시야 視野, 시각 視覺, 입장 立場

All words for "point of view," "field of vision," etc. that kind of idea (each with different nuances of course, but basically my main point in this post is the idea of perspective.

But wait, a post without pictures? Gasp! Impossible, isn't it? Haha. Well to be honest, this week was frigid again so I didn't really go out very much at all and thus, no fun pictures to post!

But I'll be responding to the weekly question!

"What do you think of this parable as it relates to your experiences overseas?"

Once a frog that lived in a well bragged to a turtle that lived in the Sea.

"I am so happy!" cried the frog, "When I go out, I jump about on the railing around the edge of the well. When I come home, I rest in the holes inside the wall of the well. If I jump into the water, it comes all the way up to my armpits and I can float on my belly.
If I walk in the mud, it covers up my flippered feet. I look around at the wriggly worms, crabs, and tadpoles, and none of them can compare with me. I am lord of this well and I stand tall here. My happiness is great. My dear sir, why don't you come more often and look around my place?"

The turtle from the Sea hesitated and said:

"Even a distance of a thousand miles cannot give you an idea of the sea's width; even a height of a thousand meters cannot give you an idea of its depth. In the time of the great floods, the waters in the sea did not increase. During the terrible droughts, the waters in the sea did not decrease. The sea does not change along with the passage of time and its level does not rise or fall according to the amount of rain that falls. The greatest happiness is to live in the Sea."

After listening to these words, the frog of the shallow well became ill at ease.

~*~

I'm thinking this parable has to do with point of view, perspective. A lot of us, especially Americans I think, are prone to be very ethnocentric (hmm, considering how many ethnicities we have in the States, could we really say ethnocentric? I dunno if there's a special word...nationcentric? Hm) and forget that the world out there exists. Tourists are tourists and since we're a melting pot, we've got it all. Especially coming from New York, one of *the* cosmopolitan cities, everyone definitely has the idea that they're so open-minded and know a lot. And with international cuisine, international people all over the place, tourists left and right, etc. what could we be missing from the rest of the world? After coming to Korea, clearly a lot.

It's interesting though, how much views differ here in Seoul and in New York. In Seoul, if you're not Asian, you're automatically a foreigner (I wonder if that will hold true in 50 years or so...when "foreigners" begin to actually be born in Korea and grow up, having the culture, knowing the language, basically being the "American-Asian"/"American-Korean"--if they're Ameican, that is), if you're Asian you can blend in for a bit but once you hold a conversation, you're a foreigner, and it's so easy to spot a foreigner just by a slight difference in accent. It's interesting though, because I don't think I've ever recalled using the word "foreigner" (or if I have very rarely) in New York. Because SO many people have accents, but you pretty much assume everyone to speak English, and if they can't, well then they have to deal. That's what happens when English basically becomes a universal language. But it's definitely interesting that we don't really use "foreigner" or talk about "foreigners." Of course, we do use "tourists," but that's used even for people not from New York.

Okay I'm going to cut quickly to a different topic that popped to my head because of the English becoming a universal language line. Recently, I was walking with my friend Kana and I made the observation of virtually every sign here also has English. It's pretty interesting that you will see English in basically the *whole world.* And also the fact that a lot of people grow up learning English and most people can read Latin letters, it's not a strange sight even for non-English speakers to see English anywhere they go. Although there must be something frustrating in thinking of this "dominating language." Turn your view and imagine if all of a sudden English were eliminated and everything were in say...Chinese. How would that feel? What I'm trying to get at is how do non-English speakers feel when everywhere, including their home country, has signs in not only their own language but this hegemonistic language? I'm sure most people don't think of it that way, but the feeling must be very different (I'm being so vague about this "feeling" thing but I really don't know how to explain it, more technically I think it's called qualia...but don't quote me on that). So if the world were suddenly all Chinese, and maybe you know how to read some basic characters but everything else is basically nonsense to you, even in your own country (with your native tongue above that Chinese though). Interesting thought experiment eh? Also, in thinking about how at all the big schools (at least) in Korea, there are at least some classes offered in English (about some nonlinguistic topic, like science classes, or economy classes) and in thinking about how many international students we have, think about how many nonnative English speakers have to go through HUGE textbooks to write a paper, to take a class, etc. I (and I'm sure many people I know) couldn't even fathom reading a textbook in a foreign language, it overwhelms me enough to see a whole webpage in Korean--although I'm getting more used to it--but think about how many people do it for English. Now I'm just rambling, but I think changing your perspective allows to imagine (at least for some time) how the feeling of not being a native English speaker, just by the mere state of English virtually being a universal language, differs so much.

Anyway that was a bit off topic, but back on topic, what I'm trying to say is that as the frog can't even fathom what the turtle has seen--the sea is so different, so much more vast, how could the frog's imagination even conjure up what goes on in that mysterious sea?--it can attempt to, and I think that's what opportunities like the Light Fellowship give us. Just like typical New Yorker thought, I myself assumed myself to be very open-minded and know a lot but experiencing a culture in its actual sphere--not just reading about it--실감 實感 ("real feeling") as they call it in Korean, has not only opened my eyes to the new culture, but also begin to understand how *Koreans* see us, see the rest of the world.

So there are versions of this parable that add the detail of the turtle being so large he can't even fit more than his fin into the frog's well. This adds a whole new dimension to the parable. The turtle can't appreciate the frog's cozy abode. In other words, sometimes you can be so open-minded...that you can be close-minded. Now since this is a public blog, I'm not going to bring up personal experience, but I'll say that I've had this kind of experience before, where sometimes I feel I'm so open-minded, that I'm close-minded. Just as the turtle condescends to the frog, thinking his large, vast sea is a much greater pleasure than this cramped well, I have before been too stubborn to understand "more close-minded people."

Not everyone has the opportunities or the background of the turtle, who grew up in an open area, so you can't really blame the frog for drawing truths from its surroundings. In time, I've come to understand more people who have different thoughts, that might generally be considered "close-minded." Of course, I don't have to agree, but I can at least understand. Korea is probably one of the more conservative East Asian countries--sex is a taboo topic (although the pop market seems lately to be focusing on using sex appeal), celebrities get fired for having "deviant" sexualities, views of foreigners (read: white people) and black people are very skewed and stereotyped, there are certain ways you have to treat and respect older people even if they are rude to you--and though I disagree with all these views and sometimes find it frustrating to be in a country where many people do hold them, I've come to understand that this society is *different*.

I think there's a proverb that relates to this directly...it's not coming to my head, the closest are "Old habits die hard" or "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" but I don't think that quite captures what I'm trying to say. Basically, people's views are based on society and media, something that requires exposure to be changed.

50 years ago, racism was rampant. Nowadays it's died down in a lot of the US, fortunately, although many people will still hold there views of course. It's sad, but a generation has to die for views to change. 50 years from now, who knows what will change? I'm sure views will be very different in Korea as well, I've already noticed that a lot of Koreans in this generation have very different views from what I've read about Korea overall (probably observations from the past generation).

I guess my thoughts were kinda all over the place haha, sorry for the ramble :). If I were to make two comments about this parable, though, they would be that the part that I've read in other versions about the turtle's fin I think is a key detail to this parable ;) (being the turtle and so open-minded is one perspective, but keep in mind that it's hard for a turtle like you to fit in and understand a frog's well) and that the Light Fellowship is an amazing opportunity to give us the chance to see what it's like to be the turtle! Come to Asia! ^_^