고장 난 에어콘 하고 우리 집주인: writing stories in Korean
Three months ago, I began studying Korean full-time. Although my emotions constantly swerve along a spectrum of elation to agitation, I’ve surprised myself with my progression. Sure, I still make lots and lots of stupid mistakes, I frequently struggle to find the right words in conversations, and my vocabulary is very limited, but thanks to Geumgang...
Riding the white horse: On being foreign in South Korea
KEVIN, my Korean co-teacher, had an idea for our open class. “Let’s make a motivational video,” he suggested. “I’ll ask, ‘Would you like some more?’ you’ll say, ‘Yes, please,’ and after we repeat this a couple times, you’ll stuff your shirt with balloons. When you stand up to clear your tray, you’ll look really fat!” “Really,...
From city to country
I climbed onto the Seoul-bound bus in Inje. The only seat remaining was next to a pimply teenage boy leaning his head against the window. He avoided my gaze, reluctantly removing his backpack from the seat and placing it on the floor beneath his feet. It was summer. My friends and I had gone rafting...
An ode to my old neighborhood in northeast Seoul
“Dolgoji station,” I tell him. “Dolgoji?” “Yes, Dol-go-ji,” I repeat, enunciating each syllable. We stop hiking and he stares at me in utter confusion. “Sorry, I don’t know where that is.” This is the response I receive from nine out of ten Koreans when I tell them where I live. Or rather, where I lived....
Prayers and fortune telling at a Taoist temple
“Before we eat dinner at the night market, we’re going to pray,” Olivia’s mom said as we stopped in front of a Taoist temple in Taichung. My Taiwanese friend Olivia turned to me, “We’re only doing this because you’re here. We rarely go to the temple.” I smiled, thinking about all the times my parents...
Booked: sipping whisky and mingling with men at a Korean booking club
In the entryway, we approached a man wearing a black suit, waiting patiently behind a hostess stand. “Jeongbin,” my friend said briskly, referring to our waiter. We followed him through double doors into a dimly-lit club filled with rows of private rooms and an area filled with square tables and plush cushioned seats. Wearing sheer black...
A broken air conditioner and an ajumma in charge
My middle-aged, ajumma Korean landlord has more energy than the girls who promote sales at beauty shops in Myeongdong, bouncing up and down in knee socks and repeatedly shouting the same phrase into a microphone for hours on end. She is never in my building, so she comes to my school once every three months...
That time the Thai masseuse tried to take advantage of my boyfriend…while I was next to him
I was studying as an exchange student in Korea when my boyfriend at the time and I decided to jaunt through Thailand for three weeks over our summer vacation. For our last remaining days, we were back in Bangkok, debating on what we should do during the day. “Hey, why don’t we get another massage?”...
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