Our First Month

We've been in Korea for a full month now, its gone really fast. Here's 5 of the things we've learnt so far:

1) Koreans work really hard. Whether its kindergarten students who study harder than A level students at home, adults who work 90 hour weeks, or university students who have classes from 8am to 11pm, everyone works hard, and doesn't complain about.

2) The reason for the incredible work ethic is that Korea has had to fight so hard to be where it is today. 60 years ago it was still at war with the Japanese over its independence, a war that went on for centuries. Once it gained independence the country has struggled and fought to compete with China and Japan to be a rich, powerful country. Now Korea has one of the best quality of life ratings in the world - scoring higher than the US!

3) Public displays of affection are frowned upon here. Holding hands is about as far as it goes. If you're caught kissing its very embarrassing for all parties involved. As a result, affection has been outcast as something seedy, and there are plenty of seedy places you can go to get some: "love motels" which charge by the hour, private karaoke bars, private booths in most bars, private cinema rooms, lots of strip bars, massage parlours...

4) I like teaching. I really didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I do. I don't dread going to work in the morning. I think the best bit is that the day goes really fast. My lessons are either 45 or 55 minutes so I'm frequently changing students, classrooms, course books and topic. I work longer hours than I did in the UK but I have more breaks and I'm not just sat at a desk for 8 hours a day staring at the same computer screen.

5) Because Korea is 80% mountains there is very little living space, even though the population is almost 50 million. This means that there's a lot of people in the small amount of living space available,which is why there are so many sky scrapers. There's also very little land left for farming. Consequently, almost all fruit, veg and meat is imported - and is very expensive!