After I arrived in Korea, I had to take the airport bus from the airport and get off at the station close to my friend's house. I was suppose to get off at Sadang station but once I got on the bus, I realized that I wouldn't know which station was Sadang. I was going to rely on any signs in English but when the bus reached its first stop, I couldn't see any English signs. So I turned to the lady sitting next to me, pointed to outside and said, "...Sadang?" Add nervous laughter.
The lady first spoke to me in Korean. After I gave indication that I couldn't understand her (more nervous laughter and head shaking), she then spoke to me in Japanese. Being that Korea, Seoul in particular, is a popular traveling spot for Japanese tourists (especially after the Korean Wave), I wasn't too surprised. And then, she said something that I didn't understand. After I went, "Huh?", she then spoke to me in English. Then I was surprised.
She told me it wasn't Sadang yet; later when it turned out that she was getting off before me, she talked to the guy next to her and told me that he was getting off at Sadang as well, and she had asked him to tell me when the bus came to the right stop. When we reached Sadang, the guy gestured me to follow him to the front of the bus and asked me where my duffel bag was. I pointed to it and was about to reach for it when he grabbed it and carried it off the bus for me. At that moment, after coming back from the rude-fest that was Shanghai, I thought, "Holy crap, Koreans are hella nice!"
However, later that week when I met up with some friends and relayed this story back to them, they told me that actually wasn't the case and that I was just really lucky. Ha.
My first meal in Korea.
I I thought this was amusing because I never saw someone eating on the job before, especially at a restaurant.
I went to Lotte World, an amusement park in Seoul, with some friends from UoP a couple days later but I have a lot of photos from that day so I'll put them up next post.
Before I finish, there was something amusing that happened in all my trips (or just my stay here in Asia) that I thought I'd share. When I was in Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul, everyone assumed I was a local, and I still get it now here in Japan. Even back in the States, people normally assumed I was (and I swear it's in this order almost every time) Chinese, Japanese, and then Korean. Even Vietnamese people don't always get it right. When I first met one of my friends, she did a double-take when she overheard me talking to my mom on the phone, and later told me, "Yeah, I was thinking, how is this girl speaking my language??" While I was traveling, after realizing I wasn't a local, people's next go-to would be Japanese, and then blank stare.
Back home, it never really bothered me how people kept confusing my ethnicity; since there are so many different Asians around, I could understand how it could be confusing. In fact, I actually take some pride in being able to identify who's who. But once I got to Asia, as naive and ignorant as it was, I guess I just assumed that the locals would be able to identify their own. Which actually brings me to another story.
When I was at the Expo, I was going around the little shop stalls they had in the African Pavilion and was surprised and delighted to hear the African shopkeepers speaking Chinese fluently. Even the Chinese were getting a huge kick out of it, going up to talk to them just to hear them say hi. Anyway, I was looking at some jewelry when a shopkeeper started talking to me in Chinese:
Me: I'm sorry, I can't speak Chinese.
Shopkeeper: You can't speak Chinese.
Me: Yeah, I'm not Chinese.
Shopkeeper: Why can't you speak Chinese?
Me:...Because I'm not Chinese. I'm American.
I later came back to his stall again and he prodded me some more.
Shopkeeper: How come you don't want to study Chinese?
Me: ...Er, well, I'm not Chinese. I'm Vietnamese-American.
Shopkeeper: But why do you not want to study Chinese?
Me: Wha- I'm not Chinese! I'm Vietnamese.
He then gave me this look like he didn't believe me, and I thought, 'Why would I lie??'
I remember in my Cross-Cultural Training class, they told us about the concept of Visibility and Invisibility when people go abroad. The concept being basically that if you're a Caucasian staying in an Asian country, you'll never quite blend in (Visible). On the other hand, if you look Asian and are staying in an Asian country, you'll blend in quite well (Invisible). It was naive of me to think otherwise, but it seems like no matter where I am in Asia, I'll always be invisible. But I've always thought some Asian countries have very distinct physical features (i.e. when someone says, "She has a very Korean face."), with there being exceptions of course. I guess I just have a rather ambiguous Asian face?
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