Korea hasn’t quite gotten the cultural sensitivity thing down yet. When you look at the fact that the non-Korean resident population just recently surpassed one million in the entire country, it’s understandable. Still, coming from the USA, the land of the politically correct, I can’t help but occasionally marvel at some of the crazy shit that is thoughtlessly thrown about.
For example, I was in the teachers’ office at my school with the two other whitey girls at my school. It was a Friday, it was after hours, we were all getting ready to go and start our weekends of volunteer work and bible study (or alcohol consuption and hangover suffering). Just then appeared THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI!
THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI is the building manager at my school. The building is 5 floors. A noraebang (karaoke room) resides in the basement, a motorcycle shop, organic food store, and vet clinic share the ground floor, my school takes up the second and third floors, and there’s a garden on the rooftop. THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI is in charge of cleaning and maintaining the staircase, garden, and exterior of the building. As you should have gathered by now, it’s not abnormal for THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI to be drunk. When THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI is drunk, you never know what to expect.
THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI was mad. PISSED. Red-faced from a long day of soju consumption, he began talking to us. Then, his speech got faster and faster and louder and louder. We were able to gather that his anger stemmed from our inability to speak Korean. “You’re in Korea!” he shouted. “Speak Korean!”
Since he was standing in the doorway, we were trapped. I finally got on my phone and called my Korean coworker, who had the sense to turn off her office light and slam her door shut when she heard THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI making his way down the hall. I begged her to come out and help us. She did. Being Korean, she was bound to cultural etiquette, and had to stand there and politely listen while THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI bitched at her for 10 minutes. Finally, he scooted his drunken ass out the door and I ran down the stairs and onto the street with my coworker Emma, laughing at the ridiculousness.
A few weeks later, THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI reappeared in the teachers’ office. I had already gone home, leaving my Korean speaking coworker Hector behind with Emma, who was present for the first drunken fit. This time, though, THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI had a different issue to address. He thought we were all wonderful for sticking around at the same school for so long. He thinks foreigners and Koreans should all get along. Emma, he thinks, is beautiful. He is trying to learn English, and as soon as his house is “finished” (whatever the fuck that means), he wants to have us all over. He wants to buy us drinks. He knows we think he doesn’t have any money since he’s the guy that sweeps our stairs, but he does have money. This point was illustrated by pulling out his wallet, extracting a stack of cash, and waving it around.
Clearly, THE DRUNKEN AJOSSHI needs to make up his mind. And maybe even lay off the sauce for a bit.
