Uncle Steve's Story Time - Episode 3

I've learned a few things during my stay in Korea, perhaps my favourite is how to accept your role as a local celebrity. I will try to outline a few of the responsibilities that local celebrities have and how you apply these responsibilities to your local community to ensure that their ongoing love affair with you rolls on for at least another weekend.

1. During local festivals, participate in any type of ribbon cutting ceremony. This can be accomplished very easily by standing in the way of a cameraman, getting the attention of a local dignitary and motioning to him that you should be a part of said ceremony. Everyone is happy with the outcome.

2. Conduct television interviews with the utmost sincerity. Sometimes this is more difficult than it should seem. Please learn from my experience and don't suggest that you thought Koreans were boring but a Mud Festival makes them seem fun. It's not a local celebrity's responsibility to criticize, we are there for positive P.R only. Also, make sure that you know the station that is interviewing you. Few things annoy television reporters more than a drunken local celebrity who seems intent on saying "OCN, Number One Channel", even though the microphone is clearly marked MBC.

3. Involve locals in your own activities and traditions. Koreans are very interested in what their local celebrity likes to do, they like it even more when we involve them in said activity. If you decide to borrow a young lady's umbrella, open it and dance around the street, a good local celebrity would invite the young lady to dance with them. After the giddy teen runs off with her hands covering her face with sheer excitement, it is the local celebrity's responsibility to show gratitude. An acceptable display of appreciation is to approach the nearest car, reach in and start honking the horn repeatedly, and shout kamsahamida (thank you) over and over.

This is a good start. In the interest of Brent's blog, I will add more at a later time. Until next time...