Reading the always interesting Busan Mike's blog today got me thinking. At my previous academy the number one question kids asked me was "What's your blood type?". Nowadays, for whatever reason I just don't get asked that. But as my students find out that I am married the questions reverts to babies.
Girls ask "Do you have a baby?". Boys ask "Do you have a son?". When I disappoint them and tell them no not yet, (I tell them that I don't have enough money for children right now which is 100% true) they appear deflated and bemused. Why would I automatically not have children, they appear to think. Their minds have not developed enough to appreciate that there is more to life than fulfilling gender stereotypes and being pigeon-holed into doing what everyone else is. I would like to enjoy my life the way it is right now for a while before having a child.
From my time here I have worked with a lot of co-workers and most of the Korean teachers have been women. For many, but certainly not all, their goal in life has been to find the right man and get married and essentially escape the life that they are shaping up to have. When they find that man they invariably get married and get married quite quickly, and what do you know, some nine months later they are giving birth. So I can understand why my students ask if I have a baby so quickly after getting married. I just wish they would not ask me the same question every other week.
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