Korean Speech Contest (and Year-End Party)

I have studied the Korean language for 16 months now. Perhaps "pounding my head into a linguistic wall" is an apt description of how it has felt  :)

According to the US State Department, Korean is one of the toughest languages for native English speakers to learn, right up there with Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic. The Department estimates that it takes roughly 4x the time to learn the language as Spanish or French! I take classes through Samsung, 4 days a week from 8:00-9:00am, or about the worst time of day for me to pick up a language. Some days I can barely make sentences in my native English at 8am!

Final day of "basic" Korean class, with Teacher Ms. Park

At 4 hours a week, I am on roughly a 10-year plan to learn the Korean language, which leads many of my foreign colleagues to question why they would trade an hour of sleep for language classes. In fact, many of my colleagues end up dropping the classes. I stick with it, not with a goal of achieving fluency but simply hoping that my continued efforts will make my life easier in Korea. Very slowly, I have seen progress in my communication abilities -- maybe I am able to carry an occasional conversation with taxi drivers or with middle-aged ladies who have offered me snacks while at a hiking rest stop. But, simply put, my Korean abilities still stink and will continue to be so for some time.

Every December, my group holds a Korean language speech contest. This year I decided to throw my hat in and give it a try. We speak in front of our colleagues for 5 minutes on any topic that we choose, supplementing our speech with PowerPoint slides. Contestants were separated into groups based on language ability, and I was placed in the intermediate league.

For this contest I chose a topic that I thought would be light and funny for the audience, and also demonstrate some of the cultural learnings that I have had since moving to Korea. I wrote a draft and thankfully received help from my Korean teacher and a couple other native Koreans to help me improve the content and clean up the grammar.

Despite practicing the delivery quite a bit at home and being allowed the luxury of reading from a prepared script, I was quite nervous and felt my arm shaking during the entire speech! Business school made me much more comfortable at speaking in front of crowds, but not outside my native language, clearly. Fortunately, I indeed received quite a few laughs as I had hoped, and I took the first runner-up prize.

The full text of my speech is below...first in Korean and then my translation into English...at least, what I was trying to say ^.^

"가끔 이상한 한국"

저는 작년에 미국에서 한국에 왔습니다. 저는 한국생활이 미국생활하고 조금 다르다는 것을 배웠습니다.

예를 들어서, 한국에 아줌마들입니다. 아줌마는 큰 모자를 쓰고 파마를 합니다. 등산할 때 아줌마는 밝은 옷을 입고 막걸리 많이 마십니다. 지하철을 탈 때 아줌마는 자리에 앉고 싶어서 다른 사람들을 팔꿈치로 때립니다. 아야!! 그러니까 여러분도 지하철에서 조심하세요! 아저씨가 한국에 사람에는 (세)가지 종류가 있다고 합니다: 남자, 여자, 그리고 아줌마.

그리고 한국음식이 미국음식과 다릅니다. 한국에서 식사를 할 때 사람들은 거의 항상 김치와 밥을 먹습니다. 삼성카페테리아에서 양식이 가끔 한식처럼 보입니다! 예를 들어서 작년에 김치볶음밥그라탕 “양식” 라인에 있었는데 미국 음식은 김치를 함께 요리하지 않습니다.

또다른 재미있는 것은 한국 술 문화입니다. 한국사람들은 미국사람들보다 술을 더 많이 마십니다. 한국에 처음 금요일에 왔는데 강남 길에 술에 취해서 길에 널부러져 있는 양복입은 남자들이 너무 많아서 놀랐습니다! 나중에 저는 술취한 한국사람들의 사진 이 있는 블로그를 알있는데 그보다 더 끔찍한 사진이 많아서 더 놀랐습니다.

그리고 한국아이들은 이상한 놀이를 합니다. 똥침을 할 때 아이들은 손가락으로 총을 만들고 다른 사람의 엉덩이를 손가락으로 찌릅니다. 아야!! 미국아이가 똥침을 하면 저는 그 아이 가 경찰에 끌려갈 것이라고 생각합니다.

이렇게 한국생활은 가끔 이상해 보이 지만 재미있습니다. 저는 미국문화와 한국문화의 차이에 대해 배우는 것을 좋아합니다. 제가 한국말을 더 잘하면 한국을 더 잘 이해할 수 있을 것이라고 생각합니다.


---- English translation ----
"Sometimes Strange Korea"

Last year, I came to Korea from the United States. I have learned that Korean culture and American culture are a little bit different.

For example, in Korea there are ajummas*. The ajumma wears a big hat and has a perm. When going hiking, ajummas wear bright clothes and drink a lot of rice wine. When riding the subway, the ajumma will elbow other passengers because she wants to have a seat. Ouch! Therefore, you all should be careful when riding the subway! An older Korean man once told me that there are three types of people in Korea: men, women, and ajummas.

Also, Korean food is different from American food. In Korea, people eat kimchi with rice at every meal. At the Samsung cafeteria, sometimes the "Western food" actually looks like Korean food! For example, last year the "Western food" line served kimchi fried rice gratin, but in American cuisine we never cook with kimchi.

Another interesting thing is Korean drinking culture. Koreans drink more alcohol than Americans. On my first Friday night in Korea, I was walking along the streets of Gangnam and was surprised to see many men wearing suits passed out on the sidewalk from drinking too much! Later, I was also surprised to discover a blog with pictures of Koreans who have passed out in public.

Furthermore, Korean children play strange games. When playing ddong chim, Korean kids make their fingers into the shape of a gun and point their fingers into the butt of another person. Ouch! If American kids played ddong chim, I think they would be punished.

As you can see, Korean culture can appear a little bit strange, but also interesting. I like learning about the differences between American culture and Korean culture. If I one day speak Korean better, I think I will also be better at understanding these cultural differences.
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* A (somewhat pejorative) term for middle-aged married women in Korea. Hard for me to describe unless you have actually visited this country, in which case you would understand exactly what I am talking about!


P.S. The evening of the speech contest was my group's year-end party, a lavish affair in a big event hall near our office. As part of annual tradition the party included a talent show, and I performed a K-pop dance routine with a few of my colleagues. Anyone who is familiar with Crayon Pop's "Bar Bar Bar" will probably appreciate this picture.

Fall Foliage in Korea

Fall is unquestionably my favorite time to be in Korea. Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows about Korea's brisk, icy winters and steamy, dreary summers.  Fall finally becomes dry after sweating through the humid summer and the air, which tends to be excessively smoggy, finally clears and for a few weeks blue sky can actually be seen.

Late October and early November see the leaves change colors here. Getting out of Seoul is assuredly the best way to see autumn's many hues. Last year I went to Bukhansan and was blown away by the beauty of the landscape this time of year. This year, I considered a trip to Korea's most popular destination in fall, Seoraksan, but I wasn't quite up for a long, traffic-filled trip to a crowded mountain full of old men and women (ajeoshis and ajummas, for those who know a little Korean). 

Instead, last Sunday I visited Nami Island with a couple of friends that I met at a Buddhist temple stay in May. The island sits in the middle of a river east of Seoul and can be reached easily by train. I was warned by a couple Koreans that Nami is a "couples paradise", which could be annoying for single folk like myself. As the scene of the famous Korean TV drama "Winter Sonata" (famous, at least, in Asia), the island is full of tacky destinations like "A Place of First Kiss". But actually, on the day we went the island was mostly full of families on weekend strolls.

As she is from Vietnam, she had never seen anything but green leaves in her entire life!

Nami wasn't so bad, but I did find it a bit overrated relative to the hype. The leaves were pretty good, particularly along a ginkgo tree-lined street running through the center, but I felt like any decent park (at least in the US) would have leaves of similar quality. As this was in Korea, the island was of course super crowded (like everything worth seeing here), and with all of those people the island felt far more like a loud tourist trap than a peaceful nature retreat. But, I can now check Nami off the Korean "to see" list.

Finishing the day with one of my favorite Korean dishes: dak galbi (popular in the Chuncheon region)

Yesterday I hiked Bulamsan on the northeast edge of Seoul. The hike certainly had potential but unfortunately a chilly rain took away from the foliage and sights. I saw mostly soggy wet leaves rather than the stunning vistas that I had been hoping for. Thankfully, even Koreans don't tend to hike in the rain, and the hike was the calmest I have done in the (poorly nicknamed) Land of the Morning Calm.

The camera mostly stayed in my backpack yesterday

The Mom Visits

Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, in Busan

 

Frankly, I never expected my mother to visit Korea while I was here.  This is the same woman who visited me only once during my four years of college in Boston.  And who did not visit me at all during my two years of business school, when I was only a two-hour drive away.  The flight to Korea is much, much further from the US.  If you are lucky (and rich) enough to book the one daily direct flight a day on Korean Air from Washington DC to Seoul, you have 14 hours of flying delight in the economy class cabin. Add on several hours if you have connections.

Andong Mask Festival

So when my mother announced just before Korea's Chuseok holiday in September that she had booked a ticket for Korea, I was more than a bit shocked!  It would certainly be good to see her in my new, temporary but semi-permanent expat homeland, but I also felt a bit apprehensive.  Would my mother and I have our usual petty squabbles?  Would I grow tired of having her in my house for 10 days?  And would my mom be able to hack getting around on her own on the days when I needed to work? (I only had a couple vacation days available to show her around)  Again, my mom doesn't travel well, and this would be her first visit to Asia.

Having my mother in Korea was interesting because it provided a window into some of the emotions I felt when I first arrived in Korea last year.  As an expat, you grow accustomed to certain everyday difficulties and develop enough survival skills to get by day-to-day.  Korea is not a very accessible place for the independent, non-Korean speaking traveler, and my mother fits the stereotype of the American traveler pretty well – always insisting that other people speak in English!  I at least understand enough Korean now to navigate around, and when I brought my mom onto a Seoul bus for the first time I remembered my own first intimidating experiences with the system when I first arrived.

My mom had many of the usual observations about being here.  "Seoul is so crowded."  "Everyone is on their smartphone." "The women have had a lot of work done."  Eating was a little difficult for my mom as she didn't handle the Korean level of spiciness too well, but she was a good sport about trying Korean foods.  It also quickly became clear that she could not use chopsticks, but thankfully all restaurants had forks!  She tried many new dishes ... bibimbap, bulgogi, samgyeopsal, samgyetang, and haemul pajeon, to name a few.  And she was always asking me about the little side dishes which are typical of so many Korean meals.

Walking is difficult for my mom nowadays so Seoul sightseeing really tired her out!  We did the usual tourist circuit of activities, such as Insadong, the Bukchon Hanok Village, and Namsan Tower.  My mom was a little out of it but came away (correctly) with the view that Seoul is a massive city.

For my mom's last few days here, we took an adventure which I have never done before: a Korea road trip!  I wanted my mom to get out of Seoul to see the countryside, especially as Mom needed to experience a little bit of nature.  Driving in Korea is not for the faint of heart.  Cars weave in-and-out of lanes, drivers routinely cut you off, and Korean cowboys zoom past you in their speeding Hyundais only to slam on the brakes to avoid being flagged by omnipresent speed cameras.  One travel guide I read put it as such, "Remember that Korea was once a very poor country and therefore is only in its third generation of driving.  Please be careful."  Plus though most road signs are translated into English you're still missing a lot of information that is posted in Korean.

My mom awakens the spirits at Seokguram Grotto, in Gyeongju

Beomeosa Temple, in Busan

Nonetheless, my mom loved getting out of Seoul. We headed southeast to Andong, the "spiritual capital" of Korea, and caught a glimpse of its well-known annual Mask Festival.  I say glimpse because my mom was overwhelmed by all the people ... we got on the road quickly to our second stop: Gyeongju.  I took my mother to the same sights that I visited with Samsung during my orientation, and my mother also was able experience a formal Korean lunch in a small house.  맛있어요~! (delicious)  On our final day, we traveled to Busan to see the beach, a couple temples, and (my mother's favorite) Spaland in Shinsegae Department Store.  Busan drivers were, by far, the worst we encountered in Korea!

Safe to say that this was more time than I had spent with my mother in years.  I really enjoyed having my mother in Korea, and I also really enjoyed when she left as I had my apartment to myself again!  My mom still wants to know when I am "returning home" to the USA, but I think after her visit she is now comfortable with me living here.  My mother's eyes were opened to this mysterious place, and I'm glad that South Korea no longer just means "Kim Jong Il" to my mother anymore.

Famous in the Netherlands?

I recently did an interview for Columbus, the leading Dutch travel magazine.  The article is about the highlights of Seoul, according to the "locals".  By locals I'm pretty sure they mean "expats", but whatever ... I'm semi-famous!  You might see me on the newsstands of the Netherlands or Belgium, or if you fly KLM Business Class.  Which I'm sure you all do :)

I described to the editor a bunch of places I enjoy in Seoul, and she picked Namsan, the Leeum (Samsung Museum of Art), Jamsil Stadium for baseball, and Club Evans in Hongdae for cool jazz music.  I even learned about some new places that I need to check out!

First Korean Wedding!

It was only a matter of time before I would be invited to my first Korean wedding here in Korea.  In this country, weddings are a big deal – the Koreans I know seem to be attending weddings all of the time. Granted, I have missed several weddings in the USA since moving to Korea and had I stayed in my home country I probably would have been wedding-hopping on many weekends as well. However, Koreans take this to a higher level...their weddings are known for having a ton of attendees.

The newly married, Hyungjun and Min Ji

Hence I was excited to see what all the fuss was about when I received an invite to my first Korean wedding from my friend Hyungjun, who I had worked with previously in the US. Hyungjun had introduced me to his fiance in January at a BBQ restaurant and she seemed like a great gal, so I was excited for my friend. I'm sure Hyungjun was even more excited, as he and his fiance have lived apart for two years: she in California and he in Korea where he has been completing his compulsory two-year military service.

I asked a couple other Korean friends what to expect, and this is what I heard:

• The ceremony will be very quick, much quicker than American weddings
• Make sure to bring money in an envelope, which will be collected at the wedding hall. Give 50,000 Korean won for regular weddings, and 100,000 won for closer friends.
• Make sure to get into the photo at the end to show you were there!

A feature not seen at American weddings: bowing to the parents

Last Saturday afternoon, I put on a suit and hailed a taxi in my neighborhood.  When the driver dropped me off at a nondescript office building in Gangnam, I thought maybe I was at the wrong place. But when I walked inside I saw several Koreans of all ages in suits and found a video display with my friend's name on it in Korean text. He was the 5:00 wedding that day...and there were also weddings at 4pm and 6pm. This wedding hall was like an assembly line!

Up a couple floors and I found Hyungjun in a tuxedo and wearing white gloves. I also recognized his parents, who I had met when I visited Hyungjun's hometown during the spring. They greeted me very warmly and I immediately felt welcome, despite being the only foreigner in this wedding hall.

Not knowing anyone else there, I didn't have anyone to coach me through what to do, which was a little worrying. I managed to find a desk where I signed my name into a book, and provided my envelope of money (for reference: they provide these at the wedding hall). I stood around and did some people-watching, took some photos, and wrote a little congratulatory note for the soon-to-be married. Men were mostly in suits and women in regular dresses, much like American weddings, except many of the female family members were dressed in colorful traditional hanbok outfits.

Family photo after the wedding

A couple minutes before 5pm, the 4pm wedding was chased out of the wedding hall and we were summoned in. I took a place in the back and tried not to block the view of too many Koreans. First, the mothers walked in and did a bowing ceremony at the front, then Hyungjun, and finally the bride with her father. No best man, maid of honor, or other wedding entourage like in the US. The parents sat off on both sides of the stage in comfy-looking chairs (groom's on left, bride's on right) and a pianist sat at a piano in the back.

The minister at the front, if he could be called that (this ceremony seemed entirely secular) gave a long speech to lead off the wedding. With the little Korean I know, I gather he was talking about the history of the couple and maybe giving some advice on the meaning of marriage, though I'm not really sure. Not too many people in the back seemed to care about this man's words either...they were mostly 20-somethings who seemed more interested in chatting and catching up with each other. There seemed to be no shame with coming and going from the ceremony, nor with talking at a low volume. Definitely more casual than what I am used to. A photographer was walking around snapping a ton of photos, and another young lady kept adjusting the bride's long dress to make sure it looked perfect.

After the long speech, which lasted about 15 minutes, the bride and groom walked towards the bride's parents and the newly married gave a full bow to the parents. Hyungjun got down on his knees and put his head all the way to the ground. His bride was permitted to remain standing – if she knelt down, how would they have fixed her dress for the photographs! – and bow at 90 degrees. Then hugs and handshakes were exchanged, and the same process was repeated on the other side of the stage with Hyungjun's parents. Finally, the couple was declared husband and wife, I think (or something to that effect in Korean).  Total time: 25 minutes.

Now the photo time, and this is where my stress bells went off. I had been told, "Make sure you get in the photo," but no one had told me that there would be multiple photos! The first photo had many older people in it and this clearly looked like the family photo. The stage cleared and a bunch of younger-looking people crashed the stage for the second photo, which I thought must be the friends' photo. I smiled and walked off the stage, but then a third group assembled on stage for a photo, and I got concerned. The guys on stage seemed closer to Hyungjun than the group I wandered on stage with. When I told my Korean teacher about this a couple days after, she laughed out loud and told me that I had crashed the "distant relatives" photo!! My, will I look like a goofy foreigner in that one!

At 5:50pm, everyone was chased out of the hall and we wandered upstairs for food. We were served galbitang, a beef short-rib stew, and a wide variety of Korean side dishes appeared on the table. Wedding hall staff flew around the room throwing food on tables and everyone was eating very quickly. Seating was unassigned so I stumbled down at a table with Hyungjun's middle school friends. I was able to communicate with them in broken Korean and a little English, and they were amused with the foreigner trying all of the Korean side dishes (most of which I have already eaten in Korea). This group clearly does not get to see each other much so they were busy catching up. I sat and ate quietly.  By about 6:45, food time was over, the wedding party had made their way around the room to shake hands and take pictures, and we were done – time to go home! No dancing, no speeches, nothing more.

Clearly I had been impressed by the speed of all this and the assembly-line manner we were whisked around the wedding hall. It all was very much fitting with Korea's palli palli ("hurry up!") culture. Now I understand how some Koreans can attend two weddings in one day! The parent worship was impressive and the gift-giving far simpler than trying to decide what someone would like off of his wedding registry. However, the whole ceremony felt rather informal compared with American weddings, and given the amount of importance that Koreans place upon traditional marriage I am a little surprised that they don't take more time to savor these events.

At least next Korean wedding I will be in the correct photo ^_^

Summer Blues

Today I celebrate my one year anniversary in Korea!!  Time flies, though at my age this might now start happening during both good times and bad.

Now that I'm gearing up for my second trip around the sun from this part of the world, the inevitable comparisons with life 12 months ago crop up in my mind.  Indeed, a lot has changed in the past year!  I started a new job, made dozens of new friends and acquaintances, and even speak a little Korean (not enough to be fully conversational ... yet).  Life here isn't quite as fresh and strange as it was when I started, but it remains far from familiar and I still learn new aspects of life and the culture here all of the time.

Koreans like to ask me what I think about life in their country.  I tell them that I like the people, I like the convenient lifestyle, I like Korean BBQ.  But one thing I don't like is the weather.  It is a mess.  In winter, I wrote about how cold the weather was, almost as bad as where I grew up (Milwaukee, USA).  Spring was okay, but relatively brief – just April and May more or less.  By June, temps were already above 30C and the heat only gave way for the legendary Korean 장마 (jangma) ... rainy season!!

About to tackle whitewater rafting near Inje (Gangwon Province)

July was an absolutely dreadful month to be here.  Pretty much every day was overcast (I think I counted 3 sunny days) with a guaranteed chance of rain at some point in the day, if not a complete day of monsoon showers.  Not carrying an umbrella was just taunting Mother Nature to unleash her moisture.  Just about everyone I know here owns at least half-a-dozen umbrellas, the inevitable consequence of being caught outside on the one decent-looking day where just maybe you didn't think you needed to carry one...wrong!...and purchasing yet another rain contraption to add to your collection.  Thankfully an umbrella can be found just about anywhere within a 1-block radius in Seoul (I did mention I like Korean convenience).

And it was the longest Korean monsoon season on record this year – 49 days! – finally abating officially on Sunday.  But once the clouds lifted the heat really cranked up in the city ... it's like a jungle now.  Just walking to the bus stop yesterday morning caused me to break a sweat.  We already had the hottest June on record in Seoul in 2013 and I'm wondering if August will be the same.  Walking into the office isn't much better.  Samsung is keeping its thermostats set to 28C this summer due to a power shortage (foreigners to Korean government: "Build some power plants!") and stepping into most conference rooms at Samsung now is comparable to entering a sauna.  If the weather is anything like last year, more rain and typhoons (!) are just around the corner.

Covered in paint after running the Color Me Rad 5K with my foreign Samsung colleagues

But Korea is a land of extremes, so I guess the weather here just fits the national psyche.  Emotional people, spicy food, brutish work and study schedules, the highest consumption of cigarettes and alcohol in Asia ... Koreans and their culture are like their weather.

But thankfully, even during rainy season I was able to do some fun things here like go rafting in beautiful Gangwon Province and run the Color Me Rad 5K, a phenomenon that has crossed oceans!  That said, I look forward to September ... and the day when I can again type in this blog without air conditioning.

South Korea Travels

Last weekend I returned to the US for a long weekend to attend a wedding, and while crammed in a sardine can of an airplane for a pair of 13-hour flights (thank you American Airlines...not) I had a chance to reflect on the first half of 2013.

I am not one to make New Year's resolutions typically, but 2013 was an exceptional year.  As the ball was dropping in New York City / Boshingak bell was being rung in Seoul, I had decided that I wanted to see more of this country that I now inhabit.  In my first 8 months here I had been a very bad Korean tourist, having done little outside the capital city (besides where Samsung sent us during our orientation).  As Seoul is absolutely massive there are always things to find here, and I had set my eye on other travel around Asia, taking two holiday trips to China and three to Japan.  But I didn't want to one day leave here without seeing the rest of my adopted country.  South Korea isn't that big, after all (it's about the size of the US state of Virginia), and being rather low on Samsung vacation days made in-country weekend travel far more appealing.

Wintertime was cold and bleak in this country, and besides a couple ski day trips east of Seoul I didn't escape the city except on an airplane.  Once a glimmer of mild spring weather kicked in, I started booking my weekends.  Here is a recap:

March 24: Daejeon
One of my college roommates was in town, as he is married to a Korean lady nowadays. Turns out that her brother is the star player on the Daejeon team in Korea's professional volleyball league, so she invited me to join my old roommate and her family for a day trip to Daejeon to watch the team play.  Daejeon is about a two-hour drive south of Seoul and despite being the 5th largest city in Korea is known for absolutely nothing (when I asked my Korean hosts this question, they paused for a long moment, struggling for an answer, and finally blurted "...the Expo??").  The drive through town past a series of monochromatic concrete buildings confirmed Daejeon's drabness.

Prime seats for Korean professional volleyball

However, Daejeon has a fantastic volleyball team, sponsored by Samsung of course, and I had prime seats in the "VIP" section for game 1 of the Korean mens' professional volleyball championship series!  Volleyball in Korea, I discovered, was awesome.  Cheerleaders, chants, special cheering sections for the star players (one of which pulled off this amazingly coordinated card trick during a timeout), pyrotechnics, and insanely dedicated fans who did nothing but yell for two hours straight.  Closest thing in America to this atmosphere would be a high-school basketball gymnasium.  I loved it.  The Daejeon Samsung Bluefangs won and I had discovered a new favorite professional sport in Korea.  My Korean hosts were super kind as well and I really appreciated their generosity.

April 4: Daegu
This trip was quasi-work-related – a couple colleagues and I were heading to Daegu for its annual Green Energy Expo.  Never mind that Samsung has shut down its renewable energy development business completely, or that most of the presentations would be given in Korean.  So it was a bit of boondoggle, but we had nothing else to do really as we were on "beach week" between projects at work.

Daegu "EXCO", covered in solar panels

Highlights included my first ride on the high-speed KTX train (very nice and fast) and a tour of the earth-friendly features of the Daegu convention center building (the whole roof is covered with solar panels).  Daegu was similarly drab as Daejeon, but the people were very friendly.  On said tour I had my first truly weird foreigner experience in Korea with a middle-aged woman from Ulsan who was convinced that I resembled a Hollywood movie star (I don't receive Tom Hanks comparisons in the States). I allowed some photographs and am now probably on her Facebook page.  Also at the expo the Daegu chamber of commerce had set up a free medical checkup station, only for foreigners.  I stood for a body fat scan and discovered that I am considered "obese" by Korean standards.  In fact, a nurse called me "obese" to my face and drew a stick figure of a fat man to communicate my test results.  There's a first time for everything...

April 12-13: Busan
This was also courtesy of another work field-trip boondoggle to the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard on Geoje Island.  A massive facility and very impressive.  Geoje Island is along the southeastern coast near Busan, Korea's 2nd city, so a colleague and I found a hotel room and stayed over in the city for Friday night.  I really liked Busan.  The air was cleaner than Seoul and the vibe was a lot more relaxed.  Also Busan has a very nice beach, the most popular in Korea I am told, and a defined skyline unlike Seoul.  My colleague and I ate at a nice sashimi place along the beach for dinner, and though Korean sashimi is dull compared with its Japanese counterpart my colleague and I had a grand time mixing our fish with the many side dishes and, of course, soju.  The nightlife scene near the beach is fun too.  I would definitely revisit Busan.

Haeundae Beach.  This place will be mobbed during the summer months.

May 4: DMZ Tour
I covered this trip to the border between the two Koreas in another post.  I definitely want to revisit to see the Joint Security Area.

May 11-12: Seonyudo Island (Jeollabuk Province)
I booked this trip rather last minute with a travel group that specializes in providing adventures to Korea's many English-language teachers.  While I felt rather out of place as someone who is building an actual career in this country (and not just here on a one-year joy stint), I was glad to tag along to see another part of the country which I hadn't seen before...the "West Sea" between Korea and China (also known as the Yellow Sea).

In Seoul I boarded a 3-hour bus for Gunsan, an industrial town on the western coast, then rode a 45-minute ferry to Seonyudo Island (which is also the name of an island closer to Seoul).  We rented bicycles and rode around on a beautiful mild spring day.  The atmosphere was peaceful around the little fishing villages that dotted the island.  There was also a beach here and we were the only foreigners in the area, the others were mostly Korean families and groups of Korean middle-aged men and women who had come to get drunk together on the beach while watching the sunset.  We shot off bottle rockets and went searching for clams.  A nice weekend escape from the city life.

May 17-19: Hwaeomsa Temple and Hadong Green Tea Festival
May 17 was Buddha's Birthday on the lunar calendar this year, which fell very conveniently on a Friday so we received a long weekend!  A group of Samsung foreigners had organized a temple stay in the Jiri mountains on the southern part of the peninsula.  It was a beautiful area – big lush green mountains and winding roads through the valleys.  I was reminded a bit of my trip to the Alps a long time ago.  Getting to this beautiful landscape was a nightmare though.  Traffic in Korea is legendarily bad on holidays and we spent 6.5 hours on a bus for a trip that should have taken only 4.

The temple stay itself is quite the cultural experience.  We slept on the floor in rooms with wood-fire heated floors and ate 3 meals a day of vegan bibimbap.  Never in my life can I recall being so bored with eating!  We were awakened at 3:10am for morning prayer -- stumbling downhill half-asleep in the dark to watch a group of monks chanting in a temple hall is not an experience that I will soon forget.  During the day, we picked green tea leaves from the monks' wild garden and laboriously pressed the leaves in a steamy hot room.  Though the mountain landscape was amazing, all this work and dull food and lack of sleep left me tired and grumpy.  I really needed a 3-day weekend to recover from my 3-day weekend here.  I am definitely not cut out for the temple life.

On Sunday we visited green tea fields around the town of Hadong and viewed their annual green tea festival.  We also visited a cultural center where we learned about the customs associated with a traditional Korean tea ceremony.  There were a lot of rules to remember, but the tea was quite good.

June 1-2: Jeonju
This trip was inspired an American friend who forwarded me a New York Times article in the winter from the Frugal Traveler blog.  Legendary bibimbap?  Yes please!

In fact, the bibimbap we tried here was quite delicious.  I'm not a huge fan of this Korean staple dish, though I do eat it occasionally when I want to feel healthy.  It's very simple, just vegetables, meat or an egg, rice, and red pepper gochujang sauce.  But at Hanguk Jip in Jeonju, in business since 1952, the bibimbap is yum!  Thankfully one of my colleagues has a Korean girlfriend who was able to look up this gem on Naver...this place was quite the treat.  I ordered a bibimbap with beef tartare and was delighted with every taste in my mouth. I'm not sure what made it so good, but some combination of the right spices combined with very fresh ingredients.

Before the amazing bibimbap

In the evening we went to a couple makgeolli restaurants -- they are hole-in-the-wall places which serve traditional Korean rice wine with a dizzying assortment of side dishes. It's a strange setup – you order the rice wine and they then bring out whatever side dishes that restaurant chooses to serve that day ... food du jour if you will. The food was very Korean (i.e. not everything was tasty) but good cultural experience and absurdly cheap. We drank two kettles of makgeolli and stuffed ourselves with food in two restaurants for under $7/person.

Makgeolli restaurant #1

The touristy part of town itself is nice and quaint and has a good pedestrian area where you can shop for traditional Korean gift items. We stayed in the city's Hanok Village (traditional Korean houses), and shared a cozy but nice room.  Mostly Asian tourists. Not much else to do that was interesting, but certainly a place to visit if you want to be frugal like the NY Times author.

June 5-6: Muju
I wasn't here to be a tourist, as Samsung had put its new hires on a bus to this resort town in the central mountains of Korea for the biggest corporate pep rally imaginable.  (check out "Samsung summer festival" on YouTube to see what I mean)  Beautiful landscape and the town looked quite quaint, like something out of Switzerland.  I want to get back here during ski season.

June 8-9: Mokpo
This was a rare opportunity to travel to a Korean friend's hometown, a port village in southwest Korea.  We explored around a bit, taking in the dancing sea fountain along the waterfront and hiking up the town peak to get a 360-degree panorama view.  We also visited nearby mud flats to watch crabs dancing about.  Most of the highlights of this trip were food-related, eating a lot of the local seafood nearby.  My friend's mother is a great cook and enjoyed her fish and pajeon (Korean pancakes).  I also ate sannakji, a small octopus so freshly killed that the tentacles are still moving in the bowl!  Practicing my Korean language speaking was challenging but I think made the experience much better for all of us.  My friend's parents had never hosted a foreigner in their home before, and they were impressed with my chopstick-eating abilities!  It was a memorable weekend and I really appreciated the cultural experience that is difficult to get for most foreigners here.  On a side note, I've decided I need a Korean mom to cook for me on weekends  :)

With my buddy Hyungjun and his parents in Mokpo

June 21-22: Seoraksan
This mountainous park in the northeastern part of South Korea is a gem, and we only scratched the surface I feel.  A couple colleagues and I caught a Friday evening bus to the coastal town of Sokcho and made out bright and early on Saturday morning to go hiking.  Only one problem: misty weather made things slippery and took away any views we could have had from up high.  And there are certainly views to be had from pictures I've seen.  This park has waterfalls, temples, and tough but manageable hiking.  Even in the less-than-ideal weather, my friends and I had a great time.  We definitely need to get back, maybe to view the fall foliage.  Call this a scouting trip...

Ascending into the mist at Seoraksan

My Sister Visits Seoul

Hello readers!  I've been very busy recently, with a lot of time at the office for my current project and traveling most weekends to places around Korea.  It has been exhilarating, but frankly I need a restful weekend to catch my breath.  More on the Korean travels to come in another post.

My weekend Korean travels took a break 3 weeks ago when my sister Jillian visited Seoul.  My sister has traveled extensively throughout Europe but had never been to Asia before.  She graduated from Virginia Tech last month and I couldn't come back to the USA for her ceremony, so instead I told Jillian that she could visit me in Korea as a graduation present.  She jumped on the offer and grabbed a friend to fly with her halfway around the world to visit.  I was happy she was traveling with a friend because I wasn't able to take time off from work to show her around and this way she would have someone who could merrily get lost with her together in Seoul.

Fortunately, Jillian was just grateful to see her brother in his new environment and didn't have high expectations for things to do here.  This was good because, frankly, Korea generally doesn't have many "must-see" attractions.  Hence, Korea is relatively undiscovered by foreign tourists, and just getting around and experiencing the markets, food, and culture can make for a good trip.

Adventure #1: Noryangjin Fish Market.  Great success!

I transitioned my two guests into Korean life by starting with a night out in the Itaewon district, which I live very close to.  Itaewon is probably the least Korean-feeling place in Korea, so I figured this would make for a good transition.  On the weekend, we stepped up my guests' cultural immersion quickly.  I took them to the Noryangjin Fish Market for lunch and ordered a fresh seafood meal directly from one of the fish vendors on the market floor.  This was a bit of a leap of faith for me as I had only visited one previous time and a Korean had done all the ordering.  My Korean language skills are still poor but I managed to acquire some fresh crabs, clams, prawns, and a flat fish which may have been flounder.  The middle-aged Korean lady from the fish stand, grateful for my business, walked the three of us to her favorite restaurant, where we sat on the floor while the restaurant staff prepared our meal for us.  Prawns were grilled, crabs were boiled, the flesh of the flat fish was served sashimi-style and the head of the fish was mixed into a bean sprout stew.  A very Korean meal and my sister loved it!

In the evening, my sister had booked tickets for the Nanta cooking show in the Hongdae district.  Afterwards, I went for another cultural meal that even I had yet to experience -- gopchang, aka beef intestine!  When I also ordered a bottle of soju to go with my sister really started getting nervous, but after trying the intestine she admitted it wasn't that bad.  Sort of like a chewy sausage.  If you can avoid thinking about what you are eating then the taste was pretty good.  Allegedly the intestine is full of nutrients and good for your complexion, though I'm skeptical about most Korean medical claims.

Winner winner intestines dinner!

We saw some of the major tourist attractions as well – Gwanghwamun Square (where you can take pictures wearing Korean nobles' clothes – for free!), Garosu-gil, Insa-dong, Myeong-dong, and Namsan Tower.  During the week following, my sister and her friend battled rain in Seoul but were able to check some boxes that even I haven't been able to experience, such as viewing a 4D movie and visiting a jjimjilbang (Korean spa).  As two attractive, young, Western women, my sister and her friend did attract some attention from the locals, which surprised me as I have only had few people stare at me in Korea.

After one week of exhilarating and eye-opening experiences, my sister and her friend returned to Incheon Airport and flew back home (via Dubai, where they had another set of cultural adventures).  I was a little surprised that the two of them hadn't explored more of Korea outside of Seoul – Jeju, Busan, and the DMZ are probably the most common things to do.  I was also surprised that they had decided not to visit more of Asia ... why they chose to fly halfway around the world and not stop by Japan or Hong Kong seemed foolish.  But you cannot tell other people how to enjoy their vacations.  My sister and her friend had a great time nonetheless.

Bibimbap was less adventurous but equally enjoyed

My sister's visit also served as a reminder for how far I have come from the naive adventurer I was when I landed in Seoul for the first time 10 months ago.  Even with my broken language skills my sister thought I was a master in directing taxis and ordering food in restaurants.  I see how far I have come in eating with chopsticks and understanding the basics of Korean culture.  I'm amused, but not shocked, by many of the things I see around me most days.  Just living in a country where people like me are an extreme minority feels rather normal to me now but was rather shocking to my sister.  I recalled how strange it was for me too when I first arrived in Seoul.

After my sister's successful visit, my mother is now talking about making the trip as well.  She also has never visited Asia and is markedly less adventurous than my sister ... this could be interesting!!!

DMZ Tour

Was a mild spring day outside in Seoul yesterday and I want to be outdoors all the time in this weather.  So I booked a day trip to the DMZ, South Korea's 4-km wide border with its northern brother.  Whatever springtime tensions existed seem to have died down here (which I wrote about a month ago) and I felt it was as good a time as any to visit.

I caught a morning bus from Seoul and we were at Imjingak in about an hour.  Imjingak is as far as civilians can go to the North by themselves without permission.  The town was built to console those who had to leave their homes in the North as a result of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The first thing I noticed is how close the border is.  Like, imagine if the Mexicans were preparing to overrun San Diego with tanks.  It takes as much time to get to Imjingak as it does to get to Incheon Airport!

Little did we know that media would turn out for North Korea Freedom Week!

Imjingak has some peace memorials...and a theme park for kids who take their history less seriously!  But it seems like a fairly solemn place.  There is the Freedom Bridge, which was used to exchange P.O.W.'s at the end of the Korean War.  Also, we visited for 2013 North Korea Freedom Week!  There was a media event at one of the memorials with Suzanne Scholte, an avid North Korea human rights supporter.  All sorts of media covered her appearance at Imjingak.  From there, we crossed the Civilian Control Line and ate lunch at the "unification village" of Tongilchon, one of two villages controlled by the military (the other being Daesongdong which lies within the actual DMZ).  The area between the Civilian Control Line and the DMZ serves as an additional buffer for South Korean citizens from the North.

After lunch we toured the Third Infiltration Tunnel, one of four known tunnels dug by the North Koreans which would have allowed their army to launch a stealth invasion by marching troops underneath the DMZ!!  The tunnel height was quite short and I kept bumping my head on the ceiling – thankfully I was wearing a helmet.  I imagine I must be taller than a typical North Korean soldier, though I'm not very tall myself (1.78 m).

As close as I got to North Korea on this tour.  Still 2 km away, and quite hazy.

From here we traveled to the Dora Observatory. This lies right at the edge of the DMZ, and from here you can actually see North Korea!!  Unfortunately the air was hazy, but one could see Daesong-dong and its North Korean counterpart with their competing flagpoles.  In that area also lies the Joint Security Area (JSA) where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face.  To the west we could see the Kaesong industrial complex, what was once jointly operated between the two Koreas but shuttered as a result of the recent verbal show between the two countries.  Our tour finished at Dorasan train station, an empty place built to one day lie on a train line between Seoul and Pyongyang.  Symbolic certainly, but strange that such infrastructure would get built for a reunification that seems long off.

The tour left me wanting more, as we didn't have the chance to actually cross into the DMZ and visit the JSA as some tours are authorized to do.  So I enjoyed the day and learned some South Korean history, and I will need to return for another tour of the border region.

So where do I board the train for Pyeongyang??

Book Review: Korea, The Impossible Country

With 8 months under my belt here in South Korea and some sense for how things work in these parts, I'm continually surprised by how little knowledge of Korean culture or language a foreign face needs to show to impress many of the locals.  Just by saying a couple phrases of broken Korean that I have learned or knowing the names of the past couple presidents and I have somehow been able to wow people.  Just the other day, I surprised one of my Korean colleagues on my new team at work with my chopstick abilities in the Samsung cafeteria.  I understand that some foreign tourists might visit without knowing how to use chopsticks but I don't see how a foreign expat living here could possibly get by without this essential skill.  I would starve.

My foreign face made an impression on this Korean ajumma (who insisted on taking a photo with me).  In Daegu.

I've tried to be a student of the history and culture during my time here.  Indeed, I would feel even more out of place than I already am if I didn't have some sense for what was going on around me and why.  I try to keep my eyes open and observe as best I can, watch a little Korean TV every now and then (even when I can't understand what they are saying), and read bits of English-language Korean news.  Also, because the history of the country strongly dictates the culture, I've tried reading some books to improve my understand of what underlies the Korean psyche.  Korea Unmasked, by Rhie Won-bok, was a good start to learning about the differences between Korea, China, and Japan.  Ask a Korean Dude, by Kim Hyung-geun, is a quick and irreverent read detailing some of the quirks of Korean culture.  Recently I read Korea: The Impossible Country, by Daniel Tudor.  When he is not writing books, Tudor is Korea Correspondent for one of my favorite periodicals, The Economist. 

I very much liked Tudor's book because it tells the story of modern Korea from a Westerner's perspective.  It shows the strains and contradictions that have woven themselves into Korean society to create the country that exists today.  Since Korea is so poorly known to the Western world, Tudor's book fills an important need to better explain what modern South Korea represents to foreigners.  Tudor not only describes the ancient influences that remain very strong here, such as Confucianism, but also the influences on Korean music, business, politics, education, and other topics relevant for a full understanding of Korean life.

Tudor asserts his view of modern Korea in his book's title.  Korea's near-impossible ascendency from an impoverished backwater to a wealthy technological leader deserves to be studied, Tudor asserts.  But the book's title has a double-meaning.  Despite having pulled their country up by its bootstraps, Koreans remain the country with the longest working hours in the world, and children endure grueling amounts of education to compete fiercely for the few spots at top universities and Korea's all-powerful chaebol business conglomerates.  South Korea puts too much pressure on its citizens to conform to impossible standards of education, reputation, physical appearance, and career progress.  South Korea is now second to only Lithuania worldwide in terms of suicides per capita.  Tudor wonders when Koreans will uncork the champagne and relax a little.

I highly recommend Tudor's book to anyone embarking on an extended stay in South Korea.  Korea: The Impossible Country describes many elements of life here that foreigners should understand.  Why the Korean society is so sexist, for instance, and what women are doing to break through centuries-old barriers.  The source of Korean nationalism and its "bunker mentality" that resists foreign influence.  Why saccharine, similar-sounding K-pop sounds prevail on the radio.  What motivates some Koreans to spend a third of their after-tax income on private English education for their children.  I wish my blog can provide an understanding of some of these elements of life in Korea, but Tudor's work is far more thorough and intellectually nourishing than whatever I will be able to accomplish online.

Koreans invest a lot into learning English, but much of it I still don't understand.  Why so serious?

What is the Deal with North Korea???

Fear me???

 
Time to dwell briefly on one of my least favorite, most annoying topics: North Korea.  I really, really did not want to devote blog space to this ridiculous subject, but after receiving so many messages from people abroad asking about the situation, I feel no choice but to talk about it here.  Damn you, Kim Jong Un!

Given Western (and by Western I mean mostly American as that is where I am from) media coverage of the unfolding buildup of hostilities on the Korean peninsula, though, I’m not surprised at the level of concern expressed by my overseas friends.  It does sound grave.  The North has promised to turn South Korea into a “sea of fire”.  They have conducted a nuclear test, launched long-range rockets, cut off an emergency military hotline with the South, and “withdrew” from the 1953 armistice agreement ending the Korean War (though they did this before just 4 years ago).  Their spokesmen have vowed to “break the waists of the crazy enemies, totally cut their windpipes and thus clearly show them what real war is like.”  So yeah, if we take the North at their word, we should be extremely concerned!!

But talk does not equal action, especially from a dystopian state reminiscent of Oceania from the book “1984”.  As anyone who has read George Orwell’s classic remembers, the fictional state from the novel is in a perpetual state of war with either Eurasia or Eastasia, though the narrator can never remember who.  The ruling party of Oceania claims that perpetual poverty is a necessary sacrifice for the war effort.  People convicted of “thought crimes” against the state are sent to reeducation centers and tortured until they can again prove their loyalty to the totalitarian state.  And so we also these elements in contemporary North Korea, a state where the citizens live in relentless fear or have been mindlessly brainwashed into believing that the country must unite and sacrifice to fend off the ever-present “American imperialists”.

What we know about the new Dear Leader: he likes the Chicago Bulls, wears cowboy hats, and has a pretty Korean wife

Frankly, I see the North Korean government as noisy neighbors.  I think Kim Jong Un and his military advisors are simply playing power politics, doing whatever it takes to maintain control over their wretched and miserable populace and retain a life of luxury.  So they keep their country in a perpetual state of crisis to inspire nationalism amongst the people.  They threaten attacks on their southern neighbor and the US as a way to extort donations and try to earn a place at international negotiating tables that they don’t deserve.  They get upset about external affairs – things like UN sanctions or American war games – and turn up the rhetoric to try to get some control over them.

There’s a cultural element missed by Western news agencies that publish every word issued by the North Korean regime: Koreans have a flair for dramatic, over-the-top, oftentimes ridiculous and unsubstantiated rhetoric.  I see this too in South Korea.  Many of the videos shown internally over Samsung internal television also use language that Westerners find theatrical and absurd.  South Korea has an extreme culture in so many ways – in the amount people work, the amount they drink, the amount of plastic surgery they get – so I am not surprised when this extreme element of the Korean character gets translated into language.  North Korea and South Korea are brothers from the same mother…hence, I’m now not at all surprised at the word choices the North Koreans make.

Despite all the threats, the North Korean leaders have no incentive to launch an attack.  There are almost 30,000 American troops and many more South Koreans ready to counterattack the moment the North Koreans pull the trigger.  South Korea’s forces are vastly superior to the North’s and would devastate Pyongyang in no time.  Also, North Korea’s perpetual ally, China, has no interest in conflict either and will do everything in its power to maintain stability with this situation.  The Chinese have long feared an influx of North Korean refugees stemming from a collapse of the Kim dynasty, and also perhaps may be wary of the potential power that a unified Korea may possess.

The North Koreans are prepared for our imminent invasion, I guess

In short, I’m not panicking here and neither is anyone else in Seoul.  The North Korean nukes are a little worrisome, but the North’s conventional artillery has been pointed at Seoul for 60 years already.  With the South Korean capital lying only 30 miles from the border, the North has long had the potential to devastate Seoul.  The people here have seen this pattern of bombastic rhetoric play itself out before and seem alert but not scared.  Tourists visiting Seoul can breathe a sigh of relief – the tours to the DMZ border are still operating as usual.  And in a sign that crisis isn’t being felt here, perhaps the biggest news story this week has been a recent law passed to limit indecent exposure which some fear could alter the dress codes of South Korea’s short-skirted masses of young women.

But with an unproven leader now at the helm in Pyongyang, who knows what is actually going on?  There is always the chance that Kim Jong Un will plunge into doing something irrational or lose control of the situation.  And, as an older Korean man told me at dinner a couple weeks ago, “If a conflict breaks out, we [the South Koreans] simply have nowhere to go.”  So I will stay on alert and continue to watch the situation, just like everyone else.