Old Topic: Christmas Gift Exchange

Here's what I meant to post in December but didn't.

Today we did the "Night Before Christmas" gift exchange where you bring a gift wrapped and pass to the left every time the word 'left' comes up in the story, and same for "right."

When trying to explain to our Korean teacher partners (KTP) last week what to tell the students to bring, the game of this story-gift exchange didn't quite bridge the culture gap. They asked what to bring. We said, "Wrap something that you have lying around the house that you don't use or like anymore..." This didn't seem to make sense so we said that if they were to buy a gift, it had to be no more than 4,000won ($4).

A couple days later, I saw my KTP collecting wrapped gifts that students were bringing in and writing their names on them. I asked, "Why?" because in my mind, you're not supposed to write a name at all on the gift. She said that if she didn't then maybe they would just take something out of the garbage and wrap it. I laughed in my head and I heard in my mind, "That's part of the fun of it. You don't know what you're going to get!" but then I put on my Korean glasses, so to speak, and reminded myself of the trick-loving monsters that are some of our students. Whew! They literally *would* wrap trash, and probably something pulled out of the waste basket that might even be sticky or smelly! Therefore, I nodded and said, "Good idea!" in response.

So today we had the gift exchange. Wow! It was interesting! It took a loooong time to read the story because every few seconds the students were talking in Korean asking what the contents of the gift were... So I read quietly so they'd have to listen better to see if I'd said "left" or "right." 

Somehow we got through it. Most students immediately ripped into their gifts and either cringed or celebrated, and most immediately switched with another student. One student I noticed did *not* open her gift... but there was no time to find out why because class was over and I had to leave quickly so that the next teacher/lesson could be prepared.

In the end, they each got a gift, I think. They might have learned "left" and "right" if they didn't already know it... They didn't use much English during activity... Plus, many students complained about what they got... Overall, there was no feeling of Christmas. However, we survived. No one got injured physically, therefore SUCCESS!