There : Confusion and Rice Land

Confusion

Classes start for many of the Koreans this week. Some start next week. My classes start in mid October. I was told they start next week. My visa, my plans and my return trip ticket were set up based on that information. So we’ll see how things go. I think that the administration will be willing to work with me. I’ve been studying Korean on my own, so maybe I can get through the book faster than my Chinese classmates will be able to. But I kind of doubt it. Something will work out, for sure.

Rice Land

The Korean name for America is something like Mee-gook. Korea is Han-gook, Thailand is Tae-gook, China is Jun-gook. Canada is Canada, Cambodia is Cambodia, many of the other countries are phonetically similar to their “real” (American) names. Guk/gook is something like “land” when it comes to naming places. I asked why America was called Mee-gook. What does that mean? The answer was kind of fun.

It comes from Chinese, as much of Korea’s language does, and it means “rice land” (or land of rice). Because they saw America as rich, and because rice was the measure of richness at the time, America must have a lot of rice. So much, in fact, that America must be a land full of rice. It’s a fun idea, a bit on par with naming Korea “Computer Chip Land” because we think they have a bunch of them. Which they do, so maybe that’s a bad example.

And just to be fair, we name things crazily. For instance, Korea is named after the kingdom of Goryeo. Japan is Nippon. Cambodia is Khmer (though they use Kampuchea, too). We just make it up as we go, so I can’t fault anyone else for it. I don’t really understand why we can’t use the names they call themselves, though. While learning Spanish, I was annoyed that I suddenly became “Jose” from “Los Estados Unidos”. I’d willingly trade the genuine pronunciation for Mexico, Hanguk for Korea and calling Japan Nippon for a homogenous naming system.

There : Racism and Generalizations

Racism

Many Koreans are racist, either subtly or overtly. This is not a contrasting statement. Many Kansans are racist in the same ways. Some of the prejudices have swung in my favor. I think Americans are respected perhaps more than they should be by the general person. At the very least, everyone should be treated the same.

Many of the views are negative, though. For instance, the Chinese are sometimes looked down upon. They have just the right exposure to Korean students to foster generalizations about bad individuals and have them applied to the whole. Japanese are pretty rare in Pohang, but they are generally disliked. Probably, this is mostly historical. When we talked to students about what languages they thought they should learn, most said English (some students insisted on calling it “American”), because so many countries used it. Some thought they should learn Chinese, because so many people spoke Chinese. Then they went off to French and Japanese and their opinions began to fragment. But when asked if they should learn Spanish, they seemed wholesale disinterested. Even when I pointed out that Spanish was essentially tied for the second most spoken language, they didn’t care. In many ways, I think English is adopted purely because rich nations like America use it, and it’s seen as a “prosperous” language to know. I guess that’s not racist, but it’s interesting how completely and willfully ignorant a culture can be about Mexico, South America and parts of Europe. Not that we aren’t ignorant of the same, as well as most being totally ignorant of Asia.

One of the best, and to me, funniest racist events happened in the middle school camp. I had two middle school roommates during the camp. They were great kids. One was especially talkative and helpful. He was really an all-around sweet boy. So it was kind of a shock when one night he basically insisted that all black people were criminals.

You must understand that almost all of their exposure to America is through our TV shows (Prison Break is popular here) and music (Hip Hop is popular here). And many of these don’t portray black people as particularly upright. I told him that I didn’t think black people were any worse or better than white people. I pointed out that I had two black roommates in college, and my sister was dating a very upstanding Jamaican man. He looked at me for a few seconds, nodded sagely, and asked if Kansas had very many black people. I told him that outside of Kansas City, there weren’t many. He smiled and said that Koreans don’t like to go on vacation where there are black people.

And I haven’t seen any black people in Pohang. Or Mexicans. I’ve really not seen that many white people, so maybe my outlook would change if I were in Seoul. But of all the Non-Korean, Non-Other-Asians I’ve seen, they have been 100% white.
I don’t know how much of it is individual. When my sister started dating her Jamaican boyfriend, a few of the KS locals told her to stop with varying degrees of threat. But most of the people didn’t care enough to say anything. Maybe just a few of them are vocal enough to get noticed. To some extent, I’m looking hard enough that anything that sticks out gets noticed, and probably applied to too many people.

Generalizations

It’s easy for me to make generalizations here. Chinese people are loud. In the dorms, I hear them all the time. Koreans always hack and spit in the bathrooms, at least, every time I’m in there with one. Koreans are bad drivers, because I feel like every trip down town is going to end in an accident (and many cars seem to support that, though I’ve since ridden with some very skilled drivers). All Koreans look the same (this is untrue, though they are more similar than a random group of Americans based on the fact that they all have similar colored hair).

There are lots of generalizations they use for us. For instance, all Americans are rich (Hahahaha). All Americans eat bread, either with every meal, or the idea is that bread is the majority of the meal like rice is here (And while we eat MORE bread than Koreans, we eat a lot less than they eat rice). We eat our dead (ok, so they don’t believe that, but there are plenty of weird ideas they get about us).

I think I’m prone to writing about generalizations here. I actually have a very small exposure to Korea (one city, around 500,000 people), and I spend most of my time on campus around people my age. Koreans are just as diverse as Americans, and I imagine they vary as much regionally as we do. Things that might be true of Californians are often untrue of Kansans. In the same way, I’m willing to bet that things which are true of people from Seoul might be untrue of people from Pohang. Scale is much different here.
So take these things with a grain of salt. They are generalizations for the purpose of expressing what I see, not what really is.
And my favorite generalization has always been “There are no pianos in China”, anyway.

There : Pictures from the Mountain

Look at that!

There : Mountains

I went to a mountain today. I went with an older woman (~50), two Cambodian students and a Chinese student. It was an odd group, for sure.

We climbed a ways up the hill and ate lunch, which consisted of fresh fried pork, rice and various forms of Kimchi, and was similar to BulGoGi. It was good. Then we climbed back down to leave the stuff in the car, because it was too akward to tote around the mountain.

We chose a 2.2km path, which we didn’t finish. I think I could have finished it easily, but some of the others were getting tired. Who wasn’t getting tired. Oh-Ma (Mom, a nickname for the older woman). She was a mountain climbing machine I had trouble keeping up with. She wasn’t just persistent, she was fast. My roommates, however, seemed to be lagging further behind and about 1.x Kilometers in, we turned around. That I wasn’t gasping for air and the last of the line surprises me, being as how I’m from an area with no mountains. But I think I made a good showing.

The plants and trees are very similar to Kansas. In fact, a lot of Korea is similar to Kansas in a different organization. For instance, there are pine trees in Kansas, but many more in Korea. There are tall hills in Kansas, but less wooded than Korea. There are Cosmos and Choke Cherries and Slugs and Herons in both places, but they are all just a little different. The only time things get radically divergent is when you go to the plains in Kansas or the sea in Korea. Fish and other sea life have little have little analog, and there just don’t seem to be the large animals that Kansas has, like Deer or Turkey. I also haven’t seen any native reptiles.
The hike was fun, and even though there were a lot of bugs, I had no complaints. I sweated a lot, which seemed to be a direct relationship with exhaustion for the Koreans (IE: If you sweat, you’re tired, if you sweat a lot, you’re about ready to give out). The Koreans don’t seem to sweat much. They also claim to sunburn easier (and I’m pasty white for the most part).

We then came back and sat around, talking about what we would do, but not doing it. In this, again, I felt at home.

The fact that our group consisted of four 20something guys and a 50something woman sort of bothered me at first. I wasn’t sure how to read it, because I couldn’t think of how it would go in America. But as we sat down to eat, and OhMa called us her boys, I got a bit of understanding. I saw pictures of her two sons, one around our age, one married in Canada. I don’t think we were surrogate sons or anything like that. But I think that in some ways we filled in. I’ve noticed it in some people in America, of course; a desire to do things with younger people because it keeps you young. When it is done selflessly, I think it works wonders. OhMa is definitely a woman who looks younger than she is, and she can definitely keep up with the guys. When it’s done selfishly, I think it can backfire, or at least cause problems. But this was a great experience for all, and I had a lot of fun seeing the kind of Korea I had wanted to see all along.

There : Churches

I’ve gone to three churches in Korea, as well as a Korean church in Kansas. They are some of the most welcoming people I’ve ever met, even more so with the language barrier.

The dominant Christian religions in Korea are Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic. It would be a guess, but I would say that they are popular by that order, too. I’ve been told that this area of Korea has one of the lowest concentrations of Christians in South Korea. If that’s so, I’m very impressed, because there are a ton of churches around. There is no shortage of churches or church goers.

The first church I went to was in Kansas, which had about 100 Koreans going to it. That seems like a lot to me, as there were several Korean churches in nearby towns, and I would have guessed there weren’t more than 150 Koreans in town. This was actually my first exposure to Koreans and to the Korean language in person. It was also a great place to get to try Korean food as it really is, and get a taste of the culture. Even better, they were extra nice about my failure to understand their culture immediately. I’d say that for a Christian looking to go to Korea, this would be a great initial exploration.

The first church I went to in Korea was a Presbyterian church, which most of them are. It was large, something like 700 members. It was more formal than the Presbyterian Church I went to in Kansas. It actually spanned two large buildings. I went to the English service there, which was good, but sort of an island of anti-culture. I can see that being a nice thing when you’ve tired of Korea, but I haven’t yet, and since I want to learn Korean, I should be exposed to as much as I can.

The second Korean church was Methodist. Still large, the building was wedged in amongst a bunch of other, secular buildings. It went up about 4 stories and terminated in a little attic where they held some youth group meetings of some sort. This service was, again, more formal than the average Methodist service in Kansas, but had around 300 members.

The most recent church was a very small church located in a very nondescript building around some apartment buildings. There were only about 10 people at the service, and they were all very close. They were very welcoming and inclusive, and surprisingly well versed in English. The pastor’s daughter translated the sermon for me, which was fun. I can now read enough Hangul to try to sing the songs, so that was a bit more involving than some of the other church services. But maybe the most comforting thing is that my native church back in Kansas was usually around 20 people. It was a reminder that sometimes things are very different, but usually they’re more similar.

There : Recap of Camps and Moving

Recap of Camps

The camp circuit is coming to a close, and I am both sad and happy to see it go.
Happy, because I need the rest, and the time to learn Korean.
Sad, because I will miss seeing the students, both Middle Schoolers and College Kids. I’ll still be able to see them, but in a much different capacity and lower frequency than before.

The camps were generally frantic and under planned. This might be the nature of the beast. The camps have to be adaptive to keep the students interested and entertained, and to address them on their current level. That necessitates daily or nightly meetings to finalize, or sometimes revise, plans and activities for that day or the next. This makes for a harried pace where the end is almost always in focus and control seems to be almost out of reach.

The camps were generally fun. Though they were primarily educational, the camps seemed to focus a lot of energy, for both age levels, n making it fun. There are two good reasons for this. One is that the camps are during summer vacation and the students deserve some kind of reparations for that. The other is that people seem to learn better when they are having fun. Laughter is the quickest way to engage someone, and as long as you can entertain them and hold their respect at the same time, you should be able to run a successful program.

The camps were well supported. Sunlin College went out of their way to make the camps happen, and to make sure they went well. This fact was supported by several people involved in other camps mentioning how much Sunlin’s staff was doing for the camp. I’m not talking about councilors, or even the director, but the administration, from President Chun down to Mr. Ha. I think the people involved in the camps were some of the best hosts around.

The camps were successful. The college class saw a significant improvement in speaking, confidence and writing. The middle schoolers may have seen less of an improvement, but it was reportedly better than even some of the best English camps in Korea. Even if that was just sycophancy, there was notable improvement. Mostly the camps seem to greatly improve confidence. This might seem like a small thing, but after years of being taught English in schools, most of these kids have had little to no real chance to use the language. And anyone who has tried to learn a new language can tell you that the best way to learn it and improve it is to use it. Preferably with a native speaker. We made sure the kids had plenty of chance to talk to us, and by the end of the camp, they were talking much better with us, and even talking in English outside of supervision. When that happens, it marks a major milestone towards a successful camp.

The camps were worth doing, for me and the students, and hopefully for Sunlin. I can’t tell you what everyone got out of it, but I know I made some good friends, saw some cool stuff, learned a lot myself, and helped some students learn and enjoy English. I also helped expose them to actual American culture (which is often misrepresented) and I learned how to be a better teacher, and a better friend to my foreign friends. I won’t say that going to Korea and teaching English is for everyone. It’s not. Some people who do it shouldn’t. It requires personal sacrifice, an open mind and a willingness to learn and try new things. If those things describe you, then it would probably be a great experience.

Moved In

I moved to another dormitory building today. This one will be my home until December. The building is a bit nicer, but less convenient. The room is a bit nicer, but smaller. It’s on the 3rd floor instead of the 5th. The water cooler doesn’t work right now, and neither does the Internet.

I ate BoShingTon again last night. It was wonderful. To Kathy in Lawrence, I named my dog soup fluffy. I think it was a Pomeranian.

There : The End of Middle School Camp

Well, camp is over and I’m exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. It was a good time. I enjoyed the students, who were generally very well behaved. I learned some good ways to deal with kids and some tips on organizing and managing these camps. I got to meet some great people.

I also worked around 125 hours in a week (Sunday through Friday), and at night, had to sleep in the same room as the kids, so I could wake them at 7 AM. I sat for hours in meetings where no one spoke English. I carried heavy objects long distances in high heat while others talked on their cellphones. I cleaned up the dorm rooms of nearly 40 students. I don’t have much left in me.

Yesterday, after clean up, I went to the bank and opened an account. It costs $3, which is remarkably cheap. $2 in transaction fees and $1 that creates your minimum balance. You don’t get checks. Instead you get a bank book, which you can use at ATMs to withdraw, use with employers to deposit your pay check, and undoubtedly other things I don’t know about yet. The process was mostly simple, except that no one there spoke English very well and they forgot to hand me back my passport until the bank had closed. But it was actually one of the more refreshing parts of my day and everyone was nice. I’m not sure if I can leave my account active here with a minimum balance and come back if I return to Korea, or not.

After that we went out as a group to eat and sing. I was right to fear Karaoke in Korea. You can’t avoid it. On the other hand, it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Just sing a song that you can be funny or good at, and you’ll be fine. Mine is Bohemian Rhapsody, because I’m not afraid to sing the girls parts. I really need someone who knows the song to help out with parts of it, though. In any event, it was fun, but I’m still worn out.

I have to move into a new dormitory building today. I know my roommates, and they are great guys, so I’m not afraid. Most of my stuff should still fit in my 3 suitcases, so it’s just the trek across campus I am dreading.

There : Camp, Condiments, The Beach and Questions

Middle School Camp

After the conclusion of the college age English camp at Sunlin, we immediately started planning for the Middle School English Camp. The camp runs from this Monday to this Friday, making it a third the length of the College camp, and about three times more effort. It has taken every spare minute (well, at least every spare half hour) of my time since Saturday. I even missed church for planning and setup, which I hate to do.

There are 40 middle school children and around 9 college age helpers. The prior camp was a 15 to 4 ratio. The middle schoolers, of course, need more managing. That’s to be expected. They are more well-behaved, in general, than American kids of the same age. But there are still plenty of problems with whining, fighting, not listening, not caring and general bickering. That, also, is to be expected.

Some of the children have great language skills, which rival or surpass the language skills of some of the college kids from the prior camp. Very few of them, though, use those skills productively. It is also a lot harder for me to form relationships with them. I think that’s another obvious statement. On the whole, though, they’re a lot of fun.

The camp is much more tightly controlled, which can be great, or frustrating, depending on what is required of me. It’s great because there is always a plan. It’s frustrating, because those plans take meeting time, which is shoe horned into any given free time, which is itself rare. The teachers are great. Jared makes a return, and this is my first time working with Vincent, who is absolutely great with kids. A teacher named Scott joined us, as well, but I haven’t had much time to work with him. I did get to sit in on one of his writing classes, and I think I learned a lot.

The councilors are also great. They have very well developed English skills and fun personalities. Additionally, many seem to have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, which was intimidating at first. But they are all great people. In fact, that extends to the Sunlin staff members who help us out, too. The people at the college have been a joy.

Pickles and Mustard

We had sandwiches tonight. I was again reminded of how I don’t totally get Korean food, even though I like to think I do. The ham sandwiches had jam on them. That’s not THAT weird, but it’s weird enough. The mustard was sweet. That’s not uncommon, but it reminded me of the pickles, which are always sweet. I can’t get spicy pickles here, cucumber or otherwise. Even pickled radish is sweet. And mustard, maybe my 2nd favorite condiment, which I feel should always be spicy and vinegary, is always sweet, with the exception of “Chinese Mustard” which isn’t mustard, but is spicy and yellow.

So why all these “weak” condiments from a culture that likes such spicy food? It’s like their pizza. Even when it’s “American” style (and I don’t pretend to know what traditional Italian Style is like) it’s go sweet potatoes on it, the sauce is weak, it’s got corn and other things that don’t have a lot of taste. Pepperoni and other stronger flavors are used sparingly. This may not be true for the American branches here in Korea (Like Domino’s or Pizza Hut), but for the companies that sell pizza, and are Korean, it seems to be true. And that pizza is served with sweet pickles and garlic sauce. And maybe a little parmesan cheese.

The Beach

We went to the beach today, as a class. It was Korean Independence Day, where they declared independence from Japan. Many people went to the beach, just like America on the 4th. It wasn’t that crowded, though. The water was really really cold and salty. It was saltier than I expected, even though it’s called salt water. The sand was fine (as in, not coarse), and not too hot.

We set everything up at around noon, while the kids were in class, so we had our space reserved when it was time for everyone to come. We started by burying the councilors. I wasn’t one that got buried, so I helped sculpt the sand body of another councilor. She took it pretty well. They all took it well. Then we buried Vincent, forcibly. Then we forcibly buried Mr. Ha, who is the link between the administration of the college and the camp itself. He took it really well.

Then we started throwing people in the ocean. It’s hard to describe how cold the water was, because in Kansas, we wouldn’t get in if it were that cold. And it would definitely not be that cold at this time of year. It was like ice water. It was shockingly, consistently cold. We had a great time dunking and being dunked, staff, councilors, the nurse, Mr. Ha and the students. Everyone took it really well, and after a while, the bitter cold water felt fine. I was impressed by how little real complaining or whining there was, even with a vast range of age and status, people were still fine playing around with each other. And I think that is the way it should be, whenever it can be.

What was weirdest was, there were a lot of people there, but almost no swim suits. I wasn’t looking for Bikinis. I mean that no one was wearing 1-piece swimming suits. Some wore shorts and T-shirts, one little boy was naked, but most people had lots on. A man in a 3 piece suit would not be over dressed for a Korean beach. There was also a massive preoccupation with getting sunburnt (well, avoiding being sunburnt), which made many wear long sleeved shirts and pants. This might be genetic and very real, but it just seems so odd. Especially after watching the guys do all sorts of things half naked in the dorm. They don’t seem like a shy people at all.

Speaking of which, and as a minor side story, Korean guys act oddly when a girl enters the room and the guys are only wearing underwear. First off, almost universally, the guys wore boxer shorts. This might have a bit to do it. But a girl would walk in or by the dorm room, and they would run to put on shirts, not pants. They’d then walk around free and easy in underwear and a T-shirt. In America, I’m fairly certain guys would reach for pants and be happy to walk around shirtless, especially if they were in shape like many of the guys here are.

Questions

You can ask different questions in Korea. When you first meet someone, you can ask their age. It makes sense, because you address them differently if they’re older. You can also ask their job, if they have a boyfriend/girlfriend, and many other “personal” questions up front. This makes things a lot easier. I’ve always maintained that people should have some kind of magical floating profile that says these kinds of things. Well, this is the closest natural thing to that. I support it 100%.

There : My Students/Friends

This is a note from A-Ra. She is crazy. In a good way. I am the Camel. Or I used to be, before I shaved my beard.

This is A-Ra. She is a Zombie and or an Alien.
This is Eun-Jin. Her nickname is Cha Cha.
This is Gyeong-Jin. She sat on a dragonfly today.
This is Hee-Ra. She wants to be a nurse in America to make tons of money.
This is Hyeon-Mi. She loves the lead singer from the group “Big Bang”.
This is Jae-Hee. Her last name is No, like the command. She is also the class leader.
This is Joo-Hyuk. He is my roommate. In this picture he is mocking Johnny Depp. He is awesome for this reason alone.
This is Min-Jung. She put tape on her eyebrows to be the Mona Lisa for Charades.
This is Na-Ra. She is so sweet she once killed a diabetic.
This is Sang-Moon. He is secretly filled with graphic design hopes and dreams.
This is Sa-Yeong. Her nickname is White Pig.
This is Sun-Chul. He is the dude to call if you want party games. He’s also got mad leadership skillz. He is my roommate.
This is Tae-Sin. He is my roommate. He is also a beautiful butterfly.
This is Tae-Yeong. He great fun. He knows more English songs than I do.
This is Yoon-Seok. He is a man without fear.

There : Final Day of Camp, Soccer, Movies, Plans, Taxia and Drinks

Final Day :
Today was the last day of the Sunlin/ESU English Camp. It was the first one, and hopefully not the last. The students were great. They tried very hard and I saw obvious improvements in everyone. I’m not sure if it was due entirely to confidence in their abilities, but most of the shy students, even shy when speaking in Korean, opened up and talked a lot more by the end. Their writing improved, too.

We got a questionnaire listing things they thought should be changed, and what they liked. They mostly wanted things to be harder. I’m not sure if this is a reflection of frustration that they didn’t improve more, an expectation that homework equals success (Korea is very homework and grade centric, and most language classes seem to be based on doing better on TOFEL and TOEIC tests) or just a genuine desire to improve their writing.

We couldn’t really divide the class by level, so what we were left to do was straddle a fence that was undoubtedly too low for several of the 15 students, and too high for maybe 2-3 of them. This is just the nature of the program, and if we had more time to plan and more students, it might be possible to do more.

The final day was sad, in some ways. Dr. Scott Waters and Richard Hull, two of the Kansans that came with me are now on their way back to Kansas. I’ll miss them, as now I have the worst Korean skills at Sunlin. It also marks the end of a Honeymoon period of sorts. Now we will begin to see what things are really like, both in the coming “dead” month and my time as a Korean Language Student.

Soccer Team :
The closing festivities were fun. They started with a short speech type deal with President Chun, Dr. Ahn, Dr. Waters and the Students. It was just a collection of short speeches and a very underplayed certificate presentation, followed by some picture taking.

With that over, and a short stop to drink a fortified, Vitamin C-Rich soft drink in President Chun’s office, we were off to the games.
The first game we played was Cho-Ku, a sort of hybrid Soccer and Volleyball, a proportedly traditional Korean game. It was lots of fun, and a game I think Americans could get behind more quickly than soccer. Not that I find soccer boring, but many Americans do, and the action in Cho-Ku is faster, with much higher scores. The English Camp Team consisted of Me, Jared and Joo-Hyuk and Sun-Chul. They were far better at it than we Americans. But it was fun, and we beat the Chinese team. Then we stepped out and let two other students play for the final round. Despite higher skill, they lost to a very competent Teacher’s Team. One loss for the English Team.

The second game was Soccer, the national pastime that is honestly way more exciting than Baseball ever will be. I didn’t play because my giant boots don’t afford me running ability, another reason that they are a bad choice in Korea. Our team lost, pretty badly, to the teachers. It was great to watch, but it was so hot, and many of the fields here are a whitish pale, packed sand, which radiates heat like a heat radiation device. I’m surprised no one passed out from the heat. A non professional soccer game is sort of more enjoyable than a professional one. Watching Korea beat Japan in the Asia Cup Qualification matches was the best game I’ve watched, just for the energy and the determination involved, but this was second best, for the fun and the fact that I knew many of the players.

The girls, during the soccer game, were playing ping-pong. They won. I didn’t get to see it. All the same, it was a 2-games-to-1 loss for the students. But it was great fun. We then ate a pig. I tried to explain to some of my students that there was a connection between the pig and our soccer team. Both got slaughtered. They didn’t have their dictionaries, so they didn’t understand, even after I explained it using words they understood. I think they froze up. That’s a real threat of relying on electronic translators.

Next Plans :
I am planning to teach English at a middle school English camp next. Well, it actually sounds like I’ll be assisting with activities, as I would have roughly a weekend to prepare a lesson plan if I were teaching. Having never taught children, in fact, barely having taught at all, I thought it would be better to assist some more before going into something like that. So for now, I’ll help how I can.

In the coming weeks I’d like to go to Seoul. Maybe visit some friends I have there. But to do that, I’ll pretty much need a guide, otherwise I’ll perish like a flower under the tramping feet of so many Koreans, all to the tune of “Company Store”.

Korean Movie Theaters :
I went to watch a movie tonight. Some friends invited me. In Korea, tickets have seats assigned to them. You order your tickets ASAP, so you can pick good seats. Then you can show up seconds before the movie starts (and there are just as many previews and commercials before a Korean movie as an American one) and have your seats. It’s just a change in when you are inconvenienced, but it’s a pretty good change, in my opinion.
Everything else went pretty much as it would in an American movie, minus the Piracy and Cell-phone trailers. The movie was (mostly) in English, but had Korean subtitles. When it was in Korean, it had no subtitles. When characters talked in made up language, it had Korean subtitles. I don’t feel like I missed much key plot during these times.
The movie was D-War, by a Korean director everyone seems to respect. It was funny, maybe one of the funniest Korean movie’s I’ve seen, but I, and many others in the audience, seemed to be laughing at all the wrong places. It was funny in a campy way. The CG was great. The Americans acting in it were terrible. The Koreans weren’t that bad from what I could tell. It had a funny/serious plot. Some of the English Language jokes worked, but the actors weren’t very well directed or…acted. The movie did have Apaches fighting giant snakes, rocket launching lizards and guys with swords riding dinosaurs. It was about as believable as Die Hard 4, but funnier. I’d suggest it to someone wanting a movie they can laugh at.

Korean Taxis :
Korean Taxis drive fast. They are crazy, but they are a quick way to get around. With 4 people in our taxi, going from downtown to the college, typically a 15 minute or more run, was done in 10 minutes or so. It cost under $5 (less than a dollar each). It was an adventure.

Korean Drinks :
Soju tastes like rubbing alcohol. It is the national drink. I hear it’s a cost effective way to get drunk, if that floats your boat.
There is a drink that boasts 500mg of Vitamin C. It tastes pretty good, but doesn’t really imbue me with super powers or anything. It’s pretty popular.
Milkus is a pop that is half cream soda, half something not at all like cream soda. It’s very creamy looking. I love it.
Cilsing Cider is like a sprite/ginger ale hybrid with lots of fizz. The Koreans all warned me about the fizz, as if it would get me. It hasn’t yet.
There is a drink that is aloe juice. Juice from the cactus like plant that mom used to put on my burns. It tastes good. It has chunks of cactus in it. It tastes a lot like Agave Juice, which makes sense, since it is a similar plant.
Tea is nearly all green. Black tea is called red tea. It is rare. I don’t much care for green tea. They have green tea ice cream and green tea flavored crackers and probably green tea flavored anything you care to have. On a quick side not, lots of ice cream is flavored grape. It’s not sorbet.
Coffee, called CO-pee is nearly everywhere, almost always instant, with cream and sugar, from machines and in Dixie cups. You could have it after almost every meal.
Water is served at every restaurant. Most places might have soju, and maybe something else, but only about 40% seem to have pop.
Coke is more common than Pepsi, but you can get both. Mountain Dew is here. I haven’t seen Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pib or any other American pops. It’s all called Soda in English, though http://popvssoda.com shows that pop is quantitatively cooler and more common.
Milk is cheap. Soy milk is cheaper. It’s common everywhere. Drinkable yogurt is pretty good and easy to get. Orange juice is expensive. Persimmon wine is good. Pomegranate juice is good. There are a lot of things I haven’t tried because I can’t read the bottles.