synchronized bowing

In Korea, middle school students are trained to bow and say hello to their teachers in the hallway, in the cafeteria, in the bathroom, basically any time their teachers pass them. And although not all of them bow to me (instead they just say "hi", giggle and run away), I've been able to observe the many styles of bowing.

1. The "I have to pee" bow: I've only observed this type of bow with girls. The bower kind of stands like they have to pee with their hands clasped and bows timidly far away from the teacher, usually with their bum sticking out towards a corner.

2. The "Run and Stop" bow: Bower is running like really fast, hair flowing, they see a teacher stop short... and bow. After the bow their off again at top speed. Not to be confused with the "Run while Bowing" bow.

3. The "Flop" bow: A slightly over exaggerated bow, especially effective if the bower has a little longer hair and makes it look like their doing a very short headbang.

4. The "Sychronized" bow: Students standing in a group spot a teacher all at the same time and somehow manage to co-ordinate their annyong haseyos and bows.

5. The "Ham-it-up" bow: I've only seen the boys do this one. The bower stops short whatever he's doing (eating, walking, whatever), clears his throat, puts his hand over his heart, delivers the deepest annyong haseyo and almost scraping his nose on the ground, the deepest bow.

6. The "Ohhhh!" bow: Students often mistake me for a "real" Korean teacher and do a normal annyong haseyo and bow, then halfway through it they realize it's me. They pause, come out of their bow, make a little 'ohhh!' sound, giggle and say 'hello teacher!'.