The Urinals that Insa: A cultural-anthropological theory with help from fellow ETA Trisha L.

(Original Title: The Urinals that Insa: A cultural-anthropological theory based losely on the tools gained in Christ College's Interpretation of the Social Sciences (a course no longer offered in the form I took it, though I'm told the new form is quite good), with a little help from fellow Entertaining Teacher from America Trisha L.)

Although we can't flush toilet paper here, the urinals in our dormitory (and in most of Korea, as far as I can tell) are all automatic--another instance of the old and new in Korea. Unlike in America, however, the automatic urinals here flush twice: once when one walks up to them; a second time when one leaves, as is convention in the States.

This of course seems strange to those members of our species with the appropriate equipment to use such devices and who have used them in the past, but the strangeness can easily be explained if one has a proper understanding of Korean nunchi, one's ability to sense gibun (or the social feeling of a situation).

For instance, when one is the presence of one's superiors, one should practice good nunchi and realize that the gibun of the situation requires one to use formal language and, upon entering the gibun, to practice insa (or formal greeting by bowing). Let us suppose therefore that the urinal exists in a certain gibun-ic state, that of the hwajangshil, a.k.a. the John. It can exist as it is in this state without doing anything as the gibun does not require anything of it.

Let us then suppose that a superior enters the gibun which the urinal already occupies. Suddenly, that superior brings with him (and it should be a him in this case). As the superior approaches the urinal, therefore, the urinal, being a good Korean urinal made by the Daelim Corporation, must practice good nunchi and perform insa before its superior. In other words, when a bloke, being superior to the machine, walks up to the urinal, the urinal feels obliged to flush. As my colleague Trisha L. has noted, it is not only the urinal which practices good nunchi in this gibun, as the superior in the gibun also performs insa if he looks down to unzip his fly. When the necessary function of the urinal is complete, it performs insa once again (i.e. flushes), the superior performs insa as well (i.e. zips his fly), and the two part company knowing that the gibun of the situation has not been sullied, and both can maintain their respective positions in the hierarchy of Korean democratic society in peace.

If this is the case, perhaps I should take my colleague's advice and begin greeting the urinal with a hearty annyeonghaseyo when I use it in the future.