I am washed over by a sense of relief, happiness and extreme gratefulness now that I have left Seoul/Korea after close to a seven-week stay. Aside from the trials and tribulations of the actual fieldwork, let me list some of things I am glad to see the back of:

• the borish behaviour, particularly among Korean men - all the spitting, loud chomping of food, men taking shoes off for no good reason other than to putrify the air, the smell of kimchi (i have literally walked out of shops because they just reeked of a retch-inducing smell), the absence of courtesy and consideration in public areas (e.g. people block pathways and feel no need to step aside for others to pass)
• the really dull (and sometimes nausea inducing) food that while I could eat I would never dream of actually seeking it out. as far as I can tell, there is a few basic styles of food which they then repeat ad nauseum with different main ingredients. while there are a few Korean dishes I have come to like (e.g. bibimbap and don kass, which is really just battered meat and hence not exclusively Korean), an indication of my thoughts of Korean food is what I (and MJT) choose for my/our last meal in Seoul - we had Australian steak in the Outback Steakhouse!
• the really primitive, expensive and totally uninteresting retail scene (read this post)
• the scarce use of the English Language
• the dull and sometimes ugly architecture - in the rush for growth and economic development, most, if not all, of the buildings were constructed to be merely functional. aesthetic considerations hardly figure in.
• the endless stairs leading down to and up from the platforms in the subway system and the endless wait for lights to turn green at pedestrian crossings.

Honestly, after this fieldtrip, I’ve come to learn that Korea is really just a third world country - it may have OECD-level income, its physical infrastructure might be impressive and it’s industrial capacity might be admirable but the society and its level of governance are all very “third world”. They make rules but they don’t bother enforcing or adhering to them. Seoul may have some of the world’s best physical infrastructure but the city is aesthetically depressing and really rather dirty - not something you’d expect from the economic data or Korea’s claim to OECD status. Its people lack the sort of social consideration and public awareness that I would expect from a civilised society, even after taking differences in cultural norms into consideration. My last encounters with Koreans on the flight from Seoul to Hong Kong perfectly encapsulates both my views and general impressions of Koreans and Korea:

a Korean man in his late-30s, or early 40s sitting next to me on the flight was openly picking his nose for a good two minutes, at least! late in the flight, I found myself second in queue in front of the toilets in the rear of the aircraft when an old Korean man walked up, knocked on the doors of both toilets in an effort to rush the occupants before finally jumping the queue when one toilet became free - all this without a word to the two of us who had been patiently standing in queue before he arrived. An old Korean lady then walked up while I was still in the queue and similarly charged into the toilet when the next one became available, all without a word, probably assuming that I was standing there for the amusement of it all.

My best friend, Matt, summarised it perfectly: “rapid industrialisation just doesn’t get you anywhere except up meaningless league tables”.

Hear! Hear!

Posted on November 18th, 2007 by jl
Filed under: Fieldwork