Stereotypes & Cultural Differences: Parenting in South Korea

As my first year here in Korea inches toward a close, I feel as though I've finally experienced enough of Korean culture to comment on repeated observations I've made while living here.  Some of the biggest stereotypes of Koreans and Korean culture involve parents. If you ask someone from a western country to describe what they imagine parents in Korea to be like, you'll often get the image of some English-obsessed mother who storms into school to yell at teachers and principals for inadequate grades and forces their child into hours and hours of hagwon every day after regular school lets out.

Obviously stereotypes exist for a reason, and there are unfortunately some parents out there who try to push their kids like this I'm sure this has to do with the fact that I'm in the country and down south, but I've found the majority of these to be untrue!  Here are some of the most common stereotypes of Korean parents, and how I've found they actually manifest themselves.

South Korean parents all want their children to grow up to be doctors or business professionals.

There are countless popular dramas in Korea that take place in and glorify the medical world.

Out of all the stereotypes I have here, this one probably still hold the most truth.  There are a lot of parents who still push their children to become doctors and businessmen and women, or work for Samsung or LG.  "What do you do for a living?" and "How much money do you make?" are common questions my Korean friends are asked by both their parents' friends and even their own peers.  Even dramas seem to be obsessed with doctors and the chaebols of the business world.  I suspect this is still fairly prevalent in Seoul, but I've actually found this to not necessarily be the case in the south.

When I ask my students what they want to be when they grow up, numerous times I've gotten illustrator, diplomat, game designer or programmer, and athlete.  While some of these seem like typical childhood dreams, I find diplomat in particular to be interesting.  More than one student has mentioned this to me, at both the elementary and high school level.  If there's one thing you can say has been successful about the English program in Korea, it's that it has inspired Korea's younger generations to take more of an interest in the world outside of Korea.  Also, I think it's worth noting that none of them wanted to be Kpop stars!

English Teachers' Orientation: What to Expect (And What Not To)

Every job--even within the same field--will be different.  And every orientation, even within the same company, can be different.  Some throw you out there on your first day and watch as you sink or swim.  Others hold your hand and hammer their way of doing things into your head, denying you any freedom to experiment and improve the system.

No comment.

I've held a variety of jobs  and participated in a range of activities over the last decade, and I've experienced countless orientations that fall all over this spectrum.  When I came to Korea in August of 2014 to teach English as a second language, I didn't know where our program's orientation would entail or how much it would or wouldn't help me in my new teaching job.  Obviously even within the same orientation everyone's personal experience of it will be different, but here is what I took away from mine:

DON'T EXPECT everyone to be on the same level.  There were some people I met that I was incredibly impressed with.  One girl spoke gorgeously fluent Korean (and blew away all the Korean co-teachers at our introduction!), and others still had years of teaching experience or were working on Master's degrees while abroad.  And others were new, just like me.  In fact, you may even meet some people whose qualifications you strongly question, but at the end of the day, take everything as a learning opportunity.  Pick up good tips from the more experienced teachers and learn what not to do from those who set bad examples.  You have control over what kind of teacher you want to be!

DO EXPECT to meet some awesome people.  Not only are you all in the same boat, but that boat is floating in a foreign sea, and you're all feeling equally out of place.  Orientation sort of feels like being a freshman in college all over again--friend groups are formed, everyone is a little awkward and out of their element, and no one wants to seem like they don't know what they're doing.  But everyone is new to something--whether it's teaching, or Korea, or both.  Orientation is a huge opportunity to make friends...and go visit them in their respective placement cities later!

Spring Has Sprung: Korean Flower Festivals

If there's one area Korea takes first place in, hands down, it's festivals.  They have festivals for everything, and it all really kicks off in spring.  A few weekends ago, Lorna and I explored the island of Jindo, where they had the Jindo Sea Parting Festival (진도 신비의바닷길축제)--you can read about our experience here!  Slowly but surely, over the last three weeks flowers have begun to bloom.  First were the bright yellow tangles of forsythia, followed by budding cherry blossoms.  Once the cherry blossoms started blooming, bright purple azaleas started slowly spreading throughout the mountains too.

Cherry blossoms beginning to bloom.

A mountain-top azalea bush.

Red cherry blossoms?  Not sure, but it was among a row of pink ones!

This weekend, there were two big festivals: one on Yeongchwisan (영취산), a mountain in Yeosu (여수); and another up in the mountains of  Gyeongsangnamdo's (경상남도) Hadong (하동) county, in a small town called Hwagae (화개).  Yeosu was our first stop, as we had friends there to meet up with Saturday evening after the flower viewing.

Walk like Moses: The Jindo Sea-Parting Miracle (Festival)

Despite our hectic schedules as we settle into the new school year, Lorna and I found time this weekend to venture across Jeollanamdo to the island of Jindo.  Every year, a festival is held to honor the legend of Grandmother Ppong and her escape from the island.

A statue of Grandmother Ppong and a tiger to commemorate her escape.

Long ago, on the island of Jindo, a group of villagers were constantly under the threat of vicious tiger attacks.  One day, they finally made their escape from the main island to the nearby island of Modo.  Unfortunately, in their haste, Grandmother Ppong was left behind.  All alone on the island and desperate to be reunited with her family, Grandmother Ppong prayed fervently to the Dragon King.  One night, he visited her in a dream, telling her he would create a rainbow reaching all the way to Modo Island and her family.  The next morning, Grandmother Ppong rushed to the sea to find it had indeed parted, creating a path for her to safely escape the tigers.  Halfway across, Grandmother Ppong collapsed, too old and exhausted to make the rest of her journey.  But her family had also been visited by the Dragon King, and and hurried to meet her on the sea path.  In the arms of her loved once, Grandmother Ppong said, "The Dragon Kind has granted my wish and reunited me with my family once again!  I could not ask for anything more in life!" before passing away.

Each year, locals, Koreans across the country, and many foreigners venture down to the island of Jindo to participate in commemorating Grandmother Ppong's escape from the tigers of Jindo and her faith in the Dragon King.  While I was initially wary of crossing a sea using the precious little footwear I have here in Korea, Lorna assured me waders could be purchased at the festival.  So, we hopped in the car and made the 120km (75mi) drive across the bottom corner of the country.

The event itself is a good 20min drive into the island itself, and we easily found it by following the trail of cars and buses.  The sea parting itself wasn't to peak until 6:10PM, so we had plenty of time to kill arriving at 12:30PM.  Right at the entrance, there was a man selling the infamous waders used to cross the sea. We nabbed a pair early on and tossed them in the car before heading in to check out the stalls.

Local Tip: They all cost ₩8,000, so it doesn't really matter where you buy them.  The stalls were all throughout the grounds and they didn't look to be running out, even right up until the parting!

Somehow, we managed to stumble into the international tents almost immediately.  Stalls representing Korea, Peru, India, America, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Japan, and others advertised food, drink, and occasionally crafts.  Ironically enough, the American booth was the least accurate out of all of them, selling Korean-style ice cream (served in a large, V-shaped corn tube instead of a cone) and Korean-style potato tornadoes.  Longing for my days in Japan, I immediately grabbed some takoyaki while Lorna went for the Korean chicken.

Clockwise from top: spicy Korean chicken, Japanese takoyaki, and Japanese okonomiyaki

Grapefruit juice, straight from the source!

We brought our snacks to the seaside, but were soon interrupted by a parade coming our way!  Drummers, dancers, and students in animal costumes lined up, preparing for the 3PM procession across the shoreline to the sea-parting point.  Some of the middle school students next to us shyly struck up conversation with us, and we ended up chatting with them for nearly an hour.  They were very punchy (typical of Korean kids) and kept tugging at each other's costumes and cracking up.  One poor boy who was an orca kept inadvertently whacking everyone with the tail of the whale worn on his head.  When we went to take a picture, one of the girls asked a boy dressed as a crab to snap it...only to have him sadly look at his hands--incapacitated by the costume's claws.

Korean Hospitals, Doctors, and Health Care

I'm six months in to my stay here, and it was bound to happen at some point.  Some good ol' Korean nasties have settled in my system and blessed me with a pretty brutal cough.  I'll spare you the details, but I'm typically a very healthy person and get over illnesses quickly.  So, once I hit the one-week point without seeing much progress, I decided it was time to see a doctor.

Korea has a fantastic health care system that even covers us native teachers during our contracts.  I think the cost and efficiency of this system comes as the biggest shock to Americans, who have exorbitant costs and wait times associated with hospital and doctors visits.  Here, when you mention that you're unwell, the first suggestion a Korean will make is that you go to the hospital.

The hospital?!  For a general visit or check up?!  It sounds strange to those of us from Western countries, who associate hospitals with serious medical issues, long-term stays, or emergencies.  But here in Korea, the hospital is the first stop when assessing your health problems.  Only after you've been checked out would you possibly receive a further recommendation to see a doctor, who is a specialist in a particular field.

My Korean Milestones

Coming to a new country and not knowing any of the language can be frustrating.  Here are some of the big milestones I've accomplished since coming to Korea:

Week 0 (July):

- Managed to catch a bus from Seoul to Daejeon and meet up with my friends before starving to death.

- Can say my friend's address in Korean and catch a taxi home on my own if necessary.

Week 1 (August):

- Can successfully navigate the subway in Seoul alone....although the stops are all written in English too, and I have a travel card I can top up.

- (Can't read or write)

Week 2: 

- Can order coffee or tea with the Konglish name (Korean pronunciation of English words), as well as beer and soju.

- Can navigate a familiar bus route on my own using my travel card.

- (Still can't read or write, still haven't eaten a meal alone)

Week 3:

- Can read consonant characters and a few vowels.

- Have picked up on a few Korean words and phrases.

- Can tell everyone my height in Korean.

- Am getting really good at charades.

Month 1 (September):

- Can properly greet, thank, and say good-bye to people using the correct level of politeness.

- Can read, albeit slowly and often without understanding what I'm saying.

- Slowly learning a few more phrases and getting used to using them every day.

- Am really, really good at charades.

- (Names are so, so hard to remember, you guys...)

- Can communicate with Korean guys when we go out to clubs.

- Have a pay-as-you-go phone

- Have a Korean bank account

Bonding on Your Teacher's Trip, and How Not to Die.

Back in September my co-workers and I had a meeting to discuss our school trip.  There were many ideas on the table, ranging from island hikes to temple visits to traveling to multiple cities, but I didn't know quite what was in store for me until I was picked up on Thursday morning.  Our itinerary, a five page packet, was written entirely in Korean.  I couldn't be bothered to translate it, so I opted to just roll with whatever was thrown my way.

Fellow foreign teachers in Korea, consider this your warming: regardless of their age, all of your Korean co-teachers can out eat, drink, and party you.  The activities are never-ending. They will not stop, and they will not show you any mercy.

Our general route from Boseong to Geumodo...followed by Yeosu, Suncheon Bay, and the Naganeupseong Folk Village.

The morning began innocently enough.  After managing a last-minute washing machine delivery (don't ask), two of my other co-workers and I were picked up bright at early by our school's bus driver, Seokoh-ssi.  His van had two seats in the front and an open back, so my two co-teachers kicked off their shoes and sat on blankets while I was ushered into the front seat.

흥국사 (HeungGukSa) Temple Stay

Well, this temple stay happened back in September.  Due to a variety of problems with technology (computer breaking, getting a new one, entire blog post deleting, unable to transfer photos, etc, etc.) no one has heard from me in a while.

We've been busy making new friends!

But I'm still here!  And still keeping very, very busy, so you can expect many more posts from here on out!  The weather is getting cooler now, so we've been enjoying the outdoors while we can.  One of the places we explored was 흥국사 (Heungguksa) Temple where we lived with Buddhist monks (and their many dogs) for 24 hours.

Coping with Language Barriers & Becoming a Charades Master

Moving to a new country is never easy.  There are foreign customs, strange foods (that may or may not agree with you), bizarre stereotypes, and every day tasks like grocery shopping or ordering a cup of coffee can become incredibly challenging.

Help.

I lived abroad in London, England for a semester and found plenty of frustrations during my stay--and that was in an English-speaking country.  A step up from that, traveling throughout France (where I speak the native language well) has been manageable.  Even other countries that I have visited in Europe have used Latin alphabets that I have been able to read.