That is
wonderful advice; you shouldn't
prejudge something by its outward appearance alone, but I can’t speak or
read Korean so the outward appearance of the country is all I have to go by!
When I
arrived at my school they didn’t take me to my apartment straight away, they
informed me that I would be spending the
first two weeks living with the other new teachers which they described as the
“settling in period”, which meant I was sharing an apartment with 5 other guys.
This actually turned out to be really good, it gave us all an opportunity to
meet new people, everyone felt welcome, and we created a small community
between all of the thirteen new teachers (6 guys and 7 girls in the apartment
below ours). Anyway, compared to staying in a hostel anything would have been
nice. Hostels lack basic human rights, often unclean, unsafe, and living
quarters that make you feel like you're staying in a battery farm. Also, some of the people
that stay in hostels are just some of the worst, good-for-nothing slackers you’re
ever likely to meet. I met one guy in Sydney who had been living in a hostel
for over 18 months, he hadn’t worked a day in that time and sponged off his
girlfriend, and yet I can’t get a girlfriend. Mental. I digress.
The Korean
people were the first thing in Korea that seemed different to the norm that I
had been accustomed with in England. Most seem to lack common courtesy,
manners, and men spit in the street like it’s a casual thing to do (therefore abolishing the 10 second rule in Korea). No one will
hold a door for you, and when you do offer the smallest gesture of good-will no
one says please or thank you. Despite this the Korean people aren’t being rude;
it has been explained to me that saying ‘thank you’ is assumed and people are coarse
because it’s their culture. Often an old man or lady will barge through you in
a busy market or station purely because the shortest distance from them to
their destination is through you, and as they are more senior you must respect
them and move out of their way. It’s just the way it is out here.
Another peculiarity
that will be obvious to all foreigners in South Korea is the constant threat of
road dangers. Motorcycles will relentlessly ride on the pavements, they have
the right of way on the footpaths and roads. When I saw first a motorbike on
the pavement I just thought it was some nutter who did what he wanted, but in fact
it’s the entire country that drives like this. There are no official designated
street parking spots in Seoul either so cars will also mount the walkways to
park. As a pedestrian, nowhere is safe. Then there’s jaywalking, it is illegal
to jaywalk in Korea, but there are often no pavements, which means you have to
walk in the road, it makes no sense.
Speaking of the lack of safety I observed some building work that was occurring outside our apartment. No hard-hats or hi-visibility jackets in sight, but that was the least of their problems. This particular day they were throwing bricks off the 5th floor of a building into an open top truck on the ground. That seemed like a good idea, throw heavy items from great heights near passing pedestrians. Like I said, nowhere is safe. Some bricks would land in the truck, some would land in and bounce out, and others would miss completely. There was one bloke at the bottom who had the job of collecting the stray bricks, I'm assumed he was the apprentice.
On occasions the public are cared for, take this for example.
These are class cabinets which enclose gas masks, sometimes referred to as "nation masks". These are to be used in the event of chemical warfare. Aren't the government kind, supplying 60 nation masks on each platform to the 6.9 million daily riders of the Seoul Metro network.
Seoul is a
dense, thriving city of flashing lights. Every corner you turn there’s another
flashing neon sign. It can be mesmeric. As most of the signs are in Korean I
often ignore the text and just absorb the pretty colours. But there have been signs
that I’ve stopped at and just thought “what?!” Like these two for example…
Kissing Girls
makes you look LOVELY and To Me you ARE PERFECT. I’m not sure why they have
used the capital letters, but more importantly these are clothing and shoe
shops, the names of the shops would hardly encourage anyone to step inside and
have a browse. I don’t really know if these were the desired names for the
shops or if they are the result of poor translation, either way I’m happy that
they exist.
Some of the
signs are wonderful, you go from the misunderstood to the quite incredible.
This is a sign for a Korean restaurant. They went all out.
The Korean
fashion is another strange one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Gok Wan, down the
years my wardrobe has consisted of (mostly) football shirts and sale items from Topman
so maybe I shouldn’t be one to judge but the ‘designer labels’ out here are
tragic. It’s like they haven’t moved on from 1994, brands that you haven’t heard
of in 20 years and they’re still popular. Brands you wouldn’t be seen dead in
back in England; Kappa, Gola, Hi-Tec, Mizuno, Fila, Le Coq Sportif, Asics. They
still sell over here! I don’t want to ruin the 90s for the Koreans but Take
That split up and Bill Clinton gets a blow job. Move on.
Some things
that are marvellous in Korea are the elevators, you can unclick the button. No
need to stop at the wrong floor after pressing the wrong button by mistake,
just unclick it. It stops stupid teenagers from pressing all the levels and
then running away, because that’s only funny when you do it to someone else. Another
thing that is great is the service at restaurants. All tables have door bells
on them, when you want to summon the waiter/waitress for service you ring the
bell and they come over. You can get their attention without having to
awkwardly raise your hand or inconveniently stop them when they have already
noticed and ignored you. It’s a fantastic idea. The best place I have seen one
of these door bells was on the inside of a cubicle in a public toilet. We’ve
all been there, sat down then realised there’s no paper, not such an issue in
your own home as you waddle to fetch some yourself. But if that situation
occurs in a public toilet then you’ve got to have that awkward conversation
with the person in the next stall. Not in Korea though, you ring that bell and
everyone in the building knows you didn’t check the toilet roll supply before
you sat down to have a shit. Yes, much better.
