I just got back from a Seoul historical walking tour holiday so I now understand why Koreans are so tough and why they can Bong Joon-Ho “I’ll drink til noon the next day”. It also gives me license to burden my three anesthetic colleagues who are of Korean heritage with some condescending unsolicited comments.
Here they are in no particular order.
1)South Koreans say they live on a rectangular island because they can’t walk out of the country. To leave they need either a boat or a plane as there are oceans on three sides and a crazy pudgy dictator to the north.
2)South Koreans don’t like Kim Jung Un. The average person seems to just ignore him. It is interesting that they don’t even mention Rocket Man’s ballistic missile clown shows but the non-Koreans living in Korea seem to talk about nothing else when North Korea flubs a launch.
3)They still don't like the Japanese much even though Colonial rule by the Japanese, which started in 1910, ended 78 years ago. The new giant, glass, sorta S-shaped city hall which was finally completed in 2012 that has some big ovals sticking out of each end was built as an architectural emblem that had ”ears listening to the citizens”. But Koreans in the street will tell you that it's a wave crashing down on the old Japanese City Hall which is now a museum in front of the new shining structure.
4)The city of Seoul, which was basically leveled in the Korean War is an amazing example of how human capitalism can build tall buildings…the good, the bad and the ugly. Right after the war it was “Hurry, hurry, hurry and build” with little regulation. So, because this was led by a mafia that descended from the Japanese Yakuza who used ... .let's say ... less than perfect concrete there were some building collapse disasters that killed a lot of Koreans in the early 1990’s that led to top down bureaucratic regulation. The big monopolies (chaebols), some led by less than desirable rich people, do the work and everyone seems to play along. The rejuvenated stream that now runs through downtown Seoul where a concrete raised highway used to be is an inspiration for any other city on the planet that wants a better urban environment. Christ, just look at False Creek with those toilet boats dumping human excrement directly in the water at NO cost (to them)!
5)Street crime is low. Expensive cars can have totally tinted real black windows which sure doesn’t happen in the USA. Expensive wine can be sold in a hotel lobby “store” that doesn’t seem to have anyone watching other than the pervasive CCTV.
6)Street level drug use does not seem to exist which might have something to do with the almost Singaporean criminal punishment for drugs. K-pop stars have been put into jail for smoking a joint. A Korean can still be thrown into jail for five years for smoking that joint in another country where it’s legal on their return from said country. Maybe that’s why the Koreans like hard booze so much? Also makes you really wonder wtf we are doing here in Vancouver.
7)The dynastic period that lasted for many centuries was loaded with the usual bloodletting on the part of royal families with too many offspring from too many concubines killing each other as the number one monarch gets old. One Emperor even shoved his raping son into a box and left him there till he died. Good to know killing is so universal.
8)There was one Emperor named Xiang who died in the early 1400s who is on the 10000 won note. He is the one who promoted the Korean alphabet. This is a really fantastic logical system that makes even Esperanto look difficult.
9)South Koreans (males) have to do 18 months of mandatory military service except if they have cancer or if they win a gold medal at the Olympics. That’s weird. Anyway. Compared to the North Koreans (male and female) who are all shoved in the military as labor slaves for 3 years this seems like a good deal.
10)Seoul is the second most expensive city in the world after Taipei as measured by the cost of a home divided by the yearly rent of that home. Amazing eh? The number is over 80 whereas in Vancouver (that most think of as exorbitantly expensive) that number is 25. Check out numbeo.com.