Favorites
A highlight reel of posts of my best writing, audience-picked pieces, or most intense experiences.
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“Foreigner”
Current Korean language headache: 외국인 is translated as “foreigner” or “international” and literally means “outside country person”. However, the real meaning is “non-Korean” which poses some problems if you’re attempting to talk about foreigners in your own country. For example, to talk about international students at my home university posed some real challenges during my writing segment today. If I write in Korean, “there are many international students” and use the word 외국인, the Korean reader will assume I mean there are many non-Korean students. Not quite the point I was trying to make, eh? The definition for “foreigner” in English is location dependent. If I’m in America talking to…
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March 16, Last Day of “Telecommuting”
I know you hear me wax poetic about Chungju, the city where I did my orientation but I want you to understand why. And I’m grateful for the city, and was truthfully worried about being placed elsewhere. Now I’ve had my fill of convenience and want to hear birds, breathe cleaner air, even if that means what to some are unimaginable sacrifices. Maybe city living is for the young: they say I was born old. My apartment is nestled between other industrial grays and grim 80s brick; there’s only one blip of day that sunlight shines unobstructed between the buildings and into my room. The only signs of wildlife are…
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March 12, Introspection II
En route to the gym, I ran into two of my grade four boys, Lotteria soda cups in hand. They recognized me even with a face mask and said “oh! Hello”. “뭐야? 복싱 해요? 지금?” What’s that? You’re boxing? Now? “네 네” Yes. “보고 싶다.” I miss you, I told them, much to their confusion. I’ve been alone too long! “열심히 복싱 해요!” Have a good boxing workout! I said, and I think with weird word order but eh, gets the point across. “운동 열심히 하세요.” Have a good workout, they replied. I heard them exclaiming about our chance meeting as they headed upstairs to boxing and I down to…
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March 10, Introspection
There are moments I've had the honor to observe at the intersection of my foreignness and my assimilation.
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A Questionable Friday
Um. After working out, I decided to visit the seafood pancake place I found the other day. I nervously entered only to find, in a restaurant of four tables, the office manager and one of the older guys (who earlier today fell asleep at his desk). They invited me to sit with them and I didn’t find out until later that they’d already had eight bottles of makgeolli which WOW explains a lot. That’s probably like six bottles of wine. In an increasingly garbled English/Korean conversation the manager told me if I had any hardships to tell him. He added, “we appreciate you working here.” He also said he’d make…
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Desk Warming, Week 3, Day 1
As you know, Vacation Interruptus has lead me back to the desk for the next two weeks. S came in early to take me to lunch and as the VP and head teachers happened to come into the same family restaurant, they picked up our tab. Guilt? I hope so. She had just told me that the 6-3 homeroom teacher who studied abroad had applied to be the English subject teacher. The other is still unknown, but it’s not S. So two new teachers for me. S said the new “S” will be good since she’s fluent but in my mind, this means nothing: how good is she at incorporating…
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Desk Warming, Day 3
I attended lunch with the staff and ate as fast as I could. And yet somehow, they ate even faster. “Koreans eat really quickly” one explained as I nearly dribbled water over myself in their haste. We left for the restaurant at 11:50 and exited the restaurant at 12:06. That includes walking there, waiting for the food, and eating. Y’all. That’s sixteen minutes TOTAL. He lied. I have never eaten with or near Koreans who scarf down hot rice and boiling soup in under 8 minutes. Plus Korean food is not calorically dense so more bites are required (rice, soup, fish on the bone, side dishes for the rice). And…