Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Toby]

[lastat06513]

JackSarang wrote:

"Having been here for 2+ years now, Korea doesn't feel all that "foreign" to me anymore. Its kind of hard to explain, but there are certain smells/tastes that sort of snap things back into perspective, or make me say, "Yep, this is Korea." "

You've been here ONLY 2 and half years?
Try 5 and a half, total time

Anyway, I think the things that personifies Korea to me is what I tell people when they ask me what was my first impression of korea straight off the boat (given that I was only 19 at the time)

~ The strongest first impression as soon as I stepped off the plane at Gimpo airport was the strong smell of cabbage in the fields and the horrendous oder of animal "?" mixed together.
I will never forget those smells and that is what kinda personifies Korea to me, at least

[Zed]

[Zed]

[inexhile]

[batman]

[quote="inexhile"]
Without a doubt the most concentrated site of Bondeggi purveyors is the road to Haeundae Beach from the tube stop in Busan. At least 100 vendors side by side simmering away in 30 degree heat, I barely made it back to my hotel alive. quote]

Oh gawd I know that street. Bondeggi does it to me everytime. Ah the smell of simmering silkworm on a bloody hot day. Gack. Puke. Gag. Not just that infamous street either. What a way to kill an otherwise beautiful day at the beach.

The smell I associate with Busan is the open sewer.
The smell I associate with my cookie cutter neighbourhood is that of car exhaust.

How I love escaping to the Korean countryside...

[Jensen]

I don't like to eat bondeggi much, but I kinda like the smell.

Just thought of another smell that makes me think of things Korean: mothballs and mosquito coils.

Sniff of mothball scent from a blouse, waft of mosquito coil smoke, slight kimchi taste to a kiss....mmmmm.

[Eazy_E]

the damp smell of the rice paddies and cabbage fields... the sewage smell wafting into the ground floor, the cigarette smoke choking me in the PC bang, that squiddy stuff that the kiddies eat that reeks to high heaven...

[VanIslander]

The absence of one smell typifies Korea as well: the lack of body odour.

When I went back to Canada for the holidays I couldn't believe how much b.o. was in the air, mixed in with all sorts of perfumes and soap smells.

I'll take cigarette smoke any day over that.

[kangnam mafioso]

the fresh morning soju vomit on the sidewalks known to longtermers as "street pizza" or "street pajang."

chlorine mist coming out of the vents above saunas.

herbal medicine shops distilling ginseng and god knows what else.


pojang machas


soju/ kimchee breath


korean girls

[aussie col]

how about this one.

the smell of dog soup. a bowl of soup that smelt like little puppies. i still can't smell a little puppie without thinking back to that night when after the meal we ran around the streets looking for a open shop that sold coke. we then proceeded to gargle the coke and spit into a drain to try and rid our mouths of the taste.

[VanIslander]

Actually, I thought bosintang tasted more like chicken.

With an added flavour akin to bear or buffalo meat.

And it looked a bit like pork.

Aussie col mentioned Coke. It's often THE soda pop available, so when I return to Canada it'll win the cola war for me. I will miss the glass bottles here in Korea. Coca-cola tastes better in glass, I swear, than the plastic, tin and fountain options I have back home.

So, a defining smell I'd say is Coke, as it comes out of a cold glass bottle.

[the_beaver]

[Gladiator]

The fragrance of turd that reaches up your nostrils on hot summer days (on sidewalks close to drains) threatening to induce a fatal bout of retching.

If North Korea could bottle and harness that stench they'd have a real weapon of mass destruction.

[scarneck]

In the winter, the sulfur smell of yongtan (charcoal briquettes) exhaust...nice... AH....fishmarket alley drains....