Thoughts from Asia

In my thus far brief time in Korea I've realized many things about the Asian culture in the United States versus the culture over here. I will say that although I've only been around native Koreans, I've seen very many similarities amongst the cultures that have had much Chinese, Confucian, influence.

The men in Korea, I should say married men, have total freedom it seems. They stay out late and drink with friends and co workers, they have fun and leave the child rearing to the wife at home. Dads would get home late at night, say hi to the kids and go to bed. Sound familiar? I always wondered why my own father did it and it seems is simply part of the culture.

I've always been very critical of the Asian propensity for loving anything brand name. Everything has to have a brand name, everything has to be good. I've thought about why and I wonder why can't we just like normal, functional stuff. Then I came to Korea. There are A LOT of merchandise, clothes, watches, shoes, anything to buy. Because there is such a vast quantity of goods there are also a high volume of lower end merchandise that won't last long. I bought some shoes from a no name store earlier today only to return them five minutes later when I found better name brand shoes for a little bit more money but a lot better quality. Brand name simply means that it has a much, much higher chance of being of good quality rather than taking a stab at some random shop somewhere.

Chicks also love designer brands here so guys have to keep up.

Another thing that bothered me was how Asian people gossip like CRAaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I hated telling anything to any one of my family members because soon enough family who I've never met will know all the little intricate details of my life. At work people also talk. Many of the teachers at my school that I work with know a lot about me, where's I'm from, what I like, things I eat, how I'm single and how everyone wants to set me up. It seems as though the work place is more like a family than a business, as far as teachers are concerned and what we see as gossip they simply see as information to be freely distributed amongst family members. For some reason it doesn't bother me as much as my own family doing it.

Also the sharing information thing also is to keep kids in line. One of my teacher friends at the school, a male teacher, found out about how one of his kids started smoking from one of his teacher friends at another school. You already know what happened to the son.

Every time I would go anywhere to buy anything with my parents from a non mainstream place, like the mall, they would haggle like crazy. As a kid, I wondered why they would talk so much and only get like two bucks off the sticker price. Now I realize that over here you're able to get massive crazy discounts if you can work it and if you're not a foreigner. I always get better deals when I'm with a Korean friend.

Eating out has to be the Asian national past time. It seems as though people rarely eat at home because things are just so cheap around here. Many places offer a full meal for about five bucks.