Friday, April 16, 2010
Wind Bathing
My language class is diverse; we have students that are not only from different countries but are also from different age groups. One of my classmates is an older man from Korea (OMFK).
Interacting with folks from different corners of the world is fun and interesting. Sometimes it is mind-boggling. Today was mind-boggling in the most awkward way. And for me to say that is saying a lot.
Here's the almost instant replay. By the way, I know you can't read characters. I also know you can't read pinyin. If you could read characters and pinyin, I would write this story using characters and/or pinyin. But you can't, so I won't try to impress you with symbols that mean nothing to you or a string of latin characters that you would mispronounce anyway. Thus, I will relay this story to you in the language that you and I know best, good ol' American English. (Yes, I know that's a misnomer.)
Without further ado:
Teacher (T): OK, so what are other ways we can exercise. What about you OMFK?
OMFK: Um. Well sometimes I like to "wind bathe".
T: Hrm. "Wind bathe"? I've never heard of that. I've heard of people sun-bathing. What is "wind bathing"?
[At this point, I'm confused and I'm frantically looking in my electronic dictionary. I can find the two characters but nothing is coming up.]
Me (English) [To my American classmate]: Hey what does that mean?
Classmate (English): Um. To take a wind bath. I have no idea.
[So, at this point, I'm thinking I heard wrong. Everyone looks to OMFK for an explanation. His language is mediocre, so he's trying, with some difficulty, to explain.]
OMFK: It's when you take off your clothes?
T: Um. Huh?
Me: Huh? What do you mean?
OMFK: And you do exercises in front of an open window. It comes from Europe. It's really good for you.
T: Ah. So for OMFK, he likes to exercise by wearing a minimal amount of clothes while...
OMFK: No, NO clothes.
[Awkard silence]
T: No clothes while doing exercise.
OMFK: Yes. It is very healthy.
All I had in my mind was a picture of a naked man doing aerobic exercises IN FRONT OF A WINDOW ACROSS FROM MY OWN APARTMENT WHERE I COULD SEE HIM! I can understand doing the wind bathing...but surely you can put up some barriers for some privacy right? But I guess that would block the wind. And it would also block an opportunity for me to feel very uncomfortable.
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