Personal Space

Eric and I had dinner in Idae last week, which is the area around Ewha Women's University.
We saw this sign for a bar. It has no relevance to anything. I just liked that they have a picture of a drunk pint of beer chugging soju.

Teaching school here, I'm struck by the different comfort levels with touching and personal space, displayed by students and teachers alike. Last week, two students in my class started having a head fight, which consists of pushing your foreheads together as hard as you can until one person gives. Of course, boys fight everywhere, but the head fight, where their faces are in about 1/2 inch of each others, looks very odd from the outside. Eric and I get a lot of askance glances when we do it in public.

Later that day, one of my students fell asleep in my class (this happens pretty frequently; all the kids stay up until ridiculous hours studying). So, my co-teacher for that class, Yeong Deuk, started giving this kid a really aggressive back massage. All I could think was, 'wow, this would never fly in the U.S.'