Believe it or not, one of the hardest things for me to do out here is to let go of my prejudices. I think most people who know me wouldn't say I'm racist or that I hold a great distaste for people different from myself, but as my time out here reaches almost a full year, I would say that trying to not look down on people for some of their differences has been one of the hardest things for me to try and change.
It's fairly common for the expatriate community out here to complain about all the annoyances of Korean culture. It's an easy trap to fall into: you're in a foreign country, you're by yourself, and if you don't like the situation, it's much easier to blame those around you than to do some reflective thinking.
Also, since Korean culture is so different from American culture, it's the easiest thing in the world to find things that annoy you or seem ridiculous and absurd. I've heard or read about all sorts of complaints: how people drive, how people walk, how they deal with alcohol or animals or elevators and....well, just imagine any facet of everyday life, and someone's probably complained about how people do it here.
At first, I decided that I wouldn't take part in it. I wouldn't start conversations about the things that annoy me, and I wouldn't take part in them either.
Yet in the past few months I see that in my heart, I still look down on Koreans occasionally in certain situations. I've thought about it a lot, and here's what I've realized: I look down on lots of people, not just here in Korea, but in America too.
So, without getting into a huge debate about ethics and morality, I'm just gonna say that I've been making the effort not to do that anymore. From now on, my goal is to try to accept people for who they are, and realize how the good that lives in me lives in them, and the bad that lives in me lives in them too.
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