The Toothbrush Ajusshi

Several weeks ago, Ben and I had an encounter we promised ourselves we would not forget to post on the internet.  (We forgot until now).  We were on the subway going to or from somewhere when we were accosted by an ajusshi ("a middle-aged man", counterpart to the ajumma, both very notable personas of the Korean culture) who was presumably trying to sell us a toothbrush.  On the subway.  He had his own little cart and everything with which he was moving through the subway.

Now, having never traveled in American subways and very infrequently on subways in Budapest, I found myself bewildered by this sort of gig.  He was not the first person we had seen soliciting in a subway, nor has he been the last.  However, he was the first person we saw selling toothbrushes.  Typically it's a man or woman trying to spange (or "spare change") or proselytize.  As you can imagine, these attempts are hardly ever successful.  Most people ignore them-- I guess that sort of behavior is universal no matter what language you speak.

This blog post isn't particularly significant except to make note of an odd situation.  When the ajusshi got to us on the subway, we were standing near a door and trying to look unobtrusive.  (We didn't know how to say, "We already have toothbrushes, thanks," in Korean).  He was having none of it, however, and proceeded to peddle his oral hygiene wares to us.  We smiled awkwardly and said "No, thank you," in Korean, which is all we could really manage, and he nodded and toddled away to his cart and then to the next subway car.

Maybe we should have purchased his toothbrush.  Sadly, not knowing any substantial amount of Korean really hinders us from having even a shallow conversation with a stranger, much less asking why he decided to sell toothbrushes on that particular train that day.  We'll be eaten with curiosity for a while yet.