What to expect: First impressions of Korea.

What to expect: First impressions of Korea.

by Korean Junkies

13 topics covered:

be prepared to get lost - to be rich! – food -          Everything is overly cute - OVER crowded-                 neon lights Shopping - coffee shops obsession - alcohol - strong smells .- technology – traffic - super humid

TASK: Listen to the talk and record a 2-minute talk using the parts you may find interesting 
from the transcript offered below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HRYvV-pTOA

ONE -1 

00:21  - So first of all, when you come to Korea be prepared to get lost. Even though it is not difficult to get around the airport after you come out, if you don’t speak Korean

0:32 - all signs are going to be written in some mysterious strange characters that you have no idea what they mean.
0:41  -  In past trips, when I travelled in Europe I was at least able to recognize letters
0:45  - and even figure out some words even if I don’t the language. While in this country you feel just lost when you first arrive. 

0:53  - While people are friendly not many can speak English, so might have  a hard time asking for directions. 

ONE -2 

00:59  - You are going to be rich! 10 thousand, 50 thousand. A thousand won is equivalent to
01:05  - 1 dollar, which means you can be a millionaire in Korea fairly easy. 

ONE -3 

1:10 - Then something we can’t live without, food. Korean food is spicy! I mean really spicy, hot.
1:17  - I remember some people I first met were not able to handle their at all. For me, on the one hand, this
1:26  -is heaven as I love spicy food. And basically have none of it back home.
1:34  - On the other hand though, everything is super sweet! You want to buy some white bread?
1:40  -  Be prepared to taste cotton candy sweetness. Want to eat crisps with while having a beer,
1:46  - yet again cotton candy sweetness. You’ll have to either go to a western market or change
2:01    - your eating habits. Oh, and I don’t expect Koreans really use salt either. 

  ONE -4 

2:03   -  Everything is overly cute. Korea is the land of cuteness. Clothes, accessories, shops,
2:10  --restaurants basically everything in must be cute.
2:14  - Crazy K-pop and Korean drama fever. Honestly, I didn’t even hear about such things as
2:21  -K-pop or K-drama before I came to Korea, but believe me you want it or not if you come
2:28  - here you will come across it! There’s K-pop playing everywhere and people will ask you
2:32  -what’s your favorite artist or band, and you will have no idea what they are talking
2:34  - about and you will get really lost and then at the end you will end up at the same circle  as everyone. 

ONE -5 

2:41  - One of the main features of Korea, which you will notice right away after you leave the
2:46  -airport it is crowded. You may and be really mislead because the airport is really quite
2:49  - and pretty empty, however, just wait until you get to the city. It’s so packed it’s
2:57  - basically impossible find yourself being alone for than couple of minutes. At some extent
3:02  - I love this big city atmosphere but at the same time I hate this. 

ONE -6 

3:09  -When the night comes there are going to be a lot of lights! You will see neon lights
3:15  - all over the place. Especially if you go to a more alive areas you will realize that pretty
3:21  - much all of the lower floors have neon signs on them just popping straight towards you
3:27   - and trying to blind you. 

ONE -7             Shopping. The insane obsession Korea has with
3:39  -shopping. You won’t need to go to shopping districts or actually even exist subway station,
3:44  -as you’ll have shopping right there underground subway station. 

ONE -8    

3:51  - Also, coffee shops obsession. For a long time there was no coffee in Korea, so when it came
3:58  - to this country people went a bit nuts. Consequently, even though it is still pretty difficult to
4:04  - buy coffee in a supermarket there more than necessary coffee shops in Korea. Seoul is
4:08 - actually a city with the highest number of Starbucks coffee shops.

ONE - 9 

4:12  - A thing that I did not really expect was that Koreans consume a lot of alcohol. You are
4:18  - going to see drunken Koreans all over the place. And differently from back home, nobody
4:25  - cares about you being drunk here. 

ONE  -  10 

4:29   - One of my main memories from when I came to Korea was the strange mixture of strong smells.
4:34  -There is a restaurant next to a restaurant next to a restaurant, which makes all of the
4:41  -different mix together. And you’re not really used to Korean food, the smell can a bit funny. 

ONE  - 11 

4:48  - The technology. Honestly, I expected Korea to me more technologically advanced, however,
4:57 - there are going to be many things that you will come across will be just astonished.
5:01 - Also, it’s a country of smartphones, so on the subway you will see at least 90% of
5:08 -the people being on their phone. 

ONE -12 

5:10 - The traffic is going to be hectic. Sorry, but Koreans do not know how to drive. Be very
5:16  - careful not get hit when you just come. There are food delivery motorcycles riding on pedestrian
5:22 - paths all the time. 

ONE  -13 

5:24 - Last but not the least, keep in mind that Korea is super humid. Depending where you are coming
5:29  - from it may be really a shocker for you. From me if it’s 25 degrees Celsius back home
5:32  - it is little hot but still great weather where you don’t sweat much. However, if it’s
5:38  - 25 degrees in Korea you are going to sweat a lot. Humidity really makes the weather much
5:46  - more radical. So, the summers are going to be much hotter and the winters are going to   5:51  -be much colder.

        -CODA 

5:52 - There are so many more things I could talk about, ridiculously expensive fruits, old
5:56  - Korean people, politeness and so, however, I want to keep this video short so I will
6:01 - finish now, as I think gotten a pretty good idea of what you can expect.