Homestay

Staying two months, I was so lucky to get the opportunity to live with a Korean family and do a homestay. One of the students, Chae Chol "Ma(r)tin" Chong was so nice to offer me a place in his home, so I'm staying with him and his family. It is a fortunate coincidence that he is interested in computers and the internet, just like myself. He is the webmaster of the biggest EMiNEM fan page in Korea, in his possesion a fast computer with ADSL and a working USB port, so thanks to him I can post pictures here. His picture is somewhat unusual as he smiles all the time. I learned to know him as a very optimistic person, open-minded, intelligent, very hospitable and always in a good mood.



I was a little surprised when I first met his family. As I don't speak Korean and they don't speak English or Japanese, we don't have any possibility to communicate except when Matin is translating. His mother or his sister didn't seem to be interested at all that there's somebody visiting and staying for some while. I don't mind not being formally introduced, I guess with the time the extreme shyness will pass and curiousity will take over. The father returned home late yesterday night. He welcomed me heartily like a son into the family, which was quite an unusual experience. Matin translated partly, sometimes the father used Kanji (or "Hanza", as they are being called in Korean), Chinese symbols, which usually have the same meaning in Chinese, Korean or Japanese - the reading usually differs a lot, though. The father talked a long time about Korean society, the foundation being morality, discipline and respect and the like. The latter referred to a special, very confucianistic version of respect: a child's respect...



The way Kanji carry the meaning is fascinating. The upper part of the Kanji, over the diagonal stroke means "older person", the diagonal stroke equals "carrying", everything below is "child". It is very interesting how cultural aspects influence the language, even more if a language like Korean (or Chinese and Japanese) openly depicts it's meaning.

During the conversation with the father I noticed how Martin's behaviour changed. Concluding what the father said, I was sitting in the traditional way, seiza, only listening, not interrupting. Matin suddenly was very quick helping his father with everything what he needed, running to get paper (to write Hanza), opening the pen, taking care to hand it over so that his father wouldn't have to turn the pen to write, changing into seiza, always keeping eye-contact with his father, whispering and almost afraid of him.

Later I learned that many young Koreans, like Japanese, often have to live under the same circumstances: After growing up, the father hardly ever talks to his children, if at all. Working all day, children have seldom time to spend time with their fathers. The connection between child and father seems very cold and one-directional to me, especially with regard to respect. Of course, I can't read other people's minds and guess their real feelings, but the whole situation, observed from an outward position, seemed so formal and too stiff to me.

the fair sex

Eye-catcher: All those beautiful girls here, I don't know where they all come from, it's unbelievable. Last summer I already noticed it, when I was around for sightseeing, but already on the airport I saw so many angels (stewardesses, guys, forget British Airways!), my eyeballs were hurting after a few minutes. To get my point across better, I'll try to take a walk through the neighborhood and ask people if I can take pictures of them.

I hope my girlfriend is not reading this. ;-)

Arrival

The airport is huge, following the explanations in the welcome movie in the airplane it's the 4th largest on the world and the second one in South Korea. In contrast to my expectations, I didn't any workers around, everything was clean, neat, partly pure luxury: The huge hall for reclaiming the luggage is covered with marble, there's even a 6 meter high waterfall on the left wall. One thing that turned my head were those high-tech video phones, some with bluescreens, of course. After finding a shop that sold phone cards I used one of the "old" phone booths as the new ones only operate with credit cards. Something didn't work out. Suddenly a guy in formal clothing and a sash walks up to me and asks me if I have problems. He must have observed me for some time. He noticed that the phone was out of order, called a technician and he helped me using another phone. That's service.

I had to take a long range bus to Jeonju. On the way away from the airport I saw huge parking-lots full with cabs. Now, this was the first day and all, but I don't think a thousand cabs are neccessary. They made quite a show that day.

Welcome to my journal. I'm a German student of Modern Japan, English and German. Perhaps you read my journal about my stay in Japan. Unfortunately, my year in Japan is over, but before returning to Germany I decided to do an internship at Chonbuk University in Chonju as a part of my studies in Germany. I am going to learn how to teach German to three groups of Korean students in the following two months, the teacher I am learning from is Ms. Anna Unkyung Choi. I do not speak Korean, although my girlfriend tried hard to teach me some basic expressions and important words. As I lived for a year in Kyoto - including a short visit to Korea in summer 2000 - before I came to Korea, aside of observing with my European point of view I am going to compare with Japan, the people, the life and events there. As most of my visitors on the main website are not from Germany, I will keep this weblog strictly in English, if I find time later, I might translate it into German, a Korean translation might follow.

On March 29th, I arrived in Korea at the brand new Inchon airport, which opened on the same day. I took a picture which unfortunately did came out well, so you'll have to be contended with the link above. A few days before, I have been warned that the airport might suffer under heavy organizational problems as many sites are not built or only half-way finished. So, after a rough landing with Korean Airlines, a cheap airline, I arrived in Korea.