Korea: First Impressions

Sunday, 7 August

Korea seems to be largely inhabited by Korean people.

Furthermore, they primarily speak Korean to you. Or, more accurately, perhaps, at you.

Seriously, Seoul does not have a very large expatriate population -- maybe 200,000 out of the 18 million that live in the metro area. (That’s right: metro Seoul is about the size of metro New York.) That means that Korea is very, very, very Korean and still getting used to being an international place. In many ways, this is its charm and the reason for going: it’s not like anything you’re used to.

The countryside is everything you expect from Asia: hilly mountains going off in the distance, little farmhouses with tile roofs, and lots of green. If you’ve ever seen Chinese scroll paintings, you know how the artists tend to paint with the ink so that the hills sort of waft off into the hazy distance. Korea really looks like that.

Incheon Airport, where all international flights arrive and depart, is in Incheon, about an hour out of Seoul, so you take a bus into the city. This gives you an opportunity to look at the often beautiful countryside and try to figure out the money. The bills are bigger and in different colors. (When will Americans figure out that paper money that’s all the same size and color is actually sort of stupid?) The coins are bigger and heavier, too, and the basic monetary unit is the Korean won. 1,000 won equal a dollar, so the prices you see posted are numbers way bigger than you expected. A cup of cappuccino is 4,000 won, and so on. You feel rather rich in Korea, the way you spend money.

You also feel at home. Kind of. The presence of Starbucks, for good or ill, does that to you, and apparently the Koreans have abandoned ginseng tea and taken up coffee with a vengeance. There is plenty of English in signage, so you have no problems getting around. (The Seoul subway is the most heavily and sensibly signed system I have ever seen, and it makes getting around a breeze, even for someone who doesn’t speak a word of Korean. And, boy, is it clean.) At the same time, the primary mode of communication is of course Korean hangul, the chicken-scratch-looking script that actually may be the most effective and sensible writing system ever invented. You realize how much you rely on the written word when you can’t read a lot of it, everywhere around you, and Korea abounds with signs and advertisements.

Because Seoul is a now very major, world city that modernized rapidly, it looks rather Western: skyscrapers, big corporate headquarters, Kentucky Fried Chicken. But behind all the usual let’s-make-Asia-look-like-Wichita urban design attitude, in its details Seoul is very, even relentlessly Korean. The busiest roundabout downtown circles around a 14^th-century city gate, all gussied up in the beautiful Korean traditional architecture; when the night bell rang, the gate was closed, and the city was walled, so it was all snug and tight for the night. Old men dressed in what look to be white yoga togs, spotless and impeccably groomed, have impeccably kept hats -- a sure mark of a Confucian gentleman. The streets are lined with Chinese gingko trees. Little alleys lead off major roads and promise little restaurants filled with kimchi pots and sizzling at-table burners for bulgogi, Korean barbeque. Fruit vendors are everywhere, selling truly beautiful produce. (I have decided that Korea is the world capital of peaches, the most delicious I have ever eaten.) And wherever you look, there they are: Koreans getting on buses, playing with their kids, having a smoke, chatting amiably in the sometimes guttural, sometimes nasal, thoroughly foreign-sounding Korean. I have never been in a place where I could not 1) speak the spoken language or 2) guess the written language by having familiarity with the script.

This is going to be fun. 

Comments

[Marcy]

Cool! I've been waiting for your travel report, Rob, and I'm happy to read this one.

Whenever I go to a place where I don't speak the language (let alone not reading the signs), I'm always astonished by the pets. I think something on the order of, "Wow! They have cats and dogs on this planet, too!!" And then I feel really stupid, because, hey, if a dog can master the language, why can't I?

[Ann]

Me, I'm sick with jealousy. Korea sounds infinitely better than Northern Michigan, especially at the moment, despite my digital cable and broadband. Even Kentucky Fried Chicken is better in a foreign country. I wonder if the Colonel makes Korean barbecue in a bucket?

[Rob Kellerman]

Marcy, toy dogs seem to be the the rage in Korea, and they do in fact understand Korean better than I do. I found out after the fact that I was staying very near a dog meat restaurant. I wonder if little dogs make better stir fries?

Ann, you and your dad remain in my thoughts. I didn't try KFC--in fact, didn't try any fast food, other than great street food. Watch for the long entry on Korean food, certainly the highlight of my visit. In the meantime, take good care of yourself and let me know if there's anything I can do, even from 14 time zones away.

[Mosaic]

me too cause i also love to see many unique and different things like antique things.