Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Way Back When Wednesday - Teacher, you have a perm!

I don't remember exactly how this conversation started, but it ended up really frustrating.

Here's a little needed background information.  I have naturally curly hair (see picture at left).  Koreans don't have naturally curly hair.  Nobody does.  But everybody--including men--has a perm.  Well, not everybody, but there are quite a few perms out there.  So it's not unusual to see curled hair in Korea.

I was teaching a class one day.  It was my favorite class.  The kids were 10 years old, and they all spoke English well enough to have interesting conversations with me and with each other!  One student, Min Young, turned to me and said, "Teacher, you have a perm," very matter of factly.  Actually, it sounded a little more like, "Teacher, you have a pama."  Many Korean students have trouble with the English "r" and ending some words without a vowel.

I turned to her and said, "No, I don't.  My hair is naturally curly.  It grows this way."

She replied again, very matter of factly, "No, you are lying.  You have a perm."  Min Young was a very precocious kid and very sassy.

I tried again to explain to her that I did NOT have a perm, my hair was naturally curly.  She looked at me like I was insane or stupid.  She told me again that I was lying, and that I had a perm.  No matter what I said, she would never believe me.  I even tried to appeal to her senses and ask her why I would lie about a perm.  It seemed ridiculous to me, but evidently not to her.

In the end, I had to pull the hierarchy card (which almost always works in Korea) and tell her that I was the teacher, and that she, the student, should not accuse the teacher of lying!

1 comment:

  1. Great story! So you lived in korea and taught? what part of korea were you in? i have naturally curly hair too, and i would definitely not lie about that, because i would not want a perm, i am all for straighten my hair, which takes forever.

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