I promised myself I would do a blog or keep a journal while I was out here. One year later, and I haven’t. Half of the things I’ve done I’ve probably forgotten about.
Here’s the other half, mostly in bullet point form, the things I love about Korea, and the things I don’t.
Some things in Korea are great:
- The Food. I’m British. You know what that means. We like salted sawdust with a side dish of cow spittle. Usually. The food in Korea is rich and varied. Eating out is a joy – it’s fairly cheap, and delicious. Restaurants are everywhere, numbering, at a guess, ten times more than in the UK. Most places you can point at the pictures on the menu until you get going. You sometimes sit on the floor. You never get a plate, just a small dish to use, and a wide array of side dishes to choose from. Chopsticks and a spoon. The meat is often cooked in a pan, on the table. By you. This is called “Samgyeopsal”. Best. Food. Ever. I also love Kimchi Jigae, a spicy soup. And many others. I hate seafood which is a big part of Korean cuisine, but otherwise Korean food is very good, very colourful, healthy, and delicious.
- The people – The people here are very friendly. There are no neds/chavs/trailer trash/bad attitudes. No aggression. If you fell over, there would be a raft of people helping you up. Old people are respected. People don’t bump into you and swear at you like it was your fault. There’s almost no….
- Crime (Rate) – Practically* non-existent. Koreans have a philosophy of national unity – to hurt another is to hurt everyone. Crime barely exists here. High level (politicians etc.) corruption seems a slight problem, but petty crime? You can walk around any time of the day or night, even as a female, and, in the main, feel perfectly safe. (*My friend nick has had both his wallet and his bike stolen!! Then lost his wallet. He doubled the national crime figures single-handedly). Feeling safe at all times is not to be sniffed at.
- Transport system – You want a taxi? Just walk out and stand next to the main road, one will be along in a minute or two. Just flag it down. They are all very similar, and have a light in the windscreen if they are available. They are cheap too, about a third of the price of the UK. A basic fare is about a quid, and that will cover the first couple of miles. Trains are also cheap. You don’t have to book in advance to get a cheaper ticket like in the UK. I took a 4 hour journey last summer, booked it on the day, and it cost about a tenner. I actually went first class for an extra two pounds. The trains have a carriage devoted to entertainment with a snack counter, internet PCs, karaoke rooms, video games and a massage (vibrating) chair, none of which is overpriced. The long distance buses are cheap and clean. On the underground in Seoul you can buy a prepaid card, which you can top up, and swipe. Much easier than buying a ticket. Again it’s very cheap – a standard journey might be around 50 pence. On the whole, public transport is excellent and cheap here.
- Korean Kids. I work in a primary school and the Korean youngsters are impossibly cute, and very sweet. For the entire year I’ve been here they have been fascinated by their English teacher, and I have had a great time teaching them. I’m switching jobs to a High School next week, which will be 16-18 year olds, and I’m gonna miss my Korean teeny tots here at the Elementary like crazy. Big hugs to all of them.
- Video and Prize Machines in the Street. This relates to the chav/trailer trash/crime rate thing above. There are video games and prize games (grappling hook things etc) all over the place in Korea. We simply couldn’t have that in the UK. They would be smashed up and/or robbed.
- Noraebang. A word that won’t mean much to many. It’s a bit like karaoke – except you and your friends get a private room. Much better than listening to some drunken slapper murdering ‘Simply the Best’. You can also buy snacks and beer. It’s the Korean equivalent of nightclubbing i.e. it’s where you go last when everyone is pissed. Very common and popular here in Korea, and, it has to be said, great fun.
- The Women. The women here are very nice. They are, somehow, much simpler than western women. If you try and chat one up, they are very receptive and polite – happy to be spoken to. You might not get anywhere, as casual sex happens far less than it does back home. Western women, by comparison, treat the whole chatting up thing like a game of ‘banter’ – demure doesn’t exist any more with them. It’s possible to meet women here by just being nice, rather than having to be outrageously witty. Also, Korean women are rarely fat, or have big arses, or laugh like drains, or are loud-mouthed slappers with bad attitudes. Do I have a chip on my shoulder about UK women? Maybe lol. But Korean women are (and the whole process of meeting woman is), simpler, nicer, less caustic, less demanding, less weird, and, they are, on the whole, slimmer.
- Toileting. The Korean attitude to visiting a restroom is much more, dare I say it, adult, than ours. Most male toilets have one main door, even in a public place, and it’s not unusual to be able to see in, if you wanted to. Sometimes male and female share a room, there may be a urinal outside a cubicle (stall for my US readers!) and the cubicle is shared. At my school the female cleaner might come in and mop around my feet while I’m using the urinal! The teachers and pupils share the facilities. Can you imagine that in a UK school? In short, the Koreans take a much more laid back, less tense, less hysterical attitude than we take to nature’s calls of duty. They are less prudish, and I have to say, I prefer there attitude to our hysterical accusatory weirdness. I won’t mention some Korean ‘restrooms’, which are occasionally, by western standards, primitive, but Korean attitudes to such things are far more normal than ours.
On the whole I like Korea, but here are a few things that in my opinion could be improved...
- Toilet paper outside the cubicles. This is a mistake you only make once! At my school the TP is on one large roll OUTSIDE the cubicles. It’s also a bit weird estimating how much you are going to need! OK enough about toilets.
- Pedestrian Crossings. No, I don’t like waiting 4 or 5 minutes to cross the street. Really, 4 or 5 minutes for the lights to change. There’s a bakery across from my school that I can’t visit before I go to work, as I may be late if I have to wait for the pedestrian crossing to change twice. Also jay walking is illegal here – no one does it, so you have to wait. Ball. Ache.
- Economic Superpowers in the News. Buy a newspaper here, and every page is about international trade and business. It’s a Korean obsession – their national standing in the world. If I buy a newspaper I want to read news, not another story about a multi-billion dollar trade link with some western country. What happened yesterday in Korea? Nothing, apparently, other than global trade.
- Last Minute Changes. True story. I received a phone call about 8.45am to say that my first class (9am) was cancelled. About 9.20am I received a second phone call to say that my second class (9.50am) was also cancelled. Around 10 am I received a third phone call to say that all my classes for the day would be cancelled. Ten minutes later thirty or so kids walked in and sat down for their English lesson. That’s an extreme yet true example. They love last minute changes in Korea.
- Every city looks the same. Tall, grey, modern concrete tower blocks, and run-down shacks. Some parts of Korea are a bit of an eyesore to be honest. Although the countryside can be beautiful, the cities and towns can be a bit of a blight. Some look good at night though, as they love neon, flashing lights and huge TV screens. It’s like being in Bladerunner sometimes.
- Motorcycles Riding on the Pavement. This is not a biggie. It just takes a little getting used to.
- Shop Assistants. Most though not all shop assistants follow everyone around the shop, two feet over your shoulder, even if there are only you and him/her in the shop. If you show the slightest interest in any item, expect a full on sales-pitch. In Korean. Very, very annoying if you’re just browsing. It’s not that rude here to shoo away the assistants, so I tried it once. They backed off until I picked up an item from a shelf and they both came scuttling back, babbling away in Korean about the soap I was admiring. I have walked out of shops because of this. Drives me crazy.
Overall, I love Korea. The people are friendly, the food is great, and there’s lots to do. It’s not that big, it’s easy and cheap to get around with a clean and modern infrastructure. It’s not ‘touristy’. It’s often not that pretty, really, and consequently you may start to miss interesting buildings that aren’t made of concrete.
If you teach here, they will pay you more than enough to live a nice lifestyle. There are many westerners, as most schools have a native English speaker. There is also a large American military presence in some areas, which can mean lots of western-style bars and restaurants.
If you’re thinking of coming, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, but don’t expect everything to be the same as back home. It won't be.
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