I can only imagine how my middle school teachers would have reacted to some of the tall tale-ish pranks my students brag of --- especially of the prank every student holds in such high regard. Retold in several of my classes, the classic prank is one in which the students stack their shoes on the windowsills and then lay outside, face down, in the school yard.
Suicide.
It's such a horrifyingly casual topic in Korea. And students find it funny. They talk about "doing a suicide" nearly everyday in some context or another. At first it's shocking but it's not surprising. Suicide is sewn into the culture of Korea. Shamed Korean leaders commit suicide as a "noble" way of stepping out. Humiliated actresses and reality T.V. stars do it too. The body count under Mapo Bridge increases every year after students receive the results of their "suneung" college entrance exam, which literally determines their future rank in society.
I almost escaped April Fools unscathed. Unfortunately, my obsession with chatter surrounding The Avengers 2 taping in Seoul left me at the mercy of my own gullibility. (I have a tiny, tiny crush on Iron Man, or really, the man beneath the suit.) I ran across an article posted on Facebook suggesting Joss Whedon had moved the set to Japan after the crew discovered a dead body under the Mapo Bridge.
The relocation was fiction, the discovery of the dead body was fact.
And I totally fell for this picture, too. Photograph courtesy of ZenKimchi.com