The closer Kelly and I are to departing to Korea the more we realize how little we know about Korea, and the more we realize that nobody else knows anything about Korea either. For starters, Korea is not a third world country and for the less educated, the country is divided into two parts.
The other day, Kelly and I were in Barns and Nobles book store looking at travel books. While we were in the coffee shop portion, a man with two incredibly lazy eyes overheard our conversation and decided to chime in. He had mentioned to us that Korea was an incredibly unique country because of its history of war. Crazy eyes told us that over the course of history, Korea has been invaded and attacked over 400+ times while never declaring an invasion on any other country (prior to the Korean War). While I was a little thrown off guard with this man barging in on our conversation, concentrating more on his eyes than what he was saying, I found that fact interesting. Thus, I bought a book called "Culutre Smart! Korea" by James Hoare which has been an amazing source of very basic information about Korea's history, culture and customs. This book will hopefully enable us to not look like complete idiots for our first few weeks/months in Korea. Therefore, I will use some information that I have gathered about Korea to convey to those who know nothing about Korea.
Little do people know, unless you are 50+ or actually paid attention in social studies, Korea was a unified country until the end of WWII. Like Crazy eyes mentioned, Korea was invaded a lot. As we all know, centuries ago China and Japan both had their ambitions to rule the world (a broken record idea). Korea is placed right in between the two superpowers and therefore was the skid mark on the underpants of many Chinese/Japanese wars. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and basically treated them like trash until Japan was defeated in WWII. Well the allies who defeated the axis of evil thought they should stick their hands in the Korean cookie jar (this is where the ideas get creative). Russia and the US had rights to Korea because they were the victors. Well since they are so good at diplomacy they came to the decision that they couldn't come to a decision and split the country in half. Communist Russia called dibs on the North, and the democratic US shottied the South. Herein lies the division of a country. In 1950, North Korea (as anyone else who would have their country split in half by people who it doesn't belong to) sought to unite Korea by force. Introduce the Korean War. In an even tug-o-war match with Chinese and US help, the war ended in a stalemate and resulted in nothing but a lot of death, shattered economies, and a really, really big border that puts the United States boarder patrol to shame (we're talking land mines and sharp shooters). Needless to say there is a lot of hurt and suspicion in Korea. You can't blame them for whats happened throughout history.
South Korea's economy has boomed since the Korean war. There has been A LOT of emphasis on science and technology. Seoul is one of Asia's/ the worlds leading economies and is one of the largest cities in the world with roughly 20 million residents. Samsung, LG, and other technological giants call South Korea their home...so I hope that answers your question mom.....yes. They do have TV's in Korea. Seoul, like Tokyo, is well off and advanced. Some would argue they are far more advanced than America.
I hope this post wets your pallet for more information about Korea, as there will be many of these comparing and contrasting north east asia to the midwest United States.
Click to see the Korean Promotional video...what roped us in.
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