Caveat: Popstar

My students alleged that I resemble pop star 임재범 [im-jae-beom, which he himself prefers to romanize as Yim Jae Beum (which is, in my opinion, a truly misleading and horrible way to romanize it, but, well, with names there’s a lot of freedom on this matter in Korea)]. 

pictureI don’t really think I do.

In researching it (i.e. typing his name into a Korean search engine and seeing what pops up), I think it must just be the glasses and the haircut, more than anything else. Perhaps the rather exaggerated way he changes his facial expressions as he sings – I do that a little bit during my classroom antics. I certainly don’t sing like him, though.

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Caveat: Haraboji Hairstyle

A student asked me, the other day, "Teacher! Why haraboji hairstyle?"

"Haraboji" means "grandpa." So he was referring to the fact that, as I have allowed my hair to grow out a little bit in the last several months, the gray shows more, as well as the fact that it continues its thinning, apace, up top. I guess as my hair grows longer, I end up looking older.

I should observe, as I have before, that I have NEVER had a conversation with an adult Korean (male or female) about my appearance where the question "why don't you dye your hair" DIDN'T come up. They seem to find the fact that I don't do this astounding. I have almost succumbed to the pressure, but it has always been something that repelled me as being somehow vain. I would sooner begin shaving my head, to be honest.

Well, anyway. Was I offended? No – not by the student. But I may return to the shorter hairstyle – I'm not so utterly free of vanity as all that. I'm not a grandpa yet. "Ajik" I said to the student. "Not yet."

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