Anthony in Korea, Day 21, Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Olivia postponed our study session today until Thursday, and that left my morning free so I exercised and ate some fruit salad. In the afternoon I had lunch with my former INTERLINK student Hea Young. Hea Young is a really nice and smart person who I had the pleasure of teaching twice at INTERLINK. We went to Pulhyanggi, a Korean vegetarian restaurant in the Apgujoeng section of the city, near Gangnam, south of the Han river. The food was delicious. The Apgujoeng neighborhood is rather famous in Korea but not because it has any tourist sites, but because it is a wealthy, ritzy area, akin to Rodeo Drive in LA or Madison Avenue in NYC. Actually, along with Gangnam, it has many cosmetic surgery offices; indeed, when I stepped off the subway I noticed many ads on the wall for these kinds of places.

While eating some delicious Korean vegetables and rice, Hea Young and I talked about her recent past and her plans for the future. Hea Young said it was not uncommon for Korean twenty-somethings to be completely supported by their parents. There was an assumption in Korea that if your parents had the money, you could essentially decide to stay in school for a decade after high school, never even getting a part-time job. This interesting aspect of Korean culture indicates two things: first, it tells me Koreans are so competitive and so eager to get the ‘best’ education, that they forgo all other things, including part-time jobs and starting a family, until they have achieved their education; second, it explains why so many Korean twenty-somethings are naive, so eager to follow their parents and government and society, never really trying to be individuals and stray from the pack. Aside from following the media’s advice on fashion and culture, Korean young people don’t have much responsibility other than school! In fact, after many Koreans finish regular elementary or high school each day, they attend "cram schools." At "cram schools," Koreans study subjects even more deeply (to get a leg-up over their adolescent competitors), or study English (for the same reason). In fact, Sue, the woman I had dinner with two nights ago, teaches English at a cram school from 3pm-7pm every night.

To protect Hea Young’s privacy, I won’t describe the details of our conversation. Needless to say, between all the plastic surgery talk with Sue and media discussions with Dahee and today’s conversation with Hea Young, I’m starting to see how naïve, callow, and narrow-minded many twenty-somethings in this culture are. (And I noticed this in America, while interacting with my Korean students, and being here has opened my eyes to the reasons for their attitudes and behaviors). Don't misunderstand me--I love Koreans and they are one of the reasons that I came here. I'm not frustrated with Hea Young or Sue or any other Korean personally; rather, I dislike any process of socialization that suppresses individuality, teaches people to follow the media and value physical appearance, and places emphasis on learning rather than doing. It's not just here in Korea--it's everywhere. But when you are an outsider in a foreign land it's difficult not to be a social scientist or anthropologist (or critic!).

By the way, after leaving Hea Young I was still hungry, so I headed to the picture-menu restaurant near my place in Sangdo. in addition to posting a photo of me and Hea Young, I am also posting a photo of the actual picture menu. Also, for whose of you who have been following this blog, you may recall that at the top of the mountain a few days ago ordered pajeon, which I thought had vegetables, but instead got squid pajeon, which I had to discreetly throw away. Anyway, today at the picture-menu restaurant I ordered pajeon [see photo] and I successfully emphasized that I did not wasn’t fish or squid in it, so they made it with green onions only.