This week has been an interesting week. I’ve still been working hard to adjust to a completely Korean environment. It’s not easy, and sometimes I am completely overwhelmed. I had some students this week that were horribly rude to me. I understand that they don’t want to learn English. They aren’t old enough, and haven’t seen enough of the world to understand how much it could help them in their lives. But even if that’s the case, what kind of person behaves so impolitely to a person who traveled 7000 miles to teach them. I would never have had the audacity to do something like that when I was in school. I understand that they don’t see me as a real teacher. I’ve been in Korea long enough to know that most of my predecessors screwed up my chances of ever being taken seriously as an educator here, but I am a human being, and it would be nice to be treated as such.
This Saturday after teaching Sabbath School, I went to my own church, practiced singing with the choir, then climbed into a van and drove to the East Coast. All day yesterday, and all day today I spent speaking Korean. My Korean skills are still lacking, so it was a very stressful couple of days for me. When I don’t understand things I feel overwhelmed, but I learned lots of new vocabulary words, and got a lot of speaking practice in.
While we were traveling, I had to opportunity to talk with one lady from church. She is in her late fifties or early sixties. A lot of people in Korea are very concerned about the situation in Japan. Mostly because if something does go horribly wrong with their nuclear plant, and the winds change, it will blow straight in Korea’s face. I’m not too concerned about that. I’m more worried about the Japanese people, and how they are recovering. However, I don’t have the built in prejudices against the Japanese that most of the older generation Koreans have. At one point during the car ride, this lady explained to me that most Koreans hate the Japanese because of the horrible things that the Japanese did to them during the Japanese occupation prior to WWI. That was over 70 years ago, but they still can’t forgive them. The woman even described the recent events going on in Japan as their 운명 or fate. I’ve seen a lot of racism in my life; I’ve even dealt with a lot of it first hand since I came to Korea, but I’ve never seen people act so cold in the face of someone else’s tragedy. It’s really disappointing to see this flaw in the people I love so much.
Koreans are generally such a warm-hearted people. If you are their friend, you become their friend for life. I guess this admirable quality has the not so admirable reverse effect as well. If you are their enemy, you are their enemy for life. That being said, today, some of the people I attend church with invited me over to their home to get to know me better. When we arrived, we walked through a gate, then followed a path that led to the side of a building. We then climbed several sets of cement stairs until we reached the roof. On the roof of the building was a small home. It was an extremely humble dwelling with a small bedroom, living area, bathroom, and a tiny kitchen, barely larger than my apartment now. The whole three person family lives and sleeps in those two rooms. There was no furniture apart from heavily laden bookshelves, no electronic gadgets of any sort. However, the parents and their son are so happy. They cooked me a delicious meal, and urged me to eat more until I had kimchi almost bursting from my ears. I think we all get so caught up in a world of electronics, and media, and new gadgetry that we forget what it was like to just be happy to be with the people we love. I’m grateful that I was able to spend my afternoon with this family, and I hope that one day I can aspire to be as happy as they are with a family of my own.
I hope you will all be grateful for what you have, pray for the people in Japan, and not let prejudice blind you in the face of other people’s suffering.
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