Korean Job Discussion Forums

[oldtrafford]

Don't really care about the other seasons. Both kinda sucky anywhere. I just want hot.
Like in Thailand. 32 degrees all year round (average)

Thailand is not 32 degrees all year round, try heading north in december to places like changrai!!

[oldtrafford]

And who from the uk uses phrases like 'kinda sucky'! Leave idiotic english to our american cousins!!

[RobertGR]

I believe one reason Koreans tell people that Korea has four seasons is that they assume most people don't know that and think the weather will be more like Southeast Asia.

The weather is a lot like where I lived as a kid (Southern Ontario/Michigan) except less snow. There's a reason my family moved to California.

[happiness]

they brag about the 4 seasons because back in the early 60s, Korea was full of turncoats and Japanese sympathizers still (not everyone of course), so then dictator Bak Chung Hee implimented the 8 things Koreans to proud of, because I think before then, they were too directionless, which in hindsight, was pretty smart of him. Kimchi, Taekwondo, and 4 seasons was at the top of the list. Thats why young people never talk about these things, only people who were alive in the 60s (40-50 y/o's) do.

weathers ok, but im from hawaii, so. meh to that.

[fermentation]

Extreme lack of things to be proud of. So they force themselves to be "proud" of things they have absolutely no control over, like weather. Might as well be proud of having green colored plants or something else equally retarded.

[MacLean]

[exit86]

happiness is partially correct.
I'm not quite so sure how "being a turncoat" factors into this matter though.
One must remember that Japan boasted four seasons much earlier in their great westernization and internationalization campaign brought about by the Meiji emperor. This pride is partly rooted in Japanese landscape paintings--highly influenced by those of Northern China during the Song Dynasty--depicting the four seasons and the effect on the humans in the landscape paintings.

Korea too had a strong tradition--also following the Song China lead--of such seasonal landscape paintings. Ahn Gyeon (15th century), one of Korea's most famous painters, has a very famous album entitled "Eight Scenes of the Four Seasons."

I believe Japan may have been one of the first of the East Asian nations to use this "four seasons" point as an advertisement for its culture specifically aimed at Western nations, but a strong aesthetic reverence for the four seasons has been a part of East Asian culture for centuries.

Something similar can be said of northern Europe as well, though not to the extent that we see here in Korea, (northern) China, and Japan.

That having been said, there is a strong likelihood that 박정희 was following the lead of Japan's own revitalized internationalization campaign in the 60's and 70's, with the "Eight National Symbols," (kimchi, TKD, bulgogi, hanbok , blah blah, blah) and regional specialties (Jeonju=bibimbap; Cheju="kyul" mandarin oranges and "ddong" pork; blah, blah, blah). Funny.

[toby99]

[brauggi]

[BoholDiver]

I find it ironic and perhaps saddening that something Koreans take so much pride in, so many of us blow off as no good. So many Koreans really believe their seasons are so distinct, their weather is great all year round, etc.

[McGenghis]

The weather does seem to be a tad more predictable here.

In Nova Scotia if one complains about the weather one is told to wait an hour. I still find Canadian seasons to be more distinct, however. Even if in May it might snow while you are wearing shorts.

Of Korea�s seasons I like fall the best but it cannot compare to that North American season with woodsmoke, ripe apples and psychedelic mountainsides. Or a random hurricane.

[brier]

Korea has got 24 seasons!

http://www.knutimes.com/news/article.html?no=770

[interestedinhanguk]

An English person saying Korean weather is nice is like a guy who's been kicked between his legs his whole life commenting on how it's nice to be punched in the arm instead.