My Two Teachers

In our classes its open season on almost any subject, granted that its discussed in Korean. Love, ettiquete, spicy food...our class has worked its way through discussions on all of life's many sacred and profane subjects subjects with the two teachers we meet with each week. As my Korean improves bit by bit with these teachers, I am actually becoming able to learn about Korea through Korean. No longer am I forced to always resort to "Do you like..." questions and deductive reasoning to guess at someones opinion. So as you can imagine, these two women have been at the center of most of my Korean-culture-learning experiences this semester. At the same time, these women are almost night and day.

Our Tuesday and Wednesday teacher grew up in Seoul and attended University there (a sign that she either studied pretty well or that her parents were pretty well connected). Overall I'd say that of the two she's better adjusted to foreigners and diverse opinions. And take her ideas on marriage: the other day in class she told us about her boyfriend, and we all raised an eyebrow at that. After insisting that she is not having an extramarital affair, she explained that its just what she calls her husband. Not even in the United States have I heard of anyone doing this. Her logic goes something like this though: whenever you call someone husband, it implies that you are going to serve them as a wife. They have a more equal relationship, share in housework, responsibilities, and he routinely makes her ramen, so it feels odd for her to call him her husband. While I am still not ruling out the possibility that this was just an elaborate story to cover up the accidental admission of having an affair, its bizzarro world for Korea any way you cut it.

And what a liberal opinion on drug use she has. When the foreign monk in our class admitted to doing drugs (before he became a monk), she didn't freak out. She asked a calm set of questions about American norms and then even gave the monk a concerned yet calm congratulations on quitting. She also had no reservations about going into 15 minute explanations when asked how to say things like: "I have to poop", "I have to pee", or "We made out." All of these conversations are performed at mind-bending speeds that many of us catch only in bits and flashes. They are also conversations where the teacher talks to herself for a majority of the time. But we've come to think of our questions as the slaloms that steer her.

Our Wednesday and Thursday teacher grew up in the country in the same general area as our school, in what I assume was a pretty traditional family. Despite teaching foreigners for some time she often seems thrown off by anything outside the pale of traditional Korean values. One of the American girls in my class recently started dating a Korean student two years younger than herself. After a long class discussion about age and dating with our class, our teacher took me aside, concerned, and asked if it really was normal for a girl to date a younger guy in America. After explaining that it often happened, she laughed and said "strange." And then there was the discussion about tattoos and the American man who tattooed his entire body to look like a lizard. She thought it wasn't unusual for Americans to do this and even flicked out her tongue like the lizard man himself had done on a talk show she had stumbled upon at some point in the recent past.

While presenting my essay on Pittsburgh in class a few weeks ago (that I've posted below) my teacher stopped after reading that my ancestors had come from Italy and Slovakia and said, "then you're not American." I told her that I am American and this is when she started getting confused. The other Americans and I tried explaining that if you are born in America you are considered American. Then our teacher said this must be true for Europeans, but not for Asians. She insisted that you are always Korean or always Japanese or always Chinese. At this point things got too complicated for us to say anything more than, most Americans think Asians that are born in the us are Americans too. I don't know if she bought it, but we gave her enough to be confused over America for the next few days.

I imagine its hard conceptualizing the diversity of America and our idea of American identity when you come from an country as ethnically homogeneous as Korea. And being in Korea this past year has made me realize what an odd country America is. We can have such a diverse population and while many people may feel they are not part of the American experience, I think that many of us share some basic common values in diversity and personal freedom. And all Americans, of course, like pizza and basketball I am told by a student down the hall. Which I guess makes my teacher correct, I must not be American then.

First Essay in Korean

One of our Korean teachers requires that two students write an essay for class each week about whatever topic they want. I was lucky enough to be at the end of the list for this assignment, so I just turned it in last week. The essay needed lots of editing, but it nevertheless taught me a lot more about grammar and some basic sentence elements that I just hadn't needed to learn until attempting this essay. So, at the bottom of the post is the original Korean essay and above is my rough translation.

Pittsburgh: Steel City

When I ask Koreans, that wear my hometown baseball team's hat, if they know of Pittsburgh, they don't know. But, a few weeks ago, in the Nonsan Post Office, I happened to meet a man who knew a lot of things about Pittsburgh. Because my hometown is very small, I was really surprised that this man knew so many things about Pittsburgh. He knew that there were many steel mills and that the American music composer, Stephen Foster, was born there. Maybe that man can introduce Pittsburgh better than me, but anyways I will introduce it.

The French discovered Pittsburgh first, but the English conquered it in a war and founded the city. At that time the city was very important for trade and the military. After about 1820, the city started growing big. At this time, the city started making steel. And Pittsburgh's population quickly rose. Many foreigners came through the Steel mills to find work. Italy, Germany, Slovakia, Poland...many nations came! My ancestors came from Slovakia and Italy. Each ethnic group created their own neighborhood. Even today, there are still these kinds of neighborhoods. Each of these neighborhoods has diverse architecture. The South Side is a neighborhood with famous architecture. Each neighborhood has people, restaurants, and architecture that is a little bit different.

A long time ago, because Pittsburgh had a lot of factories, the air was really bad. So, when office workers would wear a white shirt to the office, at lunch the shirt would have changed to brown. Because other countries started making steel too, most of the mills in Pittsburgh have closed. Since the air has turned clear and the city clean, the city has received awards from magazines for it. Pittsburgh was also poor for a while, but now the economy's being restored and the city's becoming beautiful again. And because there are many universities and good hospitals, people have started moving to Pittsburgh again. So more good restaurants and music clubs are also opening.

If you come to America, take a trip to Pittsburgh!

피츠버그: 강철 도시

제 고향에 있는 야구팀모자를 쓴 한국사람한테 피츠버그를 알고 있냐고 물어보면 잘 몰라요. 그러나 몇주전에 논산 우체국에 갔을 때 피츠버그에 대해서 많은 것을 알고 있는 아저씨를 사귀게 됐어요. 제 고향을 아주 작기 때문에 그 분이 많은 것을 알고 있어서 정말 놀랐어요. 아저씨는 피츠버그에 강철공장이 많은 지도 아시고, 미국 음악가인 스데반 포스터가 태어난 곳인 지도 아셨어요. 어쩌면 그 분이 저보다 피츠버그 소개를 더 잘 할 수 있을 지도 모르겠지만 그래도 역시 제가 소개해야겠어요..

프랑스사람이 피츠버그를 처음으로 발견했는데, 전쟁으로 영국이 정복하여 도시를 차지하게 되었어요. 그 당시에는 군대와 무역을 위해 매우 중요했어요. 1880년쯤이 지난후에야 커지기 시작했어요. 이 기간에 강철을 만들기 시작했어요. 그리고 피츠버그인구가 빨리 늘어났어요. 많은 외국인들이 일자리를 찾아서 강철공장으로 왔어요. 이탈리아, 독일, 슬로바키아, 폴란드...많은나라에서 왔어요! 제 조상은 이탈리아와 슬로바키아에 왔어요. 인종마다 마을을 세워나갔어요. 요즘도, 이러한 마을들은 아직도 있어요. 마을마다 다양한 건축물들이 있어요. 건축물이 유명한 마을은 사우트 사이드예요. 이 마을에는 슬로바키아와 폴란드 사람들이 살면서 유럽풍의 건축물을 지었어요. 마을마다 사람들과 식당, 건축물들이 조금씩 달라요.

옛날의 피츠버그에는 공장이 많어서 공기 매우 나빴어요. 그래서 회사원이 하얀셔츠를 입고 직장에 가면 점심때는 갈색으로 변해있었어요. 요즘은 다른나라도 강철을 만들어서 피츠버그의 대부분의 공장들은 문을 닫았었어요. 공기가 맑아지고 깨끗한 도시가 되어서 잡지회사로부터 상금을 받았어요. 또 한 동안 피츠버그는 가난했지만 요즘은 경제가 다시 회복되어 가고 있고 아름다워졌어요. 그리고 대학교와 좋은병원이 많아져서 많은사람들이 다시 피츠버그로 이사오기 시작했 어요. 그래서 더 좋은 식당과 음악클럽과 커피숍이 문을 열었어요.

미국에 가면 피츠버그를 여행하십시오.