Probably you have heard about the culture shock that foreigners experience when they come to live and work in Korea. After living in Korea for three years, I rarely feel that kind of confusion these days. This summer, however, I felt a new kind of culture shock. In August, I took a three-week vacation back to my home state of Indiana in the USA. Because of living so long abroad, many people and things in Indiana seemed strange to me, even though I had grown up and lived there for over twenty years. This phenomenon is known as reverse culture shock, and it is even more confusing because things that should be familiar suddenly seem alien.
My confusion began even before my airliner landed on American soil. Looking out the window of the jet, I saw some small towns, but mostly only fields and fields of corn and beans and other crops. My first thought was, "Where are the oceans and beautiful green mountains?" But then I realized that I wasn't flying over Korea. Foreigners in Korea don't understand why the Korean people live so close together, piled on top of each other in skyscraper apartment buildings. It's easy to understand if you consider that most of Korea is mountainous and therefore difficult or impossible to reach by car. By contrast, Western countries are mostly flat, so there is plenty of room to build individual houses. My second thought was, "America has so many natural resources!" Another thing foreigners often wonder about is why Koreans work so hard. That is because they take for granted the immense natural resources of their home countries -- not only agricultural products, but also herd animals, lumber, oil and coal, metals, and so on. With relatively less of these advantages, of course Koreans must work harder to compete in the global economy.
Wnen I arrived at the airport, I found it strange how careful everyone in America is to respect the personal space of others. It's as if each person has a large bubble around himself that everyone takes care not to pop. No one brushes against another person, because it is considered very rude. Another reason for this is that bumping against a person is one way for a pickpocket to steal a wallet. It felt very uncomfortable to me to be in a place where no one really trusts his neighbor. This is especially true in big cities. In the Chicago airport, I noticed that almost no one looked in other peoples' eyes. Most people kept their eyes focussed on the ground in front of them. Foreigners in Korea are often upset by the way people in Korea stand close together and bump against each other in line or in passing. Foreigners also complain about being stared at and talked to by many strangers in the streets of Korea. Of course, one reason for this is because Koreans find foreigners interesting to look at, but a bigger reason may be that people in Korea are more trusting and less fearful of each other.
During my three weeks in the USA, there were countless things that struck me as unusual and confusing, though they should have been familiar. From chairs and sit-toilets to good cheese and dill pickles, the products and customs of my own culture seemed foreign to me. On the streets and highways, the rules were very diferent. In Korea, we must make U-turns often to avoid crossing the double yellow line. In the USA, U-turns are usually illegal. Also, in America, it is okay to turn left at any green light; we don't have to wait for the turn arrow. I was amazed to see many young teenagers driving their own cars; in America, we can begin driving as early as age 16. And there are hundreds of different drive-thru restaurants in the West, while in Korea I have seen only one: a McDonalds at Hyundae Beach. American restaurants serve enormous portions of food, and of course there are far more overweight people than in Korea. Also there is a much greater variety in the population -- people of all different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Almost every gas station is a convenience store, where you can buy anything from clothes and toys to groceries and medicine, and many people buy Coca-colas in gigantic cups as big as buckets. In the USA, almost every building is completely non-smoking, and a packet of cigarettes costs about 5,000 won. Rice is rare, and most people have never heard of kimchi. There are about 300 channels on cable television, but almost all internet connections are dial-up, so the computers are painfully slow. I could go on and on about the differences, good and bad. Visiting my home country was like touring in a foreign land. It was interesting and fun, but in the end, I was glad to get back to familiar Korea.
[D. Julian -- Fall, 2004]