It’s probably a good thing I don’t know how to say this in Korean.
Anybody who’s ever read a blog by somebody living in Korea can skip this, as you’ve probably heard it a dozen (or more) times before.
Still here? Okay, this is about one of the annoying things about living in Korea. Lots of stuff is great here, but this one gets to everybody sooner or later, no matter how centered they seem to be. (I will be speaking in generalizations here out of convenience, not because I believe this rant describes every person in the country.)
The manners of the average Korean are fucking atrocious. They’ve got the social graces of white trash Xmas shoppers at K-mart and all the subtlety of a brick to the head.
Today’s rant – The staring.
Have these people never seen a goddamn white person before? They import our TV shows, movies and music, so I know they’re aware of our existence. And sure, maybe there are a few who’ve never seen a non-Korean person in real life before – if they live in a cave or way out in the sticks. People living in and around Seoul (and it’s related suburb cities) should not be shocked by the appearance of a white person. Who do they think teaches their children English at the language school they’re paying for?
I had an “encounter” with a starer yesterday (which is what brought this entry on) that typifies this behavior. I didn’t write it last night, because I wanted to wait and see if it still irked me today. It did, so here it is.
I was leaving to go to work, heading out of my building – backpack on, helmet in hand – and I passed this old guy in the foyer of my building next to the mailboxes before. I hadn’t seen him in the building before, but that’s not unusual, as I don’t keep regular working hours and haven’t seen but a few of my neighbors. He gave me an odd look as I passed him, which I took to be the typical stare. But he never stopped looking! He walked back to the door of the building and stood there, asshole stare on his face, and watched me put my helmet and gloves on, turn the bike around and ride off.
No big deal, you say? Well, perhaps not, if it was an isolated incident.
But it wasn’t! This shit happens all the time over here.
On the subway, walking around town, waiting for my coffee at the coffee shop – everywhere! Usually it’s the blank, bovine stare that one would associate with a Down’s Syndrome child watching the Teletubbies, but sometimes you get the angry, “I don’t even know you but I hate you” scowl.
All I want to know is why? Why do they do this? Are they really that fucking backwards that the sight of a non-Korean causes their brains to shut down? And Korea is the only place in the world I’ve heard of this happening. When I went to Japan this past Spring I felt damned near invisible. Nobody stared (or cared) because white guy was wandering around Tokyo taking pictures of random stuff. Nobody thought it was odd that I looked different from them.
IT WAS HEAVEN!!!
I am so looking forward to going back there.
In the meantime, I will put up with the Clampett’s of the Eastern World and practice a variety of stares to return theirs with. If that doesn’t work, there’s always language study.
Speaking of which, look what I just found in an online Korean Slang dictionary: ???, ????
^.^