When Getting Used To A New Culture, Just Grin & Bare It

Yes, I meant to write that and, yes, I walked around naked in public.

Last week I tackled the cultural difference that I was most afraid of. Korea has "bath houses" everywhere which are basically half-spas/half-hostels. It costs less than $10 to get into one, you can stay as long as you want, and they're full of hot tubs, pools, saunas, food & drinks and rooms to sleep in. Sounds amazingly relaxing, right? The only catch is that you're not allowed to wear anything -- including bathing suits -- when you're in the hot tub area.

My friend and I had been putting this off since we got here but we finally decided to just go ahead and do it. Of course, making the decision to go was only half the battle. Once inside, we hung out in the coed saunas for a while (where you're allowed to wear clothes) but we knew that since we'd gotten so close, we couldn't leave without fully participating.

I came up with Plan A: Let's get in the hot tub with our clothes on and pretend we thought it was optional. However, that probably would've gotten us kicked out so my friend came up with Plan B: Just strip like we're supposed to and then don't look down. We went with Plan B.

We stood at the lockers giggling like idiots until our faces were the same color as the pink shirt I was supposed to be removing. Eventually we counted down and took everything off. We laughed the whole time and, as I often do when I'm laughing, I said I was going "pee my pants." I only realized the irony after I'd said it.

In the beginning, we were super awkward about everything. We laughed uncontrollably and tried to dart as quickly as possible from tub to tub whenever we switched. After a while though, we got over it. Looking back, it was just like getting used to any other cultural difference. At first it literally seems CRAZY but then you realize that, from the other point of view, your way seems just as ridiculous. People here can't imagine getting in the hot tubs with bathing suits on. It's amazing how much the environment you grow up in controls the way you think (a realization that I have a minimum of ten times a day when I'm living in a foreign country).

Conclusion: Whether you do it the Korean way or the American way, hot tubs are amazing! We're already planning our next trip to the bath house (and I have a feeling it's going to be my new favorite place to hang out)!

Student Ridiculousness Of The Week

During a game where one student describes the word and the rest guess:

Student 1: “Shannon Teacher is……”

Student 2 (Without missing a beat): “UGLY!”

….Correct Answer.

While reading a story about Helen Keller:

Me: "Why did Helen hug her teacher?"

Student: They're lesbians.

^And a kid in a different class said the exact same thing two days later.

I have tons of kids who have chosen the same English names so I have to use the first letter of their last names to separate them. My student, Justin G, on the other hand, keeps trying to call himself Justin J, Justin S or Justin L. He doesn't understand that you can't just pick the last letter.

One day, two of my students heard me whisper "Oh, shit!" when a drop of coffee burned me. They've since repeated it to me about a million times and once, when I walked into my class, they yelled, "Hey teacher! Today's lesson is (as they whipped up projector screen to reveal their writing on the chalkboard below)... 'Oh shet!'" ...At least they spelled it wrong.

Topic of the day: Hobbies. So I ask my kids, "What are my hobbies?" They start yelling, "Soccer! Dancing! Spanish!" (I'm shocked that they pay enough attention to know those things.) Then one girl yells "Taking care of your monkey!" (I should mention that there's a long-running joke in that class about me having a pet monkey that hits my students when they're bad). I about died.