"Bleeding ears and dark circles"... Teachers moved to tears by Lee Su-ji's parody

[The Financial News]"Teacher, my child is an INFJ personality type (Advocate) on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), so please separate them from classmates who are E types.""My child has very sensitive skin, so when you clean them up, please don’t use those thin cheap wipes. Switch to eucalyptus wet wipes instead."A YouTube video in which comedian Lee Su-ji parodies the struggles of kindergarten teachers has gone viral. Many current kindergarten teachers said the scenes were not exaggerated but actually a "toned-down version" of reality, and they strongly related to how the video exposed their harsh working conditions.
Some viewers were also reminded of the case of a kindergarten teacher in her 20s who died in February after continuing to work despite suffering a high fever from the flu.
The video, titled "Kindergarten teacher Lee Min-ji’s never-ending 24 hours – Human Documentary: The Toughest Job for Real," was posted on the YouTube channel Hot Issue Ji on the 7th and portrays the grueling day of a kindergarten teacher.


In the video, the teacher is responsible for both early-morning and late-night childcare. She goes to work at 4 a.m. and does not leave until 10 p.m., enduring extremely long hours.
The long hours are only part of the problem. Dealing with parents is just as difficult. Some casually make unreasonable demands, such as asking the school to place their child in a separate class based on their personality type or insisting on a specific brand of wet wipes. It doesn’t stop there. Parents ask intrusive questions that cross personal boundaries and even make disparaging remarks about the teacher’s appearance.
In the video, these situations are depicted by showing blood coming out of the teacher’s ears.
The work continues even after she gets home. She takes and edits photos to upload to Kids Note and writes daily notices for parents. Dark circles form heavily under her eyes.
Statistics show that the video is not fiction. Because of poor working conditions, nearly half of private kindergarten teachers leave the field before they reach two years of service.
According to Kindergarten Info, a kindergarten information disclosure website, as of October last year there were 25,954 teachers at private kindergartens nationwide. Of them, 29.2% had less than one year of experience, and 17.9% had between one and two years. In other words, 47.1% of teachers had been on the job for less than two years.


The response to the video has been explosive. As of the 12th, it has been viewed more than 4.13 million times and has drawn over 20,000 comments.

Above all, the heartfelt comments from teachers working from kindergarten through high school have stood out.

Comments ranged from, "Thank you for speaking up on behalf of teachers," to messages like, "I’ve been teaching for 20 years. At first I was laughing, but five minutes in I started crying," "Teachers can’t laugh at this video—we’re crying instead," and "This isn’t an exaggeration; it’s the toned-down version. Reality is worse."

One teacher introduced herself by writing, "I’m a high school teacher who resigned this past February," and added, "I’m suffering from panic disorder. I was in tears the entire time I watched. Thank you for making this video."

Others brought up the recent case of a private kindergarten teacher in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, who died after continuing to work while sick with the flu.

"It reminded me of the kindergarten teacher who died after working overtime without a single day off even though she had the flu. I’m so grateful that you satirized it like this," one person wrote. Another commented, "I thought of the kindergarten teacher who recently went to work with a 40-degree fever and then passed away."

Another teacher wrote, "I hope this small ball that Su-ji has tossed into the air will reveal the stark reality of childcare in our country and become a catalyst for thoroughly digging into and fixing what needs to change."


y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter