[2016-12-21] my experience living in South Korea [SlTpGmCrTxE]

Hey, so in this video I wanted to talk

about living in Korea. You probably don't

know this because usually I've been

talking mostly about Japan, but actually

I've been to South Korea 4 times. Every

time I've went, I've been for 3 months,

so in total I've spent

a year of my life in South Korea, which is

kind of strange now that I think about it.

And I just wanted to talk about things I

didn't like about living in South Korea.

In many ways, South Korea is very similar

to Japan, but for some reason I didn't

really like it there as much as I liked it

in Japan. Okay, let's start with number

1: cars. There's so much traffic in

Korea. I don't know, maybe it's because I

was in Seoul, the capital. I wasn't right

bang in the middle of the capital. I was

on the outskirts, like the city's on the

outskirts of Seoul, so technically I

wasn't in Seoul. But where I'm from in

the countryside in the UK, I'm used to

small roads, small country roads where

there are 2 lanes, one lane on the left

and one lane on the right, 2 lanes of

traffic. But okay, there are motorways,

but you don't really use the motorway

unless you're going to a faraway place or

you're going up to London. And, um, in

Korea, the roads are massive. The roads

are huge. You don't get 2-lane roads

hardly anywhere where I was staying.

Everywhere you go, they're just like

gigantic roads which look like motorways.

6 lanes, 3 or 4 lanes on each side.

Even if you wanted to go to the

supermarket or just go down to the shop,

you had to cross a freaking motorway, and

there was so much traffic everywhere all

the time, and there's so much horning.

Koreans are not patient or peaceful

people. They're very aggressive,

especially when it comes to driving.

They're always horning, always cutting

each other off. I was just amazed when I

got back home to the UK and you couldn't

hear any horning. We were on the motorway

from Heathrow Airport back to my house,

and I didn't hear one horn. British people

are just— when it comes to driving

manners, I feel that British people are

really polite, and they very rarely horn

unless it's— unless it's extremely

necessary. They won't just horn at people

because it's considered to be very rude.

But in Korea, you hear horning all the

time. And, um, yeah, there's just so much

traffic,

which is kind of strange because you're in

a city. Cities have the best public

transport. The public transport in Korea

is great. They have a really good,

easy-to-understand, extensive subway

system. The buses are really useful, but

still, the, the amount of cars on the road

is just crazy. And for some reason, all

the cars look the same. Everyone has a

black or silver car. It is so rare to see

a red car or a blue car or a yellow car.

And I feel like it really reflects on

Koreans— Korean people's personality of

not wanting to stick out. They all want to

follow what everyone else is doing or what

everyone else looks like. They're very

sheepish in that nature. They don't want

to stand out or be unique. They want to

blend into the crowd, and I feel like

that's very stereotypical of Asian

countries, Japan and Korea. You know,

there's that saying in Japanese, the, um,

the nail that sticks out gets hammered

down. It just feels very different to the

West, the UK, where people like,

like looking unique. They don't like to

look the same as everyone else, and I

thought Very strange looking at the roads

and all the cars are silver and black.

Where's the variety? Don't any of you want

a colorful car? Number 2,

how about food? Overall, I did quite like

the food. I like the barbecue stuff, the,

um, what's it called? Yakiniku, it's

called in Japan, which is basically just

Korean barbecue. But apart from that, all

the other food is so spicy I couldn't even

tell if the food was good or not because

My mouth was just burning. It was on fire

because it was so spicy. I needed like a

bucket of water every time we went out for

a meal because the food was so damn spicy.

I quite like kimchi. At first it was

really weird. It really smelt bad. I hated

the smell, but it grows on you. You start

eating it more and more and then you

realize, wow, this tastes amazing. And it

really does go well with pretty much

everything, especially oily, greasy food.

It really complements meat. My dad

hates it. When I got back from Korea, I

really wanted to eat kimchi, so I ordered

some on Amazon. My dad absolutely hated

the smell. I had to buy special containers

to seal it in to stop it from stinking up

the whole fridge. I don't eat it anymore

because it's just too much hard work and

It really does— the smell is really

strong, and if you put it in your fridge,

the whole fridge will smell of kimchi.

Next would be customer service. Coming

from Japan and then going straight to

Korea, you can instantly notice a huge

difference in customer service. In Japan,

when you go into a shop, everyone's like

smiley, greeting you, really energetic.

But in Korea, it's like the complete

opposite. It's like they don't give a shit

about you. They look miserable. They never

smile. They don't even say a word to you.

And this is the strangest thing. A lot of

the time when you're buying stuff at a

shop and you go up to the cash register,

the cashier, they won't even look at you

or say anything. And a lot of the time

they'll be on their mobile phone talking

to someone, and it feels so unbelievably

rude. There's no way they would get away

with doing that in Japan. Even in the UK,

that would be considered as extremely rude

to just completely ignore the customer,

not even say anything to them, and be on

your mobile phone while you're at work

talking to someone. It felt incredibly

rude. And, um,

Korean people are in general very blunt

and straightforward. They don't really

care about niceties or being polite.

There was this one time we were at a

restaurant trying to think, trying to

decide if we were going to go inside or

not. And the owner, I assume he's the

owner of the restaurant, just came out and

he just said something like, if you're

going to come in, come in. If not, go

away. He literally said that. And we were

like, oh, okay, we'll go away then. And he

drove us away because, um,

it didn't feel welcome. It felt extremely

rude. So we just decided not to go in. I

feel like bus drivers are like that as

well. You get on the bus, they don't even

wait for you to sit down, and they just

drive off. And they don't drive off

smoothly, they drive off really violently,

like the whole bus shakes and you nearly

fall over. If you don't get a seat

quickly, he just drives off really

violently, and if you're not careful, you

end up nearly falling over.

And then there's old women. Old women are

so rude in Korea. If you're in a busy

area, like a busy street, and there

are a lot of people, it's not rare to feel

someone nudging you in the back, and you

turn around and it's a tiny little old

Korean lady trying to get past. They don't

even say excuse me or sorry or I'm trying

to get through. They just elbow you in the

back, or they put their hand on your arm

and they try to push you to the side. It

is so fucking rude, and I

hate it. I can't stand it. A few times I

was so tempted to push them back. It's so

irritating. You just feel an elbow in your

back, and you're like, what the hell? Why

are you pushing me? Just say excuse me,

for Christ's sake. Old Korean

women are probably the rudest people I've

ever met. They push you in the back when

they're trying to get through. Also on the

trains, They'll just sit there on their

phones speaking incredibly loud— loudly.

In Japan, no one uses their phone on the

train because it's considered rude,

extremely rude to talk on your phone on

the train or on the bus. But in Korea,

they don't give a shit. They'll just get

out their phone and then start screaming

down it. And Korean, the language sounds

very aggressive. I don't know if you've

heard Chinese before, but You know the way

it sounds like they're having an argument

when they're just having a normal

conversation? Well, it's the same in

Korean. They're like shouting at each

other all the time. Even when it's— even

when they're not angry, it looks like, it

sounds like they're having an argument,

but they're just having a normal

conversation. When they're having an

actual argument, it's like 10 times more

loud and aggressive sounding. Also, on the

topic of trains, You will get these

people on the train that, that will bring—

they'll carry on a trolley of stuff

they're going to sell. They'll stand in

the middle of the train carriage and

they'll just start giving a full-blown

sales pitch. They'll just stand there with

their product and then they'll start

giving a sales pitch, and then they'd walk

up and down the carriage shoving it in

front of your face, in front of every

passenger, saying This is very cheap, I'm

selling it half price, it can do this, it

can do that, it's amazing. And then

they'll do that for about 10 minutes and

then they'll move on to the next carriage.

Sometimes they'll quickly run off the

train and then you'll see like a few

policemen following them because I, I

think it's illegal, but a lot of them

actually still do it. There's this one

time this guy was giving a sales pitch and

then he quickly, halfway through his sales

pitch, he quickly ran off the train. And

then a minute later, about 4 policemen

came by. I think he noticed them and he

was trying not to get caught. Also,

there's beggars on the train. There are a

lot of beggars and homeless people, and on

the trains they'll come with a handful

of paper and they'll hand out the paper to

every passenger on the train. And on the

paper it says something like, please help

me, I'm homeless. Would you be so kind to

donate— and then there'll be a blank with

an underline where you can fill in the

amount of money you want to donate. Would

you be so kind to donate to me this amount

of money? And then they'll wait for about

5 minutes on the train, and then about 5

minutes later they'll come and take the

pieces of paper back to see if anyone

wants to donate to them. And it's so

irritating. It feels like you're being

harassed. I feel sorry for the person

because they're homeless or they're

begging for money, but It is really

irritating to be harassed like that, and

then you have to sit there holding the

piece of paper. You can't just like chuck

it on the floor, although I was tempted

to. I just felt really harassed, and I

felt like my privacy was invaded.

There's also a lot of disabled people,

which is kind of strange. They all have—

they don't have legs. I don't know why or

what the cause of this is, but you see a

lot of beggars begging on the street,

and they are literally lying on the

street, and they don't seem to have legs,

and they have like a, like a cup or a tin

bowl in front of them saying that they

need money. I don't know what's going on

there. It's kind of, um,

depressing seeing people lying around with

no legs. I don't know why. They don't have

legs. Is there some kind of incident

that happened decades ago that left these

people with no legs? I don't know why the

government isn't being more supportive or

being more helpful to them, that they are

resorting to begging on the streets. It's

just depressing to see it. Also, there

are— also, there's a lot of noise from,

um, people that drive around in vans with

megaphones blasting out announcements.

There would be this guy who, who drives

around the neighborhood, um, saying that

he's buying used refrigerators and

electronic goods, and if you want to sell

your used refrigerator or TV, call this

number. And it's like you can hear this

megaphone blasting out this announce—

announcement, I'm buying refrigerators.

Please call 087765. It's like it

goes on and on repeatedly. It just repeats

itself, loops over and over for about— he

drives around the same neighborhood for

about 10 to 20 minutes and it drives you

insane. There was this time when this guy

was selling mushrooms in his truck. He was

blasting out this megaphone announcement,

I'm selling mushrooms, call me on 08 ate

the best mushrooms you'll ever taste for

about— it was all day, for hours and hours

he was driving around the neighborhood.

And this is so irritating. I don't know

how they get away with it. I don't think

you'd be allowed to do that in the UK.

Someone would call the police. The police

would tell you to stop doing it because

you're making too much noise. But in

Korea, you're just allowed to drive around

in a vehicle blasting out megaphone

Announcements all day, and it drives—it

drove me insane. I hated it.

I mean, if you wanted to buy mushrooms,

you'd go to the bloody shop and buy

mushrooms. You wouldn't sit around waiting

for someone in a van to to shout out

announcements that they're gonna that

they're selling mushrooms. You're not

sitting there waiting. Oh. That guy's

selling mushrooms. Better go over and find

him so I can buy some mushrooms. No, you

just go to the supermarket and buy some

freaking mushrooms. And the

supermarkets are also insanely noisy.

They would be— the staff would be shouting

and screaming things all the

time, like, this fish is half price,

buy it now, buy one, buy— Buy, buy one,

get one free. It's very cheap. Like, all

the time, constantly, they'd have a

microphone attached to their face, and

then there'd be loudspeakers dotted around

the store, and they'd just be like

shouting it the whole time. And there's so

many staff in supermarkets. Sometimes it

feels like there's more staff than

customers because they have sample food in

supermarkets where They have like a little

stall and they'd have cups where you could

sample products, items of the food, and

they'd be dotted around the supermarket.

And there'd be those people cooking the

sample food, and then there'd be

salespeople who just stand around

screaming and shouting the whole time.

And it just feels like there's more staff

than customers. There's staff everywhere,

and most of the time they're just standing

around doing nothing. They're just

standing around looking around for

customers to help, which I hate. I hate it

when sales assistants come over to you and

ask if you need any help. If I needed

help, I would come over to you and ask for

help. Also, in supermarkets, there'll be

music constantly playing in the back and

there'll be announcements constantly going

off. It's so noisy in a supermarket. In

comparison, in a British supermarket, it

is is so quiet. There's no announcements,

there's no sales assistants screaming

about discounts and offers. It's,

it's like a— it's so different.

And lastly, there is an overall feeling

and atmosphere in Korea that I would say

feels very depressing. I'm not sure if

it's because North Korea is right next

door, there always feels like this sense

of gloominess and gloom

and doom atmosphere. And you see it on the

faces of the Korean people. They all look

really gloomy and depressed. They rarely

smile. They rarely have any facial

expressions. It's like they're always

shouting and screaming at each other.

They're all horning at each other. They

all look really depressed. You go into a

shop Sales assistant's on his phone and

it's like he doesn't give a shit about

you. And there's this constant military

presence everywhere you go.

You always see groups of men wearing army

clothing, military clothing, just walking

around. I think that they're the 18 to

20-year-olds because in Korea when you're

18, you, you have to do military service

for 2 years. You have to do it. Men, all

men have to go. From the ages of 18 to 20,

they join the army and they have to wear

this uniform, and it's usually them that

you see walking around in groups. And I

don't like it. I don't like seeing

military people around in civilian areas.

It just makes me feel like, oh shit, is

there a war going on? Should I be worried?

And yeah, there is a war going on.

Technically, South Korea and North Korea

are still at war. They're just not

fighting each other anymore because both

sides are backed up by superpowers—

America, Russia, and China. So if one

side starts something, it's just gonna

start— it's just gonna turn into like

World War 4 or 3. We haven't even had 3

yet. Yeah, it's really unsettling to see

military people walking around. I don't

like it, especially when you go to the

center of Seoul where Um, the presidential

building, the Blue House, is, and the US

Embassy is, there's so many police, like

military police, just patrolling the area,

standing around. Sometimes you'd see, um,

like riot police in formation. I don't

know if they're training or practicing or

preparing for something, but it's really

intimidating. It, it doesn't make you feel

relaxed or at It doesn't make you feel

safe. It makes you feel like, uh-oh, is

something gonna happen? Why are there so

many police around? It makes you feel

really worried and anxious, and I really

didn't like it. Oh, and I almost forgot,

there's the air pollution. The air

pollution is terrible. Some days it would

be so bad you can't even see what's in the

distance because it's all smog and cloudy.

At first I thought it was just cloudiness,

just clouds and fog, but it was actually

air pollution. Now, this might not be the—

this might not be South Korea's fault

because China is very near, and my friend

told me that a lot of it is air

pollution that's blown over from China.

And, um, sand— this— I

don't know where sand would be coming

from. I don't know if there's a desert

nearby South Korea, but apparently it's

sand combined with air pollution from

China. Maybe some of it's also from Korea.

I don't know. But it does make you worry

a bit about your health. Breathing,

breathing in all that smoke and smog and

air pollution can't be good for you. It's

not good for you. And I was a bit worried

one time. I bought a mask, a face mask,

but it was so uncomfortable and difficult

to breathe with it on. I took it off. I

never had this problem in Japan. Japan—

Tokyo is also a massive city, but I don't

remember ever seeing air pollution that

was as bad as it was in Korea.

Anyway, so that was, um, a few things I

didn't like about living in Korea. Don't

let it put you off going to Korea if

you're thinking about going there for

holiday. It's a really nice country if

you're just going for a few weeks. The

food's great if you like spicy food.

There's a lot of interesting places to

see, traditional palaces, stuff like that.

I wouldn't recommend living there for

months though. After a few months, it gets

really boring and depressing, and it just

feels like you're trapped in your

apartment. Everywhere looks the same. All

the apartment blocks look the same.

They're like gigantic blocks, apartment

blocks that are just huge. And you just

see them like stacked up in rows and it

just looks really depressing. Oh, oh, I

almost forgot! Architecture in Korea is so

boring. All the buildings look like square

blocks. Okay, so the traditional buildings

look beautiful, the palaces and the

traditional architecture is really nice,

but the, uh, the modern buildings,

shopping centers, offices, apartments,

they all just look like square blocks.

You can tell that They don't really care

about— they didn't really care about

making a nice-looking building. They just

went for the easiest shape to construct

the cheapest way, and everywhere looks

really dull. I said this a few times to my

friend. I said being in Korea is like—

it's like we're in Minecraft. Everything

is just a square block. All the buildings

are just square blocks. It's so tedious.

And, um, dull to look at.

It was really like being in Minecraft.

And all the buildings are just concrete,

steel, and glass. It feels really cold and

heartless. The funny thing about Seoul is

it just feels soulless. I know it's a

terrible pun, but I came back to the UK

and it was so nice. There were fields,

green fields and trees, and the buildings

look nice. They're made out of brick and

they have nice architecture. You can tell

that the, the people who designed those

buildings put thought and effort into

making a nice-looking building. You don't

see brick buildings anywhere in Korea.

Everything's just concrete and steel and

glass. Coming back to the UK

after being in Korea for a while really

made me appreciate brick buildings,

nice architecture, um,

trees, lots of fields, openness.

In Korea, there's hard— you don't really

get this sense of openness because

everywhere you look, there's just gigantic

apartment buildings, high-rise buildings,

skyscrapers. And it just feels like you're

closed in all the time. You look out the

window and all you can see is skyscrapers

and apartments. And then I come back home

to the UK, there's rolling fields and

openness, and it was so nice. And it

was quiet. There weren't people horning

their cars all the time. You go to the

supermarket and there aren't sales

assistants screaming at you. Oh.

If I had a choice between living in the UK

and Korea, I would choose the UK every

time. It just made me realize how nice

this country is. That's the good thing

about traveling. Sometimes you might go to

a different country and it's great and you

feel like, oh, I want to live here

forever. I don't want to go back home.

But sometimes you go to a country and it's

so shit. It just makes you realize

how great your own country is. It makes

you appreciate how nice your home is.

And it was really an eye-opener

for me when I came back to the UK.

So yeah, hope you enjoyed my negative

video about Korea. Sorry if there's any

Koreans watching this. It's not all

negative. There were a lot of things I

liked about Korea, like the barbecue

stuff. Um, I liked the safety. It did

feel safe. I didn't feel like I was

going to be mugged or murdered or attacked

at any time. It felt pretty safe on that

level.

Also, there are a lot of areas in Seoul

that do look really beautiful. There are

really nice buildings like the traditional

palaces and Places like Seoul Tower were

really nice. But those were just my

personal opinions. None of it was fact.

Well, I guess some of it was facts, like

the air pollution. There will be a lot of

air pollution, so if you have breathing

problems, then you might want to take that

into consideration. But don't let this

video put you off if you, if you're

interested in going. You should, you

should go there. And, um, find out for

yourself if you like it or not. Come up

with your own opinions. And yeah,

thanks for watching.