Dae Han Min Guk! *ClapClap! Clap! Clap! Clap!*
About nine months ago, In Between Soju wrote an article featuring 10 signs that you had been in South Korea for too long. It’s really good, and you haven’t already, you can find it here. Well, since many of us are still here and have further assimilated into this awesome little Republic, here are ten more signs that prove you really have been here too long.
#10 You Remember Boring Things about Years Past, like the weather
You’ve been here a really long time when you have conversation with people along the lines of “This winter was terrible, but do you remember two years ago when it was freezing from like November through April.? That was insane!” or “Remember that one summer where it rained 5 days out of 7 for six flipping months?” And instead of people thinking you’re some kind of boring lunatic, they nod their heads in agreement and reminisce with you about how good or how bad the seasons years past were. Who here remembers the End Times Typhoon-That-Wasn’t, Typhoon Bolaven?
#9 You Are a Seoul Metro Master
Seoul has one of the best subway systems in the world. It is massive. There are stops on almost every block in the entirety of Seoul, and the system is so sprawling that it even extends into not just the surrounding province of Gyeonggi-do, but even into Chuncheonbuk-do and Gangwon-do. It’s fantastic, fast, and cheap. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but after a while, not only do you know which lines match with which colors, but you’re competent at which of the 8+ exits is closest to your intended destination.
If you’re really pro, you’ll have figured out which individual subway car stops exactly in front of the staircase that leads to your transfer subway line, if you need to transfer (these are marked). By now, you’re so native that you can navigate three different subway lines and two sets of transfers without even needing to pause or looking up from whatever game you’re playing on your smartphone.
#8 When you know which Korean city/province is famous for which kind of Food
Which the exception of maybe Seoul, which has everything, most towns and provinces in Korea specialize in a particular kind of food that they are known around the country for. After some time, and after some traveling throughout Korea, you learn about which towns and cities are famous for a particular dish.
For example, if you’re looking to get really good bibimbap, then you’ve got to go down to Jeolla province. We’re going to Suwon? Oh yeah, let’s get some of that sogalbi (bbq beef rib)! Stopping by Chuncheon? Then you certainly have to go to one of the hundreds of dakgalbi restaurants there, as it is the home of dakgalbi. Way out in Andong? No trip to Andong is complete without getting some jjimdak!
#7 Your Korean Language Skills Have Gone in One of Two Directions: You’re Kinda Competent or You’ve Completely Given Up
Probably everyone comes to a foreign country with the idea that they’ll learn the language. It’s perfectly natural to feel this way: you have a desire to communicate with the locals, you want an easier time getting around, you want to pick up a language just to have another useful life skill. You learn to read hangul and you think, “Hey! That was easy! I’ll be speaking Korean in six months like a native!” After that, maybe you learn one, or both sets of numbers in Korean and you think “Wow! Now I can understand and communicate prices and tell time! This is awesome!”
Then reality hits. Korean is hard. Really hard. What bad is that most middle-class Koreans who want to get ahead are doing everything they can to learn English and want to speak English with you; not Korean. What’s worse is that English is everywhere in Korea: on practically all menus, street signs, subway maps, and everything else you might need to navigate life. What’s the worst is the realization that with the following terms:
- Annyeonghaseyo (안녕하세요) “Hello”
- Juseyo (주세요) “I want/Please Give me”
- Kamsahmnida (감사합니다) “Thank you”
You’re pretty much set. Throw in a couple useful nouns of food items you like, and you’ve got perfectly useable Survival Korean.
Either that, or you really worked hard and after a couple years, you’re conversational, but not fluent. The number of people in this group is dwarfed by the people in the first.
#6 You Judge What Kind of Person a Stranger is Based on Where They Party (in Seoul)
A cheat sheet for judging people! You go out in:
- Foreigner Bars Only (Wabar): This person doesn’t like Korea that much. They probably can’t speak any Korean, and don’t care about learning about the culture
- Hofs (호프): This person is a raging beer and soju machine. They probably don’t sleep a lot and its a wonder they hold down their jobs.
- Hongdae: This person is a clubber. They like loud dance music and playing the game. Probably interested in meeting Koreans.
- Itaewon: This person likes bars, not a clubber. Likes hanging out with foreigners, mostly. Possibly military.
- Gangnam: This person likes blowing tons of money for no reason other than “It’s Gangnam!” Probably like Koreans. Probably has a decent job.
- Any Other Place other than the Big 3: This person knows about other places?! Probably been here for a long time.
#5 You’re Not Even Remotely Worried About North Korea
The western/international media loves to inflame the fears about North Korea attacking the South, the United States, or whomever North Korea is pissed at at the moment (you’re next, Moon). Before coming to Korea, many of us also believed everything we heard about North Korea from trusted news sources. They told us that the North was within days of attacking someone somewhere, and we all got a little nervous. To people outside the peninsula, North Korea is this insane, missile-toting toddler who just really wants to kick sand in people’s faces in the playground. While some of these fears are justifiable, after a while (and living through multiple North Korean scares) you become like South Koreans: complacent, uninterested, and generally unconcerned.
While the rest of the world lost its collective mind from February to April, business continued as usual in South Korea. If North Korea was brought up in conversation, it was usually couched in some kind of tongue-in-cheek jest: “Hey, if the North attacks, what’s our plan? Going on the roof with a pile of soju and watching the fireworks!” We did this because, like many of the long timers, knew nothing was going to happen. North Korea has withdrawn the medium-range missiles that got everyone so antsy just a couple of weeks ago. You know why? The North wants to keep on living just as much as any other country in the world.
#4 You know who the current president of Korea is, and can talk somewhat intelligently about Korean politics (OK, not really that intelligently)
If you’ve been reading In Between Soju for a while or were reading it during the last election, then this will include you. It was also hard to miss for anyone who was living on the peninsula during the time of the election, because the campaigners were out everywhere. The current president of South Korea is Park Geun-hye, who replaced Lee Myung-bak earlier this year. This election meant a lot to South Korean voters, and was particularly resonate with the younger population, who by and large voted for challenger Moon Jae-im. It was hard to not be at least marginally interested in what was going on, especially since it was a very visible election.
On an extremely general scale, if you interested, you learned that Park Geun-hye was the candidate from the conservative Saenuri Party, and if you read any sort of news at all, even in Western media, you knew that she was the daughter of former South Korean dictator, Park Chung-hee. She was supported by the older generation and by the majority of southeast Korea. Moon Jae-im was the candidate of the more progressive party in South Korea, and was supported by a lot of the younger generation and by people voting from Seoul and southwest Korea.
#3 Everyone You Once Knew is Gone
When people first come to Korea, they usually meet a core group of people either from their work or town that they become fast friends with. You share all your first experiences with these people, sharing all the ups and downs of living abroad in a completely different culture. Through these experiences, you become very close to these people quite quickly, and part of your Korean life becomes personified in them.
Then they leave.
Whether its to a different city in Korea, to work abroad in another country, or whether its back to the home country of origin for good, everyone you once knew and were close to will leave. There comes a point where you begin attending a significantly larger number of farewells than you do welcomes. With each person who leaves, part of your history in Korea goes with them. You will not be able to share those first experiences of getting overwhelmed by teaching, going wild in Hongdae until 9am in the morning, or stupidly eating the green gochu pepper at a galbi restaurant with anyone else.
#2 Korea, All of the Sudden, Became Expensive
If you’re coming out of North America or Europe, you came into South Korea packing currency that has a favorable exchange rate against the won. The first few months, you were furiously doing calculations from won to your home currency, ecstatic about how cheap Korea was compared with your home country. “I am completely stuffed full of barbequed pork, I ate 6 different side dishes, had rice, some kind of soup, and am 70% drunk and this only cost me 15,000 원? Wait! That’s like $12! THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!!!”
Then time goes by and you get completely assimilated into a won-based economy. Your dollars, euros, and pounds have all been exchanged and spent, and now you’re earning won. All of the sudden you find yourself thinking that 25,000 원 is just an outrageous price for dinner, when before you would have gloated over spending just $20 in your mind. You understand now why when you used to boast about all the things you did on your weekend, Koreans were thinking that you were some kind of crazy rich person. But now you’re on won, and now you’re more careful.
#1 When reading 한글 becomes more convenient than reading English
Outside of a few basic words, you don’t need to be able to speak Korean to function in South Korea. English is everywhere, and almost everybody speaks at least a little of it. Nearly every sign outside is bilingual, as are most restaurant menus. To make life more convenient, however, learning to read Hangul is quick and easy, and once you can read things Korea becomes that much easier to live in.
You know you’ve gone native when reading Hangul becomes more convenient than reading English. A great example of this is in the subway. While all subway station signs are bilingual or trilingual, the name of the station – written in Hangul – is obviously written in the largest print. When you’re seated on the subway and don’t want to get up for risk of losing your seat, it becomes a lot easier to read the Hangul on the subway map sign.
Another reason why this is true is because reading Korean words with a Latin alphabet is kind of hard. Even simple sentences introducing oneself looks like a crazy mess of nonsense – “Hello, my name is Joe. I live in Seoul and am 24 years old” would look something like this: Annyeonghaseyo? Je ilumeun Joeimnida. Jeonen Seouleh salgo sumeultasotsalimnida. You look at that and you realize you don’t even want to try stumbling through reading that.