Intercultural Life

Category: Manner Man Comics

Manner Man #2

Finally a new Manner Man!

This is a pretty basic one. No shoes inside. Sometimes when you visit people you’ll be given house slippers, but not necessarily. Not only that, but when you go to the bathroom you have to use the bathroom slippers (I don’t like bathroom slippers).

In our apartment in Sydney, because we share with a Korean couple it’s strictly no shoes inside but when we go to my parent’s house we can wear shoes inside. The first time I went to Korea with my husband back before we were married, we went from the airport to a motel. My husband went with the receptionist to check what the room was like and walked in with his shoes on! He was so used to being in Australia he forgot to take them off. The receptionist was like “No no! You can’t do that!” He had to apologise and explain he’d been in Australia.

For those that don’t know Manner Man a super hero that helps with Korean etiquette. Actually the idea was formed when we were in Korea and eating dinner and drinking with Korean friends and one of the guys was concerned that some of the other Korean friends weren’t using proper etiquette and made sure they were being polite. Trying to explain the situation to me in broken English he said “I’m…. manner man.” Which sounded like a super hero to me…. though as you can see, a super hero is does the exact thing he is trying to stop.

Manner Man #1

The idea for this little comic came about last year while we were in Korea. We were eating and drinking with my husband’s hometown friends. I can’t remember the exact situation but someone was not showing the right respect or something, one of the Koreans actually, and one of the guys quickly corrected the situation so proper respect was shown. His English was very poor but he tried to explain to me. I think what he wanted to say was, “I’m a gentleman and I care about etiquette” but instead he said, “I’m manner man.”

At the time I thought it sounded like a superhero and we joked about a superhero that corrects manners. It’s only now that I’ve actually drawn it.

So, Manner Man is a superhero who comes to the aid of foreigners that are unsure of Korean etiquette. This comic took a million times longer to do than my normal comics. I’m still getting used to using a tablet to draw. I’ve been a traditional artist all my life so it’s been a big change.

Let me know if you have an idea for another Manner Man episode.

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