Seoul Lantern Festival (November 2017)

One of my favorite events in Seoul is the Seoul Lantern Festival. When I first went to the festival in 2010, there used to be a parade that would come down the main street in Jongno near YBM and Insadong. My friends and I would save some chairs and watch as various people and floats. They would pass by with decorations and lanterns that moved down the streets of the busiest area north of the Han River. You could see the parade from various stations such as City Hall, Gwanghwamun, Jonggak, Euijiro-1(il)ga, and Euijiro-3(sam)ga Stations.

Today, it is held along Cheongyecheon (Cheongye Stream), which you can reach from the east end near Euijio-3(ga) Station or the west end, which starts near Gwanghwamun Station. It's annually held from the first Friday of November to the third Sunday in November. It starts from 5:00pm and ends at 11:00pm.  Last year the festival from November 3 until November 19 and the theme was for the promotion of the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018.

There was a bit of controversy with this event in the past. In 2009, the city of Jinju criticized the city of Seoul for copying its idea from the Jinju Namgang Yudeng Festival. The city of Jinju held its event every year beginning in the year 2000. The reason for the event was to have a public requiem for 70,000 people and soldiers that died in a battle at Jinju Castle in 1593. The cities of Jinju and Seoul came to a compromise to allow Seoul to continue its event. Seoul couldn't use any of the name that Jinju used in its original event. Next year will mark it's 10th year anniversary of the event in Seoul.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from last year's event. Enjoy!

The countdown to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

2018 Pyeongchang Olympics- Ski jump

2018 Pyeongchang Olympics- Mascot's Joy

2018 Pyeongchang Olympics- Skiing

Lanterns galore!

Floating Lanterns

Duracell's brilliant way to advertise

Korean history lit up

2018 Pyeongchang Olympics- Ice Hockey

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Things to Consider Before Moving to Seoul, South Korea

Picture courtesy of Korea.net

I've lived in South Korea for 14 years and almost the last 13 years have been spent in Seoul. I have enjoyed this journey and although I'm not 100% sure yet, I might be leaving at the end of the year. I would like to share what people should look for before they decide on living here. Every place has it's pros and cons and that's what I will do in this blog post. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom. So here we go. I'll start with the negative aspects first and then move onto the positive ones:

CONS

1. On weekdays, subway lines can be extremely crowded (especially Lines 2 and 9) during rush hour such as 9:00am, 6:30pm and even at 10:00pm when some people go home late or some people stop hanging out with their friends after dinner and/or drinking.

2. When walking on sidewalks, people don't choose a side. Some people are walking on the left, some people walk in the middle, and some people walk on the right. It's one thing that I still don't understand. I'm sure it's a lot worse in China, but be forewarned.

3. Another point regarding pedestrians. People are unaware of people around them. If they're texting friends on Kakaotalk (a very popular Korean texting app), people walk slow. Sometimes people are in front of you playing a cell phone game and once again, they walk slow. It's not that they're trying to be rude, they just don't care about people around them and are unaware of who's around them.

4. This one is the MOST important.

(a) Before getting an English teaching job at a children's hakwon (academy), you must check whether the school is reputable, they have a good curriculum, AND if the foreign teachers that work there enjoy working there. My first school was brand new and although the job was smoothed out after a few months, I never got paid pension (which is required by law for Americans and Canadian teachers) and the director never backed me up with disciplinary support when students misbehaved. My second academy was a smaller one. I met the native teacher who was on his way out and he seemed to like the job, but all he did was play games with the kids and the kids loved him. Little did I know that I was expected to be the clown teacher with bad curriculum. It was hard to competed with my previous teacher that did nothing but have fun with the students. My third school was in Yangju (2 hours north of Gangnam in Gyeonggido). I worked at my director's academy on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with NO BOOKS and worked at another school in Dongducheon (2.5 hours north of Gangnam) on Tuesday and Thursday with bad books, six classes straight, and no time to prepare my classes. I strongly suggest you to do some research before accepting a job position.

(b) If you want to teach adults, you're in for a bit of competition. If you came to Seoul 10 years ago, you would only need a Bachelor's degree and may get your housing covered. Nowadays, you need either a teaching certificate and/or Master's degree just to get an interview. There are a lot more native English speakers that live in Seoul, so adult academies can be picky. If you want to teach in a university, you will definitely need a Master's degree and preferably in ESL. You won't get an interview without it.

5. If and when you do get a job in a Korean academy, be aware that Koreans communicate differently. Sometimes Koreans will tell you things at the last minute or they can be very indirect. Make sure that you're always on the same page or you'll expect a surprise. Ask questions and be polite. Never assume anything!

6. Be aware that drivers in South Korea are probably the worst drivers among all OECD countries. I see people driving while on cell phones (even backing up while talking on their phones), people driving fast in areas with a high amount of pedestrians, taxi drivers run red lights, people with tinted windows and/or have black cars drive dangerously because they think they own the road, and people sometimes driving the wrong way to make themselves a short cut. The ones that drive the wrong way will turn on their emergency lights to let people know that they're in the wrong, but to allow them to do it anyway (a half apology).

7. There is only one great season in Seoul, if you're like me (a southern California native who loves warm, dry weather). In winter, when the days are nice and warm, the air pollution is bad due to fine dust from China and coal plants in Korea. When it's a very cold day, the days are clear and sunny. In spring, the weather is comfortable, but fine dust blankets the city on many days. Summer is very humid and sticky until the end of August and July is normally monsoon season, so expect a lot of rain. Expect the best weather in September and October when it's beautiful. It starts to get cool in November but it's not too bad yet but the weather has been really cold the last two years in December in January. Expect temperatures to dip to -15C or -4F at its worst. But it's not the temperature that makes it the worst, it's the wind! It's very windy during a Seoul winter compared to Shanghai or Tokyo.

8. (a) If you're a Korean-American, Korean-Canadian or even Asian, some older people might assume that you're Korean and will speak Korean to you. If you're among a group of white people and you're the only Asian, the restaurant employee will speak Korean to you first expecting that you will understand. This is funny at first but can get annoying if you've been here a long time. I'm not Asian, but know this from speaking to various Asian friends from abroad. (b) If you're black, people may still treat you differently and either not want to sit with you on the subway or not want to work out with you at the gym. This is a sad reality. However, I've known some black friends that had a great time in Seoul, but the ones that told me they had good experiences tended to be female.

9. Although Korean women are very attractive, the ones in Seoul can be very high maintenance especially if they speak English. It's easy to date one, but hard to get married to one. They might have high expectations especially if they speak English well. Since there are many English teachers in Seoul, you won't stand out so much. If you're a professor, that's one step above that. And if you work in a company, they might think more highly of you. Status and appearance count a lot here but there are nice girls here. However, the prettier they are, the riskier it is. Thankfully I married a sweet, Christian, Korean-Chinese woman that doesn't care about shallow things like that.

10. Don't expect to live in a large apartment if you don't have a lot of money. If you want to teach kids, they will provide you with an apartment but it will be small. If you want to teach adults, they will provide you with a deposit (if you're single), but you will have to pay the rent. If you want a nice apartment, that means you'll pay at least $1,000 per month in rent plus utilities minimum.

Now that may seem like a lot of negative aspects, but I have a lot of positive things to say about this amazing city. Please weigh them out yourself and also get to know people that live here and get some other points-of-view. Now the awesome aspects of Seoul...

PROS

1. Seoul is a safe city. Yes, women should always be careful no matter what city they live in, but a woman would feel a lot safer walking home at midnight in Seoul compared to L.A. or Chicago in a New York minute. Crime is very low and if there is any crime at night, it's due to a drunk guy getting into an altercation with his friend.

2. The public transportation is beyond amazing. You can from the airport to the center of Seoul at a relatively cheap price. You can get from the center of Seoul to the countryside for another inexpensive subway fare. You can also take a high speed train to Busan in 3 hours. Seoul even beats Tokyo when it comes to easy access to public transportation. It's honestly the best in the world.

3. Seoul has a variety of foreign restaurants from American, Mexican, Italian, Greek, Ethiopian, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Turkish, etc. If you get tired of Korean food, there are plenty of other options. But it can be expensive, so beware of that.

4. Compared to Japan and China, people are much more willing to speak English especially if you need directions. People are very willing and helpful to non-Koreans that are lost. Overall I find Koreans very kind to "foreigners" that are in need of help, so you won't have any issues there.

5. Seoul has many things to do. You can see various palaces, visit various parks, see different types of museums, go hiking in many mountains that are near subway lines, three places with large aquariums,  check out old buildings and compare them with the new ones, etc. You can also see performances such as Nanta or Jump, which have been popular for many years. You can check out the tallest building in the country (Lotte Tower), which has an amazing view of the city. I've been here for a long time and still haven't seen everything.

6. Despite Seoul being a very modern city, there are still 15 traditional markets in Seoul: See the list here. My favorites are Namdaemun (for cheap goods) and Gwangjang Market (for cheap and delicious food).

7. Seoul has the second largest movie theater screen in the world located in Youngdeungpo inside Times Square Mall. It's 103 feet by 42.7 feet. The largest screen is located in Suzhou, China.

8. If you love coffee, Seoul is the place. In 2005, the cafe boom started and now you can enjoy cafes with various themes to them. For example, do you like animal cafes? There's a cat cafe, bird cafe, raccoon cafe, bird cafe, sheep cafe, dog cafe, comic book cafe, book cafe, travel cafe, camera cafe, cereal cafe, pitch black cafe, jazz cafe, etc. When I first came to Korea, people said that coffee wasn't healthy and that I should drink tea. My, how times have changed!

9. Korean food is great here. I love grilled meat and I think Seoul does this the best. You can get grilled pork (samgyeopsal), chicken (dakgalbi) or beef (bulgogi) and enjoy a wonderful experience here. If you want something simple, you can go to a cheap Korean restaurant and get very good food (soup, stew, fried rice, etc.) for a reasonable price.

10. If you're into nightlife, Seoul is the place to be. There are many clubs or bars with various themes to them. The atmosphere fits all different walks of life. If you're young and crazy, you can go to Hongdae or Itaewon. If you're into jazz clubs, you can go to Apgujeong or Sinsa, and if you want a quiet evening with friends, just get away from the most popular subway stations and you'll find a cafe with a lot less people.

So there's my list. Feel free to do some research yourself. Seoul is a fun place to be and it might totally fit what you're looking for. You might think it is, stay one year, and decide to stay for just one year. You can be like me and many of my friends who think they're only here for a year, but spend 1/3 of their life here!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

What's Your Identity? (A Viewpoint from a Christian)

Human nature is very interesting. We always try to label each other or put labels on ourselves. We label each other based on gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, nationality, hometown, etc.

In Western culture, when people want to get to know you, after asking you your name, people immediately ask "Where are you from?" and "What do you do?" To answer this personally, "My name is Scott. I'm from Los Angeles and I teach English in South Korea." Based on what I just told you, people may make very assumptions about me and put me in one of their categories.

In South Korea, age, job, and family background come into play. If you went to Seoul National University, you must be very smart. If you didn't, you were one of those that didn't try hard enough. If you live with your family and have brothers and sisters, you're normal. If you don't get along with your family, then your company or the blind date that you're on might think there's something wrong with you.

When I talk to fellow expatriates who live abroad, nationality, and location is huge in how we label ourselves. Sometimes if I hear that if we're getting a British teacher, I have this hope in my mind: "I hope the teacher has the sense of humor of Mr. Bean and not too serious like Hugh Laurie." Of if I hear that we're getting an American teacher, I might think to myself, "I hope she's not from New York City. That person might be too over-the-top and obnoxious for me to handle. Lord, let that person be from the west coast because we'll be able to get along better."

My wife is from Yanji, China. She's very specific in the way that she labels herself. She's ethnically Korean, but was born and raised in Northeast China, not too far from North Korea. She is not Chinese. She's not Korean. She's Korean-Chinese. She even distinguishes between how Chinese people, Korean people, and Korean-Chinese people make dumplings. And to her credit, all three of them are very different from each other.

Christians label themselves based on denominations, which is unfortunate. My coworker asked me which church I went to. I said it was non-denominational. She looked at me funny and wondered why there wasn't a denomination attached to it. She was probably thinking "Are you Baptist, Evangelical, Methodist, Lutheran, or do you just use the umbrella term Protestant?"

A friend from church is an adopted Korean. He was born in Korea but his mother gave him up as a baby. He has American parents but came to Korea to find his roots. Although he never found his birth mother, he's still thankful that he has loving parents.

On the other hand, people struggle with their sexual identity. We have so many letters associated with someone's sexual identity that we're up to 10 letters now: LGBTTQQIAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual). In case you don't know what some of these mean, asexual means no sexual feelings whatsoever. Any ally is someone that is heterosexual but supports the LGBT social movements. People that are pansexual say that gender and sex don't determine their sexual attraction towards someone.

To take it even further, some people claim themselves as non-binary or gender queer. They don't think of themselves as either male or female. People want to claim science when they discuss abortion or climate change but ignore it when talking about sex.

Finally to take it even one step further, you can be a woman that identifies as a cat (See video here) or a man that identifies as a filipino woman (See video here).

The world says "as long as you aren't hurting anyone, be what you want to be." And yes, maybe no one else is hurt on this Earth is hurt by what you want to be. But people that are non-Christians forget that they are hurting someone most important: God, the author of creation. The Lord has numbered every hair on our head (Luke 12:7) and he knew us before we were even born (Jeremiah 1:5). If we receive Jesus, we are immediately children of God (John 1:12). We were created male and female in his own image (Genesis 1:27). There is no accident and God does not want us to change who we were made to be.

And to Christians, it doesn't matter where you come from, how much money you make, what kind of family you have, and how important you are to society. The only thing that matters is Jesus. Don't get sucked into the world's standards of where you think you should be (Colossians 3:1-3). Nothing matters but the blood of Jesus. Without Jesus, we would be doomed anyway. Let's remember our identity in Christ and tell others how special He is. Everyone is worthy to receive grace (a free gift) and no one needs to work for it.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy