Black is good. Red is bad.

My friend Megan is off in South Korea this year teaching English. I love reading her stories and knowing she is safe and sound. (Hooray for technology!) The following story was so dear and funny, I just had to share it.

So one funny(ish) story. Last week I was told of an old Korean superstition (that people and kids today still take seriously) concerning red ink. It is said that if you write or somebody writes your name in red ink... a death wish is laid upon you. So one day (three weeks ago before I knew about this) I was handing out new green workbooks to my students and asked them to write their names and classroom at the top with my marker. All I had was a red marker. The kids were all "No teacher" "Teacher No".... that's as far as their limited English could take them. I thought that of course they don't want the red because it doesn't match the green. So through the "Teacher No Red"s I said "Yes, red!" And then I got annoyed and made them write their names in the pen... I JUST PUT A DEATH WISH ON MY STUDENTS!! So when I heard about the superstition I was soooo ashamed once again at my ignorance. But evidently the students don't hold it against me because they don't seem to hate me...