"Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning."
As a foreigner living in South Korea, normal everyday things, such as, walking down the street, can become exciting events.
One thing Koreans, especially children, are very fond of is saying "Hi" to foreigners in English. At first, it is very tentative and usually as you have already walked past, but then, as you turn around and say "Hi" back, suddenly a chorus of people out of nowhere are shouting their English "Hello's", and practically cheering us on our way. Suddenly, a quick run to the shop has turned into the Olympic torch run. And as they wave us to victory, we walk on our way with heads held a little higher.
As always, this is music to enhance your reading experience.
"We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it."
I have found, in life, that sometimes it does not matter how well prepared mentally you are for things; coming face to face with them can still catch you off guard and find a way to make you look foolish. Like that time you went to the theater to see Transformers 2 knowing the whole time it would be terrible, and yet it still managed to surprise you. Then you realized that you actually went to the theater to watch it. hmmm
As it is in most Asian countries, it is polite to take your shoes off when going into someone's home. This also includes some restaurants and other places. Well, on my final 12 hour flight from Los Angeles to Inchon, South Korea, I was on an Asiana flight, which is a Korean company. Everyone on the plane was Korean except for me and one other guy. After we had taken off, the flight attendants came around and started handing out slippers to everyone. I was given my pair and looked down at them thinking, "What am I supposed to do with these?" I did not want to be the only person to take my shoes off and look like an idiot, and there was no one else on my row that I could take a cue from. So I started trying to peek around the seats to figure out what the Korean people were doing, and sure enough everyone was taking off their shoes and putting the slippers on. Next thing I know I'm starting to pull my shoes off all the while thinking, "What am I doing?!" Once I got through with that, I started to look around and decided to try to turn on the screen in front of me to watch a movie. I took a look at the remote, and discovered it was covered in Korean. So I picked a promising looking button and pushed it... the assistance light above my seat comes on. One of the Korean flight attendants comes over to me and asks me a question in Korean. These kind of accidental incidents, which most people just shrug off, for some reason really embarrass me. I would like to know what my face looked like at that point, because it must have been pretty good. The attendent gave an all-too-knowing-smile, turned off my light and walked off. Needless to say, that remote stayed untouched for the rest of the trip.
Listen to the music while you read. It makes it sound better.
"Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes." "Well, there's no mistakes in it yet."
That is a refreshing thought. It does not matter what kind of mistakes we have made behind us; tomorrow will be a new day. A new day to learn from our past mistakes, to strive to live a life worth living, and, yes, even a new day to make more mistakes. "For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning."
I would like to quickly talk about a few of the major cultural differences between Korea and America that have really become apparent to me these first couple of months I have been here.
Work comes first for most Koreans. People in Korea will work for long hours and, of course, the weekends too. Many times, Americans will come to work in Korea and complain that their work conditions are harsh. For American standards this may be true, but for Koreans this is normal. That is one thing to understand when working here; the Korean workers get the same or worse conditions you have. Thankfully, my school is very understanding to the foreign teachers, and we are treated well.
This same pressure is put on children in school. Not only do they have regular school hours, but students will then go to an after school academy to study (usually) English for three to four more hours. Students will also have classes on Saturdays (head explodes). As an after school academy teacher, I try to keep that in mind. The government of South Korea recognizes that children here study too much. They have pushed to get rid of Hagwons (after school academies) to make students' work loads lighter, but the parents will not allow it so far. They want their children to study as much as possible.
Honor and respect are a big part of Korean culture. It is seen in many small gestures: bowing when you greet someone, giving and receiving things with two hands, reserving seats for elders. Again, small gestures, but they are important to Koreans. Korea has advanced technologically very quickly over the past few decades and is continuing to do so. More foreigners come to live here every year. The more foreigners, ignorant of these customs, come, the more Koreans have to let go of their culture to accommodate for them. Especially for the older generations, this is hard to watch happen. Koreans appreciate it when a foreigner takes the effort learn their customs.
No new and interesting pictures for this blog. My bad.
"Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of courage. Insane, embarrassing courage."
It is almost June, and the monsoon season is starting. Just yesterday in the news, I saw that the streets in Seoul were under a couple feet of water. It's strange to see that on TV when I was just walking down those streets a few days ago. It's not flooding where I am yet, but we've gotten quite a bit of rain.
This week in humorous stories:
Occasionally in class, you will have a couple students who will feel it is their obligation to test your knowledge of Korean, just to see what they can get away with in class. One day in class, one of my students says,
"Teacher! You are very babo. That means very handsome."
Now, thankfully another teacher at the school here told me to watch out for this word, because students will try to call you this and tell you it means something different. The actual definition of babo is 'foolish or stupid'.
So, I look at him and say,
"Oh really?"
Then I walk over to the board and write babo in Hangul (the Korean written language). I look back at him and say,
"You mean this word?"
Now he looks very sheepish.
"I know what this word means, and it does not mean handsome."
Now all the students are laughing and so surprised that I know Korean. Success. Of course, they do not realize that this is one of the only words I can pick out from their conversations, but I will leave them in doubt on that point.
I took this picture looking out of the building where I work. The sun is setting on my world, ready to rise on yours.
"Every path you have trod through, wilderness, through war, has led to this road..."
I have done it. I made it to Korea. Looking back, I wonder how that happened. I have been here for a month now, and still at times my mind freezes and it hits me that I am living in a foreign country thousands of miles away from everything I grew up with. It blows me away every time. How did I end up here?
I already have so many stories starting from the moment my plane landed, and hopefully some of those will find their way to this page. For now, I only have time for a short introduction to this blog. As requested by my family, this is an update on my life in South Korea. As aforementioned, I will be posting stories, pictures, and maybe some other things as well.
This is a beautiful country with great people, and I am very thankful to the Lord for leading me here. However, I do miss everyone at home, so please comment and tell me what you are up to.
I will leave you with this flawless paragraph one of the students at my school has written:
