Some differences between South Korea and Canada:
- The cars are as big as back home, though there aren’t as many SUVs. The ones that do exist tend to be small.
- Koreans are bad drivers, but they don’t seem to get in many accidents.
- Gas is about 50% higher than Canada.
- They are constantly (re-)building here.
- Seoul is BIG, but the average street here isn’t much different the downtown Toronto. Perhaps more stores in Korea.
- Most doors in stores swing both ways here. I got some funny looks pulling open doors.
- People on the subway don’t wait for you to get off first.
- When on the subway and approaching a connecting line, they play either bird noises or classical violin music.
- There are fewer homeless, but they’re still here.
- Everybody has business cards and you’re expected to trade them (oops!).
- Women don’t seem to advance as much as men do. Whether this is due to rigidity in the hierarchy at companies here (making change very slow) or sexism, I don’t know. I suspect both.
- Companies are very rigid and you essentially do whatever your boss says. You only show the utmost respect.
- All bets are off when drinking after work, however!
- The food is awesome if you know where to go.
- The cell phones are amazing here. Everybody watches TV on them on the subway.
- Almost everybody lives in an apartment. The wealthy just have bigger ones (Houses are seen as backwards and for ‘peasants’ here). This is true even out in the country. When we were taking the train to Busan, you’d see a cluster of 20 story buildings in the middle of nowhere.
- LG and Samsung make EVERYTHING here. From the electronics and appliances we get at home all the way up to apartment buildings, subways, cars(mostly through partnerships), etc.
- Most electronics are the same prices as back home. Outside of phones, we’ve pretty much got everything they do. This surprised me.
- The companies that build apartments put their logos on the sides of the buildings.
- It’s nice having a transit smart card that you can use at some vending machines and convenience stores.
- It’s nice to be able to buy booze at the corner store. This is more of a thing outside of Ontario, though.
- Very few people speak decent English.
- The vast majority of women over 20 wear heels and skirts.
- The men dress the same as home, but at work it’s always a suit and rarely “business casual”.
- People have trinkets that dangle from their phones. Women have little “cute things” whereas men tend to have chargers, usb drives, etc.
- The food can be absolutely amazing.
- The people aren’t as polite as I expected. Some locals told me that’s a Japanese thing.
- Even when it’s freezing with the wind in your face, people here don’t cover up. Is this a macho thing? Andrei and I, a Russian and a Canadian, were completely bundled up.