Running on the treadmill is a lot like my life right now. Running in place, minutes seem like days, and hours like months. I always tell myself not to track my progress, because the minutes will just disappoint me. Sometimes I'll feel like I've been running for 25 minutes but to my own dismay the clock only reads 15. All this time I've been running, but why do I feel like I'm stuck in time? Somedays I feel like Korea is progressive; most people are kind to foreigners, most children are filled with curious and innocent questions, and most places treat foreigners like celebrities. Yet, other days, days like this, I feel like I'm in a different time. The best way I can describe it is by relating it to the movie, Equilibrium. Everyone essential thinks the same, dresses the same, acts the same and views the world the same. There is not room for individualism in a culture that thrives on a communal lifestyle. To explain it all would take hours and hours, the best way to see it is to view it with your own eyes and live it every day, as I have been doing for almost a year now.
In class today, my fifth grade students were learning how to describe someone. To Koreans physical appearance is very important, if not the most important thing. You must be rail thin, with corpse-like pale skin, long straight black hair, and perfect clothes and ALWAYS wearing heels (rain, sleet, or snow). Also, the new trend is having eye surgery to create a crease in each of your eyelids, thus making your eyes bigger. The same effect can be achieved through the less expensive option of circle lens. Basically, they are these lens that are enlarged big black circles, and when you put them on your eyes they make your eyes look wider. In my opinion, they're abnormal, unnatural, and a bit scary.
Anyways, back to my initial point, today students learned how to describe each other. The subject can get a bit sensitive because what is pretty to some may be ugly to others, and as I quickly learned, my Korean teacher has no shame calling a student chubby or funny looking; this made me incredibly uncomfortable, to say the least.I already knew what was coming. She went on to describe what blonde hair means and what red hair means. Then looking at me for confirmation, she told the students a story about how her native english teacher taught her when she was in school that girls with blonde hair are pretty and girls with red hair are not. She asked me if it was true, and I said ofcourse not. She was so shocked and asked me again rephrasing it by saying, "so it is possible for a girl with red hair to be pretty?" I said yes, why not....with my are you seriously asking me that look on my face. If this is what they teach them about hair color, it's not hard for anyone to predict the ignorance they embed in their minds about skin color.
I've experienced ignorance on the subject when I first came here and it's something I'll never get use to. Many of my friends say oh they just don't know any better. But in my opinion, it doesn't matter what you wrap ignorance with, whether it's hate or just not knowing, someone has to challenge and correct it. Just as any Korean would correct a foreigner on their culture and customs, we must do the same. It's nothing to yell at someone about, but it's necessary to get a person to think for themselves instead of blindly following. That's one of the most important things I've learned, my job as a teacher is not restricted to the classroom, in fact it never stops. And even though I'm constantly struggling with my life out here, when it's over I can say that my time in Korea was never wasted.
