The Korean See-saw.
I continue to read about Korean etiquette, and it does seem quite worryingly complicated. As I read I wonder if some of this applied in China and how many people I insulted by sitting at the wrong time, eating a certain way, bowing insufficiently (in fact I can't remember bowing very much at all).
The cultureshock book ends with an interesting resumé on Korean games including one called the 'Neolttwigi' or see-saw. I decided to see if there was a demonstration on Youtube and of course there was. It is traditionally a past time of women and a result of their being confined to the family compound: if they bounced high enough they were able to see over the wall.
posted by Clare Dudman at 9:13 am
2 Comments:
I'm sure would've messed up on age and respect last year in Cambodia had I not always been the oldest person in sight--everybody seemed under 25! Meanwhile they were totally shocked when they found out my age. I suppose anyone my age is visibly old. Harder lives.
Yes, Marly, one of the guides seemed shocked when she heard my age. In this case I put it down to Chinese politeness because I had heard that the Chinese think their skin ages more slowly than ours. Presumably this is just on the developed east coast. Inland I expect lives and 'ages' are more on a par with Cambodia's.
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