Danny ChaiSome random observations about Korea. None original or profound, and possibly inaccurate since I only get a superficial impression of things when I’m here, but whatevs.
There are parking issues, as you might expect in such a densely occupied country. They have an interesting system when cars double park in front of apartment complexes: they either leave their cell number on the windshield so they can be contacted when people with cars that are blocked in need to leave, or they keep the car in neutral so that other people can roll their cars out of the way.
Everywhere delivers here. This includes places you would expect, like grocery stores and restaurants (although what’s cool about the Chinese restaurants is that they deliver the food in bowls, then come a couple hours later to pick the empty bowls up). But even McDonald’s delivers. Nice. I had BBQ Chicken (Motto: “Olive Luxury Chicken”. Also: “Best Of The Best Quality”) and beer delivery this evening. Good times.
Koreans use doilies as dishwasher sponges. I find it really odd.
I’m positive I’ve written about this before, but in Korea, there’s no real separation between the showers and the rest of the bathroom. Usually literally – there’s no wall or curtain (or rod to put a curtain) separating the shower, so when you shower, the water just goes everywhere and goes a drain in the the middle of the bathroom. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think I like this system better. It’s kind of nice to be able to hose down the entire bathroom. The only downside is that you have to get used to the whole bathroom (and everything in it) being wet.
There are fewer diaper sizes here. The Korean brands only come in 3 sizes, basically small, medium, and large. Even the U.S. brands (e.g. Huggies) come in only 4 sizes, where in the U.S. they may have 6 or more. They seem to fit kind of differently also.
In the U.S., Dora speaks English with some Spanish. Here, she speaks Korean with some English. Which makes sense, but it’s still interesting to see.
Caillou is named Hoya in Korean.
There are two separate rent systems here. Say you’re renting an apartment that sells for ~$800,000 USD. Under one system, you pay $250,000 USD up front and that’s it. The landlord basically makes money off the interest from that payment until you move out and get your deposit back. Under the other system, the deposit is much smaller (say $100,000 USD), but you pay rent, maybe $1000 USD a month. I haven’t worked out the math of everything but I thought it was an interesting system.
For various reasons, I’ve had to drive here (illegally – I never got an International Driver Permit. In the course of trying to procure one, I discovered that my CA License is currently expired. Whoops). It’s less crazy than I remember, but still chaotic. Like in the intersections, the lanes the cars end up in have only a loose relationship with the lanes they started in. It’s kind of a free-for-all and you have to stay on your toes. They also have this terrible system where every light shows the status of the left-turn lane arrow, and the left-turn green is always followed by the normal green. So the normal green is always preceded by the yellow light for the left-turn green. So as soon as it turns yellow, every car starts creeping up and jockeying for position. Just kind of adds to the chaos. But in general, like I said, it seems a lot better than last time. Like, people mostly stay in their lanes and stop at red lights.
Koreans (at least some of them) are maniacal about giving babies barley tea. They basically start them on it from birth. It’s seen as being better hydration than water, and better for things like reducing fever. Just kind of a random thing. In the U.S., babies don’t even get water for months. Here, big emphasis on barley tea. From birth.
My Korean is as bad as ever, but I’ve gotten by OK. Ironically, I do worst with phonetic approximations of English, and it’s everywhere. Like, today at various vendors, I had to order Korean approximations of “Chicken Burger” and “Sausage Set” (“set” is like a fast food “meal” – with a drink and fries). Do I just say “sausage” the way I normally would? Would they understand? Or do I try and say it the Korean way? The problem with that is, it’s really hard to say English wrong (cf. Daniel Dae Kim on Lost), which is basically what these Korean terms are. I’ve been going with the second method and I invariably get quizzical looks.