안녕하세요 여러분, 오스틴입니다.

At the 보육원(children’s home) where I work there are about 80 boys and girls from birth all the way up 18 or 19. Older students who are taking college classes, working, or doing some other “productive” thing are allowed to stay once they finish high school. I spend most of my time with the elementary aged boys.

Currently there are 24 of those boys living together. Of those, only 2 are truly “orphaned.” Most of the kids there do have parents. Some of them see their parents on a regular basis. They even go to spend weekends or holidays with their parents! But for whatever reason, they can’t live at home. For some parents, a divorce has left them unable to support their children financially. Others are just simply too poor (perhaps due to a gambling or alcohol addiction). And some have been abused – which in turn, may separate mom and dad, sending one to jail while the other is unable to support the children. Should the situation improve at home, or if another relative appears who is willing and able to support a child, they will leave. But the odds are not in their favor. Once a kid is in “the system” for 6 months, the chances of him leaving shrink to almost zero.

This leads us to adoption. There are orphanages in Korea where you can adopt children. Some of you probably even know someone who was adopted from Korea, or perhaps your family has done that. Maybe even you were adopted from Korea. But in the case of the children I know, none of them can be adopted. Like I said, most of them do still see Mom and/or Dad on a regular basis. According to my understanding of the law, a child can be adopted only if any person who could claim some family relation renounces those ties! One of the boys was simply dropped off at the doorstep of the orphanage when he was newborn. They didn’t know his name, his birthday, anything about him, so they made it up. His “birthday” is Jan. 1 He is ineligible to be adopted because there isn’t anyone to sign off on their family rights. Even if someone could be found, I think they might be reticent to approve an adoption. For Koreans such a thing represents a lot of shame to the family. And while from a western perspective, it might be just as shameful to abandon your children, admitting that fact causes a real loss of “face.”

It is a place where children are really raising themselves. The adult supervision seems to be sporadic and inconsistent. It is difficult to help so many young children manage their lives and be “stand-in parents.” So I see my role there simply as being a positive influence. Occasionally we teach them some English, but it is rare to have quality time for teaching. However there are many chances to provide “life lessons” and guidance in the simple things like picking up after playing, washing hands after using the bathroom, not fighting. And these are the areas that I really want to improve in my Korean. It is forcing me to practice speaking!

Until next time,

오스틴

If you remember the idiom pilot lesson from this week we learned about a 청개구리. Since the boys at the orphanage can be pretty disobedient, I thought I’d ask them about this word. If you go to the actual YouTube page, you can see a rough English transcript in the video description.

Some of the boys didn’t know what 청개구리 meant. I wonder if it’s because they don’t have mothers to scold them!