No man is an island

Except if that man was South Korea. Its only fitting that after a month that I  can write a half baked piece on this country. So let me tell you South Korea has done a absolutely bang out job of keeping themselves wholly and truly  Korean. Words that spring to mind if I was to describe South  Korea to you are – homogenous, insular, cut off, oneness, and wtf?

Everything here is so distinctly Korean, the food, the shops, the houses, the behaviour,  everything .  Koreans are so Korean, I know that may not make sense and your probably thinking, well no shit who else are they going to be?  But its like there has been  no traces of globalisation  here, no other culture has managed to penetrate them at all. They are just uniquely Korean, unlike my home country where we have been influenced by so many other cultures, the  Europeans, Asians,  and  even Americans.  There’s such a variety in Australian society that is obviously lacking here.

Though its not closed in a negative way, like they are opposed to the outside world. Its not that at all, everyone I have met is genuinely peaceful loving open  and interested  in foreigners and our lives.  Its just that they are Korean, and Korea is their country and they live in a Korean manner, which is being Korean.

A few little unique Korean traits I have noticed – At my school everyone, and I mean EVERYONE the kids, the teachers, and the office staff all eat at the same time, in the same place, in the same seat and eat the same food. There is no such thing as the vegetarian option, or the gluten free meal here, its all the same.

Also everyone here looks normal, they all dress in respective looking clothes, have respective looking haircuts, and drive respective looking cars. On the surface everyone appears similarly respectable.  I haven’t seen any Korean teenagers dressed as punk rockers with blasphemous slogan T Shirts, or hippy throwbacks with dreads. Its as though they all  take their fashion cues from a suburban Target catalogue.

And just how many people here can be named Kim? I will take a rough guess at a third. If you look back at the former Korean presidents there was Kim Dae Jung (the DJ ), Kim Young Sam (Kim – the sequel) , Kim Jong Pil (Kim – the early years). Then across the DMZ is the world famous Kim Jong Il  (the evil Kim). Though I cannot say a word on Kim without mentioning Kimchi, a compulsory side dish that gives that nation a stench that  rises above the land. I wouldn’t be surprised if they could smell all the way over  in Japan. There nothing quite like a nation that produces daily noxious gases from Kimchi burps, farts and breath.