People pt. 1

No doubt: there were quite some stereotypes and prejudices I had of the Korean people when I got here. Some deemed themselves true, some false. Here’s a quick overview on what I have experienced in my first few days in Seoul:

• Appearance: First of all, they do tend to be a bit smaller and less muscular than other people. There are far less chubby or fat people too, and most (young) people look very healthy overall. The latter is, however, also a result of the Korean youth dressing far more “fashionable” than the people seen on German streets. University students here are no different in terms of fashion, which sometimes creates a strong contrast to the casual clothing one would see on a German university campus. Furthermore, people seem to use more make-up than back at my home – including korean guys, for whom using make-up products is just as normal as for the girls.
• They’re very (sometimes overly) polite and have problems being direct to someone. I can confirm that stereotype.
• Sadly, most people can not speak English well or at all. The elderly people left aside, even most younger Koreans can hardly form whole sentences and speak them out so that the recipient could actually understand what was meant. I have already cursed myself several times for not learning Korean in advance…

Looking at korean strangers that are alone, many people look pretty emotionless or somewhat grumpy when you walk past them on the street. The elderly people will often times look at you either curiously or sceptically, while the youth is almost always sunken into their smartphones, having in-ears plugged in. Looking at koreans that are with other people, they’re very different: Pretty talkative (at least to each other) and generally in a better mood, they become more and more extrovert as their level of alcohol rises.

However, there were already quite some occasions in which I got to know Korean people because they approached me/us, which pleasantly differs from the description above, but also from the way I know German people.

Shortly after my arrival in Seoul, I went to the university to try to organise some things regarding my studies. As I planlessly sat on a bench in front of the university stadium to watch some game of soccer, a Korean professor approaced me, sat down next to me and initiated a smalltalk which lasted almost an hour. Same thing happened to me when walking up Namsan park to N Seoul Tower last sunday. Just shortly before my destination, a middle-aged Korean man approached me and asked me in broken English whether I could answer a few things regarding English grammar for him. This led to an extended conversation about European and Korean beer, about the Korean semiconductor industry and its characteristics and about North Korea’s motivation behind their current behaviour.

Even cooler was the way we got to know the lady shown in the bigger picture below. Me and three friends walked home from Banpo Bridge after watching the nightly water fountain show. Being very hungry, we tried to walk down the busier streets in order to find something korean to eat. We came by a restaurant selling korean-style menus, but it closed already as it was around 11 PM on tuesdays. As we stopped to read out the menus in front of the store, we noticed some men and women sitting inside, talking, eating and drinking wine – and they’ve noticed us, too. As we continued standing in front of their door, trying to read out the menu, we did at first not realize that they happily waved us in. The lady mentioned above then stood up and opened us the door, urging us to come inside and eat.

Along with eating our tasty menus, we quickly got into a friendly chatter with the six people, who actually could speak english pretty well. As it turned out, they were celebrating the graduation of one woman’s son, that the location is a tea house producing very delicious green tea, and that the man visible in the stickers he gave us (image to the left) is actually a tea master who is very popular in Europe. After some more chattering, the mother of the graduating son even insisted on paying our meals!

All in all, my experiences with the people here so far were very positive! Being conscious of the fact that I’m living in a very homogenous country with many conservative elderly people, I can handle the occasional avoidance of space near me as well as some grampa changing his direction of travel as soon as he sees me on his trajectory. As a result, I enjoyed the good moments I had with the Korean people so far and I’m looking forward to many more pleasant experiences with ’em!