Scary

Of the TOP 10 WORST THINGS that have happened to me in Korea, this is probably one of the top 3.

Today at 9 a.m., as I was walking to meetup with my language tutor, I saw a bunch of political campaigners promoting one of the candidates running for office. It’s crazy here with these upcoming elections (which are tomorrow, Wednesday). Trucks drive around with the candidate’s face plastered on the side blaring music that is mostly just the candidate’s name with background music. Sometimes it can be quite annoying, especially when two dueling ones cross one another.

In addition there are also throngs of people who stand in lines outside subway stops and other high traffic areas handing out the candidates’ cards, sometimes bowing at people as they exit/ enter the subway. They all wear the same colored shirts or big vests of pastel blue, green, yellow, pink, etc. Sometimes they wear white gloves. Or masks–once I saw a big clown masked person dancing and another had a giant bird head on. Definitely inspires you to vote for that candidate.

A lot of times these campaigners also dance. Sometimes in the truck while it is driving around, sometimes standing still.

This morning I saw some of these people in blue so I decided to stop and try and video them to post on my blog like my buddy Jennifer did. This was a bad decision.

Immediately after I crossed the street one of the women in blue ran up to me and asked me why I took a photo. I told her I didn’t speak Korean. Mistakenly in Korean. She kept demanding answers from me. She started yelling. And when I tried to walk away she grabbed my arm.

This attracted a few others. Who also started yelling at me. And grabbing onto me. So much so that when I tried to run away from them (which was difficult because I was at a crosswalk and you know how often those lights change) there were three people with their arms holding onto me preventing me from moving. It was like a scene out of Jerry Springer.

They wanted me to delete the video/photo. I did. I tried to show it to them that I deleted it. But to no avail. They yelled at me asking me where I was from. I told them I was American so they asked for my passport. I told them I didn’t have my passport. More people came over. Lots more stared. No one helped.

I explained I was late for an appointment. But now, in retrospect, I think that the more Korean I spoke the more it hurt me. (Will explain why later.) I was getting desperate. This was ridiculous. Never in a million years would anyone in the U.S. grab onto your arm (or anywhere on your body) and prevent you from moving. That would be considered assault.

An old dark man grabbed onto my bag and wouldn’t let go. When I tried to pry his fingers off of it he looked really angry and started yelling at me. I know in Korea this is not at all acceptable behavior; you cannot challenge or overstep an older person. It was horrible. He wasn’t wearing a blue shirt; he may have been the truck driver.

They wouldn’t listen to me. We weren’t communicating at all. I was getting late for my meeting. I phoned my social worker and asked her where she was. I knew she’d be on her way into work right down the street. Luckily she was right at the subway a few steps away.

She calmly came over and spoke to the people in blue. She explained that I was an American, an adoptee through Holt, which was why I didn’t speak Korean. She said since I was a foreigner I was just curious about the election; what they were doing.

She explained to me that their candidate was #1 right now and there were a lot of illegal things going on, whatever that means. I don’t know nor do I want to know. In the end they ended up apologizing. But still, what was done was done. A big cultural misunderstanding.

It was incredibly scary and overwhelming. Not being able to defend myself made me feel so helpless. What if my social worker wasn’t there? It’s hard enough to speak Korean in calm no pressure moments, a million times harder in stressful situations. (Which seem like the ones I need the language the most, right?)I’d probably be at the police station now if it weren’t for my social worker being there at that moment.

Through conversations with my language tutor about this, here’s what I can gather happened.

They thought I was from an opponent’s campaign videoing them to bring to the opponent. For what reason I really have no idea. They didn’t believe me that I didn’t speak Korean; they thought that was part of my act, my plan to thwart them and get top secret information whatnot.

In retrospect, it is kind of funny. They thought I was so Korean I couldn’t possibly be a foreigner. (Ha!) This is probably why Jennifer could easily video another candidate; she’s White so obviously (to them) she’s just taking it for her own personal interest, not to foil the opponent.

Also funny is that the woman initially yelling at me was wearing this blue mask with fake feathers all around her face designed to look celebratory. But her eyes were so angry.

What does it mean that I am getting able to see the humor in these horrible situations that happen to me?