my daughter speaks better korean than you.

last night i caught the end of "socializing time" after a poetry slam of sorts outside of seoul. i was introduced as a Korean American who left Korea when I was one. after the introduction, i corrected my intro saying that actually i left when i was four (Korean age), saying all of this in Korean mind you. there was an elderly Korean woman (close to 70 years old i think) and writer who spoke very good English and promptly dissed me saying her daughter also left when she was four and speaks much better Korean than i. i took this as a "neener neener poo poo, my daughter speaks better Korean than you" type of comment.

this reminded me of several things. korean parents love bragging about their children. koreans judge people much too quickly. i probably fall more into the category of the second myself as i don't have children yet, but this old woman thought i didn't speak very good Korean saying that i stuttered. i'm pretty sure i don't stutter and if i did, maybe i was nervous speaking in front of a crowd of fairly well known Korean poets knowing nothing about poetry myself.

i can confidently say that i made her feel sorry about her comments because at the end of the affair, i helped walk her down to her car in the rain carrying an umbrella for her and all this while carrying a nonsensical conversation while speaking fluent Korean. i had to quickly forgive her. she's old. her 50 year old daughter isn't married yet. she twisted her ankle (before i came). it was raining. she's old.