Smooth

The entirety of this past weekend for me was spent with Europeans. The whole time, I was in the company of only one other American. Europe I generally regard as the center of high culture, the epitome of refinement, a place of royal history, of haute cuisine, of fine wines, of charming and urbane gentlemen. Europe has rightly earned its prestigious reputation.

And then on Monday I walked back into Korea. Like America, it has not garnered a reputation as a country of sophistication and cultural refinement. Today for me served as a reminder why.

The remnants of yesterday's underachieving typhoon drizzled through the day. As an eternal weather optimist, one who wears sandals well beyond what the temperature would suggest as wise, I had in the morning's dryness forgone my umbrella for work. After work, stepping into a shop at the foot of the hill that leads to my school, I purchased yet another umbrella for my burgeoning collection. Stepping back onto the street, safely protected from the yawning sky, I began my return to the subway.

Many people along this ten minute walk, school children and shopkeepers, are familiar faces in my daily stroll. I get the myriad of calls of "hello teacher!" punctuated by fits of nervous or excited laughter (as well as sometimes the ensuing heated discussion regarding proper phraseology and pronunciation). I get waves and invitations from a few shopkeepers to join them for coffee. Yet then there is often the single incident that can only be labeled as cung ("completely unpredictable, yet unsurprising").

Today such an incident occurred. Moments before turning the corner to reach the subway, two Korean men who I would guess to be about my age turned the same corner. They were good looking guys, tall, well-dressed. I'm sure that they have no problem attaining a girlfriend. But as they approached me, the one on the right gaped, gasped, and shouted, "Whoa! Wow, wow! Whoa!" His friend, also equally adept at this repartee, called out, "Yeah, yeah! Ooooohhhh!" pointing and staring.

Now, I ask you, ladies, could any man come up with a better way to melt your heart?

And such is life in Korea. Have any Western man do this, and he would spend his life wondering why women wouldn't touch him, save the odd punch now and then. Generally Western men like to be slightly more subtle in their approach. But Korean men are different. For them, well-bred or not, something inside says that the best way to show interest in a Western woman is through the eminently romantic language of cattle calling. And they wonder why Korean men never get Western women.