Where The Watermelons Grow

Before today, it was my small-brained assumption that all people agree that a watermelon is a fruit.  A watermelon has seeds and tastes sweet and sugary and therefore, it is a fruit.  The real debate is tomatoes.  Are they fruit or vegetable?  They have seeds right?  So alas!  They must be a fruit!  Then what about cucumbers?  I’m getting off topic.

As I was saying, I had long ago made the assumption that I would never have to question the placement of a watermelon as being in the fruit category.  UNTIL TODAY.

Today in one of my classes I was having my students list fruits and vegetables.  When I suggested watermelon they told me it was a vegetable.  Assuming that they were not understanding the word ‘watermelon” I drew a picture and said, “it has seeds, it’s a fruit.”  And they said no!  It grows from the ground, it’s a vegetable!  And I said, “Strawberries grow from the ground!  Are they vegetables?”  “Yes!” they exclaimed.

Here, I presumed, we had a major misunderstanding, for strawberries and watermelons, which are sweet sweet things, surely are not considered vegetables in Asia.

So I asked a foreign teacher’s opinion.  She too told me that watermelons were vegetables.  Watermelons!!!  Watermelon.  Vegetable.  Watermelon=Vegetable? Ludicrous.

Unable to accept this, I began questioning students in the halls:

“Is a watermelon a fruit or a vegetable?” 

“A vegetable.” 

“A vegetable?!?  Are you crazy?!?  It’s a fruit!”

“Hey!  This is KOREA!!!!  A watermelon is a vegetable!!!”

And there’s a cultural barrier I did NOT expect to encounter.