“I’m Not Gay!!!”

“I am a BOY, Damon!!!”

During one lesson where I asked students about various questions’ appropriateness (when meeting someone for the first time), one question was “Do you have a boyfriend?”  All throughout the class I kept hearing one guy shout “I’m not gay!”  I finally went to ask him why he kept shouting that and he replied “This question…boyfriend…me…no want.”  I told him he could change it to “girlfriend” but he still kept shouting that he is not gay for the duration of the class.

Then in another class, students were asked to share an “Ideal Partner” scrapbook with each other.  One student had a picture of a married woman, so his friend gave him crap about it saying “he only likes married woman.”  Appalled, the student shouted, “No!”  so his friend replies “Oh yes, that is right.  He is GAY.”  And so this student began shouting “I’m not gay!” over and over.

Another student gave a presentation in front of the class about his ideal partner.  He said he wants to go to Lotte World (an amusement park) with his ideal partner and said “if any one wants to go with me, call me.”  The “I’m not gay!” student immediately shouted he wanted to go followed by his friend shouting “See, GAY!”  The presenter clarified that he was only talking to the girls.

**I think compared to Western culture, Korean men are very feminine.  This is why conversations arise about their sexuality so often.  I guess these two students were just fed up with it.**