rich would always get the best jobs and be richer.  Most of them would not become rich no matter how hard they studied.  Her thoughts were very insightful for someone of her age, but shows how the current generation is seeing that becoming wealthy doesn't have to be the only goal in life.