Caveat: 21 century temple-stay

Three boys were sitting in room 405 with no teacher. They were supposed to be studying, but lacking supervision, their efforts were desultory and they were mostly just goofing around.

Templestay-appbook-screenshot-1I put my head in the door, and asked Jeongyeol, the inevitable ring-leader of such goofings, what they were doing. Without missing a beat, he explained, "It's called academy-stay. It's like 21 century temple-stay."

Academy here is the standard Korean translation-into-English of the term hagwon, which I personally consider untranslatable and always just use the Korean term. "Temple-stay" is the konglishism Koreans use these days to refer to the immemorial custom of lay people going to stay at Buddhist temples for some period of time, as I did in 2010.

I found it quite funny. Jeongyeol is a much better comedian than he is a student. I've long thought that he has a future in stand-up.

[daily log (11 pm): walking, 5 km]

 

 

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