Korean Fuzz

I actually wrote this a few days ago and had it on myspace but have decided to change to blogspot for future blog happenings. So if you already read it, my bad.


I am sitting on the subway coming back from my second and final day of training to teach English and there are hundreds of people surrounding me, talking, laughing and just staring at each other as I am. Their conversations are so foreign to me that all I hear is fuzz. To my western ear the only thing that comes to mind when I hear the woman on the subway speaker is the movie Battle Royal. For anyone that has seen this movie, they know it is this incredible Japanese film about elementary children being forced to kill each other by the government in order to win a yearly competition. This competition began to keep Japanese youth in line. The children are told the rules of the competition by an ecstatic Japanese woman on a television and the woman on the speaker in the subway sounds very similar. I wanted to emphasize that I only think this because I am hearing it with my western ear. Japanese and Korean people speak different languages, have different accents, and different customs, etc, but to me it is the only relation that I can make at this time. The woman on this speaker is the only thing that I can relate some sort of familiarity too when trying to listen to the Korean people speak. It's not that I recognize any words, or even that I should be making this comparison but it is all that I have to go on right now. In the three and a half days I have been here I have learned about 6 phrases which include: Can I have a beer please (maekju juseyo; that's how it sounds phonetically I have no idea how this or any words look in Korean script), Thank You (com sa ni da), Hello (Anyeong ha say oh), etc.

So, to say the least everything is different, but very exciting. Though I feel lost most of the time it is refreshing to not have any idea what is going on around me. I am an alien here but I am an alien that everyone around me wants to learn about. It is a very odd feeling to be the minority especially in a place like this. Since being here I have only seen two Caucasian people walking on the street. (I have seen other Caucasian people but they were my friends or fellow teachers). Besides that every single person I have seen has been Asian. So, obviously I stick out like a sore thumb. Every where I go people stare at me. Not in a bad or good way but in a curios way. It is a very odd feeling since in America in most physical aspects I would be considered average looking, or for lack of a better term, normal. Therefore, I never received too many glances or attention and was able to fit in with a crowd. When I walk down the street here, heads turn and people that know even the slightest bit of English want to talk to you because you are respected because you are white and can speak the English language. Don't get me wrong I am no stranger to white privilege I have grown up having more opportunities only because the color of my skin. But it is interesting to realize the great privilege I have in an international sense because I am a native English speaker from America. The company that hired me is no longer hiring teachers from any country but the United States, not even Canada.

So though at times I feel very lost and alone I know that I am very privileged to be hear in the first place. The people here could not be any more polite or respectful and that is making my slow immersion in to this culture an easier journey. I have encountered some obstacles in being here, I am sure some of which I will bitch about later but as for now the good completely out ways the bad and I am having the most wonderful time of my life. Well good bye for now I need to get ready so I can go to Itaewon, supposedly the foreign district, so maybe I will find some familiarity to home there. I miss you all.