Day: March 9, 2009

Caveat: My Life as Colonel Sanders

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / The Wonders of Work

I was going to write about this yesterday, while on the topic of my new haraboji look, but I didn't finish.

My feelings were hurt, recently, by a colleague.  Indirectly… her comment was actually reported to me by some students.  And it doesn't really matter:  the actual comment was quite some time ago, I imagine, and the teacher making the comments has now completed her contract at LBridge and departed.

The background:  KFC is a popular fast food chain in South Korea, and, just as in the States, the Colonel is the ubiquitous advertising mascot.  But because of the fact of his being elderly and iconically European-American, he ends up being a kind of caricature stand-in for all older Westerners.  Just as it seems vaguely racist and definitely culturally narrow to say of Asians "they all look the same," it's not unheard of in Korean society to just say that all older Western males are "that KFC guy."  And that, apparently, is what this other teacher said of me, to her students.  Repeatedly.

I didn't have much interaction with the colleague in question.  She didn't seem exceptionally interested in interacting with any of her coworkers, as a matter of fact.  But I will note that I always noticed she had a great rapport with her students, and they really seemed to like her, so I felt a strong level of respect for her, from a distance.

One thing I've learned, over these last few years teaching, is that you have to be very careful about the sorts of things you say about fellow teachers and other adults to the children – they will tend to magnify what they have heard, and most certainly they will internalize it if they find it entertaining or interesting or funny.  Having a colleague make that remark to her students about one of the token foreigners at LBridge is kind of a case study into how these unpleasant cultural stereotypes are perpetuated and reinforced.

Anyway… my personal observation is, I don't really like being called "that KFC guy" to my students behind my back, and it hurt my feelings.  But there's not a lot I can do about it, except try to prove by example that such cultural stereotypes are inappropriate and inaccurate.  So… 아자아자화이팅!

Caveat: More haraboji than before

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I got my hair cut over the weekend.  And my students were quick to notice.  One student, Zina (she of the musical performance) said, "but teacher… you are more haraboji than before!"  Haraboji (할아버지) means grandfather, so her meaning was rather obvious:  she meant it made me look older.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

Having gray hair in this youth-obsessed culture is a double-sided thing.  On the one hand, I probably get treated more respectfully than many foreigners do, given the xenophobic edges of Korean society, because of the traditional "respect" due to elders.  But on the other hand, people find it incomprehensible, for example, that I don't make an effort to dye my hair.  No self-respecting forty-something Korean would allow gray hair to show.   It's not just strange, to Koreans — it's impossible.  I must be older than I say I am.  

I we were talking about appearances and self-image in one of my classes the other day, and I said something along the lines of "so, how can we improve our self-confidence about our appearance?"  It was a slightly rhetorical question, to which I didn't expect a response (nor did I have one, myself, really).  But Sydney raised her hand immediately and blurted out, "Plastic surgery?"  In all seriousness, even.  Although Sydney does have an odd sense of humor, the fact that such an answer was on the tip of her tongue must indicate something about this culture.

In the news, today, Kim Jong-il was reelected, just north of here.  Really?  How shocking is that!

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