South Korean culture is truly fascinating

I taught English in Seoul for an academic semester, and I had a great time. Korean food is awesome (especially the fried chicken and BBQ), the coffee culture is great, and the city is fun and full of stuff to do, benefited greatly by the subway, which is remarkably affordable and reliable. The mountains are absurdly beautiful, the museums are abundant and wonderful, (I also visited cultural monuments and temples, even a Korean War graveyard, which was very powerful), and the people are super helpful and friendly. Slightly less than Japanese, but much more than Chinese. I recommend anyone looking for adventure consider teaching English in Korea. I imagine it's much better than Japan. I was somewhat surprised by how Christian South Korea was though, with most of Asia being Buddhist, and Christianity usually being a Western thing, but it was at least interesting to experience. I did however struggle to make friends, both Korean and foreign, which is the main reason why I went home after my time ended. I had the opportunity to stay, but I had the fun I wanted and started to feel quite lonely.

probably the closest western equivalent to pansori would be Opera, a respected musical storytelling tradition, but one that only a few people care about much in modern times

I recently met a Korean international student (who admittedly seemed quite conservative) who told me that there's very little difference between the political parties in South Korea. The main divide is apparently that the right is more hawkish toward North Korea and China, friendlier with Japan and more anti-feminist. Other than that they are both very nationalistic, socially conservative and anti-immigration. The real divide in South Korea is between men and women, who are increasingly alienated from the political system. I'd be curious to know how true this is.

Native from Busan here. One hugely crucial part about Korea not mentioned here is Nunchi (눈치). It literally means "eye-sense" but it means the sense of 'reading the air' and picking up unspoken facts or rules about someone or something. On a moderate scale this can be similar to common sense, but the way Koreans implement is much stricter and any mistake, even if trivial can deliver a hundred different messages to others and could get you excommunicated from social circles. This sort of choking atmosphere breeds Nun-nopi (눈높이) a.k.a standards and it's become a common sight for Koreans to passively brag about their nun-nopi to others for validity. With this breeds strong sentiments and people start looking down on various things they aren't fully knowledgable on, and it makes social vibes of Korean circles a bit... suffocating.

South Korea is one of those countries who developed super rapidly in terms of technology. You have the urban software developer in the big city skyscraper, whose grandparents still worked in poor conditions on lowly farms. That's how quickly our world has been turning in the last couple of decades. Talking to my grandparents, I was recently reminded how unique that makes our moment in time? To have generations living side-by-side, who grew up in vastly vastly different technological eras! That might not be the case for much longer. Even with stuff like AI, I can't imagine a shift THAT fundamental to happen between me and my future grandchildren... But then again, maybe the future is always unimaginable before it happens.

Something else South Korea has going for it is it's incredible contemporary art scene. I'm a big simp for modern art from Asia in general - they often make startlingly intelligent and visually/conceptually distinctive works even by the standards of globalized art - but South Korean art in particular often has this fascinating science fiction quality, and there's a lot of women excelling in the nations pantheon of artists. You of course have famous figures like Lee Bul (who sculpts fragmented biomechanical forms resembling wrecked anime mechs), Nam June Paik (creator of legendarily playful installations using TVs and other electronics), U-ram Choe (who engineers incredible kinetic sculptures that often conflates robotics and biology) and Haegue Yang (a maker of surreal and strangely creaturely found material artworks). But there are so many less internationally recognized artists that deserve more attention - at least by my humble reckoning ;p Chun Sung Myung: ambiguously monochromatic and somewhat nightmarish installations, see Swallowing the Shadow, (2006) Debbie Han: sculpts and digitally illustrates artworks that critique both Eastern and Western standards of beauty and normalcy, see Terms of Beauty II, (2004-07) Hyung Koo Kang: detailed and bizarrely scaled/cropped paintings of famous figures, rendered with unexpected expressions and moods, see Vincent van Gogh in Blue, (2007) Koh Myung-Keun: distinctive architectural-photographic sculptures made of clear plastic overlaid with semitransparent film, see Stairway 6 (2009) Noh Sang-Kyoon: sequin covered sculptures of religious figures presented in ways both irreverent and sublime simultaneously, see Twin Jesus, (2001) Osang Gwon: lifesize sculptural portraits of people made of c-prints, see AW77, (2009) Suejin Chung: deceptively messy paintings of interiors overwhelmed with what look like stray thoughts, see Room, (2006) Sun Mu: startling and grotesque exaggerations of North Korean propaganda aesthetics, see Nothing to be envious in the world, (2007) Xooang Choi: hyper-realistic but viscerally surreal bodies, see The Wings, (2009) Yong Ho Ji: bestial, sinewy and expressive sculptures made of used tires, see Jaguar 8, (2009) By the way I brought a new smart phone recently, and I decided to finally get my hands on that Ground News app you've mentioned a bunch of times. It's such a useful thing and by far the app that's gotten the most usage out of me on said phone :D I particularly love that blindspot feature with left and right bias toggle options, I've genuinely discovered things on there I almost certainly wouldn't have across via my usually left-leaning media go-tos. Having access to multiple outlets articles detailing the same story has been massively useful to me and has lessened a lot of the profound anxiety I often experience when watching or reading the news. I guess I just wanted to say thanks for recommending it so robustly to me J.J. For me it's been well worth buying :D

Lived in Korea for 7 years and it feels like a mixture of Japan and the classic US (not current). It has a similar feel to Japan in terms of its aesthetics and what-not, yet it also is very capitalist, Christian, and conservative, which I personally view as positives. The people are mostly quite outgoing, friendly, and interested in foreigners; far more so than countries like Japan. Far more Koreans speak English than Japanese do as well. It offers some of the best urban biking in the world at Han River, which extends through most of the country and is incredibly scenic, and the cost of living is quite cheap outside of real estate, which even could be said to be cheap as well if your standard is the average US/Canadian city. There's definitely a lot to like about it, which is why I've been here for so long, and it's still constantly developing, growing, and changing due to Korean people's work ethic and innovation. Koreans are really open to new ideas and ways of thinking and love emulating the west, which in large part has led to Korea's rapid success and economic growth while keeping things from growing stagnant. Right now it's kind of a mix of old and new, with remnants of the past age co-existing with extremely modern, almost futuristic technology and buildings. I appreciate a positive documentary about it; there are far too many poorly made, trash content documentaries from people just talking about "muh depression" "muh suicide rates" and how the country is so depressed even though they've never been here once and all they did was read a bunch of Wikipedia statistics and plagiarise from a ton of other documentaries showing it in the same light. As an adult foreigner here, that is not how Korea looks at all. It mostly has to do with students in school, and while it is very sad, the average Korean adult absolutely does not seem depressed; Korea is very full of life and Koreans are very social beings. It has its problems like literally any other country, but there are a lot of positives and great things about it too. Also, you should talk about Gayageum if you do a Part 2. Here's a video of Sooeun Kwak beautifully playing it to some amazing sand art accompanying it: https://youtu.be/eTah-Evooqs?si=NVUMhvjFXLhIq4N8

I did a year long highschool exchange in South Korea without knowing almost anything about Korea and it changed my life. I fell in love with Korea and now study Asian Studies and hope to spend the rest of my life there

The biggest piece not mentioned of Korean culture here that jumps to mind is e-sports. The 1998 videogame Starcraft was at one point considered the "national sport of Korea" and finals matches would be held in olympic stadiums. They have government offices dedicated to e-sports. (Although it's not as singularly focused on Starcraft anymore, plenty of League of Legends these days, although I'm told that if you get in a Taxi in Korea the Taxi driver will still know all the Starcraft units).

So a Korean(American) speaking up. No, the pre-1900/traditional music are NOT something the ordinary people care about. What ordinary people do care more about is "Trot" (t'ro't, 3 syllables). As for how much? Enough that trot-centric TV auditions and competitions come up on main TV channels consistently. At least when I was over there at March.

I feel like opera occupies a similar cultural spot in Western culture as pansori does in Korean culture. I don't know anybody who considers themselves a fan or has even been to an opera show. But we all know about opera and are told it's something very sophisticated.

1. Blue house is not built by Japanese. The site was used by Japanese, but in fact it had been used since Koryo dynasty. We demolished Japanese built building and the blue house is completely built by us. 2. Pan sori is also considered old and boring for younger generations in Korea too. However there have been many modernizing attempts made and getting some popularity. Search Lee Hee Moon.

I lived in Korea for about 5 years. While I was there, I found your channel and became a big fan of yours. So I was excited to see this video :) Also, the whole sharing-food thing is easy to get over after awhile. I miss it actually. Eating with friends was one of the most fun parts of my life there.

Being half-Korean myself, I've been looking forward to the day one of my favorite Youtubers would cover South Korea. I have learned new things! Truly another award winning video!

The 2002 Japan Korea World Cup also definitely showcased Korean culture worldwide, certainly to UK/Europe

Mexican here. Traditional mexican regionald dances are also considered a thing that you see in cultural centers and festivals, but usually only people who are into that are the public, and you rarely see them in the spotlight of popular culture. And I said that by having a mom, and aunt, and an ex-gf who were into that: If it wasn't because of them, I would not have been in a dance festival.

I guess Opera and ballet fit the description of a highly sentimental artform that has a great reputation but isn't popular with general audiences

BABE GRAB THE POPCORN JJ POSTED

I've been living in Korea for a while now so I have a few things to say. First, the communal soup thing never once occurred to me. I LOVE all the soups in Korea, especially budaejjigae, which is a very communal soup. Second, pansori isn't super popular but it's influence is felt in Korean Trot music which shares the warbly, articulated style. There is also a band, LEENALCHI, that has recently blended pansori vocalizations with modern instruments. They've had a couple hits recently and I recommend checking them out!

Same birthday as you! Also I work with many immigrant South Koreans. What I find endearing about them is that they equally find our American culture equally as fascinating! They make some of the best 1st generation immigrants tbh