This month, Pusanweb discussions
asked the ever-popular question...
Do You Enjoy Korea?
Oderint
dum metuant
I for one do really enjoy Korea and have spent a little over
ten years there. The culture, food, sites, etc...are things everyone should have
a chance to experience. However, regardless of how much I enjoy it, there are
certain elements to this society that just piss me off to no end. This is one
of them. Arrogance: It is one thing to be self confident and proud of ones nationality.
However, it is another to walk around with blinders (whether you're on your home
turf or not) and expect everyone to conform.
Ben Eller
Korea
has the worse food service culture in the world....I am not talking rude and inept
service, I am talking about stuff like this....A brand new noodle restaurant opened
near my home. Went there. Interior was first rate. Peaked into the kitchen. The
ajunma was talking the noodles from a giant plastic bag. The guy making thedumplings
was using stuffing from an industrial-sized vat of dumpling stuffing. 90 percent
of the Chinese restaurants make your sweet and sour pork from frozen breaded pork
strips and the sauce comes from a giant bottle. And don't get me started on hiking
and camping. Drive through New England in the fall or visit Yellowstone park.
Korea's natural wonders are most unwonderful.
winterrider
Regarding
the restaurants, there is this little mandu place I go to where they actually
make the mandu from scratch in front of you. It is just a small mom-and-dad place
but the food is actually good.
Batman
Of course I enjoy Korea.
Today for lunch I enjoyed kimbab, tofu soup and Japanese-style kimchi all for
the low, low price of 1500 won.And the friendly ajumma wanted to give me seconds
on the soup. Wow. Incredible. That and dong-dong ju.
Moose
One
can't compare Korea to Canada or the US as far as nature preserves for one simple
fact: population density. Canada's population density is 3 people per square km....The
US: 4.5 per sq km Korea (South): 435 per squ km.... See the difference? When you
consider that, it puts a whole new light on the natural preserves and natural
parks Korea does have!
ignint
I have NEVER heard a Korean say
that their mountains or parks are the best. Beaches has been muttered, but what
the hell do i know about beaches. Wabumun was nice and all but.... Most koreans
I have talked to about canada want to go there SOLELY because they think it is
so beautiful (or to practice English). And when I asked my students what they
think is the most beautiful country in the world.... they say Canada. And they've
barely seen any pictures (maybe a couple dozen).
From Pusanweb
Blogs
Korea Life Blog
I decided to visit the fortune-teller
who lives down the street. I asked Kim, a Korean girl I knew, to come with me
and translate. Kim knocked on the door; my heart pounded. Slowly, the door creaked
open. An old woman stared out of the darkness. She had several silver and gold
teeth. In fact, she looked suspiciously similar to the old woman that used to
sell boiled silkworm down the street...
Part 4 -- By the time I returned to
the Hagwon it was 10:15. Brenda was teaching my class; I saw her through the window.
Luckily she didn't see me come in so I went into the bathroom and applied the
medication...I knew the class ended at 10:30. It seemed ridiculous to go in and
teach for only a few minutes, but I needed to make it look like I rushed back
to teach. I took a breath and knocked on the door.
SPOD
My wife
says there are just some evil women in this world. A good woman would never give
a married man the time of day, but other girls will gamble on a wayward husband.
I know this for the gospel, because dozens of young women gambled on my father,
and my mother was the loser. Those evil-attracting genes got passed to me. There's
a group of pretty hairdressers at the local hair removal factory. For a few thousand
won,
these beauty school graduates display their hair creations on each other.
Every two or three weeks every girl, except the boss lady, has her hair in different
colors and labyrinthine contortions. Rarely does the hair fall down with gravity,
but flouts the laws of the universe with bold forays upwards and out.
Anthropomorphism
Korea
It's been a busy few weeks. I judged a story telling contest, climbed
more mountains, went to a birthday party, embarrassed myself further with some
Norebangaction (The computer judges on variation in tone. So the secret to getting
the top score is to sing loudly and badly), and best of all I broke an elevator.On
the way down, Ruth shook the elevator a little bit. The kids screamed as though
they were about to die. "That's nothing," I said, and shook it even
more. Then we heard a loud screeching noise and it stopped. There we were, stuck
between floors 8 and 9. Me, four preteen girls, and a kindergartener. There was
a lot of screaming, crying, and hysterical sobbing, alarms going off, crowds peering
in from the sliver of window we could see from floor 9, security, maintenance,
all that good stuff. We got out what couldn't have been more than five minutes
later. But it was the worst experience of their lives. They don't get out much.
I thought it was a blast.
East Asian Tribune
What kind of President
will Roh Moo-hyun be? Considering the violent swings of fortune evident during
the campaign, Roh is undoubtedly a persistent character. Hiscampaign pronouncements,
however, leave an impression of an ambitious man exploiting a well-crafted persona
of quiet, honest charisma punctuated with occasionalpopulist, particularly anti-American,
touches. ... If the US and ROK are two countries divided by a common delusion,
morality, there is one aspect that clearly distinguishes them: experience. Since
1941, Washington has learned the hard way repeatedly about the dim value of moral
illusions in an often messy world. -It is time now that Seoul gets an education.