The Many Sides of Korea's Santa Grandfather

Even though Christmas is celebrated only one day of the year, it provides weeks of material for keeping ESL classes easily entertained. Now don't take this to mean that we've abused the jolly holiday to escape the monotony of repeating phrases and marking workbooks. No no - it's all about the kids....*cough cough*

With the festive season on our minds, we decided to let the students stretch their artistic abilities and draw their own representations of Old Saint Nick....in Korea, Santa Har-ah-bo-jzee (Grandfather). And now, like the proud parents of 150 Korean children, we bring you some of the more interesting pieces; from our refrigerator, to your monitors:

Most of the kids went the traditional route with a fat, red-clothed Santa, Rudolph, snowmen, and Christmas trees. We're not going to show you those. Not that some of them weren't really well done, but well, who wants to look at 3 dozen Santa pics with nothing to chuckle about? I know I don't. Anyways, at first glance the picture above looks fairly traditional, until you notice that Santa's been working out at the gym 6 days a week, and that Rudolph's picked up a smoking habit.

This one we included for that cutesy north-east Asia cartoon charm factor. This dude looks nothing like Santa - more like Cheech Marron in a toque. Looks like he's been having some fun like Cheech too.

This drawing is either some serious feminism, or Ah Reum would rather be drawing fashion girls than Santa Claus. Either way you've gotta love the mini skirt, knee-high boots and Sailor Moon winking action.

I'm not quite sure what the motivation behind this piece was, but I think little Min Soon was trying to suggest Santa's a little too fat. That's one thing about Korea - they hold nothing back. If you've gained a few pounds, sprout a zit, or have anything embarrassing about you that Westerners would pretend to ignore, you can be sure every Korean you meet is going to mention it. I guess Santa isn't immune to the commentary.

Here's another feminist work. Except in this one Hye Ji went even further and changed the sack of toys into a purse. At least this one's dressed age-appropriate.

Okay, just one more girl Santa - but we had to add this one just for the creep factor. I think Eun Jin might be heading down the Virginia Woolf/Sylvia Plath route. Might have to consider an intervention. Merry Christmas indeed.

Alright. I left the boys' contributions for last. As you might expect the boy students generally weren't satisfied with Cheery Chris Kringle, and so they spiced up their drawings a bit...the boyhood tradition continues.

Ah Jae Hwee. I've been watching him express his feelings for another student, You Jin, by generally terrorizing her and making her hate him. I guess he took out his angst on paper. As you can see, Santa and Rudolph are wreaking destruction and slaughtering the poor children instead of leaving them toys. Thank God I'm in Korea; in America I'd have to turn this over to the authorities.

Huh...I guess we haven't adequately taught Hyun Suk how to follow instructions. Or perhaps the Santa exercise was too much for him and he reverted to drawing his favourite cartoon character. At least he's got him standing in front of a Christmas tree...sort of.

Anyways, there you have it. Proof that kids are the same all over the world. Merry Christmas.

Jo

P.S. 8 days until C-Day.