Fears and Fan Death

Last week Andie was finishing her teacher’s adult English class. The lesson had focused on dialoging about American superstitions – and idioms and phrases derived from those beliefs (i.e. “knock on wood”). There were still about 5 minutes left of class, so in closing she decided to ask, “are there any Korean superstitions that you can tell me about?” The Korean teachers exchanged glances, clearly eager to wrap up the class and resume their busy workdays.

Finally someone spoke up, “I know that many foreigners have never heard of ‘fan death’”.  The previously dazed expressionless faces had suddenly come to life and fixated their stare on Andie and her response.

“Well, uhmm, no, I’m not really sure that I understand what you mean by ‘fan death’” Andie responded.

Another teacher jumped in and stated matter-of-factly, “Fan death happens during the summer when someone sleeps with a fan running on their body and all the windows shut.”

“What?! That’s crazy!” Andie laughed, “I have slept with a fan my entire life, and… here I am!”

The faces went from attentive to alarmed. Andie quickly realized “fan death” was not a superstition for them; this was a bona fide fear – and each of their faces conveyed the sincerity with which they believed it.

English class just got real.

Upon realizing the weight of the new topic, Andie quickly regained a serious composure. “So how exactly does an electric fan kill someone?”

With their best English the teachers offered an elaborate explanation that sounded like a complex combo of suffocation and hypothermia. They also said that public service announcements are frequently made in the summer warning about the dangers of fan death. The teachers began looking to their smart phones for defense, saying it had been scientifically proven and that Korean media frequently made reports of fatalities from “fan death”.

The dialogue was pretty animated for those last 5 minutes of class. Although a final conclusion about the legitimacy of “fan death” was never reached, it has caused us to reflect on what our fears are, and how, in many ways, all fears are just as senseless as “fan death”.

Many people way smarter than us have already written on the topic of “fear culture”. The basic definition of this concept is that certain people of a society, a.k.a. “fear peddlers”, will incite fear in the general public as a means of achieving particular goals. A simple Google search of “Korean fan death” will reveal a conspiracy theory which holds that the South Korean government created or perpetuated “fan death” as propaganda to curb the energy consumption of Korean households during the 1970s energy crisis.

the first time we saw oxygen masks in all the
subways in Seoul was a little scary

This reminded us of last spring when we were well into the interview process for our current teaching positions in Korea. At that same time American media began focusing heavily on tensions between North and South Korea. We had well-meaning friends sending us links to sensationalized news stories about North Koreas’ threats to “wipe South Korea off the map”.

We certainly don’t blame our friends for being a little concerned that we were planning to move next-door to an ‘evil empire’, but it was also important that we acknowledged nothing makes a story more intriguing than a common enemy, and that maybe there was more motivation to the U.S. propagating fear of war within its citizens. After all, it takes some convincing for people to believe the country with the greatest national debt in the world should continue having a military expenditure well over four times that of any other nation and 68x that of feared North Korea.  

Since moving here, we don't really think of North Korea that much. But many people have told us they think we are really brave, living in a foreign country, especially an Eastern country, especially Korea. 

But if we’re honest, we have different fears that we feel deeply. A mixture of our culture and our humanness has probably influenced them – and they haven’t changed much since we moved. Actually living in a foreign country only causes us to have to deal with them more regularly.

We fear looking dumb.

We fear feeling embarrassed.

We fear being insignificant.

We fear messing up.

And we sometimes fear the weird
bugs our students want to show us

We are challenged when we remember God’s most frequently repeated command to His people. Throughout scripture, God is not constantly saying to refrain from sexual immorality, or to not swear and not drink and to always go to church-y (Korean pronunciation of “church”) on Sundays. Although we are encouraged to walk in holiness and moral integrity, this is not the most recurrently stated command. Technically, and we’re speaking strictly numerically here, the number one most repeated instruction is not even to love… Rather, the thing God is constantly telling His children over and over again is to “fear not”, or “don’t be afraid”.

Some of the most inspirational and arguably only influential people throughout Church history have been those who have refused to be afraid. Those whom were so richly indwelled and empowered by the Holy Spirit that they could look even the fear of death in the face, and not be afraid because perfect love had driven out their fear (1 John 4:18).

Andie in El Salvador in 2009
where she first learned of Romero

One such person who has been particularly influential in our faith journey is Archbishop Oscar Romero. He repeatedly spoke out on behalf of the poor and abuses of human life that were happening in El Salvador. He was faced with extreme opposition by a corrupt government, eventually culminating in his assassination in 1980.

In Romero’s last homily he is quoted as saying, “Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be. ”

These words remind us that God wants those who belong to Him to be fearless. In the weaknesses of our flesh, it is the power of the Holy Spirit which gives us courage. When others see us, we want them to see a strength which can only be explained as coming from a supernatural place. This was the testimony of the early apostles, and we pray that it would continue to be our testimony.

Tertullian wrote, “A Christian is fearless.”

Then let us today be Christians.

10 things we totally dig about Korea

10. Wet wipes to clean your hands at every meal.

Garrett's happiness at discovering Korea had Krispy Kreme. Not pictured, Green Tea donuts with Red Bean filling.

Sit down restaurants always give you a wet towel before your meal and fast-food places will almost always give you a disposable wipe. Yeah we know it’s a small thing, but we think it should be a universal practice.

9. Public park exercise equipment. 

Garrett workin' hard on the twisty-twist

We realize this exists in the states too, BUT, before moving to Korea we rarely saw people actually using it - and if they did, they definitely weren’t being serious. Overall, Korean people are pretty health conscious - and so they take their exercising very seriously. We aren’t sure which muscles are actually being worked by many of these machines... however, they sure are a lot of fun and they. are. e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.

8. So.many.coffee.shops. 

... and most of them are multi-level. Because of the extreme density of Korea (remember, we are 50 million people living in a land area equivalent to the state of Indiana) many businesses build up rather than out. This also means multi-level grocery stores, which are also quite fun due to the ramp style escalators which allow you to easily take your shopping cart to each level.

7. The abundance of obscurely phrased English-y t-shirts. 

saw this in a store window while we were
in Busan last weekend.

This is a major source of entertainment/bewilderment for us. We are constantly seeing Koreans wearing shirts imprinted with either misspelled or entirely meaningless phrases. We were told that foreign words on clothing are for “decoration only” and that Koreans don’t usually try to read what they or others are wearing…

6. Couple-outfits. 

For obvious reasons we have to be sneaky while taking these pictures.
Girl behind the couple on the subway totally caught me.

Yes, Korean couples really do it, and, like with the public park exercise equipment, they are totally serious. We were told it is like a test from the girl of how devoted the guy is in the relationship – if he will wear matching clothes on their date then he is committed. And the outfits don’t end with the matching shirts, every mall we’ve been in has stores with couple manikins in coordinating underwear... Garrett refuses.

5. Getting to wear slippers at work. 

Traditionally, Koreans have eaten and slept (thus spending a large portion of their day) on the floor – therefore it is very important that the floors stay clean. So once we arrive at school everyone immediately changes out of their “outside” shoes, then for the rest of our work day we get to be the next-best-thing to bare foot.

4. Strange sweet-savory combos

this is not icecream
this is mashed potatoes - with sprinkles

We were warned when we first arrived that anything we were used to being salty/savory – will be sweet, and vice-versa. Being open-minded, adventurous foodies, we shrugged this off, thinking we were prepared for whatever Korea could throw at us. That is until we ordered garlic bread – and were given Garlic toast topped with gelato, whipped cream, and chocolate-caramel sauce. It has taken some adjusting to, but we’re actually learning to really dig this flip-flop of flavor combos.

3. Korean convenience stores.

Nothing will ever come close to our love for QuikTrip. And we mean never EVER, okay? Although Korean convenience stores can’t compare to QT – they are incredibly impressive in both quantity and quality. Need to pay your electric bill or purchase wifi data? Find a 24-hour convenience store. Want to buy tickets to the baseball game? Yep, go to CU, GS25, or 7-11. Uh-oh, got a run in your tights? Just walk 30 meters to the convenience store nearest you. Want some dried-squid to appease the midnight munchies? Probably not, but you had better believe there is a convenience store within a 2-minute walk from wherever you are and they have that too.

2. No cooking, never.

Enjoying some Galbi in Seoul. Notice the sign behind Garrett - each of our main plates of meat was about $6.

Eating out in Korea is inexpensive, DELICIOUS, and (mostly) healthy and tipping is never required. We still feel extremely awkward about it, but the one time we tried to offer a tip here, the guy literally started waving his hands, speaking quickly in Korean and backing away from us as fast as possible. So we have taken it upon ourselves to take a year-long-oath of no-cooking-never. Yeah, its awesome.

1. #nosurprises.

Garrett being clearly not surprised that we are eating some super delicious thing that tastes like a churro had a baby with a pancake.
and Andie being so not surprised that avocados cost more that $3 a piece that she took a photo of it!

And by that we mean, expect the absolute craziest to happen – so when it actually does happen you don’t waste your energy being mad/confused/bothered by it. When we first moved to Korea, we decided “no surprises” would be our motto for the year. This slogan was adopted from a forever-to-be-remembered night at a bar with our dear friends the Dossett’s, (check out their blog here; http://dossettsinvienna.blogspot.com!!) It seemed quite fitting for our new life in Korea. We used to wake up every day, pretending we knew exactly what to expect. Living in a foreign country has stretched us to think that kind of life is pretty “ji-ral” (translation, “total B.S.”). Nobody ever knows what any day might throw at them. The best you can do is receive it with grace, try to laugh about it, and remember there is a Baskin Robbins that just started carrying “Monster Cookie” ice cream a couple blocks from your apartment. 

 "Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost." - Helen Keller

entering the minority

“Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.”

― S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

I know that my hair is yellowish, but yes I really do like “mepta” (spicy) and no I don’t need a “pokeu” (fork).

For the first time in our blue-eyed existence, we are the minority, and it is the hardest, scariest, most wonderful thing that has ever happened to us.

We are slowly getting used to being blatantly stared at, children rubbing the hair on our arms, store clerks looking at us nervously as we approach the counter afraid they will have to speak English, and complete strangers coming up to us as we are waiting for the bus and rubbing our face. (Well, actually, we still aren’t used to that last one – and yes it seriously happened once.)

But it’s a lot more difficult to embrace being the strange sounding, hard to communicate with, expat teacher who can barely read Hangeul, doesn’t ever remember to stand when the principal enters a room and can’t pronounce names correctly.

Harder still to deal with the elderly teacher at your school who refuses to bow to you and responds to your “anyonghaseo” with a scowl so full of hate that you aren’t sure whether or not you’d accidently cursed him out in Korean. 

But then you remember some history you learned. Non-Koreans make up a mere 2% of the population here, and foreigners haven’t been welcomed for very long. King Gojong, leader of the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century called foreigners "uneducated louts," motivated by "lechery and sensuality." These ultranationalistic sentiments carried throughout the twentieth century as the country faced turbulent years of transition to modernity involving colonialism, territorial division, and war (all inflicted by other nations). Blood-based ethnic national identity became a crucial source of pride and inspiration for the Korean people during these difficult times. The principle of bloodline or "jus sanguinis" still defines the notion of Korean nationhood and citizenship, which are often inseparable in the mind of Koreans. All this paired with the Eastern collectivist cultural ideals of uniformity and conformity – and you’ve got two white kids feeling a little left out sometimes. (1)

“Well, Koreans are just racist – it is a part of their culture!” you think. But now, who is stereotyping?

Before moving to Korea, we would be the first to tell you that America has some serious racial issues – but it didn’t have anything to do with us because we certainly weren’t racist. But now we think differently – racism is everyone’s problem.

We like how this article in Japantimes sums it up, “If you have never been discriminated against, you are lucky. But at the same time, you are also ill-prepared to understand discrimination on the deepest levels. You will most likely deny that you discriminate against others. Yet we all do, whether we realize it or not. After all, I’ve never met anyone who thinks they themselves are racist… It’s very hard to understand discrimination, and equally easy to deny its existence, if you have never experienced it.” (2)

This small experience of being the minority gives us a tiny glance into the experiences of other’s who have been subject to a lifetime of prejudice – and who continue to suffer immeasurably more than we do in Korea.

More than ever before we yearn to see a world eradicated of all forms of prejudice, segregation and discrimination – whether it be for race, sexual orientation, age, gender, or religion.

May we be humble enough to remember and wise enough to understand that all people are born equal, blessed with different talents, circumstances, intellect and beauty – but equal in their humanity. May we be compassionate enough to recognize the inequality suffered by the minorities among us and have the courage to partner with God in his ultimate vision: a world redeemed by reconciliation through the embrace of justice and equality for all.

1. link

2. link