Today was the day called “스승의날” [seu-seung-ui-nal = “teacher’s day”]. An interesting bit of trivia – Korean “Teacher’s Day” is based on King Sejong’s birthday, although celebrating it on the solar calendar on May 15th isn’t the way he would have done it, historically. Sejong is a kind of Korean Queen Elizabeth (the First) and Korean Thomas Jefferson rolled into one. This is to say, he represents a Korean cultural golden age (a la the Elizabethan) combined with a the idea of a philosopher-leader (a la Jefferson).
On some past teacher’s days, I have received a lot of gifts, which is the custom. I’ve received touching letters, a lot of food, socks, soap, flowers… many things.
This year, I only received two things. I was a little bit depressed.
One student gave me some fairly high-quality packaged cupcakes and cookies. And from another I received a vase with some fake flowers in it, that smell like a kind of soap, with an accompanying note. The note from Cindy was sweet and touching, as personal notes generally are. A picture of the note is at right, and a picture of the vase with its plastic flowers, below, sitting on my desk – note that a large Lego alligator lives at my desk, too.
