By this point, I'm sure just about everyone has heard the horrific accounts of the Sewol Ferry disaster. For anyone who has been living under a rock, the Sewol Ferry was a ship sailing from Incheon (in the northern part of Korea, near Seoul), to Jeju Island, a famous vacation spot south of the country's mainland. Many of the people on the ship were high school students who were on a school trip--Jeju is a common destination for school trips in Korea. In fact, my first grade students were supposed to go on a trip there last week.
That is, until the ferry sank. When I first heard that there was a ship that was sinking, I heard that everyone had been rescued. Unfortunately, that was very far from the truth.
As I continue to follow this story, it breaks my heart more with each day. At first it just seemed completely impossible. How could something like this happen in 2014?! As more details emerged I sat with the rest of the world in disbelief. The passengers were informed to stay in their rooms?! The captain left the ship before the passengers, the majority of whom were students?!
It just seems completely surreal.
Naturally, when I read about the missing students, I think of my own students. It makes the tragedy that much more real and heartbreaking in that light.
As you can imagine, all of Korea has been shocked and horrified by this story and the following developments, such as the suicide of the school's vice-principal following the accident.
Everyone who has been following this story has been filled with sorrow as the number of bodies found at the bottom of the ocean continues to climb. In the midst of this sorrow, the other EPIK teachers and I have also been discovering one major difference in culture between western countries and Korea. The Korean response to the tragedy has shocked us all on more than one occasion over the past week.
When my school's trip to Jeju, which was scheduled for last week, was canceled I was a little surprised, but I could understand it. My students were going to be flying, not taking a ferry to the island, so I didn't quite think it was necessary to cancel the trip. But still, I could see where maybe it was too soon.
What I was less prepared for was for the announcement that all fun school activities and field trips for the rest of the semester have been canceled. School's sports days, picnics, and even the teacher's volleyball tournament in May have all been canceled.
Apparently in a time of mourning, it's not considered acceptable to have fun or to show happiness. I have no idea how long this lasts for, but apparently it's until at least July.
Of course, this totally perplexes most us waygookin. We're not really sure why the fact that some people are suffering means that our students have to miss out on the few fun days of school they have a year. Never mind the fact that canceling all trips does nothing to prevent accidents happening in the future. Of course we all want to show respect to those who were lost, but we struggle to see how canceling ALL trips does that.
This isn't where it stops either. In the morning I typically turn my TV on to the only English channel I have. At the time when I get ready, it's usually a show with entertainment news and music videos. Since the disaster, these shows haven't been on. They haven't been replaced by new stories about the ferry either--it's just been random talk shows.
This is definitely a cultural difference I didn't know anything about beforehand, and it's definitely been a learning experience. In large part, I suspect this custom stems from the way in which Koreans share a collective identity--traditionally, the focus of Korean society is on the community, not on the individual. A society's mourning culture is something you hope you won't have to experience, but it is nonetheless a part of life and a major part of culture all the same.
My prayers are with all the families who lost loved ones in this tragedy. I also pray for the students who survived, and now have to return to a school missing far too many familiar faces. Students in Korea spend all of their time together, and I've seen just how close they get as a result. I can't imagine how they will be able to go back to school, especially in a system that is so intense and in a country where mental health is greatly neglected. Korea's suicide rate is shockingly high, and I worry about how the friends and families of those affected will deal with the loss of their loved ones. Please pray for these student and families, not just once or twice, but as the weeks go on. The road to healing-- and eventually back to normalcy will certainly be a long and somber one.
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