I'm not a very nice person at times, I know, but I also NEVER said I was nice. That's people's own mistake -- them assuming. By "not a very nice person" I am referring to the fact that I can be down right overly sarcastic, blunt and to the point. I like a good dry joke and I like honest people who express themselves and don't try to be fake.
Today I was kicked into extra over sarcastic mode when my scooter decided to die on my way to work -- my way to work in the drizzling rain with Balboa sitting in my bag on my lap. And where of ALL places should it ironically die but right across the street from UP Boxing Club, at a gas station. The gas station part was great but the UP part, definitely not great at all.
It was the first time I had ridden Gotti since that drunk high school kid pushed it over so I knew I had to get it looked at. I thought I would tempt fate though and try to drive it. Even with a full tank it refused to restart so I locked it up and left it... and that's where I was kicked into over sarcastic mode, when the old man working at the gas station complained to me about locking it up there.
An excerpt from today's over sarcastic mode:
"Call me 'teacher' again and I will slap you -- I am not an English teacher, I am a coach!" I told one of the high school kids at training. Later he accidentally called me teacher again so I punched him right in the shoulder. "I thought you said slap", he said. "Well, I thought you said you wouldn't call me teacher again".
It's now Friday, and I've been waiting almost a week for a certain foreigner to show up at my club. I invited him to come see just how supposedly "third world" Korea and it's boxing clubs are, like he publicly claimed them to be[enter me rolling my eyes here]. After being in Korea for nine years now, I'm a bit over the silliness people complain regarding Korea and how many don't like it. I don't know what many foreigners expected when they first came here but I came expecting to be uncomfortable and be out of my element. I know Korea isn't Canada and it's surely not America, but that's why I came here. The fact of the matter is foreigners are just as free to leave as they were to come if they don't like it here. So for those who don't like it to stay is just down right silliness as far as I am concerned. Korea may not be their country but it is someone's country, many of us foreigners have adopted it as our home too, and it is due respect.
You know you’re one of “those” foreigners in Korea when…
a. You seem to forget that you’re in someone else’s country and yet get mad when they don’t speak YOUR language.
b. You refuse to eat kimchi when you know Korea prizes it.
c. You expect Korean girls to flock to you cause you’re different even though in your own country you’re the biggest geek!
d. You think you can change the Korean way of thinking when they’ve been thinking like that for generations. You don't have to accept their thinking but don't go on a bash-fest.
e. You make fun of Koreans for living at home till marriage (hmm... family values) and yet your family is separated and doesn’t even get along.
f. You think it’s funny when a Korean asks you if you think rice is delicious when that’s probably the extent of their English vocab and you still haven’t mastered a simple hello or numbers.
g. You make fun of grown men in Korea for holding hands and yet your own girlfriend doesn’t even want to hold yours. Them holding hands is an innocent act of friendship, it's your thinking that's corrupt.
h. You’re the only one complaining about a motorcyclist driving on the sidewalk while you sit in traffic in a taxi wishing he’d somehow get around this intense traffic.
i. You point out the “creative” parking techniques of Koreans and yet you have no better solution for the over-crowdedness of this country.
j. You make fun of Korean men and joke about stereotypes and yet you’re too chicken to go to a public bath house.
k. You order pizza and it comes with corn and mayonnaise as well as a side serving of pickles to put on top and you still think it’s funny after a few months when this is how their whole country eats pizza.
l. You wear a chip on your shoulder and think your Western country is better when in fact Korea is better off without people like you.
m. You make fun of Korean men for wearing pink shirts and retro bone ties and think wearing your pants near your knees and sweaters you’ll hopefully one day grow into is styling.
n. You swear that the Korean education system only robs children of their youth and claim you’d never put your kid into it but fail to consider doing that would rob them of any kind of descent future.
o. You complain about the “interesting” things Koreans eat and yet are too shallow minded to think of the logic or reasoning behind it, or too chicken to even try.
p. You consider Koreans as being fools for being workaholics and yet fail to step back and see how us foreigners are treated like royality here and so that’s the only thing that exempts us from it. It’s the Korean way.
q. You stick to eating at Western restaurants (or starving) and stick to hanging out with only foreigners and then still complain that Korea is boring.
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