Because We Can't Understand

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I sometime get frustrated. I mean miming all day gets exhausting, but I feel proud that I'm making an effort, too many expat teachers make comments like "Man, Korean culture is weird, look how hard they're trying to be normal". Cultures that we can't communicate with fully are cultures that we can't even begin to understand and appreciate. I feel like most expats feel superior to Koreans because we have English, but Koreans have such a wonderful rich culture that has many more subtlies than English. I guess that what I'm trying to express in this non flowing rant is that Koreans have a hugely rich culture that many expats aren't even trying to get to know. My co-teacher explained to me that Koreans even have emotions that those in the Western world know nothing about. These emotions have no English translations and Scarlett(my co-teacher) thinks that they are concepts English people might not even fully be able to understand.

Han: “Han” is a negative emotional state caused by something outside the individual’s direct control. It is a way for Korean society to make peace with the humiliating injustices they have suffered as the perpetual younger brother of Asian nations around them, particularly Japan and China. One example that was given how Koreans were forced to send their wives to be with Chinese soldiers during times the Chinese were at war. “Han” was a way to internalize emotions without resorting to violence or hatred, which also binds them as a society. It is the suffering of injustice in silence.

Here's a quote about Han that I stole from a friend's facebook account.

"But more exactly, what is 'han'? One scholar calls it a 'feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong -- all these combined' (Nam-dong:55-72 quoted in Yoo:221).

Cheong: “Cheong” is a positive emotion which can be likened to “love”. But it is a culturally significant term which describes Korea. Koreans are extremely shy at first, but once they have shared experience with someone, they feel bonded (note how collective “han” can bring about “cheong”, the same way two people fall in love after being trapped in an elevator for two 3 days). This explains how a Korean will always talk about “our country’, “”our family”, or even “our wife”, instead of using the pronoun “my”.

These are two little nuts of Korean culture that will crack open Korean behavior for an expat.