South Korea Voyage: PEOPLE & CULTURE

When I stepped out of Incheon International Airport and onto the bus that will bring us to the heart of Seoul, I realized one thing: the reality depicted on television and the reality in real life is different. Shockingly different. I am not a naïve teenager expecting everything to match, but I do hold some expectations from what I saw on television.

Shamefully, the only access I have to South Korean life is by watching Running Man. Yes, it is a variety programme and not a yardstick that I should be measuring to. But it is a variety programme that features the places and people of South Korea. It is part reality. It films people on the streets, it films the stars interacting with the locals, and it films the locals! Of course, I am not blind to the difference in the treatment you get if you are a popular star/host in South Korea and if you are just a foreign tourist visiting the land. Also, I cannot claim to know an entire nation’s culture from something I gleamed off a screen.

I get that. But I always thought that South Korea as a wonderful place where the people are courteous and welcoming, greeting you with a little bow and a smile on their face. Maybe we have been conditioned. For example, we will come to expect the Japanese to do multiple bows when greeting you because that is what they really do, on screen and in real life. This is what I was expecting when I am at South Korea. It is a concept ‘sold’ by them. Then again, I may be stereotyping a whole nation based on what is broadcasted on television. So I admit that my expectations are unfair. But read on, because I will later discover something that changed my mind.

When we arrived, we boarded a bus that will bring us from the airport to central Seoul (Dongdaemun, Namdaemun, Myeongdong, Chungmuro, etc.). So the bus arrived and someone will load your luggage onto the bus. Being foreign and all, we have absolutely no idea how it works and just stood there like the newbies that we were. The bus uncle took one look at us, roughly pushed a tag into our hands, grabs our luggage, and loaded them forcefully into the bus. I know that is the treatment our luggage gets in behind-the-scenes, but seeing it in person makes me wince. Then we were quickly herded up the bus and off we went. No greetings and no smiles.  It all felt really unpleasant. I understand that while no one is happy working, but if you are in the service industry, the least you could do is to plaster a smile onto your face.  These uncles were impatient and grim. Talk about a reality check.

The situation did not improve when we arrived at our destination. Before all of us alighted the bus, our luggage were already on the pavement. I know speed is good. Efficiency is prided. But there is no point if our luggage were unloaded and placed around haphazardly. The uncle hurriedly removed the luggage from the bus and dumped them onto the uneven pavement, so the luggage were in various states of ‘falling over’. They also hurried us and drove off, again, without a word.

Also, we soon realized that the South Koreans we meet (mostly in the service line) are not very well-equipped in the English department. Carrying out a conversation with them in English is almost impossible. Not a huge problem for Singaporeans because we can easily switch to Chinese which they understood far better.

Fortunately, it is not very difficult to navigate around Seoul. Their roads and directional signs are spelt out in Hangeul (Korean language) and English alphabets. The trains are easy to take, though searching for a specific station can cause a headache because they have so many lines and countless stations. It is best to have a chat with your hotel reception first on your plans for the day so that they can advise you, in broken English and lots of hand-signing of course, the fastest and easiest way to get there.

As we stayed longer and interacted more with the locals, I soon realised that the younger South Koreans behaved a little differently from the older generation. They showed a little more deference towards visitors and were courteous and soft-spoken. As for the older generations, they were more wary of visitors, are usually very impatient and barked at us in Korean by way of communication. I do not blame them for barking at us. I think their speaking volume was naturally pre-determined to be at “LOUD/BARK/FRIGHTEN AWAY NORMAL HOMO SAPIENS”. This was reflected in the television programmes, so it was expected not as frightening as it was supposed to be. But really, I could not comprehend a single word amongst the barking. So there is no point really.

I am beginning to feel that South Korea is a whole nation of grumpy gruff-voiced elderly when I went on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and Joint-Security Area (JSA) tour. The young tour guide told us the background of North and South Korea, how they came to split, and how the South Koreans worked their backs off to rebuild South Korea in record timing. That gave birth to the ‘quick’ culture, where time is money and therefore should not be wasted. That is why I see the same impatient gleam in everyone’s eyes, why we were hurried up and down the bus, why our luggage were handled roughly (after all, what is luggage to them when they have a whole nation to rebuild), why we were barked at. Suddenly everything made sense. The disappointing smog has cleared and I no longer see through rose-tinted lens.

After that wake-up call, I understood the kindness behind the gruffness. I grasped their good intentions behind the impatience. I appreciated their concern expressed through their loudness. And I am beginning to like them.

But of course not everyone is like the grim-faced loud-spoken South Koreans I met at the airport bus. I encountered hotel staff that were warm and smiling. They were attentive to detail and helpful to a fault. Even though they still struggled with conversational English, they guided us patiently, trying all methods to get us to understand. I am grateful for their patience. I am especially grateful for the infinite patience shown by the spritely ski shop uncle who waited for us for hours in the lobby for our ski session (South Korea Voyage: SKIING).

Overall I felt guilty, I felt bad. I felt like a total twat, a spoilt brat. I should not have expected them to be nice to us. Yes we may be fueling their economy, but they do not owe us visitors a living. We are after all, just visitors.

Let me conclude that the South Koreans are very down-to-earth and underneath all that loudness and impatience, hides a caring and warm soul. 

Note: All these observations are made only in my (I stress, mine and my alone) personal interactions with the locals in the service line and those manning shops/stores/kiosks that I visited.