I am very glad that I signed up for KOIP and was selected to go. During the trip, I met new people and made new friends with students of other courses. Throughout the trip, I have learnt how to be more independent and responsible as my parents are not there with me during the trip. Every small things such as our daily meals, laundry and money needs to be looked after by myself making sure that I can last throughout the trip.
There is a difference I noticed between Korea and Singapore in the transportation system. Even though the way they colour coded the seats for the elderly was similar to Singapore. They are allowed to eat on the subway. They also have a vending machine in the station selling small snacks. The other difference I noticed is the culture in Korea. In Korea, people have high respect to people who are older than oneself. I rarely see any young adults sitting on the priority seats. But the bad thing about the culture while taking the subway is that the people there don’t say ‘Excuse me’, they just push their way into the train without caring about others. This is a normal thing there in Korea as one of my friend experience it there, he was pushed into the subway hardly. He had a culture shock on the spot as when we ask one of the Korean staff there they explain that it happens frequently in the subway.
Another thing that is special about Korea is their transport system. Buses and Taxi’s in Korea are color coded. Buses in Seoul is color-coded in 3 colors: red, blue and green. Blue buses travel on the main road and it travels a longer distance. While green buses travel short distance such as bringing travelers between transfer points like the subway stations including the blue bus roads. Meanwhile, red buses are express buses that travel from Seoul to a more rural area of the country. To add on, there are also color-coded seats that are reserved exclusively for the elderly, disabled or the pregnant in Korea. They emphasize a lot on having seats reserved for the elderly, disabled or the pregnant. Unlike Singapore, Singapore does a lot of advertising on giving seats to the elderly, disabled or the pregnant but sometimes Singaporeans will just sit on the special seats and only give out the seats to those who they think fit the elderly, disabled or the pregnant category. If not they will just remain in their seat.
Taxis in Korea are less expensive than Singapore. Similarly, they have regular taxis, deluxe taxis, jumbo taxis, and international taxis. What surprised me is that they have taxis specifically created for foreign tourists. People who drive the international taxis must be proficient in either English, Chinese or Japanese. International taxis will state the language they are proficient on the taxi itself. I think this is a good practice that they provide taxis to those who are unable to speak Korean. However, international Taxis are more pricey than the normal Taxis because of the extra language they are required to learn.
Furthermore, Korea has their own transportation card named “T-money” and “CashBee” card. They use these cards to pay for any transportation such as Subways, Taxis, and buses. T-Money card can also be used to purchase anything from the convenience store such as GS25, CU, and 7-eleven. T-money card has made the life of the Koreans more simple because they only need to have the card to purchase food and take the subway or bus to go home or go anywhere.
Gender Equality
Research shows that Korea ranked 10th in the UNDP gender inequality 2017 ranking. In other words, they are ranked in the 118th place in gender equality rank. Their rank is double the number of Singapore. Gender inequality refers to the unequal treatment of individuals due to their gender. Staying in Korea for 3 weeks, I did not notice much of the gender inequality there. To be honest, Korea is not the only country facing this issue.
Through researching gender inequality in Korea with YouTube and Google. I found out that gender inequality is quite severe in Korea. One main reason why Korea is a country with the issue of gender equality is that of how Confucianism is deeply entrenched in the Korea culture for 500 years. Leading to the country having a strict hierarchy that follows the age and gender of the people. Men hold high positions and status than women.
The hierarchy system in Korea has affected how women are viewed and how they are being treated in their everyday life. This has made men belittle women and not only that even the laws that were set not in women advantage. For example, if a man is caught stalking in Korea he will be punished with only a $90 fine. Another example is that if someone is caught for raping, the rapist will get away with only 2 to 3 years of jail time compare to committing the same crime in Singapore where the rapist would be punished with up to a maximum of 20 years’ jail time. This tells me that the laws set to tackle these problems are not heavy enough to stop people from committing these crimes. What’s worse is that when there is a dating violence crime taken to the court, sometimes the authorities there would even ask the culprit and victim to make up or handle it on their own. As the government laws in Korea treat dating violence as couple fight and think that it is not serious. A study conducted by the Korea Institute of criminology shows that 8 out of 10 men agreed to abusing their girlfriends. This shows how severe dating violence are in Korea. Moreover, the government does not focus on how the victim is emotionally affected by the incident they have experience rather than how physically affected they are. In addition, there is also a law stating that it is illegal to have an abortion in Korea.
Work Ethic
Korea is a country that has a unique culture which can be differentiated easily from any other country. Confucian values are greatly engraved into the citizens living in Korea and it is passed on from the older generation to young adults when they are young. Hence, the great influence of the Confucian values has affected their everyday lifestyle and their work ethics
Work ethics in Korea is very much different from Singapore as Singapore follows more of western style. Western work ethics base more on effectiveness. They want everything to be fast as they do not want to waste any time, getting more things done is better than spending a long time on one project. In addition, Individual skills are looked upon more than their social skills. If one is good in the field the employer is looking for, they will be hired easily. Singapore government always emphasize that it is better for one to learn new skills whenever they are given the chance. So, that they will have more job opportunities in not only one field but in multiple fields of jobs.
In Korea, they focus very much on relationship. They spend lots of time in building the relationship with their clients than getting their project to be signed and confirmed. They believe that maintaining a good relationship will bring them more jobs contracts in the future. Working in Korea, people don’t only work, they have to join their colleagues after work for a hwaesik “회식” which is like dining and drinking party. These drinking parties serve as a bridge to better communication. It provides opportunities for business partners to communicate with each other regarding their work. This can further improve their relationship and provide a better working platform for each other.
Their work contracts are normally created through general trust if there is anything they should modify. Both parties will negotiate with each other to make sure that both parties are happy with the contract. The meaning of “Yes and No” in Korea is also very different from the western style. For example, when someone from a higher rank asks a Korean to do something for him they will always either say “I understand” or “I will do my best” which is equivalent to “Yes”. They rarely say “No” to their bosses. However, when someone from a higher rank asks a westerner to do something for him. They will either say “I will do it” or a straight out “No” if they do not want to do it. They will have their own stands in what they want to do and not do, nobody can force them to do anything.
Korea’s Pop Culture
I got to know South Korea through Korean pop culture (Kpop) and Korean drama’s (Kdrama). This is part of the Hallyu wave. Hallyu Wave is a term used to refer to the huge popularity of Korean entertainment and culture across the world. Hallyu wave has greatly improved the economy of South Korea.
Korean pop music started way before the 1900s but everything started by Seo Taiji & Boys, H.O.T and Sech kiss. Kpop music consists of different genres such as dance-pop, pop ballads, techno, rock, Hip-hop, R&B, Hindi and so on. These are the first generation Kpop groups. Kpop music is famous for their dance music. Where idol groups dance complicated choreography while they are singing. Their dance would be very synchronized and powerful. This made their music videos stand out from pop songs of other countries as the entertainment companies not only focus on their vocal skills, they also focus a lot in the dance, talent, acting and many more. One of the most popular idol group that has captivated the world with their perfectly synced dances is EXO. Here are some of the more famous Kpop group in Korea in the 21st century: Wanna One, BTS, Girls Generation, TVXQ Big Bang, Twice and Red Velvet. There are a few kpop groups that Topped the Billboard. It is a chart for the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, it will accumulate the sales ranking, radio broadcast and the online streaming together to see the ranking of songs of different countries. Songs that are able to be in the billboard chart proves that a certain group is really well known in the United States because people in the US normally focus more on English pop music, which is the more dominant music in the world.
In addition, Korean drama started to attract more viewers after “Winter Sonata” was showing in 2002. The first drama to have equal success with a Taiwanese drama named “Meteor Garden”, it is an adaption of a Japanese Shoujo Manga series of “Boys Over Flower”. After attracting millions of viewers for “Winter Sonata” people start to look forward and have expectations for other Korean dramas. Moreover, when a drama is worth watching people will spread words about the drama itself and leads to an increasing number of people watching kdrama over time.
Hence, both Korean pop music and Korean drama are one of the main points that improve the economy of South Korea. Not only it can help to bring in income for the country, but Kpop and Kdrama are also slowing influencing the world with their high beauty standards, fashion and their unique culture as people of any age will be exposed to South Korea either through watching dramas, variety shows, and idol groups music videos. Nowadays many people are following their fashion sense, makeup routine, and the skincare routine.
Korean TV programs always portray themselves as people with flawless and dewy skin. This made Korean-Beauty became famous in other countries because of how different it is from other countries cosmetic and skin care products. Their products tackle more on the interior of the skin problems and it consists of ingredients that are better. As most Korean consumers focus more on preventing and taking care of the root cause of the skin problem than covering the skin problem with makeups. They believe that it is better to take care of their skin from young as it can prevent their skin from breaking out when they are older as they are always told that it is important to take care of their skin and appearance from a young age.
What makes K-Beauty stands out more is the effectiveness and affordable the formulas, their research and their packaging of the products. In Korea, there are many different skin care formulas to tackle a wide variety of skin care problems. For example, if one skin is dry they will have to use products which consist of ingredients that can provide moisture for their skin. Cosmetics brand in Korea is mostly catered for people with sensitive skins. Therefore, companies research on ingredients that suit best for people with sensitive skins and make sure that the ingredient will be both effective and gentle for the skin. If the product can be used by people with sensitive skins, it also means that it can be used by anybody as sensitive skins are the most fragile skin which will have a hard time finding products that are suitable for themselves. Lastly, the packaging for Korea cosmetic products are thought carefully. Different brands have different theme design for their products. For example, Innisfree and Etude House. For Innisfree, they have a nature theme for all of their products as they are advertising that they use natural ingredients that come from Jeju Island. Meanwhile, Etude house has a cutesy theme for their products. They like to play around with their designs, sometimes they will see the season of the year. For example, they created Lip tints with popsicle shaped container during the summer season.
Moreover, the increasing popularity of Kpop and Kdrama has also increased the economy in the k-beauty industry. Different cosmetic brands hire famous actors and idols to advertise their makeup and skin care products to boost their sales of the product by including photo cards and the postcard of the idol. Normally, the cosmetic brand will make it a rule that the consumers will only get the photo card and postcard if they buy a few of that certain product to get ‘free’ photo cards and postcard. However, I feel that the cosmetic and skin care products prices are increased to cover to cost of hiring an idol or idol group to advertise the product as they know that people will still buy the product if it consists any kpop artist merchandise.
However, the downside of K-beauty is that it has imposed a lot of stress for people who did not meet the standards that are shown to the world. This has led to an increase of business in cosmetic surgery as many Korean people are not satisfied with their appearance and went to have cosmetic surgery to improve their looks.
In short, through this report, I have learned more about Korea through researching on what is related to Korea and the unique features of Korea which will lead people to think that the topic is linked to Korea when people talk about it.