Positive Reinforcement.

Reading back through some old entries makes me think that I'm a fairly negative person in my writing. I think it might be because I only feel compelled to write when I'm feeling strong emotions, and lately the most affecting experiences have been negative.

So let's begin.

Last night was the first time I've gotten really annoyed with my host family, but not through anything they did directly to me. It was instigated by the 6 year old, who has always been a brat, but maybe because it's never been my problem I found it endearing up until last night. Of course, it still wasn't my problem, but it caused the rest of my family a lot of stress, which got me quite irritated.

Here's the layout of events:
- 6 year old is whining for food that she can't reach across the dinner table. She NEVER asks, just whines and points. Mother ALWAYS reinforces this behavior by giving in.

- 10 year old says in English, "She is crazy!" This is a term thrown around a lot, constantly, by all the kids. It's a joke and has always been harmless.

- 6 year old bursts into tears and runs into her bedroom, crying much too loudly to be real. She's basically just screaming at the top of her lungs.

- Mother SCOLDS 10 YEAR OLD for teasing her sister. I couldn't believe this because they call each other crazy all the time and it has never been an issue... so much for consistent parenting. They argue in Korean for a few minutes, and the 10 year old storms off to her room.

- Mother goes into 6 year old's room to comfort her, within seconds she is back at the dinner table with a big grin.

Now I know I shouldn't generalize, but I have a feeling that this situation is common in many Korean homes and correlates with how I've seen a lot of Korean kids behave. First off, they are LOUD. And even though the entire country is loud, I'm not banking on it being a genetic thing. It's part of the culture that kids, when they want something, SCREAM for it. And if a child's logic is that they need to scream to get what they want, that's just a step off from getting attention any way possible, including whining and crying. Mind you, this is primarily with parents. Most of the discipline in this country is left to the schools to exact, which is why the same demonspawn at home are sitting in neat rows of terrified, well-behaved students at school for 14 hours a day.

Second, amongst peers, bullying and fighting are accepted as legitimate ways of getting what you want. It's actually so ingrained that the bigger dog gets the bone that the losers often aren't even sore about it. Imagine two kids fighting over a bag of chips. They argue and bicker, maybe wrestle a bit. Once one comes out the winner, the loser pouts for a moment, then cracks a joke and both start laughing. That's Korea.

I don't know enough young Korean adults to know if this developmentally makes sense later on... but I'm working on it. I need a bigger case sample, preferably some rebellious youth that are creatively resisting their oppressive school life. This is turning out to be such a strange country, many times more foreign than Japan was.