Vacation Nightmare in Indonesia Part 2

I had left the conservation centre, and to their credit they did make sure that I was safely booked into a hostel in Malang.  I now had to figure out what I was going to do for the rest of the trip.  I had two weeks without much of a plan, except for one place that I wanted to go and that was Mt Bromo, which was part of a string of volcanoes not far from Malang. 

Before visiting Mt Bromo, I decided to explore Malang city with a couple of fellow Westerners from the hostel I was staying at, one from Germany and the other from Switzerland.  The place was pretty grim and was also a place I didn't fancy walking around very much at night.  During the day, all day, it was incredibly busy.  Mototrbikes were everywhere and the noise pollution and the actual pollution, along with the general filth of the place and the heat made the general atmosphere oppressive and uncomfortable. 

The one plus point about the place was that it was extremely cheap and a person could easily have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for about 2 or 3 pounds a day.  All you had to do was stand your ground when the locals would, not so subtly, try and rip you off.  At dinner in one restaurant, I was handed a menu that had prices on and ordered from it.  When it came to pay, the cashier tried to charge us five times what it said on the menu.  When I pointed at the menu he pointed at the most expensive dish on the menu and said that we ordered five of these.  In possibly the worst attempt at a swindle ever, I explained to him that there were only three of us and that there were only three plates on the table, and even if we had ordered what he said we did the total he calculated was still too expensive.  I gave him the look of a professional tight-arse and I think he realised that I was not going to budge and agreed to the amount I wanted to pay.  This wasn't a one-off, every single time a monetary transaction was made there was confusion over the bill.  They either charged too much, didn't have any change, gave the wrong change, or didn't know how much to charge.  Believe me when I write this, it was EVERY TIME I paid without fail.  After one day I had had enough but I still had two more weeks of this.

It is an interesting state of affairs when upon doing a little sightseeing around a city you simply can't bring yourself to take any pictures, this was the situation in Malang.  Most of it was so disgusting and horrible I couldn't bring myself to take the camera out of the bag.  I wished I had taken pictures of the animal market we visited just so it could help to explain the absolute horror of the place.  Animals of almost every kind were packed into small cages to be sold as pets or meat.  All of the animals were miserable and visibly suffering, and some even looked diseased and on the brink of death.  The animals included; many kinds of tropical birds, bats, owls, insects, dogs, cats, lizards, snakes, goats, several kinds of rodents, and the odd monkey.  The scene was distressing, I just couldn't take a picture of it, I didn't want to appear like an interested tourist.

Everywhere you went you could see a cage at someone's front door with a beautiful tropical bird in it.  So beautiful a creature in a tiny cage, I was dumbfounded as to what the owners got out of it.  Why did they keep animals like this, why not just let them go?  Did it make such a big difference to their lives?

Even in such a dire and seemingly poor city, there were the usual signs of big business; KFC, McDonalds, numerous car garages and shopping malls.  But walk a block or two in any direction and you could see the city slums not too far away and usually sitting beside the river.  You could normally smell them before you saw them, and I shudder to think just what was flushed into the river everyday.  Despite what inevitably ended up in the river, you could still see people washing themselves and their clothes in it.  What a way to live, and a real eye-opener of just how fortunate we all are.  No wonder everyone was trying to rip me off if they had to go home to that everyday.

















Above: A slum area of Malang, quite a flattering picture, but I can assure you it wasn't good.
Another little bonus about Malang was that the hostel I stayed at was great, cheap, and with a nice breakfast every morning.  I also managed to arrange a trip to Mt Bromo with some others from the hostel, which inevitably there was some confusion about paying for, but all in all the trip was probably the only success story of the whole trip to Indonesia.  Mt Bromo was amazing and I was incredibly lucky on the day, as it was the wet season and had rained a lot on previous days.  The views of the volcanoes were extraordinary and we ended the trip with a visit to a waterfall near the volcanoes about an hour away, which was incredible, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie and my pictures didn't do it justice.  Another huge bonus of the trip is that the volcano was not busy with tourists and no one at all was at the waterfall, it felt like an untouched wonder of the world, just what I was looking for.

The area around Mt Bromo was so vast it was truly awe-inspiring and the climb up to one of the craters was made harder by the fact it was standing at about 3000 metres, just high enough to feel the effects of the altitude.

At the base of two of the volcanoes was a hindu temple, quite possibly one of the most precarious of buildings, as Mt Semeru, the highest and most active of the volcanoes, erupted volcanic ash regularly.  This could be seen as the steps up to the crater were dug out shortly before we arrived a few weeks earlier after they had been buried in 6 feet of ash.


There were hawkers present as usual, but they couldn't spoil anything for me and I was fit enough not to require a donkey ride or anything.  However, we were running late and on the way back we decided to catch a lift with some of the scooter riders who were offering their services, for a price, back to our driver, who was waiting for us lower down.

To fit in the trip to Mt Bromo in the best possible weather we had to leave the hostel at 1am.  Because of this we were shattered when we had finished looking around the volcanoes but I was determined to still go to the waterfall as I was told it was so beautiful.  Sure enough, even after about an hour hiking along a stream through the jungle, it didn't disappoint.

 The whole trip was awesome, it was a combination of an alien-like world at the top where the volcanoes were, harsh jungle, and beautiful scenery.  I had made the right decision to leave the conservation centre and I still had the wonders of Bali to come, as this was next on my list of places to visit.  Bali, however, was to prove a huge disappointment.

To get to Bali I had to suffer a 15 hour bus trip along some of the worst roads imaginable and with drivers worse than those even in South Korea (hard to believe, but true).  I had already been introduced to the horrors of driving in Indonesia when I was in the frontseat on the drive to Mt Bromo the day previous.  It was best just to close your eyes and try and forget about what was going on in front of you on the road, so I tried to get some sleep on the bus.  Unfortunately, the Indonesians had other ideas.  Immediately upon entering the bus I was greeted with thunderous and terrible music blasted out over the speakers.  After half an hour they switched this off to play something on the TV, 'great' I thought, thinking that it might be a western movie as they appeared popular in Indonesia.  It wasn't, but they did play the loudest, most obnoxious, irritating, and unfunny Indonesian comedy, which at regular intervals included a high-pitched squeal of a laugh by one of its main characters.  Impossible to sleep through.  It seemed as if there was a plan to keep everyone awake until a particular time and then everyone would sleep at the same time.  I wouldn't put this past them, as it was quite clear by the noise pumped out through the speakers in the towns and villages that everyone had to wake up at 4 in the morning to pray, regardless of if they were Muslim or wanted to or not.  To make things worse I had worn minimal clothing anticipating a hot and sticky bus trip, however the bus driver turned the air conditioning on full blast the whole journey.  Even for someone like me, who is always hot, it was like travelling in a fridge.  The poor German girl next to me was curled up with about 4 layers on and was still cold.  My seat was also broken and wouldn't stay in its upright position but constantly slid back into the fully reclined position.  15 hours of sitting like this did nothing for my back, which was shot to pieces by the end.

On arrival in Bali, we were immediately pestered by taxi drivers with 5 or 6 of them shouting prices at us upon leaving the bus.  After 15 hours of freezing cold and an uncomfortable seat I was really not in the mood for this.  I did eventually decide on a driver at a reasonable price and finally got to our hostel and had the usual confusion paying at the end.  The hostel was great, with very clean and comfortable dorms and I went to sleep immediately and woke later in the afternoon looking forward to a stroll along the beach.

I was told directions to the beach, 10 minutes away so I thought I'd watch the sunset and relax.  I found my way to the beach, but relaxing and beautiful it wasn't.  There was trash everywhere, it was dirty and disgusting (better beaches could be found anywhere in England).  In fact this was not just confined to the beach, the whole island was dirty, smelly and disgusting.  I didn't want to stay in this area for very long, but before I left I went on a trip to see some monkeys and go to a famous hindu temple by the sea.  The temple was nothing special, but for some strange reason lots of Indonesian people wanted to take photos with me.  One girl even went cheek to cheek with me, resting her chin on my shoulder and hugging me posing for a photo, just as well my wife wasn't there, she might have punched her in the face.  I must have had 7 or 8 requests for photos, it was as if I reminded them of a movie star or something.  The excursion to the monkey forest was much more enjoyable, however, as the monkeys were charming and surprisingly well behaved, as I did hear some horror stories of them stealing people's sunglasses and cameras but they were very nice with me.

There was another thing really bothering me about Bali, Hawkers.  They were everywhere trying to sell you all sorts of exactly the same naff things.  I moved out of the nice hostel and relocated to another part of the island to see if matters would improve.  They didn't.  It was just as dirty over the other side of the island, but at least I found a nice beach front.  I took a stroll along it for a few kilometres one day, I could see many more expensive hotels just set back from the beach with a lot of beach-side restaurants.  It was all quite pleasant and peaceful but for the constant annoyance from the hawkers.  'Foot massage, sir?' 'Pedicure, sir?' 'Snorkelling?' 'Kite?' 'T-shirt?' 'Radio-controlled car?' 'Sunglasses?' 'Pirate kite?'  The list of things went on and on, I couldn't walk for two minutes without being pestered by someone.  It was all cheap tat too, nothing worth buying and if I did want to buy something I had to go through all of the hassle of bartering them down from a stupidly over-inflated price because of the fact I had white skin.  I just couldn't be bothered with it.  Sometimes people would come along and seem like they wanted just a friendly conversation with me, asking some questions about where I was from and why I came to Bali.  This happened on many occasions and I gave all of them the benefit of the doubt that they were just being curious and friendly, so had a conversation with them.  Every single one of them used the friendliness to try and blackmail me into buying some of their rubbish, however, which was very depressing after a while.  I had gotten used to Korean people coming up to me and talking, but they do it with genuine interest in you and a desire to be friendly and welcoming.  This was something I took for granted living in Korea and now because of my experiences talking with Indonesian people I have much more time and affection for people that do take an interest in me in Korea and I make sure I chat with them a little more and show a little patience.

I noticed a couple getting married on the beach, with some traditional Indonesian style dancing going on to celebrate it, which I suppose was quite nice.  I think they were a British couple, I didn't hear them speak but they just looked British.  The groom was a normal looking guy and quite slim, his bride would not have looked out of place lying on the beach with a colony of elephant seals I was watching on the TV a couple of hours beforehand, she was huge.  I Felt sorry for the guy, terrible place to get married and with a whale of a wife.  Though it made me feel better about myself and my miserable vacation.

Bali was such a disappointment, I had even lost enthusiasm to do anything at all.  I had planned on doing a dive or two there, but reasoned that it would probably be as disappointing as everything else was and decided to save my money.  I needed to get out of the busy, smelly streets and get away from the hawkers and go somewhere peaceful so I headed north, which was also on my way back to Java, where I needed to go to get my flight back home.  Things, however, continued to take a turn for the worse.

Final part next week.

My Vacation Nightmare in Indonesia Part 1

When you think of popular holiday destinations in Asia, the most popular these days seems to be in parts of South-East Asia; Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bali, and maybe India also.  In the two years that I had been living in Korea teaching previously, I had only visited Japan outside of Korea. It was harder to get away in those days as I had no vacation time from my private school.  So this time around with the opportunity to travel during my vacation from school, I wanted to sample some of South East Asia.  I decided on going to Indonesia, but my experience has left me in doubt on whether I should travel to any other countries in this region again, as I left with a profound dislike of the place.

I am not an average traveler, I don't like to relax; I don't like beaches, sipping on cocktails, and lazing around by the pool.  I like exercise, adventure, nature, and culture.  In the past I had completed two fantastic volunteer trips in Nicaragua in Central America and Fiji, which were amazing,  and not wishing to be too cliche, almost life-changing experiences.  Having fond memories of these two experiences I decided to volunteer again, this time in Java, Indonesia.  My job was to help educate visitors and to help maintain a conservation centre in the foothills of mountains outside of a city called Malang.  I was to live in a local village in pretty basic conditions, which I had no problem with because I had done it all before.  It all sounded quite idyllic and was a real chance to get up close and personal with genuine Javanese people, and was a world away from any tourism.  Even before I had left for Indonesia, I could sense that I may have some problems.

Two weeks to go until arrival in Java, everything was looking good and I had even prepared some material for teaching people when I got there.  I had one niggling little doubt in my mind, and this was that I assumed that everyone I would be teaching could speak English, maybe they couldn't?  But I thought to myself that the organisation wouldn't be encouraging English speaking volunteers to go there unless they could use us for something.  I e-mailed the project leader just in case, and he replied that none of the people we were supposed to be educating were going to be able to speak English.  My prepared material went into the shredder, and I began to think, 'how the hell am I going to be able to teach them anything?'  One week to go and now my two day weekends off from volunteer work had turned into Sundays off only.  Disturbing my plans to visit places on the weekend.  No problem I thought, because volunteer working itself was so good before that I didn't require an extra day off, and maybe I would just finish a little early instead.

A day before travelling to Indonesia I had, rather stupidly, arranged to run a marathon in Yeosu, a city near me in South Korea.  It was a very hilly marathon too, which was a real test, but I completed it and felt a little less guilty of taking 3 weeks off exercising in Indonesia.  The only problem was that I was horribly sore for travel the next day.  I had 30 hours of travelling to do until I finally got to my destination, and after the first 7 hour flight while waiting in Malaysia I was noticing how worryingly swollen my ankles were, and I could hardly walk.  This is an extra worry for me as I am slightly paranoid about long haul flights as I have had problems, inherited from my parents, with varicose veins.  This means that my circulation is not as it should be in my lower legs, making me more prone to developing DVT's (Deep Vein Thrombosis).  Swollen ankles can be a warning sign of this, so I basically crossed my fingers and hoped it was down to the marathon the previous day.

Once I finally arrived at the conservation centre, I was ready for bed and hoped for a good long sleep.  At 3.30 in the morning the first of the many unwelcome surprises to come shook me out of my slubber.  Indonesia is mainly a Muslim country, and indeed the most populated one in the world.  I knew this but did not realise what this meant in practice, and nothing was mentioned on the organisation's website.  At an unearthly hour every morning (about 3.30am) there was to be a call to prayer.  This wasn't a private matter, where people would wake up themselves and pray in silence, but the prayer was pumped out of large speakers across every village and usually lasted about an hour.  There really was no sleeping through it, and it went on for so long that it kept me awake once it woke me up.  I was incredibly tired.

Below: This is the village I stayed at in the mountains as seen from the conservation centre.

The internet site of the volunteer organisation that I went with made it sound as though volunteers came in and out all the time and that I would be part of a team of foreign workers at the centre.  On arrival, I ended up being just one of two people from overseas among a myriad of local workers.  Immediately, I noticed that the majority of these workers did literally nothing all day.  They pretty much just sat around all day, and occasionally did a pointless and menial task.  In fact, I noticed this at the airport in Java (Surabaya) as well.  There were 5 people working in a tiny convenience store, all doing nothing, and this was the same for every store, restaurant, and cafe in the airport.  All this made me wonder how busy I was going to be for the next three weeks.

Below:  The spectacular view from our conservation centre of Malang city and the very active and smoking Mt Semeru volcano in the distance.

Day one, and after my unexpected very early morning wake-up call I was due to meet the volunteer supervisor at 9.30.  An hour later and he was still not there.  This would be a sign of things to come as by the end of my stay at the conservation centre I had developed the art of twiddling my thumbs to a whole new level.  The time did, however, afford me a chance to drink lots of the coffee which they produced at the site, with fresh coffee beans roasted each day by the Kitchen staff, who were probably the only people who did anything on the site.  This was the one and only good thing about the place; fresh, strong, and unbelievably good Javanese coffee everyday, and was probably the only reason I could keep my eyes open for the first few days.  When the supervisor did finally arrive, he told us that some school children would be coming the next day, and later in the afternoon he would brief me on what he wanted me to do.  We had a little chat and after ten minutes the morning meeting was over, which at least gave me the chance to change some money and buy some snacks in the city about 45 minutes away.  The only problem was that everytime I needed to go to the city (which was frequently as their promised internet connection at the centre was non-existent), I needed their help to drive me.  As genuine and picturesque our location was, we were up in the mountains and miles away from anywhere, this made for a prison-like feel to where I was staying.

Left: The back of our house.










Below/left: Our kitchen/bike garage.

The next day and the real tribulations began.  A whole school of 12 year olds and we were told they didn't understand a word of English.  My other foreign co-worker and I were told to run a couple of games for them and it became clear that the conservation centre was much more about stupid games than any real education about the environment.  In a day lasting an unimaginable 12 hours of 'work' I took a game for ten minutes and then spent the rest of my time watching helplessly not knowing what on earth was going on as the entire dialogue was in Indonesian.  During the ten minute game it was also noticable that most of the children could in fact speak English, something that our Indonesian supervisors and co-workers failed to mention.  At least we could ask the children what the hell was going on, and we did on many occasions.

The following day was another marathon, this time 14 hours long on a field trip to a local river in the mountains and was more of the same, but at least we could have a chat to the kids, which was nice.  Apparently K-Pop is very popular in Indonesia and many of the girl students were fans of 'Girls Generation' and a few other famous K-Pop groups.  They were interested in us and asked many questions and conversation flowed until they asked me what religion I followed.  When I answered that I don't believe in any god and have no religion, they all fell silent.  I would later learn that in Indonesia a person cannot be registered as an atheist or agnostic and must choose a religion, usually Islam, Hindu, or Christian.  It was, in fact, illegal to be an atheist.  After I returned from Indonesia, a man hit the news worldwide for being beaten and then jailed for posting that he didn't believe in god on his facebook page.  He currently still resides in jail for this 'offense.'

With nothing to do at work and nothing after work either, after a week I had just about enough and decided to leave the programme, it was driving me insane.  The one day of enjoyment was on our Sunday off where we hiked to a spectacular waterfall deep in the jungle, but every other day was like pulling teeth.  I made arrangements to be dropped into Malang, the closest city, and arranged a hostel to stay at.  The only problem was that I had budgeted to stay at the conservation centre for 3 weeks, which was very cheap, but now I had to find accomodation, entertainment, and food on a very tight budget.  There was the other factor of Indonesian dishonesty, disorganisation, and dirtiness to cope with, which was on display wherever I turned my head.  I was now on my own and I would have to watch my back, my wallet, and my health for the next two weeks and see if I could salvage something positive from the trip.

Part 2 next week.

Top 5 Awkward Situations in Korea

The cultures of the Far East and West are so different that you can find yourself in awkward situations on a daily basis, but since I first came to Korea there have been a few that have stood out the most:

1. Scuba Diving in Yeosu Harbour

I was visiting a festival in Yeosu for the day with an American friend, visiting different tents along the harbour with different themes, and there was also a battleship in dock.  I noticed that one of the tents was about diving, which is an activity I have done before and have a great interest in.  As I approached somebody called my name from inside the stall, it was a Korean man I had played a game of squash with in a tournament a week or two earlier.  He asked me if I dived and when I said yes, he invited me to join him on a dive the next day.  I was delighted to accept the invitation as I had been wanting to do another dive for a while.  Something didn't feel quite right about it, however, and for some strange reason I was a little suspicious.

I showed up the next day and he lent me a wetsuit, but the festival was still going on and I wandered where we would dive.  After a delay of one hour, I put on all my gear and walked through a crowd of about 200-300 people all staring at me, asuming I was making my way to a boat.  The man in front of me then pulled his mask infront of his face and jumped into the harbour!  This is where I was to dive.  To make things worse it had rained the day before, which made the dirty, murky water even worse.  I jumped in after him and before we went under I had to carry a banner around with him, swimming around the harbour with hundreds of Koreans taking pictures of us.  When we finally went under matters got worse as the visibility was actaully zero, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face and therefore had no idea of my depth and how quickly I was descending and more importantly how quickly I came up.  Needless to say, I didn't see much and after the dive the man said sorry and he said he would contact me again for a better dive.   I never heard from him and I was very glad about that.  I left with the distinct impression I had just been used as a publicity stunt for their diving company.

2. My Boss Collapsing and Fitting on the Floor

My second job in Korea was hastily arranged as I needed to come back quickly to be with my wife.  I didn't get enough information about the school and got a bit of a stinker with a very strange boss.  Apart from being a horrible man to work for because he couldn't speak a word of English, was paranoid, unscrupulous, devious, stupid, and creepy, he was also quite ill with a bit of a mysterious illness.  He had an annoying habit of keeping all the doors open in the school (Hagwon) to make sure the teachers were doing their jobs properly.  This backfired on him disasterously one day, however, as he promptly collapsed in the middle of the school, in full view of all the students and teachers, and started having convulsions on the floor.  An ambulance was called and he was taken away on a strange upright stretcher, which he was tied into, a bit like Hannibal Lecter.  He would later explain that he had eaten some dodgy sushi earlier that day, but I believe it was down to his long term mysterious illness.  The kids were shocked and concerned.  I, on the other hand, was quite relieved to be rid of him for a couple of days.  Sounds heartless, I know, but he was truly one of the slimiest, most horrible men I have ever had the misfortune of meeting, and especially having as a boss.

3. Meeting the In-Laws for the First Time


This was my the first time I ever saw them, and my now wife's father didn't know we were seeing each other, her mother guessed that we might be but wasn't sure.  I met my wife's mother first in a restaurant and immediately she tried to give me lots to drink to try and make me drunk.  I would later learn that this is a bit of a test to see a daughter's boyfriend's character when they are drunk.  After an hour or so they both persuaded me to go to a Karaoke room with them to sing some songs.  At this point I wasn't drunk but they were.  To my horror when we arrived my wife's mother invited my wife's father to join us doing Karaoke.  I was required to sing some songs and even dance with them, which was horribly uncomfortable.  While I was singing 'Let It Be' my wife asked her father what he thought of me.  His reply was that he liked me but that if I was a boyfriend he would kill me.  To make matters worse this was less than two weeks into our relationship, I was wondering what the hell I was getting myself in for.

4. The Worst Christmas Eve Ever

If you had read my previous blog on being negative in Korea, you might remember I had a rather disasterous start to my Korean experience and it took a while to meet people and make friends.  On Christmas Eve in my first year I was still short on buddies but I did have a Korean friend who had helped me out a couple of times.  It happened to be his birthday and he invited me out for a few drinks.  Even though I was a little uncomfortable with the guy, I thought I owed him at least showing up for his birthday and thought that there would be some others around too.  When I got there he was with a friend and two girls, one of which was his girlfriend, all Korean.  I said hi, and wished him a happy birthday and bought him a drink.  He finished his drink quickly and after 5 minutes was getting ready to leave, saying he was going home.  He then whispered into my ear that he was going to say goodbye to his friend and escort the girls to a taxi and then come back after 10 minutes, but not to tell his girlfriend because she thought he was going home too.  So he did as he said and came back with two other girls, both of which were his students.  He whispered again in my ear which one he liked and I could 'have' the other one.  Having never met them before and at the time I spoke not one word of Korean, it wasn't the ideal situation.  He made us all go to a bar and do drinking games doing 'hug shots' with the girls, who looked just as uncomfortable with the situation as me.  After a couple of hours I had enough of it all and the girls did too and was glad of returning home and not onto Karaoke as I was predicting.  I was definitly missing my usual Christmas Eve night out with friends back home.

5. The Shampoo Gift Set


These days, I don't play hardly any squash in Korea.  It used to be quite a large part of my life and in my first couple of years here I tried to continue playing, at least a little bit.  I showed up to my local squash club one day and there was a tournament going on and only one court free.  There was no one to play as the players I usually had games with were playing in the tournament, so I practiced on my own.  A middle-aged Korean gentlemen saw me playing on my own and asked if I wanted a game, to which I agreed.  He was not too bad a player, but I had to tone down my game to make a game of it, something he obviously appreciated.  After the game he looked delighted with me and thanked me, and then promptly disappeared for ten minutes.  I had wondered where he had gone, but he came back while I was stretching and presented me with a gift, wrapped in red paper with a pink bow and then disappeared again.  I opened the gift in the changing rooms and discovered it was two large bottles of shampoo.  A peculiar present at any time and especially after a game of squash and made even more odd by the fact that at the time my hair was shaved short (number 2 on the clippers) so shampoo wasn't much of a necessity for me.  Still, it's the thought that counts.

Morals in the West - An Eastern Perspective (The Wando Incident)

In my last blog post I was pretty scathing on the standard of morals in this part of the world.  But in the light of recent events here in Korea, I thought I had better balance the books a little and criticize the moral behaviour of people from Western countries.

Last weekend there was a big beach party in Wando, an island in Jeollanamdo, South West Korea.  I did not attend, as that sort of thing is not really my cup of tea, but news of it reached every foreign teacher in the region via facebook messages and a very angry regional foreign teacher coordinator via e-mail.  What transpired was that at least some of the revellers disturbed local residents in a number of ways, which included; too much noise late at night, drunken behaviour, topless women (in a very conservative country, as our coordinator put it 'classy'), rubbish left on the beach, and the worst of all the vandalism of a locked public toilet.  The toilet was locked because there was no plumbing to it and therefore no water.  Apparently, many party goers decided to relieve themselves anyway (number 1's and 2's), including in the sinks as well as the waterless toilets.  I was told by a responsible visitor to the beach that weekend that the toilet smelt like death the following morning and I dread to think what the sight and smell must have been like on the inside.

This kind of behaviour is, of course, despicable in any country, but especially in a country that is not your own and a country that you know is conservative in nature and already a little suspicious of foreign people.  It boggles the mind that so many people can be so irresponsible, disrespectful, uncultured, and stupid.  As a result of this behaviour, one of the more beautiful parts of Korea is in effect closed to foreign visitors for the time being.  Local residents have had enough and have decided to not serve foreign people in restaurants, maybe not even allow them on the beach full stop, and generally be as unwelcoming as they can.  There were, undoubtedly, some responsible people at the beach that weekend that cleaned up and tried to be respectful, my criticism is not aimed at those who responsibly enjoy a drink or two.

What is even more galling is not that these people should have known better, but that they are supposed to be teachers too.  Every Korean person must know that almost every non-Korean they see is an English teacher in Korea, and when they see behaviour such as this they must wonder why they send their children to school to be taught English by a bunch of irresponsible hooligans.

Such incidents are not that common in Korea, because the country is not particularly geared for tourism, it is mainly teaching that attracts foreign people.  However, in other countries this kind of behaviour is a common practice, especially in places like Thailand, where full moon parties have become infamous.  What a crazy situation this has become, that people go all the way to Thailand to get hammered, something they could do just as well back home.  They aren't interested in the culture of countries, the history, the people, and must have little interest in the countriy's natural beauty also as they appear set on ruining it.  What does it tell you about our culture that such 'booze cruises' are so popular?  I wonder sometimes whether all the drinking pushes out their brain cells.

When I thought about it all a little more deeply, however, an incident such as the one in Wando should never come as a surprise.  Unfortunately, it is now a large part of Western culture.  I used to think it was a problem especially unique to my own country (the UK), but coming to Korea has shown me that Americans, Canadians, Australians, Irish, South Africans, and New Zealanders can be just as bad.

I will always remember my last night in England before leaving for South Korea the first time.  My cricket buddies and I were delayed on getting into Colchester Town centre (my hometown) from our cricket club because of a taxi no show, so we arrived at about 12 o'clock.  Walking down the high street of the town was a very grim scene indeed; people swearing at each other, people fighting, various puddles of vomit on the street, smashed windows, people so drunk they could hardly stand, and broken glass and rubbish everywhere.  I had not drunk that much so I was able to soberly reflect on all the carnage that was going on around me.  I was happy to be leaving.

Perhaps, in many respects, I am lucky.  My body has always rejected alcohol before I can become out of control and I usually feel like death for it, and because of this I have never really understood why people do such terrible things when they are drunk and drinking alcohol is a rare thing for me anyway.  Maybe, if I had a stronger constitution, I would have fallen into the same kind of behaviour.

In Western countries, it has become so easy to fall into the Friday and Saturday night booze-up pattern with Sunday being recover from hangover day.  Back at home in England, I can think of only a few people who I can say with confidence would never be included in the kind of group that wrecked Wando beach at the weekend, and that is a sad fact.  What is even more troubling is that good, kind, decent people can be persuaded to act like morons by a combination of alcohol and a kind of group culture of glorifying ridiculous behaviour.  A simple truth is that, if you want everyone to love you and to make friends easily all you have to do is get stupidly drunk, have sex with a random girl or boy for one night, shit yourself on the street, injure yourself on the street while drunk, throw-up over someone or on someone's property, have a fight, or get thrown in a cell in a local police station for a night.  If you can mange one or maybe even all these things you will be a popular person indeed in my country, and I suspect in most Western countries.

I have remarked to a few friends over here in Korea that a symptom of this can be seen on Facebook.  Post a fascinating article about the wonders of the universe or glorious picture of the natural world and you maybe lucky to receive one comment or 'like'.  Post a comment about how you did a crap on the next door neighbours front garden after a drunken night out, or a picture of you passed out with vomit all over your shirt and see the comments and 'likes' roll in.

Here in South Korea, let's make no mistake about it, people get drunk too.  Take a walk outside on a Saturday morning and you can come across at least a few puddles of vomit on the ground.  What does set apart most Eastern countries is that they do at least have some regard for others when they are drunk and completely liscentious behaviour is very heavily looked down upon and therefore people are not proud of their misdemeanors on a night out.  This is very much different to our culture of being almost proud of one's disgusting behaviour on the night before, sharing the story with friends and having a good laugh.  The reality is that this shouldn't be funny, it's a disgrace and sometimes it takes the perspective of another culture to have your eyes fully opened on the subject.  I can fully imagine that right now one of the perpetrators of the toilet vandalism in Wando or the person responsible for depositing faecal matter in the sink, is telling his story with a grin of pride at just how 'crazy' he is.  I heard similar stories to this when I was younger and I can remember thinking that they were pretty funny, but now as a grown-up, I can see these kinds of people for what they truly are, pathetic losers and attention seekers.

There is only one answer to our alcohol problem in the West, we have to stop glorifying the bad behaviour of drunken people.  They get drunk in the East too but they don't think that out of control behaviour is worthy of any praise and in this they are right.

Different cultures, different problems.  The Far East's problem is they are too much in control and too concerned with fitting in with the crowd and obeying authority.  This leads to the heartlessness I talked about in my previous blog.  Because one of the key values of Western culture is freedom, our extremes of bad behaviour are the result of showing that we ultimately can behave how we want to, without thought of others, ultimate freedom to be a complete idiot.  Westerners often have good hearts but can be easily made to forget about others with a few units inside their system.  This troubles me; are we moral or kind because we think that is what society requires or is it genuine?  If it is genuine then why does a few beers make us forget about it so easily?  Are western people just faking it until the weekend sets them free of their responsibilities?  My wife noticed this when we lived in England.  During the day, people she knew, people on the street, and even her friends were good, kind people with excellent manners and personalities.  Come the weekend, this all went out of the window, when she could receive racial abuse and witness general thuggery and outlandish behaviour.  She couldn't believe the 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' nature of the people in England. 

I am not advocating that we should all be teetotal, alcohol has been a valuable social lubricant for thousands of years.  It helps people to make friends, enjoy themselves, dance, and even to get over the first hurdle in starting relationships, but I think I have had enough of all the nonsense that comes with it.  I am setting myself a new resolution not to just ignore it when people tell stories of their 'accomplishments' the night before, but to ridicule and shame them when they do.  If more of us can do this maybe we can rid ourselves of this cultural virus spreading through Western countries. 

Morals in Korea

It is easy to travel to new places and become uncomfortable with a culture that is very different to your own.  This happened to me in the first year that I lived in Korea.  These days, I understand much more about what is going on and I can accept, without having my mind blown too greatly, why people are doing what they do and calmly deal with it.  Just recently, however, this greater level of understanding is not helping with some of the moral issues that appear to be continually cropping up, and I'm starting to become a little annoyed about them.

At this juncture, I should add, that as far as my own personal treatment is concerned I have very little to complain about.  It is on the behalf of others that my patience of your average Koreans' moral behaviour is starting to wear pretty thin.  Their moral compass is highly influenced by Confucian group culture, with social cohesion being the greatest ideal.  They have a duty to others and this is expressed in their behaviour.  Sounds great, but this duty doesn't stretch as far and wide as it should. It tends to sit mainly within small groups, such as family, friends, and work colleagues, others can quickly become outside of the group and therefore their moral sphere.

Korean people are amazingly honest, but surprisingly mainly to strangers and not to their own family. In the family setting lying to parents appears to be far more tolerable than being honest with them in a disagreement.  In my experience with my parents in-law, they would much rather be lied to, even if they really knew it was a lie, than face up to the truth that someone in their family wasn't going to do what they wanted.

For an example of this, when I went to Indonesia in the winter it was over Korean New Year, an important time of year.  It was, however, the only time I could go away and I wasn't about to lose the opportunity to travel.  My wife told me that her parents wouldn't allow me to go at Korean New Year. My response to my wife was something along the lines of, 'that's funny because I wasn't asking them, I will go if I want to, simple as that.'  My wife, knowing that I would never back down and her parents demanded their family be together over New Year, concocted a bit of a porky pie and told her parents that I was visiting my family in England.  This they would accept because of the importance of family in Korean culture.

So, I went to Indonesia and all was fine and they didn't even ask about my highly tanned skin on returning (a very odd occurrence for England in January). My guess is they might of half-known that it may have been all an elaborate ruse, but the power of denial is a very strong force in Korea.

The above tale shows essentially some of what is different about or cultural values.  In Korea they value respect and status, and in England people value honesty, fairness, and freedom.  This is a great example of how clashes can happen.  I value freedom and the ability to choose what I want to do and when I want to do it, I am never going to allow someone to not allow me to do something.  My parents in-law value respect and could never allow me to leave the family behind on such an important occasion for my own selfish reasons, it would not be respectful to them as parents.

Because respect, social cohesion, and status within the group is so important perhaps this is why they are so honest among strangers.  If you are going to lose your passport, wallet, or phone, do it in Korea and you will have an excellent chance of getting it back.  When wallets are lost in Korea most people put them in a mail box and then the postman gives it to the police.  The police then find you as everyone has an identity card.

I wonder if this is because everyone is genuinely kind in Korea, or whether it is because of a social duty and stealing, found out or not, would lower a Koreans' status in society as their duty was not performed.  This great concern for how one is perceived within society is also a major factor in the apparent lack of a class system here.

I live in the cheapest apartments in my city and no one there appears to be any different from anyone else and I rarely have any problems.  If I lived in the same kind of area in England, I am sure the 'chav' population would be in such great numbers, that I would be regularly bothered by them in a great number of idiotic ways.

Duty plays a massive role in Korean culture and its effects can be seen on a daily basis.  So many people live out their daily lives doing things they really don't want to do, seeing people they don't want to see, and being nice to people they really don't like.  They are constantly holding back their frustrations and putting a good face on things.  This is something, even though I am quite a patient man, I cannot do for any length of time and I find that although sometimes friends and family in my country can consider me quite aloof and unemotional at times, in Korea, like a bad poker player, I am constantly showing my hand.  If I am bored, tired, angry, upset, amused, or frustrated, despite what I thought previously about my good self-control, it apparently is written all over my face and I do a lousy job of covering it up.  I would hate to play a Korean at poker, they must be awesome at it.

My impatience, and the fact that I am not Korean and somewhat outside the normal sphere of acceptable group behaviour, does get me out of a great many duties and works to my advantage so I am not about to change anything.  I have an awful feeling that many Korean people live their whole lives under the dictatorship of their duties and rarely truly do what they want to do with their lives.  I often feel very sorry for them.  From about the age of 16, when they start high school, they have so many responsibilities (family duties especially) that if they were to go off their family's plan for them and travel, or have their own ideas about business or life in general, they would be scorned for being selfish.

On the surface of things, all is well in Korea and in many respects there seem to be far less problems in society because most people do what they are supposed to do and fall in line.  Underlying this, though, there is a troubling problem.  I am regularly shocked by the heartlessness of Korean people.  I believe this is caused because Koreans have a set way of doing things and duties to perform and anything or anyone that goes outside the normal line of duty is largely ignored or deplored.

Koreans are especially unsympathetic to work colleagues that show a glimmer of individual thinking. I documented this in my first blog, which was more of a rant on my wife's unfair treatment at work.  I am going to comment on a couple of recent incidents that have confirmed what I already thought about Korean culture, that it lacks an ability to empathize with people (and animals) and that because of this the their culture, and the culture of the Far East in general, is ultimately going to be morally inferior to that of the West (not just different, inferior).  Western societies have their problems for sure, but I think people generally care more genuinely because of their ability to empathize with others based on an individual assessment of the world, instead of a group vision of it.

Far Eastern people in general can treat anyone or anything perceived as outside the group or ideal rather shabbily and even brutally sometimes.  This holds true on a small scale like people who don't fit in at work or school, and mistreatment of pets, to rather large scale matters such as major animal rights abuses, the ultimate totalitarian regime in North Korea, and human rights abuses in China. 

I believe that even the crimes of Mao, Pol Pot, and Stalin can be explained well through the culture of valuing the group over the individual, encouraging our natural tendency to tribalism.  Many religious people attribute the above to a lack of belief in god, but surely if they were to travel to this part of the world they could understand that there is a massive difference between your average Western atheist and Eastern atheist.  Their values and ways of thinking are completely different (and how can a lack of belief motivate you to do something?).

A Western person values their freedom the most, and a Far Eastern person tends to value their status within the group the most.  An over-simplification this maybe, but it has an effect of explaining an awful lot of the differences between the cultures.

Below:  Portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.  How can such a regime come about?  Are the core values of North and South Koreans so different?  I see worrying similarities between the dictatorship of North Korea and the behaviour of some people, families, and especially many workplaces in South Korea.

I have already mentioned the major isuues involved with this way of thinking.  There are also some smaller things that seem to be a part of everyday life:  Racism is a big problem, and any mixed race children or children from a different race other than Koreans, can have huge difficulties at school as they reside firmly outside the 'pure Korean blood' group and therefore often seem outside of moral consideration.

Domestic violence also appears to be a problem.  Anyone living in my area in Suncheon may well have heard some blood-curdling screams lately coming from a nearby apartment; it turns out that they were from my wife's friend in an apartment over the other side of the street, who had been going through an abusive relationship with her boyfriend.  My first reaction was to call the police for concern for her safety, but thought their next door neighbours might have done it.  My wife said, however, that Koreans always stay out of such matters and the police are rarely concerned and usually just tell the woman to calm down and leave them to it (if they are bothered at all).

Trust me, if you had heard the sound of the scream at 7am on a Sunday, you would have been concerned, but it seemed as if the whole street wasn't.  Recently, because of a few cases of domestic violence turning to murder, police have been encouraged to take these matters a little more seriously.

When we called the police, they showed up and talked to my wife's friend and them left them fairly swiftly, despite the fact her boyfriend was hammered drunk.  Watching from across the street at our own apartment they didn't even go in the apartment and appeared to only speak to her.

Animal cruelty also appears quite widespread here, with various major and minor instances rearing their ugly head from time to time.  A fairly recent incident involved how the Korean government decided to deal with a minor outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the pig population.  They decided to cull over a million pigs in the most disgusting way possible; they tipped them all into pits, on top of each other, and buried them alive (thousands at a time).  I have a video of this below, fast forward to about 2 minutes, and be warned it is painfully disturbing and upsetting.

It is worth mentioning the dog-meat trade also in Korea, which is technically illegal here, but not too many people bat an eye-lid when they see dog meat served in restaurants and when dogs are seen on trucks in tiny cages. 

Most people don't eat dog-meat in Korea, especially the young, but there is not enough collective public outrage against the illegal dog-meat trade, so nothing is done about it.  Many Koreans are still in favour of eating dog-meat will give the argument that pigs are a similar animal in intelligence and we eat them.  This is only a slightly valid argument, as the dogs in Korea are kept in appauling conditions and they tend to have a nasty habit of beating them to death because they rather strangely and cruely think that doing this improves the flavour of the meat. 

One does also worry about a culture that can mistreat a valued and close friend of the human species for thousands of years.  If they can treat our closest animal allies in this way, then there is a slippery slope argument that says this could slide its way down to mistreatment of people too.

There have been two articles on the news lately of dogs been tied to the back of cars and dragged down the street, with one dog dying as a result.  Generally speaking, the treatment of their pets is not up to the standards we in the west would consider acceptable.  If I was in England, I would have reported numerous people to the RSPCA (Royal Society for Protection of Cruelty to Animals), even one of my uncles in-law, whose poor dogs are chained up outside their house with little shelter in all weather and, as far as I can tell, never walked or allowed to explore anything other than the view of the house for their whole life.

It would, of course be wrong of me to suggest that all Koreans don't care about abuses such as this, but it shouldn't be wrong to point out that there is an undercurrent of heartlessness for such instances generally in this part of the world, and although not exclusive to this part of the world, there does appear to be more problems here.

I am obviously not suggesting that all Far Eastern people are bad (I wouldn't have married one if I thought that) and I am also not suggesting that all Western people are good and that we don't have moral issues in our culture.  I cannot help but point out, however, that frank discussions about morals, a tradition of questioning authority, and generally standing up for the vulnerable in society, appear to be making greater strides in Western culture, we have come further and are the world leaders in this department. 

Many of whom stand up for the rights of others are ignored by government, and we do have a disturbing gap between the rich and the poor, and still ignore much of the third world, but moral progress is being made.  I don't see such marked moral progress in the Far East and I am concerned that, because of the fundamentals of their culture, even as they become richer, more highly educated and powerful they will continue to be slightly reticent in defending the rights of others when they exist outside of their community and sometimes even the ones inside it too.

The USA are often scorned by the rest of the world for being a super-power but for all their faults and those of other major Western countries, can we really imagine the world being a better place if the countries of the Far East dominate the world and become super-powers themselves?  At this moment moral standards in South Korea, and the Far East generally, still have a long way to go.

Korean and Japanese Rivalry

Before I came to Korea I had no idea about the rivalry bewteen the Koreans and the Japanese.  This might come as quite a surprise to my readers at home, but the rivalry is as bitter as any country rivalry around the world, and makes some of the small disputes that go on in Europe rather trivial.  There is such a genuine bitterness and hatred going on over here in the Far East, that it regularly surfaces itself and usually in a rather pathetic and petty fashion.

There is the rather continually annoying subject of the argument between the Koreans and the Japanese over the ownership of a (very) small island named Dokdo, located between Korea and Japan, and the bickering about the naming of the East Sea/Sea of Japan.

Korean people get all riled up about these topics and I'm not just talking about politicians, but EVERYONE and the same is true in Japan.  Put a map of the world up in an Elementary school class and all the children will notice that it says Sea of Japan instead of the East sea, even if they can hardly speak a word of English.

They are somehow made to care about an issue that has no influence on their young lives whatsoever.

Foreign teachers and visitors are not even allowed to ignore these issues as upon arrival in Korea at our orientation, the back of our 'Introduction to Korea' books on teaching in Korea were plastered with an article about how Dokdo is rightfully Korea's property and not the Japanese and the historical reasons why.

I am not saying that these matters have no importance at all, but these matters are a political matter between Korean and Japanese governments, and of minor importance.  I say this because an invasion of Dokdo by either side might upset, perhaps two part-time residents of, what is essentially a rock in the sea.  No one lives there.  I have also read articles over the naming of the Sea of Japan/East sea, and this is a matter of name only and not ownership, the words 'Sea of Japan' do not mean that the Japanese own those waters.  So what we are left with is the pedantic argument over a name, plain and simple.

Let me first announce the reality of the fact that every person in the world that isn't Japanese or Korean or a politician does not care about any of this.  To give an idea of the ridiculousness of everyone in a country becoming upset about this issue, we can make a very valid comparison in my own country's affairs, and that's the Falkland Islands.

Does everyone in England really care that much about the current situation in the Falkland islands?

Maybe they care a bit, but not enough to protest in the street, to tell young school children, and to blanket visitors to the British Isles with propaganda about our rightful ownership.  And let's not forget that this is an unfair comparison seeing as some 6000 people live on the Falkland Islands and Dokdo has currently 2 people living on it, but surprise surprise the Korean government want to increase this number (I wonder why?).

In the case of the Sea of Japan/East Sea argument, a name is really of no importance, but in my opinion the Sea of Japan explains a lot more clearly where the sea actually is.  The East sea could be in any number of places, so I think the Sea of Japan should stay.

It sounds like I am being really harsh on the Koreans and with a Korean wife, who feels as strongly as any other Korean in this country about these issues, you might wonder why I am conciously designating myself a place in the doghouse.  I can, however, provide quite a valid explanation for the behaviour of Korea people.

There is quite a long history between Korea and Japan and it is not necessarily a happy one for Koreans.  Korea has been invaded twice by the Japanese, with the most recent still a painful memory that some of the older generation had to live through and suffer. 

I was reminded by my wife when I brought up the subject of Korean people being over-patriotic and insecure about many things to do with their country (especially when it has to do with Japan), that I come from a country that was a coloniser itself, much like the Japanese.  Of the many crimes committed by my fellow countrymen in colonial history, perhaps the one they did not commit was the forced adoption of their culture.  They merely ruled many nations and didn't interfere with their culture that much (some Scottish and Irish people, I know, might take issue with this). 

With some exceptions, maybe, the British were not nearly as dictatorial and destructive of another country's culture as the Japanese were in Korea (perhaps this is why Japan failed to colonise as great a number of countries and failed to hold on to them for as long as they wanted to). 

The Japanese wanted to completely change the Korean way of life, including their language, and were guilty of some horrendous crimes against the Korean people.  Many Japanese politicians have apologised since but much of their behaviour after their comments made Koreans feels their apologies were not sincere.  Many Japanese of high government standing have also stirred things up nicely with other insensitive comments, for example (source, wikipedia):

During the talks between Japan and Korea in 1953, Kubota Kanichiro (久保田貫一郞), one of the Japanese representatives, stated that "Japanese colonial rule was beneficial to Korea...Korea would have been colonized by other countries anyway, which would have led to harsher rules than Japanese rules." This remark is considered by Koreans as the first reckless statement by Japanese politicians on colonial rules on Korea.

In 1997, Abe Shinzo (安倍晋三), an ex-Prime Minister of Japan, stated that "Many so-called victims of comfort women system are liars...prostitution was ordinary behavior in Korea because the country had many brothels."

On May 31, 2003, Aso Taro (麻生太郎), another ex-Prime Minister of Japan, stated that "the change to Japanese name (創氏改名) during Japanese colonial rule was what Koreans wanted."

On October 28, 2003, Ishihara Shintaro (石原愼太郞), Governor of Tokyo stated that "The annexation of Korea and Japan was Koreans' choice...the ones to be blamed are the ancestors of Koreans".

In 2007, Shimomura Hakubun (下村博文), Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japanese government, stated that "The comfort women system existed, but I believe it was because Korean parents sold their daughters at that time."

On March 27, 2010, in the centennial of Japan-Korean annexation, Edano Yukio (枝野幸男), Japanese Minister of State for Government Revitalization, stated that "The invasion and colonization of China and Korea was historically inevitable...since China and Korea could not modernize themselves."

The second and penultimate comment refers to 'Comfort Women', these were Korean women, some of whom are still alive, that were repeatedly sexually abused by Japanese soldiers in the second World War.  Women from all over Asia as well as Korea were forced into sexual slavery for the amusement of the Japanese military. 

These were widely known and highly organised prostitution centres.  Most international media sources quote the number of women used in this way by the Japanese to be of the number of about 200,000.  Many in the Japanese government refuse to accept this number and also state that the Korean comfort women voluntarily participated (I find this slightly hard to believe). 

Koreans are still demanding an official apology from the Japanese government and sufficient compensation for those women who are still alive.  Korea currently have a statue in the image of one such women outside the Japanese embassy and faced towards it, in Seoul, much to the annoyance of the Japanese.  If the 'Comfort Women' system is indeed true, and it is believed by almost every nation except for Japan, then this behaviour during World War II should be apologised for and compensation given, of that there can be no doubt.

With my wife's perspective on the situation, and the history between the two countries, I could easily understand Korea's stubborness with any issues relating to having to cede ground to the Japanese.  The Japanese, not so long ago, tried to obliterate their national identity, and they don't appear to be that sorry about it.  At some point, however, someone is going to have to take the moral high ground and make relations between the two nations a bit more pleasant. 

Stubborness exists on both sides, perhaps more righteously on the Korean side, but Korea could still benefit at looking at situations a little more dispassionately and logically.  There is always constant bickering going on between the two countries, and to foreign eyes it all looks quite petty and pathetic. 

When it comes to Dokdo, Japan could just give it up to Korea to show some humility and acknowledge past mistakes, or even better surely they can just jointly own the island (although duel-ownership of land world-wide never appears to make people happy). 

In the case of the Sea of Japan/East Sea argument, Korea has a logically weak position and should just concede that in name only the sea is better named 'The Sea of Japan'.  It is easier for lay-people to recognise the location of the sea under this name and it is already the most widely used term across all nations.  Korea have to suck up their insecurity and deal with it.

On top of all of the feuding over territory, arguments over history, and names of places, there are other even sillier things that go on and regularly make the news over here in Korea.  Things like a Japanese boycott on flying with Korean Air, regular trade disagreements, the Japanese making Kimchi the wrong way and claiming that they created it, general micky-taking and racism on both sides, and some insensitive television making. 

An incident that brought quite a bit of attention was an exhibition kick boxing match between a Korean woman mixed martial arts champion Lim Soo Jung and three Japanese entertainers, who were all men.  The men were, however, all capable kick boxing practictioners and wore protective clothing while the Korean women didn't, the result can be viewed below (fast forward to about 2.45 and agian at 4.20 for some highlights and make up your own mind):

It is all quite puzzling that such bitterness does not seem to exist in Europe, as of course, at the same time Japan was occupying Korea, Germany was occupying many countries and killing its fair share of Jews.  Maybe I am unaware of it, but Germany appears to be less at odds with the people Nazism oppressed than the Japanese are with Korea.  Is this because the Germans were so much more apologetic or the people of Europe more forgiving?  It could be a combination of both and there should be a lesson to be learned by the Japanese and Koreans, it is possible to be friends again, and it requires both sides to do their bit.  One side has to be genuinely apologetic and make genuine gestures of friendship, and the other has to be willing to forgive and let the past stay in the past.  If only it were that easy.

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.