Talkster Photo

L to R: Ben, Kebin, Charrie, Josh-eee, and Haji

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Dad. Have a great day. Love you.

Kevin

Update

So it has been nearly 3 months since I arrived in Korea and it is finally starting to really feel like home. Every says that when you teach abroad the first three months are the "Honey Moon" phase where everything is new and exciting and interesting. They also say that months 3-6 are where you grow to hate Korea. I'm hoping the latter doesn't hold true for me.

To be perfectly honest, I really do love life in Korea. I've heard some people say that my blog has been lacking in the "culture" department lately but that is just a result life here becoming somewhat mundane. Things that fascinated me when I arrived don't even get a second glance any more. I'm fully adjusted to living in another culture and I'm feeling more Korean everyday. Looking back at the first month of blogging I had tons of exciting news to report and everyday I found something that I had never experience before in my 23 years. While Korea is an amazing place full of incredible sights, sounds, and experiences, after three months it just feels like home. I can't really blog about exciting, new things any more because, frankly, nothing is really that new to me anymore. I tend to spend my weekends being more low-key and relaxing rather than running around all corners of Suwon and Seoul exploring. It is easy to feel like this is some sort of wild vacation when you arrive; I suppose after 90 days you realize you're in for the long haul and sort of dig in. I do apologize for the lack of pictures. I really have no excuse; I'm just lazy and don't like carrying my camera in my pocket. I'll make a committed effort to post some pictures soon.

Also, I don't want my rants to be interpret ted as Korea hating. Many, many, many ESL teachers here spend their days complaining about things they hate about Korea and are constantly saying "Well, in the US..." or "If only Korea had..." and I really don't want to be like those people nor do I share their feelings. I came here to embrace a new culture and I've genuinely enjoyed the people, the food, the city, everything about Korea. But those who know me best know I love to rant and I need to keep the blog going so I try to find elements of the culture which are interesting and explain them the best I can. And, to be fair, I'd hate propaganda trucks anywhere.

I also want to see how I'm doing on my commitments for Korea.

1. Try everything once. I think I've done really well with this. I can't remember turning anything down (OK, I've skipped out on a few seemingly disgusting meals. read: boiled silk worms and minnow heads).

2. Learn the language. Well, I've royally failed in this department. I can read and write Hangul but I probably know about 20 words total. I read the other day that Korean is the 2nd hardest language to learn (behind Japanese) so I don't feel terrible. It is just so difficult to commit the required amount of time to learning a language when your days are spent teaching. I don't ever feel like waking up early in the morning to study. I get by quite well without Korean so nothing is really forcing my hand. I would love to speak Korean but I'm not willing to put in the time and effort. I'll continue to expand my vocabulary slowly. It is sort of funny the words I do know are so totally random because I learn them from kids; not sure when I'll need "vomit" or "dwarf" in conversation but I've got them down. At least now I can read signs, menus, etc. so I can survive completely without English if needed.

3. Travel. I've seen most of Suwon and a good chunk of Seoul. We've got some trips planned, both in Korea and also to other parts of Asia (Thailand and the Philippines specifically) so I feel OK about this commitment.

4. As I mentioned, I suck at taking pictures. I'll try to do better.

5. Staying in touch with friends and family has been quite easy thanks to the Internet. AIM/Skype/Facebook have really helped me stay connected with the people I care about most.

That's all for now. Take it easy but take it.

Examining American arrogance

Last week I was having a discussion with my Korean friend, Anna, and my British friend, Alex, about the world's perception of Americans. Not shockingly they said that their respective countries and, more widely, the world views Americans as arrogant. I did not find this surprising in the least. But then I gave it a little bit of thought and I began to wonder if perhaps we're arrogant for a reason. Perhaps our arrogance is somehow "justified" by world's other views about America.

I should initially admit that I do think most Americans are arrogant, at least in some form. Ask any American what the best country on the planet is and I think 99.9% of us would immediately respond America without a seconds hesitation. But I don't think this revelation is enough to condemn us as arrogant right off the bat. Ask any Korean which country is the world's best and they'd respond with Korea, Brits with England, Canadians with Canada. It is natural to inflate your own view of your country of origin. But if you ask Koreans why Korea is the best they might say things like, "Well, it just is" but when you ask an American they can begin listing actual reasons. I think examining those "reasons" we give is probably the key to understanding why we hold ourselves in such a high regard.

Let's think about it. How powerful is America? What influence do we actually have on the rest of the world? I'll start with our economy. We're in the midst of a major economic crisis and we're so powerful that the ripple effect caused by our economy has hurt every other major country's economy. Now, let's instead say France was in the midst of a depression: do you really think that would affect people in Korea? In Thailand? Perhaps, but certainly not to nearly the extent of an American depression. Everyone feels our pain. We buy all their goods and services, therefore when we go down, we pull everyone else down with us. Our currency, despite its recent woes, is still the world standard. When you hear someone talk about how the Yen, or Euro, or Pound is doing they're almost invariably talking about how it is doing relative to the US$. I don't think anyone can deny that America is the world's biggest, strongest, and most important economy to date. The Chinese, all 1.3B of them, are quickly catching up but we still are on top. When your country is capable of launching a global recession and your GDP is the largest in the world is is easy to develop a sense of economic arrogance.

Language. Why am I able to come to Korea with no teaching experience and get a high paying job teaching English? Because Koreans think it important that their children be able to communicate with Australians? I think not. English is the "language of business" which I take to mean it is the language that Americans do business in. I'm not trying to slight or belittle any other English speaking country, but I think if Americans spoke Russian that would be the language of business. Sure English is spoken plenty of places, but Koreans (and the rest of the developing world) are learning English as a direct consequence of that being the language spoken in the good 'ole U.S. of A. So not only is our economy the strongest in the world and our currency the world standard, but we dictate what has developed as the universal language that the rest of the world is teaching its children for the sake of advancement.

When is the last time you heard about a boatload of Cubans washing up on the shores of Australia? OK, I'll admit the analogy is a bit misguided but I think it illustrates my point. People from all over the world dream of coming to America. Why is that? Is it a giant American conspiracy to promote ourselves and validate our arrogance? I don't think so. I mean, come on, we're actively trying to keep these people out (read: Mexico) and people are still literally killing themselves trying to cross our borders. Now I think I am seeing a pattern where everyone else seems to think America is the best, or at least acknowledges that is the most powerful and more desirable place to live, grow, and prosper. With that is mind is it surprising that we're cocky? I'll make a sports example: If everyone else was saying, "Oh, yeah, Kevin is the strongest, best player on the team. He's dominated every aspect of the game every season" and I had every statistical record on the planet I think I would be a bit silly to not at least acknowledge that I am, in fact, probably the best. Do you think Michael Jordan is cocky? No, not at all. He was the best, we knew it and he knew it. He carried himself in a manner that, while respectful, clearly illustrated the mutual knowledge between him and everyone else that he was the best.

Finally, I think it is somehow mandatory for me to add military power. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one but I think it is necessary to mention. When an armed conflict occurs anywhere in the world for the last 100 years we've been involved in some capacity. Now that might just be our nature to stick our noses where they don't belong but it is hard to imagine the Allies defeating Hitler without America. A tad closer to 'home,' South Korea owes its independence to the lives of American soldiers. Whether your agree with the US military decisions of the last 100 years is somewhat irrelevant. The fact is that when we flex our muscles the rest of the world has to take notice. When people are oppressed or in need of help, they look to us. We didn't amass all this power and status by being some 2nd class citizens to the rest of the world's countries. No, rather, you become the best by hard work and persistence. Our military might is unmatched and for that we deserve at least a tip of the hat from everyone else.

So, in closing, I absolutely think Americans are arrogant. But I also think we have some pretty good reason to be. Now, I'm not saying you should belittle other countries or turn your nose up at the rest of the world's population. There is a fine line between being confident and cocky, and perhaps too often we cross that line, giving off the impression of arrogance. When traveling or meeting other peoples you should be an ambassador for our country and reinforce all the positive things that the rest of the world already thinks about us. We're the land of the free, the home of the brave; let's keep it that way.

Take it easy, but take it.

Rant Three: Tough Kids

American kids are pussies.  There, I said it.  Now let me explain.

Korean kids have to be some of the toughest little ones the world has to offer. 

Example 1: Lily, a 7 year old, is leaning back in her chair.  She loses her balance, falling backwards to the floor, hitting her head squarely on the wall in the process.  I assume there is going to be a huge stream of tears and a messy situation.  Oh no.  Everyone starts laughing at Lily's misfortune and she gets up laughing.  I'm 23 years old and if I fall backwards in a chair and smack my head on the wall I certainly don't get up smiling but a 7 year old Korean girl who weights 50 lb. soaking wet thought it was hilarous.

Example 2: One day my students were lining up at the end of class and completely out of the blue one student punched another boy in the face.  And I mean he really punched him with everything he had and caught the kid squarely on the cheak.  Obviously my first reaction was to send him to the office and try to figure out what the hell ignited the incident.  My second reaction was, "Holy hell, how isn't he crying?"  Cosmo (great name, by the way) just stood there with a bewildered look on his face.  He didn't cry, he didn't even rub the spot where he was punched.  It was just such a shock to me that a 9 or 10 year old could take a punch and sort of shrug it off.

I could list more examples but I think you get the point: stuff happens where I fully expect tears and they just laugh and carry on.  I can say confidently that these things would not happen in the U.S.  Our kids cry for attention and apparently have very low pain tolerances.  Now, this isn't to say that I haven't seen kids in Korea cry, they just have a much higher threshold for what will induce tears.  Why is still a mystery to me.  It must be a cultural thing but I'm completely unsure as to why Korean kids are tougher, but trust me, they are.

Two blogs in one day, some kind of record?

Take it easy, but take it.

Rant Two: Propoganda Trucks

Well, to be completely fair, they aren't actually propoganda trucks.  They just sound like it.  About a two minute walk from my door there is an incredible market that goes on for blocks and blocks and happens to sell just about everything under the sun.  It is open really long hours and makes shopping for anything an absolute convience.

Which leads me to question why there is a need for pickup trucks to drive up and down my street with a loudspeaker mounting the roof announcing the fact that they're selling fruit, fish, or whatever the hell they have.  Obviously the loudspeaker needs to be loud enough to be heard indoors (otherwise you wouldn't know some guy has a flatbed of stinky ass fish outside your door, right?) which also means it is loud enough to wake you up.  Now I obviously have a slightly skewed sleep schedule due to working in the afternoon but being woken up every day by some guy selling shit I could buy 2 minutes away anyway is quite annoying.  Literally everyday I wake up to the tune of a guy selling shit which can all be purchased minutes away anyway.  I could understand if they had some rarities in the back of their truck but lemons, apples, etc. aren't exactly the Hope diamond.  They have their loudspeaker message on repeat and to me it sounds exactly like Nazi propoganda or the "Bring out ye' dead" guys from the Middle Ages.  Just some monotone announcment of "Fish for sale" over and over all day long.  How the drivers of the trucks maintain sanity is a pretty big mystery to me.

The thing is, this might make sense in the U.S. where people are inheritly lazy and there isn't a giant market 5 blocks away.  I could see people actually buying fruit/vegetables/fish/meat at a higher frequency if the guy was driving around the neighborhood with it all loaded in the back of a cart.  It would save you a trip to the grocery store and Americans are all about convience.  But Koreans aren't lazy and they have a fantastic market just minutes away.  Come to think of it, I never really see the guys in the trucks selling anything.  They're generally just driving around the streets without a customer in sight.  I assume they're charging a slightly higher price (for the convience) which may all but eliminate any chance they have of making high sales.  I assume most Koreans plan their meals ahead and don't make spontaneous fish purchasing decisions at 9 a.m.  But again, that's just me.

Take it easy, but take it.