We're Not in Kansas Anymore

From a pile of final essays I helped grade last week.  : )

I've done a lot of reading about living in Korea, but it’s still surprising to see that so many of the cultural tips are ...true.  And there are a million more that never get into the books.  Here are 20 insights into how Korean culture (at least in this town) differs from the US:
 

(1)   Baggie ties are gold foil, not paper or plastic-covered.
 

(2)  Cameras are everywhere.  They probably are in the US, too, but here lots of CCTV signs nicely remind you.  That said, many cameras point in strange directions (e.g., into a tree), so I’m not sure anyone’s actually watching. 
 

(3) Being tan is not fashionable – perhaps it’s associated with being poor or needing to work outdoors for one’s living.  Further, the popular "sun causes skin cancer” mantra gives a scientific-sounding basis for the anti-tan culture:  women commonly avoid the sun by wearing long-sleeved shirts, or short-sleeved shirts plus “shooter” sleeves (more typically seen on basketball players), sun lotion, and/or carrying light-colored umbrellas.  Finally, finally – all my life I have waited for my pale skin to be fashionable. I am home at last. 
 

(4)   Vitamin C is advertised neither as a preventative nor a cure for the common cold.  Instead, Vitamin C promotes skin elasticity for women (and strength for men).  
 
(5) Exercise is good.  Especially when you're, oh, say, hiking in the woods and - Voila! - an exercise park shows up.  Or you're driving along and Hey! there's one next to the road. Or behind an apartment building.  A pretty cool cross between Nautilus and tae-chi. 
 

(6) There are no “appropriate” or gendered colors for clothes (or umbrellas) – pink and lavender and sparkles and rainbows are just as commonly found on men’s apparel as women’s. Wearing a certain color or style doesn't make you ”gay.”  
 

(6.1) An ex-pat just posted this on Facebook about his 5-year-old daughter: 

Scott: Why are the sky and the ocean blue?

Gabrielle: Because God is a boy.  If God was a girl, more things would be pink. 

Best Final Essay Title Ever.

(7)  Males may walk hand-in-hand with other males, or their arms draped around one another; females do the same. It just means they’re friends and has nothing to do with “being gay.” When a male and female hold hands, it apparently signifies a public commitment to one another – sort of like the old tradition of “pearling” before the next step of getting engaged.  Then again, it's a Christian campus, so I don't know how widely practiced this hand-holding commitment deal is.
  

Sam covets the latest James Dean President fashion line.

(8) Korean ads don’t appeal to sexuality – TV commercials are usually energetic and goofy, like the manic ads during Saturday morning cartoons.  Even in the lingerie section at a department store, pictures of bikini-clad models (male and female) are conspicuously Caucasian rather than Korean.  Or they just don't have heads.

Really?  On a drinking glass (and set of plates)?

(9)  If it's in English, it sells, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. 

The front door to our  International Faculty Residence Hall.

(10) Symmetry is overrated.  Or maybe it's just attention to detail.  Or maybe some builders value evenly spaced steps, railings, or door handles more than others.

Pine tree body bag.  Do not touch.

(11) If you are cleaning up the forest and have a bunch of pine branches, you must apparently bundle them up in thick green plastic with warning signs.  Upon first seeing these - eerily close to some burial mounds - we thought they might be, well, storage sites for dead parents...  

Extension cords are our friends.

(12) Safety codes?  Maybe.  Got electrical cords?  Put 'em wherever you need them: draped through the woods, down a building and through the bamboo, or along a rice paddy.  Not sure that fire truck codes are in the same category, but here is the fire truck for the University.  I really, really want this to be the "first responder" and the modern ones from the city will be along shortly...

 

Umbrella gloves.

(13) At the other end of the technology spectrum, most stores and public areas have electric umbrella wrappers just inside their entrance.  Insert furled, wet umbrella and TADA!  No more messy.

Dinner at a new friend's house last week.

(14) Think the old "Orientals take off their shoes before entering the house" bit is old-fashioned nonsense?  Nope.

(15) Personal space here is very close; getting through a crowd or easing past someone in the grocery aisle do not require an “excuse me” or “I’m sorry” when you bump into someone – it’s just assumed that bumping happens and no one has a "right" to a certain amount of "their" space. 

(16)  Older men and women wear face masks or scarves around their nose and mouth to prevent the spread of illness and perhaps to warn others they’re not feeling well. I haven’t seen any students doing this; it looks really hot/steamy, and fairly uncool, besides.  I did see an ex-pat professor, who had pinkeye in one eye, wearing something that looked like a large bandage crossed with a pirate patch hooked around both ears.  Not sure if that was intended for the patient’s health or to hide any visual horror from others.

Where wedding dreams come true

(17) Weddings take place in wedding halls, not churches, and they often look like castles (think Disneyland).  You can rent by the hour; sort of like funerals, where as one party finishes up, the next is waiting to do their thing.  Found more details on this blog, if you're interested. 

(18) Grass is hard to grow here.  Do not walk on it.  Ever.

(19) Hearing Koreans swear ("s__t!") is very rare, but hilarious. The Korean language doesn't have a short "i" sound, so the long "ee" is used instead, and the SH is more like an S.  Sort of loses its power when said that way, and it makes me giggle every time.