Korea by The Numbers

• • Annyon Haseyo!

  • Alright, so another week here in Seoul, and it suddenly occured to me that I have not ranted about the thing that strikes me the most about Korea. The thing that stands out the most and makes me wonder how well I will deal with being back in Canada, when the time comes to pack up my newly acquired gadgets and board that dreaded (no doubt) Air Canada, fifteen hour flight back to Trudeau Airport. Here it goes- Korea, by the numbers. The thing that makes this teaching English thing such a great deal is not just the salary- in truth, I could be making the same at home- or close to. But the truth of the matter is that Seoul is an insanely cheap city to live in. My co-workers are sick to death of my look of shock over the cost of things here- particularly the things that they find so expensive. So here we go. If you're feeling in any way upset about living in Canada at this moment, pissed about where your tax dollars go or what you have to show for it, I encourage you to close this now and wait till next week to skip ahead to that posting.

  • Approximate cost of my two bedroom apartment, large kitchen and dining room, wrap around balcony, hardwood floors, in floor heating, marble staircases in the entrance way, - 500$/month (I don't pay for this, my boss does)

  • Bill for land line - 5$/month

  • Cable (75 channels) - 4$/month

  • Cell phone service - 10$/month

  • One hour of internet - 1$

  • Video rental - 1$

  • 2Liters of bottled water - 80 cents

  • Drunken cab ride home from Ewha Women's University (about 20 minutes away)- 10$

  • Cab ride from school to home (about distance from Loyola to downtown Montreal) - 3$

  • 6 months gym pass with personal trainer - 280$

  • Cut, highlights & style - 35$

  • Amount deducted from last month's pay check for taxes - 77$

  • Dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant, complete with a table full of appetizers- 7$

  • Cost of mailing a box, 2 feet by 2 feet and weighing 7lbs to Canada- 55$ (to mail this same box Canada to Korea- 200$)

  • Custom made suit- made to measure - 250$

  Forgive me for being unpatriotic for a moment, but we're not American (well, most of us aren't, so I'm sure you'll forgive me). Now- why is it that everything is so damn expensive in Canada? And why are we paying these astronomical prices? Why are there not riots in the streets? Why are people not boycotting these services en masse? Why do accept to pay 30% tax off our paychecks, then 15% tax on everything we buy- and on top of that paying unbelievably high prices even before the taxes? And for what? It just doesn't add up!! Doesn't make any sense!! Where does our money go? After spending three months, in what is said to be one of the world's most expensive cities to live in (God only knows why)- I dread the return to the reality (or rather our reality) of the Canadian economy. I wonder- is everything so expensive sheerly because of the size of our country? Because I'll tell you right now- if the provinces forming an alliance similar to the E.U. would cut my taxes by 26% and reduce the cost of living to the Korean version of expensive, I'd proudly declare myself Quebecoise. Why is cable in Canada almost 50$ a month? The technology is older than I am!!! Why is that a price that keeps going up? Same with the telephone. How long has the telephone been around? Why is this service 50$ a month? And rising? On my cell phone- I don't pay for calls received or for calls made from a calling card - text messages are about one cent to send. Koreans are appalled when they hear about our system at home- and don't understand why we tolerate it. And quite frankly, neither do I.

  Despite having spent much of my working life in the restaurant industry, I have to admit that tipping will be very, very hard to re-adjust to. We went for Korean BBQ last night (you grill the food on the bbq at your table) - the staff came by to change the grill three or four times over the course of our meal, kept bringing extra side dishes when we were running low on egg soup, kimchee, clams, tofu, fish cakes, potato kimchee (anyway, you get the idea)- the meal cost us 7$ each, and as we left the restaurant they helped us put our shoes on and went out of their way to hold the door open for us. The extra step for service- with no tip wanted or expected. In fact, they find it insulting if you try to tip. As I walked home contemplating how they go out of their way to help you and expect nothing from it, I stopped at the market to buy some beer and ice cream- (this is what every Friday night should consist of in my mind)- and the woman at the dep reorganized my bags for me to make them easier to carry (moving things from one bag to another). Standard here, but has that ever happened to anyone in Canada? Thank them all you want, there is no Korean word for "your welcome", so their response is more like a confused noise that I can only imagine translates to "why are you thanking me, silly white girl?" This is the best part- when you order delivery in Seoul, the food is delivered to your door on real plates, with real chopsticks and spoons. No throw away stuff. When you're finished your food, you leave the trays outside and the delivery people pass by on their vespas to pick up the dishes. If the whole point of eating in is to save yourself the labor of cooking, why should you have to wash the dishes?

  I'd like to admit that after three months here, I can't help but to feel like a child. I've learnt the Korean characters and can read a menu in a restaurant (although alot of Korean food has the same words reappearing alot, so it may not be much of an accomplishment- if you can read kimchee and rice- you should be able to figure it out). But I still need more practice, and oddly enough for a country with so many English teachers, the Korean language classes are not designed around our schedules... I don't know who else would be registering for beginner Korean classes, but they're definetely not for us.

  Anyway- a short, but surely amusing list- of things I can't do by myself:

  • Use a bank machine that is not my bank, KB Star- since they're the only ones with English speaking machines.

  • Check my mail (I have to bring it to work to be sorted- bills, junk mail, old tenants)

  • Set up a Korean blog (much better than North American based ones, but I need help)

  • Ask if the movie at the video store is dubbed or subtitled (I often end up returning unwatched movies)

  • Order dinner for delivery (I might be able to order, but I still don't know my address)

  • Take a cab all the way home (again- don't know my address, and can't give directions)

  • Read ingredients labels on food (and just because it's labelled HAM, does not make it ham)

  • Speak to my landlord (she's called a couple times and we have some trouble communicating... usually goes something like this: Anyonn Haseyo!!! Hello? Annyon Haseyo!! Hello? Annyon Haseyo!!.... until someone hangs up)

  • Request my sandwiches at Subway without onions and olives- so wouldn't you know- after twenty five years of hating onions and olives- now I like them...

  Anyway- that's all for this week- I'm off to rent another (hopefully English) video.

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