Two things that I find
interesting.
1) In Korea people are actually honest about appearance. If you are fat, they tell you that you are fat. If you look tired, they say it. No one gets offended. It's like a statement of fact, and everyone knows. They also tell you when you look good, and it actually makes you feel good because every time they say it you know it's honest. Anyway, in class the other day we were making a boat out of tangrams (those special shape things that you can put together to make all sorts of pictures). I drew the boat on the board, and then as a joke, drew all the kids in the class inside the boat. When I was finished, there was no room to draw myself, so I drew me hanging off the side. When Thomas asked why, Junsung said "Because too heavy." And instead of getting offended, I laughed. It was funny. Yeah, I'm not nearly as thin as any of the women he knows, and I probably never will be. Asian women are tiny. And yeah, at the moment I'm packing on a few extra pounds from my normal size. So what? I actually kind of like it when people are honest. It makes me feel better when they say I'm fat than when people back home tell me I look skinny, because at least I know they're telling the truth. There is even a guy from English class who openly admitted to having a crush on me, then a month later asked me (verbatim) “Are you on a diet? You look less fat than last time I saw you.” He definitely knows the words “thin” and “skinny”. But I didn’t look thin or skinny. I just looked less fat.
2) My kids invented the best kind of tag EVER and when I return to the states I fully expect a large-scale version to be played. It's called Zombie attack, and it's a combination of tag and the zombie apocalypse. One person starts as a zombie, and everyone else is a "people" (we're working on plurals and singulars, but they still have trouble). The zombie has to move kind of slowly and hold their arms out in front of them, while making creepy moaning noises, like a zombie. Everyone else screams and runs. If the zombie catches someone, that person also becomes a zombie. The infection spreads. Every so often one of the zombies calls out "Who is still a ‘people’?" and one or two kids raise their hands, only to be viciously hunted by the others. The last “people” standing wins, and starts as the zombie in the next round. It's HILARIOUS to watch. At least, it was until I started playing and someone knocked Cindy over, causing me to knee her in the forehead at the same time that someone accidentally body-slammed Junsung into a wall. It was that exact moment that I realized Zombie Attack should be an OUTDOOR game.
1) In Korea people are actually honest about appearance. If you are fat, they tell you that you are fat. If you look tired, they say it. No one gets offended. It's like a statement of fact, and everyone knows. They also tell you when you look good, and it actually makes you feel good because every time they say it you know it's honest. Anyway, in class the other day we were making a boat out of tangrams (those special shape things that you can put together to make all sorts of pictures). I drew the boat on the board, and then as a joke, drew all the kids in the class inside the boat. When I was finished, there was no room to draw myself, so I drew me hanging off the side. When Thomas asked why, Junsung said "Because too heavy." And instead of getting offended, I laughed. It was funny. Yeah, I'm not nearly as thin as any of the women he knows, and I probably never will be. Asian women are tiny. And yeah, at the moment I'm packing on a few extra pounds from my normal size. So what? I actually kind of like it when people are honest. It makes me feel better when they say I'm fat than when people back home tell me I look skinny, because at least I know they're telling the truth. There is even a guy from English class who openly admitted to having a crush on me, then a month later asked me (verbatim) “Are you on a diet? You look less fat than last time I saw you.” He definitely knows the words “thin” and “skinny”. But I didn’t look thin or skinny. I just looked less fat.
2) My kids invented the best kind of tag EVER and when I return to the states I fully expect a large-scale version to be played. It's called Zombie attack, and it's a combination of tag and the zombie apocalypse. One person starts as a zombie, and everyone else is a "people" (we're working on plurals and singulars, but they still have trouble). The zombie has to move kind of slowly and hold their arms out in front of them, while making creepy moaning noises, like a zombie. Everyone else screams and runs. If the zombie catches someone, that person also becomes a zombie. The infection spreads. Every so often one of the zombies calls out "Who is still a ‘people’?" and one or two kids raise their hands, only to be viciously hunted by the others. The last “people” standing wins, and starts as the zombie in the next round. It's HILARIOUS to watch. At least, it was until I started playing and someone knocked Cindy over, causing me to knee her in the forehead at the same time that someone accidentally body-slammed Junsung into a wall. It was that exact moment that I realized Zombie Attack should be an OUTDOOR game.
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