Safety in Korea as told to me by Grade 2 Students

When I was researching about South Korea and talking to Justin about the level of safety and possible dangers in the city, he had mentioned that it was very quiet and peaceful--nearly crime-free. He later quickly mentioned that we lived near a prison...uh huh.

But yeah, to the point of all this.

I got to talking to the kids in Grade 2 today and randomly, Joey mentioned that he moved because someone had broken into his house and robbed him of this toys and things. When this was brought up, another kid wanted to up his story and I was told by Ray that his friend's dog was murdered during a home robbery. Another story by a third student told me that his friend's mother was killed due to a home invasion.

Then there was Amy who shared that recently, a "crazy man" had murdered and dismembered four local children. (The students didn't know how to say or find words for dismemberment, so they used their hands and pretended to cut their bodies...that part was hilarious.) They must have seen the horror on my face because she quickly added that he was already in sentenced and in jail. When I asked them why he committed the crime, they mentioned something about him getting drunk and "just feeling like killing someone"...

It was amazing to hear them speak English, but at the same time, I was thinking...how must you feel about this?? But considering they were able to talk about it with ease let me know that their parents had thoroughly explained all the details etc. I remembered talking to 4A about the earthquake in China...explaining the earthquake to them was troubling because the more they knew...the more anxious they seemed to get over the chances of earthquakes occuring in Canada...which I kept telling them did not happen...til the last weeks of school.

But yeah, when kids are missing here in South Korea...it's HUGE deal. An entire community will plan, go out and search after the missing child. My students were saying that they volunteered to go search because their mothers were part of search teams.

At the end of all this, I realized two things about this particular class. First, Korea is not as safe as I had thought...just like many other things. And second, my grade 2 can adequately converse in English...little did they know, I was assessing them on their speaking skills...