Koreans can be refreshingly/disturbingly candid about a stranger's physical appearance...I knew that already, but had it reinforced today.
One of my co-teachers said that she had been called 'the ugly teacher' today by one of her kids, and I'm not sure but I think I may've gotten that once before myself...it's hard to tell sometimes what the kids are saying b/c of their accents...'ugly' could just as easily be 'angry' or 'crazy' (one of their favorite words b/c it's a curse word here in ROK) or a million other things. She didn't seem to care, and that's the right attitude to take.
My honor's kids love the fat jokes, and I don't really mind b/c it's not like it's a revelation to me, and I even encourage it sometimes, but if my skin wasn't kinda thick already (from all the fat, natch) it could get old, fast. Today we were talking about the innumerable ways in which a pencil is different from an eraser, and we were doing a Venn diagram on the board.
One of the smarter kids chimed in with the fact that pencils are 'not fat' (he later was introduced to the term 'thin') and that erasers are. I wrote 'thin' on one side of the diagram and then wrote under erasers on the other: 'fat like Wayne teacher.' They got a kick out of that.
But anyway as I was leaving class I said my usual 'goodbye munchkins' and the ones that like me said something to the same effect, and then as I was opening the door to walk out June-Sung, probably the brightest kid in the class, says 'Goodbye fat man.'
I did a double take, froze in my tracks, chuckled and then turned to him and tried to communicate that that wasn't the politest thing to say, all self-effacing and our congenial relationship aside. I'm not sure if it got through, but, well, welcome to Korea, baby, or rather: 'Fat Man.'
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