A Mother's Apology

I had some parent/teacher's meetings this week. I have a new boy in my grade 5 class. He's quiet, but sweet and pretty smart. I had only good things to say about him.

As his mother was leaving she says in near perfect English "My son has black skin because he plays soccer everyday."

What she meant was that he has tanned skin. Koreans call tanned skin "black skin". I told her what we call it in English and that people pay money to look the way he does. He's a handsome kid, but Koreans generally don't like anything that isn't pale white.

I couldn't help but wonder if she had come to the meeting just to tell me that.