::A Geek in Korea::

So, after mentioning my birthday a few times, it wasn’t until Monday that I got anything other than I card from my students. In one of my classes I got candy and a paper "bouquet", and other I got packets of cookies. Now, when handed a large enough amount for something, there is something of an implied hint in Korea that foreigners sometimes miss.

In my class, I was handed a bag of some store bought cookies. Two bags, along with some candy. Now, the bags of cookies had exactly ten servings, and we had eleven students in the class. As soon as the cookies came into my possession I walked back to my desk. I was checking papers and needed two hands free. I heard a student mumbling to the person that gave me the cookies, "Foreigners don’t do that. They don’t know. See."

Of course, I knew exactly what was demanded of the situation culturally. It comes with careful observation after living here a long time. I waited until I checked all the homework, then broke open the bag so that everyone in the class could have a single cookie. This is what is expected to be polite. All the students were surprised I knew that was the "correct" thing to do. I gave one student a piece of candy instead of opening the second bag. This was a slight breech of protocol, as everyone is supposed to get exactly the same reciprocal gift, but I didn’t want to eat nine cookies by myself without milk.
 
In the United States, there is no expectation you must share a gift immediately with someone that gave it to you. In fact, the entire point of having a birthday party is to get cool gifts no one else can play with, then bringing them to school that they can be lost, stolen, or broken by bullies in class. The point is to have more stuff than everyone else, and if you don’t, talk badly about the people that have more than you. Sharing gifts? What a lame way to try to make friends THAT would be!