Korean Job Discussion Forums

[robot]

while teaching ESL back in vancouver, my korean students often complained that the city was boring. i told them that's because all they did was hang out on the city's main stretch, go to other korean students' apartments to speak korean and eat korean food, and perhaps engage in some typical tourist stuff. when they had the chance to do something especially cool and interesting (kegger @ someone's house, hardcore survival canoe trip, underground art & rock show) they finally saw vancouver in a new light, and one student at a such an event once beamed at me and said, "wow, this is REAL canadian culture!". which i guess it was for at least some people.

now here i am in seoul, hanging out downtown, doing to visit english-speaking friends, and getting sucked into the typical tourist holes. last night, though, i was invited to a mind-blowingly cool initiation ceremony for freshmen into a particular social circle at Kangnam Univeristy. has anyone ever been to such an event? the feeling of history and nostalgia and family in that room was intense -- students from every generation for the last 12 years had come back, their faces matching old photos on the walls, to take part in the light-and-friendly newbie hazing. this chiefly involved 5 teens drinking waaay too much makkoli (mixed into a repulsive broth with a host of found items) and then putting on hilarious performances. afterward, dinner, dancing, and drumming -- the elders brought out dozens of drums, everyone there knew all the same songs, some they composed together, played them in unison like it was a language. quite cool.

REAL korean culture? i think everything we're experiencing here is real culture, so perhaps that's not the right word, but here's my question:

what is something special and out-of-the-ordinary in korea that outsiders don't usually get a chance to do? do you have a similar experience where you caught an insider's glimpse at the heart of something quite awesome?

ROBT.

[Becka]

I don't have any insight or stories, but I was about to post something along the same lines as you - I have yet to find any sort of local/indie art/music undercurrent here.

But maybe it's because I'm expecting it to exist in the same manner as it does in Canada? Maybe I'm still too new and unfamiliar with the overall culture to recognize something that might be considered alternative here?

I'd love to figure out how to hear some Korean music that isn't coming from a well-coiffed boy band. Interested in hearing what more seasoned expats have to say about this.

[RACETRAITOR]

No, there's craploads of underground music, and it's as hard to find as it was back in Canada. It's just now you're illiterate.

What is Korean culture? Is it going to ancient Buddhist temples, or climbing up a medium-sized mountain? I've gotten my closest to Korean culture by getting drunk with Koreans, which isn't so hard to do here.

[Cedar]

I more or less make my life out of trying to find these instances of feeling "wow, this is real Korean culture". There is a lot more to it than visiting places. You live in Seoul, right? Wake up tomorrow at 3:30 and get to ����� by 4 (trust me the cabs go fast at that time of night). Participate in the morning prayer ceremony. You'll feel that's real Korea. You and 70 Koreans, not talking, just chanting and kneeling and bowing and rising and etc. etc.

That's just an example.

[Homer]

That is very true Cedar!

For me, experiencing "real Korean culture" has happened mostly through my wife's family.

We did the ancestors ceremony every year for the past few years and that is something else.

Chusok, Buddas B-day, Lunar new year...all can be real cultural experiences.

Temples are too...if you visit them at the right time.

The ladies who dive for shell fish off the coast in Busan (all around 60-70 years old) provide amazing stories too.
I play changi (korean chess) in the park near our place every sunday with the old guys there. They have amazing stories too and I have seen some nice examples of Korean culture there too.

[krats1976]

[bigscott]