Random Cultural Installment

  Hwacheon, Korea Rep.
Saturday, September 13, 2008

- Koreans have an equivalent for "a case of the Mondays".  it's called 화요일평 (hwa-yo-il-pyeong), which I think translates to "Monday sickness".  Jerry told me that this means that every Monday, people don't want to work or go to school. this isn't so different from any other culture, but i think that this condition is somewhat recognized as an actual ailment, which may be a little different..  maybe it's like this metaphor: MONDAY : SICKNESS :: FAN : DEATH.
- when there are a lot of stars out, the next day is going to be beautiful.
- Koreans make a lot of random conversational noises.  there's one that's a cross between a hiss and coughing up phlegm, an exclamation like "ayyyyy!" that expresses misfortune, the similar "ayyyyy-shhh" that seems to mean something like "oh, geez", and the "kk, kk, kk, kk" sounding laughs.  i am going to try to catch some in audio samples somehow, but those might be difficult and awkward to acquire.  i also find it funny that all of these sounds have established spellings; for example, the sound you might make when you're "tasting" something (when you put your tongue along the gumline behind your upper front teeth and suck in a bit while touching/lifting your tongue) is written as 쯧쯧, etc.  and it also apparently makes sense as a sound to make when you're hungry?  (my 6th-graders are definitely using it as such in skits that they are writing and performing..)  i mean, really, how would Americans write out sounds like that?
- speaking of sounds, i think it's so funny how drastically different animal sounds (how they're perceived/taught, not how they actually sound objectively..) are in different countries.  there are definitely
cross-cultural similarities (e.g., the cat says "yeow" in Korea, but "meow" in the U.S.), but some of them just make no sense to my indoctrinated American mind that thinks that cows say "moo" and pinks
say "oink".
- i'm loving samulnori class.  i get to play with some of my students every Tuesday after school.  it's perfect because i am feeling calm and excited about my day off, and i can just relax, play, and spend time with the kids.  it's been really fun to hang out with them outside of my class, and i think they like seeing me in a different context too.  one of the boys is one of my 4th-grade terrors that only behaves because i bribe him
with Candy Fridays, and i think that he thinks that i'm cooler/respects me more since we have this other interaction.  it's also good to see him acting up during samulnori; it means that he doesn't just get rowdy in my class, and i'm actually allowed to think his antics (e.g. using his mallets to kill bugs during the whole class) are funny when i'm not the teacher.  anyway, i've really been enjoying it as a way to spend time with students, but i've also just been having a lot of fun with it in general.  i play one of the janggus.  i have a lot of catching up to do since i came into the class so late (if you didn't know, Korean students' "summer break" is only a mini-vacation, and their school year actually begins in March!), but my music/mallets background has made it easy for me to pick up the rhythms quickly, so the kids are impressed and i'm having fun.
- i have been drinking kopi luwak, the coffee that is produced from digested coffee berries.  the first time i had it, Jerry explained to me that the coffee came from the "excrement of the musk cat".  that was a nice surprise.  i knew exactly what she was talking about since one of my mom's favorite movies this summer was The Bucket List, so i was quickly able to Wikipedia the coffee and the feline to verify that this was, in fact, the same situation.
- every night, my window is covered by frogs who like to consume the bugs that are attracted to the light coming from my bedroom.  it is ridiculous how high they can jump.
- i'm not sure if this is just within my family, but shrimps' shells and fruits' seeds are both readily eaten. Tom even eats the shrimp heads - he claims that the bottom half of the shrimp raises your cholesterol and the top half lowers it equally.  call me crazy, but i don't like equilibrium that much.  regardless, the whole family
doesn't peel the shrimp and, rather, eats them with tails and all.  and i've gotten used to swallowing lots of grape, watermelon, and yellow melon seeds, but i still don't know that it'd be my method of choice back home.
- i am loving my ready access to Koting (laminating) and the school's large supply of pouch laminating sheets.  it's pretty sweet to be able to print off and make laminated flashcards for vocab drilling, hands-on/active games (paper would never hold up for more than a class..), etc. in a matter of minutes.
- i was surprised to find that some religious groups like to worship at 2 or 3am.  it was.. surprising.. since they were using the fellowship hall next door to my bedroom.
- it's pretty funny how cross-culturally stable some kid-related things are.  i love it when Korean kids are playing with pogs, doing their version of "Jinx" and [not] saying each others' names for several minutes, and doing the Korean "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (but with the sadistic add-on slaps that the winner gets to give the loser..).
- i am really confused by Koreans' feelings about Japan.  sometimes, i think they are so blatantly anti-Japan (e.g. the Dokdo controversy, which surfaces every day on TV commercials, clothing, etc. - just YouTube Dokdo, and you'll see..).  Tom often seems pretty anti-Japan; he brings up Korea's "sad history" with Japan often and seems a bit resentful.  but then he also randomly brings up traveling there and wears a shirt given to him by a Japanese trainer/athlete.  i just don't know.  and i might guess that they don't, either.
- everyone (literally, EVERYONE) has a GPS and dashboard figures/animals/decorations.  added bonuses are items like Looney Tunes seat covers.  (my co-teacher is pretty cute.)
- i love Konglish, i love "FIGHTING!", and i love random Korean humor/media, so i liked this commercial on EBS.  way to break the "English Only" rule, 교감선생님!

and here are some random thoughts/musings that i've had lately:

- it's pretty amazing what cognitive scripts will do for you when you can't communicate or discreetly understand what is going on.  for example, even though i don't understand a word of church, i swear that i could tell you what is going to happen at any given moment.  the language is different, but my schema for church (which has been constructed and solidified since i was a baby) lets me know when Tom is giving a benediction, when he's referring to a scriptural passage, when the choir is going to sing soon, when the sermon is wrapping up, etc. the PowerPoint slides of song lyrics, the ratio and placement of speeches and songs, the moms shushing kids, and the congregational readings are all the same.  it's all strangely familiar, even though the content is entirely lost.
- the same thing happened when Jerry was railing on Tom one day for being late.  we were supposed to grab dinner in Chuncheon before the Chuncheon International Theatre Festival, but our plans changed when he
spent a little extra time at the tennis court.  their in-car bickering was a little amusing strictly because of the intonation of the Korean language, but on top of that, i also couldn't refrain from [inaudibly] laughing in the back seat, because i needed no translation; i didn't understand a word of it, but i knew exactly what each of them was saying.  i think it's funny that things can sound so completely foreign and remain entirely familiar at the same time.
- sometimes, i wonder about how much of my personality is readily graspable (what remains stable and what is overlooked) when those around me don't speak my language. i feel like it's easy enough to misunderstand people and have false perceptions about them even when you do speak the same language.  but i also think that some facets exist completely independently of language; even when you can't
communicate directly, you can still tell if someone has a good sense of humor, what their general vibe is, etc.  i just wonder sometimes how my school relationships would change if i could fully communicate with my co-workers and students.  for example, my co-teachers and my principals seem really down-to-earth and tease each other lovingly all of the time, so i'm left wishing that i could join in more fully with that.  i also am left wondering what they think of me as a person, and if their perceptions are hugely colored by the fact that i can only speak basic Korean.. or if that doesn't really matter.  it's just interesting to think about..i feel strange at times because i feel like other foreigners (strangers) have no way of knowing that i identify more with them (and Caucasians and Americans in general) than i do with the masses of Korean people (who look like me..) that surround us.  at the theatre festival, a lot of foreign ambassadors and theatre companies were near me, but i knew that they had no way of knowing that i was an American grantee.  instead, i knew they would automatically assume that i was a native and that i didn't understand their conversations.  it's just
weird to realize that i blend in so easily with people that i don't necessarily relate to..  when two white foreigners chance upon each other on a street, they will invariably say "hi" to each other or exchange sympathetic glances, but when i happen upon other foreigners, they have no idea that we're in the same situation.  it's a little bizarre.  at the same time, it seems like a good thing sometimes; at the theatre festival, some of the foreigners were being extremely obnoxious and loud during a Korean play, and they seemed completely oblivious to the fact that they were being culturally insensitive.  at that moment, i was glad that i wouldn't automatically be lumped with them and that i instead blended in with the majority.  even though it's strange to go unnoticed, i suppose i should be glad, because it means that i don't immediately strike people as that typical American.

speaking of the Chuncheon International Theatre Festival, here are a couple of pictures!  i can't say that i was a diehard fan of the Korean play that we saw (it was a cross between Mulan, Romeo and Juliet, and a wedding dance party in the heavens..), but it was really interesting, and the slow-motion acting (in a scene where a wild hog was chasing the principal actors) was unbeatable.