It is much more difficult (for me) to teach Elementary Students than Middle school, and Middle school than College and so on. They require constant entertainment and even then, it’s hard to keep them focused.
Korea is a gift giving culture. When you visit a house, it’s proper to bring some kind of gift. The gift can even be terribly practical, like toilet paper, but that is usually reserved for house/apartment warming parties. Seriously.
Aside from Kansas City, which is not all the way in Kansas, Pohang (a “small city” by Korean reckoning) is significantly larger than any city in Kansas. Explaining the difference in distance and scale between Korea and Kansas is difficult. Everything here is smashed together, everything in Kansas is spread around. In Kansas, a town that is only an hour away is close. In Korea, it’s thought to be very far away. Travel time is much greater in Korea, but people seem to get the same significant distance, by their understanding, in the same amount of time.
Koreans don’t hold their rice bowls when they eat. It’s bad manners and denotes one as uneducated. The Japanese do. This might be simple cause and effect. Most of Korea’s table manners make a lot of sense (the oldest person should begin eating first, don’t make too much noise, don’t be messy, etc), but a few are out in left field, as far as predicting them goes. For example, you must eat all your rice, even if it means leaving other stuff. While it is ideal to eat everything, if you leave rice, it’s an insult. Quite the inverse of the American “eat your meat, don’t fill up on bread and potatoes” logic. Rice is still very cheap here, but Asian cultures have a very special view of rice, and it’s surely more cultural or historical than economic.
A cellphone is standard issue in Korea. You should have one, because every one does, and everyone will ask you what your number is. Small children and old ladies have cell phones. More so than America, they are your link between people, and you’re a leak in the social piping if you don’t.
I don’t like Cambodian music.
Koreans appear to eat more Spam than Americans. They even eat it in soup.
Most Koreans, when given sufficient time around you, are friendly. They are very nice immediately, but often shy or distant. Once you learn the pleasantries of language, the uptake speed seems to increase. The more time you have around them, the better chance that they will engage in conversation needed to form friendships. This is pretty normal, but the speed is much slower with the language and culture barriers. However, I have the benefit of being in class with many of them, and getting to help do some fun stuff. Some times random people on the street will talk to me in English for a few quick lines, then smile and abruptly say good bye. There is a vague, not particularly usable star power to being an American here, if you conduct yourself well.
In Korea you say thank you for things before you receive them. You thank people for food before you eat it. You thank them for gifts before you open them. You thank them for rides before you get them. This is true in America, too, though less optional and more pronounced.
