성 패트릭의 날 - Saint Patrick's Day

The following short biography of St. Patrick is from the Book of Common Prayer.

Patrick of Ireland (389 – 461)

At the age of sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped from his home by Irish marauders and taken to Ireland, where he was sold as a slave to a chieftain and forced to herd livestock. After six years of slavery, Patrick escaped to his native Britain. Because he believed that his captivity and deliverance were ordained by God, Patrick devoted his life to ministry. While studying for the priesthood, he experienced recurring dreams in which he heard voices say, “O holy youth, come back to Erin and walk once more amongst us.” He convinced his superiors to let him return to Ireland in 432, not to seek revenge for injustice but to seek reconciliation and to spread his faith. Over the next thirty years, Patrick established churches and monastic communities across Ireland. When he was not engaged in the work of spreading the Christian faith, Patrick spent his time praying in his favorite places of solitude and retreat.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Unsurprisingly, absolutely no one in my school knew about the holiday. The extent of my students' knowledge of Ireland (아일랜드) ends at its location on the world map at the back of my classroom: "next to United Kingdom." I came to school with my green shirt, green cardigan, green bow tie, and green corduroys and began each period with a "top of the marnin' to ya, class!" in my barely-passable Irish accent. My students said, "Teacher, what language is that?"

No green to be seen! It's not a common color for my students to wear. My co-teacher happened to be wearing a lovely green ensemble, but it turns out she had picked the color because it was a nice spring day (China's yellow dust notwithstanding). Our cafeteria did not serve any green food (and it wasn't even the absence of food coloring; I realized that our school lunches don't do green vegetables very well. They're always either canned, pickled, or drenched in some mayo-based sauce...)

Having expected this lack of spirit, I'd taken on the task of introducing a bit of Irish(-American) culture to my school by hastily repurposing the tail end of my lesson on pipe dreams to talk about Saint Patrick's Day. Fun activities included hiding little paper clovers all around the classroom to have students search high and low for the single four-leafed one (네잎 클로버) and watching some Irish step dance! My students now know that people drink 13 million pints of Guinness (기네스) on Saint Patrick's Day and that the Chicago River is turned an impossible shade of green.

The funny thing is that I've rarely celebrated Saint Patrick's Day myself. The Irish-American community in the States is very large (nearly 12% of the population), but in northern California, I was surrounded by Asians. Saint Patrick's Day for me was just a fun day to wear green to school, drink green milk, and pinch my friends; it never meant anything more. Yet here in Korea I feel a sort of duty to share what little I know with my school community, since I -- who have had nothing whatsoever to do with Irish culture -- represent America to them. Odd, isn't it? Hopefully today's mini cultural lesson will pique a student's interest and they'll want to find out more about the rich history and heritage of Ireland.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

꽃샘추위 - The Winter is Jealous of Flowers, and Other Korean Expressions

This past week in Korea has been characterized by a sudden drop in temperature and an unwelcome haze over every city courtesy of China's Yellow Dust. And I was beginning to think that spring was on its way; the cherry blossoms are actually beginning to bloom all around Changwon.

In fact, this kind of early-spring cold snap is very familiar to Koreans, who have come up with a very poetic expression to identify the phenomenon: 꽃샘추위. Let's break this down:

꽃 (ggot) means "flower".
샘 (saem) means "jealousy". It's also how you pronounce the name "Sam" in Korean.
추위 (sounds like "chewy") means "extreme cold".

So, 꽃샘추위 describes the yearly late-March cold snap as the bitter vengeance of a dying Winter who is jealous of the coming flowers of spring. Perhaps she does not like colorful flowers, baby birds, and allergies. Perhaps she is just incredibly spiteful. Either way, she's holding out as long as she can before spring (봄/pom) finally arrives.

I learned this expression from my host parents but asked my co-teachers at school to explain it. They did, and then wondered if there's any sort of English equivalent. I don't think there is... Actually, my co-teachers have been asking me for a lot of American English idioms recently, mostly because they've realized that they use a lot of Korean idioms and want to express these interesting ideas in English when they speak with me. I'm not quite as well-versed in colorful English expressions as my friend Adam Gann ("Carter's little liver pills", anyone?), but I'm trying to keep up. It's more difficult than I imagined to come up with idioms that fit a specific circumstance!

On the other hand, I've learned many great expressions from my co-teachers, and here are a few of them:

반짝반짝하다 (banjjak banjjak hada): This is an ideophone (kind of like onomatopoeia, but not for sounds) that describes objects that shine, sparkle, and glitter. Pretty things that are 반짝반짝 but not necessarily physically light-reflecting are said to be cleansing to the eyes (I think this is a separate expression, but I can't remember it).

째려보다 (jjaeryeoboda): To look at someone with scorn or anger.

눈 흘기다 (noon heulgida): Either to look at someone reproachfully or to give someone the side eye. I love this one. I also love side eyes. I now present three Gifs of the Side Eye:

Lucille Bluth is judging you.

Oprah Winfrey does not believe you.

Zachary Quinto can't even.

불똥이 튀기다 (bul ddongi twigida): This idiom describes the situation when one event "sparks" (불똥이) a bad consequence or reaction from something else. This can apply to someone "caught in the crossfire" between two friends fighting, but it could also apply to someone who's been left cleaning up another's mess.

꾸어다 놓은 보릿자루 (gguwoda noheun bolitjalu): I described this one in a previous post, and it means a person who feels out of place, like a fish out of water or a "cat in a strange garret" (that one I'd never heard before, but it's what the dictionary gave me...). They would feel or look like a random bag of barley sitting in a corner that someone else mistook for an actual person. Awkward.