By "you" I mean probably you; that is to say, someone who isn't from Korea and looks that way. The Korean word for "foreigner" is waegukin or waeguksaram, or literally translated, "person from not here." And it's a word that gets thrown around a lot, not like in America, where really almost everyone is a foreigner if you go back four or five generations. Children in particular are fond of pointing me out to their friends, parents, or people on the street and proclaiming "waegukin!" as if I need to be viewed immediately before I melt into the ground or vanish in a puff of pink butterflies or something. They might as well, I guess, since it's not considered particularly rude, and everyone knows that waegukin can't speak Korean, so really, what's the harm?
My favorites are probably the children that are still too young to fully articulate a sentence but old enough to know that I look different, perhaps fundamentally so, than they do. They've been the source of the best double-takes I've ever seen. I almost accidentally killed one kid in the food court when I stood up to put away my tray; he was so shocked to see me that he began choking on his kimchi. Another time involved a kid at the bakery who spun around for a second look so fast that the torque from his head pulled his whole body into a spin. He clearly hadn't been walking for too long and hadn't expected this contingency, so he fell on his face and started crying. His mom rushed over to gather him up, glaring at me while doing it, as if the whole thing had been my fault. I need to learn how to say "What, lady??" in Korean.
Of course, the attention is not limited to children. They're just the most obvious about it. Adults are also very interested in waegukin, but they know that they're not really supposed to be, so I find myself playing a bizarre game of Red Light Green Light whenever I'm in a public setting. They look at me, I look at them, they look away, I look away, we repeat. This happens most often at the grocery store, where my choice of food generates a surprising amount of interest. I haven't yet had anyone stick their head into my shopping cart yet, which happened to a co-worker, but I've seen many a neck craning over to catch a glimpse of my cereal or orange juice when I get to check out. Occasionally people forget what they're doing, too; I'm just waiting for the day when the person in front of me gets so out of sorts that they walk out of the store without their food. It'll happen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *A month ago I was downtown with some friends. One of them looked over my shoulder and said in an excited whisper, "Look! A midget!" I'll be honest - I snuck a glance. Of course, I immediately felt guilty, and still do, but I'll still probably do it again. I am sorry.
There are over 200 conditions that cause dwarfism, which is defined as simply being less than 4 feet 10 inches tall when fully grown. Dwarfism affects around 1 person in 19,000. Here in Gwangju, waegukin-ism affects 1 person in about 2,000, so we're more common than little people (the word "midget" is most decidedly not PC), but we're still an oddity, to be sure. Add to that the hillariously ironic inability of Koreans to tell white people apart - people have told me that I look like everyone from David Beckham to "Spiderman" - and all the staring ceases to be much of a surprise. I mean, if Tobey McGuire was in line behind you at the Safeway, you'd notice, right?
And you know what else? Waegukin are kinda goofy. We're too tall, we have big feet and wide eyes, and let's face it, sometimes we do silly things in public. No, this doesn't really excuse all the staring and whispering and pointing, but come on. From time to time, we deserve it.
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