So I'm standing there, checking my email in the class I was just about to teach, while the boys are still playing Nintendo DS and the girls are drawing with colored chalk on the board. I put up the photo of that unnamed dog and my mom, and asked the class in the first few official minutes ... to name the dog. I thought it would be cute. Well, I was right it WAS cute. But it was also very wierd if you've been following my blogs in the last few days.
Anyhow, so the kids came up with three names. Since the dog was a boy, they gave the names Max, Digger, and ... Tasty. Yes, as in "Tasty Dog". I had to ask at this point: "Do you eat dog?"
The result was sort of astounding. Not only had every child in the classroom eaten it (even the night before) but these 4th graders have been told it's good for their development. A little research and I found out that dog meat is acclaimed for it's effect on "stamina" (shall we call it) for men. Okay, fine. (Okay, GROSS!)
Anyhow, on this particular day I was teaching Venn Diagrams for writing, and not 12 hours before I'd planned a lesson comparing dogs and cows. If you've ever used a Venn Diagram, you know they look like two circles that intersect.
They are used in writing as a type of mind-map of sorts for comparing categories before writing a comparison/contrast essay or in math for set theory.So, the kids insisted that I place traits such as "eaten" in the middle category rather than in just the cow category. Yes. Anyhow, I did get home this evening and do some research and find out that eating dog in South Korea is actually illegal (as of the Seoul Olympics, read: political move) to protect the reputation of Korea. But 100% of my students eat dog on a regular basis! And lets not talk about how man dogs you see roaming the streets here. Let's just say that in 2 full weeks here I have seen about 3 dogs on walks or with their owner, and NO strays. Anyhow, I realize you may be as uncomfortable about this as I am, but I certainly have been rethinking meat while I'm here.
On better news, the students are doing very well!
2 comments:
Becky! I love the cliffnotes on your S. Korea adventure. You are inspiring me to get out of the country, big time..
So, regarding the diagrams and eating 'tasty' dogs...Me thinks the diagrams are a super way of breaking down our perceived/illusive separation. For in reality, we are all one, no? A dog, or a cow, or a bird, or a flower for that matter, are all simply slightly different manifestations of yes, the same energy and light. So truthfully I really feel no adversion to the fact that Koreans eat dog, for to me it is glaringly analagous to eating a cow, chicken, fish, human, whateva. I say be okay with it all, or not agree to any of it... no gray.. right? Or wait, I think I am still in the gray. What would be superlicious to me is if in 30 years, a foreign conversation will look more like this: "You used to eat cow for dinner?!" "Why yes, we did until we realized that we were eating one of our own and thus gave up eating any other living creature."
Okay well I read your email and thought that "Tasty" was a cute name for the dog... here it is I suppose, not so much in Korea...
And I did a little research on the subject and I found that I am more vehemently opposed to eating dog than before... apparently it is common for Koreans to torture the dog prior to killing it, as it is thought that this brings out the adrenaline and "fight" in the dog, which in turn increases the prized sexual 'stamina' or whatever, in addition to the medical purposes dog is thought to provide in the society.
On the other hand, I suppose it is a way to control the pet population... too bad it can't be done in a humane way. No I guess I don't see anything wrong essentially with it, as long as pets are not eaten, just strays, and that their fate is sealed in a humane way. Instead of spay/neuter, just eat... hmmm well I don't think I would personally do it, but I can still see SOME value (if not the same value as Koreans place on the consumption of dog) in the practice.
Just my thoughts...
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