1st Semester reflections

The Korean people I've met tend to not be very adventurous. Whether it's eating ethnic food or exploring different areas of the city, they tend to not bother unless someone whom they trust with their life introduces them to it. For example, my co-teachers are always surprised when I talk about what I do on my weekends. "You went where? How did you know it existed?" They don't understand how my friends and I can discover new restaurants/bars/beaches/monuments/sales on our own, without a Korean guide. I try to explain the concept of hopping on a train/bus/subway/scooter/skateboard and then spontaneously deciding to get off to explore a new area, and they're completely baffled. "Annie, you so brave!"

I think this is a result of their collectivist, Confucius-inspired society, where people always stay near their families and always do everything together, whereas Westerners are brought up learning about the history of "Go forth! Explore the frontier! You may lose your oxen forging a river, but it's better than living in the State of Abeyance!" So when I say that Koreans are not adventurous, I don't intend to sound like a snob who is looking down on them. I am simply stating my observations of how they appear to not understand the concept of searching for an unknown location on the internet, or calling several different people until they find the right authority to ask a question about school policy or the class schedule or some other unknown important piece of information. Instead, they think for a second and offer their best guess:

Me: When is summer vacation?
Co-teacher: After the exams?
Me: Immediately after the exams? July 5th?
Co-teacher: Maybe?
Me: I need to plan my vacation.
Co-teacher: Maybe somebody will tell us?
Me: Can we ask someone now?
Co-teacher: (turns to another teacher and asks in Korean) She thinks vacation is July 16th.
Me: Is it free time? I heard that we have to teach English camp?
Co-teacher: Probably a camp.
Me: How many weeks of camp?
Co-teacher: maybe somebody will tell us?

This is a very typical conversation here. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out. Other times, I feel like a mean, pushy person when I say "Let's call the person in charge, someone in the administration's office. Right now. We have some free time, let's figure out the answer to this now by calling the authorities." But that will usually bite me in the butt because the admin person might give us an answer that is simply a guess, because they didn't know how to look up the real answer.

Two other amusing Korean characteristics are that A)they always break the rules if no one is looking, and B) they don't know how to be blunt when they have a problem with someone. One example that perfectly ties these two cultural phenomena together is the weekly tradition of leaving school to eat lunch when we don't want the cafeteria food.

It started out the third week I was here when my co-teacher mentioned that we were going to a restaurant for lunch. I of course brought my purse (which is more like a large overnight bag) with me, and all of the teachers asked, "Annie why do you bring your bag?" I noticed that several of them had their billfolds, so I was confused as to why they were surprised that I would bring a purse. Maybe they were just astonished by how big my bag was? I replied, "This is my purse, I always bring it when I go out." They nodded their heads as if they didn't understand. But they didn't say anything more, so I just kept my distance in case they were afraid that my cheap nylon bag would rub off on their designer clothes.

What I didn't know at the time was that it wasn't the quality of my bag that bothered them but the size and the glaring burnt-orange color that attracted unwanted attention. They were trying to sneak out of the school without any sign that they were going to their cars instead of going to the cafeteria, and I was blowing their cover.

Why didn't they simply tell me this? Because they were worried about offending me. Koreans don't know how to ask blunt questions or say something directly to someone that could possibly offend them, so they couldn't say to me "Annie, your bag is too conspicuous. Just bring your wallet, because it's small and no one will notice it." If I had had the Korean sense known as "nunchi," the ability to pick up on the intended/hidden meaning of what someone is trying to tell you, then I would have replied, "Oh, you know what? This bag is definitely too heavy. Wait a minute, and I'll go put it down by my desk."

Some people view this behavior as passive-aggressive, like when a Korean person asks "Are you cold?" when they really want to say "Put some damn clothes on, you slut." But I think it's kind of beautiful that everyone tries to be polite in order to avoid making anyone feel uncomfortable or left out.

This was best shown during my first week in Korea when I was at orientation. We were taking Korean language lessons each night from a man who had either never been a teacher before, or who had never taught the Korean language to non-Korean people. After two lessons, we still didn't know the alphabet or how to say hello, so a few of us mentioned this to our team leaders. The next night, our teacher came in with a scarf tied around his neck, complaining of having a cold. He gave each of us a juice and said he was sorry he was too sick to teach us anymore and that we would be getting a substitute teacher for the remainder of the week. We looked around at one another with a silent question of "Is he serious? Is he actually sick? Crap, did we get him fired?" Then we just nodded our heads, and guiltily said "We're so sorry that you're sick." We felt really guilty, but going to our team leaders to tell them so would have only made them feel more uncomfortable about letting him go, so we decided that never mentioning it again was probably the best thing to do.

Another common thing in Korean culture is to bend the rules, or break them altogether, so long as the authorities aren't looking. For example, you'll never see a Korean person wearing a seat belt, because they don't think a police officer would ever find out about it. In fact, when I get into a car and put on my seat belt, someone will usually laugh and point at the person driving, saying something like "Annie thinks you are crazy driver! She doesn't feel safe!"

I couldn't understand why my co-teachers felt the need to sneak out of school for lunch instead of just letting the Vice-Principal know and asking for permission. Why risk getting reprimanded? But after many weeks of doing this, I discovered that they didn't want to ask the Vice-Principal, because he didn't want to pose the question/situation to the Principal, who didn't want to mention it to the head administrator, who didn't want to have to answer to the Pusan Office of Education if someone ever found out about it. Everybody wanted to stay under the pretense that the teachers at Puil High School are dedicated to their jobs, and they would never think of leaving the school during hours in which they are paid, and they would never dress in a way that's unprofessional and they would never let the students watch a movie in order to rest after a hectic exam week, etc. As long as everyone turns their head and doesn't have to officially acknowledge that any of these things happen, the school can continue to boast that only the most professional people work here.

Now that I better understand the system, I keep my phone and money in my pocket when I leave school for lunch, I wear the hosiery that only covers my foot when it's too hot to wear pantyhose which cover my entire leg, and I turn in a lesson plan stating that I will teach the significance of the Declaration of Independence and it's history, complete with powerpoint presentations and group discussions, when I actually plan on showing the movie National Treasure.

For the 1st semester of teaching in Korean school, the score is in:
Annie - 1 : Ridiculous Korean administrative loopholes - 0