BECAUSE WHEN MARTIN GOES KOREAN, HE GOES KOREAN ALL THE WAY

In a rare occasion that was marked by fireworks and national celebrations, I had dinner last night in a Korean restaurant. Mee Kyung took me there after our “hike”. I don’t think a 5 minute walk qualifies as a hike but then again, when a Korean person says something there’s a good chance you really don’t understand what they’re saying.

We met and I followed her to this mountain that I just couldn’t see. We walked for about 5 minutes to some benches in the shade. She brought out a container of fruit (bless her heart) and we ate and chatted. She’s a doll. I find it easy to talk to her and I think she understands (or appears to) most of what I say. I know that if she doesn’t understand she tells me. She speaks quite freely with me. She’s quite amazed that a woman like her (married, kids, in her 40’s) is going out alone with a man. She said, “what if people see us”? I said that tongues would way. (I explained the meaning to her). I said she would become a celebrity. I told her that her picture would be plastered on the front page of the paper. I like her because she gets my bad jokes and laughs at them. I give her credit for stepping outside the “regular” Korean behavior and going out with me, because there is nothing wrong with that. It’s funny that when you’re younger you can be “just friends” with people of the opposite sex and no one questions it. When you’re older and just friends, no one believes it.

We chatted for a couple of hours and then she took me for dinner as I was her guest. She was very thoughtful and asked if I wanted fast food. I told her no. Even a Korean place would be fine if they served meat. She suggested going for “shabu shabu”, and I said okay.

What is “shabu shabu”? We go into the restaurant which was a take off your shoes and sit on the floor place. They start boiling this large pot of “soup” there. They then bring out raw meat and vegetables and you throw it in the pot and it cooks very quickly. You take it out and eat it. They had a sauce that had a lot of soy sauce in it that I like, so actually enjoyed my meal. I will reciprocate her kindness. I’ll take her to Bennigans. For some reason she told me she likes Bennigans. Weird.

So how was my attitude yesterday at school? First off, on Wednesday night I called Yoon-soo since he’s sort of friends with the principal and I asked him if the principal might have been joking with his “Korean or nothing” remark. He didn’t think so. He said most Koreans just follow the orders of their bosses regardless of how stupid they are and just get along. I’ve always believed the best bosses gather smart people around them and cherry pick the best ideas. It happens here, but not much. One of the differences between me and other teachers is that they may need the job to put food on the table. I don’t need the job. If it doesn’t work out, I just go elsewhere and do something else. They don’t have the threat of firing me to hang over me.

Now as to Lou’s comment about if I run amok it’s Min Kyung who gets in trouble. That’s why I’m not writing the letter telling him that he was rude and disrespectful in what he said about me. That’s my concession to Min Kyung. As for the rest, even though she has my sympathy, and even though she’s in a no win, I don’t care. She is beginning to annoy me. I think (and it’s only I think) that she misrepresents my position when talking to the bosses because she doesn’t listen carefully to what I say and she misconstrues my meaning. This occurred to me yesterday. I got an email (along with several others) from a teacher who was at orientation with us in May. He was quite upset because his Korean co-teacher has kicked a student and was laughing about it. The English teacher told the Korean it was wrong and to not do it in his class. The Korean laughed at him. The English then said that he would tell the principal. The Korean laughed some more and told him to go ahead. So he told the principal and the principal said to not worry about it. All in all a sickening and disheartening story.

I told Min Kyung about it. I told her I GOT AN EMAIL FROM AN ENGLISH TEACHER I WENT TO ORIENTATION WITH telling me this story. Later she says to me that I should stop surfing the Internet looking for bad things about Koreans. I just looked at her and told her I was angry with her, and that she doesn't listen carefully to anything I say. I was not surfing the Internet, I got an unsolicited email. I told her that if she listened she would know that most of the things I say about Korean people in general are positive and flattering. I told her that as with any people, there are good and there are bad. If there is a jerk Korean teacher, it doesn’t mean all Korean teachers are bad. I wanted to slap her. She apologized but I’ve cooled considerably towards her because I don’t see her as my friend anymore. I don’t think she’s against me, I just don’t think she listens to what I say, or if she does and doesn’t understand something, she doesn’t ask. She’s dangerous without knowing she’s dangerous.

I have looked like an idiot a few times due to misunderstandings. When I voiced my concerns about the camp and she presented them to the principal they probably came off as complaints. No, they were not complaints. I had no idea what their objective was. I didn’t know that camp in Korea doesn’t mean playing sports and having fun, it means “extensive classes”. So my questions were to clarify exactly what they wanted out of this camp. Whatever answer I got was fine, as long as it was accurate and I understood that. I can now see that she was telling them that I disagreed with what they wanted. I got screwed over again. Of course if I was fluent in Korean, this wouldn’t have happened. If I had been present and there was an ongoing translation taking place, this wouldn’t have happened. If she’s my mouthpiece I’ve got problems. I’ll just look like a fool instead of someone who really cares about doing a good job. And her being on the defensive about all Koreans doesn’t help.

It’s funny, her English is better than Mee Kyung’s, but Mee Kyung spoke for me just fine. There were no misunderstands when she was in the middle. These misunderstandings come with Min Kyung. I just have to beware.

I decided to ignore what I heard from the principal. When I have something to say, I’ll say it. If there is any detail to it instead of a short question, I’ll write the letter in English and ask Yoon-soo to translate to Korean for me. The principal can trash it if he wants but it’s in his best interests to meet me half way if he cares anything about the students. I submitted my camp plan yesterday and included the forbidden trip to Ilsan. They can scratch it off if they want but it came with a reason and the practicality of going there. We shall see.

One of my students gave me a chocolate bar yesterday. How sweet of her. She’s a doll. I just wonder if that means we’re engaged now.

My first class this morning was deadly. Some kids were sleeping and others looked dead. I think they’ve been burning the midnight oil in preparation for their exams last next week. I wasn’t making much progress so I just stopped what I was doing and told them a few simple things and tried to entertain them. I know they have enough on their plates and their heads are bursting that I hate to add to their burden. After exams it will be fine (I hope). There will only be one week until summer vacation. I think maybe I should just trash the text book for the last week and find lots of games and puzzles to play. For some bizarre reason I think that just having me blabber at them will teach them some English.

When I was leaving school yesterday the vice-principal was walking into the school. I worked up my nerve and said goodbye to him in Korean. That drew a big smile from him. I have been lax in learning simple phrases. I have to do it. It will endear me to the people if I show I attempting to speak some Korean phrases no matter how feeble I sound.