Priceless Sleep

If there's one thing that I've learned about my students, it is that they love their sleep.  During one of our lessons at the beginning of the year, many of them said their favorite hobby is sleeping.   Then one student said that sleep is a priceless gift when they learned the meaning of "priceless" this week. When someone happens to fall asleep in class, I really don't blame them.  Not only do the students sit through school all day, but so many of them go off to their academies in the evenings.  Also known as hagwons, which are private schools.  They really don't even go home in between.  They have enough time to walk around with some friends and grab something to eat.  Then they're off to class again.  On my walk home from work, my students are usually around walking in the same direction.  They ask me where I'm going some of the time and I do the same because I'm so curious about how often they go to academy and for how long.  A couple months ago, one girl shared that she goes to academy twice a week for math and three times a week for English.  Each of those being a couple hours long.  Then another girl goes to academy Monday-Friday from 6-10 p.m!  I was talking with her two weeks ago as I was hurrying to get home because it finally was Friday and I was so tired from the week.  I just couldn't imagine going off to sit through another four hours of class.  I just feel bad for them.

The students here really do seem to do well in school and care a lot.  Whenever there is a big test coming up, they say, "Teacher, I'm stressful. Study."  I said "Happy Friday" to a class once and they said, "No teacher! Study all weekend."  They really do concentrate when it comes time to study and try to do their best, but they have so much pressure on them to excel.

We had June 6 off work for Memorial Day here.  Of course I went on another hike up a mountain with some friends!  The next day, I asked one of my classes if they enjoyed their day off.  My co-teacher kind of giggled and then one girl said, "Oh, I came to school anyway."  What?!  She came to school anyway probably to study.  Good for them for doing their best in school, but when do they have time to be kids and have some fun?  I did run into a few students on my way to and from the hike and they all seemed to be going to the movies. Good!  That's what they should be doing.  It's no wonder they love sleep so much, though. They don't get nearly enough.