If Lewis
Carroll were to rise from the dead and come to Korea, he would surely think
that someone had created a nation based on his books. Some days, it feels like
I tripped and fell through a rabbit hole at some point in time. While nothing
is strange, every thing is outlandish. It's like I am Alice at the Mad Hatter's
tea party (like having sugared garlic bread and cookies with coffee or eating
anchovies with honey and peanuts) or standing next to Tweedledum and
Tweedledee. For instance, upon asking
my co-teacher if she attended grad school the night before she replied,
"Yes, I got much sleep." I have no idea if she misunderstood me or if
she sleeps through graduate school. Signs in the school sport slogans such as
"Less speed, more haste."
Many students
call me beautiful because of my blue eyes or red hair or pale skin. But
sometimes the residents of Wonderland tell me I am ugly because I look different
--because I don't wear bibicream and my freckles show, or because my face is
animated.
Most of the
time I have no idea which direction I
am going or what is going on. What I do learn seems to be misinformation or
riddles. And like Alice, I follow and listen and never seem to follow my own
advice.
If Korea
doesn't reside in the recesses of Lewis Carroll's mind (you are still picturing
zombie Carroll aren't you), then perhaps Korea is the Stepford Wives taken to a whole nation and every family.
Perhaps it is the fact that the surface resembled a Stepford Wife similarity
and smoothness--as if everyone is a robot in a high-tech 1950s world and when a
robot malfunctions it is quite noticeable--but only the non-robots notice it.
No one
seemed to notice when a man calmly walked up to an overweight woman, stuck his
head between her breasts and motor boated her and then walked away as calmly as
you please--no one that is, except the victim and myself, which we stood
transfixed in horror.
No one pays
attention to other people. A man throws his hand out with a cigarette between
his fingers, headless of a passerby who might not like to have embers in her
eye. A driver will park their in the middle of the lane and walk off to visit
with friends, ignoring the line of cars waiting for the parked car to move
(which still running). And when a
bicycle rider will not stop his slow-moving bike or turn the bicycle to the
large amount of free space, but will instead, ride right into a person and then
after the person manages to untangle herself from the bike, the rider falls
over the bike. Only then will a bystander calmly say "strangee" and
walk away.
While this
may sound depressing, it isn't. It is truly annoying, but at the same time
great fodder for blogs and stories. I am gladly compiling incidents to make my
own story. Speaking of story, found out today that Anne of Green Gables
is quite famous in Korea. She is known not as Anne, but as "the red
girl." I don't think the Koreans really like her, as they wouldn't dare
call her the "the red girl"-- must be the freckles. They also are
fans of Pippi Longstockings (Known as "Pibi") and Thumbelina (known
by a Korean name).
In other
news, received some children's English/Korean dictionaries (the kind that has a
whole definition, not just the Korean word). I jokingly suggested we can punish
the students by making them rewrite a page from the dictionary. My co-teacher
said it would be too harsh a punishment. Two
hours later, she shoved a dictionary under some boy's nose and had him
rewrite three pages from the dictionary and then made him recite it to her.
And in case
you don't know who Anne is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OLOl_qPLWc
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