On Koreans

They are an interesting lot. I thought Chinese people are interesting; no, I understand Chinese people. Korean culture boggles the shit out of me. I've never seen anything like it. This one post is about the inclusivity/exclusivity ... quirk. There are two Koreans (both who have studied in the US) at our school who did not want to hang out exclusively with Koreans (as in have a Korean posse/clique that they always hang out with) and for the the rest of the Koreans ostracized them. I don't know how, but in their words, they have no Korean friends here other than each other. The Korean girls (oh yes, and it's split up into male groups and female groups; no co-ed groups) think they're bitches. Why? Because they... ... think independently? I suppose it makes Korea out (or at least what I see from the young adults here) to be a very segregated, very society-oriented society. Am I using the right terminology? Perhaps not.

To confirm, I asked one of them specifically if this was true; if she was looked down upon for not conforming. She confirmed.

Another example. My friend Jinwoo did not want to go to an outing his friends had gone to. As a backstory, I needed to go to 王府井 to pick up some things my mother had sent over with a client and I didn't want to go alone. Seeing as I enjoyed his company, I invited him, and even though he said he had plans, he said he'd somehow squeeze them both in. Whether it was me or whether he just did not want to go to a KTV bar where you can pay for women to be your girlfriend for the night and drink beer, he did not want to go, but rather persisted and worried for about an hour's time, delaying and procrastinating telling his friends what I felt was an obvious "I don't want to go." But, he kept saying 不行，不行. That's not ok, that won't do, I can't? After several calls from his friends asking where the hell he was and my laughing at his refusal to just say he didn't want to go, I asked him whether or not he could just say his motorcycle was out of gas. He then lit up, made up the excuse, then told me that he was a "bad boy" with a slight smile, something I should have never taught him. Kids pick up so fast.

Korean boys are also very. Um. I'll leave the topic on the physical boundary levels of Asian men for a different day.