Sak So!

Strangely enough, this facial expression has a Korean definition. I found this out sometime last week, maybe on Wednesday mid-afternoon, I was teaching a children's class; the energy in the room was chaotic, and I felt that I had no say in what would happen next. My face began to contort itself (this is a phenomenon that has happened at random times in my life). On that day, I started to feel my face tighten, and then I lost a sense of control over what expression I was giving.

Suddenly the class became really quiet. They all stared at me with wide eyes, and one of my favorite students, "Juliet" (her English name) stood up and said, "Oh Teresa Teacher, Sak So!" I asked her to explain, and suddenly the whole class began to chant "sak so, sak so." There were about thirteen little Korean voices singing this odd birdy song to me.

I asked them all to explain, and "Juliet" came up to the chalk-board, and wrote "sak so" in English and then in Korean. I didn't really understand, but we all had a laugh. I asked a few people what it meant, but they seemed to have troubles defining it. Until today, I had forgotten about it.

Then it happened that this afternoon my kindergarden class was out of control! They were mad at me because I had forgotten to bring them a treat. At first I joked with them, but then they turned into wild things, bouncing around, jumping out of their seats, refusing to pay attention. I crossed my arms, and my face did the thing that it does. They all stopped dead, and shouted, "OH teacher, sak so!" I laughed, and asked them to explain. They all made crooked, almost cubist, faces, and suddenly I understood! I really appreciated the absurdity in the whole situation. For the rest of the day I felt geniunely happy, that is until I found a piece of gum stuck to my shirt later on in the teacher's meeting. I guess that one of my students was mad at me for forgetting their treat.