...straight from the horses mouth
One thing I thouroughly enjoy about teaching in Korea is hearing Korean's opinions on why things are the way they are. Let me explain. Yesterday, I taught my new adult class for the first time. Because it was my first class we chatted about basic things like family, Valentine's Day and food. Two of my students said their favorite Korean food was dog soup and snake soup. Neither of these sound apetizing to me in any capacity and the one time I actually ate rattle snake I threw up...so, I asked why is it so wonderful? Is it the taste or is it medicinial or what exactly? Well, Eric told me that it is both and helps for the sake of "male strength", and Sean said, yes, for "male stamina".
From talking with other foreign teachers, it seems that there is an infinite list of ingestibale things that enhance male stamina, and by stamina, I don't think they mean exactly how many pushups, situps and pullups one can do... So I asked my students, what about female stamina? What about the other half of the human race? Well, they basically said, Kroean women are born strong and don't need food for their stamina and that men are born weak and need to eat certain foods for their stamina. I was apprehensive to continue with the conversation but decided to forge on ...I asked, "so if Korean men need to eat certain foods for their stamina, does that mean Korean men have a history problems in this particular department". The guys laughed, the women blushed and one guy said, "yes sometimes at night I have some problems with my stamina" and another guy said, "I'm not sure about my stamina, I am not married".
This is one example of many awkward and funny conversations I have with my students. Today, my middle school class was writing letters to imaginary penpals about their families, their cities and Korean in general. All six of them didn't write positive things about Korea, they all wrote about how it's dirty and how Koreans stink like garlic, onions and kimchi. I had a chuckle since I've almost bit it on the treadmill numerous times due to someone's awful oder on the machine next to mine.
Ahh, the innocent honesty of my students whether their 14 or 29...gotta love it sometimes.
somebody told me that women eat lots of seaweed after giving birth because it will give them their strength back... and on your birthday you get seaweed soup because it will make you strong... i know it's not stamina but... and a couple of korean women actually mentioned to me today that only men eat dog and snake... now it makes sense!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know about stamina because I'm not married....I am dying of giggles. I miss youuuuuuuuuuu!
ReplyDeletehahahahaha. actually i love dog soup...gross i know but it's tasty. and seaweed soup is actually good for you because the seaweed is an organic food for healthy blood circulation.
ReplyDeletenow, about that male stamina....
dude that sucks for the men.....but if you think about it, asian women are hot and everyone wants to sleep with one because there's a stereotype that they're kinky?? (ok just my ex-boyfriend thinks that) and asian men....well i've never really heard anyone who had this big thing for asian men. and there is some rumor about their size...supposedly small??? i have no experience in that department......
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