Yesterday, an impeachment process was started against the president of Korea, Park Geun-hye (박근혜).
Perhaps not coincidentally, during my Newton1-M cohort class (4th and 4th graders), after allowing several students to use the Korean-English dictionary on my phone, I found the following message written on the dictionary's search window:
박근혜하야하라 [pak.geun.hye ha.ya.ha.ra]
This means "Park Geun-hye, resign!" (in a very informal register, as used in the recent public demonstrations against the president).
Note that we were not, in any way, discussing the political events – I tend to confine my political class discussions to my middle schoolers. This was essentially a kind of surreptitious message entered for no particular reason.
I asked the kids, "who wrote this on my phone?"
Eric raised his hand, sheepishly. "Park Geun-hye, hiya," he said, waving a hand and exaggerating an "English" pronunciation of the name, making it sound like he was "just saying hi."
I had to laugh.
[daily log: walking, 7km]