That’s one thing about these online quizzes and gags I see about Korea. They’re usually so, I don’t know, persistently disdainful, and it’s a drag. It’s like grumpy expat 2.0 stopped holding boring bitchfest/bullshit-about-them parties and went online. Or maybe it’s the same bunch, and they’re just older, less connected, and lonely but still here and bitching by bandwidth instead? I dunno.

It was silly of me to write what I wrote about that quiz, although I did find it somewhat amusing. I certainly couldn’t reduce my own interactions with Koreans to such simple stereotypes. I must admit, however, that I do see traces of my own evolution from a certain naïve romanticism to a more clear-eyed realism, but I certainly don’t share that kind of embittered cynicism that the quiz’s author implicitly considers virtuous. And I still grow teary-eyed when I think of all the beautiful, ancient, pine-clad mountain temples I have visited in Korea (but perhaps the tears are partly because of the steep climbs involved).

For example, #3 doesn’t offer the choice of ‘doing nothing, even though you know that it’s not unique to Korea, simply because little is really gained from doing anything, although something could be lost’. However, for someone who wishes to avoid arguement or ill-feeling, or possibly losing money through lost contacts, this is really the choice to make.

While not suggesting anyone pander to ignorance, I don’t see the point in becoming ‘that guy who’s really up on his seasonal weather, and who’s a bit of an ass about it’. As sanshinseon mentioned, there’s really nothing positive about it.

Reminds of the time in college when a guy claimed he had discovered the meaning to the lyrics in Yes tunes. “Dude, you really have to stop dropping acid.”

By the way, Woody, that quiz is so funny! It’s got the whole range of possible non-Korean reactions to Korea. Wow. Everything from dewy-eyed romanticism, to pining for a unified nation, to head-scratching bewilderment, to clear-headed cynicism, and everything in between.

Actually, he looks like a washed-up version of Will Ferrell.