Abroad
Reading Incestuous Amplification’s farewell post (hat tip to Big Ho) after his six and a half years in Korea led me to thinking about how I have sidled up to Korean culture in the last few months and presumed to comment on it. I came via some translated poems, and stayed to watch obliquely through the endoscope of a muddled internet ban.
It must seem outrageous. I’m not Korean, haven’t been to Korea, don’t even speak Korean. Good grief, I haven’t even met any Koreans. I should apologise for the presumption and desist forthwith.
Hang on, though. Is it so pointless, so unforgivable? Most people share these disqualifications. Wherever we live, most of the world’s population live abroad. Almost everyone has views on abroad; people pontificate; people vote, even without much hard fact to base it on. So how can we become more informed about a foreign country? (I’m taking it as given that we should.)
In my case, it’s not just Korea but most countries round the world about which I’m ashamed to say I’m profoundly ignorant. Even as a traveller, it’s possible to learn very little. Media reports, history and travel books, personal anecdotes, and the stuff of imagination in art, film, music, literature – who knows what shapes our understanding? Politics and religion (are the two ever far apart?) lurk beneath the surface of a lot of what passes for information. Can any source be unbiased? Every message signifies about the messenger. And the same message sounds different, depending on who’s listening.
The internet is a particularly seductive medium. Having happened across one blog by an expat American in Korea, just as my interest had been whetted by literature, I was captivated to read more. Well, of course you know – blogs have links, and you follow links to links (which is how I found Andi’s blog in the first place) and before you know where you are you’re deep in shit or shinja. Both are illuminating in their different ways.
But all of them* – the Americans, the Canadians, the Australians, the Finn – have a foreigner’s perspective. Some, like Robert Koehler and Jeff Harrison have been in Korea for years. Some are married to Koreans. Others come for a short time, working in the hagwons. Some are with USFK. They bring different prejudices – Republican, Democrat, liberal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Buddhist, atheist. Some have learned Korean, some are more sympathetic than others. Whatever. They see Korea perhaps as I might, through western eyes.
Western, egalitarian, anti-authoritarian – I have plenty of prejudices too. Ignorance is a pretty serious one. The worst will be those I have no inkling of. (Ahh, those unknown unknowns.)
And no qualifications in media studies or anthroplogy.
So what am I saying? An apologia rather than an apology. I claim no expertise, just an interest in finding out more, and trying to understand. Will try to write about it as long as the pain of confessing ignorance doesn’t get too tedious.
And if I get it wrong, which I'm bound to, please use the comment box. No point in parading my representative global ignorance if it goes unchallenged.
*(except for the two Koreans I’ve come across blogging in English, and one Korean inveterate commenter-on-blogs who doesn’t have his own)
It must seem outrageous. I’m not Korean, haven’t been to Korea, don’t even speak Korean. Good grief, I haven’t even met any Koreans. I should apologise for the presumption and desist forthwith.
Hang on, though. Is it so pointless, so unforgivable? Most people share these disqualifications. Wherever we live, most of the world’s population live abroad. Almost everyone has views on abroad; people pontificate; people vote, even without much hard fact to base it on. So how can we become more informed about a foreign country? (I’m taking it as given that we should.)
In my case, it’s not just Korea but most countries round the world about which I’m ashamed to say I’m profoundly ignorant. Even as a traveller, it’s possible to learn very little. Media reports, history and travel books, personal anecdotes, and the stuff of imagination in art, film, music, literature – who knows what shapes our understanding? Politics and religion (are the two ever far apart?) lurk beneath the surface of a lot of what passes for information. Can any source be unbiased? Every message signifies about the messenger. And the same message sounds different, depending on who’s listening.
The internet is a particularly seductive medium. Having happened across one blog by an expat American in Korea, just as my interest had been whetted by literature, I was captivated to read more. Well, of course you know – blogs have links, and you follow links to links (which is how I found Andi’s blog in the first place) and before you know where you are you’re deep in shit or shinja. Both are illuminating in their different ways.
But all of them* – the Americans, the Canadians, the Australians, the Finn – have a foreigner’s perspective. Some, like Robert Koehler and Jeff Harrison have been in Korea for years. Some are married to Koreans. Others come for a short time, working in the hagwons. Some are with USFK. They bring different prejudices – Republican, Democrat, liberal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Buddhist, atheist. Some have learned Korean, some are more sympathetic than others. Whatever. They see Korea perhaps as I might, through western eyes.
Western, egalitarian, anti-authoritarian – I have plenty of prejudices too. Ignorance is a pretty serious one. The worst will be those I have no inkling of. (Ahh, those unknown unknowns.)
And no qualifications in media studies or anthroplogy.
So what am I saying? An apologia rather than an apology. I claim no expertise, just an interest in finding out more, and trying to understand. Will try to write about it as long as the pain of confessing ignorance doesn’t get too tedious.
And if I get it wrong, which I'm bound to, please use the comment box. No point in parading my representative global ignorance if it goes unchallenged.
*(except for the two Koreans I’ve come across blogging in English, and one Korean inveterate commenter-on-blogs who doesn’t have his own)
1 Comments:
Your observation about most of the world’s population living abroad is so right on. It may also explain why so many of us are trying to claim a homestead out here in the wilds of the cyber frontiers. In that sense, you probably know that most people read blogs not so much for facts and expertise on a range of topics, but to experience a place or moments in time from someone else’s perspective. It’s not that we are voyeurs; it’s more that we love stories -- and lately, storytelling has found a new form in these blogs.
Your blog gave me a view of Korea from your perspective, but it also sent me meandering to others, where I learned such things that Korean women aren’t permitted to smoke in public.... Perhaps this doesn’t sound like much in terms of understanding Korean policies, but such small bits of information help expand an understanding of what it’s like to live “abroad.”
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