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Plastic-Wrapped Cucumber
Example of excess packaging So I've been trying to keep some lists. They overlap a bit, but here they are.
The first list is differences between South Korea and the US.
-eating with chopsticks and a spoon. No knives at the table—this means either you use a spoon and chopsticks or you may possibly get scissors. In addition, rice and kimchi at every meal. You read that right--even breakfast.
-bowing. Basically you are supposed to bow to anyone when you meet them. You are also supposed to bow to people of your rank or higher when you say hi or when you see them. For example, when I see coteachers or a principal in the hallway I must bow.
-greeting people with 'anyoung haseyo' (hello) pretty much every time you see them. In shops, workers say this and goodbye to all their customers (similar to Czech Republic in this sense).
-older men and some older women walk with hands clasped behind them and leaning forward a little.
-friends that are the same gender are pretty touchy-feely compared to the US. Girls walk arm-in-arm and guys hold hands. They also fix each other's hair and lay on each other on the subway.
-taking outside shoes off
as soon as you enter a house, school, traditional restaurants and other places. At school I have inside school shoes. Although it is supposed to be no inside shoes outside and vice versa, students often go outside between classes in their sandals. Also the students take their outside shoes off to go in the teachers’ office, but as a teacher I am allowed to wear my outside shoes in the teachers’ office. Perplexing.
-many restaurants have fish tanks/aquariums on the streets. You know your seafood is fresh, I guess.
-wearing masks that only medical people wear in surgery/dentistry in the US. Maybe 10% of the population wears masks any given day out in public. Apparently this is supposed to guard against diseases and yellow dust/pollution in the air. I very rarely see people wearing them in school.
-people look in mirrors everywhere. On the subway teen guys look in the window reflection and touch up their hair. There are huge mirrors in the subway station (and my office). If a woman (heaven forbid) for some reason doesn’t have a hand mirror and needs to primp a bit, she can use a cellphone reflection too.
-Korean fashion—guys seem very metro. They
Bike Shop
In my neighborhood often wear open suit jackets like women did in the 80's. And they may have longish hair gelled to the side. Girls often dress in high heels and short bottoms (skirts or shorts). In winter, they wore leggings under, but that is quickly changing as the weather gets warmer. Skirts and shorts seem to have no minimum length. In contrast, it is not good to show any cleavage or even your shoulders on top.
-hand gestures—signaling ‘no’ by crossing arms in x over chest. Waving goodbye with both hands. Handing anything to others and pouring drinks—use 2 hands or place one hand on forearm.
-turning hot water on before using in houses. There is no hot water in schools (at least in the bathroom or in our office. I hope there is when they clean the dishes.) It is expensive to leave the hot water on all the time.
-usually toilet paper is outside the stalls in bathrooms. So you have to remember to take it before you go into the stall. Also, you must correctly estimate the amount you will need. Another bathroom note: squat toilets with a flush are readily available. There are also Western toilets around too.
Neigborhood II
Pharmacy and church on the right; restaurant, closed window barber shop, and beauty salon on the left -children are way more unsupervised here than in the US. There are 10 minute breaks between classes and there aren't teachers in the hallways or classrooms, so the kids make a ton of noise, play-fight, sing, etc. Also, I've seen kids as young as 8 riding the subways alone. One night I saw one of my first grade students and her friend getting on the subway at 10pm on a school night. There aren't school buses so that might explain part of it. Kids also have more scheduled lives. They usually go to school 5-6 days a week (they have school 2 Saturdays a month), and then many go to private academies (hagwons) in the evenings.
The second list is things I like about Korea so far (that I've thought of the last few days). I'm sure there are more . . .
-there are mountains everywhere—the country is beautiful! Also it is never hard to find a place to hike.
-public transportation—cheap and frequent. It seems easy to get to most places in Korea by public transport, which is a great improvement over USA.
-on a related note, I can walk to buy groceries, go to the bank,
Neighborhood III
My neighborhood has definite character, as you will see in the next photos. They put stuff in the streets but have to call to get it hauled away, which takes a while. go to the pharmacy, etc. (added bonus, 3 bakeries within 4 blocks : )). This is good for me, the environment, and my quality of life (aside from the bakeries). (See http://www.walkscore.com/walkable-neighborhoods.shtml if interested).
- children may randomly say “Helllloooooo!” to you in the street. Once one kid says hello, every other child in the group will say it. I always say hello back, but if I think they can handle it, then I ask, “How are you?”. Most of the time they answer, “Fine. Thank you!” Sometimes they just stare back at me with their mouth open and a confused look on their face.
-national healthcare system which I, even as an ‘alien resident’, benefit from
-Koreans' efforts with recycling--depending on where you live, you can be fined for not recycling; however, there is room for improvement--there is a lot of excess packaging here
-food and drink: red bean snack cakes (sweetened red bean paste inside pastry), bibimpap (meal in a bowl--rice, fresh veggies, an egg, and hot pepper paste which you add to your taste), Korean savory pancakes (with various ingredients), makkeoli (unfiltered rice wine which sometimes has fruit added).
-my students, most of the time
-my city,
Buddhist Shop?
Not sure, but they have nice flowers. Daegu—good size for me (only 2 subway lines); good location in Korea; lots of different things to do; active foreign community which makes it easy to find out information
-its ‘dynamism’—80 year old women bent over halfway and hauling handcarts piled high, next to 30 story buildings; people carrying small dogs dyed bright colors and dressed while others eat dog soup; monks talking on cellphones and riding the subway
-helpfulness/generosity of Koreans—strangers that sit next to you on buses will often split their food with you and will attempt to talk to you to be nice even if they know you have no idea what they're saying; I was clearly trying to figure out where I was and were I was going on the bus in Busan. A Korean got up and pointed out where we were so I could get my bearings. And on the train last night, a Korean about my age showed me his cellphone before he got off. He had written in English something like, “You look lonely. Cheer up. Good luck to you. Bye.” I was actually just sleeping most of the time, but it was really nice.
The last entry and this one
Mural at a Former Hagwon
Boy picking his nose in the first picture. Yes, this is 1 block from my apt. are mostly lists. Sorry about that--I know they're not as readable as straight paragraphs. But hopefully this gave you some idea of what it's like here. It's hard to distinguish differences now that I'm used to seeing most things every day.
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