Natalie White, aka PumaShock, on Star King

I got the video link to this yesterday. Someone asked me if I knew about it. Outside of my first year in South Korea, I never got in the habit of watching Korean TV shows. Plus, when this was all getting stirred up I was getting ready to move and when she was on the show I was back in the States.

This is the background story. There is a San Francisco based singer songwriter who goes by the name of PumaShock. Her real name is Natalie White. She's also a black American. She started putting up videos of her singing some of her favorite Korean pop songs: Natalie's YouTube Channel. Koreans took notice. There was a scandal when Taeyeon from a group called Girls' Generation said something like Ms. White was pretty for a black girl. (video link) Oooops! I'm not even going to touch that because after years of living in it I will get angry if I dwell on it. Plus, it's hard to get into someone's head. Maybe it was an innocent faux pas or maybe she is a blockhead. Either way, Ms. White is the focus here.

Anyway, it worked out for Ms. White that she got on Star King and seems to be on a marvelous PR junket in Seoul. She's meeting people in entertainment and, since that's what she wants to do, I say good on her. Here are the videos of her appearance on Star King.

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Cultural Dimwittedness

This happens with too much frequency in Seoul, but this time it happened in a place of business after I went there to indulge myself.

Today I finally got my new fillings put in today. Ouch!!! As a treat, I figured I'd go to treat myself to a high calorie meal. There is a place called the Smokey Saloon in the Itaewon district of Seoul that has great burgers. It's not even close to a saloon, but just a small and dark restaurant with a few seats and a great selection of gourmet style burgers. I actually don't eat burgers that much, but this place has a great one with avocado or guacamole. I can't recall which, I just recall it was great.

I get there and I notice it has the same facade as a place that just opened down the hill from where I live. Then I realize that new place is a new location of this restaurant. Okay, cool...great burgers are even closer now. I say something to the waiter in English. He looks at me, grumbles, pushes the menu my way and walks away. As he's walking away I can see him talking to the cook who is a Filipina. I ask her point blank "did he just walk away from me?" She explained that he didn't speak English and, I guess, that was supposed to be an excuse for acting like a jerk. I explained that even if he doesn't speak English it was extremely rude to stomp off like that and that I would respond in kind by walking out. This happens with a fair amount of frequency, but usually the person isn't rude. Even when they're not rude I find it presumptuous and irritating, but they're probably right in their assumption most of the time and I have to admit that much.

What's funny is this. I speak enough Korean to place a food order in Korean. I can even order over the phone for Korean delivery. I put that level of language skill at survival level as you've got to figure out what to say when you want to eat. However, this guy, being a dimwit simply assumed I couldn't speak his language at all and chose to be rude. Now I could have made a big deal about it, switched languages, made a scene and called him out on it but, I just didn't care too. I figured walking out and never going back would be the best option. What makes it funny is, like I said, this is in Itaewon. Itaewon is the foreign district of Seoul. Most people can speak at least a little English and, if they don't, they're, at least, nice about it.

So be careful if you go to the Smokey Saloon location in Itaewon early on a Tuesday evening. You might end up getting snubbed because the help simply assumes you don't speak Korean.

Now it's dinnertime. Instead I went to Ho Lee Chow where they're always nice to me and which is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Seoul.

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U.S. High-Schoolers Get First Anglo Teacher of Korean

This is a great story. L.A. has its first Anglo-American teaching Korean in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Not much else to add as the article covers the story well.

U.S. High-Schoolers Get First Anglo Teacher of Korean

David Hanes has become the first Anglo-American to teach Korean to Korean-American students at high school. He is to start teaching at Los Angeles High School.

Hanes passed the Korean teacher examination administered by the California state government last year. He arrived in Korea last week to attend a training Course for Korean language teachers in the U.S. co-hosted by the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture in the U.S.A, the International Korean Language Foundation and the Ewha Humanities Center at Ewha Womans University.

“I’m going to teach a class for second- to fourth-generation Koreans who can speak little Korean and hope to teach advanced Korean in the future,” Hanes told the Chosun Ilbo. “I’m a bit worried that Korean-American students will form a low opinion of me if my Korean’s not good.”

Hanes, who became interested in Korea when he lived in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, started learning the language at the Korean Cultural Center six years ago. Now he has a teacher’s certificate himself.

Ailee Moon, the president of the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture in Los Angeles, says, “The Korean teacher examination is so difficult that even Korean-Americans often fail. It’s really great that Hanes as a foreigner passed the examination.”

Hanes likes foreign languages. He majored in Russian at UC Santa Cruz and went on to get a Spanish teacher’s certificate. Ten years ago, he started learning Chinese, and now he also has a Chinese teacher’s certificate.

He is learning about contemporary Korean society by reading books and watching Korean soaps since teachers have to cover politics, economics, society and culture in Korean class at U.S. schools. “Lately I’ve been reading the Korean comic book ‘Kid Gang.’ I want to set an example for other foreign teachers as the first non-Korean teacher, and I hope many others will follow suit.”

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