Friendly Observer
Arthur Keefe
Another trip, another country
It is hard to compare South Korea with the Philippines. It is a prosperous, energetic, modern society. The infrastructure is very good and the city I stayed in is in the south. Busan resembles a building site in part. In this respect, comparison with Taiwan or Singapore is more apt than with the Philippines.
The cost of living is higher than here but lower than in Europe. Over 100,000 foreign teachers of English (at least one in every school), earn about
P 60,000 a month; and with free accommodations, they can live well.
Unlike the Taiwanese or Singaporean, the Koreans do not show the Asian culture of respect for each other. The rituals of bowing among others are sometimes seen, but the more obvious behavior is of sharp elbows pushing forward, aggressive driving, young people remaining seated while old people stand on the metro or bus. When I asked my Korean host about this, he agreed with my observations and described modern Korea as a "me first" society.
His view was that the aggressive capitalism of the past 30 years, which has fuelled the rapid growth in the economy has meant the old values have been swept away by strident individualism. This, of course, is a big generalization and I also encountered friendliness and helpfulness, despite the widespread absence of English speakers.
I was also puzzled by the sight of very few small cars, despite Korea exporting these all over the world. Large cars are the norm, all very clean, although driven at you if you dare to cross the road and parked on sidewalks just as here!
The explanation offered was that most people have to live in small high-rise apartments and the car is the main status symbol people can own. Nearly all the cars on the road are Hyudai or Kia. The almost total absence of visible police or traffic enforcers means roads discipline is largely absent. However, crime rates are also very low and walking the street by day or by night is relatively safe.
There's an amusing tale which may strike a chord here, related to litter. I was surprised to find there were no trash cans in the streets, causing a lot of waste on the roads and sidewalks.
The explanation was as follows.
To promote recycling, the government decided to charge by volume for collecting household waste. People immediately started taking their waste (in their cars presumably) to the street bins, causing these to overflow every night. The government's response was to remove the bins! Hence the widespread street litter.
Another comment from my contacts, confirmed by observation, was the vanity of both male and female Koreans. Apparently Korea has the highest rate of plastic surgery after Brazil. Koreans are very style conscious and whenever a reflective surface is available, they preen themselves in it-mirrors, of course, but also bus and train windows, shops etc. It was rare to see somebody scruffily dressed , or with their hair out of place.
As a tourist, the main problem is the absence of English signs and the Korean script which for others is just unreadable! Public transport usually have an English version of place names, but the main solution I adopted in restaurants was to point at somebody else's food and hope for the best! Korean food is usually spicy, but good. Much of it vegetable based. Korean barbecue was popular, but only suitable for more than one person.
Two particular things struck me, though. Firstly, on the metro, which is highly efficient and I used extensively, about 80 percent (by my admittedly unscientific observation) of traveler had a smart phone. Most were using it to call, text, or listen to music, but even if not doing so, they held it visibly. It was almost as if evolution had run its course and the gadget had grown into an extension of their hand!
This even applied to older people. This at least seemed harmless.
The other issue was more chilling. We read of constant tension between North and South Korea and hear the bellicose threats from the North. In the metro stations, which will serve as shelters in the event of attack, there are cases full of gas masks with instructions on their use.
If we do not take the threat of war too seriously, the Koreans clearly do, even though Busan is one of the farthest points from the contested border, unlike Seoul which is very close. I expect there are similar concerns in North Korea. To ram the point home, I visited the UN war cemetery where over 1,000 British soldiers are buried and where many countries, including the Philippines, have memorials to those who died in Korean war-a war not yet officially ended.
In a short trip of a week a visitor can get only a glimpse of a country, although checking out impressions with other foreigners living there and with some Koreans does add some weight to these.
It is quite a difficult country to visit because of the language barrier but does show both the similarities and differences between countries in the same region.
One final point, is that nearly all the passengers on the excellent Cebu Pacific plane from Cebu were Koreans and the plane was only half full-much room for increased tourism in both directions.
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