Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: eagl on April 18, 2006, 07:09:31 AM
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Hey all,
I've been in Korea for just over a month now and I thought I'd report on how it's been.
First off, some caveats. I'm here alone without my wife, it's just a 1 year tour, and I'm living on base.
First impression: Can be summarized in one experience. There is some new on-base construction near where I live, and when I walked past it I noticed something. There is a guy who is detailed to do nothing but keep the debris and dirt/mud from the construction zone from intruding into the rest of the base. The lesson I got from that is that the people here CARE about what they're doing.
It's clear in almost everything I've seen. Whether it's the guy at the exchange trying to sell me overpriced ipod accessories or the guy off-base cheerfully bringing me another beer, everyone here seems to give a damn about their job, and takes pride in how they accomplish their duties. I don't think I've met a single Korean, on or off duty, that has a cavalier attitude about their job for any reason. Whether their customer or parntner is Korean or American, they all approach their jobs with a hearty dose of professionalism that is increasingly missing in the US and which I found nearly non-existent in the UK (sorry beet1e).
Even the taco bell employee who's sole job is to take food, put it on a tray, and shout out the order number, takes pride in their job. You have NO IDEA how cool that is, until you see it for yourself.
The bad... Like everywhere else, there are minor downsides. Mostly, it's made my tour here feel like a big camping trip. Yea they care a lot about what they do here, but some stuff just isn't right. Simple examples range from the loud and proud statement on the pizza delivery car that their pizza tastes "baudicious", to the fact that every couple of weeks, there will be no hot water in my building when I try to shower before going to work. Also, just like how the brits are completely unable to grasp the engineering principles required to make warm water come out of a faucet, the Koreans seem unable to make stairs with any semblence of ergonomic proportions. Either the stairs are waaay too steep, or waaaay too shallow. It's maddening, but that's one engineering concept that just hasn't worked it's way into the standard way of doing things in this country.
On a final note, I haven't run across a single disrespectful Korean in the 5 weeks I've been here. I know that at least one ROKAF officer put me off until my boss returned from leave, but he was damned polite about it so it's hard to get grumpy about it. There is also some price gouging going on here, but again the Koreans are so cheerful about everything that it's tough to get too mad about it. There is absolutely no logical reason why it should cost me $120 to get a cellphone in South Korea since they make the damned things only a few miles away, but the local American market has driven prices up to a bit beyond US prices and we keep buying them, so it's not suprising that market demand has corrupted the cost/price balance for certain items. I just won't be buying a cellphone while I'm here because the prices are unreasonable, but I can't blame the merchants for setting their prices according to demand... If I want a reasonably priced cellphone, I'll have to go to Seoul and get one with Korean menus because the English language ones cost about twice what they should. Market pressures...
Overall, it's been a positive experience so far. Yea it sucks being away from family but the people here in general seem genuinely friendly as long as we don't play the ugly American. This is a nice contrast from much of Europe, where in my experience, an American will be targeted as soon as they're identified.
The most impressive part though is the pride they take in their work. It's sort of like how I imagine the US used to be back when my grandfather was my age. Not everything is perfect, but people sure care about what they are doing.
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LOL eagl - you couldn't even find the door handles in the UK!
"The Ugly American" - did you read that article in my recent post? Is the UA a recognised phenomenon, or a figment of the imagination of the news media?
Good luck over there - hope it works out better than England did.
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Ugly American is well known in the US, at least among anyone who bothers to read. Those who don't... Well, they're the ones in the stupid touristy t-shirt and beer belly standing in the lobby complaining about something or other in a loud voice. Or wandering into a french bistro wearing a George Bush t-shirt, and shortly thereafter wonders why his overpriced burger and fries tastes funny.
Learning something about your destination can really enhance a trip to another country, but a suprising number of Americans show up unprepared, expecting things to be just like the US or just like the movies. Well, duh. Things don't work that way and there is always the choice to deal with it gracefully or in the typical "ugly american" way. Personally, I try to keep my ugly american tendencies hidden until I find that I'm being deliberately lied to or treated poorly just because I'm a visitor. If my host is a jerk, I don't feel any further obligation to kiss his butt. If my host is cool though, I do my best to be a good guest.
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Welcome to Asia, eagl. In a few more months, you'll lose the built up instinct to reach over counters to strangle the neck of minimum-wage punks giving you crap, because there aren't people giving you crap anymore.
And you might notice that people don't look 'down' on anyone else's job as a sign of their worth as a person. The guy cleaning out the trash cans does it to the best of his ability and has some pride in it. Koreans are a proud people. I trust you'll be a fine ambassador and meet some interesting people during your short stay.
Take a hop over to Yokota in Tokyo (just over 2 hours flight time) sometime and I'll buy you a beer or 3. ;)