Sadly, one of my most memorable moments in college has nothing to do academics but everything to do with the toilet. A few of my best friends were international students from Korea and weren’t too keen on the finer points of American etiquette.
Having missed a few days of class, my friend HJ went to the instructor and started to explain that she had had a VERY serious case of diarrhea.
Just to make sure the instructor understood her correctly, she earnestly went on and on to describe everything from the severe stomach cramps to the constant running to the bathroom.
The instructor was stunned speechless. Obviously embarrassed by this lengthy explanation, he told HJ that everything she missed could be made up and hopefully she was feeling much better now.
When I saw this video of Korean pitcher Chan Ho Park explaining that “a lot of diarrhea” was the cause of his poor performance on the mound, I died laughing remembering my old friend HJ. Oh how I love Korea. Park is bewildered by the laughing reporters as would be many a Korean!
Koreans are very upfront about the functions of the body and talking about BMs has always been a common topic of conversation. The consistency, how much, how often, color–the whole nine yards.
The funny thing is that Americans are now starting to follow suit with Dr. Oz and Oprah trailblazing the road to talking more openly about what’s going on in the toilet. BMs are most certainly a very good indicator of a multitude of health conditions and apparently the perfect “S” shaped BM is what we should be striving for (his words not mine!). Dr. Oz says that this topic is actually so important that we should actually be talking a whole lot more about it.
Back in college, when my friend Younny and I witnessed HJ’s now legendary teacher meeting, we howled about it for days. We joked about trying out this fool proof method the next time we got in a tight spot but never dared.
We may be laughing now, but Korean culture is very old and wise and Chan Ho and HJ may have the last laugh yet!
