Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 9

Our questions today come from Carrie in Québec City, who wonders:
a) If Koreans have something similar to a boite à chansons,
b) What feminism looks like in Korea, and
c) If "ethnic" food in Korea is American style food.

The Waeguk Responds:

Those are all good questions, Carrie, and each is worth answering, so let's start from the top.

a) For those readers who haven't spent much time in French Canada, a popular place to spend an evening is a boite à chansons. It's usually just a small pub or bar with live music. It's often just a solo guitarist who plays a selection of traditional French Canadian tunes and contemporary (And classic) francophone and anglophone hits. The crowd is often encouraged to sing along (especially during the chorus), and frequently requests songs as well.

While there are venues here which feature live music, there isn't anything that quite resembles the above, even if one were to substitute the word "Korean" for "French Canadian." However, Koreans do have their own form of musical entertainment: the 노래방! Pronounced "norae bang," this translates literally into "song room," and is the Korean form of karaoke. Although reasonably popular in Canada, Canadian karaoke bears little resemblance to its Korean cousin. Typically in North America, karaoke is held in generic bars, perhaps once a week, every second Sunday, or somesuch. Western karaoke involves singing to the entire bar: friends, strangers, and whoever else happens to be within earshot. By contrast, the noraebang is an establishment devoted exclusively to karaoke, and is broken into small rooms, each of which is equipped with its own karaoke machine and sound system, and seats roughly 5-15 people. In other words, one sings exclusively to and with one's drinking mates, which can make for a considerably less daunting experience for those who are not musically inclined. Even your humble waeguk correspond has taken the microphone on occasion to belt out some Human League or Offspring, despite his low self-esteem.

Karaoke is almost infinitely more popular here than in Canada. I would estimate there are at least half a dozen noraebangs within a 10 minute walk from my apartment, and my neighbourhood is by no means unusual in this respect.


b) My initial reaction to the question of feminism in Korea was that it's kind of like Canada's 1950, 1975, and 2008 all rolled into one. This isn't a question I feel overly qualified to answer, but since I'm the only waeguk many of my readers know, I'll do my best to at least give you an idea of the status of women here, if not the state of feminism per se.

Domestic violence is quite common here, sadly. On more than one occasion I've been at a bar and seen a man either hit or threaten to hit his wife. It happens fairly frequently, and also quite openly. I was talking about it one day with a Korean friend, who acknowledged that it's a big issue. She also said that her first reaction when she witnesses it, and that of many of her female friends, is to wonder, "what did the woman do [to deserve being hit]?"

I want to be careful not to overstate the case - I'm by no means suggesting that all Korean men beat their wives. However, I think there is an implicit acceptance, especially among the older people, that has fortunately fallen by the wayside in Canada.

Based only on my own anecdotal evidence, I can tell you that my male and female students seem equally interested in gaining a university and education and becoming doctors and lawyers- the prestige professions. From what I have seen, women are generally encouraged to go into post-secondary education, but are just as encouraged to quit their jobs once they marry or have children.

The U.S. Department of State notes that Korean

"law forbids discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, disability, age, social status, regional origin, national origin, ethnic origin, physical condition or appearance, marital status, pregnancy and child delivery, family status, race, skin color, thought or political opinion, record of any crime for which punishment has been fulfilled, or sexual orientation or medical history, and the government generally respected these provisions. However, traditional attitudes limited opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities. While courts have jurisdiction to decide discrimination claims, many of these cases were instead handled by the National Human Rights Commission."

Furthermore, there existed until 2005 a law which made women "legally subordinate to the male household head." 2005! Studies indicate that a woman typically earns 64% of what a man does in a comparable job, and polls show that "79% of women have experienced some form of discrimination in the workplace."

I think one needs to keep in mind that Korea is a country which has seen enormous change in a very short period. The economic progress has been remarkable, and the country once known as the Hermit Kingdom is opening itself up more and more to the rest of the world. Homosexuality, once completely unthinkable, is now "merely" taboo, and women have gained and are gaining more rights and legal protections with relative frequency over the past decade. I suspect there are more to come.

c) Western food (pasta, pizza, hamburgers, etc.) is prevalent in the large cities- as I may have mentioned in a previous post, there are far more Pizza Huts and Baskin-Robbinses in Busan than in Toronto. Because of this, I would hesitate to classify it as "ethnic food." Although my students don't eat burgers or spaghetti at home, they are very familiar with them. By contrast, the average Canadian ten year-old is unlikely to be able to identify bibimbap or kimbap, two of the most popular Korean dishes. Even beyond the fast food places, American chains such as TGI Friday's and Bennigan's are common here, and have arguably found a niche within Korean culture, rather than simply existing as outlets for when consumers want to eat "exotic" food. Japanese food is quite popular as well. On the other hand, there are a handful of restaurants of other countries or regions. In Busan (a city of over four million people), I know of two Thai restaurants, three Indian restaurants, a couple of Turkish restaurants, and that's about it. I haven't had tzatziki in almost a year now. This saddens me.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 8

Today's questions come from the self-styled Notorious ACG, who asks:

1) Now that you've been in Korea for a while, are there any aspects of your day-to-day waegukian life that are not what you expected to experience?  (Besides the food, of course.)
2) What is the social life like for and among waeguks?  
3) What advice would you have for potential waeguks?  
4) When travelling to Japan and China, did you find that passing through customs was any different that what you would have expected to experience had you been arriving directly from Canada?

The Waeguk Responds:

1) Apart from the food, there haven't been any major divergences from my expectations, but there are various little things that jump to my notice every now and then. Line-ups, for example, do not receive the same attention and respect they do in Canada. It's not uncommon to have someone jump line without so much as a backward glance- or recriminations from others in the queue.

Movie theatres here have assigned seating, so when you go to see a movie, you don't just buy a ticket, but the ticket vendor shows you which seats have already been reserved, so you select from those that are free. This is useful, in that it allows you to come to the theatre, pick your seats, and then wander around in a leisurely manner until 5 minutes before the movie starts, at which point you go to your prime seats - assuming you arrived early enough to book them in the first place.

The subway stops running at roughly 11:30 each night, which is quite early by most standards. However, taxis are very cheap (it can often be more economical for two or three people going a short distance to take a cab), and plentiful, so late-night carousing isn't as limited by this as it might otherwise be. This brings us to question 2, the social life.

2) For many waeguks, the social scene in Korea is not dissimilar to the university experience: live for the weekend, head to the bars, and drink. Because the bars are open until 5 or 6 in the morning, they may well sleep the day away, rising only to repeat the experience of the previous night. While I've had my share of early morning taxis home, I generally make an effort to be conscious by noon.

In a city of four million people, the number of waeguks is still quite low, relatively speaking: I'd guess there are only a couple of thousand in Busan. What this means is that there's a fairly high incidence of interconnectivity - when I went out with some friends on Saturday night, I ran into three or four people at the bar whom I knew from different places.

Beyond the bar scene, of course, we also go to movies, museums, hike mountains, and do all the other things done by well-rounded people with a variety of interests.

3) For potential waeguks, the best advice I can give you is this: do your research. Find out how long your workday will be, where the school is located, what the neighbourhood is like, and so on. Ask if there are any other waeguks at the school you can talk to. There are some great English schools here, and there are some that most definitely aren't.

Ask yourself why you're thinking about moving to Korea. Is it to get teaching experience, to travel, to earn some cash, or a combination of the three? What kind of city do you want to be in? Would you feel uncomfortable being the only Westerner within 20 km, or do you want to fully and completely immerse yourself in the Korean culture (something that's much harder to do if most of your friends are waeguks as well)?

Most importantly- and this is cheesy and clichéd, but bears repeating- do your best to come with an open mind. This isn't North America, but that's also one of the reasons you're here.

4) In terms of going through customs, I can't think of any real differences that there might have been compared with arriving straight from Canada. I think the sheer number of young Westerners traveling around with Korean stamps in their passports is something to which customs officials in both Japan and China have become accustomed, so for them it's pretty much par for the course.

Ask A Waeguk - addendum

Those of you who happened to read the comments section of the preceding post will have noticed reference to monkeys and banana flavoured cheetos. Allow me to elaborate.

Relatively soon after my arrival in Korea, I was walking home one night after an evening out with friends. Finding myself somewhat peckish, I stopped at the first convenience store along the way. There, my eye was caught by a bag of what appeared to be Cheetos- at least, that's what the photo on the bag led me to believe. There was also a cute drawing of monkey, but I didn't put too much thought into its significance at that time. It was only later when I happened to open the bag that I realized the "Cheetos" were not cheese-flavoured. Nor, as it happens, were they monkey-flavoured. Or if they were, I am somewhat surprised to learn that monkeys taste suspiciously like artificial banana flavour. Not having sought out this bag since, however, I am unable to say whether a closer attention to the English writing on the package would have provided me with more clues. I feel reasonably confident in saying that nowhere in English was it written, BANANA-Os! Banana-flavoured Cheetos-shaped snack food, but it in Korean it may well have.

Real bananas? Good. Fake banana-flavoured Cheetos? Not so much.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 7

The first question of the year comes from Haleigh in Halifax, who wonders:

"In South Korea, does most product packaging have some English on it, or have you often had to guess at the contents based on the picture on the box? If it's the latter case, have you had any amusing misunderstandings?"

The Waeguk responds:

Almost all packaging does in fact have some English on it, but whether this is to assist any wayward anglophones or to promote some abstract idea of sophistication, I have yet to decide. There's a huge emphasis on learning English, though, so it may be that it's a way of encouraging the people to acclimatize themselves to the roman alphabet. This is all idle speculation, of course, but what it means in practice, then, is that most food products have some English on them. Even things like the generic store-brand rameon noodles have the Korean "라면" (rameon) followed by "noodles."

One of the things which has amused me rather consistently since becoming quasi-literate in Korean is that English words are often transliterated rather than translated. As an example, I present the title of a recent Western movie:

P.S. 아이 러브유

To most of you, of course, the above title is illegible, so let's break it down phonetically.

아 - a
이 -ee
러 -luh
브 -buh
유 -yu

Said quickly enough, a ee luhbuh yu becomes I love you. Thus, we know the movie is P.S. I love you. To see a movie poster, please click here.

What's interesting, though, is that if you were to look up these words in a Korean-English dictionary, you would find something completely different. It should come as no shock to anyone, really, that the Korean for "I love you" is not the same as the English. Furthermore, on movie posters the title is often(though not always) written in English as well as in Korean. So a Korean whose English is good enough that she will know what I love you means will in all likelihood be able to read the title in English, but a Korean who is unable to read the Roman alphabet is not likely to be any more enlightened after reading the Korean transliteration.

Another example? Oh, all right.

아메리칸 갱스터

Again, let's break it down.

아-a
메 -meh
리 -ri
칸 -kan
갱 -gang
스 -suh
터 -tuh

Reassembled, we find ourselves with: a meh ri kan gang suh tuh. Say it quickly, and you're saying American Gangster (movie poster: here). Again, the words for American and gangster are quite different, but the titles are transliterated rather than translated. One of my favourite French novels is Le petit prince, but in English it becomes The Little Prince, not Luh Putty Prance.

This transliteration is not restricted to movie titles; incidentally. Even Mountain Dew is turned into ma-aoun-tin du, rather than some Koreanized "Hill Rain beverage" or somesuch.

On a not entirely unrelated note, my Korean lessons proceed with slow but steady progress. They proved their worth last week when I left my cellphone in a cab. As I discovered my loss shortly after exiting the vehicle, I was able to call my phone almost immediately. The cabdriver answered, and in Korean I was able to impose upon him to return to my apartment so that I might procure my telephonic device. It should be noted that what I actually said in Korean was not in the vicinity of eloquence, nor, indeed, in the same area code, yet the fact remains: my cellphone sits on the desk in front of me as I type. A triumph indeed.

Adam Asks A Waeguk, Vol. 6.4

The latest in an ongoing series:

Dear Waeguk,

If I were to watch the Korean equivalent of
Sportscentre, what sport would be most likely to
feature as the lead story? Does Korea have its own
versions of the NBA, NHL, MLB, etc? Professional
leagues or associations for any other sports? Is any
particular Korean athlete the LeBron of the bunch
(meaning the anointed and most favoured one)?

The Waeguk responds:

Adam,

Korea has its own versions of the NBA (the Korean Basketball League, or KBL), and its own Professional Baseball League. Ice hockey, on the other hand, is virtually unheard of, at least in Busan.

Interestingly, most of Korea's most famous athletes do not play in Korea. These include Park Ji-Sung, who plays for Manchester United in Great Britain's Premier League, as well as almost a dozen Koreans who play in North America's Major League Baseball. The best known of these is the Los Angeles Dodgers' Chan Ho Park. Manchester United is quite popular because of the Park Ji-Sung connection, but I don't there's an overwhelming allegiance to any particular baseball team.

Another popular sporting figure in South Korea is the 7'2" kickboxer Choi Hong-Man, who dwarfs just about everyone. Choi is well-known because of his massive size and impressive record in the ring, but even despite his personal appeal, kickboxing is not a particularly popular sport here.

Almost all of my male students, as well as a number of my female students, attend taekwondo classes on a regular basis; it's not uncommon for boys to come to school in their taekwondo uniforms.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 6.3

The third question comes from A. Christopher Garskey, formerly of Lindsay, Ontario. Mr. Garskey writes:

Dear Waeguk,

What is kimchi, and why would schoolchildren complain when it is dry? Also, I’ve heard positive reviews of Korean barbeque, but have never experienced it myself.
Have you indulged, and if so, what are your thoughts?
Also, have you noticed any seasonal changes in the local food?

The Waeguk Responds :

Kimchi is a staple of Korean cuisine. It's spicy pickled vegetables (most commonly cabbage), and is served with almost every meal. Most of my students will eat kimchi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's typically quite moist, and thus if it were dry schoolchildren would likely find it offensive to their finely honed palates.

As for Korean barbeque, it's one of my favourite types of food here in Korea. At the Korean barbeque restaurant I frequent most often, pork is the meat of choice. It's an almost bacon-like cut, brought raw to the table on plates piled high. Each table has its own little charcoal grill, and the meat is cooked with onions, hot peppers, garlic, and sliced potato. When done, one removes the bacon and vegetables from the grill and wraps it in mint or other leaves along with one's sauce of choice. It can be a bit messy at times, but is really quite delectable.

As for seasonal changes in the local food, I haven't noticed many as of yet. The persimmons and clementines are in season, and are being sold on the street along with the standards of fish and bananas, but I haven't yet detected any huge differences in the eating habits.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 6.2

The next question is from AC "Slater" Garskey in Ottawa, who writes:

"Dear Waeguk,

I recently heard that there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 000 anglophones teaching English in Korea at the moment. Is the demand for any other languages strong in Korea, and if so, do you ever run into evidence of the presence of native speakers of those languages? (Note: by “evidence”, I more or less am thinking of observing young speakers of, say, French or Spanish on the subway who appear to be on their way to work or who appear to be somehow less transient than tourists. I’m not thinking along the lines of stool samples or footprints.) "

The Waeguk responds:

English is far and away the dominant second-language in Busan, and Korea as a whole. In terms of foreign-language education, the next most popular would likely be Mandarin, but it doesn't have even a tenth of the presence of English.

That's not to say that all the non-Koreans in Busan are anglophones, though. The interestingly-named Texas Street, for example, is home to Busan's Russian community, and many of the signs in the area are in the Cyrillic alphabet. I think the presence of the Russians is due largely to Busan's status as one of the major port cities in this corner of the world; Texas Street also plays host to a number of Indonesian and Philipino restaurants and is, or so rumour would have it, the recommended (and likely only) place to go for a Caucasian (possibly literally, in this case) prostitute.

There are a couple of French people in the Korean class which takes place before mine; I haven't spoken to them much, but I think they likely work for a multinational in the area, as I have seen absolutely no demand whatsoever for French teachers.

It has occurred to me on occasion that it would be amusing to procure myself a position as an English teacher in a rural area where nobody speaks the language, and proceed to teach the children French or Spanish instead, but the odds of my doing this are slim.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 6.1

The first of several questions today comes from Sara-Jane in High Park, who asks if Hallowe'en is celebrated in Korea.


The Waeguk responds:

Korea has numerous holidays. Some of them, such as Chuseok, have deep roots in this country, while others, such as Christmas, are newer additions but have still been adopted by a significant proportion of the population. Then there's Halloween. This seems to be celebrated exclusively at the hogwan (English academies) and Wageuk bars. Korean children come to English school dressed in costume and receive and candy and may participate in certain Halloween-themed activities. However, it's done much in the spirit that a Canadian school might have, for example, an "International Day," wherein students will organize cultural activities from different nations. That is to say, Halloween in Korea is celebrated almost exclusively within the school, rather than within the community as a whole.

As for your faithful correspondent, I amazed and delighted my pupils with my interpretation of Wolverine, the X-Man. I made claws of cardboard and tinfoil, and the Kindergardeners especially were quite impressed. We also had a haunted house, which is to say: a classroom with the lights turned off,black garbage bags draped from the ceiling, and a cd of scary sounds playing. I was quite skeptical of our ability to scare anyone, but I had neglected to take into account the fact that our target audience was 5 years old. Many kids refused to take more than 2 steps into the room, and those who did enter were oft shocked to find the mannequins coming to life and jumping out at them. But rest assured, 'twas all in good fun.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 5

Our latest question comes from Dave in Ontario, who is impressed at the news of the Waeguk's Korean lessons, and wonders whether they include the alphabet, and the Waeguk's thoughts thereon.

As always, the Waeguk responds:

I'm learning both written and spoken Korean, which is a bit of a challenge, but also something I'm quite enjoying. The Korean is relatively straightforward to learn, and in fact is something I had a decent understanding of even before beginning the lessons, insofar as being able to sound out words, though not necesssarily to understand them.

One of the interesting things about Korean is how poorly it's transliterated into the Roman alphabet. For example, I live in the city of Busan, but until quite recently I would have been living in the city of Pusan. There is no real distinction in Korean between the English p and b, l and r,and j and z. My students are wont to talk about the "Jewkeeper" rather than the "zookeeper," which is not a mistake that will serve them well in most parts of the English-speaking world.

Traditionally, Korean has been transliterated into the Roman alphabet using the McCune-Reischauer system, but over the past decade or so this has been phased out in favour of the Revised Romanization system, and this is the reason for the Pusan/Busan switch. Essentially, this means that there are easier and simpler ways of having one sound in Korean correspond to its partner sound in English, and showing this on paper.

Learning to read Korean has also helped me sympathize somewhat with some of the difficulties facing any learner of a new alphabet. Most frustrating? Fonts! I can read the Korean equivalent of Times New Roman fairly easily, but anything artsy or stylized throws me off immediately. Writing is also a challenge given that my handwriting isn't exemplary at the best of times and in my native tongue, but at least under those circumstances I can extrapolate from my notes with confidence. In Korean? Not so much.

On the other hand, three tenses total does make for one happy language student...

Got a question for the Waeguk? Ask him here.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol.4

Haleigh from Nova Scotia writes: "How much English do your students already know when you (in the general, "someone who goes to teach English in Korea" sense) begin teaching them? And since you don't speak Korean, what tools do you use to make yourself understood, if the comprehension level is not already fairly high?"

The Waeguk Responds

It's interesting that you should ask, Haleigh. I'd been planning for some time to do a blog entry on my fledgling teaching career, and your question has provided the necessary incentive. Khansamneeda.

I teach a number of different age groups, and students of all levels of English-language ability. The teaching ranges from the relatively simple ("Some dinosaurs walk. Some dinosaurs run.") to the more advanced- one of my classes is reading The Wizard of Oz. Regardless of their age or ability, though, all of my students speak a level of English that is light-years ahead of my Korean. Even the kindergarten students understand the essentials needed for their classes:

-stand up

-sit down

-tidy up

-repeat after me

-cut here, then color*

And so on. I can also engage my kinders in conversation, as long as we stick to subjects they've studied (farm animals, feelings, health issues- sore throat, runny nose, et al- and dinosaurs). For those times when I'm in need of vocabulary they don't already know, a combination of mime and whiteboard sketching works wonders.

For the older students, of course, we tend to use more specialized vocabulary (I spent a class on the "present continuous" tense today, for example), but generally speaking they already have a relatively large English word-base, so I can work my way around using synonyms and the like. Failing that, there's always mime and whiteboard sketching. Usually, though, I just need to repeat myself more slowly, or rephrase myself. If I can make myself understood to one student, he or she can translate for the rest. That's not necessary very often, however, as the nature of the lessons is such that they're generally at a level the students can understand.

I teach at a private language academy, of which there are many (hundreds, I'd guess) in Busan alone. This means that my students (with the exception of the kinders) come after their regular school has concluded. Many students also go to an additional math, science or other school. For those whose parents can afford the additional education, it seems to be seen as something of a necessity.

As with any job, teaching has its ups and downs, though I suspect these may be more pronounced than in some careers. There are days when I walk out of class glowing with the satisfaction of a well-taught lesson, pleased by how well the students responded to my pedagogical brilliance, and there are days when I stagger out of class relieved the students haven't received a first-hand definition of defenestration.

The courses are very syllabus-oriented, meaning that I generally know which page of the textbook I'm teaching on any given day. This is useful in that relieves me of much of the burden of lesson-planning, but on the other hand it often forces me to figure out how to fill 40 minutes on something that I would otherwise try to teach in ten. Games are useful - a dull question and answer period is livened substantially if the students are allowed to play tic-tac-toe, wherein a correct answer gives them the chance to mark their square.

I'm able to keep the students relatively enthusiastic in most of my classes, but for those where I struggle (one class is notorious throughout the school for their lack of interest and manners) I try to remind myself not to take it personally. I taught the devil-class today, though, and it went fairly well, so maybe things are improving on that front. Keep your fingers crossed.

On a different note, I'm off to Mud Festival this weekend...Expect a dispatch early next week.

*My school teaches American English, or at least the spelling thereof. Thus, we talk about our favorite colors, and not our favourite colours.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 3

Since watching a soccer game in which the North Korean team was misidentified with the South Korean flag, Monti from Oakville wonders if South Koreans are offended if called North Koreans, and vice versa.

The Waeguk Responds

Up to now, Monti, I have not met a North Korean, nor have I made the mistake of mixing up North and South, so what I can offer you is only idle speculation.

At school (the site of the majority of my conversational interactions with bona fide citizens of the Republic of Korea), the topic of politics rarely comes up, and North Korea is mentioned even less frequently.

With very, very few exceptions, North Koreans stay in North Korea. It is not a country with anything even close to open borders. By and large, South Koreans are not allowed into the North, and citizens of other countries who wish to do so must go through China, such is the nature of the DMZ, the "world's most heavily fortified border," as countless websites and guidebooks are quick to tell us, breathlessly noting the 2 million soldiers who line its sides.

Given this, and the fact that the Korean peninsula was only one country until the end of the Second World War, one would think that the "rogue state" to the north would be frequent watercooler fare. From what I've seen, however, it isn't. It may be that the situation, although scary, has remained the same for long enough that there really isn't much to talk about on a day-by-day basis. It may be that it's not a topic one would choose to broach with colleagues as part of casual office chatter, particularly if those colleagues are Westerners and the topic is one with considerable emotional weight.

In terms of your question, Monti, my best guess is that South Koreans would be largely bemused if someone were to mix up the North and South, especially if that someone happened to be living in South Korea. Although they share four thousand years of heritage, the countries' paths since 1945 have been so radically different that to confuse the two would be akin to being unable to distinguish between the USA and the USSR, circa 1980.

Maybe I'll try flipping the names this week, just to test my hypothesis. But probably not.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 2.3

(N.B. This post has been edited after publishing: the three questions have been separated into separate posts for completely unnecessary reasons.)

In question 3, Adam notes that "according to rumour, South Koreans eat dog. According to [this] blog, puppies are available for sale on the sidewalks of Pusan," and he wonders if there is a connection.

The Waeguk Responds

Being of a not incurious mind myself, I endeavoured to do further research on the matter at hand, and consulted with one of my non-waeguk coworkers.

It is true, I learned, that dog is still eaten in Korea, but largely by the older generation. This seems to be predominantly a matter of changing tastes, but economist and sociologists would be better positioned than I to speculate at great length on the subject.

The puppies, then, are being sold not for food but as pets. This makes sense, really, because while it is relatively easy to sell live lobster or fish as food, a puppy, I would think, is quite another question. I would venture to guess that most dog meat sold comes from mature animals, as it wouldn't be worth the time or money for city dwellers to buy a pup and then spend the time and money waiting for it to grow to a size worth eating.

Interested in recipes for dog? Please click here. I haven't tried any of them myself as yet, and can't vouch for their quality, but I expect a full report from anyone who does try them out. I've heard standard poodle is particularly delicious.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 2.2

In Adam's second question, he wonders how one celebrates Canada Day in South Korea.

The Waeguk Responds

Disappointingly, Canada Day is not recognized by the government of Korea as a public holiday, which makes me wonder why I should pay taxes in either country. Beyond that, though, there are several options available to those who are interested in paying their respects to their (possibly former) Home and (arguably) Native Land.

The well-known bar Starface, in the Haeundae neighbourhood in Busan, had an all-you-can-drink night for KRW 15,000 (roughly Can $17.00). Although I did not attend, I have friends who did, and they have assured me that it more than satisfied their celebratory urges.

As for myself, I was feeling rather under the weather Saturday evening and all day Sunday, so I chose to take a more contemplative route. I pondered the events of July 1, 1916 (the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, as all history buffs should have noted), and attempted to count the number of countries in which I have found myself on the first of July. I can think of three at least (Canada, Costa Rica, and France-twice), but I wouldn't be surprised to learn I have been in the UK on at least one occasion as well.

You also wondered about the options available should one find oneself in North Korea, Adam, and to this I can only say: when I find out I'll let you know.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 2.1

Adam from Ottawa has written to the Waeguk with several questions. The Waeguk will tackle them one by one, so let's get started. Adam's first question:
If these questions are being directed to a "Waeguk", what's the term for the people sending them?

The Waeguk Responds:

Your question may actually have more depth than you intended, Adam, touching as it does a chord which rings within most relatively homogeneous societies. "Waeguk" in Korea, "Gringo" in Mexico, "Mzungu" in Kenya... These are all terms used to differentiate between the historical inhabitants of a country or region and those who are new to it, and most typically passing through.

Of the three terms I've mentioned above, gringo is probably the best-known. In theory, it refers to citizens of the United States of America who are in Mexico, but in practice it is used to refer to just about any person who does not fit into the user's idea of what a Mexican should be. Gringos, therefore, are usually white people who do not speak Spanish as their native language.

In the three countries under discussion, skin colour is likely the easiest and fastest way of determining whose ethnic background differs from that of the majority. This doesn't mean to say that you can't be of a traditionally Korean appearance and and not qualify as a waeguk, but it does mean that someone on the subway would be much less likely to make that judgment of you before you open your mouth.

As best I can tell, Waeguk is not a pejorative. Neither, and again this is to the best of my ability to say, is Mzungu. Gringo, in part because of the long and interesting relationship between Mexico and the U.S. may be slightly harder to evaluate, but suffice it to say that (in my experience, al menos) although it may not always be a perfectly friendly term, it's not necessarily one used to indicate complete and utter disdain for its subject.

This rather lengthy preamble may seem slightly superfluous to the question at hand, but it's necessary, given the (inadvertent, perhaps) complexity of the topic.

If you were here in Korea asking me the question, Adam, you would be a waeguk also- though not, it should be said, the Waeguk, as I reserve the title for myself. But when you ask me from Ottawa, you are still a foreigner, but a foreigner in her own land lacks the same need for labelling, methinks.

Put it this way: under most circumstances, someone who's 6'8" is considered very, very tall. On a professional basketball team, however, he no longer seems exceptional, and thus is not noticed solely because of his height.

I'm tempted to dredge up some "self-referential paradox" lingo from my undergrad, but for our purposes I think we will simply refer to our correspondents as "Friends of the Waeguk." FOTW, should there ever be a need for an acronym. So that's question 1 taken care of, hopefully to your satisfaction.

Ask A Waeguk, Vol. 1

Today's question comes from Dave in Georgina, who wants to know how waeguk is spelled. He's also interested in learning more about written Korean in general.

The Waeguk Responds

I'm glad you asked, Dave. As you are no doubt aware, the word waeguk as you see it before you here is a rendering of the Korean alphabet known as hangeul. According to legend (and my Lonely Planet guide), hangeul was invented in the 15th century under the reign of King Sejong. It's a phonetic alphabet, and is widely admired for the simplicity and elegance of its system.

Unlike the Roman alphabet, which uses a strictly linear left-to-right placing of characters, hangeul characters are generally arranged in syllabic groupings, with up to three characters grouped together to be read in a clockwise fashion. For further information on how to read Korean, I suggest you to turn to Google and search for websites written by people who are far more apt at describing it than I am. I recommend Radio Korea's guide to learning the language. For the Korean spelling of waeguk, however, you've come to the right place...

외 국 There, isn't that cool?

The first grouping forms the "wae" sound, while the second composes the "guk."

The system really is very straightforward, and I need to sit down at some point and devote a couple of hours to it.

At this point I'm largely illiterate in hangeul, but I am slowly improving. I'm able to pick out certain menu items, and I can recognize a few other words as well. I'm slowed down considerably, however, by my inability to self-correct when reading. If I'm reading in one of the languages I do speak, for example, even if I come across an unfamiliar word I can be reasonably confident in my ability to read it correctly, be it in French, Spanish, English or even German. If it sounds strange when I read it I can reread it and ascertain whether I've made a mistake or whether the word is incorrectly or unusually spelled. Given the modicum of Korean under my belt, however, I have no way of checking whether I'm even ascribing the proper phonetics to the characters as I read them.

Many of my students are at the level where they mix up "chicken" and "kitchen." I'm still at the level where I mix up "chicken" and "hydrangea."

New Feature

In the 1800s, travel was restricted to the upper middle classes or to those who traveled out of necessity, be it for work or war. In Victorian England, it was customary for young adults with money to do a "tour of the Continent" as a rite of passage. The number of Western visitors to Asia, however, was considerably lower. Of those brave souls who did travel to the Orient over a century ago, only a tiny number had blogs, laptops and internet access being far more prohibitively expensive than they are today. For example, an 1894 IBM Thinkpad with teak inlay, ivory keys and a polished silver tracking ball cost the equivalent of a house.

Today, though, it would seem that just about any educated adult with a hankering to see the world can and does set off to do so, and as often as not will set up a website to detail their adventures. It is true, my friends: I am not the inventor of the travel blog.

On the other hand, it is my hope that I am the first to offer your very own personalized Canadian Answerer of Questions Relating to Korea service (CAQRs).

Ask A Waeguk will allow you do direct all of your Korea- and Jeff-related questions to me, where they will be posted and answered in a prompt, entertaining, and sometimes accurate fashion. Want to know what it's like to have random children come up and talk to you because of the colour of your skin? Ask a Waeguk! Want to know what Canadians do in Korea on a Saturday night? Ask a Waeguk! Want to know where to get good bibimbap in Pusan? Ask a Waeguk! For that last one, actually, you might be better off asking somebody who's lived in this city for more than 9 days, but the idea is clear.

Ask A Waeguk : You've got questions. I may even have answers.

Waeguk (n): Clever, handsome foreigner full of witty, perceptive and insightful observations pertaining to life in South Korea.