Beginner's Eyes

There's nothing like moving to another country to flex one's humility muscle.  I'm a beginner in just about everything now -- which seems the best cure for a recovering perfectionist that I've come across.  Mind you, Tyler's a beginner in just about everything too, but having been here a whole week longer than I have, to me he's the expert on all things Seoul.

This knowledge gap was made very clear last night as we ran through every piece of information I may need to know this week while he's away at his five-day Samsung training (the details of which have been so hush-hush at this point that all sorts of rumors are floating about): "This subway line takes you here; that subway line takes you there -- remember, that's the one we took on Sunday?... If all else fails, the 7-Eleven will have what you need." (I realized when he said that last comment in all seriousness that I need to find my own surer footing here).

I find that I often get frustrated at myself for not knowing more than I do... and then smile when I remind myself that I've only been here a week.  Comparison is a dangerous game: almost unconsciously, I find myself comparing my knowledge here to that of NYC, comparing myself to others who have been in Seoul all summer, and perhaps most dangerously: comparing myself to my younger, "braver" self.  I remember being so fearless in India -- independently exploring the city and looking up Ayurveda treatments and yoga classes my first week there.  I was secretly relieved going back to my journal this weekend and seeing how petrified I was to cross the street my whole first week there! (goes to show you what we selectively remember about ourselves)

And so for now, I'm learning to cultivate a sense of curiosity and wonder, and yes, even revel in my beginner's eyes.  I recently read a great quote from "The Artist's Way": "We want to be great -- immediately great -- but that's not how it works...It is an awkward, tentative, even embarrassing process.  There will be many times when we won't look good -- to ourselves or anyone else.  We need to stop demanding that we do.  It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time... Give yourself permission to be a beginner."  This reminds me of a book a read a few years ago whole title I love: "The joy of doing things badly."

One of the best pieces of advice I got before India was from Seth Godin, who reminded us to take advantage of our "beginner's eyes" to see things that others don't see because to them, it's just "how things are done" -- warning us that our beginner's eyes won't stay that way forever.

Moving here has also been a practice in seeing multiple perspectives, which Shawn Achor argues is a key input for long-term happiness.  Take the smallest of examples: elevator buttons.  Silly as it sounds, one of the first "differences" I noticed here were elevator buttons.  Besides being on the front panel like ours are, the buttons are also along the elevator sides.  For the first couple days, I thought that was silly -- who needs so many elevator buttons, and why on the sides?  And now it makes so much sense... how many times have we all crammed into an elevator, been left standing in the back, and needing to shout for a particular floor?  What first seemed a bit nonsensical is actually genius (why don't we have this at home?!)  It's small moments and building blocks like these that make up an endless stream of a-ha's on a daily basis.

And just about everything right now seems to be building blocks... going back to the basics of ABCs and 123's.  First, there's the Korean alphabet.  Korean class has us all drinking out of a fire hose... though I'm grateful to now be able to walk around and "read" words (or at least sound them out one sloooow syllable after another).

There's also friends.  Right now, we're primarily friends with people whose names start with T through Z: Tabitha, Tom and Tomoko though Zach and Zhon... (our intensive Korean class was divided alphabetically by first names).  We were extremely excited to get invited to a baseball game last weekend by an Andrew -- branching out into the A's, yea!

And then there are numbers.  The Korean number system makes my head spin.  There are two sets of numbers: Chinese numbers (eel, ee, sahm, sa, oh...), which are used for phone numbers, money, dates (and drinking games!!); and then Korean numbers (hana, tool, set, net, tasot...), which are used for age, counting, and ordering.  As if that's not confusing enough, times are told in both sets of numbers: the Korean number is used for the hour and the Chinese number is used for the minutes.  I'm certainly climbing up the learning curve... at least I know what I don't know!

Outside the classroom in day-to-day life, my movements are driven primarily by numbers.  I'm an ace at the 2 and 3 subway lines, and I've memorized the exit numbers at the major subway stops to get me to key locations: exit #3 for Korean class; #8 for Samsung; #9 for home (each subway stop is essentially an enormous mall, with various exits leading to different parts of the neighborhood).

So as I'm learning, each day is a celebration of the little things.  As Robin Collingwood has said: "A man ceases to be a beginner in any given science and becomes a master in that science when he has learned that he is going to be a beginner all his life."