My journey to Korea has halted on the 01.01.2010.
Back home with many mixed feelings. Generally, I find the trip as enjoyable and the most well scheduled itinerary (kudos to Linda, the Chinese-Korean tour guide). None of the day's activities did really impact me the most, and I find all of the activities as relatively fun, except for the sites of "coerced" buying of Korean produce.
Shopping in Korea was ichiban, since Korea is afterall the land of trendy stuffs. However, the language barrier did deter me of a hearty shopping though. The Koreans' current trend is being bespectacled to the extent of wearing lens-less glasses. Amusing.
Linda explains the brief history of Korea. They have been literally scarred by the major war, such as the suppression of the Japanese troops during the World War 2 and the Korean War. Hence, this will somehow explain their resentment towards Japanese and Americans, of how they had exploited them and specifically abused them. For example, the nation's largest food and beverage company, Lotte, sets up a fast food chain, Lotteria, to vie against the world's multinational fast food chain- Macdonalds. In an extreme case, they had a month of anti-American movement, such as a month of abstaining away from purchasing any American fast food.
On the flipside, the series of war and hurt did strengthened the country. Korea became Asia's few leading nations and the world's largest car producer. Indeed, the hurt gave them the tenacity to strive on and to prove especially their neighbouring country (Japan I mean), that they can also improve to be a cosmopolitan city.
I was slightly ashamed of myself of my initial despise of Korean cars, since I initially had the mentality that their cars are the substandard of that of the Japanese cars. However, observing their cars on the roads, many of their cars are marvellous and doesn't seem to be lagging. Hence, next time if I should buy a car, I wouldn't mind a Korean car. (: Perhaps a Hyundai MPV, but to start something small, maybe a Kia picanto. Heh.
Basically, there are 5 types of Korean car company, namely Hyundai, Kia, GM-Daewoo, Renault-Samsung and Ssangyong. The first car company is Hyundai and many other car
companies rose during the economic boom in 1988, when Korea held the world Olympics.
Oh ya, Korea is originally spelled as "Corea". Yet, because of during the Japanese occupation and the Jap's chauvinistic and power-hungry fervour, they think it was outrageous to be spelled as Corea since the letter 'C' is arranged first than 'J'-Japan. ( When I heard this, my reaction is WTF)
Something that I slightly dislike about their culture is their nonchalance towards the performance of cosmetic surgery. To them, it seems to be any substitute for facial. Yet, this phenomena has been all in the rage worldwide, since the competitive nature of the society makes it compulsory to ever look good, so as to win and gain superiority over the rest.
Also, they are not as polite as I would expect them to be. Nevertheless, they are much better than the typical Chinese mainlanders. As such, if we were to block their way, they would not even say "excuse me" and just blatantly pushed us away.
The culture shock experienced was during the trip to their spa. The moment I entered the ladies room, I was so surprised that I was teary-eyed. Bevy of ladies are in their birthday suits! Great. Compared to the typical Singaporean ladies, they are many times more comfortable with their bodies. For instance, they will strip themselves in the ladies changing room itself, while we have to queue up in the washroom to change to our swimming suit.
Compare the living lifestyle of Koreans to Singaporeans? I would say that I still prefer my country, despite the suppressing political nature and the ever hot climate. Since I love the accessibility of my country, the food varieties of my country and last but not least, my family and friends.
I LOVE SINGAPORE.
I LOVE THE WORLD AND RESPECT THEIR CULTURES! <3
sarang heyo!
Love,
Kai Teng
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