Korea

We arrived in Korea late in the afternoon on Thursday and then left Sunday morning. We spent 4 days away from Japan overall, which was nowhere near enough time to explore Seoul – let alone Korea. Still, we only get so much vacation time in a year – some of which I’ve used already to see some of Japan, and I’d like to do some more travelling in the summer. Still, I managed to get a brief glimpse of the culture, the history, and the delicious foods that Korea had to offer. In this short time, we were able to eat at several delicious restaurants, sung at a Korean-style karaoke place, saw a few palaces, had a brief visit at a museum, and during a tour of the Demilitarized Zone, stepped foot onto North Korean soil.

I used to consider my experience in Japan as being very difficult for me to get by. I do not have a very good grasp of the language, the people act differently, and everything seemed to operate in ways that I was not yet familiar with. As it turns out, Japan can be difficult, but I’ve spent a lot of time learning about this country – both before I came and while I’ve been living here. With a country like Korea, on the other hand, I ventured to this country knowing very little about anything Korean.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to find on this trip, but I think I imagined the experience to be like crossing the boarder from Vancouver to Seattle – sure they’re different cities within separate countries, but overall, they represent many of the same experiences. Landing in Korea was like landing in a whole new world where I only had 4 days to soak up as much as I could.

The whole time that I was in Korea, I couldn’t read anything because they use a completely different alphabet from English or Japanese. And having not prepared any phrases at all, the only thing that I could remember how to say, was “ju-se-yo,” which I’m somewhat confident means “please.” There were a few brief moments where I could say “hello” or “thank you,” but I couldn’t get these phrases to stick for long.

We were fortunate however, to have another ALT with us who had been to Korea a couple of times before and had some grasp of how to read and speak the language. This was very helpful.

The subways on the other had – probably due to my experiences riding them in Japan, were probably the only aspect of the trip that I felt really comfortable with. After a brief demonstration by the attendant in the subway station, buying tickets and figuring out which lines to take was quite easy. Of course, the ticket machines all had a button to switch everything to English. Still, I felt quite proud of myself when, a few minutes after I learned how to use the machine, I was able to help some other tourists from Beijing with their ticket buying. At first I thought the people looking at me were staring because I looked foreign, but I soon realized that they just wanted to see how I was buying my ticket. I saw them select the “Japanese” option on the ticket machine and asked, “ah, Nihon-go o hanashimasu ka?” (Do you speak Japanese), which they responded, “yes, and we also speak Chinese.” Oddly enough – probably due to my terrible Japanese, they responded this last part in English.

Like Japan, Korea has built a name for itself in the technology market. Instead of seeing large advertisements for Sony, it was Samsung that had billboards posted everywhere. One of our tour guides mentioned that if you’re bored in the subway, you can go to a ticket machine to have you photo taken and then email it to yourself. I’m not sure what the reasoning behind having this feature in the subways is, but it sounds a bit 1984-ish to me. Their mobile phone market is also quite strong in that we were told that it is not uncommon for many Koreans to upgrade their cell phone multiple times each year. And of course, on the roads of Seoul, Hyundai and KIA were the brands of choice.

I’ll be honest, the main reason why I wanted to go to Korea was for the food. I can also say that I wasn’t disappointed. Not only is Korea relatively close to Japan and easy to get to, but the food is quite cheap as well. My favourite dining experiences were those of the Korean barbeque. At these restaurants, we would order large plates of meat, which we would grill on the table in front of us. With the meal, we were also provided with several side dishes, such as salad, various sauces, garlic, and of course, kimchi. I was also delighted to discover that when we would finish our side dishes, a server would immediately bring us more. The food at these places was delicious and the atmosphere was usually quite lively.

I'll try to write more on our experience at the Demilitarized Zone tomorrow, but overall, we all had an amazing time in Korea. The only bad thing I can say about it is that we weren’t there long enough.