Korean Culture: One Superstition

I've had kids open their umbrellas in school many times.  It's no big deal here, but did you know that it is a big deal to write someone's name in red ink?  I'll go to write names on the board, and I have is a red marker.  The kids will gasp and shrink and moan and yell, "Teacher, no!  Red Marker!"  Some of the brave ones will stiffen their spines and tell me it's okay, but those boys are taking a risk.

 

You see, in Korea, red ink is used to record names of the deceased.  If your name is written in red, you're going to die, or so they say.

My poor students.  Having to hang with a foreign teacher who found this to be one cultural norm that's hard not to challenge...

 P.s.  I don't like writing names in red ink anymore.

7 Ways I've Changed in Korea

Believe it or not, I have been writing these last few weeks, it's just all been kept in notes on my iPod.  Now we're back, and here's what we have first.

I have about five months left on my contract here, and the American shore is getting closer and closer.  I know I'm not moving tomorrow, but reflections have already started taking place.  I've looked toward that culture I'll be returning to, and I've compared it to the culture I've become a small part of.  I've been collecting the differences, and I'm telling you now that this is going to be a small series...

My Korean Transformation, Vol. 1

#1 - I'm less afraid of moving cars.

Cars and people share both the sidewalks and streets here.  Unless you're on a road more than two lanes wide, feel free to vie for space with the big, heavy, moving cars.  They're used to going slowly to not run over people.

What Not To Do With Your Alien Registration Card

My third grade science class just finished a unit on space.  We don't have set tests at my hagwon school, so I get to make my own.  I was telling my coworker how I included the question, "Do you think aliens are real?  Why or why not?"  He laughed and suggested that I show them my alien registration card (ARC).  I thought that was a great idea, and I whipped it out during my next class.

"Hey, guys, it's time to start class.  Now, remember how I asked you on your test if you thought aliens were real?  Well, I have something very, very important to show you."

I must tell you, I am not a liar.  Rather, I do not lie to people.  But, when I do, I sell it.  And, it's never for harm, always for kidding around.  But really, I sell it.  Every time.

(Had my boyfriend believing I like the Jonas Brothers for weeks.)

My poor kids.

I should have looked ahead.  I should have known where this was going to end up.  Alas, we were doomed as soon as they started asking questions.

"Teacher, this is from Korea?  How did you get this?"

"The government gave it to me.  I registered with Korea when I came here from America."

"Woah, Teacher.  This is not real."

"You can read the Korean on the card.  It's real.  See?"

"But teacher, you are not an alien."

"You don't have to be afraid.  I'm not here to hurt you."

"Teacher!  Stop!  This is scary!"

"Guys, no, it's okay.  I'm the same person I was last week."

"No.  No...  Oh, Teacher, I don't believe!"

"That's okay.  But, I really wanted to tell you guys.  I feel like I can trust you."

"But you are from America!"

"Yes, my human body was born in America."

"Teacher, please can we just read our science and play a game?"

"Yes, we can do that."

"But, wait.  Teacher, why did you register?"

"Well, when I came to Earth, I registered with the American government where my human body was born.  If there is something that goes wrong, I want the government to know who I am so they can help me.  And, not many people know, only a small part of the government, the part that helps aliens.  No one else knows."

"Do you parents know?  Does your boyfriend know?"

"...No..."

"Teacher!  This is crazy!  Gasp!  Your fingers are long!  You have hair on your arms!  Really, you are an alien!  Gasp!  You have spots on your arms!"

"Yes, these freckles are a map of the stars in my solar system."

"Oh!  Can we see them on the internet?"

"No, I'm sorry, but my planet hasn't been discovered by humans yet because it is so far away.  There are no pictures."

"What do aliens look like?  How did you come here?  Who was the first alien to come here?  Teacher, I'm scared!  Let's just do our science.  .......Can you fly?"

---------------------------------------------

When two of the girls said they were scared at the beginning, the entire energy in the room became static with something I can't find words for.  It's what I imagine deer feel when they hear something dangerous in the forest.  Taught and poised to flee.  Looking over their shoulder and eyes keen and wide open.  An uneasy adrenaline.  A frightened stress.

The girls' energy overtook me, too.  I felt their fear of aliens showing up in the classroom.  Further, for some reason I felt the urgency to hold fast to what I was telling them.  If everything unraveled, I'd be a goner, I thought.  In the same way they felt the need to be strong humans and to stay safe, I felt like I needed to be a strong alien and to stay safe.  It was weird and unexpected, but just like in all those kid movies, the lie could not stop.  The lie became truth.  And the truth was bizarre and amazing and so much fun because, heck yes I can fly!

---------------------------------------------

To get away from the ethics of the situation and to lighten the mood, I can tell you that all of us are more comfortable with me being an alien now after a week of discussing it.  Julie has looked up aliens on the internet, but she only found pictures of fake aliens.  Annie hasn't told her sister our secret because she probably wouldn't believe her.  Mark has asked more questions about the relationship between aliens and the government.  We've talked about alien teeth, hair, food, and technology.  And, my students aren't afraid anymore.  I'm just afraid of breaking down and being found out one day.

On the other hand, should I have had a teacher who convinced me she was an alien, I don't think I'd begrudge her for long when I found out the truth-truth.  I think I'd have to give her props for her stories.

---------------------------------------------

Yesterday, I showed my ARC to another science class.  These kids are a year older, and we're really close and good friends, as far as teacher-student relationships go.

First, they recognized that the English word for "alien" corresponded with the Korean word for "foreigner" on the card.  "Foreign" as in "from another country," not as in "from another planet."  Then, they told me, "Teacher, you are not an alien, because you are from America, and because you are pretty."  Well, of course I had to accept.

This is Still a Personal Blog, Right?

While times of emotional distress are not the best environments for drafting focused blog posts, in an effort to maintain a respectable level of consistency, I am compelled to write Something.

The respective importances of certain topics wave up and down in times like these. That's my explanation for what's coming next...

Hagwons (학원) are evil. Mostly. And I will write further in a further time.

I am very glad I love children and that children love me. While I certainly do not put the burden of my well being on them, I am grateful for how they take it upon themselves to save me in small and secret ways almost daily.

I find it very agreeable that I have a Korean comfort food that's never far away.

While I've had many occasions to wonder about how much I love God, it has become more clear to me, through the people with whom He has surrounded me , just how much He loves Me these last 2 weeks. For this I am humbly thankful.

Just in case anyone thought I had it all together or that I had it all exciting over here in Korea, "[life] don't need an airplane to chase you down."

I don't want to give the appearance that I have it all together.  That is never true.

Christus Victor

My [future] tattoo

I want to get a tattoo.

I want a smooth leaf silhouette or shadow on my left wrist edging onto my palm. Here’s why.

The most important reason goes back to over a year ago when John 15:2-6 (You are the vine, we are the branches…) stuck out to me in a brand new way.  I was learning that I couldn't do life on my own.  I am just a leaf. Without my life source, without Jesus, I will shrivel and die.
That's what it means to me.

For #2: I enjoy nature very much and I love the connection I have with it. In fact, God loves me through nature quite often. A sunset, a tree, the colors in the foliage, or chance encounters with wildlife remind me of how God loves me very specifically and how He loves to bless me.

Then #3: I associate nature with richness and goodness. I am reminded of how Sam refers to everything that’s “good and green in this world" and of how it's worth fighting for.

As for the collage of inspiration for my leaf tattoo: Starting from the top row, from the left, this is what I appreciate about each of the images along with the credit.

I love the subtlety of the wave. The placement is nice, too.

The New Zealand fern is all around awesome and more reason to go the fern route. The silhouette looks stellar.

The placement of the shoulder feathers looks so beautiful to me.

The olive branch on the arm is pretty much everything I would want if I wanted this on my arm. I love everything about this tattoo.

Next row.

I appreciate the coloring of the blue waves. I’ve thought mainly of just black ink, but this one makes me consider color.

The tree. Awesome subject matter. So well done. I love the thinning of the lines. Makes it look a little elegant.

Pheonix: Coloring. Same as before.

Artichoke: the thicknesses and thinning of the lines. It keeps the image interesting.

Next row.

While I don’t like these leaves entirely, I like the concept. This is pretty close to what I had in mind, but I’d like a classier looking leaf. (Makes me sound high maintenance, but, if I’m going to PAY for something PERMANENT, it’s going to be as perfect as possible.)

The shoulder blade. Just all around general awesomeness.

The fern. I’m pretty sure this isn’t an actual tattoo, but it is so beautiful. I like this one so much. If I went the fern route, I would want it to look very similar to this but not white and not on my arm.

Red tree: Coloring. See before. Also noted the lightness of the color which makes up the whole tattoo. There are no defining dark outlines, but it allows the red to stand almost as if it is blocked out. That’s not a good explanation, I know, but it just feels steady without outlines. I like that.

For more images of tattoos I find inspiring, check out my Pinterest board.

New Obsession: Krump

I began taking advantage of the free hip hop class offered by a guy at church mid-February.  I've not been the best, but I've had great fun and didn't do too shabby during our performance (which you can see here).  Two months ago, we deviated from hip hop into straight krump.  We watched the documentary Rize, figured out the basics, and let our creativity run rampant through the chest pops, arm swings, and stomps.  I really liked hip hop, but this is something else.

I'm serious about krump.  I've had different hobbies, and I've wanted to be good in all of them, but there's something burning in this one.  Maybe it's the competition the guys in class give me.  Maybe it's the pull to be one good white girl krumper among the Asian males I'm with here.  I was skeptical and scared at the beginning, but now I can't get enough. I've called this a new obsession, but "obsession" implies "trendy" and "passing."  I've been looking up krump crews in other countries and planning out how much time it would take to keep this up and to get better once I return to the States.  This is going to last.

Krump is freedom.  Freedom with my body.  Expression, sure, that's what most people say, but that's not what comes to my mind.  To me it is the essence of creativity, calculated creativity, within this mad wild style of dance.  There are the three basic moves I mentioned, but then you can bring in and tweak and twist and stylize everything to make it krump.  I love that.  You can think of stories and tell them through krump.  You can use ideas from hip hop and hammer them into hard cut precision.  Everything can be taken and used.  My imagination is unlimited here, and then comes the tricky part, the part that makes you proud, the part that you work for: turning that creativity into something that looks sick.

 My teacher learned krump from the best crew in Korea some of whom are the best in the world. The members of Woo Fam have become my krump idols.  My teacher's show us loads of their videos, had us study their ways, and even had us do a 6 hour night practice session like the Woo Fam did when they were starting. Bucky and Kid Monster are my favorites, but the whole gang is so fly.  My teacher's trying to get us into one of Woo Fam's lessons or sessions, and I'm buffing up my Sharpie pen so I can get signatures.

Here are some of my favorites of their sessions.

I am, by the way, working on compiling a video of myself krumping.  I'll post that when I get it.  Then you will be exposed to the budding amateur that is Kid Darkness aka Linja.  See?  I've even got a krump identity.

Buddha's Birthday Lotus Lantern Parade

I am quite late in showing you these (and now it seems insignificant with these blasted open classes that are strutting about with their all-importance at school), but I went to the Lotus Lantern Parade in Jongno for Buddha's Birthday.  It was an interesting cultural experience, something I've never seen before, and that's why I feel it must be shared.

I've been to a Korean parade before, I've seen the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV, and I've been in many "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" floats in my younger years, but I've never seen anything like this.

This parade celebrated Buddhism, from what I understood.  Much like how all of Italy is "Catholic" and all of the South is "Christian," all of Korea is "Buddhist."  Many of the people in the parade were there because their school, club, or organization participates every year.  Everyone in the parade held a lantern.  Some people were a part of a traditional dance group or a traditional band, but there were droves and droves of people just walking with lanterns.  The entire parade was rather redundant save for the impressive large lanterns that started to show about 3/4 of the way through. My favorite part was the Chinese dragon.

Incoming tradition

I believe these guys were from a boys' high school and were most likely required to be there.  Most of the people in these kinds of groups were goofing off and having fun.

The cutest lotus flower I've ever seen

Seeing eye dogs got in on the action. 

Angry Birds are kind of a big deal here.

And now to get heavy.

Near the end, I was sitting by myself next to some exuberant ajummas and ajossis watching the Buddhists go by.  I'm only vaguely familiar with the religion, but I know that it doesn't deliver much more than good feelings.  As a devout follower of Jesus, I ended up filtering the entire show through the lens of what's right and what's wrong.  The last 20 minutes, I just felt sad.  These people looked happy, and they've found some shades of happiness, but I know that there is so much more out there to be had.  To me, it was a parade of people who were lost.