How Korean are you?

My students tease me about being Korean. One of myJapanese students was lamenting the lack of fellow countrymen in her class- 'all the students are Korean and the teacher is Korean too!'

Technically I am not Korean but sometimes I wonder. For example, I really have to force myself to keep my shoes on in people's houses. Because they do. But it feels wrong, oh so wrong. When I am hungover I find myself craving spicy food rather than the traditional bacon buttie. I try to eat everything with chopsticks because it is too awkward to use a knife and fork. I never use the red board marker to write someone's name.

But worse than that. Since New Year I have put my age up a year. When I see people kissing in the streets I am quite taken aback. If the TV newsreader shows even a little cleavage I am shocked to the core. I can see the downfall in societal values whenever I see a woman smoking in public, rather than in the toilets as is acceptable.

When my Colombian student beckoned me over using his hand with the palm facing up I nearly punched him.

I haven't stopped requesting a visit to the norae bang at the end of the night yet. I keep calling my school a hagwon and forgetting the English word.

I feel more displaced than a lot of my students. I have even referred to London as Seoul on occasion.

But some things are much easier than I thought they would be. Since I left London in 1998, I have always sworn that I could not return because there is no way that I could face the daily commute again. Now, a mere seven weeks into working, I see that time on the train as a good place to catch up with my reading. I don't find the people here to be as rude as I remember, mind you, I don't find them to be as English as I remember either.

Overall, I think that working with international students in a school in Central London is a good compromise for me- I am neither here nor there.