Sogang KIP Study Abroad in Seoul, South Korea Reflection

July 31, 2019

An Asian American in Seoul

Growing up as a Japanese, Asian American, I always felt the urge to return to the Asian continent that my culture comes from. When I was an infant, one of the few things I learned before my ABCs were how to hold chopsticks and learning to have a taste for eating dried seaweed like potato chips. As I grew older, new elements of Asian culture were introduced to me as I learned to enjoy other forms of Japanese food, and then later, other Asian cuisine from China, Thailand, and Korea. Wanting more to learn, I began to teach myself Japanese in middle school while I was also learning Mandarin as my secondary language in the classroom. Along with the fact that I always had a deeper appreciation of Japanese style animation compared to Western animation, I found myself deeply envious of those living in Asia. My feelings were confirmed when I visited Japan my sophomore year of high school and I realized that I wanted to study abroad somewhere in Asia in college.

Unlike others, I did not know much at all about South Korea before I participated in the Sogang KIP program. And I feel like I got a good experience out of it. Over the course of my month in Seoul, I felt there were more differences between America and Asia than I originally thought.

First of all, people in Korea act much more different than the average Asian American. Although I enjoyed the variety of different types of Asians to be found in Asia (compared to America where they might be labeled into specific stereotypes), I found there to be an underlying hostile vibe to be found in Seoul. Koreans in Seoul were generally friendlier than Americans back home, but they had a different way of expressing their hostility. Instead of being vocal about their hostility, they instead seemed to express it by choosing to focus on their own individual lives rather than others. In simpler words, I found Koreans to not address things that bothered them directly and instead focused on living their own lives. The problem with this is that everyone seems to then fall into a routine of living free of outlying events that makes life more interesting. If everyone is just focusing on themselves and not socializing with one another, then they are missing out on a lot to be found in the world. Over time, I got the general vibe that everyone was constantly trying to watch themselves and make sure not to step into the lives of others.

More importantly, and what I didn’t realize until I came to Seoul, is how I actually prefer the Asian American experience compared to the typical Asian one. In America, Asian culture is something more revered as being unique for things that have become popularized by media for things like boba tea and ramen. A lot of Asians roll their eyes when they see uncultured Americans try to live vicariously through their own Asian culture and feel that others are being culturally inappropriate. And I also felt this way, but I realized that we as Asian Americans are no different than those types of people. Coming to Korea made me realize that we as Americans are simply mimicking what is found in Asia to try and reconnect with our culture while still living somewhere different. And it sounds negative when put in that context, but that is only because we are made to think that way. But when I actually sat down in Korea, I realized that it is truly just a farce put on by those in America to try and feel they have a leg up on other people. Cultural “authenticity” is what we as Asian Americans strive for, but in reality, the boba you drink in the US is no different than the boba you drink in Asia. People want the full experience, but in reality, they are getting it in the first place. If people stopped stressing about cultural authenticity, they could actually enjoy the joys to be found in the culture itself.

The next thing I learned were the reasons why I like Asian American culture compared to exclusively Asian culture. In America, Asians come together and are bonded by the fact that they are a group of minorities in a country of mostly white people. This allows for the opportunity for Asian Americans to become even closer with other Asian Americans because they all can relate to things that most other Asian Americans cannot, even on simple things like food. Meanwhile, in Asia, most of the population are Koreans or Asian so it removes that factor completely. And even more so when the general attitude of the population is to stick to doing their own thing out in public. When I was in South Korea, I missed this bond between Asians to be found in America.

Learning the Korean Hangul alphabet was also an interesting experience. I knew Japanese and Mandarin relatively well going into this program, so I was able to compare the 3 different languages. I was surprised to learn how drastically different the 3 are from one another. While Korean has an alphabet, mandarin actually is entirely memorization for the characters so there is no alphabet. So I soon realized how nice it was to always be able to read words written in Hangul because you always have the option to sounds things out. Japanese is also different, but is more similar to Korean than mandarin is. Japanese also has an alphabet, but it has 2 instead called Hiragana and Katakana. Also different is how it has a third “alphabet” to make words with which is just the same pronunciation but with memorized characters (similar to mandarin with some characters actually coming from mandarin). So in general, Korean was actually easiest to read, but harder to read fast if you need to sound everything out because it does not rely on memorization as much. What I did not like about Korean though, is how the characters are stacked instead of being linearly spelled out in a line. It made it seem like a puzzle sometimes when it shouldn’t have felt hard. But the most interesting thing I found is how I also prefer memorizing characters compared to using an Asian alphabet like Hangul. For characters found in Japanese and Mandarin, they are based off drawings of the definitions they represent. So seeing them gives me a sense of nostalgia and general pleasure knowing how each character is unique. In a way, it literally makes a paragraph of words written in characters like a jangled painting with different drawings lined in a row to tell a story. Meanwhile, Korean was a lot more efficient at its job as a language, but I felt it lacks the charm of Mandarin and Japanese.

A very interesting thing I noticed about Korea is how much care there is for watching over for its citizens. First of all, the subway system in Korea was by far the cheapest transportation I’ve ever used, and also the simplest. I originally felt apprehensive about using the subway system for fear of getting lost, but I soon realized that it was easy to get used to. In fact, even if I did get lost, there was always WiFi in the subway stations if I needed to find my way back to the Sogang campus. Another example of this care for the Korean citizens is how there are actual navigation options for people with disabilities living in Seoul. If you look for them, you will notice how there are yellow streaks in the middle of sidewalks with bumps running through them. These bumps actually allow blind people to know where they are going. They even switch to having rounded bumps at points in which a blind person could get hurt like at crosswalks or subways stations to warn them. It amazed me how common in Seoul these yellow paths were, because in America, a person with disabilities would be lucky to find a ramp in most places.

Another thing I noticed in Korea was how safe it felt everywhere we went. Some of my female friends would comment how they felt a lot safer walking at night compared to back home in America. I also felt this way, even though we were in the city. The most interesting example I found is when I visited the Sinchon Water Gun Festival. At this festival, people would be dancing to music in the city station square while shooting water guns at each other. It looked like a lot of fun, but even more surprising to me was how there was not any security at the festival. People simply brought their water guns with them to the festival and then began shooting! I then realized that because South Korea does not permit the rights of firearms to its citizens, the officials do not have to worry about massive shootings occurring. Overall, I felt much safer in Seoul than someplace like Los Angeles because there was a much lower chance of me being robbed or threatened by a criminal. Not only do people like me feel safer in Seoul because of this, but it also allows for more people to participate in events like the Sinchon Water Gun Festival due to not having to focus resources on security. Sadly, I know that this would not be possible in America where security nowadays is a much needed necessity to protect against gun violence.

Another more unexpected thing I discovered about Korea is that the Asian countries have just as many similarities between them as they have their differences. Just like how rice is a staple grain throughout Asia, there are parts of Asian culture that is shared between all of them. In South Korea, the palaces and outdoor gardens all bear resemblance to those that can be found in Japan and China. Although a lot of Koreans will say that Korean architecture is more symmetrical and better than other architecture, I felt that it was more due to pride for their country of South Korea that they see the architecture being different than there really being a difference. In fact, I realized that there is a lot of overlap between Korea and other Asian countries. South Korea in my opinion is culturally most similar to China while being as technologically and culturally advanced as Japan. This is because Koreans actually used a lot of Chinese culture in their own, including how royals used to use the Chinese characters for writing until the Korean Hangul alphabet was created. In a similar way, Japanese also continues to do this in modern day by using its unique Hiragana and Katakana alphabets in conjunction with Chinese characters found in its third alphabet, Kanji. I found it interesting that although these 3 Asian countries share a lot in common, they instead try to focus on what makes them different and unique, when in reality a lot of it is borrowing from one another’s culture to make their own “unique” culture. In my opinion, what truly makes South Korea unique is how cities like Seol are one of the most modern cities in the world because they had to rebuild it after the Korean War, which resulted in having most of the city up to modern day technological standards. I believe Koreans also have so much pride for their country because they acknowledge how they have struggled and are proud of how far they have come as a country.

Walking in the streets of the college district of Hongdae allowed me to have a positive experience of city life. Back home on my college campus at LMU, I feel safe and am content living on the bluff overlooking Playa Vista. However, LMU is definitely not in the heart of Los Angeles, so it can be hard to find things to do immediately near the campus. Not only did my stay at Sogang University allow me to have the experience of living in the city, it also allowed me to find things to do with a spontaneous mindset. In Los Angeles, if you want to do anything, you either need to Uber or drive to get somewhere and deal with a lot of traffic. In the end, you have to decide whether or not going into the city is worth it or not for whatever you are doing. This then results in most people spending a lot of money on food or shopping to make trips into Los Angeles seem worth it. However, in Seoul, every district within the city is so easy to access through the train that you don’t need to worry about getting your money’s worth. Even better, food is cheaper and the subway system is much cheaper than taking ubers in Los Angeles. Because of these factors, I was a lot more free to explore the city as much as I wanted because I did not have to worry about money. I could also simply just go for walks at night because I did not have to worry about parking or being assaulted because it is so safe in Seoul. And honestly, because I can not drive yet in Los Angeles on my own, it was liberating to be able to explore Seoul on my own. In general, the ease of being able to take the subway in Seoul compared to having to drive in Los Angeles allowed me to fully enjoy the city life in a way that I was not able to prior to my trip to South Korea.

Finally, the biggest shock to me personally in South Korea was the heat, from both the weather and the food. I never knew that it could be so hot even on a cloudy day until I came to Seoul. As the month progressed, the days gradually passed into typhoon season and got more humid. I was used to heat from Los Angeles, but I had never known such uncomfortable humidity until I came to South Korea. The food also took some getting used to. For me, I already was not raised on food that was spicy at home. The Japanese curry that we would make at home was never that spicy, and traditional Japanese curry actually has chocolate melted into the curry if that says anything at all. So something as familiar as Asian curry even tasted very different to me because it was much spicier than I was used to. I began to ask for the least spicy thing on the menu, but it usually resulted in me eating food that was either still really spicy or food that instead tasted bland because it lacked the main flavors of spice. I was shocked at how much Korean cuisine relies on being spicy in order to taste good. Because of that, I found myself constantly in a state of worry when it came to eating traditional Korean food. However, I still found myself enjoying the food. I just did not like it as much as other Asian food like Japanese or Chinese.

Overall, I had a positive experience in Seoul. I honestly still do not love Korea as much as I love Japan and its culture, but I might be pretty biased because that is my own culture I was raised on. The things I ended up enjoying in Korea are pretty much what I expected, but the parts that I did not expect enjoying were the times that I had alone to myself when I got to explore the city on my own. And although there were some cultural differences that made things difficult (especially originally not knowing the language), I still enjoyed my month in Seoul. In fact, living in another country like South Korea for a month has allowed me to learn to appreciate things in my town of Manhattan Beach near Los Angeles more than before. I did not realize how much I loved the South Bay until I missed it when I was gone for a month. I would strongly recommend studying abroad for other students so that they can experience another culture through a student’s perspective and also so that they can learn to appreciate their own home and LMU more when they return to the US.