Mung Yeoung Yo Go Hakkio Part 1

Mung Yeoung Yo Go Hakkio literally means "Yo-girls," "Go-high," "Hakkio-school."

These are my co-teachers at the girls school:

This is Ms Bae. She is just a couple years older than me and just started teaching here this year/semester. We sit next to each other in the teacher's office. We have lots of fun together. I think you can probably guess from her picture that she's really funny. Unfortunately for Bae, she has no place to live. She literally lives at the school. She sleeps in the female teacher's lounge. She eats every meal in the cafeteria. She uses the teacher's office for all of her personal computer needs. I often tease her that she's homeless... My hope is that when I leave, she can have my apartment and all it's furnishings. I'm going to miss her.

This is Mrs. Shin, whom I've recently started to complain about. We've had some rough times this semester. She used to be really nice to me but now I'm pretty sure her cool demeanor has a lot to do with jealousy. She is trapped in a marriage of convenience. She tries hard to make her husband happy but he's basically an ass and hardly ever wants to see her or his kids. So she stays in Jeomchon and sees her husband occasionally on the weekend. Her two sons are little monsters and they exhaust her to no end. She never has any time for herself because when she's not caring for her boys or catering to her husband, she's taking care of his parents who live in the same apartment building. But in Korea, it's not okay to be visibly unhappy. So she hides behind her husband's money (because he throws generous amounts at her to keep her happy) and her fancy clothes. But no one is convinced. Everyone knows she's unhappy and her pride in material possessions only makes her look vain and conceited. I once heard her insist that another teacher--to her face even!--wasn't happy in her marriage. This was all a ruse to make herself look good or to make her own marriage look just as good as everyone else's. Yesterday she confessed to me that all she really wants is some time for herself, to see her friends, to escape her life. I pity her and so does everyone else.

This is Mr. Nam. You should all know him by now. He's the most incompetent teacher on planet Earth. He hardly speaks a word of English and all of his students know it. Sometimes, if I say something simple like "How was your weekend?" he just answers, "Yes." And then he repeats it over and over and over. The other day, while planning my going away dinner, he asked what I wanted to eat. I said galbi (kind of a stirfry). But he didn't get it. He just kept repeating "Steak?" over and over. He truly is the one word man. The sad part is that someone else came up and tried to explain in Korean what I was trying to communicate and he still didn't get it! Yesterday, while in the car with him and Mrs. Shin, Shin and I were talking about police officers and in the middle of the conversation, Mr. Nam pipes up, "Policeman." That was it. Nothing more. I was so confused but later that day I realized that Mr. Nam is like a two year old learning to talk. He listens to other people talk and then randomly picks up single words, only to use them later completely out of context.

So now you know my girls school co-workers!