Awkward in Asia

You want to talk about an awkward situation? Try this: living in South Korea where you are considered a minority and hardly anyone speaks English.

It happened on July 21, 2002. I lacked direction in my life, so I decided that I needed to get away for a while. A friend of the family had just come back from teaching English overseas and highly recommended the experience to me. It didn’t take much convincing on his part. Before I knew it, I was on a plane to Daegu, South Korea.

The flight was a forgettable experience. I didn’t realize that my flight would involve four different airports and nearly 20 hours. The longest I ever had to travel before that was to Italy, which only took nine hours. I was on a plane from Toronto to Seoul for 14 hours alone. What made the situation even more awkward was the fact that I was on a plane with over 100 people, where no more than 10 of them were “white people”. Trust me, I was losing my mind.

When I finally landed in Daegu, I looked around and saw that I was surrounded by Asians. They were all staring at me. I wanted to hear what they were saying, but I couldn’t understand anything. My first thought was “what the heck was I thinking when I decided to do this?” I went through the arrival doors where I was supposed to meet the director of the academy where I was going to be teaching. What nationality do you think she was? You guessed it, Asian. I had no idea who this person was that I was supposed to look for. I figured she probably had a better chance of finding me, so I just stood there and hoped for the best. Sure enough, a woman came up to me and in perfect English said, “Are you John?” Needless to say, I was relieved.

Jin seemed like a very nice person. It was refreshing to be able to have a “normal conversation” with someone. Especially after sitting next to people on three different planes, who couldn’t speak a word of English.

The drive from the airport to my apartment was another story. I didn’t think I was going to make it to my apartment alive. Honestly, Jin had to be the worst driver I’d even been in a car with. She was cutting people off without even realizing it. Other drivers were laying on the horn and giving her dirty looks. I nearly soiled myself more than once. She was so worked up about knowing my life story that she wasn’t focusing on the road at all. There were so many times that I just wanted to tell her to shut up and drive, but I don’t think that would have left her with a good impression.

We finally got through that traumatic experience when I finally arrived at my apartment dead tired. You think that things couldn’t get more awkward? Think again. Jin rang the door bell to my apartment, where I was living with three other guys. She must have rang the bell four or five times before anyone came to answer the door. Finally a guy I was teaching with, Bill, answered. He appeared hung-over from the night before and not too happy about having to be woken up at 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning. He looked at me, then looked at Jin and said “Who’s this guy?” Jin responded by saying “It’s your new roommate who will be teaching at the academy.” He had no idea that I was coming or that I would be living in the apartment. I was thinking to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I got in the apartment and Jin told me that my room was down the hall to the left. I decided to check it out. In the room I saw a piano, a couple of bikes and a bunch of boxes with stuff in them. I turned, looked at Jin and said “Is this some kind of joke?” I was supposed to have at least a bed and a dresser in the room. Jin was stunned. She didn’t know what to say. She just ensured me that everything would be taken care of and that I would have everything I needed by the end of the day. This was turning into a nightmare.

When Jin left and Bill went back to bed, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was really tired, but there was no way that I could sleep after the experience I had just gone through. I decided to watch some TV. What I failed to realize was that every channel was in Korean except one – the American Forces Network (AFN). Believe me, AFN and I became pretty good friends in a hurry.

As awkward and unbearable this experience may sound, it did get better. Yes, I was part of a minority in South Korea. Yes, I was surrounded by people who couldn’t speak English. But, I learned some Korean to get me by and thoroughly enjoyed my one-and-a-half year experience.

*please mark this one.