Sunday, December 27, 2009

Wtf, Korea?

So you know, a 30% chance of precipitation today amounted to about 2 inches of snowfall. 2 inches of snow will not deter Koreans from wearing high heels or sandals or making speedy takeout deliveries by motorcycle or moped. Nor will it prompt anyone to plow or salt a single emeffing street or sidewalk. Wtf?

Also, what's up with men holding their girlfriends' and wives' shopping bags and purses? And I don't mean just holding them while she uses the ladies' room, but carrying them around the store and the whole subway ride home. Aside from the men seeming a bit effeminate or p-whipped from an American culture view, are Korean women really so weak from hunger that they cannot tote their own bowling bag sized purses?

Why would anyone. ever. push a 5-year-old child in a stroller? The child is too big for the stroller such that her legs hang over the front bar. Can it really be easier to push her than to tell her why God gave her legs?

Actually, I know this to be symptomatic of something larger at work. Korean parents baby their children so much that it is common for teenagers to be wholly unequipped to care for themselves in any way and living with one's parents until marriage is the cultural norm. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that in so doing, parents allow their girls to develop the obnoxious habit of whining and gesticulating to get what they want instead of using their words, English or otherwise, to ask nicely. I have several students who will whine and point until I do what they want; I never have a clue what that is, so I tell them as much and they will ask their peers to ask/tell me. And it's not just children. This behavior persists in some adult women, too. What. the. fuck.

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