Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Office Etiquette

So, this is a story about something I love about Korea. Today, I am tired. I'm not entirely sure why I am so tired, but I am incredibly tired. People here don't sleep as much as we do in America (8 hours is prime, all that jazz), but they are constantly in motion. I find that really interesting. Anyway, I walked in from lunch, and my head teacher has just got his head laid on his desk, passed out asleep. Now, in America, we'd be like "Whoa, look at him, he's sleeping at work." Here, no big deal. People just see it as a normal thing- if you're tired and you aren't needing to be in class at that moment, just sleep! I have to say that I really like this on days like today. I was sleeping at my desk about 10 minutes ago, for about 15 minutes. It was great, and it gave me the energy I needed to keep going with my day! It's so funny how different things become "bad etiquette" in some form or fashion in given cultures and not in others. For example, I can sleep at my desk here, but I wouldn't dare hand someone money with my left hand. I can eat off of other people's dishes at a restaurant together, but if I wore my shoes into the house....wrong. That would be just wrong.
So there's my little thought of the day. I love that I can sleep at my desk when I'm tired here. One thing that I do NOT love about "proper etiquette" here is the fact that chewing with your mouth open and making noise while you eat is no big deal. I know that in some cultures, the louder you are when you eat it, the better it is. Well, that's not the case here. And yet, people still chew obnoxiously loud while eating anything and everything. And we eat a lot here...I feel like when I'm around Koreans, I'm constantly eating. So the fact that my biggest pet peeve EVER is mouth noises, I am really being tested here.
By the way, I believe you are seeing the effects of that cat nap I took at my desk...my thoughts are a little scatter brained here, and I do apologize for that! Anyway, I should probably go now and do something productive with my time...but I hope you've enjoyed my rant about etiquette and some of its entities here in Korea. As I type this, the lady across from me is picking stuff out of her teeth. Yum. Ok, gotta go. Have fun reading!

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