Korean Derangement Syndrome

I spent a good chunk of last night looking into the topic I'm going to try to write about on here in a bit of depth at the end of the week; fan-death. More on that later, but let me just say that it is way more of a can of worms than I had suspected. I did come across a pretty interesting (but polarising) article by George Hogan in the Korea Times. Apparently, George has been/was teaching "Korean social issues and current events" in southern Seoul. He blogs at www.asktheexpat.blogspot.com. It's polarising because he basically chastises all English teachers in Korea and accuses everyone of being narrow-minded and ignoring facts in favour of broadly criticising Korean culture and looking at things only from the point of view of their home culture. A subsequent article by Sandy Fortune correctly points out his over-simplified generalisations and some flaws in his research, but he raises some interesting points.

All too often in my time here I'm jolted by conversations starting, "All Koreans {insert wild exaggeration or vague, unsupported generalisation}...." It bugs me. A lot. Of course we can make generalisations about Korea (or any country, state, locality) that are backed up by facts and figures (as Burndog did on his blog regarding dangerous driving in Korea just the other day). However, what I often hear is unjustified dismissal of beliefs, cultures and attitudes based often on little more than "something I read". It doesn't seem to matter that this "something I read" was a forum post or one single article by a journalist living on the other side of the planet (or maybe even a blog!). It can be frustrating when we, as foreigners, are pigeon-holed according to stereotypes of our nationalities. That doesn't make it ok to do exactly the same thing ourselves.

Too often these differences are framed according to nationalities, instead of individuals. Just yesterday, I heard colleagues giving out about a Korean mother who threatened one of my co-workers after her daughter had been bitten by that person's dog. There seemed to have been general agreement that the Korean mother was wrong and had over-reacted. I'm not sure that would have been the general opinion had this event happened between two foreigners. If your kid was bitten by a dog off it's leash, wouldn't you maybe be a bit pissed off?

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit flat today so I'm going to wrap it up. Wednesday is my easy day so one more class and an hour of 'volunteer' writing lab sessions and I'm free to study for a couple of hours and then hang out with Ji tonight. Have a good one everyone. Oh and apparently today is 'Forget Me Not Day' (I have no idea what that is but they mentioned it on tbsefm this morning), so - call your Mum. Or something.

Ajuma!

Hello all. Today's blog is thanks to one of my students, Chae Young, and her writing homework for my class this week. Ajuma, technically (I think), is Korean for a married woman who has already had kids. In reality, I think most of us think of the visor-wearing, no-shit-taking, subway-stomping, fear-inducing ladies (as pictured above). Anyway, Chae Young explains this life-blood of Korea much better than I could ever hope to, as a foreigner. Over to you...

Last month (during my mid-term exams) I was going home with my books and some clothes. It was really heavy. I was wearing a back pack, shoulder bag, and a shopping bag. There weren't many people in the subway, but there were no seats. I stood in front of an ajoshi (middle-aged Korean man). He offered to give me his seat. He said, "I'm getting out in two stations so please sit here - you have a lot of things". I was really thankful. However, at that time an ajuma sat in my seat. I don't know where she was. She stole my seat! She didn't have any health problems or anything. I was just frustrated but couldn't say or do anything.

There are lots of ajuma stories. In a restaurant or cafe there are two kinds of problem people - ajumas and children. Ajuma's high pitch loud voices fill up the restaurant. Sometimes they don't look after their children. It's really terrible.

Not all ajumas are rude but most of them do annoying things under the name of ajuma. Even my mom and aunts (she was a really nice woman). She takes lots of tissues in cafes. During discount sales in department stores she runs to the counter surrounded by many ajumas and asks for more free dessert. After she does it she just says, "That's okay. I'm an ajuma". I really worry about becoming an ajuma.

In Korea, ajumas power is important. I know that they helped Korea's economy and society, but I want them to stop being annoying. I hope that our generation changes our behavior and thoughts to make a better Korea.

Amen to that! I remember being on the subway with the U R Seoul boys maybe a year ago and Kev nodding at a few purple-haired ajumas and saying, "see every time you see a really hot Korean girl, just remember that's what she's going to turn into". I think he may well have scarred me for life. Here's a video (sped up for some reason) of an ajuma v teenage girl brawl on the subway that was a big talking point here recently. Please don't turn into this, Ji...

More Than You Can Chew

I've just been going over songs for Saturday night and, holy crap, some of them are pretty tough. I might just be aiming a bit higher than I can attain in terms of the vocals, at least. It didn't seem so bad in rehearsal so I'm hoping it's just a bit of an off-day... Otherwise, I should get in touch with RMT and make sure they reinforce the windows upstairs! I just sent out invites for the gig on facebook here. The best gigs are always the ones with the biggest crowds, so please get yourself out and support us if you're in the area. I don't usually get nervous before a show, but I definitely will be on Saturday. I can't even think about it for too long... 20 new songs all on the same night... eugh...

We were chatting about 'good and bad things about your country' in class last night, and again this morning. I'm probably not as brave as I should be in covering potentially controversial issues. The students have a tendency to go a bit strong on the positives and turn a bit quiet when we get to the negatives. They usually just need a bit of prodding, but I have to be careful not to be openly criticising the place. For example, one student reckoned she had nothing bad to say about Korea. A few prompts later and she was going on about the binge-drinking, the pushing on the subway, the hierarchical power structures, the concrete jungle, etc. Basically, Koreans dislike the same things that foreigners do, they are just much less vocal about them. It's ok! Talking about the aspects of life in your country that you're not crazy about is not a sign of weakness! Ireland can be a narrow-minded, racist, corrupt, rain-drenched hole, at times. It can also be a great place to grow up, breathtakingly beautiful and full of warm and hospitable people.

One definite positive about Korea at the moment is the weather. Ok, it's a bit chilly but autumn colours are beautiful and it's hasn't yet gotten to the point where you can't go outside without wrapping yourself in the equivalent of a duvet. Predictably, 'Korea's four-seasons' came up as a positive with my pupils last night. Inevitably, it was followed by, "Do you have four seasons in Ireland?" I suspect that if those two sentences don't exist close-by then there's some sort of prison sentence or you lose your Korean passport or something. Yes, there are four seasons in Ireland. They are:

1. Spring
2. Summer
3. Autumn
4. Winter

There are also four seasons in Korea:

1. "Ah the temperature is PERFECT and I better enjoy it because I'm going to be sweating my ass off in about a fortnight"
2. "Wake up, shower, go out, feel exhausted, shower, eat, shower, sleep (if you can get the right balance between air conditioning and sweltering humidity)"
3. "Wow Korea is beautiful, look at all this colour, get out and do as much as you possibly can because we have about a month before de facto hibernation"
4. "Wake up, remind yourself to buy more bedding, freeze, slip on your backside about a dozen times, repeat until April"

Ok I'm not being totally serious but I would LOVE to know where this 'four season' obsession came from. Disclaimer: I love Korea and living here. There's no harm in pointing out a few obvious cons from time to time, though... In order to assuage my guilt at being semi-critical, let me leave you with a photo featuring some 100% Korean autumnal natural beauty - and a snazzy FC Seoul cap!

"You Very Bad Face"

Koreans, bless them, they're not backwards about coming forwards. If you get to class looking as though you've just been dragged backwards through a rosebush, you can be pretty certain someone will point out that you're looking like crap. "Oh! Brian! You very bad face!" is an old favourite of mine. If I'm feeling particularly tired and make the mistake of being a bit stung, I might say. "Oh, you too", but, generally, I'll just smile and say, 'Thanks!" and leave it at that. It's not that they're being rude, it's just that they're way less fake than we are in Ireland. If you look like shit, they'll tell you. To be honest, I'm starting to be more like that myself and it's refreshing. I generally take it with a pinch of salt, just like I do when they insist I look like some good-looking actor I bear NO resemblance to. It's very flattering, but I don't think James McAvoy would be too happy to be confused with yours truly.

The reason I bring that up today is that my sleeping pattern is truly shot to bits and I write this today having already taught two of my three Wednesday classes on a mere two hours sleep from last night. Somehow, I don't feel too bad at all, but I'm pretty sure it'll hit me in the afternoon just as I'm trying to prepare my classes for tomorrow. Thankfully, I don't teach DDE2 tonight, so I have some extra time to get my thinking cap on and come up with something creative for the start of my TOEIC lessons tomorrow night. I'm also going to head over to Ji's to watch FC Seoul away against Pohang Steelers, which is hopefully showing on TV.

Pohang won the Asian Champion's League last season so, although they are currently only in mid-table in the league, it's not going to be an easy game at all. Following the crushing disappointment of the 4-2 loss away against Suwon last weekend, this is a game we really need to take something from if we are to keep in contact with the top of the league and avoid getting sucked into the battle for the play-offs directly below us. Suwon are on a bit of a push and Ulsan and Busan are still there or thereabouts.

RANKING

TEAM

POINTS

W

D

L

F

A

GD

1	JEJU	37	11	4	3	35	18	17
2	SEONGNAM	36	11	3	4	34	16	18
3	GYEONGNAM	36	10	6	2	28	17	11
4	JEONBUK	34	10	4	4	37	24	13
5	SEOUL	33	11	0	6	31	17	14
6	ULSAN	29	8	5	5	24	23	1
7	BUSAN	26	7	5	6	29	23	6
8	SUWON	26	8	2	8	30	31	-1
9	POHANG	22	5	7	7	28	34	-6
10	INCHEON	19	6	1	10	27	33	-6
11	CHUNNAM	18	4	6	8	30	36	-6
12	GANGWON	16	4	4	10	21	36	-15
13	GWANGJU	15	3	6	8	12	25	-13
14	DAEJEON	13	3	4	11	16	34	-18
15	DAEGU	12	3	3	12	19	34	-15

The K-League is unique in that the league winners, aren't necessarily the league Champions. At the end of the season, the top six go into play-offs to decide who takes top honours. So, although of course I want to see FC Seoul at the summit, the reality is that top-6 might have to do. Considering our amazing unbeaten run at home, surely we can do at least that? Surely... I hope the manager starts with Choi Tae Uk, Lee Seung Ryul, Dejan and Djeparov on the wings and up front tonight, as that's the selection that started the second half at Suwon and looked pretty good. Cross your fingers for us...

Classes all still going well thankfully, in spite of the sleep deprivation. It's nice being back amongst the hustle and bustle of a busy teacher's office and have all the students around the language centre and during breakfast and dinner downstairs. Long may it continue. I'm particularly enjoying teaching on campus; it's always nice to have a new teaching experience and another feather in your cap. My class this morning had five students that I previously taught during DDE1 and they seem like a great group. I have the last of my five General English classes in an hour; that's going to be a lot of mid-term and end-of-term marking...

Ok, I have a few things to sort out before class so I better get on with it. Need to sort out band practice, which is getting increasingly more difficult to do with all our clashing responsibilities. Need to try to learn some Korean if I'm to avoid total gibberish during my class on Friday. Need to play guitar a bit for fear of letting it slip again. Need to hassle my Uni to confirm whether or not they got that heap of cash I wired them and find out when my course actually starts again. Need to keep busy and avoid nodding off during/before class. Have a good day everyone. Zzzzz...