1. Korea loves technology. They love to learn, and they really love to work hard, as a community, Koreans just love to work all the time, and improve everything.
2. People will hate you if you hold up the subway line, even if there are other terminals open, they just stand behind you, making noises.
3. Korean people eat SO much. You'll go to a buffet restaurant order a main course, then go to the buffet and get three plates of food. Seriously. And they snack all the time, too.
4. It's all about respect for your elders here in Korea, you have to add "-yo" to a lot of phrases when talking to someone older, or use a different, more formal phrase altogether. You also have to bow when you leave the elevator/before you walk away/when a teacher leaves a classroom/etc.
5. Their phones are huge. When I first got here, I was like..."Is that a tablet?" and then I'd see them put thi hulking thing up to their ear and call someone.
6. Koreans love little games, my friends in school all play a game similar to jacks, except with little beanbags, and they also play a lot of hand games. This includes phone apps, too. Almost all koreans play this one game on their phone that is called "안니퐁" or Anipong, that they play on the subway all the time.
7. They are really serious about school here. My friends go from 8am-9pm on weekdays, and they started going from 5pm-9pm on Saturdays (I think, I only go on weekdays, for a portion of the time.)
8. You always wear a school uniform to high school/middle school. And there are no co-ed classes like we have in the US.
9. They recycle everything here, in my house/school they have rubbish bins for every type of trash.
10. Ironically, they leave lights on constantly, and they leave the water running, too.
11. Korea is a very nationalistic country. They love Korea, they buy Korean, they think Korea is the best country in the world (and in many ways it is).
12. The threat of N. Korea is non-existent. Koreans don't worry at all. It's not even thought about, and if it is, it's laughed at.
13. There are old people everywhere.
14. No Korean girl thinks she is pretty, apparently, even though it's hard to find a Korean who isn't pretty. And they get tons of plastic surgery here (STARTING IN MIDDLE SCHOOL) to look more western. (more western eyes, nose, etc.)
15. Koreans are also really insecure about their English. Even students who have ridiculously amazing English for never even conversing with a native speaker before are terrified to say hello to me because they think I'll make fun of them.
16. Everyone here is super nice. Everyone always smiles and corrects me really sweetly if I make a mistake.
17. You use chopsticks and a spoon when eating, but if you look like you need it, they put a fork down, too. (which I indignantly pushed to the other side of the table until my host family made the waiters stop bringing them, and they stopped doing it at home, too.)
18. I haven't seen a big truck/SUV since I got here. Maybe because:
19. Their roads are like alleys, or they have 8 lanes. It's either one or the other.
20. You have to bring you own TP to school.
a. If the bathroom does have it, it's outside the stalls.
b. Normal public bathrooms only have 1-2 sitting toilets, the rest are squat.
21. YOU NEVER FLUSH THE TOILET PAPER.
22. Korea is really safe, I don't think there's a Korean thief in Korea. Maybe foreigners steal things, but I don't really think any Korean ever has.
23. No one has a shower curtain. The whole bathroom is your shower.
24. I got lucky and got a mattress, but most Koreans sleep on a mat, or raised platform with a mat on it.
25. They love convenient stores here. There are GS25's and 7/11's everywhere. But you rarely see gas stations.
26. They eat dog here. Not a lot of people do, but in certain markets, you can go and they have dead dogs laying out, just like any other meat. The dead ones are also right next to cages of live ones. (Keep in mind, on the same street you can also buy fresh duck, chicken, beef...dog is just another meat, albeit less common.)
27. They also have fish markets with live fish, octopus, squid, crab, and lots of other seafood in big warehouse-like buildings.
28. Lots of old women have rather large carts selling fruits and vegetables that they pull around to different locations. These ladies have to be almost 90, and they're still doing hard, physical labour.
29. Thirty years ago, Korea was poorer than Malaysia and Mexico, so it's thanks to all of the ubiquitous elderly people, and ladies like the ones still pulling the fruit carts that Korea is now a powerhouse for amazing technology. (If you want to read more on Korea and how they changed their economic standing just google "Korea's economic miracle" as it's known, or read this article from Time: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2029399,00.html)
30. I love Korea and all of it's amazing-ness. It's ambition as a whole brought it to where it is today, and I love being able to be in such an amazing country, and I think the world has a lot to learn from this little peninsula.
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