I can't believe I didn't write about this sooner, but I might have just been just too shaken up (slightly) over it. I was also probably so busy telling everyone here about it because they would understand what happened slightly better than an outsider...and then I forgot to write about it.
Before telling you my tale, I'll let you in on a little information about old Korean men, also known as an "ahjussi". An ahjussi is, in nice terms, a way to refer to a Korean man who is much older than you. In more negative (yet accurate) terms, it's a skeezy, drunk old Korean dude reeking of cigs and kimchi. (Or as Al so lovingly says...."they're f*ck heads".)
These guys prowl the streets of Korea all hours of the day, wasted, stumbling around causing ruckus and offending many people along the way. The problem with Korean society is that if someone is older than you, you cannot, under any circumstances, question or challenge them. It does not matter if they say the sky is green, you must just smile, agree and move on. In businesses (and schools), you can never question authority. If someone is older, in a higher position of power, or both, it is a major no-no to debate them. So, because of this unfortunate hierarchy of a belief system they have over here, old people run about like they own the place and can do whatever they want, whenever they want without consequence. (Being drunk here is almost always an actual, legal way to get out of most things...even rape. It's excusable if you had one too many soju shots). For example, a drunk ahjussi (those two words tend to just belong together) would not leave Al and two friends alone one night when they were sitting outside on the patio of our local Family Mart. He was just belligerent and harassing them and, no joke, kept trying to grab Al's friend's crotch. They got tired of it asked a girl our age at the next table if she spoke English, she said yes, so he asked if she could kindly ask him to piss off. She then apologized and said there's no way she can tell him to leave simply because he's older than her. I wish I were joking. I'm all for respecting elders, but it's on a completely different level here.
All that was to tell you of my encounter with my own ahjussi a few months ago. I was walking home from work, which is about a mile one way, and I could sense there was someone walking behind me, keeping pace. My route is on a busy, well lit street so I wasn't too bothered by it. All of a sudden, I felt a person grab my hand. I whipped around and it's a gross man, probably 50 years old. I yanked my hand away, gave him a look like wtf and sped up my walking. He continued to walk next to me and grab my hand several times all while I'm yelling "아니요!" (no!) and giving him dirty looks. I walked much faster thinking I lost the guy when he was back again this time grabbing my arm trying to get me to go with him somewhere. He was patting his heart, pointing down the street somewhere, rambling in Korean. He grabbed my arm again, I shouted in his face, and lucky I was close to Al's school so I went there pronto. By the way, as all this was happening there were many onlookers refusing to help me. This is common here, no one wants to get involved because it's inconvenient for them, so they don't help. They merely watch as if it's some entertaining, ridiculous K-Drama on television. I made it to Al's school just fine, albeit slightly peeved at the whole thing. Al walked me home, of course hoping to run into the guy so he could...I dunno, punch him or something?
Over the next few days, I regaled my story to some friends, one of whom said (like it was the most obvious thing in the world), "He probably thought you were a prostitute."
Bingo.
Why didn't I come to this realization myself? Korean men love hookers. Korea (and Japan) is a country of Love Motels a.k.a. "by the hour" motels. There is one on every block seemingly encouraging this behavior. Guys on motorcycles drive by and throw little cards all over the sidewalks, adorned with pictures of naked women and a phone number, where anyone who walks by can see and pick them up, children included of course. A friend is even collecting them to make some kind of hilarious art piece out of them. Korean men are the #1 customers in Southeast Asia for the sex industry down there. One thing that we foreigners hear a lot about are the "Russians" around these parts. The "Russians" are mostly blonde young women who come down here from like Vladivostok (or other parts of Eastern Europe) or something to make some cash in a society that's more than willing to pay.
As soon as my friend said that, I knew exactly that's what the old guy thought. I get stared at a lot buy old Korean men and it's slightly unnerving, but generally they keep their distance. I've gotten asked before on more than one occasion if I was Russian, knowing exactly what they were implying, but I immediately say I'm American and they don't probe further, unlike that dude.
Here's an interview with a girl here about the situation and her also being thought of as a prostitute all the time, it's a good read! http://www.mappingwords.com/2012/12/12/are-you-russian/
Four more months and I'm ouutttaaa here!
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