You’re Welcome: The cost of living (Part 2/2)

This is the second part of my answer to CW’s question about the cost of living in Geoje.

Food/Drink

Generally, it is a little cheaper living here in South Korea than in the US.  A meal out at a modest Korean restaurant around Geoje can coast as low as 5-8,000 (more if order alcohol).

Drinking is cheap if you are drinking soju.  Soju, Koreans native and ubiquitous alcoholic beverage (its not strong enough to be called liquor).  Costs about 1,500 for a small bottle.  Beyond two bottle of soju and you are on your way to intoxication.  Hence, the streets being littered with drunk men too incapacitated to talk home without falling.

Beer or western liquors are quite expensive.  A .75 bottle of Jim Beam whiskey goes for about 25,000 to 30,000--when you can find it.  A 1.75 liter plastic bottle of Korean beer goes for about 5,000.

Western food is more expensive.  I have an ad Domino’s taped to all the doors in my hall and the large pizza’s range from 19,000 for pepperoni to 32,000 for a “Double Crust Steak” pizza.  Pizza prices are reduced 20% if you pick up at the store rather than have delivery.  However, that discount goes away if you eat the pizza in the restaurant.

Western staples like bread, butter, peanut butter, and cheese are also more expensive since they aren't part of a Korean's normal diet.  A half-loaf of so-so white bread goes for about 1,500.  Cheese is at least 2-3 times the cost in America with a smaller selection.

Utilities

Electricity is much cheaper.  I was amazed--about a third of what I paid for my studio apartment in the states.  For July, when I ran the air conditioner almost constantly, my bill was a little over 80,000.  However, with no air conditioner, its usually half that.   The gas, which is used to heat water and the room is more expensive--those bills can run between 25,000 in the summer when I just use it for cooking and heating water, to 80,000 or so when its also heating the floor in the winter months.

Internet/Cable runs about 45,000 a month.  And the internet is blazing fast.  That’s nice.  The prices are similar to broadband prices in the US, but the speed is much faster for what you pay.  My phone bill is about 15,000 a month (and that's without a rate plan!).

Transportation

A city bus costs 1,000 won.  A ferry to Busan costs 22,000.  A bus to Seoul costs 31,000.  The taxi rate in Geoje starts at 1,800 during normal hours (morning-11pm).  I can get from Gohyeon to Okpo for just about 9,000.  That being said, I usually take the bus.

Overall, without any careful budgeting, I've been able to send about half of my paycheck home most months.  The past few months, I've been budgeting much tighter and have been able to send about 1,300,000 home.  That's still not living too tightly.  Spending about 15,000 a day to buy groceries or eat out and using the rest for utilities.

If you are budgeting to send money home for savings or paying off debt, you have to keep the exchange rate in mind.  Its not good right now in the slightest.  the first year I was here, it was pretty steady at about 1,000 won to $1.15-1.20.  As of today its at 1,000 to $0.71!  So, keep that in mind when doing mental calculations.  The previous rule of thumb of 1,000 to $1 doesn't work any more when you are thinking about sending money home.

You’re welcome.

I see Koreans

Just today, I was walking home from school during my break and saw a kid approaching me.  He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and a baseball cap.  I glanced at him and thought, that it was strange for a foreigner to be walking the streets of Gohyeon alone.  I looked again, and realized that he was Korean.  He had the slanted eyes, and the rounded face.  His light skin and clothes had "fooled" me.

I work with Korean kids five days a week. I suppose they are becoming the "norm" to me so much that I don't even consider their Korean-ness.  I actually have pondered whether my students would even stand out so much in an all-white environment.  Some of them are "black face" (a term the Korean student use to mean a felloo Korean is dark-complected).  However, some of the kids have skin that is lighter than mine.

Now the adults are easy to tell apart from caucasians.  The sun-baked, soju-pikled skin of the men give them away.  And the trying too hard to be white skin of the ladies give them away.  Its still difficult for me to think of my kids as differnet from the ones I taught in America.

Ask a Korean! has a great post about telling Koreans apart from other Asians.  His categories are more comlete than I would have been able to imagine.  So, for those who don't have regular contact with Asians, or want to hone your racial recognition skills, its a good read.

Please note:  even Koreans don't seem to always be able to tell other Asians apart.  They will insist that they know a Japanese person when they see him or her, but the truth is they are wrong all the time.  I have known Filipinos, Chinese Malasians, and an Indonesian women here in Korea.  All of them have stories where Koreans have approached them in the bus or in the market and were confused when my friends didn't understand and couln't speak Korean.

So try as you might even being as an Asian doesn't give you some magic power to distinguish between races.

Speaking of Awkward Poses…

This is a picture up for display at the photo studio at the M-Park building in Gohyeon.  Something went terribly wrong when the photographer was posing this guy.  I think she forgot to have him not cover his face.  Oops.

Mad cows and electric fans

Below is a picture from the BBC of a clash between riot police and protestors near Korea's Blue House (the counterpart to the US White House).

 

What was the cause of the violence?  Was it an unjust war?   No.

 

Were the protestors fighting for civil rights?  Nope.

 

Was the mob protesting an election fraud or coup?  Uh uh.

 

They are protesting beef.  Seriously. 

I am disappointed in South Korea's common sense.  The issue of US beef imports, which are cheaper and of better quality than domestic beef, has been brewing for some time.  This hysteria has been fueled over an irrational fear of mad cow disease.

Teens have been the most visible force behind this movement to continue the ban on US beef.  There have been several high-profile and well-attended candle light vigils protesting the resumption of beef imports next week.  The campaigning by teens was driven by SMS and instant messages.  I can understand teens being caught up with an issue that has been tied to nationalism and deemed important.

These teens have been flooding message boards with such politically emo comments as, “Are we fated to die so young?” and “I just want to live and fulfill my career dreams, not die mad like an American cow."

These statements have found their way onto Youtube.  One of the most ridiculous is the following video.  My favorite quotes are:

IS THIS ANOTHER US FORIEGN POLICY OF INVADING THE WORLD?  IRAQ FOR NUCLEAR WEAPON AND SOUTH KOREA FOR MAD COW DISEASE?  WHY KOREAN GOVERNMENT IGNORE OUR VOICES, DO NOTHING TO STOP THIS? [sic]

and

WHAT IS U.N. DOING?  WHY DONT THEY INTERVENE TO THIS POSSIBLE MASSIVE GENOCIDE FROM HAPPENING? [sic]

Genocide?  Seriously?  One commenter on the above video noted, "mad cow is the new fan death."  I had to look it up.  Korean urban legend says that fans left on overnight will cause death.  I always wondered why Korean fans had a shut-off timer built in.  Korean news programs even keep a running tally as they report each "fan death" the occurs.  The problem is there isn't science to back it up.

The same is true with this mad cow hysteria.  I thought adults would not be so gullible, but as that first picture shows, the mob has proved me wrong.  The fact is, that this whole movement is really just economic protectionism under the guise of a public health issue.  Korean beef farmers wouldn't be able to compete with US beef.  So, they are trying to bring up these irrational health concerns.

Here are some reasons why this fear is ridiculous:

1.  If you don't want to eat American beef, then don't buy it!  In Korea, beef is clearly labeled as being domestically or foreign produced.  Currently, most foreign beef comes from Australia.  Koreans can vote with their won.

2.  The US has about 100,000,000 cows.  There have been 3 cases of mad cow.  So, for every cow that was found to have mad cow 33,333,333 don't have it.

3.  The US has a human population of over 300,000,000.  There have been 3 cases of vCJD, the human counterpart of mad cow.  That's a 1 to 100,000,000 ratio.  Even the UK, with more than 100,000 cases of mad cow had only 163 human cases, which works out to be .0000027% of their population.

4.  Koreans are far more likely to be hit by a car than come come to harm from mad-cow tainted beef.  As I've noted before, the child traffic accident fatality rate for Koreans is the highest in the industrialized world.  Why isn't the mom starting a campaign for parents to buckle their kids in the car instead of focusing so much attention on such a silly concern?

I'm confident that beef imports will resume as scheduled, and that in time, Koreans will begin to appreciate the quality and price of US beef.  I plan on eating pounds and pounds of US beef a week just as soon as I can get my hands on it.  And I'll continue to defy fan death by sleeping with the fan blowing in my face, and with the air conditioner on at the height of summer.  I know I'll be fine, but I'm just a little worried  to see what the mob will focus its irrationality on next. 

Parallel Universe

I've discovered a great comic called Parallel Universe, which is written by Scott Garrett.  Unfortunately for most of us, its only available the Sunday edition of the UK paper The Independent.  He does have a few up on his web page with some other illustrations.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

My broken things...

Two and half weeks ago, with the release of Vista's first service pack, my computer crashed. I'm not a Vista hater like many, but it broke my machine. It went into this endless boot-reboot cycle. Below is a picture of me using my computer using the software I paid for. I'm using the Brikdows Vista operating system. It has the computing power of a brick combined with all the newness and cool 3d effects of Windows Vista.

Yesterday, I wrote about the hazardous, melting hot light fixture incident. Today, 36 hours after it was first reported to her, she decided to come by with her husband and check it out. It probably would have been better if they had come during the day so they could actually have seen things, but you know Koreans.

Her husband stood on my toilet seat, light bulb in hand. I shook my head. This problem was not caused by lack of light bulb--if anything, it was caused by too much light bulb. Here's a picture of when he slipped and his foot fell in the toilet bowel--good thing I flushed before he came over!
She then explained all about what they were going to do to fix the problem. Something like, "

당신은 웰빙 변기를합니다." and "나는 당신을 죽이고 싶어합니다."

Oh well. Who knows what's going to happen? In the meantime, even the simplest tasks are an adventure in my dark bathroom. Below is a picture I took tonight of me trying to wash my hands. Water is getting everywhere!

Hopefully, my things get fixed soon.

A Great Election Poster

I love politics.  Korea just finished their presidential election back in January.  Now, they are slowly campaigning for regional and local elections.  Here is my favorite election poster.

This guy is showing power with his fist.  However, he's also trying to show his wisdom through the look on his face.

Anyone know what the campaign slogan is?

Photo by Sabrina

"Santana Shreds"

I have to admit that I didn't "get" this video until about twenty seconds in.  When I got it, I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.  Wow.

Via Its Nice That

This is "communist" China

American Crime Shows in Korea

America's love for crime drama shows has rubbed off on Korea.  These shows are great shows to veg to.  You don't have to think while you watch them.  I like to watch these when I'm trying to take a nap or when I'm writing or eating.

The ubiquitous crime show import is the CSI series.  The show appears with subtitles about a year after the season shows in America on the Korean channel OCN.  With about 450 episodes between the three versions of CSI, (the original in Las Vegas, Miami, and New York), there are hours and hours of mindless TV fun to be enjoyed by Koreans and English-speaking expats alike.

The cheesiest and my favorite of the shows in the Miami version.  Lt. Horatio Caine (played by David Caruso) is so over the top.  I think that his pair of dark shades should be considered a lead character in the show and given their own credit.  Below is a picture of Caruso as Caine with his co-star, Caine's Shades.

Here's a sample dialogue from a recent episode I enjoyed.

A man is shot and falls off a balcony onto a sharp ice sculpture at big afternoon party.  The ice impales him through the chest.

Medical Examiner: Someone shot this man in broad daylight, in a house full of people.  That's just cold-blooded Horatio.

Lt. Horatio Caine:  Its cold-blooded alright.  It's as cold as ice.  [Horatio puts on his sun glasses]

Fox Channel Korea has a whole list of crime drama imports from the supernatural Dresden Files all the way to the very original Dexter (about a blood-splatter expert for the Miami police department who moonlights as a serial killer).  One thing I like about Fox Channel Korea, is that they have an easy-to-read programming grid that can be read by English speakers (or machine translated if necessary).

Fox Channel Korea's staple is Law and Order.  They mostly show Law and Order:Special Victims Unit (which they've they've translated to the less sensitive "Law and Order: Sexual Offenders").  This show is one of the classiest of the crime show imports.  It features quality acting and less-cheesy story lines.  One major difference between this and CSI, is that in Law and Order shows they don't play techno music during montages of lab technicians doing their work.  I like that.

A show that I actually never saw in America, but I enjoy every time its on is Medium.  I didn't watch the show in America because I don't believe in the world view the show promotes.  I believe in God and many things we can't see, but don't believe in ghosts.

The show revolves around Allison Dubois (played by Patricia Arquette), a law school-grad who can see ghosts.  The ghosts are usually victims of crimes and reach out to her to help her solve their death.  She does this by working as a consultant with the district attorney's office. 

I find it humorous how the Koreans chose to translate Medium (which they know only as a drink size at fast food restaurants.  Here, the show is known as "고스트 앤 크라임" which is a hangeul transliteration of "Ghost and Crime."  Here's  a promo image from the Fox Channel Korea web site:

There's also this great family aspect to the show.  A good fourth of the show happens at her home and her life with her husband and her daughters.  The home drama can be a bit over the top, but there are these very endearing scene in bed with her husband.  They lay awake talking about money issues, or her latest dream, or his problems at work.  the acting is mostly great--Patricia Arquette one an Emmy for best actress in 2004, and was nominated again in 2007.

So, as long as American studios crank out these crime dramas, expats in Korea will be able to enjoy escapist shows with English dialogue.

Annoying

Last summer, during my first few forays into the Korean airwaves, I was greeted with a very annoying Sunkist commercial. The commercial featured two Korean pop stars dueling for the affections of the same girl. The guys are part of K-pop duo Fly to the Sky. The first guy is Hwangee and the dark-haired guy is American-born Korean pop star Brian Joo. Oh, and Brian, if you do read this, you should know better. Why do you add that extra syllable on the end of "lemonade?"




This summer's version of the ad campaign stars Heechul and Kangin in what must be the the biggest boyband of all time (size not necessarily popularity). The guys are with Super Junior, a Korean pop group that has 13 members! (For those of you counting, Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene has 19 members, but keep in mind they write their own songs and play their own instruments.) Anyway, here are the two commercials. They're exponentially more annoying than the one from last year. (BTW the "CF" in the title is Konglish for "commercial film" AKA commercial).








I'm dreading what Sunkist comes up with next year.

---
Links
A fellow English Teacher-Blogger wrote a post about the same ad campaign

Paris Baguette: Another Fake Brand

This is another very prominent "fake brand." Paris Baguette is a bakery chain with such a name couldn't possibly be actually French. But I decided to investigate.

Their US website sure is telling. First, the style of the site is in classic Korean web design--quirky English grammar and all. They even had a page devoted to explaining their logo and brand.

Second, the company has a history page where all the events occurred in Korea. Many fake brand shops have plaques in their stores that tell the history of the company--most of these are all in English. These are a fad among businesses and a mark of a good fake brand here in Korea.

I found this statement on a location page (at the bottom):

Paris Baguette is making a new step toward expanding in America. Our goal is to introduce our top quality bread, pastries and cakes throughout the United States. Come and enjoy the excellent taste of Paris Baguette which is leading the world in the bakery industry.

Really? Some Korean bakery chain is "leading the world in the bakery industry?" I'm pretty sure that's not true.

One thing that sets this fake brand apart from the other Korean fake brands, its very upfront about their brand. I wonder though if they really believe what they write about their brand:

The Paris Baguette image is as fresh as its bread. It moves customers silently and deeply.

Have you been silently and deeply moved by Paris Baguette's brand? I don't know about you, but I think I felt a tingle.

July 4th in Korea

The Fourth of July is just like every other day in Korea. What was I expecting? I've spent two other Fourths outside of America, but both times, I was surrounded by other Americans. We celebrated together, even if we were away from our homeland. This fourth, I didn't even see another American.

I did read a small passage from a English education text for teachers. It made me very homesick:

"Festival in America. It is celebrated as America's birthday. The Declaration of Independce was signed in Philadelphia on July 4th 1776. It is the day Americans celebrate their freedom. It was John Adams who said that July 4th should be celebrtated with parades, shows, games, and good food.

The first official 45th of July party was 1777 in Philadelphia. Warships fired a 13 gun salued in honor of the 13 states. The soldiers paraded through the streets. By the mid 1990's [sic] the annual 4th of July picnic was an American tradition. People grill BBQ or hot dogs, and eat corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad, chocolate cake and homemade pies. Some famileis make their own ice cream. There are activities such as watermelon- eating and pie-eating cotests. Celebration ends with fireworks."

Happy Fourth. Watch some fireworks for me!

Transformers

One benefit of living overseas is that occasionally, movies will open here first. My first experience of this was D.O.A. which assaulted Korea almost seven months before the US. Then there was the great Pan's Labyrinth, and Sunshine.

Tonight, after a pull-out-my-hair frustrating encounter with the bureaucracy in the local education office, I went to see Transformers. This is the perfect movie for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. I didn't find myself looking at my watch and enjoyed the whole thing. Sure there were huge plot holes, and cheesy dialog, but what big movie would be without that? Thus far this summer, out of the big movies that have come to Korea (Pirates 3 and Spiderman 3) it was clearly the best.

The special effects were amazing, the acting was pretty good, and there was a pretty good balance of humor. I must say that I think I'm beginning to appreciate the humor of Shia LeBeouf. Who would have thought Even Stevens would have grown up to be an action star? It big movies with lots of explosions and the like are your thing, then this movie is for you.

For Korea, most of the blockbuster season is still ahead of us. I put together a calendar of upcoming Korean movie releases. Beginning with the one I've anticipating the most, Harry Potter, there is a big movie coming out every weekend for almost two months. I'm interested to see how it will be received in the States.

For those interested, the calendar for English-language movies being released in Korea is here:

Driving in Korea: a Serious Note

Upon hearing that some friends will let me borrow their car while my family is visiting, I started reading more about driving in Korea. The past posts in my series have been light-hearted. This one is serious.

From the US Dept. of State website:

The Republic of Korea’s roads are well paved, traffic lights are functional, and most drivers comply with basic traffic laws. However, the Republic of Korea has a significantly higher traffic fatality rate than does the United States. Causes of accidents include excessive speed, frequent lane changes, running of red lights, aggressive bus drivers, and weaving motorcyclists. Pedestrians should be aware that motorcycles are sometimes driven on the sidewalks and drivers of all types of vehicles do not always yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks. It is safer to use pedestrian underpasses and overpasses, where available.

That phrase "significantly higher traffic fatality rate" made me curious. So I looked it up. According to the World Health Organization, Korea's traffic fatality rate is 22.5 per 100,000 people. In the USA, its 14.5 per 100,000.

One stat that really makes me mad is the number of child deaths. Most Koreans don't even have their children in seatbelts, much less car seats. It is not uncommon to see children standing up in the back seat. Koreans have 7.5 child deaths per 100,000 in traffic accidents--the highest rate in the world. The best numbers I've been able to find for the US, put that rate at 3.1 per 100,000.

So, its not just my perception, Korean drivers really are bad drivers.

Peter Rabbit

I don't remember exactly who introduced me to the stories of Peter Rabbit, though I do have a vague memory that it might have been my great-grandmother. In any case, one of the aspects of the stories that always stayed with me was the cutting off of rabbit tails. I always imagined just a little cotton ball being cut off these talking rabbits.

There's a scene from the Tale of Peter Rabbit that speaks to this:

Then some one [sic] began to sing 'Three blind mice, three blind mice!' It sounded disagreeable to Peter; it made him feel as though his own tail were going to be cut off: his fur stood on end.

---The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Memories of that story are buried my subconscious from when little. Imagine my surprise when I examined the knife used in my school's teacher's office for cutting food:

Bean Pole: The Grandaddy of Fake Korean Brands

Pop Quiz: What do these two people all have in common?

A. They are both British
B. They are both Academy Aware winning actors
C. They are both models for the fake Korean brand Bean Pole International.

Okay that was kind of a no-brainer. While Paltrow enjoys her British accented roles, she is American, and Miller hasn't won an Oscar.

When I first arrived I was confused when I saw the first ads for Bean Pole International. These ads starred Gwenyth Paltrow, and a Korean looking guy making statements that barely made sense, while walking on what appears to be a London streets. Was this some British company I have never heard of? But the ad looks Korean--they purposely had used a Korean actor to star opposite Paltrow.

Well, a little investigation has turned up that Bean Pole, is 100% Korean. Like Polham, it uses western people in its ads, uses an English name, and by all appearances seems to be British. See below. (The subtitles are not in the actual commercial but were added by whomever uploaded the video to Youtube).

The guy in the above commercial is Daniel Henney. He is an American of Korean descent. While few Americans have heard of him, he's huge in Korea.

Then this spring, Korean news was very excited about Prison Break's Wentworth Miller's coming to Korea. Prison Break is pretty big here in Korea, and as you can see from the video, so is Miller. He is the spokes model for Bean Pole Jeans. Below is a video from the press conference. I love the reaction when he speaks a few words of Korean. Warning: turn down the volume or you may experience hearing damage from the sound of hundreds of Korean women screaming in unison.

---

External Links:
Bean Pole Homepage
Bean Pole International Homepage

Polham the Justifiable

Pop Quiz:

Fill in the blank: Polham the Justifable is ___________.

a. the name of an emperor or the Byzantine Empire
b. the name of a Korean clothing brand
c. the name of one of the Avignon Pope during the 2nd Great Schism

If you chose "A" you'd be wrong! Polham the Justifiable, or just Polham is the name of one of the "fake" Korean brands. Polham is marketed as a western brand with White models, English galore in signs and slogans, but it is 100% Korean.

Below is their store in Gohyeon. This storefront used to host a Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits until it shut down and was converted to a retail clothing store in less than two weeks.

The man above stands in stark contrast to the "image" the Polham is attempting to project. Polham's clothes and marketing techniques seemed to have been ripped from the pages of Abercombie & Fitch's play book.

Pale, white, beautiful people are the norm in Polham advertising.

Seriously, what do these shirts mean:

"Bones and Fragment."
"Bones and Fragment The Mortality of the Soul."

Fake Brands: Introduction

Taking a short break from my sporadic series on Driving and Parking in Korea, I want to introduce a new topic: fake brands. Now the very idea of a brand is artificial. Its a name, symbol or whatever that is used to bring association to something. There are professionals whose only job is to create and develop "brands."

In America, we have brands that exude a certain image. The Marlboro Man portrayed rugged manliness and the Abercrombie & Fitch brand portrays young, half-naked people. These brands presented a false image, but one that was not too far from the target demographic: Marlboro cigarettes are still smoked mostly by men, and Abercrombie clothes are worn by young, half-naked people.

In Korea, brands are marketed as western, but are entirely oriental. Now, we can maybe be accused of this in America, but I think we are more aware. For example we know that Taco Bell isn't really Mexican and that Olive Garden isn't really Italian. However, some of these Korean brands look real enough to fool even the most discerning consumers. They have ads mostly in English, have white models--even spokespeople, and Western sounding names.

Below is what I would call an "authentic brand." This brand is undeniably Korean. The ad is from a Korean company, the product is uniquely Korean (a fridge with the sole purpose of storing kimchi), and the actors are Korean. (Don't get me started about their slogan though: "Well-being life."

People Profiles: Park Hojun

Hi. My name is Park Hojun. I like to cut hair and I'm a ninja. Oh, and I'm straight.

---
Picture taken of a Geoje hair salon.