I assume that anyone who has ever taken a sociology class, or any kind of racism-awareness training, or anything of the sort, is familiar with the concept of white privilege. and if you're anything like me, you have associated that concept with many other situations. male privilege, straight privilege, and in isolated situations the reverse of all of those, as well as countless other types of privilege. I am becoming familiar with two others, which I'm sure have been analyzed before, since there is nothing new under the sun, but I have never analyzed them myself. one is "american privilege." I am learning that no matter where I go, if I am in a big city (and often even if I am not) I can find countless references to american culture, especially american food. here in daegu there are at least three mcdonald's restaurants, several kfc's, at least one burger king, a bennigan's, and outback steakhouse, a krispy kreme and a few starbucks, in addition to hundreds of pizza places and fried chicken joints and a handful of local restaurants that specialize in "western food." I believe you would be hard pressed to find another nation whose cholesterol-ridden cuisine has so deeply permeated the arteries of the world. then there is the fact that I can turn on the television at any hour of the day and within an hour catch either oprah, the tyra banks show, american idol, america's next top model, a shot at love with tila tequila, sex and the city, or friends. there is a sex and the city themed store in downtown daegu. there are american movies in the theaters. there is no way that I can honestly whine about culture shock, because regardless of what little I may experience, it is next to nothing compared with what foreigners in the united states must feel, being that they don't have the privilege of seeing their cultural exports every time they turn their heads.
the other is "english privilege." tricia has blogged about this before. it absolutely blows my mind that, despite my anxiety every time I go into a new establishment and fear that I won't be understood and will look like an idiot, the korean people are wondrously accomodating towards non-speakers, and impressively fluent in english. today I had to open a bank account by myself and was terrified. in america, if a foreigner whose english skills were as limited as my korean skills walked into a bank and expected to open an account, I'm fairly certain that five times out of ten it would be impossible and the other five would involve rudeness, misunderstanding and at least four different people who would each make the customer wait ten or fifteen minutes. but today. today I walked up to the counter, said "mianhamnida, hankook malo mohteyo" ("I'm sorry, I don't speak korean"), and the sweetest bank teller in the world, who spoke flawless english, opened an account for me within ten minutes.

I want to elaborate on this, but I've just realized I'm out of time, so, more on all this later.