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| No disrepect , Rev. Sun Myung Moon, I just needed a male Korean frowny face |
In Korea, I noticed that the most Korean men over 45 had a very stern and grumpy personality. I never had any luck with taxi drivers or shop keepers even remotely cracking a smile or even interested in me as a consumer...only when I was inquiring about a $100 bottle of Camus from one of the vendors. Why was it that my Korean guy could get information from them so easily, even get a smile...mind you, it took a lot of gestures and bowing on his behalf, but he still got a good reply. So, I generalized that older generation Korean men have an angry attitude. I don't usually do that, as I like to give people a fair go to prove themselves, but after seeing so much evidence, I couldn't conclude that the opposite was true. I didn't even encounter 1 friendly, older guy in Seoul from the thousands of older guys in Seoul which ran across my path in Seoul!
Then in my TESL class this week, my teacher said that her worst case teaching scenerio was with an older Korean student whom she grouped together with a younger Japanese student. The topic was "discuss you best and worse vacations". I know you can guess what happened....the older Korean told the Japanese student that visiting Japan was his absolute worse vacation and did not restrain his opinion about the terrible feelings he had about Japan and that Japanese people are no good. My teacher said that she listened in horror, as the older Korean student continued to raise his voice about the topic while berating the poor, innocent Japanese language student, who sat in shock as the downward spiral of his good times at english language school in Toronto. The teacher said that she did her best to redirect the class and carry on but was soo shocked at how someone could be so rude and indignant toward another student that she couldn't regroup.
Nooo! How terrible. There goes another balloon bursted in my defense for South Korea. How can someone NOT KNOW that one should keep their opinion to themselves, that this is Canada, and that everyone from around the world is equally welcome here. How could someone be that clueless and insensitive.
The more I am finding out about various Korean temperments and attitudes, the less I find that I am liking the idea to go there again, actually.
