Korea.. A Hierarchical Society..

I do not deny that I have not been in Korea that long comparable to the likes of many people I knew. Up to now, I have stayed in Korea for around 4 years. However, from the moment I arrived to Korea, the first people I met was a Korean. 

At the beginning, I do not know there were any foreigners living in my university so my friends were mostly Koreans. It was tough but with time, I matured and now, I take each challenges as if I have another puzzle to be solved.

I like to observe people too.

So far, there's one thing I cannot adapt here-It is the Korean culture of hierarchy in almost every environment. Elders are always respected no matter they are right or wrong, sometimes even juniors kowtowing to them so as to obtain good impression from the superiors. 

I think I am exposed to more Westernized environment. I questioned seniors/elders if I felt I am right, I ask when am curious, I follow orders but not blindly. In Korea, it's very rare to see students asking questions in class, students questioning professors' conducts were unheard of and promotion based on ability is not as widely practiced as promotion based on age.

Of course, I still have Asian values in me.

The other day, while having dinner with Koreans and a Chinese- Everyone were older than me, so I used honorific like "저는 (jorh nen)" instead of a more friendly term like "나는 (nah nen)" and ended my sentence with a "-요 (yo)" as to comply with the Korean style of speaking to the elders. 

Bulgogi (불고기)

So after a while, the chief of the organization entered and like they were been struck by a lightning bolt on their asses, immediately everyone rises. I was already halfway munching my beloved 15,000 Won (13 USD) 불고기 (Bulgogi) and have no choice but to stand up so as not to be the odd ones out. Then, the other Koreans began to act like as if a King had just arrived. Drinks were ordered and the rest, well, I don't really care.

When I am old, I do not want people to agree with me if I am wrong. I do not want people to hesitate and give me a vague answer rather than a Yes or No. I do not want my junior to act and pretend to be nice when any seniors or me are around.

Respect I felt, is not a God given right and it has no relation with the age of a person. It has to be earned. It's just that I felt Korean's culture of hierarchy will be huge impediment for its future growth in a long run. 

I hope in years to come, Koreans will be true to themselves and not be pretending to be nice just because the elders are around. Not all Koreans were like that but unfortunately they are the minority.  

   

Cyworld - The Koreans' Social Networking Site and to create one..

"After some time, I finally made up my mind... I've searching everywhere..." 25 Minutes by Michael learns to rock

In Korea, there is no such thing as been isolated from the cyber space. Social networking, blogging and movie watching, all while on the go is common and everything we never dreamed of in the past is possible in Korea.

In Korea, the most common form of social networking website is still Cyworld (싸이월드). Ask any Koreans whether he or she has a cyworld account, they will give you a blank look with the expression like "Huh, which planet do you came from? Of course I have it!".

Sadly, Facebook's popularity has yet to penetrate the Korean masses. I have a facebook account and I value my privacy a lot. However, Facebook and Cyworld have lots of differences in terms of privacy.

In Facebook, Tom, Dick and Harry can have multiple accounts but in Cyworld, we can have only an account each and creating one is already a pain in the a**. The main difficulties for foreigner lie in the Korean language application and the tedious steps.

The webpage is all in Korean so no matter how enthusiastic we are in having an account, it's still difficult to navigate around. So to create one?

Creating an account Step by Step

First click on this link to Nate (Cyworld)

Unfortunately, since I already have an account, I couldn't go and explain further with slides since there's limit of an account for each people to prevent misuse of identity (unlike facebook) and privacy. Actually, after this step, it's quite simple.

Fill in your personal particulars and obtain the mobile phone no. confirmation before submitting the "form".

Just key in your mobile phone number in the 휴대폰번호 (Mobile phone no.) space, click the "Enter" button and you will receive a confirmation no. Just key it in the space below and you are done :)

However, I am not saying Cyworld is a better social networking website. I think Facebook is way better but it loses when comparing the connectivity among Koreans and the privacy issues if they were to compete head to head with each other.

Whats inside my Cyworld?

My main Cyworld page (top)

My profile (mine's blank, just an ordinary guy..)

My diary (I wrote it in Korean, if only you can read it)

My photo album

Creating a Cyworld account is really complicated so unless you really want one, don't create it if you do not have basic Korean language proficiency. I created one mainly to keep in touch with my Korean friends though I rarely check it (unless I receive notifications lah). :P

One Facebook is already more than enough.

Nevertheless, that's the only avenue for me to keep in touch with them. Many years later, when we are old, as time passes, most of us will definitely wish to have friends that stay true to us till the very end.

I never think beyond this though, I just hope for friends that I can get along well, learn a thing or two from them, learning and sharing our culture together and most importantly, to keep in touch. Do you?

Who is wrong?

Lately, this video is spreading like wildfire in Korea. I think the lady acted too violently. In Korea, usually when someone is fighting, Koreans usually will try to ignore it unless they think that you are intruding into their space, etc.

They mind their own businesses. It's good in one way. For example, when you accidentally left your umbrella in the restaurant, you can just return and get them later. Nobody will take it. So far.

Of thomas, kyle, korea

I am sure there are many things that we want to do in life. In the course of life, there will be times when we want to achieve what we had dreamed for but had to give up in the end due to financial contraints, scholarly attainments, etc. I had a dream too.

But, I shall not dwell into this. :) I believe that life is not about remembering the past but about the present and future. Though past are said to be the guide to never repeat the mistakes, I find it a stumbling block because by dwelling over the past, progress will be hindered by that thoughts.

So I progressed, I didn't look back, I try to forget everything about the past. Along the way, there were memories but I suppressed them. I prefer to start everything afresh. This is what I did when I came to Korea.

Life is not always rosy in Korea. Some might say it's great to be able to study overseas and stuffs like that. However, I had to admit that the days when learning Korean language was one of the best days of my life. During the course of stay there, I matured I change. Change is a must and without change one will not be what we want to be.

Throught the course of my stay in Korea, I had many nice memories and of course some bad ones, lots of first and plenty of suprises. Life is so unexpected sometimes, really... ;)

Life in university is somehow stressful sometimes, I am practically alone in my practical class especially chemistry because my partner was also a foreigner, a Chinese (why the professor did not give me a Korean partner??? wth!) and he is practically clueless in every classes so I did everything by myself.

Classes were okay, the books I am using are all in English but the lectures are in Korean. Contrary to popular belief that staying overseas long will make you well versed in the country's language, it is actually not that true. My Korean might be good when I write and sometimes talk, but honestly, it is still mediocre. I learned Korean for a year and it is definately not enough at all.

In Korea, I have develop a intense liking towards photography. I am more into film photography but the film costs make me think otherwise. This year, I will be buying a new good dslr camera, my current camera is not sufficient enough to fuel my appetite for quality photos. Right now, I am restained by the limited photographic capabilities of my camera. Likewise, I am also planning a trip to Egypt. I will try to travel to one country or two every single year in Korea. I did that this year when I went to China but it was not enough.

Well, that was the uhmmn part...

Anyhow, I did keep myself updated with the Malaysian Thomas Cup badminton match, but not Uber Cup, I am not interested because the women are not yet competent and matured to win, they need more practice and coaching. Yet, it was heartening to see many Malaysians supporting our players but sad to say the Malaysian players do not play against the opponents, they think too much, they play to win the cup.

They lost so much attention in the match maybe because the Chinese were so on offensive or because the Malaysian players can feel the stress of playing against the "feared" Chinese players and the stress of the people to see the Malaysian team win. I had that feeling too when I started off with my first competitive match. The nerdiest and "mind blowing" game - chess. When I was selected to represent my school for it, I was more than happy to accept the challenge, those were the days when I want to prove my worth. Nowadays I don't have that much feeling to prove that I can do this and that. To ladies readers - Guys are competitive in nature. Ladies too ler...

During the Under-15 state level individual chess match, I was very very focused and confident. I won 5 and half point out of 8 points, making me the third best player in my school and so I was selected for the team event. Then, there were the times when the expectations to win comes into my mind. Here, I started to be burdened by my responsibility to win for the team and from then on, it went downhill. So I don't blame the Malaysian badminton team :) Better luck and focus next time.

**

These days, I am experiencing writer's block. I couldn't write well and think on what to write in english these days because I speak, text message and do assignments so much in Korean that I feel more comfortable in using Korean than English. My English proficiency had really deteriorated. Ugghh. I need to write more!

Time after time

Er... actually, I do not have any intentions to blog these days. I am too preoccupied with assignments (especially the Korean Universities' Entrance Application and my school Korean language exams) so I think i would have to forsake my interest in blogging for a short time, maybe a month or two. In a span of only two weeks, I had travelled to the capital (Seoul) twice and one of the trip was sponsored by my university or the Korean Government while the other comes from my pocket (Ouch!). We had a university exhibition on the 15 and 16 this month.

As usual, it's quite interesting to see how the Malaysian KGSP scholars have changed (both physically and mentally), some remained the same, some grew wider (hehe), some grew thinner. But what that doesn't change is that we still treat each other as if we are family, maybe this is one of the reasons that birds of the same feather flock among themselves. One of the funniest memory that I can remember is that some Malaysian KGSP people cannot recognized me, maybe I change a lot, I don't know. Change is part and parcel of life, and I hope I change for the better. Hehe.

After that exhibition thingy, the next week (21 December), I went back to Seoul. I went there to hand in my university application directly to the university. I have no choice back then, the dateline for one of the university (Yonsei University) falls on that day itself and yet by sending my application through mail, I don't know wheather the parcel will reach them on time especially during this christmas season.

OH YA, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! DEAR READERS!

For the university application, I had applied for :

1st choice: Yonsei University
2nd choice: Kyungpook National University
3rd choice: Inha University

I have no high expectations on entering Yonsei and Inha, maybe this is because I felt applying to good and well-known universities are quite a risky move but oh well, who cares? I think I stand a better chance in getting to Yonsei than Inha because from the piles of Inha applications that I had seen (stacks and stacks of applications and Inha University is my third choice)

At Inha University, We met Bilqis (another KGSP scholar, our senior), I was kinda suprised to see her, she looked so different from the last time we had met. Just so different. More like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Bilqis. (Hehe - just joking aight!) Anyway, she helped us (Malaysian KGSP Scholars) a lot but I couldn't talk to her much and eating out together because at that time after we had submitted our Inha university application, I had to go back. I'm staying in Daegu (the Southern part of Korea) while Inha (in Incheon that is in the Northern part of Korea) and it would take lots of time to go back and that time, the sky was already dark.

Thanks Bilqis.

A few days later, on the 23 and 24 of December, we went to Muju Ski Resort. Before going there, we had a slight detour to POSCO steel factory (the second largest steel maker in the world) to listen to some talks. As usual, our minds were not into another boring talk or something like this, we are all into SKI. Period.

We went skiing. I skied, snowboarded and tried sled. Of all, snowboarding was the hardest while sledding was the easiest. Not much pics because I did not bring my camera during skiing.

I hope I will be updating my blog often. I dont have much time like last time to update my blog so frequently. I love writing but sometimes when there's other things/commitments, I have to prioritize. Till next time, more pics to come!

Kyle

Smelt like shit

Went out with classmates yesterday..


Played billard, norabang, eat at some chinese restaurant...


Drunk so much (6 mugs, makes me ting tong tiang this morning)


Played tiger tiger chicken, ah... whatever... lame game okay.


They smoked like hell, I smelt of nicotine went I went back...


Went back a 2.30 am...


Smelt like shit even until today...


Need fresh air...


Most chineses smoke like there's no tomorrow.


F.

Untitled.

I felt lonely today. In fact lonelier than all these days since I arrived. There's also some part in me that felt a little envious towards someone.. Ah... F la... I need a friend that I can really talk to right now. But I felt that I would be wasting my friend's time.

I need a matured person that I can talk to..

These days, the weather especially at night has become colder and colder (about 18 degrees now, i think) and that makes me lazy to go out.. Ai, I don't have any Malaysian peers too that I can be able to share my thoughts without having any communication problem.


I felt so alone.


I hate today, I hate being lonely today. So much homeworks and revisions need to be done and yet this feeling is disturbing me.

I had to write/type it down. Usually, when I write, it would make me feel better. Damn. I hope I'm now back in Malaysia...


"What day is it? And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive
I can't keep up and I can't back down
I've been losing so much time

Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you

All of the things that I want to say just aren't coming out right
I'm tripping on words
You've got my head spinning
I don't know where to go from here..."

"You and Me" by Lifehouse

*I'm just like any other guy*

Compare ourselves against each other?

I received this thought-provoking message from a friend who had graciously fowarded it to me.

In life, we always have the tendency to be dissatisfied with what we have. Some might have an inferiority complex (extremely low self-esteem) to the extent of comparing with one another - whether s/he is better of than us in that field, this and that... but have we ever realise that we are lucky to have a roof over our head, food on our plate everyday and other "privileges" many people in other improvished nation could only dream of.

So, let us all be thankful with what that we have and pray for a world free from poverty, discrimination and most importantly, let us have a world filled with love, peace and understanding.

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." ~Lao-Tse~