How is the life in Korea?

[namilussah]

Hi all

Since i discovered korean dramas i got addicted to them , am starting to like everything about korea. My dream now is to travel to korea and experience the life there, meeting some celebrities would be greate too . what do u guys think , is it worth it, i mean is korea as greate as i think it is?

[kaasbris]

Hi all

Since i discovered korean dramas i got addicted to them , am starting to like everything about korea. My dream now is to travel to korea and experience the life there, meeting some celebrities would be greate too . what do u guys think , is it worth it, i mean is korea as greate as i think it is?

WELL? Drama is drama.
But it's also true that Koreans are energetic and hot-tempered!
Making friends with Koreans isn't hard but they drink A LOT!

Expericence life? If you can, exchange student program is best way and most fun.
Also, some university (Korea Univ. and Yonsei Univ.) provides short-term courses.
To get full experience, you should go to Univ.(whatever it is full or short course)
Because Koreans have little time for fun before and after Unversity days.

Short Travel? I doubt bus tour or visiting tourist-only spot will be interesting(It's my own opinion but).
I recommend back-packers!
Korea is quite safe (even at mid-night) and transfortation is cheap and modern.
Usually, back-packers walks around Seoul streets or rural area. Yeah, it's fun.

For your case, you could go to TV stations with "back-pack"!
You will face screams and hordes of fans there.(esp. on weekends)
YEAH! you can scream there with them whatever celebrity name!
There always airing some shows.
And there are chances you can watch shows in the hall because attending TV music shows are all free in Korea.
(Ah, talk shows are paid. I did it as part-time job before, but that's boring.)

O, and most imprtant thing is to join online fan club for celebrities you love.
They knows more info and may help you.

[BabiiBue92]

uhh, dunt know I live in the US..Never been to Korean but just like you I would love to go there!

[meep]

Think of every Korean drama where the main characters are superstars.
Now, try to remember all those semi-mediocre looking girls (and guys) chasing them.

That's how crowded it is on a normal day in Seoul.

Then again, it's only Seoul The rest of the country is generally quiet

[namilussah]

Hey there first of all thanks a lot for replying to my question.

My wish to go to korea has become an obsession . i love there language and i actually started to learn it. i guess its easy to learn something when u want to and who knows, maybe its going to become handy when i finally visit the country ...... eh~~

[dejectionx]

Hey there first of all thanks a lot for replying to my question.

My wish to go to korea has become an obsession . i love there language and i actually started to learn it. i guess its easy to learn something when u want to and who knows, maybe its going to become handy when i finally visit the country ...... eh~~

You have the same goal as me

I learn the language through their shows, music, dramas and music. But at the same time, I actually study the dictionary and listen to files where they teach you sentences. There are sometimes when I would say something in Korean to my siblings, which is quite funny because they get annoyed (they wouldn't understand). Or with a friend of mines who is also Chinese, she teaches me some random words since she has a lot of Korean friends in the past, as well as the fact that her boyfriend (a friend of mines, too), is Korean.

If I pull up my marks and earn myself enough money within the next few years, I am going to apply to Korea as one of my student exchange preferences. Taiwan is my next choice =)

[Deedlith]

I've also started to learn korean because of my addiction to korean dramas. I don't know if it's a valid reason to begin learning an entire language but so far I like it a lot and it's extremmelly fun to learn especially since I'm learning it in University but when I'm home I'm still learning it trying to watch dramas first without subtitles then whith subtitles ^^

Fortunatly for me, last september, just when I started learning it at University, my college got a partnership for student exchange with the National University of Seoul. So I'm planning of first getting a licence ( 3 years still 2 years to go) and going there as anexchange student. Places are limited but though we were around 70 students in the beginning of the year, only around 15 remained at the end of the second semester and among those 15, only 7 attended classes regularly. I don't think the rest gave up because of difficulties, but I have to admit it was quite boring learning it the first year, especially the first semester I almost learnt nothing as I had been studying it in the summer to get agood start. My korean friends ( French koreans) who are also studying it ( actually they speak fluently but they say there's lots of things they need to learn as they're only used to speaking and familiar speech) said me the second year is gonna a lot tougher as we'll be starting learning Hanja, so I'm pretty excited ^^

Anyway to come back to your question, I don't know if you speak any french, but for the frenchspeakers here's a few blogs done by French people living in Korea:

http://hankuk.over-blog.com/ : This one is a french student in economics who after having spent a semester in Japan ( he's quite addicted to Japan actually but he did fall in love with Korea when he went there) went to study to KDI for a year. It's really fun to read as having been in Japan and being French, he likes to compare differences between our countries but in a fun way ^^


http://fabichou-en-coree.blogspot.com/ : This one has just started, it's actually a french researcher spending three months in Korea so there's probably more to come...


http://agnesseoul.blog.lemonde.fr/ : Finally this one's my favorite. It's a blog created by a french banker. She went back and forth between Korea and France for 5 years and finnally she said she felt so good in Korea why not live there. She speaks of lots of stuffs we don't see in France, so her articles are truly fun to read. One of her last articles for example is about the streets in Seoul extremelly large but which has a rough yellow strip dividing the pavement in two and going inside the tubes. Quite surprising eh? Well She said it's actually used for blind people. They should do this in France too, that's an idea... Well I guess we can't since our pavement are not really large most of the time...

[Néa Vanille]

I live in Korea. Though I JUST moved here, I am scheduled to stay here for at least a year.

Korea is very interesting. I have started a blog, www.neavanille.com, but so far I haven't included anything about different aspect of Korea and is only a personal diary of what I am doing. So, there's not much about Korean culture in it yet, but then I haven't really done much yet apart from meeting people, eating food and hunting for a room.

Well, if you have any specific questions, I am happy to answer them! I think I have a fairly good grasp of Korea as I've lived here before. Just ask about anything you are interested in! (hey that would give me ideas to write about in my blog as well. heh.)

[dejectionx]

I live in Korea. Though I JUST moved here, I am scheduled to stay here for at least a year.

Korea is very interesting. I have started a blog, www.neavanille.com, but so far I haven't included anything about different aspect of Korea and is only a personal diary of what I am doing. So, there's not much about Korean culture in it yet, but then I haven't really done much yet apart from meeting people, eating food and hunting for a room.

Well, if you have any specific questions, I am happy to answer them! I think I have a fairly good grasp of Korea as I've lived here before. Just ask about anything you are interested in! (hey that would give me ideas to write about in my blog as well. heh.)

One thing I am extremely curious about is there way of living and the language they speak. In other words, is there anything about their lifestyle that makes the country such an awesome place to visit? I have lived in Ontario, Canada, my entire life, and I have hardly traveled before. The furthest I have ever gone was for eight days in Paris So I am really curious about their lifestyle, especially when I have never been allowed to go anywhere much. As for the question regarding the language, I talked to a woman who worked in Korea before. She had no knowledge about their language, but she told me that learning how to read and write in Korean is really easy (like you could learn it in one night). Two of my Korean friends (white-washed though) taught me how to read it after writing down all the strokes of the letters. But is it that easily to actually understand the words? She said that as long as I know how to read and write, I would survive in Korea. As for the language, she said that it is really difficult unless you are fluent in it. I don't really trust her on that one though because most Koreans know at least some English, right? Please tell me if I am wrong.

It's sad because other than Taiwan being my other preference of going there to study for the student exchange, I have nowhere else I really want to go. However, my mom doesn't want me to go to any of the two

[Deedlith]

Well since I'm learning it at school, I can tell you it's not that difficult actually... Like every language, the more you practice and listen to it, the more you learn. Though French is my mothertongue I can tell you it's wayyyyyyyyy more difficult. Moreover, something really nice with it is that once you know one word, you can know lots of them.
For example : 빵 means "bread" 집 "house" 빵집 bakery.

You also have lots of words coming from 하다, once you know a name, you put 하다 behind and you can get LOTS of verbs or adjectives from just using that, from this same name, by just adding some other suffixes you can get adverbs, adjectives and so on... , you can even just change the end or conjugate a verb to change the meaning :

쓰다 : to carry , to raise etc...

Present : 모자를 써요 : to raise a hat

Past : 모자를 썼어요 : to wear a hat.

So well, once you get used to that, understanding the general meaning of words is quite easy.

Another thing, is that for example they form new verbs by just putting two verbs together...

For example : 따르다 : to go with 오다 : to come 따라오다 : to follow

so if you know the two first, you can deduce what the third one means.

Honestly, to me what's the most difficult is not really to understand them when they speak ( as long as their speech is slow enough of course which is fact quite funny since my teacher who teach us in conversation classes speaks extremelly fast for us "to get used to it" but I'm sure it's just to have fun with us answering something completely out of what she said. The worst for me was the day she asked my name but she had spoken so fast I gave her the date and hour ). You always have to think about what suffixes is good but most importantly the tints between their different kind of "but, however .." and so on is quite difficult to grasp.

If the sentences are long, it's real hell to remember what's what, you really have to make your memory work as it's like in Japanese.

But coming back to the person who told you if you're not native there's no way you can speak fluently, well I can tell you it's wrong. I know someone who spent an entire year in Korea not knowing a single word in the beginning and he started class with us at the beginning of the year to get a true diploma. After 3 days he moved to the 2nd year and he was still bored. My korean friends told me you can hardly hear his accent and he's extremelly fluent except when it comes to read adult books. Well he may have some facilities, but seeing this, it's quite encouraging isn't it?
Speaking about that guy, he was so bored, he packed up before the end of the second semester and moved all his stuffs in Korea. He speaks in the Daum café my conversation teacher has created to help us keep on training during the holidays, unfortunatly I have some trouble getting in it, that idiot doesn't remember my password and i can't give him my telephone number ( you have to get a special code to register that you get by a korean voice in your phone) as I'm actually abroad and my mobile doesn't work...

Even the pronounciation is doable. It took me some time, but my pronounciation is quite correct when I take my time... except for the ㅈ/ㅊ, I have trouble not only to pronounce but even to distinguish them when I hear. Unfortunatly, it's so hard I think I may have trouble with that my whole life; still I have hope... You never know.

PS: I yeah... My mom was not against me learning the language but to go there is another story. Still, I managed to convince her by saying that in our society, if you learn a language and don't go to the country, you're sure you're never gonna get a single job.
She has valid reasons though, she was born in Madagascar where there is an important chinese community living over there for more than a century, but their attitude towards native malagasy, that is to say black people is extremmelly negative and direspectful. Having lived her entire childhood and adolescence there, being underestimated by asian people, she was afraid I would get the same treatment by going there. And I can tell you, it's not because of any racist idea or whatever because we have chinese people in our family, it's extremelly mixed, I must have at least 4 or 6 nationalities mixed for just two generations... Actually we're so mixed we don't really know from where we're from.
But coming back to that, Madagascar is Madagascar, Chinese people may be educated to behave like that over there, they should change that's for sure however Korea is Korea with Korean and Korea is not China.

Yeah well you may find this idea ridiculous but I know a whole bunch of people who when they hear "blacks" think just "blacks in Africa or American Blacks" the farther they go is maybe India and that's it.

[PJB]

Only one ㅈ in Home. 집.

ㅊ is pronounced with a stronger starting sound (the sound is ofcourse similar). The difference isn't always audible but it's there (depends on the position of the letter in a word).

[Deedlith]

Ah yeh Sorry I didn't see that mistake when I wrote it, I'm gonna edit. But referring to what you said. I know the difference in pronounciation but still I can't do it correctly. The problem is not when the ㅊ is in the middle of a word but when it's start with ㅈ or ㅊ.

I know there's some tricks like ㅈ sounding "dj" whereasㅊ sounds "tch" in a sentence when the speech is fluent or between two vowells.. But it's still difficult..
The only solution I found for the moment was to ask my korean friends to check every words I write... It's annoying though, for them as for me.

[cjgohan2003]

I was wondering since korea is such a homogenous country, is there a lot of discrimination against those of different races? (Like Japan for example)

[AznAvenger]

I just recently visited Korea within the last couple of months and as a disclaimer, I am Asian (in fact, a lot of the people there confused me for being Korean until they heard me speaking English) so I may not have had the same experience as someone who is clearly not asian. I spent about a week in Seoul, two days in Busan, and another week on Geoje Island.

Anyways here is a list of random obrservations in no particular order (please correct me if I am wrong in any of this):

1) First, the service over there is light years ahead of what we have here in the States. As a side note, you don't have to tip over there because apparently, it's taboo. Now someone please explain that one to me.

2) They drink all lot in the evenings (seriously, there are bars everywhere). So much so that nothing is open until about 10:00 am the next morning. I don't know how they get breakfast, or if they even eat it.

3) There is shopping all around. I think this is one of my favorite aspects of Korea (at least in Seoul). Everywhere you go, there seems to be "communities within the larger community." It's almost like everywhere you get off on the subway, there is a shopping district nearby and all of the amenities are well within walking distance.

4) That brings up my fourth observation. You don't really need a car. Like I said before, you can pretty much walk to everywhere you'd want to from a subway exit. Also, as someone pointed out before, public transportation is dirt cheap. Just be aware that if you've never been outside of the States, the way people drive over there (especially the taxis) might be a bit scary at first but you get used to it. And let me remind you that there are literally millions of walking the streets of Seoul at any given time, so expect to see an insane amount of people out walking around.

5) Although there are a lot of shopping areas, the majority of people there just like to window shop (at least that's what I've been told). Try to imagine Chinatown in San Francisco and multiply that by twenty or so.

6) Young women there are always traveling in pairs. Can anyone from over there please provide some insight as to why? I'm curious.

7) When a new store opens, it's an event. No, really it is. They will hire dancers and singers to promote the grand openings. I actually recorded one such event. You gotta see it to believe it.

The air quality there is brutal. Also, in some places, you can actually smell the sewage from below.

9) Even when I was up and walking about around midnight, I never once felt like there was anything to be afaid of. Whereas, over here, I won't dare go out after ten.

10) The people were really friendly and more than willing to help me out. Keep in mind, I knew absolutely zero Korean, I was still able to make my way around jut fine. I've been told that the younger people like to practice their English with foreigners and we ran into a few that were pretty fluent in English and very helpful. On the subway I even ran into a pair of really nice old ladies who were even joking with me. I was able to visit the Shinsegae area, La Festa, the Seoul Auto show, the Dongdaemun area, the Korean National Museum, the War Memorial and more.

11) They love gaming over there (especially starcraft). Internet cafes are almost as abundant as bars.

12) Most service occupations are performed by women. Since I'm a twenty-something male, I certainly don't mind, but where are all of the guys?

13) As you travel the countryside, you'll notice that there is still a lot of rural life and that doesn't really change until you hit the big cities and then everything becomes industrialized. One thing I still wonder, is where are all of the houses that I've seen in the dramas. Within Seoul, most people appear to live in high-rise apartments. I didn't see very many "homes" except in the outer regions of Seoul. Someone please clarify.

14) Expect prices on goods to be similar to what you would expect in the US.

15) The Korean economy seems to be controlled by a few major conglomerates (Samsung, LG, Lotte, etc.)

I hope this gives you some sense of what to expect. Keep in mind that I knew no Korean whatsoever and just used the aid of maps and the locals (also, most signs are also in English). I will definitely go back once I find the time to go back.

[trancer_84]

I just recently visited Korea within the last couple of months and as a disclaimer, I am Asian (in fact, a lot of the people there confused me for being Korean until they heard me speaking English) so I may not have had the same experience as someone who is clearly not asian. I spent about a week in Seoul, two days in Busan, and another week on Geoje Island.

Anyways here is a list of random obrservations in no particular order (please correct me if I am wrong in any of this):
...
...

I hope this gives you some sense of what to expect. Keep in mind that I knew no Korean whatsoever and just used the aid of maps and the locals (also, most signs are also in English). I will definitely go back once I find the time to go back.

Hey, thanks a lot for the info! It was really interesting. I'm not so scared to go to Korea now ;)
I always wanted to go to japan, but i heard they didn't like foreigners much.
If you don't mind me asking, where did you stay? In a hotel?

[AznAvenger]

While I was in Seoul I stayed at a pretty cheap hotel (about $60 a night). It was about what you'd expect, but it was also conveniently across the street from a subway entrance so that was great. To be honest, I only came back to the hotel to sleep. The rest of the time, I was out and about. On my last night in Korea, I was in Busan and I stayed at the Lotte Hotel (about $300 a night). It's a bit expensive but, I guess I had to indulge just once. From the 22nd floor, you can get a great view of the Busan skyline, especially at night.

I know some people who go to Japan every year who are not Japanese and they always have a good time. I guess it's because they have Japanese friends but I think it just depends on the people you meet. I hear that the Koreans adopted the Japanese way of hospitality, so I would expect that their service is just as good. Anyways, hope this helps.

[trancer_84]

cool, thanks for the info ;)

[cluelessyf]

AznAvenger: ahhh ic! thankss for sharing too

i have a queastion about shopping, krns let you bargain right? at least in the less professional/expensive stores? cuz i lived in china b4 i came to the u.s. and i went back last yr andd like ppl bargain there all the time! but if you let them know that u're a foreigner, they don't let you braigain at all haha. it can't be helped for white/black/hispanic ppl, feel so bad for them! i know kra stuff's more expensive than china, but yeah just wondering :]

man i wanna go visit too! and tokyo.. sigh i'd need to save lotsa money..

[Néa Vanille]

You can't bargain at the department stores, but at the big Korean markets, of course you can! Shopping in Korea is great and better than in any other country I've been to.

As for cheap accomodation, I recommend Golden Pond Guesthouse. You might have to share your room with someone, but prices are incredibly cheap - about $15 a night. The best thing about it is that you get people to hang out with almost upon arrival there. There is a party in the guesthouse until the early morning very often and of course you can arrange to go somewhere else with a few of the guests. The entire time I stayed there, I went out to party every night.

[trancer_84]

As for cheap accomodation, I recommend Golden Pond Guesthouse. You might have to share your room with someone, but prices are incredibly cheap - about $15 a night. The best thing about it is that you get people to hang out with almost upon arrival there. There is a party in the guesthouse until the early morning very often and of course you can arrange to go somewhere else with a few of the guests. The entire time I stayed there, I went out to party every night.

haha, that's pretty funny! sounds like a good cheap place. aslong as its fairly clean, i'm all for it.

[Néa Vanille]

Since I had some free time, I compiled a list of all the good and bad things about living in Korea. Keep in mind that these are all my only MY experiences and, in some matters, opinions, and you might have a vastly different impression of this country.

Good things about Korea

- Korea is very safe. You don't have to worry very much about things getting stolen here. People are mostly honest here.

- Korea is extremely convenient, the most convenient country I've ever been to. Want to watch a movie? Want to eat live octopus? Maybe you want to go to a bar and meet people? Wherever you are, all of these things are only a short walk away, and for those midnight cravings, you can rest assured that a 24h convenient store is pretty much guaranteed to be right in front of your door.

- Korean people are very good-looking and walking through the streets is very pleasing to the eye.

- Korean restaurants and food culture is great - even in case you are not so fond of the spiciness of Korean cuisine, the cheap prices of food in Korea will sway you. You can have a decent meal at a restaurant in Korea for as little as $3, and included in that price is as much free water as you can drink.

- Even though Korea is a hardcore capitalist country, people give you freebies surprisingly often. When I bought a laptop, I got speakers and a mouse as free 'service' and many public buildings offer free water (hot and cold). When ordering food, speaking a little bit of Korean very often results in you getting free extras with your meal.

- People here are generally curious about foreigners. Though there is substantial racism here (as mentioned in the negative things list), most Koreans are paradoxically also absolutely intrigued with foreigners. It's not hard to meet people interested in talking to you, especially college-age people. People are also often very nice to you - I've gotten free rides on motorcycles for having a pleasant chat on the subway etc.

- Subway. Right. Korea has quite possibly the best public transport system in the world. The subway is absolutely fantastic and so is the bus system.

- Shopping can be done cheaply and in typical Asian fashion in Korea.

- Koreans are absolutely technophile! I list this as a good thing since I expect that most people reading an internet message board will be, as well, at least to some degree. You can use a computer practically everywhere and on the subway, you will see plenty of Koreans watching movies on their cell phones.

- Koreans are perhaps the most ambitious and hard-working people I ever knew.

- Korean nightlife is great.

Now, on to...

Bad Things About Korea

- Korea is sexist. Very sexist. But it doesn't just hurt the women. There is huge pressure on the women to be feminine and equally as much pressure on the men to be masculine and of course, the compulsory military service for males doesn't really help matters. There are countless social problems caused by this strict separation of the sexes.

- Korea is too hot and humid in summer and too cold in winter.

- Korea is an extremely superficial country. In Korea, being ugly is the equivalent to being shunned all your life and young people can spend hours discussing only a love interest's beauty. Being ugly in Korea is tough, for both sexes, but moreso for women and this explains why in Korea there are so many ads for diet programs, why there is so much plastic surgery and why many surveys have shown that Korean women are the ones to be most concerned with their looks out of all women in the world. Korean people are so obsessed with other people's beauty that in most cases, conversation just isn't going to happen if they find a prospective conversation partner to be physically unattractive. Which leads me to...

- Korean people don't make good boyfriends or girlfriends on average, unless you are completely obsessed with them like me. Not only will their family make it difficult and will you have a tough time overcoming the language barrier, but the superficial culture they grew up in has caused most of them to be quite dull and uninteresting. They are a lot of fun to be around with, and they certainly are pretty/handsome, but dating them takes a lot of work and dedication.

- Korean people have this national disease of illusions of grandeur. They tend to not want to realize that, overall, the rest of the world, except for a few dedicated individuals, doesn't really care about their country, might not even know where it is located and, worse still, might initially compare Korea's economic power and standards of health to that of.. say, Cambodia. Koreans like to believe they are great people (maybe the greatest of all) and thus have a hard time coming to terms with the reality of their global insignificance. The Korean nationalism stems from a complex mix of feelings of superiority and inferiority compared to other nations.

- Koreans are rather xenophobic, especially if you are Chinese, Western Asian, South Eastern Asian or of African descent. A little bit less so if you are Japanese (though it largely depends on the people you meet, but in general, Koreans respect the Japanese more because of their power and wealth) or white (because Koreans equate whiteness with America, and America with money. And Koreans like money). There are plenty of Koreans who are not racist, though, and in everyday life, you will very rarely be the victim of outright racism directed at you, especially if you are a woman as most negativity is directed at male foreigners.

- Koreans are obsessed with money. It's rather disgusting, really.



That's all I can think of for now. I hope somebody finds it useful!

[FoolyDooly]

You want my honest opinion? Politic is more of mess then America there...

But it's a nice place to live. Suburban and Rural is perfectly mixed in Korea, in my honest opinion. As someone who lived there, I do sometimes regret moving...

[pingpingx3]

Ive always wanted to go to korea and I know some day I will go there!!!
Hopefully one day when I go to korea.. I`ll meet cute guys there.
Cause i heard korean guys are pretty gooooooooooooooood looking =)

[Néa Vanille]

For some reason, I don't think Korean guys are as hot anymore compared to when I visited last year, I remember seeing way more glamorous hotties last year and a lot more average Joes now. Or maybe I just haven't been to the right places this year, or maybe I was blind last year.

[kobe23]

Or maybe too drunk?

That's a very nice list of the pros and cons of Korea and I'll keep those things in mind when I do eventually go there. Just one thing though, you said Korea is a very "safe place" ... as in...is it safe for a woman to walk alone in the streets in the middle of the night? Do people fight a lot in nightclubs like they do in Western countries? Basically I just want a general idea so that when I take my family there I don't have to worry too much about our safety

[Néa Vanille]

I'm European and I'd never consider walking around the street by myself at 4 AM wearing little more than pants and a skimpy top pretty much anywhere in Europe, but in Korea, I go out alone at all times of the night wearing just that and I've never felt threatened. Not only have I never been assaulted, I've also never been sexually harrassed (they stare, but that's all they'll do). Granted, though, I've never walked around the seedy parts of town, but as long as you stay away from those areas, your family should be fine.

Generally, Koreans very much stick to their own groups of people (school, clubs, family etc.) and draw a clear line between themselves and strangers. They are rather unconcerned with strangers - they won't approach them, annoy them or harrass them, but on the other hand, they also won't offer their help if they are obviously confused and have lost your way or if they are having a rough, public fight. Generally it seems to me that, while Koreans, especially drunk businessmen in the wee hours of the bloody morning, fight a lot, most of the fights are fought between two people who genuinely want to fight each other for whatever reason and, as already mentioned, it is very rare for Koreans to pick fights with random strangers. As such, yeah, I consider Korea a very safe place to be.

Compared to some cities in Europe (Rome and Barcelona come to mind) where you literally have to walk around with your hand wrapped around your wallet for it not to get stolen, there are virtually no pickpockets in Korea and there is a good chance that someone will return your phone or other belongings should you forget them somewhere. I'm very relieved about that - I'm rather paranoid, and if Korea wasn't so safe in general compared to the other countries I've been to, I'd probably have to carry around my laptop with me wherever I went. As it is, I just lock my room and leave it there and I've never heard of people breaking into rooms to steal things in this area, and I've asked around. Much like the Japanese, most Koreans respect other people's belongings.

Many visitors to Korea complain that taxi drivers try to rip them off and in my experience, yes it does happen as taxis are ridiculously cheap compared to Europe and thus the drivers are paid ****, but it doesn't happen with any kind of frequency and out of the numerous times I've taken a taxi, I'm pretty confident I've only been ripped off once.

So overall, just use common sense and act the same as you do in your home country and you'll be fine in Korea. If you don't want trouble, and act accordingly, then trouble won't come looking for you.

[trancer_84]

awesome info, thanks for taking the time to list it all

[namilussah]

I just recently visited Korea within the last couple of months ....

thanks for the info, very helpful indeed.

i was worried about the air quality there in korea, because my sisters have been to Thailand and they've mentioned the bad air quality there and i thought that it might be the same in korea ( i don't know why )

overall, i would love to visit the country and the fact that it's safe and a great place for shopping encourages me to.

[namilussah]

Good things about Korea
.......

Bad Things About Korea
.......

WAW !! really helpful

looks like Korea is a great place for tourists but not that great for its ppl..... i've actually noticed that Koreans tend to look for perfection specially in their looks and appearances, which causes them to be pressured most of their lives.. i wonder why they should care about how ppl see them !! wouldn't it be better if they could care more about their relationships and be good comfort to each other !!??

[marvelous]

Since I had some free time, I compiled a list of all the good and bad things about living in Korea. Keep in mind that these are all my only MY experiences and, in some matters, opinions, and you might have a vastly different impression of this country.

Good things about Korea

- Korea is very safe. You don't have to worry very much about things getting stolen here. People are mostly honest here.

- Korea is extremely convenient, the most convenient country I've ever been to. Want to watch a movie? Want to eat live octopus? Maybe you want to go to a bar and meet people? Wherever you are, all of these things are only a short walk away, and for those midnight cravings, you can rest assured that a 24h convenient store is pretty much guaranteed to be right in front of your door.

- Korean people are very good-looking and walking through the streets is very pleasing to the eye.

- Korean restaurants and food culture is great - even in case you are not so fond of the spiciness of Korean cuisine, the cheap prices of food in Korea will sway you. You can have a decent meal at a restaurant in Korea for as little as $3, and included in that price is as much free water as you can drink.

- Even though Korea is a hardcore capitalist country, people give you freebies surprisingly often. When I bought a laptop, I got speakers and a mouse as free 'service' and many public buildings offer free water (hot and cold). When ordering food, speaking a little bit of Korean very often results in you getting free extras with your meal.

- People here are generally curious about foreigners. Though there is substantial racism here (as mentioned in the negative things list), most Koreans are paradoxically also absolutely intrigued with foreigners. It's not hard to meet people interested in talking to you, especially college-age people. People are also often very nice to you - I've gotten free rides on motorcycles for having a pleasant chat on the subway etc.

- Subway. Right. Korea has quite possibly the best public transport system in the world. The subway is absolutely fantastic and so is the bus system.

- Shopping can be done cheaply and in typical Asian fashion in Korea.

- Koreans are absolutely technophile! I list this as a good thing since I expect that most people reading an internet message board will be, as well, at least to some degree. You can use a computer practically everywhere and on the subway, you will see plenty of Koreans watching movies on their cell phones.

- Koreans are perhaps the most ambitious and hard-working people I ever knew.

- Korean nightlife is great.

Now, on to...

Bad Things About Korea

- Korea is sexist. Very sexist. But it doesn't just hurt the women. There is huge pressure on the women to be feminine and equally as much pressure on the men to be masculine and of course, the compulsory military service for males doesn't really help matters. There are countless social problems caused by this strict separation of the sexes.

- Korea is too hot and humid in summer and too cold in winter.

- Korea is an extremely superficial country. In Korea, being ugly is the equivalent to being shunned all your life and young people can spend hours discussing only a love interest's beauty. Being ugly in Korea is tough, for both sexes, but moreso for women and this explains why in Korea there are so many ads for diet programs, why there is so much plastic surgery and why many surveys have shown that Korean women are the ones to be most concerned with their looks out of all women in the world. Korean people are so obsessed with other people's beauty that in most cases, conversation just isn't going to happen if they find a prospective conversation partner to be physically unattractive. Which leads me to...

- Korean people don't make good boyfriends or girlfriends on average, unless you are completely obsessed with them like me. Not only will their family make it difficult and will you have a tough time overcoming the language barrier, but the superficial culture they grew up in has caused most of them to be quite dull and uninteresting. They are a lot of fun to be around with, and they certainly are pretty/handsome, but dating them takes a lot of work and dedication.

- Korean people have this national disease of illusions of grandeur. They tend to not want to realize that, overall, the rest of the world, except for a few dedicated individuals, doesn't really care about their country, might not even know where it is located and, worse still, might initially compare Korea's economic power and standards of health to that of.. say, Cambodia. Koreans like to believe they are great people (maybe the greatest of all) and thus have a hard time coming to terms with the reality of their global insignificance. The Korean nationalism stems from a complex mix of feelings of superiority and inferiority compared to other nations.

- Koreans are rather xenophobic, especially if you are Chinese, Western Asian, South Eastern Asian or of African descent. A little bit less so if you are Japanese (though it largely depends on the people you meet, but in general, Koreans respect the Japanese more because of their power and wealth) or white (because Koreans equate whiteness with America, and America with money. And Koreans like money). There are plenty of Koreans who are not racist, though, and in everyday life, you will very rarely be the victim of outright racism directed at you, especially if you are a woman as most negativity is directed at male foreigners.

- Koreans are obsessed with money. It's rather disgusting, really.



That's all I can think of for now. I hope somebody finds it useful!

I agree with somethings but really you are exaggerating or a foreigner view of Koreans.

Koreans are very superficial as to what others look like? Oh jeeze... You've got lot to learn... Lot of Koreans are just sharp dressers because clothes some how fit better than say a average white or black person fit in clothes because Koreans are slender and pretty tall for Asian and like to keep themselves clean. Sure females might do the sang-ka-pul surgery because we all know how females get. Other than that most Koreans could care less what other people look like.

Koreans not caring for their country? That could be a laugh because Koreans are very nationalistic.

[punjaban85]

Hey there first of all thanks a lot for replying to my question.

My wish to go to korea has become an obsession . i love there language and i actually started to learn it. i guess its easy to learn something when u want to and who knows, maybe its going to become handy when i finally visit the country ...... eh~~

OMG ur soo like me..ahaha i joined this korean club that teaches us free korean at skool.. just coz i wanna go to korea too so am lookin at like teach english jobs there..seems to be the best idea..well have to finish skool first..ahaha

[Néa Vanille]

marvelous, you've displayed in plenty of other threads that you're an idiot, so I'm not really taking you too seriously. You're one of the few posters I've just about had it with. However, in order for other people reading this to do the same, I'll just say that out of the numerous places I've visited and the hundreds of people I've talked to, Korean people were by far the most superficial and by far the most concerned about looks. As for my comment regarding conversation just not happening if they find their opposite unattractive, that was obviously about social places, bars, nightclubs etc. I've witnessed guys refusing to talk to a girl introduced by their friends, complaining she was ugly.

It is only in Korea that there is such a density of beauty shops and such an abundance of diet products wherever one goes, outdoing even the US where obesity is a far greater problem. Nowhere else but in Korea have I seen such an army of beauty products in any street corner (I didn't even know there were so many different creams for your skin!). Just walk through the streets with your eyes open. Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world, but is just as normal as blind beggars on the subway in Korea (very normal). And why do they care so much about how they look? Why is it that whenever I meet my Korean girlfriends, looks is by far their favourite topic, to a much greater degree than my foreign girlfriends and half of it is about diets despite them being so skinny already? Obviously because being ugly and being overweight is very, very bad in Korea. There were even several indie movies regarding the cruel state of discrimination against unattractive females in the past couple of years, so the issue is slowly starting to dawn on the public. A step into the right direction.

Plus, as I said, statistics and surveys support my view - Korean people are the ones to be most concerned about looks out of all people in the world according to several surveys conducted.

Well all right, you're already shown in other threads that you don't care about statistics and will just believe in what you believe in, so I guess that's pretty pointless. Also, you can't read, as nowhere did I say they were not nationalistic. I said other countries didn't care about Korea and called Korean nationalism "illusions of grandeur", to describe that to most Koreans care so much about their country and are so nationalistic that they simply cannot accept that it's insignificant in the global context. Koreans will say that Korea is the only country to have 4 seasons or that Korea is the country to have invented any number of traditionally Asian dishes and customs that very obviously originated in China or Japan. One day, a Korean woman even said to me, "do you know that the ancient Greek got their culture from Korea?"

It is exactly this screwed view of their own country that makes Koreans such a bad judge of their own country and why foreigners living there usually give a far more accurate portrayal. There are many unpleasant aspects of Korean culture (the very obvious problem of prostitutes being readily available everywhere comes to mind) that Koreans just won't admit to foreigners in order to protect their country's image. All in all, the positive outweighs the negative for me, and I love living here, but it would be ridiculous to say that the few obvious problems Korea has don't exist.

I already advised you to take reading comprehension in another thread and I can do nothing but repeat it. If you can't understand English, just stick to the Korean boards. I'd sure be happy if you were to stop replying to my posts as you've never even once brought anything unbiased and worthwhile to the table.

And I guess I shouldn't have written all that because, as the rule goes, "don't feed the trolls."

Block.

(Disclaimer: I still welcome intelligent contributions and discussions and I will not snap at you like this if you disagree with me. I usually try to be polite and civil to everyone. It's just that this particular person has proven one time too many that his opinions are too biased and too motivated by personal emotions to be taken seriously and quite frankly, not worth my or anyone's time. Now that he's on my ignore list (has had it coming for almost a year), I'm going back to being friendly).

[minuberry]

I usually don't reply to anything but I just wanted to clear some things out;;

I am a Korean, 21 years old, female, living in America (moved couple years ago)

And Im going to agree to both Nea Vanille and marvelous.

(And all this is in MY view... )

Yes, we Koreans care a lot about our looks and style and such. If you are a bit fat or ugly, you will not be able to fit in. The sizes in Korea only go up so high. Clothes are made to fit people but in Korea it is the other way around... People need to be able to fit the clothes, meaning be skinny or you are not wearing this.

And also I have to say, I know Koreans are nationalistic. (Very patriotic)
We do cover up our bad sides to appeal to others but isn't that same with any other countries??
The reason why we don't look at foreign countries in a good way is because of wars and politics. During the war, Korea, as in nation and its people, were hurt so badly. And instead of it getting better, we are still being used. This just makes it hard for us.

Well... this is just my view.

But I love Korea and I visit every summer. My friends and I love going to the city and eating and shopping^^
We can always have girls night out without any problems. Go see movies in the middle of the night, walk around the Han Gang (Han River) for some fresh air...
Love the life there!!

[Néa Vanille]

Oh, I forgot to reply to the person inquiring about the air quality! Well, as for the air quality, it's true that the air is rather bad in Seoul, but personally I don't really notice it anymore and I got used to it very quickly. I don't feel that the air pollution is any worse than in other Asian cities of comparable size. Constructions are going on everywhere, so expect some dust, but overall it's bearable and I don't really consider it a bad point as it's something that just comes naturally with huge cities like Seoul. Outside of Seoul, the air is good. If you can stand Tokyo, you can stand Seoul.

You can't drink the water from the pipe, but the water from the supermarket is of excellent quality and sells at an okay price (the one I usually get, Sam Da Soo water, sells at 1,000 won for 2 litres). One thing you must be aware of is that there is only natural water available from what I've seen and that Koreans don't seem to usually drink carbonated mineral water.

[trancer_84]

One day, a Korean woman even said to me, "do you know that the ancient Greek got their culture from Korea?"

wow, that's a bit too vain.

[marvelous]

marvelous, you've displayed in plenty of other threads that you're an idiot, so I'm not really taking you too seriously. You're one of the few posters I've just about had it with. However, in order for other people reading this to do the same, I'll just say that out of the numerous places I've visited and the hundreds of people I've talked to, Korean people were by far the most superficial and by far the most concerned about looks. As for my comment regarding conversation just not happening if they find their opposite unattractive, that was obviously about social places, bars, nightclubs etc. I've witnessed guys refusing to talk to a girl introduced by their friends, complaining she was ugly.

It is only in Korea that there is such a density of beauty shops and such an abundance of diet products wherever one goes, outdoing even the US where obesity is a far greater problem. Nowhere else but in Korea have I seen such an army of beauty products in any street corner (I didn't even know there were so many different creams for your skin!). Just walk through the streets with your eyes open. Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world, but is just as normal as blind beggars on the subway in Korea (very normal). And why do they care so much about how they look? Why is it that whenever I meet my Korean girlfriends, looks is by far their favourite topic, to a much greater degree than my foreign girlfriends and half of it is about diets despite them being so skinny already? Obviously because being ugly and being overweight is very, very bad in Korea. There were even several indie movies regarding the cruel state of discrimination against unattractive females in the past couple of years, so the issue is slowly starting to dawn on the public. A step into the right direction.

Plus, as I said, statistics and surveys support my view - Korean people are the ones to be most concerned about looks out of all people in the world according to several surveys conducted.

Well all right, you're already shown in other threads that you don't care about statistics and will just believe in what you believe in, so I guess that's pretty pointless. Also, you can't read, as nowhere did I say they were not nationalistic. I said other countries didn't care about Korea and called Korean nationalism "illusions of grandeur", to describe that to most Koreans care so much about their country and are so nationalistic that they simply cannot accept that it's insignificant in the global context. Koreans will say that Korea is the only country to have 4 seasons or that Korea is the country to have invented any number of traditionally Asian dishes and customs that very obviously originated in China or Japan. One day, a Korean woman even said to me, "do you know that the ancient Greek got their culture from Korea?"

It is exactly this screwed view of their own country that makes Koreans such a bad judge of their own country and why foreigners living there usually give a far more accurate portrayal. There are many unpleasant aspects of Korean culture (the very obvious problem of prostitutes being readily available everywhere comes to mind) that Koreans just won't admit to foreigners in order to protect their country's image. All in all, the positive outweighs the negative for me, and I love living here, but it would be ridiculous to say that the few obvious problems Korea has don't exist.

I already advised you to take reading comprehension in another thread and I can do nothing but repeat it. If you can't understand English, just stick to the Korean boards. I'd sure be happy if you were to stop replying to my posts as you've never even once brought anything unbiased and worthwhile to the table.

And I guess I shouldn't have written all that because, as the rule goes, "don't feed the trolls."

Block.

(Disclaimer: I still welcome intelligent contributions and discussions and I will not snap at you like this if you disagree with me. I usually try to be polite and civil to everyone. It's just that this particular person has proven one time too many that his opinions are too biased and too motivated by personal emotions to be taken seriously and quite frankly, not worth my or anyone's time. Now that he's on my ignore list (has had it coming for almost a year), I'm going back to being friendly).

And you? There is some weird people like yourself infatuated everything to do with Korea ever since Korea has been spitting out superficial dramas for you superficial people to watch. Making up crap as you go for my people and myself.

Funny how I think you westerners are the ultimate superficial people on this planet. 20 years ago Korea was nothing like what it is now. Ever since you westerners took half of Korea, South Korea has been emulating America superficialness. You talk of beauty products as if it doesn't exist in every shopping mall in America. So if you have beauty products you are superficial? Korean females are low maintenance than your typical western women. Now I can't help you barbarians look like butch compared to Korean females. Then you try to compare your ape like self to Korean females far as femininity, of course you going to look like an gorilla compared to K-girls.

Korean Nationalism is kicking and alive and you might think we might be weak right now but you have mistaken if you think we would ever give up our freedom. You are just a delusional girl with a K fetish.

[OvertheRainbow]

Well I am currently staying in Korea right now as an exchange student and it's been great although I'm leaving in like a few days..Just a list of things:

Pros:
- The subway here is awesome!!! Its cheap (Usually about 1,000 won) and efficient. I used to never take the subway back home because it was so confusing and I'd be the number one person to get lost but I've never gotten lost here. There are like signs everywhere (yes in english) to help you in the subway and its a very smooth ride so you'll be okay even if you don't have a seat.
- There's lots of shops and things are affordable
- Generally it's safe. I've been out at 2 or so and I'm okay..lol
- People dress very nicely here..The majority of girls wear high heels.

Cons:
- It occasionally smells...usually of sewage. The Korean people seem to be used to it but that is the one thing I will never get used to cause it just sneaks up on you.
- The streets are kinda dirty in my opinion
- There are a lot of beggars in subway stations...it makes me feel very sad but my host family tells me to ignore them
- Definitely agree with Néa Vanille on the whole "illusions of grandeur" thing and epecially the point she was making about them thinking they invented all the traditional dishes.

Some Generalizations:

Guys like to fix their hair here a lot. I once watched a guy fix his hair in the mirror for like 5 minutes..its crazy...oh and this might not been a con but I find it strangely weird that guys have hand bags..I even saw numerous guys with a LV bag

Lots of matching couples....and I've seen a lot of guys carry the purse for their gf..I still haven't decided if thats sweet or creepy

No offense but I generally try to steer clear of opinions from Korean people because when you're dealing with your own country, of course you're going to be sympathetic and try to rationalize all the bad things.

On another note: What you wrote was very mean marvelous. I don't think you should have attacked Néa Vanille personally (i.e your ape comment) just because she might have offended you or your country..your post seems very defensive

[kobe23]

Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world

I stopped reading there. Called my travel agent and booked the next flight to Seoul

I also think marvelous needs to tone it down a bit. Nea clearly stated all these things are just from HER experiences.

Keep in mind that these are all my only MY experiences and, in some matters, opinions, and you might have a vastly different impression of this country.

There's no need to be so defensive about it. Which seems rather strange anyway, since most of the things she said about Korea are very positive.

[lavenderskye]

Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world, but is just as normal as blind beggars on the subway in Korea (very normal).

I'd like to add that Japanese women dress very femininely and care a lot about their looks as well. A lot of times overdoing it. For example, just going to the grocery store, it looks like they spent about an hour getting ready. They wear mini-skirts in the winter too! I just don't get it. Aren't they freezing? I guess they just wanna look good. Btw, I'm currently living in Japan and have been here for 2 years now.

overtherainbow: Your comment about Korean guys fixing their hair, it's so true! I visited last year and I was on the subway and noticed this one guy constantly messing around with his hair. I don't remember how long, but it was at least several minutes. Actually, Japanese guys like to do that too. I wonder if it's an Asian guy thing...

[WroW]

Funny how I think you westerners are the ultimate superficial people on this planet. 20 years ago Korea was nothing like what it is now. Ever since you westerners took half of Korea, South Korea has been emulating America superficialness.

Seems like someone has problems but well WE westerners are only jealous thats why WE are like that Under the disguise of globalisation WE took half of Korea (soon we will get the other half ) ... no one can stop us evil westerners

[ap0stat3]

One day, a Korean woman even said to me, "do you know that the ancient Greek got their culture from Korea?"

wow, that's a bit too vain.

woah ... i didn't know that , i must have been asleep at school when they teach that subject

[Shae0001]

I'm African American and I went to Korea for a week and I had the best time of my life. I had my hair braided and the ahjumma's would alway's come up to me and touch my hair and my skin. It was a real experience. And the funny thing is that you alway's see the women in High-Heels. Rian or Shine. I loved it there, and though it was a family trip. I would love to go back again. Ever since then I started to have a fasinaton with other countries. :]

[marvelous]

Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world

I stopped reading there. Called my travel agent and booked the next flight to Seoul

I also think marvelous needs to tone it down a bit. Nea clearly stated all these things are just from HER experiences.

Keep in mind that these are all my only MY experiences and, in some matters, opinions, and you might have a vastly different impression of this country.

There's no need to be so defensive about it. Which seems rather strange anyway, since most of the things she said about Korea are very positive.

It's not about positive or negative. It's just wrong period. Didn't I say I agree with somethings but I can't find myself to agree with everything. Then ms. know it all about my people tells me I need reading comprehension and that I don't know myself. I think people know THEMSELVES lot better than some waygookin pointing fingers.

She can't figure out why so many Koreans look so good in clothes. We don't even have to try we just dress better.

[marvelous]

Funny how I think you westerners are the ultimate superficial people on this planet. 20 years ago Korea was nothing like what it is now. Ever since you westerners took half of Korea, South Korea has been emulating America superficialness.

Seems like someone has problems but well WE westerners are only jealous thats why WE are like that Under the disguise of globalisation WE took half of Korea (soon we will get the other half ) ... no one can stop us evil westerners

Jealous of what? Sorry bubba~ you aren't the only superpowers in town in 20 years or so. YOU better get out while you can before you get seriously hurt like Korean and Vietnam war.

[marvelous]

Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world, but is just as normal as blind beggars on the subway in Korea (very normal).

I'd like to add that Japanese women dress very femininely and care a lot about their looks as well. A lot of times overdoing it. For example, just going to the grocery store, it looks like they spent about an hour getting ready. They wear mini-skirts in the winter too! I just don't get it. Aren't they freezing? I guess they just wanna look good. Btw, I'm currently living in Japan and have been here for 2 years now.

overtherainbow: Your comment about Korean guys fixing their hair, it's so true! I visited last year and I was on the subway and noticed this one guy constantly messing around with his hair. I don't remember how long, but it was at least several minutes. Actually, Japanese guys like to do that too. I wonder if it's an Asian guy thing...

Can you blame K-guys? We have nice hair.

[pwner4once]

Korean women are by far the ones to wear the most clothes typically described as feminine, such as mini skirts, high heels, hoop earrings, accessories, etc. out of all women in the world and with the exception of perhaps Italy, there is no other country in the world where women dress quite as femininely and take as much care about the way they look. Korean women even wear mini-skirts in winter, a sight that would undoubtedly turn heads just about anywhere in the world, but is just as normal as blind beggars on the subway in Korea (very normal).

I'd like to add that Japanese women dress very femininely and care a lot about their looks as well. A lot of times overdoing it. For example, just going to the grocery store, it looks like they spent about an hour getting ready. They wear mini-skirts in the winter too! I just don't get it. Aren't they freezing? I guess they just wanna look good. Btw, I'm currently living in Japan and have been here for 2 years now.

overtherainbow: Your comment about Korean guys fixing their hair, it's so true! I visited last year and I was on the subway and noticed this one guy constantly messing around with his hair. I don't remember how long, but it was at least several minutes. Actually, Japanese guys like to do that too. I wonder if it's an Asian guy thing...

I was just reading through the whole thread since I am really hyped about the korean culture and etc... I am chinese and currently living in the states. Just to clear the hair issue, I usually take about 10 sec to do my hair which includes some water and a comb.
but really shouldn't guys be more concerned physical wise? o_O i mean a good shaped bud > all (except faces)

[Néa Vanille]

I think it's actually great that this person slipped up, went back to being a 12-year-old and showed his truly ugly racist side. Because this way, nobody on this board is ever going to take him seriously ever again, and reveal that everything said is a poor disguise for feelings of inferiority and racism coming from a very sad person whose life is so miserable hiding behind racism is the best way to protect his little world of illusions of grandeur and illusions of living in a perfect country where nobody is superficial, hundreds of thousands of women don't have sex for no reason other than greed for money and where ugly women never face discrimination. I think we should all feel bad for this person - probably, deep down inside, he knows that Korea is far from a perfect country, but is unable to deal with it on a rational level. I guess with that, everybody can put this poster aside and rest in peace knowing that everything said is not worth reading over.

What surprises me is that there's no ban or warning. That was probably the lowest-class racism I've ever seen on the board and there's probably going to be a blindly nationalistic, defensive comment (because those are so much more objective than the observational views of a foreigner who likes Korea, but is not blind to its faults and is, most important of all, detached from personal feelings for Korea) every time someone dares to criticize the mother country. This qualifies for a troll. A very sad troll, but still a troll.

[pwner4once]

man why so pissed off over such topic... calm down and let's all enjoy some korean drama <3

[Néa Vanille]

Sorry, I have a hard time letting stupidity and racism (worthy-of-a-ban racism) go. Plus, I personally don't see why trolls should be allowed to post on this board.

[marvelous]

I think it's actually great that this person slipped up, went back to being a 12-year-old and showed his truly ugly racist side. Because this way, nobody on this board is ever going to take him seriously ever again, and reveal that everything said is a poor disguise for feelings of inferiority and racism coming from a very sad person whose life is so miserable hiding behind racism is the best way to protect his little world of illusions of grandeur and illusions of living in a perfect country where nobody is superficial, hundreds of thousands of women don't have sex for no reason other than greed for money and where ugly women never face discrimination. I think we should all feel bad for this person - probably, deep down inside, he knows that Korea is far from a perfect country, but he is unable to deal with it on a rational level because his race was all he ever gained any confidence and self-worth from. I guess with that, everybody can put this poster aside and rest in peace knowing that everything said is not worth reading over.

What surprises me is that there's no ban or warning. That was probably the lowest-class racism I've ever seen on the board and there's probably going to be a blindly nationalistic, defensive comment every time someone dares to criticize the mother country. This qualifies for a troll.

LOL. Stop your crying. Admit you don't know everything about my people just because you currently reside in Korea. Not everything is what you see and you hear. If you were wise enough you would understand this...

Korea is not perfect neither is any other place but it's my homeland where I am treated as an EQUAL. NO more white people running around spying on me and trying to falsely imprison me, no more hoodrats trying to fight me, and the list goes on~

[marvelous]

Sorry, I have a hard time letting stupidity and racism (worthy-of-a-ban racism) go.

You are still crying. Oh god why don't you use your white privilege.

[pwner4once]

Sorry, I have a hard time letting stupidity and racism (worthy-of-a-ban racism) go.

You westerners are the best at it. Ever hear of slavery?

slavery still exists...

[marvelous]

Sorry, I have a hard time letting stupidity and racism (worthy-of-a-ban racism) go.

You westerners are the best at it. Ever hear of slavery?

slavery still exists...

In the real world yes it still does exist.

[jholic]

ok, everyone. i'm coming in on the middle of this, so bear with me.

i have seen a lot of threads get overly heated and emotional over a debate. if this is the case, we will lock this thread.

DO NOT RESORT TO RACIST OR DEROGATORY REMARKS.

if anyone feels a future post breaks the rules, please use the REPORT button. we mods cannot be everywhere at once, and this tool helps you as much as it helps us.

you may continue with a debate, but any racist remarks will be dealt with. consider EVERYONE in this thread warned.

EDIT:
marvelous i've read several of your previous posts. i think it's possible to show patriotism and korean pride WITHOUT calling people names. i appreciate your support in this matter.

[ap0stat3]

Funny how I think you westerners are the ultimate superficial people on this planet. 20 years ago Korea was nothing like what it is now. Ever since you westerners took half of Korea, South Korea has been emulating America superficialness.

Seems like someone has problems but well WE westerners are only jealous thats why WE are like that Under the disguise of globalisation WE took half of Korea (soon we will get the other half ) ... no one can stop us evil westerners

Jealous of what? Sorry bubba~ you aren't the only superpowers in town in 20 years or so. YOU better get out while you can before you get seriously hurt like Korean and Vietnam war.

chill, marvelous .. relax.. breath a little ... i think Wrow was just joking around

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

Are you refering when the country was split in half right after WW2?? and which half were you referring too??
North which was back by then U.S.S.R. which is considered a western power even though 3/4 of its territory resides in Asia,
or South which was back by the U.S.??
Or are you refering to the Korean War when the North (back by China & U.S.S.R.) overrun the South, and the U.S. and U.N. had to step-in to maintain status quo?
and one final question do you by any chance live in the North or South Korea, or are you abroad living in one of the said "western" countries that "stole" the other half of Korea?

P.S. don't bite me please .. i didn't have my rabies shot yet

[marvelous]

ok, everyone. i'm coming in on the middle of this, so bear with me.

i have seen a lot of threads get overly heated and emotional over a debate. if this is the case, we will lock this thread.

DO NOT RESORT TO RACIST OR DEROGATORY REMARKS.

if anyone feels a future post breaks the rules, please use the REPORT button. we mods cannot be everywhere at once, and this tool helps you as much as it helps us.

you may continue with a debate, but any racist remarks will be dealt with. consider EVERYONE in this thread warned.

EDIT:
marvelous i've read several of your previous posts. i think it's possible to show patriotism and korean pride WITHOUT calling people names. i appreciate your support in this matter.

Not a problem. I already got a warning from the other mod after Navielle hit that button this morning. We all know who hit that button again. Don't we?

[ap0stat3]

You westerners are the best at it. Ever hear of slavery?

slavery still exists...

In the real world yes it still does exist.

hmmmm why is it when the word SLAVERY (SLAVE) comes up its always the "white man" aka westerner that got blame for it ? did they invent Slavery?? .. it's not as if other races don't keep slaves.. whites, blacks, brown and yellow they all practice SLAVERY (on one form or another) at some point of their history.....
and oh before you bite my head's off .... i'm not white

[marvelous]

Seems like someone has problems but well WE westerners are only jealous thats why WE are like that Under the disguise of globalisation WE took half of Korea (soon we will get the other half ) ... no one can stop us evil westerners

Jealous of what? Sorry bubba~ you aren't the only superpowers in town in 20 years or so. YOU better get out while you can before you get seriously hurt like Korean and Vietnam war.

chill, marvelous .. relax.. breath a little ... i think Wrow was just joking around

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

Are you refering when the country was split in half right after WW2?? and which half were you referring too??
North which was back by then U.S.S.R. which is considered a western power even though 3/4 of its territory resides in Asia,
or South which was back by the U.S.??
Or are you refering to the Korean War when the North (back by China & U.S.S.R.) overrun the South, and the U.S. and U.N. had to step-in to maintain status quo?
and one final question do you by any chance live in the North or South Korea, or are you abroad living in one of the said "western" countries that "stole" the other half of Korea?

P.S. don't bite me please .. i didn't have my rabies shot yet

I won't bite you.

You got me confused with these weird line of questioning...

I'm not from NK. I was born in INCHON that is part of SK. BuPyong to be exact.

[marvelous]

You know what I noticed. Lot of German girls like Korean guys.

[ap0stat3]

Jealous of what? Sorry bubba~ you aren't the only superpowers in town in 20 years or so. YOU better get out while you can before you get seriously hurt like Korean and Vietnam war.

chill, marvelous .. relax.. breath a little ... i think Wrow was just joking around

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

Are you refering when the country was split in half right after WW2?? and which half were you referring too??
North which was back by then U.S.S.R. which is considered a western power even though 3/4 of its territory resides in Asia,
or South which was back by the U.S.??
Or are you refering to the Korean War when the North (back by China & U.S.S.R.) overrun the South, and the U.S. and U.N. had to step-in to maintain status quo?
and one final question do you by any chance live in the North or South Korea, or are you abroad living in one of the said "western" countries that "stole" the other half of Korea?

P.S. don't bite me please .. i didn't have my rabies shot yet

I won't bite you.

You got me confused with these weird line of questioning...

I'm not from NK. I was born in INCHON that is part of SK. BuPyong to be exact.

ok so you are born in SK ... so which part of Korea were u refering to, when u said westerner stole half of it?? You never did answer that
... i don't quite get what you are implying when you said the westerner stole half of your country ... for all i know South Korea is an independent country as is the North.
Both run by Koreans

[marvelous]

chill, marvelous .. relax.. breath a little ... i think Wrow was just joking around

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

Are you refering when the country was split in half right after WW2?? and which half were you referring too??
North which was back by then U.S.S.R. which is considered a western power even though 3/4 of its territory resides in Asia,
or South which was back by the U.S.??
Or are you refering to the Korean War when the North (back by China & U.S.S.R.) overrun the South, and the U.S. and U.N. had to step-in to maintain status quo?
and one final question do you by any chance live in the North or South Korea, or are you abroad living in one of the said "western" countries that "stole" the other half of Korea?

P.S. don't bite me please .. i didn't have my rabies shot yet

I won't bite you.

You got me confused with these weird line of questioning...

I'm not from NK. I was born in INCHON that is part of SK. BuPyong to be exact.

ok so you are born in SK ... so which part of Korea were u refering to, when u said westerner stole half of it?? You never did answer that
... i don't quite get what you are implying when you said the westerner stole half of your country ... for all i know South Korea is an independent country as is the North.
Both run by Koreans

Typical answer from a Western encyclopedia I suppose.

What do you think? I think you already know the answer yet you asking me so you can answer me back...

Or do you seriously don't know?

[Néa Vanille]

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

I will explain this to you.

A lot of Koreans nowadays are (somewhat understandably) very hurt about the fact that Korea is essentially under America's thumb and will do whatever the US wants politically as well as the fact that America and English are everywhere wherever you go in Korea. Korean traditional culture has been diminished and Koreans nowadays live almost like Americans. They eat Western food at least on occasion, play the piano isntead of the gayageum (a traditional Korean instrument) and wear jeans rather than hanboks.

Since Koreans are a proud people, they have an extremely hard time coming to terms with essentially being a country inferior to the US economically, politically and in terms of military strength. Colonization itself is also a very sensitive topic with Koreans as the repercussions of Japanese rule are still tangible and many Koreans nowadays are comparing America today to the Japanese of World War II where the Koreans undoubtedly suffered many hardships at the hands of their neighbours. The American military is extremely unpopular in South America and I personally witnessed a couple of demonstrations in front of the US embassy.

In my opinion, anti-Americanism is somewhat understandable but somewhat misguided. After all, if it wasn't for the Americans, the South might be communist as well today and few will disagree with you that the people in the South have it much better than the people in the North. However, obviously the situation right now isn't ideal either, and the American military does cause occasional problems.

Koreans also have the tendency to be very self-preserving and ethnocentric and have a much easier time blaming foreigners for everything wrong in their country. Now, a lot of what is going on in Korea is directly or indirectly caused by foreigners, such as the Westernization, but racist and overly nationalistic people tend to see only the bad of it, and even tend to blame foreigners for unrelated things (Koreans sometimes blame the American military for prostitution in South Korea, despite the fact that the 30,000 or so American soldiers are by far not enough to keep the circa 500,000 Korean prostitutes in business. They also tend to accuse foreigners of committing too many crimes, when in fact foreigners commit fewer crimes (even in proportion to their population size) than Koreans do). Since Korea is so homogenous and because Korean life is structured so tightly around only people they know and familiar groups, it is very easy to go all-out and blame the foreigners for everything to make themselves feel better.

So, there are a lot of negative feelings against America in Korea, some of it justified, some of it not. To sum it all up, Koreans hate having to be so dependant on outside forces, they see the US as colonizing and controlling Korea and are frustrated about not being a global player themselves. It's not easy being a Korean, I guess. Add to that the fact that there is heightened global anti-Americanism at the moment due to the Iraq war and it's quite obvious why a lot of Koreans are very displeased about American military presence in their country.

I hope that answered your question.

As for marvelous, don't bother to reply. You're on my ignore list.

[marvelous]

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

I will explain this to you.

A lot of Koreans nowadays are (somewhat understandably) very hurt about the fact that Korea is essentially under America's thumb and will do whatever the US wants politically as well as the fact that America and English are everywhere wherever you go in Korea. Since Koreans are a proud people, they have an extremely hard time coming to terms with essentially being a country inferior to the US economically, politically and in terms of military strength. Colonization itself is also a very sensitive topic with Koreans as the repercussions of Japanese rule are still tangible and many Koreans nowadays are comparing America today to the Japanese of World War II where the Koreans undoubtedly suffered many hardships at the hands of their neighbours. The American military is extremely unpopular in South America and I personally witnessed a couple of demonstrations in front of the US embassy.

In my opinion, anti-Americanism is somewhat understandable but somewhat misguided. After all, if it wasn't for the Americans, the South might be communist as well today and few will disagree with you that the people in the South have it much better than the people in the North.

Koreans also have the tendency to be very self-preserving and ethnocentric and have a much easier time blaming foreigners for everything wrong in their country. Now, a lot of what is going on in Korea is directly or indirectly caused by foreigners, such as the Westernization, but racist and overly nationalistic people tend to see only the bad of it, and even tend to blame foreigners for unrelated things (Koreans sometimes blame the American military for prostitution in South Korea, despite the fact that the 30,000 or so American soldiers are by far not enough to keep the circa 500,000 Korean prostitutes in business). Since Korea is so homogenous and because Korean life is structured so tightly around only people they know and familiar groups, it is very easy to go all-out and blame the foreigners for everything to make themselves feel better.

So, there are a lot of negative feelings against America in Korea, to sum it all up and the Koreans hate having to be so dependant on outside forces and not being a global player themselves. It's not easy being a Korean, I guess.

I hope that answered your question.

As for marvelous, don't bother to reply. You're on my ignore list.

Is that why you answered back with a fist fool of hate for Korea?

Of course Koreans know we are no match for a BIG country like USA. We understand the game and that's why you still have a base in Korea. But you have to consider what that region holds.

CHINA
JAPAN
RUSSIA
KOREA

Now America might be big and strong but no way it can handle all those BIG and powerful countries. USA just go for the ones that can maybe beat. You know smaller countries and setup a base there when the people don't even want you there.

You talk as if somehow Communism is evil and capitalism is the great thing that happened to man kind. Chinese are prospering and they're communist. I wonder why?

[ap0stat3]

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

I will explain this to you.

......................


I hope that answered your question.

okaaay ... now that explains it!! the word is not "stolen" but "influence" by western culture.... how much is the english-korean dictionary at S Korea??
that's easy enough to fix.... Korea can go in the cave and become a hermit kingdom again as it once was known for, if that's what they prefer.... cut off connection from the rest of the world..

this thread just went a long time ago .. hope mods will closed this one

[Néa Vanille]

ap0stat3, I don't think it's that off topic since Korean view of Americans might actually influence your life in Korea if you are American, which a lot of the users on this board are.

Korea was a hermit kingdom for a long time, so now that they are dependant on other countries, of course the transition isn't smooth. However, the direction to a globalized Korea is undeniable and if everything stays the way it is and nothing really drastic happens (North Korea...) then Korea should open itself to outsiders more and more as time passes. There will be hate against foreigners for a long time and the transition to a multicultural country won't be an easy one, but the process of more and more interaction, intermarriage and integration of foreign thought is going to continue to change Korea very drastically. Korean society is changing at lightning speed anyway as the now so "Western" divorce rate and other shifts in attitude to more Western ideas testament to. They might hate Americanization, but it's still going to happen.

However, I think that Korea will always be unique somehow and no matter what, won't ever be exactly like anywhere else in the world, even though it will become a lot more similar to the present-day US.

[kiddo*]

i do have a question though, when you said that westerners stole half of Korea, what do you mean by that exactly??????

I will explain this to you.

A lot of Koreans nowadays are (somewhat understandably) very hurt about the fact that Korea is essentially under America's thumb and will do whatever the US wants politically as well as the fact that America and English are everywhere wherever you go in Korea. Korean traditional culture has been diminished and Koreans nowadays live almost like Americans. They eat Western food at least on occasion, play the piano isntead of the gayageum (a traditional Korean instrument) and wear jeans rather than hanboks.

Since Koreans are a proud people, they have an extremely hard time coming to terms with essentially being a country inferior to the US economically, politically and in terms of military strength. Colonization itself is also a very sensitive topic with Koreans as the repercussions of Japanese rule are still tangible and many Koreans nowadays are comparing America today to the Japanese of World War II where the Koreans undoubtedly suffered many hardships at the hands of their neighbours. The American military is extremely unpopular in South America and I personally witnessed a couple of demonstrations in front of the US embassy.

In my opinion, anti-Americanism is somewhat understandable but somewhat misguided. After all, if it wasn't for the Americans, the South might be communist as well today and few will disagree with you that the people in the South have it much better than the people in the North. However, obviously the situation right now isn't ideal either, and the American military does cause occasional problems.

Koreans also have the tendency to be very self-preserving and ethnocentric and have a much easier time blaming foreigners for everything wrong in their country. Now, a lot of what is going on in Korea is directly or indirectly caused by foreigners, such as the Westernization, but racist and overly nationalistic people tend to see only the bad of it, and even tend to blame foreigners for unrelated things (Koreans sometimes blame the American military for prostitution in South Korea, despite the fact that the 30,000 or so American soldiers are by far not enough to keep the circa 500,000 Korean prostitutes in business. They also tend to accuse foreigners of committing too many crimes, when in fact foreigners commit fewer crimes (even in proportion to their population size) than Koreans do). Since Korea is so homogenous and because Korean life is structured so tightly around only people they know and familiar groups, it is very easy to go all-out and blame the foreigners for everything to make themselves feel better.

So, there are a lot of negative feelings against America in Korea, some of it justified, some of it not. To sum it all up, Koreans hate having to be so dependant on outside forces, they see the US as colonizing and controlling Korea and are frustrated about not being a global player themselves. It's not easy being a Korean, I guess. Add to that the fact that there is heightened global anti-Americanism at the moment due to the Iraq war and it's quite obvious why a lot of Koreans are very displeased about American military presence in their country.

I hope that answered your question.

As for marvelous, don't bother to reply. You're on my ignore list.

Reading this, it's clear that you speak from a neutral point of view, but I feel that you're making a bit of a generalization on some points. The diminishing culture part is very much true, but when I go to Korea, I don't see much resentment of this towards the American people. South Korea seems to have adapted to the westernization and merged it with their own culture, which although seems similar to America's at first, you can see that there are many differing points which distinguish the cultures. this is true in a lot of the other asian countries too.

And about the resentment towards the Americans because of their superior economy or military power, I don't think they resent being inferior as much as they resent the fact that American is sending many people out of work because of their imports for the exchange of providing military protection.

As for the racism and nationalism thing, I can't really argue against that, because many other Korean people I know as well as my parents and brother are somewhat racist, and my mom actually said I'm not a true Korean because I said the Korean team sucked in the world cup and Argentina was better and that she was only supporting Korea because she was Korean even though she knew nothing about soccer. heh. . I'm very serious about soccer.

Anyways, the reason some Koreans think America is controlling is because they've put Korea in a rock and a hard place (heh, the Simpsons..). like I said up around the second paragraph thing, they need military protection, but in exchange they have to allow the imports of American products which are cheaper, causing the Korean economy to fall, putting the farmers and others out of work.

By the way, this is just an opinion from a S Korean outside of Korea point of view, and I agree on many of your ideas on this thread, Néa Vanille. I'm just discussing this for the sake of stalling my summer homework, which is due next Monday..

oh damn. have I gone off topic..?

[Néa Vanille]

Well, thank you for your intelligent input!

Thanks for your suggestion that a lot of resentment might stem from imported goods, although I feel that this is a more recent phenomenon with the FTA and is the overwhelming cause only now and that the inferiority complex is a more lasting cause that is always in the Korean subconsciousness. But thank you for bringing that up - despite the whole buzz about the FTA and all the demonstrations, I totally forgot about it.

As for the diminishing culture thing, well I don't generally think that Koreans are very vocal about objecting to all parts of Westernization (in case of Western clothes and instruments, they might not even be consciously aware of having been Westernized), but I sometimes hear people complaining about the abundance of McDonald's or Burger King and how it was a sign of colonization (and, as I mentioned, I believed colonization is a very sensitive issue for Koreans). Obviously, a lot of people still eat at McDonald's or Pizza Hut or they wouldn't make any profit and therefore wouldn't be everywhere, so the people who are totally adverse to the idea of Western fast-food joints in Korean streets are probably a minority found only in the most extreme anti-American bootcamps... although I do know that at the height of anti-Americanism following the death of those school girls, demonstrations were held outside of American fast-food joints and protests against their existence arose. Generally, though, I do get the impression, that quite a few Koreans who are so anti-American they would speak of having their country "stolen" (which are the group of people I tried to explain to the original poster, fully knowing that they don't make up 100% of the population by far) are very suspicious of American presence in Korea, especially the military base and to a smaller extent, the cultural imports, too.

Well, only my impression.

(and I guess it is starting to get off-topic now, this discussion would be best done in a US-Korea relations thread.)


BACK ON TOPIC *clears throat*

One aspect of life in Korea that nobody has discussed so far (that I've seen) is getting around without knowing Korean. Since that's a rather important part you should know before visiting, I'll state my experiences.

When I first came to Korea a few years ago, I didn't speak a beep of Korean apart from 안녕하세요 and yes, getting around was a bit tough. You can get lost quite easily on a bus as you might not understand the transmission, which on some buses, is only in Korean (on the subway it's in Korean and English), plus the bus drivers typically stop for only a short time so you might have trouble getting off. Whenever I got lost, I asked people for help, but they usually didn't speak any English at all (or, they were too scared to use it). Today I know a lot of Koreans who have taken English at school for years and years and yet entirely forgot how to speak it. Again, my male friends are typically worse than my female ones.

Your best bet for English-speakers seem to be young women. Women seem to speak English better than men on average, as they don't have to quit learning anything for 2 years at the army (it is also my impression that women tend to naturally be better at languages) and I read some statistics somewhere that actually more Korean females than males spend some time abroad. So if you don't know any Korean, asking young women has the highest success rate. At least, it has had for me (kobe will like this ).

I would warmly recommend learning some Korean, though. Especially important: learning numbers (so you know how much you're expected to pay at the convenience store) and words such as subway station, bus station and etc. Korean is not an easy language, but learning just a little will help you a lot. You can get around knowing nothing... but it's not convenient.

[cluelessyf]

woww this is a really heated debate... can u marvelous not be so mean please? your patriotism is basically racism... i'm really patriotic too (chinese), but i wouldn't go criticizing at white/ non-chnz ppl like that... consider other ppl here's feelings too...

the reluctant americanization u guys describe happening in korea is basically happening all over the world, esp asia. take japan for example, they were isolated for sucha long time, but now their cities are even more advanced/westernized than america's.. even though china's still communist and patriotic as hell.. they're becoming more and more capitalist and know they should follow more of america's form of economy/governing... but admitting it won't come easy.


all grls wear high heels over there!? dangg my feet would die =[


ohhh well i'd still like to visit korea even if they do care alot about looks? gosh skinny asian grls... -__-''


ohhh a krn friend of mine said that after her dad came back from korea from a business trip, he told her EVERYONE looks the same on the streets now.. like they get plastic surgery to look like the ideal beauty (men and women). (notice that's wat my krn friend told me, don't kill me marvelous)

[kiddo*]

Okay, on topic. =P

Hi all

Since i discovered korean dramas i got addicted to them , am starting to like everything about korea. My dream now is to travel to korea and experience the life there, meeting some celebrities would be greate too . what do u guys think , is it worth it, i mean is korea as greate as i think it is?

Since a lot of people have already mentioned most of the pros and cons of korea, I'll try to add a couple of good, unmentioned things.

- First of all, if you go to the city, you'll notice there are PC rooms and Karaoke places everywhere. sometimes two or three PC rooms a block, so no need to panic about not getting your internet.
- There are lots of concerts around Korea, and a couple of celebrities do little outside street concerts, too. http://youtube.com/watch?v=YlJ7ctq0nGM
- The saunas are great. They have food and TV in there, and you can even sleep overnight in some of them! Hey, it's cheaper than a hotel. =]
-The nature there is beautiful.
- Some people find foreigners very interesting. These two store clerks at a mall had a blast when they heard me pronounce the word "apple." (I had my ipod out and they asked what i was listening to.)

Well, that's all I can think of. Basically, if you're gonna go there on vacation or something, it should be very fun.

P.S. If you're gonna go to Korea, don't forget to plan out where you're going beforehand! Go to a tourist site or something and make a schedule.

[Néa Vanille]

Everyone looking the same? That's an excellent point (when I'm done writing all this, I'll upload all of this to my website to have a nice archive of different aspects of life here).

That's exactly what Koreans seem to be striving to look like and it's long been my impression that the range of accepted beauty in Korea is just so much narrower than anywhere else. Like, if you were to pick up 10 American or German or French or whatever men off the street and asked them about the ideal American/German/French woman, you'd get 10 different responses. Some would say they preferred shorter women, some taller, some thicker, some thinner, some with curly hair, some with straight hair, some blondes, some brunettes, some with pretty girl-next-door looks, some with model-like aristocratic features etc. etc. but if you picked up 10 Korean men off the street and asked them about the perfect Korean woman, at least 8 out of the 10 would most likely answer with this: slim body (쭉쭉 빵빵), long, straight black hair; big, double-lidded eyes; high nose; full lips; slim, oval face, wears mini-skirt and high-heels and is slightly younger than them. There is no room for discussion. While in most Western cultures, the notion that everyone is beautiful in their own way is encouraged (to some degree at least), in Korea, what's beautiful and what's not is set in stone. I remember that once, I asked a Korean guy on Skype what kind of girl he liked, and he answered, "all Korean guys like the same kind of girls."

As a result, Korean girls look, dress and act very similar and they are rather few girls who dare to willingly go out of the norm. Unlike in Japan, where you will see lots of girls with unique fashion in places such as Harajuku, Korean fashion style is far more rigid and less imaginative from what I've seen. That's just how it is, it's neither good nor bad - you know exactly how to improve yourself to appeal to nearly everyone as a Korean female but at the same time, of course it gets rid of a lot of variety on the street.

My impression.

(Now before someone flames me, yes of course there is a standard of beauty everywhere, and the vast majority of Western men will for example say a 125 pounds woman is more attractive than a 200 pounds woman, but I feel that, apart from those extremes, there is a lot of little variation in what men are into. The notion and range of what is beautiful is broader. In Korea, it just appears far more rigid to me and a lot of girls seem to try to reach that set-in-stone ideal).

[kiddo*]

As a result, Korean girls look, dress and act very similar and they are rather few girls who dare to willingly go out of the norm. Unlike in Japan, where you will see lots of girls with unique fashion in places such as Harajuku, Korean fashion style is far more rigid and less imaginative. That's just how it is, it's neither good nor bad - you know exaclty how to improve yourself to appeal to nearly everyone as a Korean female but at the same time, of course it gets rid of a lot of variety on the street.

My impression.

Hahah, this is pretty true. That's why I find it fun to go to Korea. I'm a tomboy, so I get stared at a lot and pestered by my relatives to wear "clothes befitting of a girl." It gives me satisfaction that I'm unique in my style. =]


Anyways, I think this is thing I found fits for this topic. It's a list that sorts out the fantasies that people get about Korea from the dramas. This is mostly just for fun, though. Except maybe number 5. It’s amazing how the cops never see this.

50 things you can learn from a Korean drama

1) Hot, rich, younger men love fat, older vulgar women.
2) If you have a best guy friend, he is in love with you. And secretly you are too.
3) You and your boyfriend will always playfully chase each other on an ice rink, at the beach, or in the leaves. And you'll laugh for no reason and your boyfriend will hit you "playfully" but the force of his push will have you flying across the room. But it's okay. Cuz you're still laughing like a crazy person.
4) Brothers/cousin/uncles/nephews will always love the same girl.
5) You're allowed to make U-turns wherever you want in Korea. And there is never traffic on the side you want to u turn to.
6) There is a super quick payment device that allows you to pay a bill quickly enough for a guy to run immediately out of a restaurant after his angry girlfriend storms out.
7) Everyone has cancer.
8.) If you're sick, all you need is an IV to make you feel lots better.
9) There is vomit and urine all over Seoul at nights.
10) Fighting at a pojangmacha with a random stranger is merely part of a normal night's event.
11) Soju must cost 10 cents. Everyone drinks it everyday all the time, especially the poor people.
12) If you're rich, you're a jerk.
13) If you're poor, you're an angel.
14) Women sleep and wake up with a full set of makeup on.
15) You're not studying hard enough unless you get a nosebleed.
16) If you have a nosebleed, you most definitely have cancer. And you have no money to pay for the surgery that will save your life. And your liver is missing. We're not sure where it went, but it's making your cancer progress faster.
17) If you work in a sool jeep, you have massively curly hair and wear flashy colors from the early 90's.
18.) You always order orange juice or coffee at a cafe. And you never drink it. EVER.
19) You will always call your boyfriend by his job title. Or simply sunbaenim. Never his name. Never. He doesn't have one.
20) If you TRULY love each other, you must die together in the end. Frozen outside instead of finding shelter like sane people. Just frozen....
21) You go to America you come back miraculously successful. You go to England you come back amazingly fashionable. You stay in Korea the only thing that changes is your hairstyle.
22) And if you come back with no apparent reason then it's because you have cancer.
23) Everyone always goes to the same hospital no matter where they are.
24) If you stand out in the rain for more than five minutes, you'll end up with a fever and vertigo and people will rush you to the hospital to get some magic IV. And instead of taking an ambulance or driving they'll race you on their back.
25) Even if you're poor and can't eat, you never wear the same clothes twice.
26) If you play a poor kid, you always have dirt on your face and your hair is always messy.
27) If you're saving someone from being hit from a car, you'll push them out of the way and wait for the car to hit you instead. Couldn’t be more true, they’re like a deer in the headlights.
28.) Everyone has a long lost sister/brother/twin. Usually one they didn't know about.
29) If you don't want to answer your phone, you can't just turn it off. The battery needs to be taken out.
30) All Korean men can drink hard, smoke long, sing well and play piano. Usually all at the same time. And at the same restaurant that has a piano that they let anyone use.
31) If you're in a relationship, you must at one point leave and have your lover tearfully come RIGHT before you board the plane (vice versa applies as well. You can be the chaser). 60% of the time you see each other, the other 40% you're roaming around in circles and pass each other about six times, but miraculously never see them.
32) If you're getting off a plane, you're ALWAYS wearing sunglasses. ALWAYS.
33) All guys wear hideous tracksuits zipped up to their neck. Even if all they're doing is jump-roping.
34) Girls will always storm off because they're mad and the guy will stoically grab them by the arm and swing them back—and by magic, not dislocate their shoulders.
35) Guys always look like they're 6 feet tall, even if they're only 5'10. Thank you, camera angles.
36) Guys like to wear foundation, eyeliner and sometimes a smudge of lip liner.
37) You always get stuck in an elevator with someone who makes you feel uncomfortable. Even if there are six different elevators, you'll always be stuck in the same one with that bastard you hate (or just fought with).
38.) Unless you're fabulously rich, your in-laws will always hate you.
39) So will your sister-in-law.
40) Your brother-in-law might be pining away for you.
41) There are only 2 ways to kiss. You either press your lips against theirs with your mouth completely shut, and just press away for a very long and uncomfortable time. OR you devour the other person and suck out their soul. In both instances, the world spins.
42) A guy will always get the right size ring, even if you're never held hands.
43) People stare off into space and ponder a lot. They'll just stop in the middle of the road and watch a leaf on a tree for a good three minutes, and just ponder.
44) You'll get pregnant the first time you have sex.
45) You'll get pregnant if he kisses you on the forehead.
46) Hell—you’ll get pregnant if you hold hands.
47) If you overcome great obstacles to be together, one of you must die. Probably due to cancer.
48.) One Korean man can kick the butts of 6 gangstas. Especially when they all stand in a circle and attack the guy one by one. Then when each of them get their butts OWNED, they wise up and attack the guy at the same time. Then the guy will get pulverized and bleed out onto the dusty concrete floor of the empty warehouse they've found to fight in. There will be a fire in a trashcan somewhere. And the girl will have watched this the entire time, screaming in horror. Instead of calling 119, she'll just watch and cry. But it's okay. Cuz the next day the guy will be fine with a few random bandages and a few face scars. But never a black eye.
49) It ain't a real fight unless the gangstas fight dirty with a stick or switchblade.
50) If you study in the states (preferably Harvard), you are one of the top students and can speak perfect English (as assumed by the reactions of those around you). Why the rest of the world OUTSIDE of the TV can't understand a single word uttered out of your melodramatic mouth is beyond me.

[kandieloli]

strange before seein korean drama n stuff my number one goal was to go to japan, learn japanese n everythin else, but after watchin numerous korean dramas i cnt get enough of korea i really want to go to korea n learn the language i still also want to go to japan n also learn the language but not as so much as i wanted to before. n thanx for all the info it just makes me more anxious to c korea n learn the language.

[lavenderskye]

As a result, Korean girls look, dress and act very similar and they are rather few girls who dare to willingly go out of the norm. Unlike in Japan, where you will see lots of girls with unique fashion in places such as Harajuku, Korean fashion style is far more rigid and less imaginative. That's just how it is, it's neither good nor bad - you know exaclty how to improve yourself to appeal to nearly everyone as a Korean female but at the same time, of course it gets rid of a lot of variety on the street.

My impression.

Hahah, this is pretty true. That's why I find it fun to go to Korea. I'm a tomboy, so I get stared at a lot and pestered by my relatives to wear "clothes befitting of a girl." It gives me satisfaction that I'm unique in my style. =]


Anyways, I think this is thing I found fits for this topic. It's a list that sorts out the fantasies that people get about Korea from the dramas. This is mostly just for fun, though. Except maybe number 5. It’s amazing how the cops never see this.

50 things you can learn from a Korean drama

...

Hilarious, kiddo! Right on the spot about K-dramas...

There's a lot on that list that's like WTH??, but no.29...What is up with always taking out the battery? There's a power button on the phone!

I'd like to add another one: The guy(s) will always continuously cry for you.

I have a question about that actually. Do Korean guys really cry that much??

[OvertheRainbow]

On the topic of all Korean girls looking the same:

I totally agree...well not to the extent of all but most. Whenever I walk down the street and look at the girls, I notice they are all dressed nicely but their styles are so alike. Its like there's a way in which they must dress.

Learning some Korean would be nice. My Korean isn't great but I actually know a lot and that helps because like Néa Vanille said, the people won't know a lot of English or they'd be reluctant to use whatever little English they know. When I visited a school, the guys and girls were way to shy to come up to me because they didn't want to speak English to me. I told them it was okay to speak in Korean but they felt the need to speak in English to me and I guess they weren't confident enough. It's not really that hard...I learned a few conversational and shopping phrases and that's helped out a lot...also use common sense...I don't understand half of the things Korean people say to me but I notice their body language and the situation that I'm in

[marvelous]

It's obvious everyone has been infected by Americanism. Everyone behaves like a robot or slaves. Hmmm..

People need to see the true light. It's a race war in the real world for dominance over others!

You talk of racism when racism is handed to you on a silver platter by whites and most people eat it up.