Ana’s updates are usually full of both of our experiences, but over time I, Will, have developed a few opinions about things, and I thought this would be a good outlet for those kind of ramblings.

One of the many strange dualities I experience here has to do with my impressions of time. As we wander around Korea doing our various tasks and side-trips, I sometimes see things that make me feel like I’ve slipped back in time, and there are other times I feel like I’m living in the future. I don’t mean this in a critical sense, either of our hosts here or of our worlds back home, these are just observations. Also, I think it’s arrogant for people to think that something newer is by definition better, or that we as a society are smarter, more civilized or more humane now than we were a generation ago.

The future
As a former pastor, I have a tendency to always makes lists of three, so here are three of the ways that I feel that my life in Korea feels futuristic.

Technology
A ridiculously high percentage of Korean homes have high speed Internet access. The causes or results of this are that 1.) Korean websites require a greater than average amount of bandwidth because of their flashy content, etc. 2.) Koreans are much more open/calloused about illegally downloading movies, 3.) people buy everything from clothes to groceries over the Internet. The only thing preventing us from doing more Internet shopping is that these web sites are almost always entirely in Korean.
Another sign of the high level of technological advancement is that cell phones are much more prevalent than they were back in Canada. It is quite common to hear someone’s phone going off during meetings, on the train or during a church service, either with a trendy/annoying/unnecessarily loud/funny ringtone or the buzz of the “silent” vibrate mode. We even have a cell phone when we would have opposed their intrusive presence back home. The Korean alphabet makes sending text messages much easier and quicker. Also, the only time I’ve ever had less that four full bars of connection is when I was working with a friend of mine near the North Korean border.

Language
This may sound strange coming from someone who is still a long ways away from having a functional ability to speak or understand the language. I think this language is in many ways more advanced than English. There are almost no irregular verbs, the alphabet is quite simple to read (Korea has almost 100% literacy rates). There is always a structure for everything and people’s ability to explain nuances of the language to us is limited only by their ability to speak English to me, not by the complexity of the language. Of course, one of the beauties and curses of learning languages is that they were not developed by think-tanks taking simplicity and universality into consideration. The Korean language developed in a small peninsula, while the English language developed as the British Empire grew and became exposed to and absorbed other languages and cultures. Over time people have theorized that a newly invented language would take over the world, and while various attempts have failed, I imagine if it were possible, that language might look a lot like Korean.

Land use
Korea is a small land with lots of people. They barely have room for their own people, let alone immigrants. That’s why, when Koreans build, they build up, not out. Futuristic books when I was a kid always talked about a time when people realized there was only so much land they could use for buildings before food production became more important. Korea is that place. People understand that having an apartment may not be better than having their own house, but accept that it is the most feasible thing to do.

Blasts from the past
Cars
When I was a kid, there were basically three car makers, and anyone who drove something made by someone else was either showing off their money or could be suspected as being a communist. Those three companies each had one compact car, one sedan etc, and each model had maybe four or five colours, so if you drove a tan coloured Taurus, odds were you weren’t the only one in any given parking lot. In Korea, almost everyone drives a Kia, a Hyundai, or a Daewoo. Our light blue Hyundai Avante is never the only one of its kind that we will see in a day. It reminds me of the Ford pickup my dad drove, or the various family vehicles we had over the years.

Racial Homogeneity
If you grew up in a small town, an ethnic community or, like me, you grew up in a small town ethnic community, your exposure to people of other races was limited. I had a certain trepidation about approaching foreigners and an over-sensitivity about not offending them. Foreigners are still relatively rare in Korea, and while most people still have a trepidation about approaching us, not everyone worries about what is offensive to us. Groups of school girls will say “hello” to me, and then when I say “hello” back, they giggle as though either my voice cracked or my fly was open (and I’ve experienced both enough to know those distinctive laughs). People laugh at us when we mispronounce Korean words, they tell us we’re too fat to buy clothes at their store, or do anything to avoid talking to us, even if it’s their job as a service personnel. I know these are very natural reactions, but they can be quite offensive if we allow ourselves to be offended.

The North
I was too young to appreciate the significance of the falling of the Berlin Wall or the end of the Cold War, but I remember how people talked about the communists, as though it were some kind of ever-present threat. The Cold War is not over in Korea. Some people are hopeful for a reunification with the North while some people live in constant fear of the war reigniting. The combination of mandatory military conscription and a highly militarized border with their only land neighbour leaves an interesting impact on the society.