Beth Salerno

The Things I Brought Home

February 1, 2009 Author: Beth Salerno

In my home I now have a remarkable number of Korean objects.   They range from a small brass bell in the shape of a Korean temple to a 1930s pear wood and maple chest on chest with distinctive Korean metalwork.  Some were gifts - including a rice paper fan with landscape painting and honorific calligraphy done by a student’s mother.  Others I bought as reminders of my trip, like the lava rocks from Jeju island.

Yet much of what I brought home with me is less tangible.  For months, whenever I handed anything to anyone, I did so with one hand on the opposite elbow, a common Korean gesture of respect.  The rules of hierarchy were so clear in my mind that when Bishop Joseph Gerry asked me for a business card at the opening Saint Anselm dinner, I handed it to him with both hands and a slight bow.  This was the proper level of respect for someone my senior in age and social position. 

Many people have asked me if my Korean experience has directly affected my teaching.   The answer is not as much as I thought it would.  I do not need most of my hard-won cross-cultural teaching insights in my current classrooms, which do not have many international or ESL students.  But what does affect my classroom is my regular awareness that the U.S. is NOT the center of the world.  I now know in a more visceral way that other people see our issues - and their issues - in fundamentally different and sometimes seemingly inexplicable ways.  I do not take my nationalism - or my students’ - for granted, but rather accept it as something else that needs to be interrogated.   I accept that others’ views of the U.S. are similarly shaded and I try to explain the sometimes small cultural differences that seem to affect international and personal relations.

What I find most surprising is that many days I feel no different than I did before I left.  My habits of character, of teaching, of being American are so ingrained that even 10 months abroad could only shake them up, not fundamentally change them.  But I am hopeful that the main thing I brought home with me was a greater willingness to explore the different and the difficult.  I am more curious than I have been in years.  I think of that as I walk around my home and office, filled with the tangible things I brought home and the stories and adventures they symbolize.   If you happen to visit, feel free to ask about the objects and the stories.

Entry Filed under: Teaching, Culture