A Mysterious Transformation

Umm...

this weekend...

two strange things happened.

1. My kids were talking about phimosis.

O_o

2. I understood why my kids call each other metamorphosis which in turn led to something a whole lot darker.

Let me explain.

I have a student who is entering puberty a little earlier than a lot of his peers and he has had extensive time outside of Korea so his English is pretty good. He gets a lot of curse words and innuendo easily in movies, conversations and the like, and as a 12 year old 6th grader, he is very eager to share the comedic filth with his peers.
Every Monday when I walk into class, some student is assailing me with the cry of "Teacher! Bartholemew is metamorphosis!" At first, I was very confused. As time went on, I shared with them the meaning of the word...that it means to change. They cried "yes!" and I was like "change into what? a butterfly?" I thought for sure that they meant that the change was because of puberty and thus he was changing into a teenager (and being a perv).

What I found out was much more disturbing.

It seems that the word for pervert, 변태 (byuntae) is the same word for metamorphosis. 
This in and of itself would not be as disturbing if not for the fact that the Korean-English dictionary gives three definitions for byuntae (pronounced pee-yoon-teh).
a. metamorphosis
b. change
c. perverse

It hit me like a ton of bricks! I have been having the hardest time understanding why people with experience, knowledge, genius ideas and fully capable of improving things come to Korea and meet such quiet yet fierce opposition. For the people there, the ideology is that change is synonymous with perversion. THAT is what the kids were saying. They associate perversion with change because of the fact that it's the same word and therefore, to them, means the same thing! If you hold that cultural ideal, then when different people come trying to change things in your culture, you will see it as perverse (and summarily resist it as much as possible while still trying to save face and appear hospitable and respectful).
There is a similar thing I heard of with the Japanese words where the word for different is synonymous with the word bad. It makes it difficult to be the new person coming in where people say they want to learn from me and have cultural exchange, but your philosophies are that change and difference is a negative thing.
So I have solved the mystery of metamorphosis but it has also brought light to a darker truth. 
Considering the continued efforts of annexation and cultural eradication of Korea by both Japan and China, I can see why they fight and hold fast to their traditions and are resistant to change...but you cannot open your door to embrace the rest of the planet, ready to share and think that you will only take what you want and change a little.

That's not real life.

I have come to realize that Koreans have a great responsibility to change their ways and thoughts about embracing difference and change. But I also understand that we, the rest of the world, must be patient with them while they do this. We, because of our cosmopolitan histories, have had no choice but to embrace change. Their history has made their experiences, outcomes and outlooks different. So even though, I don't like it...I have to be very patient and do my best to illustrate through patience and life example that change is a good thing.

I guess that's why it always puzzles people that I am here...that is QUITE the life change and definitely not something that would compute for them.

Hmph.

*gallops away*