Still Learning

One of the most interesting things about working in an international environment is that you never stop learning about other cultures. Today, I felt like a fool because I had no idea about something that a student presented in class. Our school is about 22% Korean. The Korean's are always taking about the Japanese in such a hateful manner, but I never fully understood until today.

I never even knew that Japan annexed Korea and took their resources. They exported tons of rice and took over lands. I never knew they tried to eliminate Korean culture and put so many people into forced labor. They made the Koreans change their names to Japanese surnames. I didn't know that they forced so many of the women to be "comfort women" for the Japanese troops. How could I not know such shocking things? I always hate when I have these moments where I realize how limited or perhaps, narrow, my education has been, especially in the area of history. I know so little of Asian or African history. Let's not even talk about my geography skills!

So, it's interesting because my students educate me, and they keep me on my toes. It's interesting to hear their perspectives on things and to learn about their values, beliefs, etc. Here's another example, we were talking about something like superstitions or ghosts in my American literature class. The Kazakh students started telling me about little hairy gnome-like creatures that they all have as protectors. They really believed it. They were telling me how the creature stays with you at night and protects the house. One girl even said she saw hers sitting on her bed. I'd never heard of something like this before. Supposedly, the Kazakh people have lots of things like this. This is why I always ask the kids about things in their culture because I never know what I might hear.

Another interesting thing - food tastes. The other day our nanny's friend Alonya(whom we work with) brought us a huge gallon jar of honey to bring back to our nanny. We brought it to her and she was telling us all about it. Apparently, you can buy it from a car that drives around. She told us that the store-bought honey we bought was really bad. Now, that store-bought honey was just like what we have in the U.S. However, the honey she had was more like liquid sugar. It was thick and crystallized. She spooned some out for all of us to try. Then, she filled up a tuperware container for us. Now, how much honey does a person eat? Maybe a teaspoon on its own. Maybe a teaspoon in tea. No joke, when we got home, at least a half cup of honey was gone! Who eats that much honey? They do apparently. She says they eat it all the time for health as it's full of micronutrients. Definitely different from us, I think.

Sometimes I forget all the interesting little details.