What I ♥ about Korea
I fail miserably at being a travel blog. Admittedly, when I first started blogging back nearly 6 years ago (wow it’s been that long?!) it was an experiment in discourse on my ashtanga practice. Honestly, I never imagined I’d go to India or anywhere thereafter. Anyway, I am horrible at writing about my travels, as I never write about where I am or the culture I’m in. Let’s just say, if I were hired to be a travel writer (and what a dream that would be), I’d probably get fired.
However, if you’re still reading after all this time of sporadic, unreliable posts, I’m making another attempt at a cultural post.
Here are a few things I love about South Korea:
Cheap, good food.
While they’re relatively big on meat here, you can get some really good vegetarian food (bibimbap, doenjangchiggae) for $1 or $2. Most meals typically come with a surplus of sides, and of course, kimchi and rice!
Konglish 콩글리시
This is Korean style English. It is words that read and sound out just like English. Here’s a few:
메뉴 “meh-nyu”
택시 “taek-shi”
초콜릿 “cho-kol-lit”
크리스마스 “kuh-ri-seu-mah-suh”
오피스텔 “oh-pi-suh-tel”
모터사이클 “moh-tu-sah-i-kul”
Just in case you couldn’t figure those out: Menu, Taxi, Chocolate, Christmas, Office-tel, Motorcycle
Then there is the Konglish phrases and words, which don’t always make sense:
스킨십 “Seu-kin-shib” or skinship, which pretty much means some sort of physical intimacy like hugging or holding hands
이벤트 “Ee-ben-tuh” or event, which they use to refer to a huge sale.
They have a tendency to say weird phrases like “I like to eat delicious food” or if you ask someone what they’re going to eat or what they want to eat, a typical response is “something delicious”
Well, I’d like to say who doesn’t like to eat delicious food?
Another, when my friends and I talk about a time we’ll meet or something fun we’ll do, they’ll often say, “Oh I expect that”
Except what? A good time, a bad time?
Another popular response to “how was your weekend? how was meeting your friend?”
“Funny!”
At first, I thought okay, yeah your weekend could be hilarious and so could your friend, but when I probed for further details, I often found that they had a bad weekend or their friend was sad, so they went and drank a lot. Or that the movie wasn’t funny, but it was fun to go see.
Service 서비스 “Suh-be-seu”
Did you know (if you can figure out how to say it in Korean), that the large grocery stores aka Marts will deliver your groceries for free to your house?
If I have a problem in my house, they’ll come promptly and cheaply. The most I’ve ever spent for something to get fixed was around $40 and it was because I’d broken the hinge on my refrigerator door.
Typically, when you buy something at the department stores or beauty shops, they’ll normally dump you with a surplus of free products and samples.
Yay for service (and free stuff)!!
Technology
Korea rocks with their fast techno gadgets and high speed internet. These days, wi-fi is available practically everywhere.
I’m going to buy either the Galaxy SII or the Iphone 5 this Fall. I imagine that I’ll be able to get one or the other for a mere $48-$60 a month, including internet.
As I mentioned before, I went to have 70 pictures printed. It was finished in 15 min and cost me a mere $10.
There’s lots of other things I like about this country. Inexpensive healthcare, no tipping, cheap and trendy clothing stores, low taxes, and finally low crime. This is really the country to be in right now. The economy is strong, the cost of living is low and teaching jobs are aplenty.
There’s a world of adventure out there, just be bold and bathe yourself in the experience.
