When is it due?

There are many things that annoy me about Korea.
I hate the staring, I find that extremely frustrating and rude. I also think it is something one can never get used to. I have been stared at for nearly 5 years and it still drives me insane. I understand their curiosity but I wish, like home, they were taught that staring is rude. I remember sitting on the subway once and a mum actually encouraged her child to look at me.

*possible translation “Hey son, look at the waygook (translation- foreigner in Korean), look at her isn’t she different, isn’t she strange? It’s ok you can point!”

I hate the treatment of animals. My opinions on this subject are, apparently, controversial and I understand that western treatment of animals is also horrific and something I find hard to deal with, but in Korea ...somewhere I have lived for almost 5 years, I still cannot handle their superiority complex when it comes to what we know as ‘pets.’
I hate that they cough up phlegm and spit, yet it is rude to blow your nose at a restaurant! When I lived in my last apartment in Changwon all I heard, every day, was phlegm being coughed up; GROSS!

I hate the insulting ‘fat’ comments. Korea I am not fat, obese, pregnant or slightly overweight I am normal, average and acceptable by western standards.

In 2010 I lost quite a bit of weight. Weight that I put down to, being in a burdensome relationship! I left that relationship, of which I had spent 2.5 years of my Korean experience unhappily in, and suddenly I was ‘slim.’ I was never fat but I was definitely ‘growing wider.’ When I arrived in Korea in 2007 I was ushered out of numerous stores, as were a handful of my friends, because we were ‘big size’ This shocked my father, who I recently told but will not shock anyone who has been to Korea. I was British size 12 and therefore relatively average in the U.K, no one would pigeon hole me as ‘big size’ but compared to Koreans I am definitely tipping the scales. The majority of Asian women are noticeably tiny. Their legs are half the size of my arms and they have significantly narrower hips than the average western woman. We have curvaceous bodies which we have no problem in flaunting and enjoying whilst home but in Korea I became really conscious of my size. It is not just the ‘get out of this shop since you are too fat to fit in anything’ demand but the stares and giggles. I had numerous young students who said I was fat, asked if I was pregnant and one even wrapped her fingers around my leg in curiosity of the sheer size of my thigh!

I got angry and, she never did that again!

I realize now that my quick tempered reactions were because I was unhappy with my body and being pointed out about it by 12 year olds is not a comfortable situation to be in!
However, I do not justify the Korean attitude to weight . It comes down to ignorance, black women have beautiful curvaceous bodies with the well known ‘booty’ and it is pure ignorance to jot this down as ‘fat’ or ‘oops too many hamburgers!’

Since 2007, things have changed I am fortunate to be around to watch the development (or one would say regression) of this society! I have not been thrown out of a store for a few years now, unfortunately this is not down to education, this is down to unhealthy exportation.
Korea has a McDonalds on every main street corner, they have numerous pizza restaurants including the American Pizza hut and Dominoes. Every supermarket: Emart, Lotte and Homeplus (which is a Tesco owned supermarket) has a pizza point, at which you can buy a HUGE pizza for the family to take home fresh. The pricing is of course reasonable and let’s be honest, with a family to feed who wouldn’t love the convenience of not having to cook, not having to do dishes and keeping the husband and kids smiling from ear to ear?

The sad reality is however, that this trend in fast food and take away consumption is growing...and so are the Koreans!
Whether I feel slim next to the Korean on the bus or not, the attitude is still pretty prevalent. Not long ago I went for a health check.These themselves are questionable to foreigners, the very fact that a foreigner has to go for regular health checks fills us with unease and the whole concept oozes with discrimination. So, let me get this straight, if I have a health issue (bear in mind, the tests are for eyes, blood, urine, weight and chest) then I am ‘incapable’ of teaching?!
When I got my results I was extremely proud of my body and fitness at the time. I had lost the weight I previously spoke of, I was a regular at the gym and I had even had a note from the gym expressing the fact that, although I am 27, my body measurement was that of a 24 year old! I was on cloud 9, that is until I got the results.

‘Regular exercise is needed and diet must be regulated’

Translation

’ you are STILL a fat, unfit foreigner!’

I have never been more disheartened, angry or just plain annoyed in all my life,

it was like a punch to my new chiseled abs. The worst thing was that my co teacher came up to me shortly after the results, she perched her bottom on the edge of my computer desk, looked at me with pity in her eyes, sighed heavily as if the next words out of her mouth would break my spirit, and she began;

“Ruth I think we need to discuss your results”

Blood started to simmer from the bottom of my feet up and I had to move before my whole body boiled over into her face. I simply replied that I do not think the results were accurate since I am probably the most fit I have ever been and with that, I walked away.