'He's very ugly,' said one of my students, referring to a pen wrinkled pensioner I'd drawn on the board.

'Yes, he is,' I agreed.

'Is he Indian?' another one asked. And the mood moved from light humour to blatant racism, before I had a chance to catch a breath.

'Monkey,' said a studious looking girl on the front desk, and laughter hid under tables, words from my training manual running in my mind.

Students making racist or sexist remarks: Avoid getting angry, and tell them that these comments would not be acceptable in Western culture.

I told them; they nodded almost guiltily. The lesson continued, but my developing affection for Korea was shaken.

That night I got talking to a Korean girl at a food stall. She had a gentle smile and soft, cascading hair. I decided to refresh myself with her thoughts on other cultures.

'I don't like Chinese. It's not thought, it's just some sort of feeling.'

Steam got into my eyes, and the wide, humid streets took on a cold, closing rigidity.

Over the following days I ran classes on Stereotypes and Discrimination. Asked what stereotypes were prevalent in Korea, the students reported common conceptions of the Indians, the Chinese, and the Americans. They probably kept their ideas about the British to themselves.

Though they were aware of the stereotypes, many students said they 'didn't think that'. As with any place in the world, some people have bigoted attitudes while others are more tolerant.

We all judge people by appearance. If they're black, we notice. If they're Indian, we notice. If they don't seem local, we ask them where they're from. Their answer, just a few words floating in the moment, is pulled down with a package of preconceptions. And ideas are formed before the conversation takes shape.

We judge people by attractiveness, accent, occupation, sexuality, gender, mannerisms, dress, hair colour, facial shape, choice of beverage, sporting allegiance, political opinions, interests, proclivity of nasal hair and facebook profiles.

Young people form groups based on musical tastes. As if it matters. There's no reason why a jazz enthusiast can't enjoy a drink with a metaller. Bullies make jokes, their togetherness created by their common victim. Football fans kick each others heads in, fuelled by the need to belong.

In Korea, as elsewhere, people gather into groups and slag off other groups. But there are differences in South Korea that can make it appear to be a racist culture (Is it racist to say a race is racist?).

Appearances are more important here than in the west. Korean businessmen are immaculately dressed, while ten per cent of women have had plastic surgery. Ten Years Younger, whisper billboard promises, and models smile as they impose their false ideals.

Korea is not multicultural. 'Even if you stay here 100 years, you will not be a Korean,' a friendly man told me outside a 7-11. 'What are you?' students asked a Korean-American teacher, bewildered by his Asian appearance and American demanour.

'I don't like the French football team,' continued the man outside the 7-11, 'many are not French, original French.'

'You mean they're black?'

He giggled shyly.

'You don't like black people?'

'No I like black people, I like all people, but I think they should play, their own country.'

Dongsoo clearly wasn't racist; he was merely unfamiliar with emigration and multi-culturalism. Korean society, western and developed on the surface, contains ways of thinking vastly different to our own.

But being surrounded by this strangeness, this different way of thinking, fills me with fascination. The challenge of understanding a society I won't understand, it's advantages, it's disadvantages, it's unfolding newness, is one of the things I like most about being abroad.

'Let's go on a bender,' Amit said.

He might as well have suggested that a Londoner moved to England. Increasing sunlight was catching dust, steam and smoke, and the table was laden with soju, beer and p'ajon.

'What about going to the fish market?' Alex asked, ' It's gonna be opening up about now.'

We weren't planning to stock up on seafood, but somehow the idea was irrestible, even though the market was south of the Han river.

Two taxis took us there. Cruising between buildings and billboards, Rhiannon told us about the man she'd encountered on her earlier trek.

'He was completely naked, except for his shoes, praying at the top of the mountain. When he saw me he begged me to hide in a bush- he was scared someone else would see me. I was going to then I thought - I'm not hiding in a bush five metres away from a naked man on top of a mountain- he was begging me not to let anyone see me, he even kissed my feet, that's when I ran away.'

We smelt the fish market first. It's pungence emerged from a stairwell, commingling with the misty petrol smog. Against instinct, we descended, each breath becoming thicker and feeling less like air.

The first view was from a balcony- of a working commotion discordant with our lightened footsteps and warmed , soaked stomachs. But we went down, into the flavour of the Asian melee.

Most of the fish were alive, gazing from their glass worlds at the universe that made them commodities. There were fat fish, flat fish, striped zebra fish and fish that balanced upside down, as if performing some aquatic yoga asana.

'Annyong Haseyo,' said Jeni, smiling at the market traders who moved through their exotic, mundane lives. A steady layer of water flowed down the sloping floor; my jeans absorbed it's heaviness and dampness stroked my ankles.

Jeni stopped by tanks of reaching Octopi, watched over by a laughing ajumma. One restless creature pushed its' head against its' tank wall, tentacles clambering up and over.

The stallkeeper was happy to pose for photos, and she held a catch aloft as she did so. Jeni asked for an Octopus, and lifted it for a picture. Then she put her hand into the water, and let a tentacle nestle against her finger.

'Their suction pads are amazing, ' she said, and I was dipping my finger in, letting the strange netherworld pull at me.

We walked on, past lobsters, crabs, and fish that flapped out of trays, trying to get away across the ground. To our right, behind the stalls, there was some sort of auction; and tinned, sales-pitch Korean crackled out over loudspeakers.

A lone fish in a tray commanded our attention. Suffocating in air it opened its' gills in strong, occasional gasps.

We watched, transfixed, for minutes. At the last, poignant moment, a laughing trader struck an axe into it's eye, blood shooting out with the final spasm.

Jeni was running off then, towards where Alex, Amit and Rhiannon were nearby. Jeni broke into a slight laugh as her upset voice recounted the event.

And soon we were all laughing. I wasn't sure what about: the fish, or everything, or nothing.

A minute passed, and we walked back across the market, into another day on this tragic, bizarre, beautiful earth.

The car eased onto the freeway; and it felt free, even though you had to pay for it. Wide open roads stretched out between the fields, under the cool, comfortable blue of the sky.

I was in South Korea. The impressions weren't as intense as I'd expected, but the driver was cruising towards my new life, and my heart surfed on waves of hope and fear.

Suburbs built up around us, starting small, then sprawling. The road curved by a river, a banner on a bridge said Hi Seoul and a party of kites danced above buildings.


That night, I wandered from my Officetel, sleepless but exhilirated. The night was staggering for the morning, and a teenager puked in an alleyway. Laughing groups balanced on the pavement and I walked on, wandering into an anonymous bar.

San Miguel slipped down amongst the Jack Daniels banners and the groups of young Koreans . The barman was convinced that San Miguel was from the Phillipines and pushed ice at me.

'You Phillipines beer. Drink Phillipines stylee! Welcome to Korea. Drink Phillipines stylee!'


I went home , but Korea kept me up, its' flavours and faces flashing in my mind. When the sun rose I felt like I could sleep at last, but I dressed, fastened my tie, and left for the first day of class.