Here are a collection of the mysteries we still haven't figured out living here in Korea.    Feel free to comment and perhaps you can help us understand it.  

 

Maybe you can win a prize or something....   I can see it now:  1st place - 5kg of Kimchi,    2nd place - 10kg of Kimchi       Depends on how you feel about Kimchi, obviously.

Turning Headlights off at intersections

    This is a strange custom that I don’t understand.   Driving at night, you come to a red light.   Many of the Korean drivers stop, and then turn off their headlights.    When the light changes, they turn the headlights back on again and resume their travels.    Not everyone does it, but usually the taxis are the most common.   Are they trying to reduce glare on the opposing traffic?   I’ve been people parked behind other people still turn their headlights off.   Are they trying to save energy (and gas)?    How much gas does it take to power the headlights for 1 minute?   Talking to some of the Koreans at work, they are also at a loss to explain it.

CD’s in the windshield

   Again, this is particular mostly to taxis and heavy trucks.    As you drive you can frequently see trucks and such with tons of CDs stuck at the base of the windshield inside.   They always have the shiny side facing out.    The question is why?    I thought perhaps they were using it as a reflector for the sun, but one row of CD’s isn’t likely to cool down a huge windshield.    Perhaps reflectors so they are seen better at night?   Again, no good answer on that one.

Living in different cities from work

   This one isn’t so much a mystery, as it just doesn’t make sense.   In Korea it is very common to live in a completely different city from where your work.   There are many people who live in a dormitory or apartment for 5 days during the week, then commute 3-4 hours to live with their family for the weekend.   It’s a very strange existence.  The reason I was given was that they leave the family where the schools are the best and so the kids have the best education, and then work elsewhere, if need be.    It’s not everyone who does this, but it’s not that rare to find people and its accepted common practice.    I don’t understand why they don’t make some compromise in the work or school situation in order to not live apart for that time.    But that’s just the non-Korean thinking I guess.

Brushing teeth

   Again, not so much a mystery.   The Koreans are obsessed with brushing their teeth.    After every meal.    If you go into the bathroom after lunch, it’s not unusual to have every stall or urinal taken up by someone doing their business while brushing their teeth.    I can understand based on the fact that a lot of the Korean food is very spicy, but obviously the dental lobby must be very powerful to convince an entire nation this is mandatory activity after every meal.    I mean, they’ve told us to do the same in the US for years, but it’s very very few people who really do.

Clustered High-rise buildings

   Apartment buildings are very popular here.    Usually coming in around 17-25 floors they get built in clusters.   I figure someone decided they were cheaper by the dozen or something.   So everywhere if there’s one apartment building, it’s surrounded by 10 others that look exactly the same.    In the big cities, I can understand.   But what weird is that this also occurs in the countryside and small towns.    Some of these towns have farms all around, a little shopping district and then 10 apartment buildings.     It’s like they skipped over the phases where you build outwards and slowly higher and just go straight from farm to high-rise cluster.    To make matters worse, they always build all the buildings simultaneously!     So you know someone has to have enough of a business case to support 10 (or 20 or whatever) building projects all at the same time before a single tenant moves in.

Eating rice separately

     Koreans love rice.   Rice is expected at almost every meal, just as a staple of eating.   No problem, I like rice as well.   The Koreans also make great dishes of meat and sauces that are very good.    The strange thing is that they are rarely eaten together.    Most Koreans will eat the dish with the meat and sauce, and they will eat the dish with the rice, but they won’t mix the two together.    Which to me, means a lot of the sauce goes to waste.   (Which is usually the best part!)     At least the good thing is that Koreans long ago figured out that eating the rice with a spoon is much easier then with chopsticks.   So chopsticks are for the meat and spoon is for the rice.  

Leaving the Cell phone behind

Cell phones are very popular here.    Everyone has one, which isn’t too different from the US.   The only difference is that you are assumed to have a cell phone, where as in the US people will still ask if you have one before asking the number.    Anyway, what doesn’t make sense to me is fact that at work, especially, they leave their cell phones at their desk, even if they are expecting to be away for a while.    So it’s very common to hear everyone’s same annoying ring tone over and over again, because their phone is on their desk and they’ve wandered off.   To me, that’s one of the points of having a cell phone, to take it with you.   If you were just going to leave it behind all the time, how is that different then just having a desk phone?

Cell phones, part II

The other mystery is probably tied into the first one.   If a cell phone rings, the Korean MUST answer it.   It doesn’t matter who you are talking to or who how important the meeting is, a ringing cell phone must always be answered.    I’ve seen people giving presentations to many high-level people still take a call from someone one his phone.    That could explain why they feel they must leave it at their desk if they don’t want to be disturbed…