Interesting Korean Blogs

Firstly, let me confess, I am not a very prolific blog or indeed news reader when it comes to Korea.  My posts are usually personally based; I find something that I like or dislike about Korea, which I have experienced myself, and then I research thoroughly to see if there is any pattern of it occuring anywhere else - if that is required.

With this in mind then, there are only very few blogs that I find myself visiting, which are all listed on my blogroll on the side bar.  I thought I might tell you why they are of interest to me and give them a little bit of a thumbs-up on this site.  We'll go in alphabetical order (I am leaving out asiapundits.com because I write for them):

Ask a Korean

Although I often find myself disagreeing with much of what he writes about Korea, he articulates his side of the argument (usually pro-Korean, unsurprisingly) extremely well and often comes at problems from angles that others have not thought of or not dared to question.  Perhaps inevitably, I come at issues regarding Korea from a somewhat different perspective than he does, however, his writing has given me more pause to think and question my own ideas and beliefs than almost any others on the subject of Korea.  Despite the fact I gave him a little bit of a hard time with regard two of his posts - the first on planes crashes (my response here and sorry it was so long) and the second on the effect of modernity on the problems in Korea (I responded on his site) - I respect his writing very much.

I think he has a style of discourse that is very well received in the Western world at the moment because of our penchant to explain-away personal responsibility and apportioning blame for other countries problems on the evils of Western culture.  He has a great knowledge of Korea and its history and although I believe he does use this to wriggle-out of difficult situations and excuse many of Korea's problems that they should be presently responsible for changing (if you delve into history, everyone has a reason for doing what they do, to the point where it is always possible to apportion blame to somewhere else), it could just be that he is right.  I kind of like the uncertainty I feel about my own position when I read what he writes.

Bobsters House

Another person who often disagrees with things that I write, but importantly does it graciously and thoughtfully.  I happen upon his blog from time to time and he takes some great pictures too, something I really have to get into - or at least take some rubbish pictures to put on my blogs more often.

BurndogsBurnBlog and As the BurnDog Turns

This sharp-tongued Aussie came to my attention when he wrote criticising me on a post I wrote about co-teachers.  I took me a while to appreciate his critique because he did it in a style perhaps all of his own and it sounded rather aggressive.  However, after a good deal of expletives and verbal rallies were exchanged, I started to grasp that he had more than just a glimmer of a point on a variety of subjects related to that particular post.  This caused a change in how I run things on this site - which I thank him for - and a knowledge that there is someone out there ready to pounce on any sub-par pieces of writing or poorly informed ones I do in the future.  I still believe there was quite a lot of truth in that piece, but he did call me out on generalising the same problems throughout the country when, actually, I could have no idea what things were like in other regions of Korea.

Very amusing, strangely rational, straight to the point and highly original, I recommend a look.  But if you are easily offended, perhaps you might stay away or at least take care when commenting.

From Korea with Love

A really candid, passionate and well-written blog by a Filipino woman who is married to a South Korean man.  Very interesting to get the perspective from a woman from a non-Western country about the challenges they face embedded in South Korean culture and with Korean in-laws.  It is also nice that she is a woman, as again the perspective can be quite different to that of a man, and especially a white western man.  She writes some personal posts about her life in Korea as well as some well-researched and practical articles about the challenges many people face in marrying into a Korean family, including immigration issues, news, and information.

Gusts of Popular Feeling

We all know about Korea's tendency to be a little xenophobic sometimes, but this blog deals with many issues relating to xenophobia in Korea with such great research and impressive detail that it is a valuable resource.  It appears he can also speak and understand Korean quite well (or at least has a good interpreter) and this enables him to delve deeper than most into TV shows and other resources, the likes of which go right over the heads of the rest of us.

Sometimes I do feel that Korea's xenophobia and racism can be slightly blown out of proportion by the Western community in Korea sometimes, but you will hardly find a better resource for examining it than this site.

Roboseyo

I must admit that I probably arrived a little late in the piece at this particular site, as it is quite a well-known blog in South Korea, but I have stumbled across a few posts of his lately that I rather liked.  Unlike yours truly perhaps, he does have a rather nice way of stepping back from getting too emotional in his writing and really tackles problems in a well thought-out manner.  He has obviously been blogging about Korea for a fair amount of time and carries an air of balanced wisdom about all things Korea.

Wangjangnim's Perspective

I came across his site first because of a comment he wrote about a piece I did over on asispundits about Hagwons in Korea.  As a Hagwon owner himself, I don't think it went down that well with him as I was pretty scathing about the hole Hagwon thing.  After a bit of a debate, though, I think we duked-out a fair amount of common ground and argeement.  Here are the posts we wrote:

http://www.asiapundits.com/regions/korea/the-misery-of-private-schools-hagwons-in-korea/
http://smudgem.blogspot.kr/2013/03/an-ethical-dilemma-for-hagwon-owners.html
http://wangjangnim.com/a-rebuttal
http://smudgem.blogspot.kr/2013/04/a-response-to-wangjangnims-rebuttal-on.html

His is a valuable site due the rarity of his situation, i.e. a foreign Hagwon owner who regularly blogs about business, education generally, and the joys and frustrations of it all.  I have learnt a lot from it about the ins and outs of the Hagwon system in Korea.  I particularly enjoy his musings on his theories of education (which I think are very sensible) and what he thinks about hiring good quality teachers, especially the foreign ones.  Well worth a read.

The Joys of Living in Korea

Out of a very British sense of fairness perhaps, I am feeling a little uncomfortable with the amount of bad news or negative stories I have been writing about Korea recently on this blog and the general malaise about North Korea as well.  Believe me when I say that things aren't all bad, indeed they are very often good and better than back home in England in many regards.  This goes without saying really when you think about it, because if everything is bad then why the hell have I stayed here for so long?

So here is a list of reasons why I think Korea is actually a pretty decent place to live most of the time. 

Life is simplified (for a foreigner or native English teacher)

It really is stupidly easy to live here, even if you cannot speak the language.  When you arrive everything is usually sorted out for you; you have an apartment without looking for one, furniture without shopping, and are set up with a bank account. 

Life generally is made exceptionally easy with great delivery services, you don't have to search around for the best energy providers, public transport is efficient and cheap, and if you live in even a small city or town a convenience store, supermarket, gym, department store, doctors, dentists, pharmacy, a variety of restaurants, and all the services you can possibly need are all just around the corner.

Korean Food

As a man who is from a country well known for terrible food (for good reason), I can tell you that I really love the food here, and enjoy being introduced to such a wide variety of different Korean foods.  Korean people take great pride in their food, and for this reason I am never short of generous souls to take me out for lunch or dinner to a different restaurant so they can watch me gleefully gorge myself on another new Korean dish.  I have met some foreigners who say there is little variety and that it is all the same spicy taste, but I think they have simply not gone out there and experimented or tried enough different Korean foods.  There is great variety here, and most of it is extremely healthy, yet another tick in the box for Korean cuisine.  You can even travel to experience specialty food, something that I seem to be doing more often.  Korea has a rich culinary tradition and certain foods are considered especially delicious in different parts of the country where they specialise in them and this is well worth exploring.

Finding Work and the Work Itself

As a native English speaker, finding work in Korea is easy and for me as a man who is married to a Korean it becomes exceptionally easy.  As long as you give your work as a teacher here its own meaning and try to excel at your job, you will be appreciated and at the same time as finding work as an English teacher quite undemanding, you will be challenged enough to make things interesting.  This challenge is greater when you have to plan all your lessons without the aid of textbooks or any syllabus, like I have to.  This takes extra time and effort but is rewarding as it gives me an intellectual freedom in my job that I really enjoy.  Even for teachers without this amount of freedom, relishing the challenge of teaching and motivating students whose language it not your own is the key to enjoying the native English teacher experience.

The Lack of Petty Crime

There will always be stories that can be shared that are exceptions to this rule, but it is nice to be able to walk around with at least some level of faith that nothing will be stolen or if you lose something it might get returned to you.  As I have mentioned before on this blog, some shop owners just store their stock outside on the street under some shelter from the rain and no one steals anything.  I could not imagine this happening in Britain.  Also, if you lose your wallet you do have a great chance of getting it back with everything still inside.  Reckless vandalism also appears to be almost non-existent.  Perhaps much of this is because of a Confucian based culture's greater respect for authority, an aspect of their culture to which I have pointed out a fair amount of downsides to, but this happens to be a happy result of it.

The Lack of Politically Correct Nonsense


Sometimes in my British world of forcing school kids to wear goggles for a game of conkers, law suits for tripping on cracks in the street, failure to criticise anyone within a group of people for fear of giving offence, and everyone wins sports for the young, I yearn for some spade calling bluntness and this is what you can get in Korea.  Kids are wondering around at night buying street-food without fear of abduction or anyone reporting their parents to social services, obese people are called lazy people who need to exercise more and this is widely accepted, my high schoolers are given the responsibility for cleaning their classrooms and changing light bulbs without the fear of them having an asthma attack from dust or killing themselves with electric shocks (no one has died yet), and people trip up and make a mistake by not looking where they are going and slink off in an embarrassed manner without looking for the nearest person to claim money off of.  There are many more examples I could go through.  Sometimes they are too harsh, too blunt, and don't consider individuals very much or empathise with them but mostly I do appreciate their clarity and no-nonsense approach.

Random Acts of Kindness

I sometimes experience a level of sweetness in Korea that I rarely experience back home.  This can be in the form of offering food, surrendering an umbrella or lending one when it is raining, the offering of lifts in a car when I have looked lost and other kind gestures.  Whether these acts occur out of a sense of duty or not they can be very heart-warming.  One of the situations where I often find kind acts being done to me is while hiking, where offers of food, drink or assistance seem to be particularly common.

Exploring the Country

With a little bit of knowledge of Korean it is possible to explore the whole country just by taking public transport - which ties in with what I said about the ease of living.  With mountains, beaches, gorges, forests, islands, different foods, temples and historical landmarks, Korea is a great place to travel around with the added bonus - especially for a skin-flint like me - of not breaking the bank either.  It is a great country to explore and one that is still relatively free of tourists, so a genuine feel of the culture can be experienced.

Young People

I am very fond of young people in Korea, especially between the ages of about 11-20.  Really young kids just annoy me, period, regardless of their nationality, but that is just my personality.  Young people in Korea, in my opinion are especially kind, fun, friendly, open-minded, and polite.  Contrary to what some believe, I find them generally highly respectful of foreign teachers - something I explained in a previous post, here.  Reverse the situation and have Koreans teaching in English schools and I doubt whether student behaviour would be so kindly.  The reason for their affability might be because of their respect culture and the fact they are slightly oppressed by it, both in their dealings everyday with elders and their monumental amounts of study.  Respect culture is something I profoundly dislike but I must admit it does seem to create nice kids, perhaps exactly because they are slightly down-trodden by it.

There is Always Plenty of Controversy and Conflict

Some might think that this is a bad thing, but if you can embrace the difference in the culture here, you will never be short of a talking point over dinner.  Some people think embracing a culture means accepting it, I disagree.  Arguing against things you believe are wrong is important regardless of culture.  I have conflicts with Korean culture all the time but I don't necessarily accept their point of view as equally valid, I enjoy the battle against it, even if many of these battles have to be fought in my head or keyboard in hand on my blog.  If you want a debate, to write, or to be intellectually stimulated, there can be few better places to be in the world than in Korea with so much up for discussion.  This more than makes up for the stresses of clashing with the culture sometimes.  If you want a stress-free life that doesn't challenge your principles, go home or stay away.  If you want a bit of spice and interest and have your worldviews challenged, come to Korea and enjoy the ride.

People are Genuinely Interested in you

A year or so ago I took a trip to Indonesia and I was constantly disappointed by how many times someone would start a friendly conversation with me that always, in the end, turned out to be an emotional blackmailing tactic for me to buy something off of them.  You just never experience this in Korea, people are genuinely interested in you and where you come from or they want to practice their English with you.  It leads to many unexpected and pleasant conversations that can put a little smile on your face.  I have always felt a touch of innocence in many of the people in Korea in this regard and it is a very charming trait about them.

These are my own personal joys about living in Korea.  If any of my readers would like to add to this, by commenting below, I would be really interested to know if I have left anything out.

Korea's 4 Seasons

In case you haven't heard about it; Korea has 4 distinct seasons, it's wonderful.  Perhaps you can detect more than a hint of sarcasm?  Well, this will be understood by my fellow NET readers, but for the rest of you the reason for this is because we here about it a lot from Korean people.  They are really quite proud of the fact, which is not something to be ridiculed as such, in fact I think it is quite nice that they are in touch with the nature of their own country and pride is not necessarily a bad thing all the time.  It is, however, a way of looking at your country's climate that I never thought of. So, although I am not knocking it I don't really understand why they are so proud of their 4 seasons. My country has the same seasons and at the same time of year and I have never met anyone who has pride in it, perhaps we should.

So as we are coming out of Winter and heading into spring, here is my breakdown of the seasons in Korea, starting with Summer.

Summer

Summer is the season in Korea that I dislike the most, contrary to England where it is undoubtedly the best.  In England we get the odd really hot day but generally it is warm rather than hot and affords me the opportunity to get outside enjoying the countryside and playing cricket.  In Korea Summer is stiflingly hot and for the period of about a month or so it becomes almost unbearable to spend any time outside, I just sit at home under the air conditioning wearing only my underwear.  I try to fight the heat by rising early in the morning and running at 6.30am but to no avail, the heat saps all the strength right out of me.  Sleeping also becomes difficult and I have to ignore warnings from many Korean people about fan death (the funny little superstition that if you sleep with the fan on it could lead to your untimely end) and have the fan and the air conditioning on overnight sometimes .

In the middle of summer (mid to late July) there is also the monsoon season, it's hot, humid, and rainy and no clothes can dry on the clothes hangers in our apartments.  If the rain doesn't make you wet, your own sweat will.  I remember leaving a pile of clothes in the washing machine one time for a couple of days over a weekend and because they were so sweaty, when I returned they smelled pretty funky and most stayed that way and I had to chuck them.

I think it is fair to say that even after just a couple of months of summer I am longing for Autumn and Winter.

What to do in Summer
- Stay inside, and if you go outside make sure you make regular stops for air conditioning.  Or, if you must go outside.....
- Go to a valley and enjoy the mountain streams.
- Go to the beach, but you can't in the monsoon season very easily and it can be almost too hot if you find a weather window.
- Go hiking.  While it is initially difficult, you can get some relief from the heat near the tops of the higher mountains, although beware of heat exhaustion.

What not to do in Summer
- Eat sushi and seafood generally.  I have been warned by a few different Korean people that eating sushi in summer can cause the odd stomach upset.
- Wear grey T-shirts.  Even walking for 2 minutes to catch a bus causes unwelcome sweat patches.
- Exercise outside (apart from hiking and swimming).  Going for a run in summer almost feels dangerous, if you do make plenty of water stops.

Autumn

Probably my favourite month as the temperatures are pleasant and the country is probably at its most beautiful with all the different colours of foliage.  The cooler but still fairly mild temperatures make it a good time to be outside and do some exploring.  With plenty of mountains and hiking trails all close to towns and cities, Korea is one of the easiest places in the world for day hikes that can be reached and completed, and which enable you to return home.

The beginning of Autumn also brings the celebration of Chuseok, Korea's Thanksgiving day that has much to do with remembering their close relatives who have passed away.  This can be a bit of a nuisance for the foreign population in Korea, however, because of the extreme amounts of traffic on the roads down to people migrating out of the major cities to go back to their home towns for the holiday.  On the plus side it is a culturally rich time of year, and I myself am right in the thick of it with my Korean family which is sometimes a good thing and that I am honoured to be a part of but also it can be a real test of patience as long hours of family time (with lots of people) is not what I am used to back in England.

What to do in Autumn
- Go outside.  Hike, run a marathon, start an exercise regime, go to the park, have a picnic, even go to the beach (it is often still warm enough, especially in early Autumn).
- Get your camera out.  Trees on the mountains are everywhere and they look beautiful, you never have to go far for a great shot.
- Go on a trip.  Comfortable temperatures mean this is the time to go away for the weekend and visit historic cities, go to Seoul or Busan, or wonder around for the weekend somewhere new.

What not to do in Autumn
- Honestly, I can't think of anything.

Winter


Although freezing cold, and consistently so, I quite enjoy Korean Winter.  I find that it is the time of the year that their food really tastes even better than normal.  I am a real fan of Korean street food, which is absolutely perfect for warming yourself up with; tteokpoggi, odeng, sundae, pajeon, ho duk, and pungopbang all do the trick very nicely.  Korea's normally spicy food seems perfect for the chilly Winters.

Winter back home in England is a bit of a dark and dismal affair.  It is dark by 3 o'clock sometimes and very often cloudy, so getting out and about and being outside doing activities is very difficult.  Korean Winter, on the other hand, is very cold but sunny and dry with more hours of sunlight in the day.  This affords the opportunity for hiking, skiing, and generally being a bit more active outside.  The only drawback is that in my area of the country is rarely snows and this makes for a rather drab, brown, and dead appearance to all of the nature around.  It is therefore not the prettiest month, at least not for me down south.

What to do in Winter
- Go skiing.  It is very affordable but it is very often extremely busy.  If you are already a good skier, the harder slopes are much less busy in places like Muju.
- Eat street food.
- If you are a hardy kind of person, hiking in the Winter to some of the National parks is really beautiful.  But be warned the thick snow and plunging temperatures are not for the faint-hearted or ill-prepared.
- Go on a vacation.  The Winter cold can drag on and a trip to a warm country to break things up is very welcome.

What not to do in Winter
- Go to the coast.  The freezing cold wind makes it feel even colder when you are by the sea.
- Be stuck in the house.  Sometimes people can just hibernate in the Winter, but Winter in Korea also harbours some of the clearest weather with a good deal of sunshine.  Try to find ways to wrap up warm and go outside.

Spring

Is as pleasant, temperature-wise, as Autumn and is also quite pretty with the coming of various spring flowers and the cherry blossom in particular.  The only drawback is spring coincides with the dust brought over from the Gobi desert in China.  It can sometimes become quite unpleasant and as a keen runner and hiker the dust feels like it clogs-up the lungs a little and often spoils the view at the tops of mountains.  You can get an idea of the amount of dust and sand in the air by looking at the build-up on parked cars.

Spring is a good time to visit Korea, outside of the dust storms, because of the many festivals that are running in the Spring months.  These festivals take place all over the country and usually celebrate the particular foods, animals, and general qualities of the area in question.

What to do in Spring
- Go to a festival.  Towns and cities all over Korea have lots of festivals celebrating what is special about their particular area so are good places to get your culture fix.
- Go hiking (hang on, I think I have said this for every month).  Spring is the month for the blooming of flowers of course, the Royal Azaleas on the mountains can be really pretty.
- Go to a place with Cherry Blossom trees and have a picnic.

Medical Treatments in Korea

Korea has perhaps an unexpectedly good and efficient healthcare system, with doctors surgeries and hospitals aplenty in the average city.  If you get sick in Korea and you have medical insurance you will receive some of the best quality care going, but there are some strange little oddities that go on from time to time.

Over-treatment

I don't know if Korean people are just overly paranoid about their health or they simply want to fully utilise their health cover to the best of their ability, but they do seem to have some seriously over the top treatments at times. 

If you are sick with a cold or a stomach bug and go to the doctors in Korea for some medicine they are likely to put you on a saline drip or at least offer to.  I had never been on one before I came here but I was sort of bullied into it the other day when I had a stomach complaint.  It did cost me a little extra money, although I have to admit I felt about a hundred times better after having it.  I don't know that it was wholly necessary though (maybe the Koreans are on to something though, as I said it did make me feel much better).  My wife does it all the time and because she is a nurse she even does it herself or does it for friends and family for ordinary cold symptoms.  It is all quite normal.

When I sprained my ankle a couple of years ago in Korea, I knew what I had done because it had happened to me before.  Although painful, I refused to go to the doctors because I knew what would happen.  Any, even very minor injury, is often treated by placing unnecessary strapping or casts to the affected area.  At the all-boys high school where I work there are always students hobbling around on casts, wearing neck braces, or have bandages over arms.  At the time of writing I have just taught a class where a student came in looking like he had been in a car crash with a big neck brace.  It turned out that when I asked him what he did, he had just slept strangely and woken up with a sore neck in the morning.

Korean Alternative Therapies

The popular traditional therapies in Korea appear to be some different forms of acupuncture and Chinese medicine.  As a proponent of the scientific method, I have always been sceptical of alternative therapies because, essentially, by being called 'alternative' it means that they are unproven.  This especially relevant to Chinese medicine and acupuncture because they have both been extensively tested and found to be no better than placebo time and time again.  Some ingredients in Chinese medicine have been shown effective but these don't come around very often.

Everybody knows what acupuncture entails but there is an interesting type of acupuncture in Korea called moxibustion.  This involves applying heat to the body with a stick or a burning cone of mugwort.  This is then placed over injuries or pressure points to stimulate and strengthen the blood - although what exactly 'strengthening' the blood does is a bit of a mystery to me.  This technique is often used alongside the more conventional form of acupuncture and the use of round glass jars with the burning mugwort inside is common.  This results in dark circles forming temporarily on the backs of the patients, which many foreigners may have seen in the showers (resembling an attack from a giant octopus) if they use the public baths or go to the gym.

Eating Korean Porridge (죽)

If you are sick, Korean doctors, bosses, and everyone will recommend that you eat porridge.  When I was first in Korea I was a little confused as I thought that meant good old-fashioned oat porridge with a bit of jam and sugar.  In Korea, though, porridge is rice based and is sort of a gloopy, soupy mixture of rice, vegetables, mushrooms, and sometimes meat or fish.  This description doesn't make it sound all that appetising but it is really good, healthy, and easy to digest, and for this reason it makes perfect sense to prescribe it.

Drips in the Streets

One of the iconic sights of Korea, I reckon.  Hospital patients can regularly be seen outside hospitals or even down the local supermarket with a saline drip attached to them, walking around with it.  People even sit outside on a drip and smoke cigarettes.  In my view, if they are sick enough to need a drip they should not be out and about.  The reason that they are walking around with them is that they don't really need them, harping back to the first point I made in this blog post.

The Injection in the Butt

I am sure that anyone living in Korea for an extended period of time or anyone who has been a little sick here would have had the needle in the backside treatment.  I had it done a couple of times when I was very new to Korea and suffering with acute irritable bowel syndrome brought on by eating their bread, which is made with milk (I am lactose intolerant).  Bent over in painful stomach cramps I went to my employer for help in going to a doctor before I started my day's work.  I said it was unlikely that I would be able to work that day.  My boss simply took me to a doctor's surgery where they gave me the injection.  I was then told to have an hours rest and come to work as normal.  It did not make any difference whatsoever.

Korean Pills

Go to a pharmacy in Korea and you will be likely to receive an array of brightly coloured pills for even mild complaints.  It all seems a bit worrying but apparently it is only this way because in Korea they do not combine all the ingredients into one pill and prefer to leave them separate.  In all likelyhood 3 or 4 brightly coloured pills have exactly the same effect as just the normal one or two in our countries. 

The Koreans may well be on to something, however, as numerous studies on the placebo effect have shown that sugar pills with brighter colours tend to make people feel better than a simple colourless pill.  Also, expensive brand pills in supermarkets often have the same result in making people feel better than cheaper brands do, despite there being exactly the same quantities of active ingredient in them.  Maybe they are trying to boost the psychological effects of taking the medicine.

The Stories Behind Korean Food

When my in-laws decided to make a two hour detour from a trip back home the other day to visit a town that was famous for Deokkgalbi, I have to admit I was none too impressed and sceptical of the difference there would be in the quality of the food just because a city or town is famous for it.  It sounded like annoying Korean logic at work again. 

Maybe I have been living here too long, but I think I am starting to sympathise and understand this point of view on food.  I started to be turned around by a trip to Jeonju the other day with my mother, who was visiting for a couple of weeks.  Jeonju is famous for bibimbap, and it has to be said their bibimbap is mighty good, without doubt the best I have had.

Now everytime I go to a different city I enquire with my wife as to what food they are famous for (I am sounding like a Korean, I know) and I try to sample it.  Here is just a short list of famous foods from different cities:

Jeonju (Jeollabukdo) - Bibimbap
Uijeongbu (Gyeonggido and site of big US army base) - Budae Jiggae
Busan (Gyeongsanamdo) - Fish cake
Chuncheon (Gangwondo) - Dakgalbi
Damyang (Jeollanamdo) - Doekkgalbi
Mokpo/Naju (Jeollanamdo) - Hongeo (highly aged and fermented fish, below), which is the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted.
Gyeongju (North Gyeongsanamdo) - Bread
Geumsan (Chungcheongnam-do) - Ginseng
Eumseong (Chungcheongbuk-do) - Red chili peppers
Sokcho (Gangwondo) - Oechingho Sundae

I am sure there are a whole lot more, indeed whenever I visit a certain area with my wife and her family I am told of the different speciality foods. 

Apparently, during the Joseon dynasty these speciality foods from all over Korea were often brought together for Kings to eat.  In fact, the higher the position in Joseon society, the more side dishes - from all corners of Korea - you were entitled to eat.

It is not just where the food comes from but also the stories behind them that can be so interesting and shows what a deep connection with their food they have in Korea.  Although I am highly sceptical of some of their supposed properties, the stories of their creation and their history can sometimes be quite interesting.

Have you ever been given some bibimbap (Doshirak) in a metal box in a galbi restaurant that you had to shake?  The story behind this  is that parents used to give these to their children for school lunch and put them in their bags.  As they walked to school and ran around all the ingredients would all mix up and this is the reason it is sometimes still served this way in some restaurants.

I always wondered about the Korean fascination with spam and cheap processed meat.  It seems a strange combination with most of their other quite natural and healthy food.  Budae Jiggae is a spicy soup with spam and cheap little frankfurters in it and I learned of its origin the other day.  It is obvious when you think about it, it is from American soldiers and their rations during and after the Korean War.  The Americans brought lots of this processed meat with them and the Koreans used it, adding it to many foods.  This why Budae Jiggae is famous in Uijeongbu, which is a big US army area.

The story of some of their slightly less palatable sounding foods also shares a similar logic.  Koreans do tend to use just about all of the meat on animal that they can, any plant or vegetable, and anything that crawls on the ocean floor.  Chicken feet, pig's intestine, pig spine (Gamjatang, left), dog, Hwae (raw and sometimes still moving sea creatures, below), and sundae (various inner organs of a pig or cow) are all still quite popular, with the exception of dog which is becoming less and less popular as time goes by (it is the older population that mainly eats this).  Like the processed meat they probably would not have chosen to use these things if they had had the choice, but life - until very recently - has always been quite a testing experience in Korea with their harsh winters, boiling hot summers and with the Korean War still fairly fresh in their history.  Put quite simply, 'beggars can't be choosers', and most people were very poor especially at the time of the Korean War.  They had no choice but to adapt and make the most out of their sources of food.

I am a vegetarian in England but in Korea I choose not to be because of the difficulty in finding vegetarian options, and eating everything that Koreans put in front of you is a good way of getting them to like you, especially the in-laws.  The good thing about my meat eating in Korea is that I get to try these foods (with the exception of dog) and the fact is that the Koreans have done such a good job of making them edible that they are very often delicious.  You can find yourself trying all sorts of odd delicacies that sound disgusting but end up being extremely tasty.  Chicken feet is my personal favourite.

These are the the few stories that I am aware of, but I would be fascinated to learn some more as a man who attaches quite a high importance to food.  Korean culture is extremely rich in the food department and is one of the aspects of living in Korea I really do enjoy.

Korean Superstitions and Advice

Korean people are a fairly superstituous bunch and have lots of theories about the world and how best to live one's life within it.  The respect culture and confucian values also makes the older generation more emboldened than usual in giving out advice to the young.  Unfortunately, because of the swift ascent of Korea as a nation it is my experience that it is often the case that the older the person in Korea the less enlightened they actually are, as they are regularly a litttle behind the times.  This can make their advice a bit frustrating as well as almost equally strange.

When I am with my Korean in-laws I hear lots of advice coming to me and my wife on a range of topics, including; health, married life, my parents, and our own behaviour.  I think they feel like it is their job to impart all their knowledge they have on us so that we can live a happy and productive life.  The fact that they are so forthcoming with their worldly wisdom is mainly because they genuinely care about us - I realise that - but it really can become quite tiresome sometimes, especially when I know for a fact they do not know what they are talking about.

The advice given by my Korean family members comes from all sides; aunties, uncles, cousins, mother in-law and father in-law and is not always tactfully given.  For example, one day at a restaurant I was sitting next to my wife's 'bad' uncle (I am told that most people in Korea have an uncle they really do not like) when he commented for about ten minutes on the dry skin on my feet while everybody was eating  (my feet are not always the best as I exercise a lot).  He then suggested I take some Chinese medicine (which I am highly sceptical of) and eat special Korean salt because that would cure my dry skin.  Instead of following his advice I went to the pharmacy and got some athletes foot ointment and cleared it up within a week or two, a better option than the high blood pressure from added special salt in my diet on top of Korea's already salt-laden food.

Below: Chinese medicine and acupuncture is still widely believed and practiced in Korea.  My uncle in-law is a great believer in it and I have had some students who wanted to be traditional Chinese medicine doctors.  I am, however, very sceptical and highly dislike its horrible habit of hunting endangered animals to extinction because of spurious tales of the efficacy of certain parts of it for a range of ailments, like tiger penis for impotence and infertility.  They also have a reputation of extracting things from animals cruely, like in bear bile extraction, which can be seen here: http://www.asiapundits.com/of-the/video-of-the-week/video-of-the-week-bear-bile-being-collected-at-a-farm-in-china/. 

Like I mentioned before in a post about Korean death anniversaries(http://smudgem.blogspot.kr/2012/07/death-anniversaries-in-korea.html) sometimes the amount of advice, in the guise of caring, is overwhelming when I am with a large group of family members.  Concerning my wife, how I am sitting, what I should eat, what I should drink, and so on.  Here is a mix of the advice and superstitions that often come up between me and my Korean family, of which some of you may of heard of before, and here is a link to The Korea Blog for some other odd and interesting superstitions http://blog.korea.net/?p=7920.

Eat lots of chillies, garlic, oysters, meat, fallic looking sea worm things, and generally anything else that even slightly represents a part of the male or female reproductive anatomy.

I have lost count of how many different foods my father in-law tells me are good for a man, as he flexes his bicep, clenches his fist, and looks towards his crotch.  If it is all true then I must be some kind of super-stud and sexual Tyranosaurus by now, as I eat loads of it because he is always pushing it all my way (I think he wants my wife and I to have a baby quite soon).

Fan Death

Often ridiculed as completely ridiculous among the foreigner community in Korea, this is a danger I have been warned about on more than one occasion.  Many Koreans believe that sleeping with the fan on is akin to having a death wish.  How anybody sleeps in the baking mid-summer without the fan on at night, however, I really don't know.

Eat lots of Kimchi

It can cure everything from cancer to the common cold.  It is clear that the best medical minds of the West must take note of this and make Kimchi an everyday part of all our diets, forming the base of the daily food pyramid.

Be cruel to animals before you kill them

This is a bit of a nasty superstition that some Koreans have.  When American soldiers first entered the country hailed as liberators in 1945, having kicked out the Japanese, they commented on their horrific treatment of dogs, in that they tended to string them up and slowly strangle them to death in the belief it would make the meat taste better.  This was just one of the many problems Americans had in understanding a culture very foreign to them and relating to the Korean people.  There are concerns that this practice still goes on, although it must be said on a much smaller scale as fewer and fewer people actually eat dog meat.  Dogs have also been known to be beaten to death as the fear and adrenalin it produces is thought to tenderise the meat.  I was hoping that this sort of treatment wasn't widely practised with other animals but to my horror my father in-law captured two free-range chickens the other day for my benefit, and in the attempt to make the meat as tasty as possible they were in the process of starving the chickens for 3-4 days in a potato sack, with a small opening for air in the middle of a Korean hot summer.  They were very proud to show me the chickens sitting on top of each other tied up in the bag.  Shortly after I said to my wife, 'do you think they would take it the wrong way if I thanked them for thinking of me, but I'd prefer it if they just set them free again', to which she replied, 'yes, they would take it the wrong way'.  I don't eat meat back in England but decided to eat it here for a smooth ride into the culture of my Korean family and Koreans as a whole.  With regard to the chickens, at least they were free range but why couldn't they have just killed them right after they got them?  I am pretty sure that no one would have noticed the difference in the taste.

Changing Names

Recently my brother in-law changed his name from 한태양 (Han Tae Yang) to 한승우 (Han Seung Woo) because it was thought by the family that the name was too 'strong' for him, following advice from a fortune teller.  Apparently many Koreans change their names when they are older and it is not really that big a deal.  I think this is probably to do with the fact that people often don't use someone's name in conversation and therefore it has less importance than in Western culture.  Instead, Koreans mostly refer to people by a title, like older brother, teacher, older sister, job title, etc.  This happens between friends and not just family member, as they will call each other older brother (어빠 'oppa' if the speaker is a girl, 형 'hyeong' if a boy) and older sister (눈나 'nuna' if the speaker is a boy, 언니 'onni' if a girl) even if they are not related.  Younger people in a conversation, though, are usually referred to by name and not younger brother or sister, although some other titles are often used.  I even noticed that my aunties in-law regularly forget my wife's name and my cousin in-law's name because they rarely use it in addressing them.

Visiting a Fortune Teller for Advice on Family Matters

My mother in-law often visits a fortune teller for advice on relationships within her family and the future.  Common questions usually focus on the suitability of her son and daughter's love interests, whether they should move house, and what the future will hold.  I have been told that I have been given the green light and the fortune tellers say good things about me (maybe that is because my mother in-law doesn't mention that I am not Korean) but my brother in-law's potential wife is another matter and she is worried about their future because of the soothsayer's warnings.  What is possibly not a coincidence is that my mother in-law was already worried as my brother in-law's fiance is quite overweight, something they are not afraid of pointing out and complaining about.  I suspect she probably brings into the meetings with the fortune teller an already noticeable dislike of her potential daughter in-law and he picks up on it and tells her what she wants to believe.

  

Whistling at Night

My wife really hates it when I do this as she thinks it might summon ghosts.  Of course she doesn't really believe it but this cultural superstition has obviously been taught to her from a young age and runs pretty deep.  With all those catchy advert tunes on the TV, however, I find it almost impossible not to whistle quite a lot and therefore get shouted at quite a lot because of this.

Eating Poisonous Soup for Health

This soup is called 옻닭, which is roughly translated as chicken lacquer soup, the lacquer coming from the sap of a tree.  My parents in-law offered me some one night but warned me that is can cause a bad reaction in some people, so with my overly-sensitive stomach and body I didn't touch it.  My father in-law also opted out as it gave him redness and swelling all over his body when he had it before.  I did watch the others drink the soup and all of them did become noticably red afterwards and all complained of being hot, but they said that it was good for health.  I am just glad I stayed away from it.

So, just in case you think I moan too much about the amount of advice I receive from my in-laws and think me conceited for thinking I know better, this is where the advice often comes from; fortune tellers, traditions, and self-interest.  That being said their caring is sweet and they have a good heart, I just wish they could give the silly stuff a rest sometimes.

What do Koreans Find Mysterious About Westerners?

Following on from last week's blog post in which I revealed some things that I find mysterious about Korean people and culture, I thought it would be interesting to ask my wife to have a discussion with her co-workers at the hospital and find out just what they find mysterious about Westerners.  My wife was more than happy to oblige, so here are her findings, some of which I already knew about and can be viewed on a previous blog post on Asian stereotypes, http://smudgem.blogspot.kr/2012/05/asian-stereotypes-fact-or-fiction.html, as an example of stereotypes some Asians have of Westerners.  The only thing is that this is a purely Korean female perspective, which brought up some interesting connotations.

I will leave some of the old chestnuts to last, but some of the more interesting ones, first:

1. Why do Western women show off their breasts all the time?

Before I get started I must reiterate that while this is my blog and my writing, I am merely a messenger on this one, so please don't shoot me.  Her work colleagues thought that Western women were always putting themselves on display in this way, whether it be wearing bikinis at beaches, festivals, and river valleys, or just walking down the street showing a bit of cleavage.  They considered it a little slutty and were also critical of those people with less than perfect bodies who did it, especially older women, who they felt should be covering up.

In response, to me the reason for bikini and cleavage culture is obvious, 'If you've got it, flaunt it'.  Generally speaking, Korean women are less well-endowed in that department but, in my humble opinion, do tend to have rather nice legs.  It is no surprise, therefore, that this is what they show off, much to the disgust of some Western women who might very well be shouting 'Hussy!' right back at them.  I, myself, am rather happy with it all and often wish we could combine the two cultures for a better future.

2. Body mysteries - eye colour, hair colour, men's er... size, and circumcision??!!

Not so much hair colour but eye colour is something they appear to be very curious and amazed about.  They think it is mysterious how we have come to have coloured eyes and, in fact, the actual reason is something of a mystery as there is no scientific consensus on the matter.  It is thought to have no evolutionary advantage, although must be related to white people having less of a pigment called melanin in their skin and eyes (there is an evolutionary advantage to less melanin in the skin, enabling increased vitamin D production from sunlight).  It could be that it was just a random mutation that females liked and selected for, an example of sexual selection much the same as what happens in peacocks or birds of paradise with the exception that the trait is passed on to both sexes..

I am reliably informed that the size of men, well... down there, is a very common topic in conversation as it seems most of the nurses have never seen one from a foreigner in the flesh to confirm the rumours they have heard and, from what I hear, the pictures they have seen.  I will certainly not be offering my services to relieve their curiousity.  Again, (scout's honour) I am only relaying information.

It also seems that most Korean men are cut.  They say that it makes everything cleaner and they wonder why Westerners don't all get it done.  So why haven't we all done it, fellas?

The thing that I have found most enlightening of all is learning that women (at least this sample of sweet and innocent looking Korean nurses) seem as fascinated with men's naughty bits as we men are with theirs.  I never knew.

I dread to think of the conversations they have about me, they probably have some rather sensitive information. 

3. Do Western men really think Korean women are easy?

They didn't really know about this one, but they had obviously heard a rumour about it from somewhere and my wife said they would really like to know the truth as they themselves couldn't believe it.  I have to admit, I am with them on this one as, where I live at least, they appear to be anything but easy.  I have had a few friends in the past who have constantly cursed how difficult it is, not to get a date, but to get any further than that.  They are often curious enough to go on a dates but I think are too shy or frightened to go any further.  What their families would think is also a key element to this.  Easy Korean girls could be a Seoul or a big city phenomenon.  Having never lived in Seoul, however, (and rarely visited) I cannot comment.

4. Do we only think of ourselves?

Their curiosity of a common Korean stereotype about Western people was further perked by a couple of stories my wife told them about me.  One happened when my wife and I left Korea to live in England for a year and in the bus station about 5 minutes before leaving I, rather selfishly, went to get some snacks and drinks for the bus journey to Seoul and came back only with stuff for myself and not for my wife.  My in-laws were not amused and were immediately worried about how I was going to treat their daughter in England.  The other story was about a time my wife called me and told me to get a bottle of beer for her on the way home.  When I turned up with the beer, she was not a happy bunny as I had taken what she said literally and only got her one beer.  Apparently, a Korean man would have come back with a six-pack of beers, some fried chicken, and some ice cream.

Although I was shocked at being considered an ungenerous man, the nurses saw this as further evidence that all Western people think only of themselves and not of others.  My wife was quick to interject, however, with a comment about how Western people tend to have more individual thought processes but this doesn't necessarily mean selfishness as Koreans can be selfish but in different ways.  She said they looked sceptical about this.

5.  Why do we live for the moment and not save for the future?

They had the impression that Westerners mainly live for the moment, spending money on themselves in the present and not saving money for their family in the future.  They saw this as being linked with selfishness as they thought Westerners did not think of their children, saving for their education, particularly.  They were especially critical of the money we spend on travel, overseas and within the countries where we are living (think of weekends away).

Of course, there are plenty of people who save money for their children's education in the West and there are plenty that put away something for a rainy day, but it is perhaps true that we live more in the moment and consider present happiness more important than they do in Korea.  I actually think this is mostly a good thing, however, as in my experience when I have lived too much for tomorrow I tend to suffer too much in the present (tomorrow never comes, after all).  An example of this is my wife's tendency to not want to travel while she is in Korea to save for when we go back to England and have a family.  My take on things, though, is that once we have a family that will cutail some of the travelling we can do and once in England I don't think I am going to be going to places like Japan, China, or Taiwan.  We have the chance to travel to these places right now, while we are still young, so why not take it?

6. Why are we always cheating on our brother's and sister's wives and husbands and our best friend's partners?  And even more shocking, why are Westerners always getting divorced?

It seems that Western people's personal affairs come under a fair bit of scrutiny from the nurses.  For the first part of this, their wonder at how immoral and licentious we are in relationships could be derived from their sources.  Two aspects of popular Western culture are very popular in Korea and perhaps all round the world; US movies and TV dramas, and English Premiership football.  In the case of scandalous affairs, it is obvious that they will be more prevalent in dramas and movies, and English soccer players are hardly examples of the best role models when it comes to behaviour, morals, and intelligence.  As one of my students said to me the other day, 'Giggs, great player but why did he sex with his brother's wife?  He is crazy man.  His mind is trash.'  Maybe if we could throw some statistics into the mix, it could show that Westerners are a touch more individual and impulsive leaving the door open for more illicit affairs.  However, our movies, dramas, and soccer players can't be helping the situation.

Rather perversely, when it comes to divorce there could be a case of, 'The pot calling the kettle black', going on, as I was surprised to see Korea very high up on the list of divorce rates around the world, with some websites claiming they were tenth.  However, other websites didn't even have Korea in the top 40 in divorces per 1000 people, so it is a little tricky as I couldn't really find a reliable source.  The last word on most little debates though, wikipedia, show Korea to be higher than my country (the UK) back in 2004, so maybe they are right up there.  It at least appears to prove that their accusation that we are always having divorces is, if not wrong, a tad hypocritical.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_demography

7. Why do we love car chases in movies so much (Americans at least)?

I have come across this one before.  Some Koreans have told me that there is at least one car chase in every US movie, sometimes at the cost of the storyline, obviously referring to an excess of movies that are loaded heavily with special effects and action.  It is my experience, though, that most Western movies fit this stereotype because that is exactly what they like to import from us (mainly the US).  I am constantly frustrated by the lack of anything but the top US special effects blockbusters showing in the cinema.  But I guess they are not catering for the minority of foreigners.


The Old Chesnuts

I felt like the following probably didn't need that much explaining as we have all heard them before and they speak for themselves, but I thought they would be useful to list anyway:

Why do we eat such terrible and unhealthy food?
Why are most Westerners fat and eat pizza and hamburgers all the time (linked to above)?
Why are we so much less polite and without manners (highly ironic)?
Why do we have a 'Western smell' of body odour?
Why are we so open minded to sex and drugs?
Why do we not respect old people?

What is Good About Korea?

Recently, I have posted some negative blogs about Korea, complaining on an array of subjects such as family, morals, Korean men, the treatment of animals, etc.  It is therefore possible that I am leaving some of my readers with the impression that it is all bad and I would rather be back in my own country and as quickly as possible.  This is not the case and I hope I am generally quite balanced with my judgments about Korea because the truth is when weighing up a life in England with a life in Korea the scales are quite evenly balanced.

The truth is that it is much easier to write negatively, maybe this shows me up to be a half-empty kind of guy, but I am sure I am not.  I think there are simply more things to moan about whether you are moaning about England or moaning about Korea.  It is easier to see problems that need to be corrected rather than comment on when things go smoothly, that's all.  After all, when things are going smoothly it is difficult to notice it.  Also, I have noticed that people tend to prefer the negative articles that I write, so maybe the world is a half-empty sort of place.

What is nice about living in Korea is hard to put into words, it is subtle, multi-faceted, and sometimes quite personal.  Much of life is a whole lot less stressful than in England, there is so much convenience here and any problem or errand that needs doing is always taken care of quickly and efficiently.  It also seems as if you are only a very a short walk away from anything you might need; whether it be a gym, a convenience store, a supermarket, or a restaurant.  The food is probably the most convenient thing about Korea; cheap, tasty, and quickly served in an incredible number of restaurants.

There is also something subtly less cynical, more honest, and more innocent about everyday life.  Crime is lower, children are more respectful, there are less alcohol related anti-social behaviour problems, and people trust each other not to steal their property and not to abduct their children.  Because of this, bureacracy is lower causing much less stress and there is simply a nicer feeling generally as there is less suspicion floating around about everyone. 

Maybe part of the reason for a better social atmosphere is that Korea comes across as a classless society.  Apart from the poor old pensioners I see sometimes collected waste cardboard and lugging it around on the street, I genuinely cannot tell the difference between a person on the street with low income and living in the cheapest part of town with someone in the highest paid bracket living in luxury and changing their cars every year, whether it be by appearance or behaviour.  Everyone behaves in the same socially acceptable way and class, income, and the area someone is brought up in have very little effect on this.

Finally, blame culture (apart from traffic accidents) appears to be almost non-existent.  I witnessed a young boy slip on a recently mopped toilet room in a supermarket the other day, where a sign warning about the slippery surface was not erected, and his father just picked him up and walked on with no fuss.  I wondered what would have happened in my country had the same thing occurred in Asda, Sainsburys, or Tescos.  I think pure outrage would have been the answer with a possible threat of compensation and someone would have been in a lot of trouble about it.

In a personal respect I love the terrain of South Korea; very rugged and mountainous.  As an outdoor type of person, never being that far from a mountain and a good hike, bike, or run suits me fine.  My apartment building actually stands right next to a mountain with a hiking course that overlooks the city.  Once out of the building it is literally about 10 metres away.  I always miss the mountains of Korea when I return home. 




Not only is there outdoor adventure on the doorstep I also miss the fact that most of my days in Korea have something new and interesting in them; in a way a cultural adventure.  Sometimes these interesting things are annoying, frustrating, and sometimes even offensive but the cultural differences and challenges keep life interesting and have definitely provided a huge education for me.

Despite my negativity sometimes, coming to Korea for a multitude of reasons (as well as meeting my wife here) has been possibly the greatest decision of my life thus far.  It regularly takes me out of my comfort zone and intrigues me with cultural challenges while at the same time providing a great job, a stress free life, and a chance to meet new and interesting people from all over the English speaking world as well as the Koreans themselves.

So next time you are wondering why I am here if I seem to be whinging like an old man all the time, just know that actually I am in good spirits and very much enjoying the great and fortunate benefits merely being an English speaker gives me.  Coming to Korea is something I would recommend to anyone, it has been a fantastic experience.

Asian Stereotypes - Fact or Fiction

Thought I would let everyone know just what I think about the many stereotypes that people have towards Asian people, and particularly those form the Far East, in an effort to dispell some myths and also to confirm which ones do in fact have some truth to them.  My experiences in Korea over the last 3 years or so, and those with my Korean family have served to either expel these many stereotypes that I indeed had myself or to, if not embrace the ones that are true, at least understand them.  I will be brief with some stereotypes that are simple to deal with, but others may take a little more explanation.  So here we go with my take on Asian stereotypes from a Korean perspective:

1. All Far East Asians are Chinese and speak like this -  'Ching Chang Chong'
An easy one to start with.  The three main languages of the Far East are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.  Only the Chinese sound this way because of a peculiar quirk of their language; usually the same word can mean different things depending on it's intonation, this is why when Chinese people speak it sounds like what they are saying is going up, down, left, right and all over the place.  Korean and Japanese do not have this in their language, and therefore they really sound nothing like Chinese.  In fact, when I came to Korea I was amused to hear Korean children making fun of the Chinese language in much the same way we do.

When I lived in England with my Korean wife, everyone just assumed she was Chinese, and she received the odd 'Ching Chang Chong' comment from morons on the street, and 'Nihow's' from passers-by, much to her annoyance.

2. All Far East Asian People Can Do Martial Arts

This is generally untrue but a larger percentage of the population probably has some experience of doing martial arts compared to... say, my own country, England. 

In Korea, there are many academies for learning the Korean martial arts of Taekwondo, Hapkido, Gumdo, and Judo.  It is also interesting to observe the students in my school doing Gumdo (meaning 'Way of the Sword' descended from Kendo in Japan), outside in good weather and in the gym in bad weather, a very Far East style PE lesson.  Because of this Korean people certainly are more aware of martial arts.

To give you an idea of their competency, however, it is probably akin to how good the average person in England is at French, we learn it at school and we live right next door to them, but most of us can't speak it.  This is what martial arts is like for most Korean people.

3. Asian Women Value Money the Most
This is only really true in Korea, as far as it is true generally around the world, Korean women do not seem overly concerned in relationships with their partner's wealth.  Of course, world-wide, women do certainly think of a rich boyfriend or husband as a significant tick in the box, but it doesn't seem more so here in Korea. 

One thing I would say, however, is that it is more important for families that their daughters marry a man with money.  The reason is that the culture in the Far East does stress that family take care of each other much more and this means paying for parents in old age.  Parents do expect to be given money when they are older by their children, and this goes for their son in-law too.  Therefore is is definitely a welcome bonus for the family that they are wealthy. 

In most of Asia older people can not expect such fair and kindly treatment as they do in my country, so they do rely on their children to provide for them when they are older.  This is especially true of the poorer South East Asian countries and so it is easy to understand why so many of these countries (e.g. Thailand) has a reputation for women that marry for money.  It is not so much that it is important for them, but it can in fact be a matter of life and death for their families, in which case it is easy to see why they do it.  This is not so much the case in the richer countries of Korea and Japan. 

In Korea, especially, ii is uncommon to see relationships between Koreans and foreigners, and in my city, I believe there are only 4 or 5 of these relationships.  As I have mentioned in previous blogs, this is because of Korea's general mistrust of foreigners, and a strange tradition of thinking that the purity of Korean blood is important. 

Racial attitudes are actually quite divisive in Korea, and mixed race people, and particularly children at school are not treated very well at all.  For all these reasons families are not keen on having someone from another race come into their family, even if their son or daughter is very open-minded about it all. 

Differences in culture, manners, etiquette, and behaviour can all contribute to a very tricky relationship with families, which is too much for most mixed race couples to handle.  Trust me, it's not easy.

4. Asian Children Are All Geniuses
This is obviously not true, but children in Korea are pushed much harder in their education than in the West.  This may make many of them slightly smarter than average when it comes to book smarts, facts and figures, but more world-wise, confident, and capable they are not.  They also appear to be slightly less mature for their age than children in my country.

5. Asian Children Excel at Playing Musical Instruments
Following on from the previous point, many children do indeed play a musical instrument quite well, and again this is because they are pushed by their parents.  Parents spend an awful lot of money on their children's education in private schools after their normal school days, and these often include music schools for different instruments.  Sometimes students enjoy this 'after-schooling', but their competence in such matters is usually because of forced dedication and not too many children, or in fact adults, have a passion for what they are doing, which makes true genius, individuality, and inspiration a difficult thing to come by in Korea and is the main fault in their education system and culture.

6. All Asians are Studious and Want to Become Doctors.
If you changed the sub-heading to all Asian parents want their children to be studious and become doctors it would be much closer to the truth.  Average Korean parents have a fairly one-track mind about their children, and they not so gently push their children towards what they want them to be (especially if the parents have money already). 

A doctor is about the highest status profession you can achieve in Korea, and the Far East in general, and it is for this reason they encourage their children to be one.  I very much doubt from what I have observed that the principle reason is to help save lives and help people, call me cynical, but that's what I see.

7. Asian People are Strict Parents
When it comes to education parents in Korea are very strict, but in other matters they appear to vary in their firmness with their children along a fairly normal range.  I have seen many examples of overly permissive parenting, and unruly children as a result.

8. Asian People Don't Drive Well
I am sure there are exceptions, but this is absolutely true in Korea and China, they are terrible drivers and are so inconsiderate.  On a trip to Japan, however, I did notice that they were not nearly so bad.  So if I was Japanese, I'm not sure I would be very happy with being lumped in with the Koreans and Chinese as bad drivers.

The Korean driving test also appears to be relatively simple to pass.  I think my wife passed hers with about 6 or 7 hours of driving tuition at most, and was certainly not ready to be on the road when she passed her test.  Being in the passenger seat for the first week or so was a nerve-racking experience.

9. Asian People Have Lots of Relatives
This is untrue, they have the same amount of relatives, the only difference is that they see them all much more frequently than we do in Western countries.  For example, my wife has 3 cousins (I think) and the relationship between them is more like brothers and sisters.  I can't remember the last time I saw my cousin, although I am fairly sure he is a regular reader of my blogs, so 'Hi Rob!' 

10. Asian People Mainly Eat Rice
Yes, they do, and much healthier they are for it.  Typically, rice is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Sounds boring, but there is good variety in their food, they just accompany every meal with rice.  They believe it gives them good energy and helps them feel a nice kind of full, and to be fair I think they are correct on this and I am a big fan of eating lots of rice.

11. They have Poor English Language Skills
This is a tad ironic coming from the English speaking nations, who are notorious for being bad speakers of other languages. 

This one does have some truth to it, and they famously have trouble with 'r's' and 'l's'.  They have this trouble in Korea at least because the character in their alphabet that produces the nearest sounds to this is 'ㄹ' which sometimes sounds like an 'l', sometimes like a 'r', and sometimes sort of in the middle.  This makes it equally difficult to pronounce in Korean for me and I reckon there is probably an equivalent derogatory saying to 'flied lice' that they make fun of English speakers for. 

On top of this, you can observe quite a few amusing spelling mistakes in many situations in Korea.  There are also many strange translations of a great deal of things that you may read and this is because of the vast differences in the languages.  Many teachers in Korea often put their school memos into 'Google Translate' and the translation regularly comes out very strange indeed.  For example, thought I would just copy and paste a random Korean article on a news website into 'Translate', and this is what I got:

'지난해 여덟 살 많은 남편과 결혼한 직장인 황리나(34) 씨는 첫 추석과 설날 당일 시댁에 가지 않았다. 남편은 여동생 둘이 있는 장남인데 시어머니가 “기독교라 차례도 지내지 않는 데다 여동생 가족도 명절 다음 날에 오니, 두 번 걸음 하지 말고 그때 오라”고 했던 것. 그 대신 황씨 부부는 명절 당일 친정을 찾았고, 불교를 믿는 친정 가족과 함께 차례를 지냈다. 그는 “고부갈등을 많이 걱정했는데, 시어머니가 상당히 열려 있고 우리 부부가 워낙 나이가 많아서 그런지 별로 신경을 쓰지 않는다”며 “뒤늦게 독립한 남편 역시 시댁 일에 얽매이지 않고 부부 중심으로 모든 일을 처리하려 한다”고 했다'.

'Last year, eight years older and married her husband hwangrina workers (34) says the first Thanksgiving and New Year's day did not go to his family. He is the eldest sister, mother-in-law that they "do not get along that point, deda gidokgyora sister sludge family holiday the next day, then do not step twice," Come at that. Instead, the feast day of Hwang will speed up the couple visited a Buddhist believer will speed up the ancestral rites with their families. "I was worried a lot of intergenerational conflict, mother-in-law and my husband is very open, so a lot of old grunge does not care much," said "too late, separate laws on her husband without being tied around the couple tries to handle all the work "he said'.

It is easy to understand why they, and I, have difficulty.

12. Asians are Always Taking Pictures on Holiday
In my experience this is absolutely true and my wife is no exception.  She takes pictures of everything and especially food.  She really loves to take pictures of food and when left to her own devises she can take whole photo albums of food that she has eaten on holiday, I don't really understand it.

13. Most Asians Wear Glasses
People in Korea do appear to have more eyesight problems it is true, and the style that tends to suit their faces are these thick style glasses, so it is quite noticable. 

I have done some research and apparently there are a few explanations for this phenomenon; some say Asian people have a greater genetic disposition to getting myopia, others say that children do more reading and close up tasks from a young age in Asia which also contributes towards myopia, and some have even claimed that because Asian children spend more time at home and studying that their eyes adapt to only short distances, again increasing the instances of myopia.  It is argued that if they spent more time outside, then they would not be so prone to developing bad eyesight.

14. They Dress Strangely
Only the Japanese and K-Pop music stars in Korea.  Generally, the Korean style is not too bad, although the guys bring skinny jeans to a whole new level.

15. The Men are All Mysogynists
There is some truth to this claim in Korea.  As I mentioned in my previous blog on Korean couples, some men (particularly the older ones) don't see adultery as an especially serious crime.  There is also a certain amount of inequality in the workplace and in everyday life in general.  In my school it is always the female teachers who clean up or make cups of coffee or tea while the men sit around making horrible noises. 

Because of their Confucian origins, it is the men that are still thought of more highly in life generally, and many Korean men are against this changing.

16. They are Hard Working
Absolutely.  I came across an answer on 'Yahoo' the other day about why Asian people seem to be all hard-working, and the answerer ridiculously accused the questioner of being racist.  Well, I can tell you that they do tend to work very hard indeed, which of course has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with the culture in this part of the world.  If you are a Korean employed in Korea, don't expect to work your contract hours (in fact don't expect a contract), don't expect any vacation days, sick days, or many Saturdays off work.

17. Asians are not Fat.
Obviously, there are exceptions, but this does appear so.  In Korea, obesity in the population is increasing, largely due to the popularity of Western fast food with the young, and the perpensity to spend all day in PC rooms.  Generally, though, genuinely fat people are still pretty difficult to find.  Again, this is not because of race, but because of culture.  Korean people eat better food, and have a better attitude to health than people in the West. 

Their society also does not tolerate people that are overweight, sometimes to the point of bullying, which is not good, but they don't accept the nonsense excuses for obesity that western countries accept. 

Also, it is harder for Koreans to get away with being a little chubby, women especially.  White and black girls that are overweight can sometimes pull off a curvaceous, voluptuous look that can often look quite attractive to some people.  In Asian women, however, this kind of look appears to never actually occur.  Sounds horrible, I know, but Asian people think that women have to be slim to be attractive, and I think I agree.  Big Asian women never look good.


Stereotypes that Asian People have of us in the West

1. Western People are Selfish
This is because we appear to always talk about ourselves and it is important that we are treated fairly in any given situation.  We talk about 'my rights', and we make decisions because of how we feel personally about matters. 

Fairness and personal rights are not values in Korea, I will put it as plainly as this.  If you think fairness is a universal moral value you'd be wrong.  If you are unhappy with how a situation is unfolding in Korea and say, 'well it's just not fair', you will probably not receive a sympathetic response. 

If I can drill home a very different aspect to our cultures it is this; it is the group that matters to people in the Far East, it is the individual in the West.  If someone is being treated badly, but this treatment may benefit the particular group they are in, they have to suck it up.  They are thinking too much about themselves and they are perceived as being selfish. 

My wife often gets accused of being too 'Western' at her hospital when she voices even a moderate complaint about her working conditions (which are diabolical). 

It is so easy to see where China's roots of human right abuses have originated, and how North Korea even exists when the culture of the Far East doesn't believe in individual rights and fairness, let alone standing up for them. 

Things do, of course, change and it is possible to see many Korean people protesting these days, but it is curious to see what they protest about.  They normally protest about patriotic issues to do with their country, trade agreements, Japanese abuses in the past, names of seas, the ownership of rocks in the middle of the sea, etc.  They rarely protest about inequalities in their own country, and personal freedoms and rights. 

This is the very reason why foreigners in Korea don't care about Korea and Japan fighting over the name of a sea or who owns a small island.  To us this is petty and small-minded stuff, matters which western countries do argue with each other about for sure, but which the average member of the public frankly couldn't give a damn about.  Such arguments between countries are valid, but why should every person in the country care about it?  In Korea, pro-Dokdo (the rock in the sea), and the naming of the East Sea/Sea of Japan argument, propaganda are circulated to everyone, including foreigners living in Korea and children in schools.  It is ridiculous to do this with children, and completely pointless to inform foreigners about it.

One advantage of being a little selfish and thinking individually is that you can put yourself in someone elses shoes and this can encourage empathy, sympathy, and understanding. 

It can be quite shocking to witness just how heartless Korean people can be sometimes.  If someone is tired, sick, or simply struggling in their job, for example, help is rarely given, and in fact the knives come out ready to cut the weak link from the chain.  Again, this is a factor in human rights abuses, and mistreatment of animals in the Far East, which is quite widespread across all the Far East nations. 

There are increasing amounts of enlightened individuals from these countries that fight for human and non-human animal's rights, but they are still in the minority here.  People outside the cultural group can be thought of as being slightly less than human and therefore this is how people can carry out human rights abuses.  Animals are not even in the same species, so they get it even worse. 

Every country has tribalism, but the culture here magnifies it.  On a smaller level many Korean people have no thought for others when they are walking on the street, smoking, driving, and parking, and generally they are fairly thoughtless about the comfort and needs of others that are not in a certain group, e.g. family, friends, or work colleagues.  This has the result of most Korean people being just as selfish as that of Western people but in a different way.

2. White People are Attractive
Koreans have the highest number of plastic surgeries in the world (3.8% of all plastic surgeries conducted in the world), which is amazing for such a small nation.  Most of these surgeries are on their eyes and noses, with the main purpose that they appear a little more like those of white people.  They also use whiteners in their skin cosmetics and moisturisers, wear white make-up, and protect their faces and bodies from the sun at all times in order not to tan. 

They admire the white person look.  I am not in much of a position to comment on Korean men's appearance, but the women need not worry as the majority are far more pleasing on the eye than the women in my country.

3. Western White People are Racist.
This is highly ironic, when you consider that Korean people are amoung the most racist people I have ever known.  I think they get this impression from history, movie culture, and simpy that we have more interaction between races and therefore more problems. 

In reality, people in the West are now very guarded about any comment or action that could be deemed racist.  Korean people don't have this, and can display a shocking level of racism sometimes, especially towards black people.  Their form of racism is more subtle, however, and resides inside their heads and when it does show it is maybe a little less in your face than in Western countries, and therefore less noticeable.

4. Western People Smell
When I first arrived in Korea, I was told that some Korean people will hold their finger under their noses when they pass a foreigner in their country.  I haven't seen this  (maybe I am not too bad), but my wife informs me that a lot of foreigners have a 'western smell' of body odour. 

It is true that I don't think I have ever smelt BO on a Korean, and they never use deodorant either.  It can be purchased in the shops here, but at severely inflated prices as no one uses it.  Instead of BO, Koreans make up for it by smelling strongly of garlic and soju, which they consume in large quantities.

5. Every Non-Asian Face is an American
Talked about in a previous blog.

6. We are all unhealthy

They tend to assume that all we eat is pizza, burgers, and chips, and that any health condition we have, whether it be bad skin, the odd cold, or sickness, is caused by us all eating bad food and not exercising.  There may be some truth to this in some people, but this doesn't hold true for many, including me.

7.  We are All Work-Shy
This harps back to point 1, in that they connect laziness and selfishness.  Many think that foreign teachers stick rigidly to their contracts in order to avoid doing work.  I have known many fellow teachers to slightly abuse their allocation of sick days, but generally we stick to contracts in order not to be treated unfairly by our bosses, and not because we are lazy.  And being treated unfairly by your boss can be quite a common-place practice in Korea.