The Jindo National 'Cougar Show'

It’s amazing what can happen when you’re with a family and there’s no (or very little) mutual language… especially when you happen to be the minority. Such was the case for me over the past 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon I was placed with a homestay family. Families of the students in my school volunteered to host a teacher for one day. I was a little bit nervous, as I knew that English would be limited, but regardless, ventured to practice the 20 words I know in Korean.

I was assigned to Yu Jin (11), Kyong Min (6) and their parents. In Korea, you don’t say “Mr. or Mrs. Kim…” To show respect you call them “Yu Jin’s mother” or “Kyong Min’s father.” Thus, I still don’t know their names. Within the first 10 minutes, I knew I was in for an adventure… though English was limited, body language goes a long way.

Yu Jin’s mother informed me that after dinner we would go to the Jindo National Cougar Centre. Hmm, I thought, I didn’t realize Cougars were really that popular here, but when all the Korean you know is hello, goodbye, thank you, you’re welcome, again, be quiet, 1, 2, 3, 4… you don’t really ask about geographical displacement of animals. Upon arrival at their home, I was showed to my room: a vanity desk, a chair, a bathroom… but no bed. No problem, I kind of expected that, it’s quite typical of Koreans to sleep on the floor. Yu Jin’s mother, by way of charades, told me to take a shower then we would eat. I didn’t really think I needed a shower, but what else was I going to do while she cooked… watch her and smile? I took a shower. After dinner and picking up Yu Jin’s dad, we drove the one-hour to the small island of Jindo off the southern tip of Korea. I passed the time by competing with Kyoung Min as to who could blow a bigger bubble with the trident watermelon gum I brought. When we got there I realized I had interpreted wrongly, it was not a cougar show as I thought, but instead a Gugak Suchawa (I heard Cugah Sushow). The show was amazing! It was an arts performance of traditional Korean dance, songs, stories and instruments that lasted an hour and a half. We had front row seats. I'm so sorry I didn't take pictures, I tried but I was quickly reprimanded with very obvious body language from the usher. It was much better than a cougar show and I was not disappointed in the least! I was disappointed however that there was no one around to laugh with about the fact that I was so convinced we were going to a cougar show.

The Jindo National Gugak Centre with my home stay family:
Yu Jin (Girl), Kyong Min (Boy) and their parents 

Yu Jin's parents trying out the Maple Syrup.
That's a thumbs up sign from Yu Jin's dad! 

The rest of the evening, night and following day were filled with many smiles, some English, some Korean, and a lot of KonGlish. It turns out Yu Jin is quite the master at Kongi, a traditional Korean game and that Kyong Min is a good equal competitor for me as I am still learning. They were very excited for the maple syrup that my parents sent for them. “Delicious,” was the word they used to describe it. I look forward to going to church with them tomorrow morning.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you had no voice? I don’t even just mean physically, but even socially or culturally, do you remember a time when you just gave up trying to communicate because you knew that the others wouldn’t hear or they weren’t patient enough to understand? This weekend made me think of those in my community at home who are trying to communicate but I may not have the time or the patience to really understand them. These people are usually a minority in our society and tend to peer pressure because it’s way too much effort to communicate a different opinion. This person could even be you… though you may be a in family where you speak the same language, you feel like a little puppy dog, following everyone else around because it’s way too much energy to stop the situation, expect patience on all sides, and explain the details of what you really want and need. Contrarily, maybe you’re not the following puppy, but instead the farmer who has become so accustomed to the regular barking of the dogs to notice that there are different barking tones that could mean different things. It’s unrealistic to pinpoint who minority groups could be, because it changes based the social context. Possible minority groups could children, the elderly, foreigners, the locals, Christians, non-Christians, women, men, the educated, the uneducated… Who does not have a voice in your community and what can you do to change that? In which situations do you find yourself without a voice and what could you do to change that?