Follow up on cultural diversity

For those who read an earlier post of mine this is an update on that. My friend K, from the far-east has become a good friend of mine. I am now feeling bad for having made those comments in my last post.

Over the last 3-4 weeks I have got to know him better and I realized that he has gone through some real tough times in his life. Due to an unfortunate turn of events when he could'nt go for his post-graduate training, K had to work in the Demilitarized Zone in Korea for three years. The stories he has to tell are the stuff war movies/novels are made of. He then had to go through the ordeal of working and studying simultaneously before he finally managed to get his post-graduate degree in dermatology. He wants to join an international organization as it will allow him to look at public health problems in various countries and travel,which is his passion.

He has started applying for jobs and sought my help in drafting letters in English. So I started helping him. Then he helped me to figure out which study units I should be taking in the next two terms. I have now had my fortune read according to the Chinese fortune method ;) and, yesterday evening had this amazing experience of eating authentic Korean food in a Korean restuarant off Tottenham Court Road - full of pickled veggies,tofu and rice. Aj and he share a common interest in history and so the conversation was just fantastic.My main learning of the day was that Japan has one ethnic group simliar to the aborigines in Australia and the Native Indians in the Americas,called- Ainu. They are apparently pretty much marginalised in their own country of origin. I feel so bad when I read or hear of any native population being discriminated by others.

On the lighter side- he informed us that many Korean women (and apparently the same is pretty much the case in Japan as well) stop with warning their husbands with dire action ( at the most) if they find out that their spouse is seeing a prostitute, but matters become serious if the spouse dares to have an affair with a colleague (for example a doctor with a nurse). This is because as long as one pays for the night, there is no love involved (conversely an affair with a colleague is seen a strong threat to the future of the marriage),it is just another way of 'relieving stress' !!