I was prepared for Koreans to not be interested in talking to strangers. I was resigned or at least expecting to mainly talk to fellow travelers. One of my great joys and indeed reasons for my traveling, maybe for my living, is talking to strangers and learning a little more about how others see the world. I think now that not talking to strangers is more a Korean to Korean thing? As a foreigner, I get a special pass.
Koreans and travelers in general have been helping us at every step. They show us how to use the subway ticket machines, how to order dinner, what to order, bring us a coin we have dropped, offer us a seat, etc. But this AM we had our first conversation,
The conversation was very wide ranging. I won’t be able to cover all the points now. I want to get this page updated and give the young man, who I will call Mr Hostel, a link to it via tompears.com. I have not linked these Korean pages into my web site until now. What that means, and this is my normal trick, is that the pages have been live, my family or anyone can see them, but you have to have the URL. You can’t get to them by clicking on tompears.com links. That changes as of this moment. Kim has not yet approved the other pages and I am sure there will be many “corrections” once she takes the time to focus.
Mr Hostel’s english was so good that we often missed subtle connections. He did at one point use the word Eastern to describe us and I picked it up, reused it because of course we live East of here. But indeed it was just his mistake and he corrected himself to refer to us a Westerners. I only mention that because it is the kind of thing that most foreign speakers would not do, pick up and correct in mid conversation. Mr. Hostel, as I have said, is on for 5 days. He goes home in the morning? and returns later in the day and spends the night on premises though we are told that he is only available before 11pm and after 5 am.
Mr Hostel learned his English from the TV, sitcoms. Kim will remember his favorites, that he watched over and over. I think he said Sex in the City was not one of his favorites and he did not know The Soprano’s. Kim spent a fair amount of time talking asking about how religious are the Korean people. Mr. Hostel, before expressing any opinions asked if we were religious. After we emphatically said no, he and Kim agreed they were both Atheists. He had pictures of cult meetings and Kim spoke about the God Squad reenactment we had seen yesterday, a man being whipped on a cross and another man yelling into the microphone about how to save your soul. Thought he was speaking in English!! Kim mentions Sun Young Moon and Mr. Hostel was able to recognize the name once he had googled it.
We touched on the appearance and frame of mind of young women. He felt that the reason they seemed so infantile was that they had been spoiled as children. They sometimes wear very short fluffy skirts. He said that showing of legs was not normally sexual to Korean men but that the same was not at all true for any reveling of the top. He often insisted that Seoul, just like New York, was a gathering place for all the strange people in Korea.
We talked about our next 4 days on Jeju island. Kim mentioned biking. After we cleared up the distinction between motor biking dnd peddle biking, Mr. Hostel wanted us to understand that the island is really quite large.