SEOUL - OCTOBER 10, 2000
I have just finished my first day of my intensive Korean Lanaguage Program here in Seoul. Its an interesting class. There are eleven students total. I'm the only American. There are also four Japanese students, two Korean-Japanese (Koreans who were born and lived their lives in Japan - called "Kyopo" in Korean), one woman from Mainland China, one woman from Taiwan, a man from Turkey, and a young guy from Mongolia. So essentially its mostly Japanese, a couple Chinese, Turkish, Mongolian, and me the American.
An interesting sidenote I should explain. The Korean language is classified as a member of the Altaic family, which includes Mongolian and Turkish. For example, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, French, and Italian are all Latin languages. Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish are all of the same family language. How did this happen? Well, originally, all three of the original speakers of these three languages were much closer together in Western Asia. Through time, these people split apart and went different directions. So, contrary to what you'd think, Korean is completely different than Japanese and Chinese. I should add though, that much of Korean and Japanese grammatical sentence structure is the same. I should also add that many Korean words were adopted (with a Korean pronounciation) from China. Despite these two similarities, Korean as a language is much more similar to Turkish and Mongolian, while at the same time, quite different as well. So, when I went to class today and met a Mongolian and a Turkish guy, it was interesting to see their interest in the Korean language. Also, while Japanese isn't of the same family tree, grammatically they are very similar, and the proximity of Japan, that I can easily understand their interests in learning Korean.
To switch the subject, (this has nothing to do with my classmates), I'm just thinking of how rich countries attract laborers from lesser-advances countries. For example, in the United States, there are alot of Mexicans working the lowest jobs. In Korea, they have an odd combination. Apparently, they are mostly Philipinos, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani. It is really interesting, because apparently the Pakis and Bangladeshis are infamous for studying and speaking fluent Korean, whereas the Filipinos, much like the Canadians and Americans, are infamous for often living here for years without ever learning any Korean at all.
Now that I'm thinking about this. Its interesting how common English is. Most Filipinos are fluent in English. In a country like South Korea, you can do ALOT with only English. I was able to live here for one year without learning only a few of the very basics. If I did learn anything at all, it was just more out of novelty. It definetely wasn't essential to my survival by any means. I'm also thinking of my year in South America, where it was more of sink or swim with knowing how to communicate in Portuguese (in Brazil) and Spanish (in the rest of South America). I had no choice but to memorize over and over or else I would have been completely helpless. In South Korea, it is amazing how many other North Americans have been here for sometimes three, five years or however long and know only the very simple basics, if even that.
Also, last weekend I met an Estonian artist in one of the bars. He gave me his 'business card'? or would you call it an 'aritst card'? Well, anyhow, he's been living in Asia the last five years, the last three of which has been in Seoul. I told him I'd plug him in my website. He does sculpture and paintings, and if you want to see examples of his work, just click on this site: Toomas Alturnme.
There is one thing I can't figure out about Seoul though. I mean most people are pretty honest, but I'll give two examples. I met a girl in the bar who said she was from Amarillo, Texas? Her English was really lousy. So then I asked her where she was originally from, and eventually she told me she was originally Russian from St. Petersburg. But then she continued the conversation by asking me "okay, I'm ethnically Russian, you also are an American, what ethnicity are you?" I just found it odd, because she had a very strong accent and seemed obviously some kind of Eastern European. It seemed to me that she 'had' to pass herself off as an Amerian rather than what she was, a Russian. I guess I shouldn't question it too much, but I have another similar example of this. I met another guy, who was obviously African from the continent. When I asked him where he was from, he said he was Jamacian? His English was extremely broken, and what little he did know certainly didn't have a Jamacian accent. So I'm just kind of curious what that is all about? The only sense I can make of it is that Jamacian culture and Reggae music are both very big in Japan, so maybe, using that same logic, it makes him more interesting in Seoul too? I'm not sure? As for the Russian girl, it seems more beneficial to pass oneself off as an American because you can get those good paying English teaching jobs, and generally Koreans can't decipher someones nationality, mainly because non-Asians just seem too homogenous for them to figure out individually.
Anyhow, just free-thinking now. I'm thinking to some of my other days in other countries and how people often pass off their nationality as another. In Thailand I met a French guy nearly completely unable to speak English, giving English lessons. In Brazil, I met a Canadian teaching French lessons (learning as he taught). All kinds of odd things. Another American here in Korea was teaching what little Spanish he knew. When he had passed on all that he knew, he cancelled his classes, telling the students "okay, that is all the Spanish I know." In a recent book I read about the Cambodia teaching scene, there is a great quote from a Romainian "I been teaching English three year now in Cambodia." Its always fascinating the assortment of so-called "English Teachers" living it up in other countries. Even when I lived in Pusan a few years ago, there was an 18-year-old Kiwi (New Zeland) who passed himself off as a twenty-something American. Generally Koreans prefer the North American accent and its required to be a college graduate. Often times, you can tell the schools anything you want to, and they are just happy to have a non-Korean face in front of their students. Its an odd world, this teaching English abroad world. Many of them are also some of the more interesing people I've ever met.
Continue to Next Journal Entry: 10/15/2000
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Estonian Artist living in Seoul's Page
Toomas Alturnme