The Fiftieth

This past Sunday our foreigner's soccer team finished our season.  Going into Sunday's game we we had played 11 games and lost 11 games.  We weren't a bad team but somehow we always managed to lose.  Every game we knew we had a chance and I would hope that this game would be the turning point for us.  And every game those hopes were dashed.  So going into our last game, knowing this was our last chance, we were determined not to lose.
The game was close.  Both teams had good chances.  Then, midway through the first half, Sean, another Canadian, put us ahead 1 - 0 with a nice shot into the corner.  We held onto our lead until halftime.  We were pretty pumped, this being the first time we held a lead for more than five minutes.  The game went on and still our defence (of which I'm a part) kept them from scoring.  Time was running out and we knew it.  We were getting a bit frantic, just trying to keep the ball away from our goal.  One minute left and they had a throw-in deep in our half ... Luke heads it away but not clear ... a header puts it back in our box ... a wild shot ... the ball arcs toward the net ... and falls just inside the goal post.  Game over.  We tied 1 - 1 on the last play of the game.  Disappointing, but hey, we didn't lose.

I've noticed something interesting about the language of my foreign friends and I when we refer to people living in Korea.  Instead of talking about them as 'people' we call them 'Koreans'.  I might be reading too much into this, but I find it funny that when we're telling a story, we often feel the need to distinguish someone as a 'Korean person' or as a 'Korean man' instead of simply a 'man' for example.  And it goes the other way as well.  The Korean word for foreigner is 'waygook', which is a word I've often heard in reference to myself or other foreigners.  I wonder how much this type of language supports the 'us-and-them' mentality and encourages the separation between cultures.  But maybe I hear these terms being used more often because of the homogeneity of the area we're in.  Compared to my experience, I find Korea, Pohang in particular, to have a low level of cultural diversity.  Foreigners tend to stand out here.  Maybe in more diverse places terms for 'foreigner' become arbitrary and are used less.  Interesting anyway.

Thanks for reading,
Michael