A Genuine Question
“Tim has been watching Sally very closely, and is staring to become concerned about her. Sally transferred to Tim’s department last year but has been having trouble getting along with her coworkers. Tim has also noticed that she always eats lunch alone, and is usually quiet at her desk. Tim thinks about this, and realises that it could be because Sally is one of the only women in his department. Most of the other employees are men, and the majority of their conversation topics relate to male topics like dating women. Realising that Sally might be lonely, Tim suggests that they start having lunch together. How is Sally most likely to respond?”
This isn’t the question in…er…question, but one from the chapters of the listening book I teach to prepare 재수 students for retaking the dreaded University entrance exam at the end of the year. I confess, I didn’t feel like carrying the textbook with the original home, nor needlessly photocopying the relevant page (I am at least a minimalist environmentalist), so that quotation may not be 100% accurate. I’ve taught the &*^%ing thing 12 times to 12 groups of 50 students though, so I think it’s pretty damn close. The right answer is “Thanks, that would be great” by the way.
Amongst other things, when I go over this question I point out that dating isn’t a “male topic,” so I’m sure that the authors meant the way men talk about it rather than dating per se. Thinking about that when I was preparing my lesson plan for this chapter ages ago, I vaguely recalled an article from the (then new) Australasian version of FHM that I read before I left NZ in 2000 (looks like there’s a seperate NZ version now), which talked about recent sexual discrimination cases and what was and wasn’t becoming acceptable and/or a fireable offense at Western workplaces. This gave me an idea, the only satisfaction I get from my job, after all, being the piles of money I make chance to explain things like the differences between Korean and Western culture, that Western culture isn’t quite like what they see on TV, and that assuming all Western countries are exactly like America is like me assuming Korea is exactly like Japan (oh, they just loooove that last bit). Seriously, a good 5 out of every 50 students in my classes are these days are at least awake these days, so I may be lighting a spark here and there….
The idea I came up with was that I would explain the answer by drawing cartoon men on the blackboard talking about “쭉쭉빵빵”s and S-lines etc., which always gets a few laughs (mostly because they’re suprised I know those very Korean terms), and having done that tell them that I don’t know about Korea (always wise for foreigners like myself, who have a habit of telling Koreans their country’s bad points) but that in contrast to questions like “Are you married?” that women were asked in the 1970s, which gives me a chance to talk about Scandanavia, maternity leave, paternity leave, the male-breadwinner model of social welfare in Chaebol…anything I damn well like really…after which I eventually explain that in this case Sally got the job and got promoted, but the atmosphere was arguably discriminatory, and that if Tim was a wise boss, he would tell his male employees to STFU, and pronto. So…in the future if you young innocent 19 year-olds work in a Western country and/or Western company in Korea, don’t even think about talking like that (or tolerating it) there. Thank you very much.
But I am ahem..making it all up…I can’t remember that FHM magazine, the source to turn to on sexual discrimation, and I’ve never had a proper job, let alone worked in a Western country for the past 7 years. But I couldn’t care less…if any of you have a problem with this scandalous misinformation I’m giving my students, please let me know. Or alternatively, please answer this genuine specific question™ I have:
I demonstrate what is and isn’t acceptable in Western workplaces by saying that my male colleagues are cool guys (also wise to say), but that the wallpapers on their laptops may raise an eyebrow outside of Korea. I apolgise, I don’t have the pictures themselves, but these ones below are similar to what I see when I walk in the staffroom, and have been sitting in my C drive for a while waiting for a chance to express themselves, so they’ll do, yes? So, for the sake of my students’ education, please tell me: would any of these wallpapers get you in trouble back home?
The first two are from here, which is entitled ”뿔테안경에 배꼽티하나 입었을뿐인데..섹시하다~”, or “Only wearing Volte glasses and a croptop… sexy~.” Indeed. I’d love to give you her name, but MSN Korea doesn’t give you it, so she’s merely “glasses and navel girl” to me…oh well, if I can’t be objective on the blog, then I can at least be objectifying.
I came across this next picture of 장윤주/Jang Yun-Ju all over the Korean internet in early August, so I was suprised to find that it dates back to February. Like the Marmot said back then, she’s one of the few Korean models who actually looks Korean and appears happy to do so, rather than desperately trying to look caucasian like 95% of her counterparts clearly want to. If that’s news to you, see the Yangpa here, who explains this issue sooo much better than I ever could. In the meantime, I like Korean women that look Korean too (you may have noticed), so I applaud Jang in her efforts and want to support them as much as I can; if you can think of any other ways to do so other than putting up more pictures of her in a bikini and/or lingerie in the future, don’t let me know. More pictures (some NSFW) here, here, here and here.
Finally, a picture of 하지원/Ha Ji-Won, taken from here. Never noticed her wearing a cross before, I can’t think why. Seriously though, is it just me, or have crosses been really popular items of jewelry this summer?
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Glasses girl, probably no. The other ones, it would depend what kind of office you work in. Sports office(?) maybe ok, another office (teacher, civil servant, bank etc.) not cool. Though I’m not particularly offended by any of these images, were I to see them as someone’s desktop I’d be quick to make some pretty firm conclusions about that person’s character.
BTW what’s 쭉쭉빵빵???
Thanks, Anne. I guessed as much, I was really just looking for an excuse to do some spring cleaning of my ‘Favorites’ menu.
The “쭉” in 쭉쭉빵빵 seems to mean many things, but all seem to mean deeply, or long, or straight. For instance, you can say “쭉 드세요”, which means take a deep drink, and it’s not rude or anything. In this case, it means a tall, slim woman with long legs, and the “빵” literally means bread, which I suppose can look like the bulge of a woman’s breasts at the front and of her buttocks at the back.
So there you have it. It’s largely been replaced by the term “S-line” these days, which if you can’t make head or tail of (har-har), then visualising 쭉쭉빵빵 from the side helps. God knows why someone, somewhere in Korea thought a new term was needed. I’m pretty sure that “hourglass figure,” for instance, has been in use pretty much since…well, since hourglasses were invented, and the term still seems to do the job even though few of us have hourglasses anymore.
All of these would be in poor taste in my office (government or corporate). I did a test though, and seeing as how you’re a Kiwi and all of the Kiwi’s I’ve met are pretty damn cool, I’ll tell you about it.
I put a picture similar to glasses girl on my desktop…and waited. It was in a place where there was a lot of foot traffic. In about 15 mins, someone notified my supervisor and I quickly removed it. All of the girls in the office were out doing something, so it had to be a guy. Amazing! I next put up some weightlifter with his shirt off, drinking a bottle of water. No one, for two days said anything. The girls said a few colorful things, but no complaints. I took it down in favor of a blank screen.
Moral: There’s someone a bit sweet in my office and I think it’s the grumpy old Marine dude.
Also, I don’t think that’s Ha Ji Won. Her face doesn’t look right and the she (unless she’s had surgery) is far from busty. I’m pretty sure that is someone else.
And don’t stop posting those artistic pictures of girls in bikinis or Lee Hyori.
Thanks for the test! That a man complained reminded me of how ultra-PC Western countries and especially America are these days, but how Korea is the exact opposite, which can be very refreshing but certainly has it’s bad points. I can still understand why someone would complain about having photos like those on computers at work for instance, and it’s telling that no women at my work complains about them, or has the gumption to put up pictures of guys themselves, and I don’t think my workplace is unrepresentative in this regard.
But I confess, I’m a bit hypocritical, as like Ann too if I saw pictures like this on a colleague’s desk I wouldn’t (and don’t) have a high opinion of his character or maturity either, although I’d never complain about it in a million years…but of course it’s perfectly okay to put them on a blog about Korean social issues, yes?
You’re right about Ha Ji Won. I’m quite a fan, so I’m embarassed to admit that I took a closer look at the original site and it turns out that she’s merely a University student who resembles her. Big apologies all round folks. Next time I find something of Lee Hyori’s that I like I make sure to put it up to make up for it, although to be honest I’m finding some of the looks in her recent photoshoots simply bizarre, and wish she’d admit to herself that she’s a very attractive woman in her late-twenties, rather than trying so hard to look like she’s still 21 that she puts an inch of make-up on before shoots.
I suspected the girl in the picture wasn’t 하지원 (who I’m a fan of and am blessed to have once seen her in the flesh) so I followed the link. Maybe you missed the caption of this picture. It says “하지원닮은여대생” or “female university student who resembles Ha Ji-won.”
Read comment 4, but thanks anyway!
sorry mate, didn’t get to the last paragraph first time round. my bad. Though I must say that the resemblance is certainly striking if you avoid looking at the face. Cheerio