Making a foreign friend?

     A few days ago, I was reading a book in a subway station. Suddenly, a black man came closer to me and asked if I could tell him how to go Itaewon station. We were in an Onsu station (line no.7), so I told him that you should go up stairs and take line no.1 and transfer twice. He seemed to not understanding. And he asked me to take him to line no.1. I was a little annoyed. “Unless I willing to bring him there, why should I to do that? Isn’t it rude to me?�? But the way to get line no.1 is not very far from where we were, so I said I will.

     On the way to get there, we had very common and boring talk. More over, when we get our destination, he asked me my phone number and he said if he is in an emergency situation, he will call. That sounded so weird! I’m not his mother or tour guide! I unavoidably gave my phone number (Well, maybe I was worrying image of Korean, how stupid), but later, I didn’t receive his calls.

     I had thought it will be easy to make friend with anybody. However, I realized that it is not easy as I thought. When I met him, I thought he is too old to be my friend. When he said he came to
Korea for sightseeing, in my mind, there was a selfish mind-‘If we become closer, maybe I have to be a ‘personal guide’ in
Seoul for him.’ Also I couldn’t understand well his pronunciation (I guess he couldn’t understand either). It was really discomfort to have boring dialog with such strange pronunciation.

     I thought I’m a open-minded person because I don’t hate somebody or something without very special reason. But I realized that I’m not very open-minded. Maybe he and I could be good friend if I had open mind and a positive attitude, I think. Now, I just hope that he having a good time with new Korean friends in
Korea.