Archive for the ‘Differences’ tag
Differences
I’ll take an Irish delivery van any day over motorcycle delivery.
This list will be constantly updated with new differences between Korea and Ireland (Or the “West”, in general) in which I think one or the other does something just better. For statistical things I’ll reference back as much as I can, but a fair bit of this list will be purely opinion.
Korea
Restaurant service
Being able to call out to waiters, having buzzers on the counter, and generally getting whatever you need very quickly in a restaurant.
Why is this better?
In Ireland, you’re going to the restaurant, paying money to get a meal – if you need something why should you have to waste time and energy while your food is getting cold. Getting the waiters attention the ‘polite’ way is just a complete waste of time. If you need them, they should know instantly, even if they’re busy – they’ll be over as soon as possible and you can continue to enjoy your meal without wasting time getting their attention.
Umbrella bags
When it rains, shops, malls, restaurants etc use ‘bagging’ machines in which you can stick your umbrella in and it wraps a bag around it. This means no drips and wet patches on the floor
Why is this better?
It stops wet umbrellas wetting everything else inside premises. Most importantly, it prevents people slipping on wet floors and suing the owners.
Shoes in home
In Korean homes, like Japan, you take off your shoes before entering a home. There is even a special floor area that is different to the rest of the house/apartment where you can leave your shoes.
Why is this better?
This is a fairly obvious one, and I find it completely nuts that in the west people don’t do this (I use people instead of ‘we’ because I do take my shoes off). How can people wear shoes indoors? You’ve just walked outside – the crap, dirt, gum, whatever you’ve just accumulated on your shoes you now want to move around the inside of your clean comfortable home? Why should the floor space be used just for your feet? You should be able to sit or put things on the floor without having them get dirty from whatever you’ve walked in. Nuff’ said!
Ireland
Driving
Yes you read that right, driving.
Why is it better?
Koreans are known to be particularly crazy drivers; from by experience here they’re not just crazy but absolutely ridiculous. I guess it’s part of the Korean balli balli (hurry, hurry) mentality. But it’s absolutely shocking, out of the 30 countries of the OECD, Korea has one of the worst road accident rates, 132 per million, compared to 84 per million in Ireland (Norway has the least accidents with 59 per million). It’s a regular occurrence for cars just to get jammed in the middle of a crossroads or intersection because they all just want to ‘Go’ at the same time. The worst part for me is the pedestrian zebra crossings; drivers absolutely ignore them and will only stop at ones protected by lights. Even then, if there is no pedestrian actually on that part of the crossing, they’ll just drive through anyway. Scooters use the footpaths. Seatbelts in the back seat are not mandatory, why? Drivers accelerate rapidly and brake harshly (a waste of fuel, if anything). The payoff of this balli balli system is that buses, in particular, are extremely efficient – they are generally much faster than the subway system. But at the end of the day, I prefer western European safe driving standards.
Chewing Gum
Yup, it’s better back in Ireland.
Why is it better?
In Korea most people only know one brand of Gum, Lotte’s Xylitol chewing gum. The gum is not too bad in itself – its main flavour is actually not mint at all, but there must be some really weirdly addictive stuff in there because I can’t stop putting pieces in until my jaw is sore. The mint flavour ones are OK, i guess. The other flavours have a lifespan of about 30 seconds, you usually throw them out after a minute. The biggest gripe I have with Korean gum in general is that it’s incredibly sticky. Back home, if you get gum on your shoes it sticks as one big blob which you can just scrape off in one go, usually. Here, it’s really sticky, which makes it a major bitch to get off. So far in Korea I’ve stood on gum a couple of times, major problem. Also, back home, people are generally pretty good at wrapping it in paper and putting it in the bin unlike in Korea. Also, in Ireland you have loads of choice when it comes to gum – A lot of brands with a lot of flavours. Suffice to say, gum is better in Ireland.