Hello everyone! Hope you are all having a great day today!

Today I want to post something a bit different. I want to keep my blog dedicated to photography (as that is the thing I love), however, I do want to expand a bit and provide more content of different forms. I especially want to make some posts about life in Korea, and my experiences here. Instead of just photography, I want to post about whatever I feel like, and today will be my first attempt at that! I hope you enjoy reading my article and hopefully get something out of it.

Before reading this, please note that these are my personal experiences. Nothing in this post is factual, and it is based completely upon my opinion and experience. If you have had a different experience, or have any questions, feel free to ask or share in the comments!

My experiences with Korean people and living in the Korean culture.

Before coming to Korea I heard many different things from many people, with many being along the lines of ‘Oh, Korea? People there will love you!’ or the complete opposite ‘I heard Koreans aren’t very friendly to foreigners’. Nearly everyone I mentioned my plans to (to move and study in South Korea), had one of these two opinions, even if they had never visited Korea themselves. However, my personal experiences have been very different to what I, and the people who told me these things, expected. In the aim of trying to provide a more knowledgeable experience, and to encourage people to want to visit Korea, I want to share my experiences.

Firstly, I just want to say a few things. I am a university student in Korea who is currently 19 years old. I am originally from New Zealand, English is my native language, and I live in Seoul. All of these factors could change how you are treated in Korea, and this is the perspective I speak from so please understand. If you come to work, or live in another city, you may experience very differently to me.

Currently I have lived in Korea for around 10 months. I have nearly completed my first year at university here and so far I am enjoying my time very much. I live by myself (which was very difficult if you can’t speak Korean!), and work as a part time English teacher at an academy.

So, what has my experience been like?

My experiences with Korean people have overall been overwhelmingly positive. Koreans are very friendly people overall, and although many wont interact with you first (I believe this is in part due to just the vast amount of people here though...), often if you interact with them they are very friendly, kind, and willing to help you if you need help. While there are obvious exceptions to this rule, I believe the vast majority of people here are friendly to foreigners. On my first day here, and old lady waved at me (we were waiting at a road crossing on opposite sides of the road). I looked around, she couldn’t possibly be waving at me! But indeed she was, as we crossed the road she waved to me again and said ‘Hello, I hope you have a nice day!’. On the same day, I stopped to take pictures of a stream and another old woman came up to me and started talking and smiling in Korean, and although I couldn’t understand what she was saying at the time, from the way she was acting and smiling it was definitely friendly. While it isn’t common for people to interact with me like this now, at that time I was staying in a very poor part of Seoul that didn’t have many foreigners. In five days I saw only two other foreigners and one of them was driving past in a bus while the other was shopping with his girlfriend.

While normally I am not treated like this, I have only had two experiences where I have been treated badly, and it’s possible that one of those was not due to me being foreign at all. Once I tripped on the subway when it pulled forward (sometimes they aren't very smooth rides...) and I fell on a man. I stood back up and apologised two or three times before turning around... Just to be pushed over by the guy I fell on. Whether this was anger at me falling on him, or because I am foreign, I do not know. On one other occasion I got told to leave a restaurant because I was foreign. Once again though, this was in a poor area with not many foreigners, and never again have I experienced anything like this. I have lived here 10 months and only had these two bad experiences because of my nationality, and I would say that’s pretty good for any country. Never have I experienced open racism (many people assume I am American or Russian, but that’s hardly the same, and sometimes people assume I have an easy life in Korea since I am foreign. Like easy university entrance, easy jobs as a teacher, etc). This is most definitely not the case, but I do understand why they think so, and being foreign definitely does have its advantages.

Sure, people stare at me on the street sometimes. I can feel eyes on me, especially when I am with my Korean girlfriend, but hardly ever are these eyes hostile. Usually just curious or inquiring (I also have red hair, so I stand out a lot). While people may assume a lot since you are foreign, I don’t think they are racist towards you, and often you can just explain things and they understand. Many western people think Japanese and Koreans and Chinese are pretty much the same (they definitely are not!). Sometimes Koreans have assumed similar things about me (expecting me to act like an American or British person), but I don’t think it is a reason to be angry.

On the other hand, I think the Korean people are usually very shy and they may not seem friendly at times. They can also be very pushy (especially on the subway), but this is understandable since it is required at times. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t kind people, it’s just a cultural difference. And if I ever need assistance with something (‘I can’t find this, would you be able to show me where it is?’ ‘how does this work’?) people are more than willing to help me.

While these things may be obvious to many people, I think that many people who come to Korea don’t understand the cultural differences (I’m still wrapping my head around them!) and just believe Koreans to be unfriendly people. From my experience this is totally not true. Never (besides the experiences mentioned earlier), have I been treated badly for being foreign, and I am also not treated overly well. Most Koreans are indifferent and besides speaking in English instead of Korean which most people assume I can’t speak (and currently pretty much rightly so), I am treated the same as anyone else.

For many people, and me especially, Korean culture can seem quite rude at some points. In New Zealand we are expected to use manners such as 'please', 'thank you', and 'excuse me'. But in Korea the language is very different. When I go to a convenience store a conversation might go like this ‘Welcome’ (as I enter the store) ‘Hello’ I say, (at the counter) ‘would you like a bag?’ ‘yes’ ‘goodbye’ ‘yes’. Although this can definitely differ from person to person, and many people do say thank you, many also don’t. In English if I said ‘goodbye’ to someone and they replied with ‘yes’ I would consider it rude. But in Korean it makes sense, and it is their language and culture. It isn’t rude, just different.

I think that these differences are often overlooked with many cultures, but I also think if we are visiting another country we should try our best to understand and fit into their culture... We are the visitors after all.

Korea has treated me very well and I hope that the rest of my time here will be as good as my time so far. I just hope that my Korean continues to get better and that I can fit in more and truly understand the culture and lifestyle here!

Thank you very much for reading!

I truly appreciate it! Once again, I am happy to answer any questions and I would love to hear your experiences if you want to share! :)