Korean Love Story #1: Where’s my Yellow Dust face mask?

Updates: I’ve been quiet for some time and major apologies. I’ve been very busy handling my shock and culture shock. Here’s what’s been going on  a) So the sun hasn’t been out in like, FOREVER since winter and even as we’re sliding into Spring, all is still gray, depressing… and COLD;  b) This leads me to take weekly weekend excursions in an attempt to snap out of a depressing “I’m alone, having a hard time” funk and back into “travel adventure” mode; c) I love my students (my 4th graders especially, as I have boys that “squeal” like little girls when they’re excited) and the job of teacher-taining; d) I’m learning that while you should respect a culture and its systems, there are times you’d be at a gross and unfair disadvantage unless you occasionally pull out your “foreigner/’waygook‘ card”; d) …which brings me to the lame co-teacher thing & how I’ve been patient and nice up until now…; e) My survival and dealing with my funk in Korea rests solely upon me.

Sexy, no; but cute? Yes. My face mask, ironically called “Love Story”…
is not what I’m feeling for this place now.

Seeing face masks on my students in class or on passing pedestrians in the subway and on Daegu streets have become a norm for me. Face masks are commonplace here- many of them even have a cute or color design to them (animal faces, Hello Kitty, you name it…) to make them more appealing, stylish and friendly to fun.

Before moving to Korea, Asians wearing face masks was something I just didn’t understand. On my recent JAL flight over here, seeing people donning face masks elicited personal notions that mainland/F.O.B (slang: “Fresh Off the Boat”) Asians were hypochondriac freaks for styling  sick masks Post S.A.R.S.  While I realize my notions are partly still true, another culprit arises…

face masks come in various designs

Yellow Dust Season
There are only two occasions that I notice Koreans wearing face masks  a) when they are sick and b) when they feel the air pollution is really bad. The latter is Yellow Dust season- a toxic dust storm crap from China which lasts from February to June and really affects places like China, South Korea (Seoul), Japan and parts of Russia (Read a fellow EPIKer’s post about Yellow Dust) . The dust, I hear can get pretty thick in Seoul while Daegu isn’t as affected by it. It can cause sore throat and asthma in people, despite good health and if you’re asthmatic, it’s best to stay indoors.  This is exactly what I’m convinced took over my health a few weeks back, when I underwent my “Could it be the Korean Crud?” sick-cold phase. One evening, the air quality was so bad, the streets looked as dusty and smoky as an all neighborhood BBQ. Virtually 85% of people who were out and about in town, were wearing face masks.  Could Yellow Dust be another term for the infamous Korean Crud?

Last week …
I was feeling tickles of a throat cold arising again.  I choke-cough into a frenzy at odd periods, out-of-the-blue– it literally feels like i’m choking on dust or that I am mid-cold (though none arises). While I’ve lived in L.A. which can boast horribly consistent smog alerts, Yellow Dust signs are still uncommon to me. Instead, like a true and clueless hypochondriac warrior, I immediately run to my medicine box and knock back Vitamin C or Zinc capsules, thinking I’m nearing the onslaught of a cold. Only recently, when my more than my usual amount of students fashioned face masks, did I realize what was up.

One of my 6th graders wearing his face mask in class.

How do Koreans find out about Yellow Dust alerts?
Seeking any type of help or answer from my co-teacher (whose English is good) is sometimes, like asking God to call my new Korean cellphone with a direct answer. An impossible faith.  She explained her “sign of a bad Yellow Dust day” is when she sees her car covered in a dusty film.  Thanks. I’ll vacuum that idea up with my lungs… She also mentioned the school nurse sends out email alerts to all the teachers (even to her) to notify students to wear their masks! I asked if I could be notified of these days or receive these alerts. Her response? Impossible – the email alerts are written only in Korean.

If you had a blind person standing next to you wanting to cross a street and they asked you to alert them of a traffic light change- would you say, “Sorry, the lights aren’t in Braille”?

One plus one does not always equal two, to my Korean elementary CT, who is the 40 yr old mother of two children and sits not more than 5 feet across of me! Did I explain her English is good?… This is the woman whom I’m told is the host responsible for making or breaking my year.  Needless to say, my year has been breaking thus far because my host is often either nowhere in sight when I need help or is just not the type of person you’d rely on for good advice. But maybe my co-teacher and I have a similar confused English-Korean translation, in the way I tell restaurants “No Meat” and my dish comes with a sunny-side up boiling egg.  I asked my  CT again, if she could notify me of these email alerts so that I am prepared. Same reply.

Well, seeing as Yellow Dust alerts are written only in Korean, I guess only Koreans are allowed to know about them.

More articles on Yellow Dust:
Fellow EPIKers blog about Yellow Dust
Wikipedia: Asian Dust/Yellow Dust
Article: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60875