Multiculturalism in a Homogeneous Society

Since college, I've been a firm believer that multiculturalism is a benefit to any society. Add a little spice to your life, a little funk to your rhythm, some pepper to your salt, whatever. Stop being so vanilla. After my first international trip to South Africa, finding friends with different cultural backgrounds became a necessity to my life. I craved the differences, and hungered to learn about their lives, culture, languages. When I traveled to Ireland, it was the same. I got a high from learning the cultural do's and don'ts. It kept me on my toes, made me feel like a small piece to something bigger, and deepened my need for multiculturalism.

When I was in grad school I had to take an education class that focused on multiculturalism (that was ironically taught by a man whose only qualification was that he was half German half African. Other than that, he was a close minded schmuck.). Through that and other ed. classes I began to see how we as humans really truly benefit from being surrounded by people who are different from us, in and out of the classroom.


I would certainly say this is true for Korea as well. Korea, the hermit kingdom, a true homogeneous society, how you should thrive from differences. I've never really run in xenophobia before, but...damn...it can run strong in parts of this country. Like in my wee little town people are sometimes shocked by my presence, unsure of what to do. Options are run, hide, and seek police because surely she is a Russian spy, point, stop where you are, stand with mouth ajar, or pretend like you don't see me and then when I pass you by, turn around and gawk. Other places in Korea are not this bad. Seoul, for example, is a well seasoned veteran of a city and is no longer impressed by foreigners. It still happens. For example this past weekend in Busan an old man stopped directly in my path to laugh and gesture with his hands about my size, then tell me and the guy I was with that his girlfriend (me) was much bigger than he (the friend) was. I understand your Korean, and the fact that you are so not accustomed to seeing differences (and the fact that you should know that's not ok to say) both horrifies me and disgusts me. Please oh please add a little sweet potato pie to your kimchi. Say ya'll with 주세요.


Something that makes me exceedingly happy is having so many friends from all over the world; ones that I've met here and ones that I've met in my other travels. They add something to my life. I see bigger pictures, I have a vast knowledge of slang and mannerisms that I picked up from them all. I say "em" instead of "um", the words "keen, chuck, aigoo, chincha, mulla, how's it, posh, seedy, and lekker are now apart of the regular vocabulary. I love love it.


I hope to raise kids to see multiculturalism as a thing of beauty, and I cannot wait to share my sense of wonder about cultures to the students I'll teach, both here and in the States. I hope to teach them that we can learn from one another; learn that our way might not be the best way, learn to love others regardless of how funny their accents are, not to laugh when you realize that to pronounce their names you have to add clicking noises, learn that ultimately you see the Lord in each of their faces and languages. It's a beautiful thing to go outside of your comfort zone, put yourself out there, and dare to form true relationships with those who are so different from you.


"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." ~ Nelson Mandela.

*Photos are totally not mine, but ganked from Facebook. Thanks Becks. 

Grasping at Straws

A few quick thoughts to get the mind thinking about culture this morning and all of its intricacies

On Mondays I always ask my classes to explain what they did over the weekend. It gets conversations started and the English that slept in their brains on Saturday and Sunday a chance to wake up and back into practice. This morning one of my students said that she had been on a business trip Thursday and Friday, then on Saturday she worked until 3am because of a very important presentation, and then on Sunday she had to stop working because she was having trouble breathing. I asked her what the doctor said and when she typed it into her cell phone translator and handed it over to me it said "hyperventilation".
"You were hyperventilating? Wow, I'm sure that was scary."
"Yes. But I am better now."
"What caused you to hyperventilate?"
"The doctor say, I need to take a rest."

The poor girl was exhausted. She looked haggard and worn down, much too tired for a 26 year old. Then the thing I hate most about Korea popped its head into the conversation.

"Oh but, now you look so thin," one of my male students said.
Dude, shut the hell up. This is exactly why so much of the population are making themselves sick: to get thin. This girl now knows that if she can become overworked, she won't eat, and if she doesn't eat, she loses weight. If she loses weight, boys take notice. Women here, who weigh probably 90-100lbs are always talking about dieting. "Oh, I need to lose weight. I'm starting diet tomorrow." I've heard that a bajillion times since I've gotten here. I understand wanting to lose weight. I understand wanting to be healthy, and having a healthy lifestyle, but what I cannot grasp is how this country revolves around losing weight. By any means possible.

My heart breaks for these men and women who lay everything on the importance of appearance, when they will only lose it to time and age anyway.

I cannot grasp why losing weight and being as stickish as possible is more important than being healthy, happy, and satisfied with who you are and then in turn finding people who love you as you appear. I cannot grasp the culture of this and honestly, I hope I never do.

I should be working

I have a ridiculous schedule, ridiculously easy that is. I have a 3.5 hour break between my morning classes and then an hour and 40 minute break between my afternoon classes. Sometimes I'm industrious and studious and amazing and study Korean, clean my house, plan lessons for two weeks, etc. Thennnnn there are other days where I just sit back and look at things like this. Seriously, this girl describes Korea better than I ever could.

Yesterday my two friends and I planned our Malaysia trip, wired money to banks, bought plane tickets, and chatted through facebook to do all of this. One works at a public high school, one at a kindergarten, and me at LG, a world renowned electronics company. Oh the shame of it all.

I should be working...but I'm not.

Wrap it up May

I started an experiment on May 1st. It was pretty simple really, much easier than the chem lab that nearly killed me in uni. All I did was write down something good that happened each day. The purpose was so that I could remember all the goodness that I don't write down and thus forget, and to also see if my attitude changed at all in the course of a month of focusing on the positive.

It was a lot easier for me to be negative at home. I have a few theories on that, but those are theories and shall remain with me. However, one would think that being in a strange place away from family and friends and Chik-fil-a would turn me into a sour person, constantly comparing the US to Korea, always focusing on when Korea let me down, and how different (awful) everything was. That hasn't been the case. I'm pretty positive. Most of the time. More so than a lot of expats I've met over here. Which is surprising because life is already hard here, I mean they don't have Chik-fil-a for God's sake, but why make it harder on yourself by being negative. It drives me insane.

The results were good, amazing actually. Some days I struggled to find something worthy of making the list and others I struggled to write down just one (so I didn't). It dragged May out a bit, but I enjoyed my little experiment. Good to be reminded of all that I've done and experienced. So here you go, another list.

May:
1- Had a surprise day off. Yay Worker's Day!
2- Finished a difficult assignment.
3- Lotte Mart opened in Naju.
4- Bought a bicycle.
5- Went to a birthday party where there were probably 10 countries and nationalities represented. Love multiculturalism!
6- Was beautifully reminded of God's grace and love for me when I fall short.
7- Got organized in my classroom. Felt very teachery. Also, fixed my washing machine.
8- A student told me my Korean was good.  아 싸 !
9- Found a new song. Downloaded it. Listened to it on repeat.
10- Great morning class with lots of laughter, and had an amazing bike ride.
11- Indian meal with honest and hilarious conversation with honest and hilarious friends.
12- Explored a new part of Naju (it had one?) with Aimee.
13- Coffee with Brown Eyes.
14- Found out nephew's name!
15- Got a cake for Teacher's Day.
16- Discovered a cool new blog.
17- Sister got a job!
18- Reaffirmation in a friendship.
19-Spent the most wonderful day at the park where I was exceedingly thankful for lanterns, ice cream, and friends.
20-Sports day at church. Found out I suck at jump rope, but can turn it like no other.
21- Got some major cleaning done, and felt super accomplished afterwards. Seriously guys, it was gross.
22- Finalized plans for Buddha's birthday weekend (rare three day weekend).
23- Fantastic taxi ride with guy who spoke English. He took requests for kpop songs, and was super impressed when I named about twelve for him to choose from.
24- Talked on the phone with a friend for about an hour about absolutely nothing of importance. I hadn't done that in forever, and it made me feel all girly and collegey.
25- Stayed at the most amazing hotel in Busan. First time I had experienced a waterfall shower.
26- Received the best haircut. Ever. By a hot Korean man. Period. Done.
27- First day on the beach since last August. Stayed for six hours, and got a pretty good little tan. Also, met a guy from Georgia in a New Zealand bar. My accent was super thick that night, and it really made me miss southern men who say love, sweetie, honey.
28- Buddha's Birthday=day off!
29- Found the Seoul Subway song and it reminded me of my sister's visit here. Good times.
30- Started planning my summer trip to Thailand. Wish I had more money
31- Thailand was too expensive, sooooo I bought plane tickets to Malaysia instead. Ahhhhh...the white sand beach, the palm trees, the coconuts...

May, you rocked. Thanks for wrapping it up so nicely. On to June. May you treat me oh so kindly.

And for your viewing pleasure:

They joy of it all Part 1

Because I'm so happy, you're going to get this "overly happy yeah I love everything" post. Enjoy.

Before I came to Korea, the Bible verses I needed to get me through the day were always something from Lamentations or Psalms. It was always something like this, "I remember my afflictions and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." That one's from Lamentations. It was the kind of stuff you needed when you'd lost a love one or if you just couldn't remember the last time you felt hopeful. But I needed them all the time. Great verses and all, but sad at the same time. I was constantly searching for joy, it was a fleeting emotion, and satisfaction in life seemed a Hollywood creation.

Then this wonderful, amazing, crazy, ridicoulous thing happened. I got uncomfortable. That's right. I gave up comfort, a sense of the known, and moved away. The Lord gave me joy, in abundance. It dawned on me this weekend, in a moment of pure contentment as I looked across the park to the Gwangju skyline, sitting beside friends, sunburnt and hungry, that these moments happen so often. There are times that suck. Absolutley. No doubt about that one. Just look up the tag "hating Korea", but those moments happen few and far between. My search for joy isn't a downtrodden attempt to find friends who make me happy and laugh. God gave me those, in abundance. I'm not struggling to maintain hope or strength. God gave me that too, in abundance.

This weekend, I went to a park, arrived sweaty and thirsty, just had a damn good time.  I was with new people I'd never met, some that I'd only known a few months, but have an insanely close relationship with. It's the way it is here. Find a friend and latch on. We're forced to develop these close bonds quickly because we are all too aware of our time here. I love the fact that I was with people from all over the world this weekend, and we found community and joy through sharing a bucket of ice-cream and ten spoons, a volleyball, and a camera. And when we were wrapping up our afternoon and the sky was getting darker, the lanterns put up ahead of Buddha's birthday started to light up, I could feel how full my heart was. I wanted to roll around in all the goodness of it.

A good weekend consists of:

• lots of sunshine
• a good camera
• good food
• people who love to laugh
• the beginnings of a tan (good-bye Korean paleness)
• iced coffee
• so much laughter you get a headache and your face hurts

The Bible has a lot to say about joy. I love discovering those verses and claiming those, all the time.

Those people.

You know when you get so incredibly, obnoxiously, disgustingly lazy and you let things go that you normally wouldn't. Yeah. I'm not like that. I'm not one of those people. Those people who leave dishes all around their room, empty water bottles crowding the desk so much that they have no room for a cell phone charger, much less a laptop. You know the people I'm talking about. The ones who don't put a new trash bag in the garbage and have a million shoes around the doorway because they can't be bothered with it. The only reason the sink isn't full is because they had to wash a cup, spoon, and bowl for dinner that night; they had run out of clean dishes. When they Skype with friends, the friend will ask, "Hey, is that our bra I see hanging in the kitchen?" Clean clothes and dirty clothes piled together, that they just sniff to see if it smells good. Wet clothes still in the washer from two nights ago. I mean gross.

If I was one of those people, I would panic at the thought of having someone enter my domain of chaos. The thought would drive me to paranoia. They would judge you and wrinkle their noses. They would be unable to hide their disgust for your apartment and their distaste for you as a person. If I was one of those people and saw the air conditioning man down the hallway thinking he was heading to my place next, I would probably run into my apartment and begin to frantically clean. Then I would end up throwing away two garbage bags and a heap of recyclables, re-start the washer from two nights ago, and throw all of those clothes (dirty and clean) on my bed and cover it with a blanket.

But I'm not one of those people.

Teenage Boys vs. Korean Men: What's the Difference?

I taught high school. I use the past tense because, well, it happened in the past. Or so I thought. Apparently, I still do. Here's why:

1. Comments About Physical Appearance-
High School: Ms. P what are you wearing?! Wow, please never wear that again.
Korean Men: Ah Jennifer, you have new hair style today. You look like little girl.
Lord help me if I look the least bit tired. They will notice and comment.

2. The Smell-
High school boys smell like sweat, body odor, too much Axe body spray, and that unwashable adolescent smell that all high school boys carry with them. Windows were always open in my classroom.
Korean men smell like the cigarrette they just smoked, last nights soju, or they smell absolutely wonderful in the new cologne their girlfriends bought to help the poor soul.

3. They don't do their homework.

4. They're not highly motivated or passionate about whatever you're teaching them. I still get glazed over looks sometimes. However, the high school boys dead pan empty stare was probably from lack of souls as the Korean men glassy eyed look is from not being able to understand a word I'm saying.

5. Jokes about sex and/or bodily functions are still funny. Boys will be boys eh.

6. They come to class late.

7. They "borrow" my pens/pencils, which inevitably means I have to go buy more because they don't fully grasp the meaning of "borrow".

8. They talk while you're talking. However, I can't always understand them here.

9. They're surprised when I catch them doing something they shouldn't i.e. talking, cheating. They always act so surprised. Don't they know that teachers take a special class in uni so that we can detect any bad behavior?

10. There are still brown nosers and troublemakers; a hierarchy among students.

When I meet new people here in Korea and they find out that I teach adults, they are so envious. My job must be the pinnacle of my teaching career. Umm....well. It might not be as different from your public school job. However, here are some reasons as to why teaching my boys here is a little different from teaching my "real" boys back home.

1. Going drinking with them is perfectly acceptable.

2. They buy the drinks.

3. They buy dinner.

4. It's ok to ride in the car with them.

5. Being seen in a coffee shop with two or three of them is cool.

6. The more sloshed you get on the drinks they buy you, earns you respect at your workplace (I've yet to earn a lot of respect. I hate soju.)

I love teaching these guys. But still, when I look really closely, teaching boys is the same in any classroom.