I teach at a Korean kindergarten hagwon where students of all ages have their own smart phones. They usually have their parents’ hand-me-down phones, but they’re still pretty nice phones. Initially it surprised me to see a five year old navigate a Samsung phone with ease, but not any more.

They use their phones to play games or chat to their parents on Kakao Talk. Sometimes they like to take my photo. I’ve learned to just pose and quickly get the photo taking out of the way. Lately they’ve been using my photo to match up with what Korean celebrity I look like. I don’t mind when they say I look like a Korean male celebrity, because a lot of them are pretty too.