This Week in Seoul (April 21-25, 2018)

Living abroad has some amazing moments, funny moments, frustrating moments, and downright weird moments. Here are some events that happened to me this week in Seoul:

1. An older student made me laugh because he told the other student in my class (a girl in her early 20s) that her skin looked like ceramics. Apparently that means that your skin looks good in Korean culture if you compare skin to ceramics. *smile*

2. I went to Olympic Park and enjoyed the beautiful weather and while I was there a really nice Korean man in his 60s or 70s was walking with his wife and approached me. He asked if I wanted my picture taken of the scenery since he thought I was a tourist. He definitely never considered that some people (not me of course) take selfies nowadays. My kind of guy! Once he found out that I had lived in Korea for 15 years, he was shocked and said that I am already Korean. 

3. I went to the bathroom at Olympic Park and heard the song "Let it Be" on the radio in the form of the Korean instrument, the gayageum (가야금). It had a very calm and relaxing sound. But apparently one of my friends thought this was too much information, so if you feel that way too, I apologize! Haha!

4. Today I went to a Korean diner for lunch called Kimbap Cheonguk (Heaven). It serves cheap and fairly decent tasting Korean food and while I sat down to order my meal, a man in his late 40s started talking to me in Korean. I thought he was being friendly so I told him where I was from, what I did in Korea, etc. Then 5 minutes later, he asked if he could have my phone number and become Kakaotalk friends, which was a bit weird but totally possible in Korea. Also in Korea, these things don't really bother me since Korean people are very harmless, so I obliged. Later on in the conversation, I couldn't understand him perfectly, but it seemed like he wanted to hang out after we had lunch. I told him in Korean that I had to go back to work. However, as soon as I finished my meal, he seemed to rush through his meal right after I did. I went to pay for my meal and he was right behind me, which I thought was a bit creepy. I walked fast to a convenient store nearby since I was planning to get a dessert snack anyway. After I paid for my candy bar, I noticed him walking off to the right. I found that to be weird since I took about 10 minutes to look for my candy bar. Was he looking for me so that he could talk to me before letting me go back to work? Who knows? But it was certainly strange and I was glad that he didn't notice me walking the opposite direction. To top it off, when I got back to work, he texted me and told me he was the guy that ate kimbap with me. Then he invited me to a group chat with 167 people in it. In the group chat, there was a posting of Trump's letter to Kim Jong Un rejecting the Singapore Summit. I left the group chat and he quickly responded by texting why I left the group chat and said that he would invite me again. I had my coworkers text him in Korean that I wasn't interested. Thankfully, he seems to have gotten the hint. What a bizarre and extremely unexpected situation to be in!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Yesterday Was Just Not My Day

Yesterday was one of those days that I would just like to forget. Thankfully, I didn't take it too hard and I kind of just laughed it off but it was just a strange day overall.

Well it started off as a normal Sunday morning. I went to Starbucks and got a cafe latte, a blueberry muffin, and read my Bible. Then I met my friend Peter Kim at Gangnam Station at 11:30am, so we could eat lunch before going to church after that.

Then the day went awry. After Peter and I ordered lunch at Dos Tacos, I went to get soda from the soda fountain. After I poured my drink, I slipped on a wet spot that was on the floor and brought down one chair as I was falling. I don't know how but thankfully I didn't spill soda anywhere. I actually kept it upright! One of the staff members apologized, but that was it. There's one more thing to be thankful for. I didn't hurt myself too badly; It scared me more than anything.

Then Peter and I went to a cafe to get some coffee. My ATM card is starting to get old (they're made really poor in Korea), so sometimes it takes awhile but it does work if you swipe it hard enough. The woman tried a few times to swipe my card, but asked if I had another card. I said I didn't and I just said "It's okay. Don't worry about it" and took my card from her and didn't get coffee. I was already full and didn't need any coffee anyway. Peter ordered his coffee, picked it up, and we were on our way to church.

After we got to church, I went to the bathroom. Next, I did my business and I flushed the toilet. I know that some Korean toilets aren't made well especially in old buildings, so they put trash cans next to the toilet if you need to put used toilet paper in it. Well, I thought that I wasn't going to use that much toilet paper so I didn't put the used toilet paper into the bin (I hate putting used toilet paper in a trash can. It's really gross to me). Unfortunately I didn't know that I just made a mistake by throwing the used toilet paper into the toilet. I apparently DID use too much toilet paper and it clogged the commode. I tried to flush it a couple of times to no avail. After the third time, I had no choice but to try to lodge it out with my hand. Um, not ideal in the least. However, there wasn't a plunger or any tool to help relieve the situation. And of course that didn't help. I tried to flush it again and water started to overflow...Ugh. I gave up and just soaked and washed my hands THOROUGHLY. Wow, could this day get any worse?

Well, it did. After church,  I had coffee with my friends which was harmless enough. Then my friend Evan said that he and his fiance were planning on going to Panda Express inside the IFC Mall in Yeouido. We had to take the subway (Line 9) to get there. After getting on a packed train at Shinnonhyeon Station, things seemed to be pretty normal until we get to Express Terminal. More people packed in like sardines which is always an experience. As I was reaching for a hand ring, I smacked a woman in the head and I heard a loud "Ow". I apologized in Korean but she gave me a dirty look so I said it in English "I'm sorry!" Then she finally gave me a slight bow to acknowledge that she accepted my apology.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

A Japanese Student's Perspective on Smiling at Strangers

Last week I taught an older Japanese student, by the name of Hoji, who has a Korean wife. We had a very interesting conversation about how we view Korean culture. There is one thing that he could never understand that I also wish happened more often in Korea: Smiling at strangers.

Hoji admittedly told me that he has no problem smiling at anyone he meets on the street. He said that it was common in Japanese culture to smile at people on the street. This was new to me since I never realized that in big cities like Tokyo or Osaka. However, I do remember people smiling as I walked into a restaurant or store. He felt as if Koreans were a bit cold in that regard.

The topic of the class was shopping and experiences in a store. One of the questions was related to having a bad experience in a store. Hoji told me that although he can't remember a specific time in a store, he did recall a negative experience in a Korean restaurant. One time an older woman ("ajumma") server was really rude to him. He asked for more side dishes (which is common to ask for in Korea) and she gave him a dirty look. He didn't understand why she was so mean to him. I told him that I had a similar experience twice. I had gone to two Korean restaurants often in my local area before I got married. Yet the older women never treated me as if I was a frequent customer. I got average to poor service most of the time. And of course they didn't smile.

Then Hoji told me his wife's perspective on smiling to strangers. She told him, "Stop smiling at everyone! People are going to think that you're weird or a pervert especially if you smile at a young girl." We both laughed as he explained how his wife viewed his constant smiling.

I explained to Hoji that a similar culture is in Russia. I had a Russian friend tell me that if you smile at a stranger, that person might think that you're up to no good. My wife (who is a Korean Chinese person from Yanji, China) said the same thing. If someone smiles in China, most people might figure the person smiling is going to scam them or try to get them to buy something. That actually makes sense since the only time that strangers were friendly to me in China were for the wrong reasons. Two people tried to drag me into an art gallery in Beijing to buy fake artwork after pretending to be friendly and wanting to get to know a non-Chinese foreigner. Also, on two occasions in Shanghai, a couple or group of three young people tried to take me to a "tea ceremony" to pay for overpriced tea after pretending to befriend me.

But there's also another reason why people in China or South Korea don't smile and that comes down to Confucianism. Confucianism has a hierarchy system. The husband, older person, or boss is on the higher end of that list. Strangers are at the bottom. In fact, they don't even count. It's an "us" vs. "them" mentality as mentioned by another blogger by the name of Mike. He's a Westerner living in China and he will give you the run down of how Confucianism works in China and how it relates to how Chinese people never smile to strangers. You can find his post here.

There are some things that I miss about American culture and that is one of them. I don't want to have to ignore strangers on a street. I miss saying hello and having small talk with people I don't know. The last time I was in California I experienced "reverse culture shock". I was at a salad bar at a pizza parlor and out of the blue I hear a woman say to me "Doesn't that soup look good?" I almost didn't know how to react since I've lived in Asia for awhile. So it finally clicked and I said, "Um yeah it does look good!"

It has become too common to have a straight face as I commute to work and back in Seoul. I'm trying to keep myself aware that it is indeed okay to smile at strangers. Since I'm not Asian, I do have that advantage since they'll just think I'm being friendly because I'm a foreigner. I can use my "smiling foreigner card" any time that I like!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

ESL: The Most Unique English Names Chosen by Korean Students

One of the joys of teaching English in South Korea is meeting a lot of unique and interesting people and among meeting those people, you also meet some students that introduce themselves with some very unique and/or creative English names.

Last week, I was discussing with my co-worker Nikki Rialp about these names and she was naming them left and right. Although I could think of a few names,  she gets most of the credit as I have compiled a list of some of the funniest and most unique English names that adult students have chosen at our academy.

We'll start off with some fairly normal ones and get more unique as we go along.

#18: BJ. Now I had a friend named B.J. from kindergarten through 8th grade, so this isn't too weird for me. Two female teacher co-workers grin every time they hear this name, so it's sad to say that this name is no longer proper to use. It now has too much of a sexual connotation behind it.

#17: Newton. This student chose this name because Isaac Newton is one of his role models and all of us teachers think he chose it because it makes him sound smart. Fair enough, but the name sounds a bit nerdy actually.

#16: Bruce (as in Bruce Wayne) because he couldn't use Batman.

#15: Romeo. We had to warn this student to not use this if he goes abroad. Women will think he's a womanizer or playboy.

#14: Roosevelt. He's a very nice older male student that enjoys coming to our academy to study English but doesn't study hard at all and doesn't come too often. When he IS there, he seems to have a fun time. He chose the name Roosevelt probably after F.D.R.

#13: Metallica. This student is pretty cool and very laid back. He chose this name after his famous rock band.

#12: Excellent. Since this guy only comes once a week on Saturdays, I'm more inclined to name him "Okay". Haha!

#11: Nemo. However, this student pronounced it "NAY-MO". Um, yeah, we don't get it either.

#10: Freddie. First the student said he liked the name after hearing a Gangnam Center teacher have it. Then it reminded him of the character from Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddie Kruger) and that cemented his choice. In Nikki's words, "So he named himself after a fictional, supernatural, undead serial killer....greeaatttt."

#9: Petunia. The girl said the name sounded pretty after watching Harry Potter.

#8: Bo Geum: This is more of a Korean name but since her last name is Park (sounds like Bak in Korean), she wanted to her name to sound like bokkeum-bap, which is fried rice in Korean. Hmm, interesting.

#7: Yangban----> Jon Snow. First this man in his 40s chose Yangban because it represented Korean royalty during the Choseon Dynasty. Then he later changed it to Jon Snow after watching The Game of Thrones. You gotta give the guy credit for creativity!

#6: Annabelle. The student thought this was a pretty name until watching the horror movie. She quickly changed her name after that.

#5: Lotus. This single middle aged man said that his ex-girlfriend from 15 years ago had the name Lotus as her email ID. We thought he should change his name, but he said that all of his close friends refer to him as Lotus. This is a funny name but it's a bit sad as well.

#4: Heren. This girl tried to be unique. She had seen the name Helen many times, so she thought she would change the L to R. Well, it's a bit ridiculous because she still thought it would be okay to pronounce it like Helen, but to have it spelled Heren. Teachers told her that people would pronounce it with the R sound, so she didn't change it, it would sound weird. At first, she was going to change the name, but kept it anyway out of stubbornness.

#3: Vege. The girl named herself this and had it pronounced like Veggie. We don't know why.

#2: Scolra. We have no idea why this female student chose this name.

#1: Xpaino. This is probably the weirdest name we could remember and we have no clue why this guy chose this name.

If you teach English abroad and you have some weird names to share, please write a comment. I would love to hear some more unique, funny, weird, and/or creative names!!


Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

This Week in Seoul (Week of November 5- November 12, 2017)

GOOD:

This week I experienced some interesting moments. As I was walking to Seollung Station after picking up a Subway sandwich after work, I noticed two older men loading up their truck with beer and soda bottles. They picked them up from a restaurant so they could take them to the recycling center. As they were loading the bottles, a female restaurant employee came out and gave each of them a tangerine. They were both very thankful and she told them to have a good day. It was a very sweet gesture.

BAD:

Within 10 minutes after the situation above, I got on the subway at Seollung Station and noticed that a man in his early to mid forties was sitting on the pregnant woman's seat. I don't have a big deal with people sitting there unless a pregnant woman, a much older person, or a person with physical disabilities is around and needs that seat. Well, the next stop came and two older women got on the subway. One was in her sixties and seemed to be pretty healthy and another woman in her seventies or older were both standing near the guy. The man had his earphones on and was watching a movie but I noticed that he was looking at the woman in her sixties and then when she looked in his direction, he avoided eye contact and went back to watching his movie. The woman that was older seemed to scan for empty seats and it was clear that she was uncomfortable standing. After about four stations, the man just wouldn't get up. I kept wondering if I should do something and even prayed about it. Finally, I tapped the man lightly on the shoulder, gestured to the much older woman, she smiles, he gets up, she gets a seat.

FUNNY:

As many of my friends have noticed on Facebook, I have a tendency to capture Koreans that like to wear shirts or jackets with English on the back of them. They seem to be very fashionable and the English is either very random or incomprehensible. Here are a couple of articles of clothing with "interesting" English that I found this week:


Do you know what this means??

How about some random pool hours and pool rules?

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy