What the Wednesday: The Respect Edition

I've never been much of a stereotyper. Putting people into one category was difficult. People of a different color or religion, sorority girls, fraternity boys, geeks, jocks, who am I to wrap up and tie a person with judgement? All people on this Earth fight some sort of prejudice or assumption all their lives. Even here, another expat found out I was from the south and, no lie, told me, "Your family owned slaves didn't they?" It was not a question, but a statement. Something she had already deduced because of my southern heritage. I'm not sure if outraged can really explain how I felt that night.

I was a jock in high school, but I could also quote The Canterbury Tales in it's original language. My Mom was a sorority sister so I couldn't very well join in when my friends made certain remarks about Greek life on campus. In fact, those people who so easily stereotyped others seemed ignorant and naive, making the whole "stereotyping" such a ridiculous behavior.

With that said, I want to clarify that in this blog, when I refer to an action that is extremely common in Korea (whitening products, bad driving) never includes ALL Koreans. I try to say "most Koreans" when I do my WTW editions. "It's more common here, you'll probably find it happens here rather than any other place, lots of people do that here," those statements may all be true, but it does not, however, include every single Korean on the Korea peninsula. It would be wrong to do so and disrespectful to the people of this country. So, please, do not automatically assume that every Korean is running to the doc's to get plastic surgery or eats Fido every week with kimchi. What I encounter are my experiences, not everyone else's and I will not meet every Korean.

So this What the Wednesday includes a video from a girl, ExpatKerri, who has been living in Korea for about six years and I came across her youtube channel before I made the move over here. She teaches at a university and she did a little project with her students. Love it. Enjoy it.