Living in Seoul, South Korea: Food, Kangnam living and ingenious ideas

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By:Paul Symonds

After only one month in South Korea as a Westerner , things already seemed a mismatch of the ingenuous and the illogical. One minute you will be blown away and pleasantly surprised by something and then, an hour later you will see or experience something which to a Western mind, is peculiar or plain odd. It is probably true to say that as a Westerner, there is no reason to suggest that the Western style of doing things or thinking is the correct way. The observations below are simply my observations according to what I have become used to in the Western world and from my travels.

You walk into an apartment and the first thing you have to do is take your shoes off and after two years in Seoul, I still have this habit wherever I live these days. Tramping around outside with your boots or shoes on and then spreading the dirt inside one's house surely is not a hygienic way to live, like us Westerns do. The Korean idea of no shoes indoors definitely seems to make a lot of sense to me. Once you get into an apartment, you are quite likely to then also be pleasantly surprised by the delightful way in which the heating works. Under floor heating in Korean apartments seems like a very sensible thing and I missed it a lot when I left Korea. Thirty minutes after putting the heating on, you can usually turn it off and the room will stay warm for hours. Just like the under-soil heating which some English Premier League football clubs use for their football pitches, the heating involves hot water pipes under the floor/soil, which have hot water pumped through them and the heat created rises. In England, central heating with vertical units against one wall now seems so impractical. Heat rises. Surely the Korean style floor heating is a better idea.

The best ideas in Korea are sometimes the simplest. A trip to McDonald's and you will notice the difference from a Western McDonald's. If you want take-away food, the staff (server) will tape the top cover of the drink to secure it. It is very simple but effective. In the convenience stores in Korea (often a 'Seven Eleven' store as in the United States), unlike in the USA and many other countries, there is a hot water tap and a counter-top in the middle of the store for people who wish to eat the noodles there and then. You can buy a plastic container of noodles and you can eat it there - Plastic fork and spoon also provided - What a great idea. You can even get hot coffee in a can; the coffee kept hot in a small oven type display. The coffee does not taste very much like coffee but it is a good idea. Why these simple ideas are not available in Europe is baffling.

I noticed that Koreans also hold their burgers with their wrappers, seemingly as a matter of cleanliness and this always seemed like a good idea. Some fast food restaurants such as in the Subway station in Kangnam, have automatic wet towelette dispensers so that you can wipe your hands before eating: This also seemed to be standard in most Kalbi/Samkyaetang and other restaurants.

Let us not be under any pretensions. Foreigners in Korea can also be a crazy and weird bunch of people as well. I am sure Koreans struggle to understand some of the things that foreigners do in Korea. I can also only begin to imagine what Koreans think when they travel to countries such as the U.S. or the UK and see the strange things that Westerners do. Seeing Western men for example, walking around topless with their beer bellies hanging out, the sun turning their skin bright red in the summer-time. Why would Western men and women place their skin directly in front of the sun for long periods of time and why do the men sometimes walk around with no t-shirt on? Something you would never see in Seoul. Alternatively, why do Westerners walk into their own homes with their shoes on? Surely carrying the dirt and waste from the bottom of your shoes and distributing the dirt throughout the house is not wise.

I was also impressed quite early on, with the ingenuity of Korean people. One young student told me the story of her quest to learn English. She was lucky enough to be able to travel to California, USA and backpack around for a few months. Travelling alone, aged 23 and not really knowing anyone, she started attending the local church on Sundays despite having no real interest in religion. Knowing that people in church are usually quite friendly and open to conversation, she used this opportunity to get free English conversation. Morally it may or may not be right, but it is a creative idea. Another one of my Korean students told me of how whilst travelling the U.S., she naturally said that she was Korean when the subject of nationality came up. But, if she accidentally upset someone or got into an embarrassing situation due to her lack of understanding of Western culture, she would say she was Japanese.

I found Koreans to be very open from the very start. Some Koreans told me you should not talk about certain things i.e. politics, but it was my own personal experience from the start that students often enjoyed and wanted as much as possible, to know the views from a Western perspective. The same students were also often more than willing to share their own thoughts, thoughts that were always interesting and often different to my own. Once people get to know you they are keen to know your opinion on almost anything, including taboo topics such as sex, politics and religion.

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Article keywords: seoul, south, korea, kangnam, kimchi, kimchee, food, getting, living, experiences, travel

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Travel diary of living in Seoul, South Korea

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