Thursday, May 26, 2011

One Rule For Expat Life In Korea

I'm a little late to this party, but I've just seen the CNNGO article by Kyle Burton and the responses from Chris in South Korea, Roboseyo and David Wills. They all have interesting things to say and some useful tips of their own (Go read them now if you haven't already).

I've got one little rule for expat life in Korea. It's a simple one, but I've found it to be fairly effective wherever I've gone:

Don't be a wanker.

Welcome to Korea, I hope you enjoy yourself, but please don't be tempted to act like an idiot just because you're in a new and exciting place. Like it or not, you're a cultural ambassador for your community and when in Korea, you need to respect not only the local laws, but also the people around you. I'm not saying you shouldn't have fun, but be aware of the consequences of your actions. Last year Ask A Korean wrote a great post titled "Ask a Korean! Wiki: How Not to be an Arrogant American?". It's worth a read and it applies not just to Americans, but to every foreign visitor or resident in Korea.

4 comments:

David S. Wills said...

Cutting right to the point, eh? Good rule, and one that would really serve people well all across the world.

Roboseyo said...

I wrote lots of rules. Chris wrote lots of rules. David wrote ABOUT lots of rules. But you wrote one rule to ring them all.

Well played, sir. I've written multi-post series' that could be summed up likewise.

Anonymous said...

Fuckin' oath. Well said.

David said...

Rob, wonderful reference to the Lord of the Rings...