Travel. South Korea. Teaching

How Teaching in South Korea Gave me a Thicker Skin

Casual daily insults from children and adults alike!

Daily life as an ESL teacher in Busan, South Korea (Photo credit to the author)

Casually insulting teachers seems to be a fun pastime for the children at my school.

Daily, at least one child rubs my belly and says the words:

“Teacher, baby?!”

I try to smile and reply that no, I’m not pregnant. They look at my belly and wholeheartedly disagree with me. How can I not be pregnant if I don’t have a flat stomach? It makes no sense to them. But those are the little ones. I’ll let them off. It’s less cute when a 13-year-old kid pokes you in the belly and says one word: “Fat.” Cheers for that.

Another child asks me, “Teacher, why are your legs so big?” I said that I’m an adult, and adults have bigger and different bodies than children. He looked concerned for a minute before shaking his head and saying, “No, that’s not it.”

I wish I could say it’s just the kids, but it’s not. My boss saw me one day in a pair of fitted trousers instead of the usual skirts and dresses I usually wore and exclaimed,

“Woah! I didn’t know your butt was that big! Why is it so big? Is it natural, or do you do squats?”