As I'm approaching my 13th year of living in South Korea, there is one thing that I always find amazing and still hasn't changed since I moved here in September 2003: Koreans LOVE to follow trends. When I first came to Ulsan, South Korea (southeast part of the country), a Korean female co-worker asked me what I liked to drink. I mentioned that I liked juice and coffee. When she heard that I liked coffee, she seemed shocked (as if it was like smoking crack). She mentioned to me, "Coffee isn't healthy for you. You should drink tea." Fast forward to August 2016 and now Koreans drink more coffee than they eat kimchi. If you don't believe me, here's an article for you!
Study: Koreans Drink More Coffee Than They Eat Kimchi
In January, the Korea Times reported that from a poll, eight out of 10 Koreans drink over one cup of coffee per day. You can read the article here.
But it's not just limited to coffee. Koreans are always up for trying something new. Restaurants are an example of that. Shake Shack (a burger chain from New York) just arrived on July 22 and lines have wrapped around the building every day since then.
For awhile cupcakes were a fad and were especially huge in Hongdae. Churros became a fad and surprisingly the fad has stuck (for now). Ice cream with honey chips on top became a fad and has slowly died down although there are still these kinds of places that exist. Honey Butter chips produced by Haitai-Calbee in early August 2014 created a huge trend among Koreans. Koreans couldn't stop buying them and if you were fortunate to find a bag, you would become best friends with a Korean immediately. The Honey Butter Chip Craze even spread to Japan. Now you can easily find 10 bags of them outside of E-Mart as you walk through the entrance.
For years I had been complaining that juice was never that popular in Korea. McDonald's stopped serving fresh juice at its locations in Korea when McMorning meals came into existence here five years ago. However they ditched the machines that made juice to just offering small cans of Minute Maid orange juice in the morning three years ago. But then a fad was created last year. People started to open up little juice shops that sold fresh juice including the famous "Juicy" franchise, which is now all over Seoul. Now more juice shops have popped up to compete with Juicy. Apparently Koreans started to realize that juice was indeed healthy for you and people started buying fresh juice for between W2,000 and W3,000. Hopefully, McDonald's will once again serve fresh orange juice in the morning. Until then, I'll just order an iced cafe latte instead.
What about honeymoons? Older generation Koreans went to Jeju Island but mostly because they couldn't really afford to travel abroad. However, since I've lived in Seoul, the group mentality has made various resort destinations popular. First it was Bali, then it was Cebu, a few years ago it was Laos, two years ago it was the Maldives, and now almost every Korean chooses to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon destination. I guess I'm one of those followers, since I also went to Hawaii. But being that I'm American I chose that destination because I could rent a car easily and I had been to Kauai before and loved it.
What about places to hang out in Seoul? Apgujeong Rodeo used to be the place to hang out for people in their 20s and 30s. It had a lot of restaurants and cafes. Even today, it's still a very nice place to hang out at, but because it's not trendy any more, you'll find it almost like a ghost town now. When I first came to Seoul in 2005, Koreans never went to Itaewon. They thought it was "dangerous" and just riddled with American soldiers. Granted, it was a lot different back then and it did seem more like Kaosan Road with a superfluous amount of street venders. For years, you would see a place where Koreans only represented 10% of the people that walked down the main road of Itaewon near the Hamilton Hotel and even less Koreans when you went to Haebongchon (HBC). However, last year a Korean TV program made it a hot spot and it became a very trendy place for restaurants, cafes, and clubs. When you go to Itaewon on weekends, you'll see a lot more Koreans. Ironically, Koreans have even reached HBC, where Koreans never used to venture out at. I guess Itaewon isn't perceived as dangerous any more to Koreans thanks to the TV program.
What about movies? Koreans are now talking about the movie Train to Busan. 12 of my students within the past three days have said they had seen it and they loved it. It's Korea's first zombie movie. Ironically, if you had mentioned zombie movies to Korea a few years ago, they would be disinterested and look bored. They did watch World War Z but they didn't really talk about it that much. Now zombie movies might really take off due to Train to Busan.
Koreans also follow trends when it comes to sports and exercise. Hot yoga used to be a thing and swimming became huge when Park Tae Hwan won a gold medal for Korea in the 2008 Beijing (summer) Olympics. When Team Korea won a gold medal in baseball during the same Olympics, people swarmed to Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) games and tickets became very hard to come by on weekends. Before that time, you could easily get nice seats at a reasonable price. Tickets are still fairly reasonable compared to MLB games but the ticket prices jumped after the Beijing Olympics.
Now I find that my students are enjoying a different kind of exercise: spinning. I had never heard of it until three of my students (including one spinning instructor) mentioned it recently. What is spinning? Here's a video for you to see for yourself!
Some of my friends contemplated opening various businesses in Korea However, if you want to start one in Korea, the good thing is that Koreans would probably jump at something new. But the hard part is making it last for a long time because the trends change so often. You must be aware of that if you consider opening up a cafe (probably too many to compete with now), a restaurant, or a bar. It better be good or it won't last very long.
Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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