Go ahead. You have my permission.

It is something I have only noticed from older men, and one woman who happens to be my vice principal. In other words, I have only noticed it in Senior Koreans. Since I haven’t lived in Japan or China yet, I have no idea if it happens there.

I’m in the lunch room, plate filled with my Korean food, on my way to the area where I always sit, when I pass a Senior. What happens? I am gestured to sit down and eat. No, not to sit down next to said senior, but sit down where I choose. Really?! I have his permission to sit down and eat the food that is already served on my plate, to sit down and eat the food that I paid for, to eat MY food, anywhere I choose?

I see them do this to students all the time.

I’m at the petrol station, parked and ready to fill up my little motor cycle, when the older guy working there comes out and calls me over to another pump, closer to the office where he emerged. Maybe that pump is dry, but I suspect he was just too lazy to walk five more steps.

Obediently I go over to the pump that is more convenient for him and park the bike. He opens the flap to open the petrol tank, just to see that he needs a key to open it. He does this while I’m taking the key out of the ignition. As I am moving the key to the tank cap, obviously intending to open it, he gestures to it, seemingly saying: “Sure, you may open it.” Really?! You are so kind, letting me open the petrol tank, letting you top me up and take my money, as your business is suppose to do.

This man has seen me here many times, but for some reason it is the first time he topped me up.

I freely admit that I might be missing a cultural component here, but I suspect it is the kind cultural component that I wouldn’t care for if I knew, the kind of cultural component that does not fit in to the Diverse Global Culture that is Korea. At one point I was thinking that it might be a language thing where the gesture represents something you would normally say, but then why do I only get this from Seniors, not from people who are my “equals”? Am I missing something? Can anyone help me out here?

English Note Books

The beginning of the year sees the return of the English note books. These are just normal school note books, but the cover has something that indicates that it is to be used for English. To be fair, most note books in the shops say that. It seems that English one of the few languages where you need to take notes. If you put in a few more minutes of browsing you will also find one or two that seems to be intended for Chinese or Mathematics.

There is a large shop in town that displays, quite literally, stacks of note book. I will sometimes go in when I have nothing better to do and read the cover pages. I also just wait for my students to come to class and then read their covers.

Some of the English is really good, to the point where the students have no idea what it means, because it is essentially a small essay on the cover. Some if it is really bad. Bad how? You know, confusing R for an L and vice versa, capitalization, punctuation, incomprehensibility, the normal things.

Then there are the "English" note books that display pictures of Paris or Rome. What exactly the French, who are not known for their love of the English language, are doing on the cover, not one will know. At least you can make the claim that it has something to do with travelling.

Today I saw the best of them all. The cover had something indicating that it was an English note book, but then half of the cover was filled with Dutch. I read it, I'm Afrikaans remember, and the whole thing describes the colonialization of the world by Europe and at that particular point in the text, how Portugal conquered some or another territory. What that had to do with English no one will know, but there it was.

Over the next week I am sure I will see a few more covers I didn’t notice before, and I can’t wait. It is always nice to have a distraction from the Noise Makers.

You disgust me.

You know, sometimes Koreans are just plain disgusting. I came out of the teacher’s room and was barely missed by a girl leaching on the floor. As if listening to boys pulling snort all the way from their navels and leaving pools of gwell on the stairs is not bad enough already.