You're so Handsome

"Your so handsome."

The above is a complement usually reserved for rare occasions, and typically recived by a man from a woman. I usually got comments like this from my female relatives, on the (rare) occasion that I bothered to dress up. (This would typically be a major family function or holidays where showing up in my typical, jeans and a t-shirt, ensemble would be inappropriate.)The usual reaction to the complement is a "thank you", then both parties resume whatever it was they were doing.

That is how things normally go, but like many things in Korea things are a bit different. When I arived, after my 24 hour trip from the States to Korea, my director took all the teachers at our school and myself out for a meal. Durring this meal my dirrector, a man several years my senior, called me handsome no less than five times. This prompted the teachers to enthusiastically repeat the complement. This was flattering (and a bit awkward) the first time. I had been in airports and on planes for the better part of a day, and probably did not look my best, but the more they did it the more it moved from awkward to creepy.

I soon found that I would have to get used to this. Everyone, from cashiers, to waitresses, to the children who go to the local schools, have called me handsome. Sometimes it seems that it is the only English word people know. I do know know which is creepier: being told this by the men, or the young girls.