5 things I liked about South Korea

Hey, so my last video about South Korea

was a bit negative. So to counter that, I

wanted to make a video about a few things

I actually liked about living in South

Korea. Yeah, there were a few things.

So what were they? Number one, I guess,

the food, which is strange because in the

last video I was saying the food was too

spicy. When the food isn't too spicy,

it's actually really nice. There are a lot

of There were— there are a lot of Korean

foods I really like, but the ones I liked

most were the ones you can get delivered

to your house, like fried chicken and

Chinese food. Yeah, my favorite foods in

Korea were fried chicken and Chinese food,

but there was just something about it that

was so nice. I know fried chicken isn't

very interesting, You can get it pretty

much anywhere, but there was something

about the fried chicken you could get in

Korea that, that made it taste unique.

I'm not really sure how to describe it.

They also give you like a small box

of pickled radish which came in like a

sweet brine. I don't really know how

else to explain it. It was just like

crunchy and sweet. And it goes

really well with the fried— the greasiness

of the fried chicken. They would bring it

in plastic bowls, and then you had to—

after you finished eating, you put the

plastic bowls back outside by the door.

So when the delivery man comes back after

about half an hour, he would come and

collect the bowls. I found this kind of

strange because we don't do that in

England. You just get a plastic box and

then you chuck the box in the bin. The

delivery man doesn't come back to your

house after half an hour to pick up the

plastic boxes. And I felt like you

had to be quick when you're eating. You

can't eat slowly because the delivery

man's going to be back soon. So you have

to eat quickly so he can collect the

plastic bowls and plates back up. It was

really strange. I guess it's a good idea

because they reuse the, um,

plates and the bowls. They don't just

chuck it in the bin for every customer.

So I guess in that sense it's very—

what's the word— environmentally friendly,

economical, economical. And I was actually

quite surprised you could get home

delivery for Burger King. That was really

strange because where I live you can't get

home delivery for things like Burger King

or McDonald's. You have to go into the

store and pick it up. Apart from the fast

food and the home delivery food stuff,

there were Korean foods that I actually

liked. I actually like the kimchi,

and there's this thing they do in Korea

where you fry meat and then you fry up

garlic and mushrooms and stuff, and then

you have like a big leaf of lettuce, and

then you put it all into the leaf of

lettuce And then you put some kimchi in

there as well, and then you wrap it all up

and then you eat it. I really like that.

We don't really do that in England. I used

to buy a lot of Korean foods online so I

could eat at home. I used to buy kimchi

off Amazon, and I used to buy red bean

chili paste and the other soybean

paste they use for meats, but I had to

stop buying kimchi because my dad

absolutely hates the smell of it. And even

if you put it in a container and then you

put it in the fridge, the smell still

seems to get out and it gets everywhere

and it's really pungent and strong. So

it's really difficult to eat kimchi if you

live with someone who absolutely hates the

smell. It's kind of impossible

not to irritate that person. Because the

smell is so strong and it just— it gets

everywhere. The next thing I really liked

about living in Korea was the internet

speed. I upload large videos to YouTube.

Sometimes the video files can get up to

500 megabytes or even a gigabyte if it's

a really long video. And here in my house

in England, if I'm uploading a video

that's 20 minutes long, it can take up to

5 hours Once it even took— one time

I uploaded a video that was 1 gigabyte in

size. It took about 8 to 10 hours.

The internet here is really slow, and

because I live in the countryside, we

don't have access to the super fast fiber

optic broadband services.

But in Korea, to upload a 20-minute video,

it would take— it wouldn't even take a

minute. It would take like 30 to 40

seconds. I'd be watching the upload and

the upload bar would just be like do do do

do do do. It was so fast. It was so weird

seeing the video go up so quickly. Here,

I have to start uploading the video. Then

I go to work, and then eight hours later,

the video is uploaded. Or I

start uploading before I go to sleep. So

it's not really a problem here. It just

takes a really long time to upload a long

video. But maybe that's not really a fair

comparison because I was living in a city

in Korea and I'm living in the countryside

in the UK. I'm pretty sure in the UK, in

London or large cities, they'll have

really fast internet as well. And probably

in the countryside in Korea as well, the

internet's not going to be so fast, so

it's not really a fair comparison.

Oh, and I really like the, the underground

system. The subway was really easy to use

and it felt very modern and clean.

Everywhere felt very spacious.

If you use the underground in London, you

can tell that it's really old because

Well, it is really old. It was the first

underground system in the whole world

ever, and South Korea's underground system

is relatively new. I think it was built in

like the '50s or something, but it feels

really modern. The trains are huge

compared to the trains in London, which

are really small and cramped. There was

this time when my family from Malaysia

came to Seoul over Christmas for holiday,

and I had to go out and meet them.

Usually when I went out, I just followed

my friend. She just did everything and

I just followed her. But this is the first

time I ever had to use the train system on

my own to go and meet my relatives, and it

was really easy. I didn't get lost. It was

really simple to understand. You just look

at the map, everything's

color-coordinated. I didn't

get lost or feel like this is a really

complicated system. It was really

straightforward and easy to understand.

It was absolutely freezing when my

relatives came. It was December and it

wasn't snowing, but it was minus— in the

minus temperature. It was really cold. We

had to keep going into coffee shops every

2 hours to warm up because even though we

were wearing really thick clothes, winter

coats, hats, gloves, you would still get

cold, especially your mouth and your nose.

It was so difficult to speak because my

lips were frozen. I could barely even move

my lips. I think that's it. The main

things I liked about it was the food. And

the really fast internet. Apart from that,

I can't really think of things that I

really liked about living in South Korea.

It was okay, I guess. It wasn't really as

exciting as living in Japan

was, or interesting as Japan is. Oh,

there is a weird thing that happens to me

when I go to Korea. Whenever I go to like

a tourist area, Korean people keep talking

to me in Japanese like they think I'm

Japanese. For example, every time we went

clothes shopping in the major areas, the

major shopping areas in Seoul, the sales

assistant would start talking to me in

Japanese, and then I'd laugh and I'd reply

to him in Japanese, and I'd tell him that

I'm not Japanese, and then he'd start

talking to me in English. This actually

happened quite a few times. And then

there's also this time when we went to

this shopping area and we were looking for

somewhere to eat. And usually they have,

um, staff outside of the shops kind

of doing like a sales pitch, trying to get

customers in. And they'll start doing a

sales pitch to me in Japanese. It's really

funny, it's really weird. Oh, and when I

get to the airport and I want to change my

money, change my currency from Japanese

yen to Korean won, I would— I'd say, can I

change this to won please? In English,

and then the staff would start talking to

me in Japanese. I actually used to enjoy

it when that used to happen, when Korean

people would talk to me in Japanese,

because back then I was so obsessed

with Japan. I used to— I used to take it

as a huge compliment when people thought I

was Japanese. I know it's kind of stupid.

Oh, and I really like the supermarkets

because They would let you sample the

food. There would be staff standing around

frying beef and bacon and sausages,

and they would have cups of fruit

and other things that they're selling.

And you can just take a cup or a piece of

meat, and you could just walk around

sampling the different things that they

had for sale. And you didn't even have to

buy any food. You could just go into a

supermarket and Walk up and down and try

out all the samples, and it would be like

a meal. You wouldn't even have to buy

anything to eat because there'd be so much

on offer for samples, as samples, that it

would fill you up. Especially in Costco.

You go to Costco and there's just

everywhere this stuff barbecuing and

frying meat. Pieces of steak, pieces of

grilled chicken. And you just walk up to

them, take a cup, eat that, go to the next

one, and then go to the next one, then go

to the next one, and then make like a full

circle, and then go back to the first one

and take another cup of meat, and you just

keep eating. And you don't have to pay.

It's free. It's a free sample. And then

you just go home without buying anything.

It's great. It's great.