A Korean Cultural Bubble

Even in my affluent highschool I had friends whose recent ancestors had originated from the six continents where people live (and I did not exactly have many friends). All of the best comics subjects deal with race and ethnicity from Dave Chappele to Jerry Seinfeld. For that matter, all the worst comics do to, from Carlos Mencia to Jeff Dunham (that hilariously unfunny guy with the racist puppets). It is not revelatory to say that American culture is driven by race and ethnicity and our curiosity with how the different races act and mingle. Which is why it is so fascinating for me to be in a country that is basically homogeneous. I clearly stand out and as someone who is as neurotic as I am (I ones checked my zipper while I was waiting to cross an intersection because I saw two girl across the street laughing), I really really notice it. Which is not to say that I don't find the homogeneity incredibly interesting.

I make my best pseudo anthropological observations while I am teaching, because I see the same subjects (students) everyday. Further, coming from being a substitute teacher for two years I have a control group to compare the Korean children's behavior. A quick note, the Korean children I teach have to pay to join the school, however the vast majority of Koreans send their children to Hogwons (or paid after school programs). So, I have found that Korean children take on the same roles as their American counterparts. However, they are not as extreme. The bad children are not nearly as bad. The quiet children literally never ever speak, there are at least 8 (of maybe a 70 children I teach) who have gone multiple classes with out saying one word (they just nod their heads really aggressively when I demand they answer).

As I am trying to make observations about Korea culture I have to keep deleting observations because they are not different then the US. The thing that strikes me most about Korean culture is how similar peoples roles are to the US. While there are very few extremes like criminals or creative geniuses, the vast majority of the average people are just like those in the US. I recognize at this point in my post that it is perhaps a bit banal, but I am not deleting it. In part because it really struck me how similar things are to the US or the Czech Republic (the other country I lived in). I somehow accepted an Eastern society to be more different then it has been. I am also not deleting it in part because its a stupid blog and not every post is going to be gold.