Flash Forward to Present Day...

Jan 26, 2009.

What it Means to be a Failed Koreanist.

Without giving too much of the past 20 years away too soon, I can say that at one point I had every intention of pursuing a career as a Korean Scholar of some sort. I earned a 3.9/4.0 GPA, and was well-respected in the department when I finished my Korean degree. I toyed with proceeding straight to grad school to study more Korean. I also interviewed for a couple of jobs where I could use my Korean and break from the cash-poor student lifestyle. I just couldn't pull the trigger on either one.

I then made a terrible decision and turned down a month-long, all-expense-paid study trip to Korea that I had applied for and been selected to. I snowballed that blunder by agreeing to work for US $150/day in the Art Department on a TV commercial for a local grocery store. That commercial was followed by another, it was followed by a TV mini-series, next came a movie of the week, then a 13-episode series...

The next three years and two summers of working in the film industry are a subject for another time. The net effect result was, however, that I lost any and all momentum and contacts necessary to pursue Korean studies or a career thereto related.

Many years later I found out that I fell into a category called "failed Koreanists." All it means is that I was educated and trained in Korean or Korean Studies and I ended up not putting it to any practical use. Not even remotely. However, on top of the obvious, and other oft-discussed aspects of us such failures, here are a couple more to think about.

Being a failed Koreanist means that at any given time, mixed in with the other trinkets, trash, and light reading on my bed table, you'll find several Korea-related books I have either started and paused, or intend to read:

(I'm presently nine pages into that fat novel by Min Jin Lee.)

It also means that in a room in my house where nobody but me is allowed, I've got this:

And this:

This:

Oh, and this:

I've read the vast majority. And yep, there's more on other shelves and in boxes...