Slurs, sneers, and stares.

"If you're a Jhereg and an Easterner, you have to expect to be insulted from time to time.If you want to live, you have to learn not to take offense at every slur and sneer. But this was beginning to get annoying."

I was recently re-reading the book Taltos, by Steven Brust. (I highly recommend his books.) When I came upon the above quote I chuckled. It SO fits the way foreigners are treated in Korea. I would paraphrase it like this;

If you're a foreigner in South Korea, you have to expect to be insulted. If you want to live, you have to learn not to take offense at every slur, sneer, stare, and rude comment. But sometimes it can be too annoying and you may need to vent in some way.

If I had responded to every major slight, REAL ones not imagined, I would have been in way to many fights. That isn't even considering the smaller slights that happened pretty much daily. One thing South Korea helped me with was to learn to control my temper better than I did before I got there. It just wasn't worth getting physical or even vocal with the idiots most of the time. I am not saying I was perfect and never slipped but for the most part I was able to control my temper. Blogging helped a lot as did venting with friends. It gave me a release for the anger that built up.

For those who complain about bloggers who bitch about the stupidity they encounter in South Korea I have a question. Would you rather people vent and get it off their chests? Hold it in and just go postal one day? Or start attacking every asshole they encounter? I would prefer people do the former but that is just me.