I have been in Korea for almost seven months and have been
blogging in Korea for about four months; however, I have hardly posted anything
about Korea. I suppose that I struggle
to post about Korea because I have not really felt welcomed into the culture
here. I was spoiled in Georgia by their
generous hospitality and not receiving the same treatment here made me
sour. Most of the other ex-Georgian
English teachers that are here share similar sentiments. I should not have let my experiences with
another culture affect my experience with Korea and have decided to renew my
attitude since returning from my (amazing) South African holiday. So, move over memories of Georgia, it’s time
for Korea.
Korea is a country with convenience stores conveniently located
on every convenient corner. From my
apartment there are about six convenient stores within five convenient minutes
walking distance. They are all conveniently
open 24/7.
No shoes indoors!
This includes schools and office buildings too. When I show up to work, I take off my outdoor
shoes and put on my school shoes, which are pool sandals or slippers, depending
on the season.
Poop. The
relationship Koreans have with excrement is reminiscent of the hilarious
relationship I had with poo as a child.
On one family vacation, during an excruciatingly long drive out west, my
siblings and I entertained ourselves by constructing a clay bathroom. This included a man squatting over the toilet with
toilet paper stuck to his butt and poo in the toilet (when it came to toilets, we
were detail oriented children). The
Koreans have taken it to the next level with the establishment of a
toilet-themed park that looks extremely similar to the clay mold we made as
kids. Luke, Emily and Jacob, how much
would we have loved this
when we were kids? Here
is the Google image search of the Suwon Toilet Park. Still interested? You can play this game where you shoot
hands up a butt while trying to dodge falling poo.
 |
| Toilet seat building |
I love Korean food.
It’s nice and spicy with lots of flavours. More to come on this…
I haven’t lived in the USA since 2010 and am sure that
smartphone use is up to par with Korea, but I’ll still mention the rampant use
of smartphones. It was a culture shock
from the moment I got off the plane in Seoul where I saw 8 out of every 10
people on their phones mere seconds after departing from the aircraft. They are ubiquitous.
Korean dessert gets two giant thumbs down from me. They try to pass bland rice cakes as
dessert. They should take the sugar out
of everything else and put it into their desserts instead; I would much rather
have savory chips and a sweet dessert than slightly sweet chips and slightly
sweet desserts.
Packaging. If you buy
crackers or cookies, they will undoubtedly be packed in a plastic tray and
every group of 4-6 crackers or each cookie will also be individually
wrapped. Usually, zucchini at the
supermarket is individually wrapped, as are eggplant and cucumbers.
Korea is home to a line of bullet trains. To sit at a station and watch a train zip
past at speeds higher than 300 kmh is crazy.
The train is literally just a blur for 5 seconds, and then it’s gone.
I often receive lots of stares when I cross the street in
Korea. Why? Because I don’t wait for the green man to
tell me when to cross. If there are no
cars coming from any direction (the whole intersection empty), I cross the
street (as would you, probably), none of my fellow Korean pedestrians do so,
however. They wait and wait and wait for
that green man to tell them to cross.
Similarly, in my experience, handicapped stalls in bathrooms are not
used by the non-handicapped. There can
be a line of 10 people with no handicapped people in sight and the handicapped
stalls remain unused. If I gotta go, I
don’t hesitate to use them, despite the stares I receive. The phrase “rules are made to be broken” does
not apply in Korea.
Masculinity is not the same
here as it is in the USA. I have always
joked that it is better to be a woman in American culture because we have more
“freedom” with our clothing style and choices.
Women don’t generally get judged for wearing certain colors of clothing
and our closets are much more versatile than a man’s closet. In Korea, that joke wouldn’t stand. Men have as much “freedom” with their
clothing choices. Men continuously cross
the line between masculine and feminine we have in the States. Skinny jeans, scarves, makeup, “girl” colors,
jeans tucked into boots, everything you might associate with feminine dress if
you are from the States, is worn by men here.
Well, there you have it, my 2 cents on bits of Korean culture.
