On Thursday the 3rd grade students will take 수능, the Korean version of the SATs but with a lot more at stake. If their scores aren't high enough, their career options will be limited. Teachers and parents have been swarming to Buddhist temples in recent weeks to pray for their children's success on the exam. Mrs. Yoon, one of my co-teachers and a sometimes-Buddhist, told me that she had never bowed to a statue of Buddha before, and had to look up the procedure online before she visited the temple with her father. I don't know what would happen to her son if she messed up the prayer.
Today everyone in school received sticky rice cakes as a sort of good luck charm for the third graders. The sticky rice is supposed to make good fortune stick to the students so they can enter the university of their choice.
Since Koreans also love to give rice cakes as gifts to celebrate success, I betcha I can guess what will happen after exam results come back and we find out how many students got the grade they were hoping for.
At first I thought you wrote "Korean version of the SATs but with a lot more sake." Mmm, sake.
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