So, I had my typical Friday night of darts at Dolce Vita although somewhat atypically I managed a first place finish. My nephew Justin came by the bar for a couple of beers and then we headed out to the samgyapsal joint I favor.
As is our normal practice the conversation soon turned to politics. And when I start getting wound up my voice gets somewhat intense. Not shouting really, just kind of aggressive. I was in this mode when the waitress came to our table and shushed me. Now, I was taken aback by this because it was just the two of us at the table surrounded by crowded tables of loud Koreans drinking and laughing and enjoying their grilled pork belly. Which is how it should be. I mean, this was not a fine dining establishment. And to be honest about it, I may have been talking louder than normal if only to be heard above the din of the surrounding crowd. As I looked around the room and noticed just how loud everyone else was being I got pissed off.
At that very moment the waitress who had offended me was serving the largest and loudest table of Koreans in the joint. So I turned around and said (probably shouted) “are you going to tell them to be quiet too, or is it only the miguks who aren’t allowed to make noise?” Of course, I said this in English so I’m sure she didn’t understand most of it, but it did appear from her reaction that she got my point. I turned back to my nephew and said “am I wrong?”. He agreed that we hadn’t been louder than anyone else but he said he was embarrassed by my outburst.
I guess in retrospect I am too. This is not the first time I’ve encountered being singled out for noise when Koreans are notoriously loud when dining (especially when soju is involved) and seem to be ignored. But responding to racism with rudeness is not the solution. I’m sure all I did was perpetuate a negative stereotype when I loudly confronted the waitress. I should have just let it go like I normally do I suppose.
I think it is also true that English voices tend to stand out in the crowd so to speak. I’ve noticed it on the subway myself that foreigners always sound louder when they are speaking together. Upon *ahem* more sober reflection perhaps I sounded louder than I was.
Meanwhile, I was again awakened early this morning by noise from the downstairs park. This time it was two ajummas shouting at each other. And so it goes.
Oh, I also doused my keyboard in diet Coke this morning. I did my best to clean it up quickly, but as I feared some of the keys are now not functioning correctly. Which made typing this post especially challenging. Ain’t life grand?
Beer leads to obnoxiousness, man.
That said, I think your assessment of the night’s events is fair-minded: there’s enough blame to go around on both sides. True: you probably weren’t being any louder than the loudest of the Koreans. Also true: English does stand out in a sea of ambient Korean, and vice versa when Koreans jabber in a crowd of Americans.
Would’ve been nice to fire a garden hose at those two shouting ajummas—the way we separate two mating dogs in the States. Failing that… water balloons?
Sorry to hear about the keyboard. Why not let the keyboard sit for an hour in a warm saline bath to dissolve the Diet Coke? Heh.
Fair points, and although I’m normally a “happy drunk” I’m sure the beer made me less forgiving than I would normally be in that situation. Re-reading the post just now I think ascribing the incident to racism is a bit over the top. Unlike my friends on the left, I don’t believe race is always the motivating factor when people have disagreements. Obviously, the right thing to have done was simply to apologize and carry on with my night.
Sadly, the park is a bit too far for water balloons which is an otherwise excellent idea. Perhaps a BB gun? Although I can just imagine the international incident that would ensue when the papers reported on the miguk sniper in Gireum-dong!
The good news is my keyboard seems to have dried out on it’s own and all keys are working again as the manufacturer intended. So there’s that.
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