Culture Shell Shock

So many people ask me what it's like, being here. I'm not that good at short, simple answers. Korea is neither incredibly romantic, nor frightening and strange as it may seem, but life here is certainly not the same as anywhere else. I wanted to share with you what I've gleaned thus far with my little eyes and my wandering feet. This entry was promised ages ago, but maybe let's think of it as better enriched with the experiences in between. ^_^

School Life

At my school, the students are allowed to get a lot rowdier than American students. Each class is allowed 10 minutes between each 40-minute lesson. The deafening screaming, shouting, stampeding in the hallways, and wrestling is somehow expected and no one shushes them like teachers do in American elementary schools. The teachers are very lax about punishment here; even yelling is strongly frowned upon. Physical hitting has been done away with, mostly because the parents no longer accept teachers hitting their kids.

Surprisingly, when it comes to big-time trouble, the students quiet down immediately and stay that way. Even better, afterward you can see their shame and you can count on their good behavior at least for the rest of class. I can't appreciate this enough, since though the most judicious method of punishment is one-by-one, and punishing an entire class of 35 students is often resented, here they take it quite seriously. They often respond when I stop talking and wait, giving them the quiet, withering glare that says "Somebody gonna get a hurt reaaaaaaal bad". And on some occasions when that doesn't get work, they always snap to when I put on my seriously angry face on and yell "Claaaaaaaaaaaaasss!!!" For softer-spoken teachers like when Ms. Lee had a cold, smacking a bamboo stick on the table makes an equally effective, deafening noise.

I had a hard time with my extra class, the Nurture class, which is comprised of very young students who don't normally learn English (1st graders and some older remedial students). Most of my problem stemmed from the misbehaving boys, who not only were disrespectful, but were too young to figure out what I wanted, either. So I asked Ms. Lee to come one day and just help me a little. She did more than help; she brought the Wrath of God!! Screamed up and down at them and punished one boy in particular for half an hour straight. She smacked that bamboo rod so hard that it shattered, split into pieces. Now you can imagine how hard that must be, since bamboo is like the diamond of trees. Her punishment was so disturbing that it scared even me a little and disturbed my teaching, so she took him outside to punish him. Through the closed door you could hear the militant yelling of commands: "Stand up! Sit down! Stand up! Sit down!" He was a little piece of putty when he came back. Score. ^_^

English in Daily Life

The "Engrish" here is sometimes amusing, more often just confusing, and sometimes annoying. There was a pastry I saw at the store that I bought purely because the packaging said, "Happy virus" on it. While I am not a snob about English except to English-speakers (and the Koreans here are shamed about you correcting them), I can't help but to burst out laughing when I see signs like the one for the movie "Transformers", which in the Korean translates to these sounds: "Tuh-ren-suh-po-muh".

On the other hand, to my surprise and delight, many English T-shirts that I've seen in school have actually made sense. Here are some fun t-shirt slogans I saw: "Rise up" (w/ a picture of bubbles), "One is better than none", and "Do unto others BEFORE they do it to you". That last one really cracked me up.

Getting around

I was concerned about what it would be like living without a car. I only received a car in the last 2 years, and remember vividly how torturous it was living without one. Fortunately, South Korea is TINY compared to the U.S., and this can't be emphasized enough. You can probably fit Korea into the state of Georgia about 4 times, at least. So you can imagine that so many buildings are closely crowded together and having a yard is a luxury that most people don't have. The smell is thick and pungent, and the small neighborhood streets are littered with the most unimaginable filth. There is public trash collection, but my friend tells me that the government in Seoul got rid of most public trash cans after the bombings in Spain, fearful of North Korean terrorists leaving bombs in them. In my opinion, this is probably the most ridiculous and unfortunate notion in all of South Korea, a really stinky tragedy. Thankfully, public transportation helps to alleviate at least the physical congestion

The bus system is massive and complex; I can't begin to imagine what it must be like coordinating it. The buses run reliably often (longest wait time is 10 minutes, during the day). The train system is THE BEST I have experienced. It's easy to understand (with the exception of transfers within the labyrinths of certain subway stations), FAST, and cheap. The subway stations are also incredibly clean (except the bathrooms, yuck), almost spotless, and the trains themselves are even cleaner (alleluia!!). What I also love is the shopping in the underground subway stations, but more on that next.

Shopping

I seem to be spending money like water in this country. It's pretty easy to get out of wack unless you calculate the exchange rate for every transaction. The exchange rate favors the American dollar, with $0.80 to every 1,000 won (equivalent to how we think of the dollar in the US). Unfortunately, the 10,000 won bill looks very similar to the 1,000 won bill. You can imagine how incredibly PISSED I was that once during the first month here, I paid 10,000 won for a piddly 700 won bottle of water!! My Korean friend was right there, too, insisting that I had paid 1,000 won. It was only when I got home that I realized my error. Yeah you'd be pissed too, if you paid $8 for a bottle of water. Highway robbery....yes it's still a sore point with me.

The best thing about shopping in Seoul is that you don't have to go somewhere special to get discounts on clothing. There are vendors in every subway station, and depending on the location of town can vary from near-bottomless discount (think $2.50 for a shirt) to astronomically expensive ($200 an item). The department stores in particular (like Lotte World and Hyundai Department Store) are more shameless about inflating their prices. I suppose it's comparable to prices in New York City, but I couldn't imagine that the new Chanel perfume I wanted was $144 at the department store, as opposed to $85 at Macy's in Atlanta (regular price). There may be one great consolation, however, in that tax is ALWAYS included in every price you are given. You never have to pay something stupid like $16.99, calculate the percentage discount or tax, or fish around in your wallet (or your friend's purse, for some of us :P) for pennies. And the best part is that there's almost ZERO tipping! It's actually rude to tip, and you can depend on waiters to run after you telling you that you forgot your money.

Social Customs

If there is one quality that I prize most about Korea, it's that the behavior here is so much more decent than other large cities like Atlanta and New York City. You don't see men grabbing their crotches, oggling women on street corners or at the mall, or saying dirty things as women pass by. I am so glad to have left the trashy perverts behind! I had been starting to form a man-neutering agenda. It's also unusual for people to get very loud here and start laughing hysterically like the ghettos of Atlanta; that behavior is reserved for restaurants and bars. People don't openly mock strangers, either. That's not to say that Koreans are extremely polite, though. Most people push and shove on public transportation and in malls. Too many people spit in the street, too, UGH. And they can get really boisterous when they start drinking. And MY, do Koreans like to drink. Their popular "beer", soju, qualifies as a low-grade vodka, in my opinion.

I had an amusing incident at 8:30 pm on a Tuesday evening. I was walking home past HomePlus, where it's always crowded with shoppers and people catching taxis. There are many backless stone benches for people to sit outside. There was a man who had fallen backward off the stone bench! He just lay there on the ground, prone, not even twitching slightly as sleepers usually do. His arms were thrown straight out from his body, but his lower legs remained on the bench, like a woman in stirrups but without the awkward spreading. No one called the police. I guess he's just another man who loves his soju. I wonder even now who ever woke him from his coma.

So far, in my 3 months here, I have only met one sketchy potential pervert. I was on my way home on a Wednesday night after an evening of hanging out with friends. A middle-aged Korean man blocked my path as I was exiting a large subway terminal, asking me where I was going. He spoke in English, so that alone stopped me. I said that I was looking for a taxi to go to HomePlus, a large convenience mall. He said that there were 2 in the district, so I had to figure out which one. I told him that I was fine, and proceeded to leave. He took a few steps forward and suggested that he could take me home. He seemed very nice for a strange man, but of course this set off all kinds of bells and whistles. So I turned him down and said I'd take a taxi. I walked swiftly away, bypassing a woman vomiting her guts out as another woman held back her hair. Oh, the drinking..... I thought the strange man was gone, but as I was waving at a taxi driver, I felt someone pulling my arm. I jerked around, alarmed, and it was him right beside me! He pointed toward another taxi driver who was taking a cigarette break. He put his arm on my back and gently pushed me toward him. He spoke to the driver, which I felt was useless because the taxi driver still asked me where I was going in Korean. I responded using the Korean directions my friend Jee had given me, and we were off. I hoped to god that the strange man would not get into the taxi with me. I suppose he didn't because his car was at the station. Altho, come to think of it, he might've followed my taxi in his car.....a frightening thought....

I think my point is that people here have standards for common decency that are higher than America's, and shame is something that any good Asian should and usually does have. Thank god for the collective society.

Life in General

Of the foremost of my concerns is healthcare. Healthcare here blows me away; I can't believe that a doctor's visit is $10 without insurance or even legal status, and an insured, legal visit is $2. Medication, with or without prescription is also incredibly affordable; it cost me $6 the last time I needed prescription meds. Pharmacies are everywhere here, too, and the doctors have all received educations in Western medicine. Of course, anything cosmetic is still very expensive.

Koreans in general care very much about their appearance. Even on my field trip to Jeju Island, which is known for its wild, mountainous beauty, tourists still wore expensive-looking bags and flashy shoes. It wouldn't be Korea if women didn't wear stilletos to go cave-exploring, would it? :P In many places, however, if expensive things don't fit into the local per capita income, the standard for women is a baggy t-shirt or some other plain outfit that shows no skin. I can't quite agree; the hot weather and the unsightliness of wearing a cotton bag on one's body is too much for me. My friend Jee told me that it's easy to spot me when she visits me in Suwon, she just looks for the person wearing the most form-fitting, revealing clothes. :P

Korea is similar to China in that presentation is very important, from gifts and other social gestures to design to fashion. I have seen some very beautiful Dunkin' Donuts restaurants and pizza joints that look like deluxe restaurants. Even the uniforms at banks and at the doctor's office I went to were enviable, downright stunning. The popular fashion usually falls into two categories: 50's style blouses and dresses with modern flare, or modern Japanese style that includes anything from t-shirts and cotton overalls to tights with long blouses cinched with a belt and chunky stilletos. My well-endowed friend complained that chest-revealing clothing is frowned upon here, but short short skirts are quite common.

One would think that that is especially ironic given most Asian women's breast sizes, but Koreans in general are the largest Asians. The men get as tall as Americans and are wider than most Asian men (forget that crap you see on their music videos). The women are quite tall too, and thankfully are closer to my size than anywhere else in Asia (ahem...Vietnam, for example). I have no problem getting bras here, either. Tragically, underwear tends to be too tiny and outerwear tends toward the humongous scale. As far as looks, I never felt that Koreans were especially attractive, but because of how slim most of the women are, they beat out most Americans by a huge margin. It's not that everyone is stick-thin, like I said, but there just aren't that many obese people. It's so rare that I didn't actually see a grotesquely obese person until my 3rd week here (maybe he had a thyroid problem).

I'm sure that it may just be the city dwellers, but as the newer generations push forward, they are more and more concerned about being beautiful and having brand-name things. There is a great fondness for Westernized goods and a certain elegant, middle class lifestyle that one often sees in commercials. I was shocked that people here would pay so much for goods when the economy here is flagging just as America's economy is, and dropping from a much lower height as well. Temptation is everywhere, but I try to resist in the hopes that somewhere around the corner is a better deal and a better product. Yeah, I'm still me.

Having Fun

There is so much to see and do here in Seoul that it exasperates me when people don't take advantage of this experience. Even more so, Korea believes in preserving its natural surroundings (all the more so cuz there's so little of it, compared to its population). There are many beautiful natural wonders, and it's common for people to take weekend trips to hike mountains, explore caves, hang around streams, go swimming in the ocean, fish, raft, etc.

As you've probably seen on Facebook, I've done more than my fair share of exploring both the city and the outdoors, from Namsan Tower and subway station shopping to my vacation in Jeju and my rafting trip to the Hantan River. I am looking forward to more eye-popping fun experiences in Korea!