The kids are alright: Korea 2022

I had this theory, another in a long line of dumbass theories, that the old folks here in Korea would be fine, but the young people would be a mess, spoiled, only children lost inside their smartphones. I am happy to report that, as usual, I was completely and utterly wrong. The young people are great, at least so far in Pyeongtaek and Gangneung.

Imagine yourself working at a coffee shop or convenience store, and you're suddenly facing a large, ancient-looking alien being, speaking something that resembles the language your grandparents spoke--but badly. What would you think? What would you do? I'll tell you what the young people here do. They handle it with style and grace. Count me as impressed. I knew about a lot of the good qualities: smart, well-educated, well-behaved, kind to old people, and all of that. But the ability to handle freaky situations smoothly and effortlessly? Well-done, young Korean people. The world is your oyster.

With my initial theory disproved, I fell back to a theory that it's just the young people outside of Seoul that are alright, with all the young people in Seoul being those who sold their souls to the devil for "success." I was thinking especially about the members of boy bands and girl bands. Then I made the mistake of reading up on ลลิษา มโนบาล / Lalisa Manobal (Lisa) of the girl band Blackpink. While she may be Thai by birth, she's lived here for 11 years, deeply immersed, and I reckon she has earned the right to represent both Thailand and Korea.

What an impressive young lady! I don't know anything about her rapping or dancing or singing. But she is certainly my language learning hero. Here's the relevant passage from her Wikipedia page: Lisa is multilingual; she speaks fluent Thai, English, and Korean, along with basic Japanese and Chinese. Respect!!! 

It's not just Lisa of the girl bands. I come across impressive young Korean people all day, every day, in my wanderings around town. If there's a global competition amongst countries, which I believe there is, then you had better step up your game, America--and I mean step it up a lot. Otherwise, you are going to get your clock cleaned. Step one might be getting old judgmental bastards like myself to stop expounding our dumbass theories, and shut the hell up. Let the young people have their shot at fixing all the things that are broken. Spoken just like Old Grizzled speaks, I guess.

Photo of Lalisa Manobal deliberately not provided.

I don't give a shit what she looks like on the outside.

There's a great human being in there.
(Says the judgmental old bastard...)