I awoke from a very strange dream fragment, this morning. Kind of disturbing, I suppose. I was at some social function involving my fellow teachers and the administrative staff at work. As usual, kind of tense. Not a lot of fun, at least for me. Anyway, the woman who runs the kindergarten (preschool) part of the school (I think of her as the other vice principal) said something to me in Korean, which I roughly understood. Something about asking whether my Winter Camp classes were going well or not. So I answered, "예" [yeh = yes].
This is universal, in Korea, this kind of monosyllabic affirmation, but it's not something you can deploy to just anyone. It's used between equals, or to those of lower status. Saying it to someone that is my senior, without any of the elaborate verbal curliecues that should come with it, however, is not always appropriate. Because I spend so much of my time with children, however, it's kind of reflex, for me.
Anyway, the woman became very angry. So all of that is realisitc. If the dream had been realistic, she'd have said something like a mild reprimand, combined with something about how "Korean culture" is different. This is what my vice principal does, all the time. He loves to lecture about "Korean culture."
But in the dream, the woman became angry. Violently angry. She came over to me, where I stood, and began hitting me against a wall. It was frightening. And then, all of a sudden, all the teachers were attacking me. Even the ones I think of as friends or allies.
Just a dream fragment. But obviously, there's some anxiety going on, isn't there?
Dreams are strange.
Hmm, interesting! Have you had any “real” hostile incident with a Korean or co-teacher lately?