The Master and Student Relationship.

One, hot summer, Friday afternoon the Co-master and I sat together for 1 whole hour.  We had finished negotiating payment for the month at the end of which, she told me that she wanted our relationship to continue as a Master and Student relationship, instead of an Employer/Employee relationship. 
I could see both sides of why she said this to me.  On the first side, she didn't want me to expect any extra payment for any of the extra hours I spent there or for any of the extra work I did for them.  And on the other hand I could see that she wanted to keep our relationship the same as it has been for the past 8 years.  Knowing her, I would actually expect that the first reason is more valid than the second. 

However, in that one hour, she demonstrated a genuine effort to spend time with me as her student instead of as her employee.  We shared a refreshing bowl of Pat Bing Soo (bean fruit soup) a Korean, summertime favorite of cooked and sweatened red beans, sliced kiwis, strawberrys, grapes, and blueberrys, vanilla ice cream, milk, and crushed ice.  While eating together, she painfully labored her English to its limits to tell me all about what it looks like in Korea, how the city is, and what life is like there.  Though it was hard to understand, I hung on her every word; drinking it up like the delicious Pat Bing Soo in front of me. 

[I will summarize what she told me here, in plain English so you can understand and appreciate it just as much as I did]:
In Korea, it is like a big city.  Lots of tall buildings and bright lights everywhere you look.  Technology is far more advanced than what we are use to here.  Here we still click,  push buttons, and select icons, whereas there, the majority of the technology is touch screen and automated.  She talked about the busses, because over there very few people drive.  Nobody counts out change, they all have prepaid passes and the scanners are sensitive enough to read through clothing; everyone just keeps their pass in their hip pocket and hipchucks the sensor to get on the bus. 

Young people stay with their families until they get married, which is typically not until their mid-30s.  Parents pay for everything and encourage their children to have as much fun as possible while they are young and single.  The Co-master explained that while she was in college in Korea, she would go out every night with her friends, to the movies, to the markets, shopping or just hanging out. 

The immediate families are a tight unit and the church body is just as much tight.  Every Sunday, they go to church and after service they all eat together a full course meal cooked by different women in turn.  Koreans believe that once a couple is married, they are forever together and divorce is severely frowned upon.  They also place a high value on loyalty.  The Master and his family once housed someone who was in the process of moving from Korea; they provided him with a car to use and a cell phone as well, and he promised to find his own place soon as his family came.  One month after his family came the Co-master realized that the man had not even started looking or saving for a place of his own and was just planning to stay there for free as long as possible.  Needless to say, the Master's were unhappy about this and the relationship did not last much longer. 

I sat in complete silence as the Co-master explained, thought to herself, and muddled through her English about her times in Korea and about how it has been for her, here in America.  These are the times when I consider myself lucky to work/spend the majority of my life in a place where I can learn about a different culture and a different styles of living.

Until next time...

Ahn- Yung- Hah Seoh