I love being in South Korea right now.
Well, not much happened so far. My friend called me up telling me that 200 missiles were fired up upon a island in the Yellow sea. At the time I was in a dog cafe (a cafe full of dogs, girls seem to love it even though it stinks like dog) so I asked him if I should be worried and get back to my home. His reply was him laughing and said dont worry about it. He then says to me “I should get back to the army soon, want to join me to fight the north?”. I replied that I “was going to stay behind and protect the cute girls”. Not to many people have taken it too seriously so far. Walking home a hour later I seemed to be the only one worried. Everyone was acting normal.
Oz Students Abroad 
Hey – our own ‘man in Havana’ no less! How are you others in Korea finding the situation? The impression we get from the media here is that all is on high alert – I wonder if this is an age thing, with the younger generation more relaxed about the North? But again, I always thought/assumed S Koreans would be brought up to hate and fear the North – is this not so true? would love to hear more esp as the situation develops.
And dog cafes – sorry, but gross!! When I lived in Japan some years ago, I was always intrigued by the dogs’ names, which (in my experience) were generally English and were very simple words like ‘Black’, or ‘White’, which sounded a litle strange to the Australian ear. What about in Korea? I wonder if it reflected an idea that keeping a dog for a pet was a western-inspired fashion?
Jan
November 26, 2010 at 2:26 am
The dogs all seemed to be called the western names, but in a very thick accent. Many girls I have met have dogs but they are very small ones. SO at the dog cafe the majority were very large dogs! A couple of the small kinds but yeah mainly large ones.
Most of the young men that have done their military service are worried because they will be called into the army if something happens. My korean teacher was very casual about it the next morning asking us if our parents were calling us all the time. She said that they are use to it as it happens all the time.
South Koreans perceive the north Korean government very differently to north Koreans. They laugh about the succession from Kim JongIl to his son saying that north Korea has its own kingdom. usually they say the north Norean government is crazy but they neither hate or fear the north. Seoul is so close that if war was to happen the city would totally be destroyed. On the other hand if peaceful reunification was to happen they would be left with huge amounts of debt and their economy back a couple of decades. SO many korean’s I talk to want to reunify with the north but they know it cant happen with the north government and they dont want to happen now because it will ruin their economic security.
November 26, 2010 at 9:35 am
Well keep us informed as this very laid back perspective on the North/South Korean conflict is the first of its kind I have read. What does your family think??
Jan
November 27, 2010 at 1:11 am