(This blog [as I've reached the end and am writing this] I have come to realize seems a little stabbie towards Korean culture. Just understand that not EVERYONE is a culprit of these personal cultural oddities. They are just some things I have experienced.)
1. Lack of confidentiality.
This one goes without having to be said. In western culture, we have (for the most part) this great radar that tell us weather or not we ought to indulge others in someones personal matters. For instance, if you were sexually harassed you wouldn't want the school you work for to inform not only the entire faculty, but also the student body and then be asked to write a paper on it. No. One would even imagine that such indicators as heavy crying and pulling you away from class to speak to you about presaid situation would be enough to merit privacy. Oh no! Juicy gossip like that spreads like wildfire!
2. Facial hair
Before I begin, isn't the above image delicious? Now, one wouldn't believe it, but 수염 (facial hair) is widely frowned upon here. So, if you're a man with a mean five o'clock shadow, beware. I'm not entirely sure why it has such a negative connotation. Perhaps it's because Korean men severely lack the ability to grow any body hair at all, let alone facial hair. However, something to be considered normal upon the face of a man is quickly considered deeply immoral in Korean society. When I first didn't shave, all of my coworkers asked me thing like, "Did you sleep last night?" "Did you break up with your girlfriend?" "Did you drink soju last night?" No. I none of those things occurred. I just woke up and didn't feel like razing off half of my face to be clean cut today. So sue me. It gets hard to shave everyday when it grows back so fast. That and I have a particularly delicate face (because I am a fragile flower after all) and I break out badly if I shave constantly. However, Some of my coworkers literally called me dirty and many of the students commented on it quite verbally. I even had one girl once who felt my facial hair and screamed outright as if it were a living thin on my face that was going to consume her. Don't worry, it doesn't bite, it scratches.
3. Adult bedtimes
I had some difficulty finding an adequate picture for this one so you're just going to have to deal with the above (on a side note, why does there even exist an International Society for Men Who Still Live With Their Parents? Is it really that in need of support. I feel like quite the opposite should be enforced). Now, this one is a tad strange and I really can't get over it. It's true, in the States, the norm for a person living with their family is getting higher. It used to be between 18 and 20 that kids left the house. However, now that we live in the age of copious amounts of University work, the age is becoming quite older, possibly up to the late 20s. Personally, I feel like past the age of 25 and you really need to get out of there. I don't have much room to talk, but I'm not living with my parents either (though I'm still a tad dependent up on them). I would imagine most people to agree with me.
The situation is a bit different here in k-town. Instead, the cut-off date is extended indefinitely until the individual is married. So, in essence, you are living with your family until you tie the knot. Maybe it's supposed to act as inspiration to get you to marry quickly, but even marriage age is quite low here. By around the age of 25 you need to be thinking of settling down and poppin' some youguns out. The thing is, not everyone is so lucky as to find someone marriage worthy so quickly. So, I've seen men (and I'm sure women) who are between the ages of 30 to 40 still living with their parents, still having their mother call them to come home for dinner, and forcing them to have ridiculous bed times. Cute, but rather annoying...or so I'd assume.
4. Disregard for the existence of others.
I don't mean this literally. There aren't a bunch of people running around going, "You don't exist, you don't exist!". Rather, what I mean is that common courtesies are a little hard to come by here. Don't get me wrong, I have had nice strangers give me yogurt drinks on buses and say hello to me on the street. But here, I have had my fair share of doors close right on my face. Age is an important aspect of life in Korea, so the older they are, in most cases the more comfortable they are with abandoning such simple courtesies as stepping out of your way when you're walking the correct way on the sidewalk and they are obviously not. Many Korean's don't believe in opening the door for others and especially, closing the door for others. In fact, today I was eating lunch and one of the kids left the door to the cafeteria open. All of the teachers commented on how cold it was but not a single one of them got up to close the door. I had to do it myself. I've seen this done in many places like restaurants, train and bus terminals, and classrooms.
I also work out in a gym, and not once have I seen the weights rearranged, put back into place, or removed off of bars. Instead, the weights are merely shifted around the place and you just have to search high and low for what you need. As well, if you're in the middle of a set (it's kind of obvious...because, you know, you're using the equipment and everyone can see that) no one gives two shits if you're done with it. They want the damn bench press, they're gonna take it over. At first, I thought it was a language barrier thing, but I've seen it done to everyone. Eventually I managed to shed my weak western pushoverness and just did the same thing when they stole my equipment. It still urkes me though!
5. Internet explorer...only...we're serious.
Korea is obsessed with Windows. Even more, their obsessed with internet explorer. Yes, you can use other browsers, but if you want to, say, order a pizza online from pizza hut, you're going to need to do it on internet explorer. Places just don't format their websites to be friendly towards browsers like firefox, safari and (my personal favorite) chrome. I've had sites crash, freak out, or even refuse to load because I'm not using the obviously "better" browser. However, if you're like me and any other of my friends, you probably don't like internet explorer much, let alone use it. And trust me, you won't want to come here with a macbook unless it has mac windows installed. You'll never have a use for it here. It's not necessarily that bad, it's just more or less inconvenient. Like...internet explorer is evil (hence the black internet explorer icon displayed above).
