The Year of Korea: You Know You're in Korea When... →
1. Pedestrians share the sidewalk with cars and motorbikes.
2. Walking to work in the morning you see at least five drunken people stumbling around or sleeping on a ledge.
3. Eating out is less expensive than cooking at home.
4. Scissors are an eating utensil.
5. People always ask what you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
6. You can play connect the dots with puke piles on the sidewalk while you walk to work.
7. There is no toilet paper in the restrooms.
8. Pizza comes with a side of kimchi.
9. You flinch every time you turn on the sink, fearing you forgot to turn it from shower mode to sink.
10. The taxi drivers are crazy, run read lights, and go over 100 km/hour.
11. You suddenly realize holding up a fist is their way of telling you that you have a small face.
12. Your blood type determines your personality.
13. You open all of the windows in the winter.
14. You are told you are teaching a class…and it will start in five minutes.
15. When you buy a box of cereal, it comes with a free DVD, water bottle, towel, you name it!
16. You eat candy that is intentionally flavored to taste like burnt rice.
17. McDonalds delivery 24/7.
18. Your coffee is more expensive than your lunch.
19. If you have a friend who is a boy, he must be your boyfriend.
20. Fan death (sleeping with a fan on and windows shut) is a serious concern and WILL cause you to die.
21. Personal Space? Spacial Awareness? Good joke.
22. Beer costs less than coca-cola.
23. You start adding –uh and –ee to your words like Koreans do: Lunch-ee, Bus-uh
24. You stare at other foreigners.
25. Your students still say “nice to meet you” after knowing you for a year.
26. You can talk with a mouthful of food.
27. You drop all short connecting words out of your vocabulary and speak like everyone learning English. You’ve stopped pluralizing words to make it easier for everyone to understand you.
28. You find yourself bowing at everyone.
29. Unsolicited “I love yous”
30. Fried Rice sounds like Flied Lice (r/l mix up)
31. You go to Costco and everyone is eating a plate FULL of raw onions with ketchup and mustard all over them because they think it is a side dish and not toppings for your hot dog.
32. When the watermelons cost over 20,000 won (about 18 dollars).
33. All of the restaurants (Korean or not) have bells at each table you ring for service.
It’s true.
Pretty much.
