on being a gyopo… and zeros to heros

that is what they call me here – a gyopo. it means foreign-born or foreign-bred korean.

i guess there can be two interpretations to this word – that i’m both korean and american, or that i’m neither of the two. i don’t know… so far, i feel the word’s been used to imply the latter. in the past few weeks, i’ve learned it’s not really a good thing to be. there are people who sort of resent that i’m not totally korean and can’t speak the language very well, but neither am i american enough really – ’cause i don’t have the appearance of the customary “American.” so the result is that they treat us (gyopos) ehem, “differently” than either group.. do i feel i have identity issues? i mean, i hope not much… i’ll elaborate on this in a later post with some conclusive ideas…

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also, remember from a previous post the whole thing about white guys who are nothings as home and yet are revered here? apparently, there’s a name for this whole phenomenon. zeros to heros. that’s what most of the white girls call them, anyway.

google or youtube Charisma Man. there’s a whole japanese comic strip based on this concept.