10/12/2018
Things I Didn't Tell You About Korea .... Yet?
10 Dec 2018
It’s been 3 and half years since me and my family left Korea. Allow me to share with all of you the things that I got from my own self experiences, observations and sharing from friends throughout my whole 1 year life in Seoul, Korea.
1. Some people keep charred logs of wood (arang) in their fridges, this supposedly helps keep the fridge smelling fresh as the charred logs eat up any foul odors.
2. Eye glasses are insanely cheap and take a really short amount of time to make. How cheap? One of friend has two really nice pairs that he spent a combined $150 on. How quick? U can just walk in, and in 30 minutes u have your glasses picked out, your eye checkup done, and the lenses are fixed according to your prescription and ready to go.
3. The subway cards are awesome for a variety of reasons, one of them is instead of a card you can have a little charm to put on your cell phone that will work as a subway pass. Also, you don’t have to take it out to swipe at the subway/bus machine, it can read through your wallet/bag. The card/charm works for most taxis and even at some convenience stores. It’s not flimsy like the Touch & Go Card which can be destroyed easily. Also, look at them. There’s no way a Touch & Go Card is better than this...
4. You can charge your cellphone in most convenience stores. Maybe I mentioned this before, but it’s amazing and needs to be mentioned again.
5. Everyone composts, even if they don’t have a yard to plant things in. Don’t know what composting is? Well, then you’re probably an American from a large metropolitan city and you should look it up.
6. Your age will be a year older in Korean age.. They start counting the age since the day you were born. Interesting and sounds logic right? Your first birthday is the day u were born.
7. Too many and long stop traffic lights for pedestrians. My neighborhood had a light that took 3 ½ minutes to change through its full cycle (I timed it). People wait too because......Confucius. Follow rules, order. I nearly got a summons my first weekend there for crossing the street at 2am when no cars were insight, a cop came over to nab me but I played the dumb-foreigner card. The longest light I’ve seen was 5 minutes.
8. Most newer apartments you don’t use keys to get inside, they have an electronic keypad so you just punch in a code and you’re in. This is amazing. Think about all the time you’ve spent looking for your keys, how inconvenient it is to have to bring your keys with you when you go for a run or go to the gym, or think about the times when your jacket was stolen with your keys inside, and your roommate was passed out so you had to sleep on the floor outside of your apartment door to the horror of your neighbors (Hypothetical situation of course).
9. A number of fast food restaurants are open 24 hours. All fast food restaurants deliver.
10. Spitting is…how do I put this mildly…socially acceptable? Standing on the corner waiting to cross the street, and hearing a 70 year old woman loudly “hock a loogie” is not only not out of the question, but probably something you will see regularly. Yuks, eeewww, yaiiikkks!
11. Winter season can be very brutal where the temp can easily reach negative Celsius for a very long time…
12. Excluding the “blue trucks” and some taxis which are orange, I’d estimate that 93% of the cars are black, white or silver. Even latest model Ferraris are also in Silver and Black color. It is very rare to see red, yellow, green or purple car here.. Unlike our colorful cars in Malaysia.. Nothing unusual really, just following the norm.
13. Most apartments don’t have dryers or ovens. Clothes are air-dried on a rack, baking just isn’t very big.
14. Ping-pong halls, pool halls, PC rooms (think, internet cafe without coffee, just heaps of people playing computer games), and noraebang’s (karaoke rooms) are EVERYWHERE. If you walk 2 minutes without seeing one of them, you are blind.
15. There is a motorcycle delivery service where they will literally bring you anything you want. I always wondered why I saw some guys on a bike with crap stacked six feet high on the back, but now I know, he’s running errands for someone.
16. There is also a motorcycle taxi service. In a bind and don’t want to deal with traffic? MTS will weave through and bring you wherever the hell you want. Awesome.
17. Seoul Old Folk Flea Market (on Sundays) is one of the biggest and coolest in town. Most of the customers are aged more than 50’s.. No wonder they call it old folk flea market. Coming to this flea market makes u feel like “u r in third or fourth world countries… I love this place though.. It has been my routine since I knew this place few months ago.. Even Malaysian students who studying here almost 4 years never been there.. Maybe they just rely on G-Market or maybe they dont like to go to such ancient places I guess?
18. One of my friends told me that being single is somewhat of a sin. You will be asked about 100x whether u have a girlfriend / boyfriend or not and each facial expression when your answer is “no” will be more sad than the next.
19. Ci******es are $2.50 a pack. Foreigners come here and think “I’m in a new place, let’s change some habits of mine, no more smoking.” But then you see how cheap ci******es are, you can smoke everywhere unlike most major American cities, and then they crack.
20. Krispy Kreme Donuts is awesome. There is considerably less sugar in the original flavor donuts here, making it possible to eat six (if one were so inclined) without feeling sick. Oh, they also sell churros at some of them too.
21. Cell phones work everywhere...tunnels, highest peak in the country, subways, etc. everywhere. I mentioned this before, but the reason this is important is because the luxury isn’t abused like it would probably be in the Malaysia. On subways, if someone is using their phone, they are probably covering their mouth to keep their voice low and are talking for a very short period of time. It’s just not polite.
22. The school buses are nicer than ours. haha
23. According to the always accurate Wikipedia, there are 2,282 seven eleven (7/11)’s in Korea and it’s the 5th most of any country in the world. I’m shocked by that number and believe it must be higher since that figure was calculated. There were two on my block alone less than 400 yards from each other. It’s insane, I guess there are more 7/11’s here than Mamak Stalls/Restaurants in Malaysia.
24. Elevator buttons can cancel out. Pushed the wrong button? No problem, push it again and the light goes off. This would have ruined mine and some of my friends’ childhood, who made a habit out of pushing every button on the elevator before we got off on the floor we needed to. Kids.
25. Nothing gets stolen. Ever. I was once left my mobile phone in a toilet at the subway station (pls imagine so many people using the public toilet) and when I went back to the toilet 30 minutes later ( I realized my phone was not in my pocket when I want to buy Kebab.. hehe.. oh and almost every corner of the roads have CCTVs.. People keep their gym shoes in a shoe rack at the gym so they can go straight from work and leave their shoes there. In supermarkets and some other stores, they have a bin in the front where you put your wet umbrellas so you don’t have to carry it around with you and get the floor all wet. CONFUCIUS.
26. If u wish to go out during weekend, make sure u go out as early as 9/10 am or u will ended up stuck in traffic jams or u will be in trouble to find place to park ur car. Oh, even on Sundays, Korean go out with families and no staying at home… hmmm
27. Even latest new car using gas (LPG or NGV in Malaysia). They also prefer diesel rather than gasoline.. Maybe because of the cheaper price I guess.. But I use LPG, the cheapest.. J
28. There’s no such words as good morning, good afternoon, good evening or good night.. they always use Annyeong Haseyo which means Hello in almost all the time..
29. Bus seats all face forward in the same direction. A lot of buses in other cities will have some sideways seats for space efficiency. I have no official explanation, but I can only believe the orderliness of the seats all facing forward has to do with a man named Confucius.
30. North Koreans who successfully defect to South Korea are given $10,000-$28,000 in start up money. In the US, Mexicans who cross the border get sh*tty jobs picking tomatoes and are blamed for the collapse of the US economy, crime and a number of other problems.
31. In KL, if there is a sale advertised, it usually looks like this “20%-40% off.” In Korea, it looks like “40%-20% off.” You can even see “finish sale” signboards which probably means clearance sale I guess? It seems weird, but it might make sense. Seeing the bigger number first might suck people in more. I believe a study needs to be done on this if it has not already.
32. A lot of gas stations look like this. Notice anything weird (hard to tell, sh*tty picture)? Well, there are no pumps, just an overhead thingie. This is a huge space saver and also let’s people not have to worry about what side of the car their gas tank is on. Genius idea.
33. Cabs can be found almost everywhere.. and they can stops at almost anywhere they like.. Which I hate the most when I’m driving behind a cab..
34. Traffic on the highways around Seoul is horrific, worse than KL, better than Jakarta though (I think).
35. The vast majority of tennis courts are a clay/dirt. They also keep a chalk line maker there and some places even keep a bunch of balls too, but of course, none of them get stolen. Confucius?
36. Subways have vending machines, a digital map so you can see the overview/Google maps type view of the surrounding area to locate parks, restaurants, hospitals, etc. It’s awesome. There are also flat screen tv’s in a number of train stations showing commercials, news, etc.
37. You can hardly see clinics in town. Unlike in Malaysia, almost every residential area has clinics.
37. There’re no such things as subsidies… hospital, fuel (gasoline, diesel, LPG), electricity, water or heater.
38. U can buy a new Harley Davidson as low as $10k, which is almost triple in Malaysia.
39. Ur expiry date of insurance or roadtax can be seen from ur plate numbers. There is no such roadtax stickers posted at the wind screen of ur car. Ur insurance is mainly on the value of the car, age of the owner and not about the CC of ur car. Unlike in Malaysia, if u have bigger car engine, u will need to pay more tax. Here, everyone enjoys the same rate. Pity the poor ones. But they also appreciate the rich ones who pay more income taxes I guess.
40. Only less than 20% Korean speaks English. They prefer others to speak their language. Unlike in Malaysia, even Mak Cik selling karipap at corner of the roads or at the pasar malam can speak reasonable basic English.
