Expectations and How to Break Them (in a health way)!

Let’s not be naive. Doing your research is an essential part in preparing to go to study study abroad! You should be able to get an understanding of the culture that you are planning to immerse yourself in, especially since when if you do go, there are many culture shocks that you are going to experience! In a small example, I've found that garlic bread in Korea is often sweet instead of savoury (I'm still trying to get used to this). In a bigger example, when I was preparing to come to Korea there were many things that I needed to research and prepare for such as finding a way to adequately care for my 4C hair. Since I've decided to opt for twists on this trip, I knew that it would probably be a long time before I would be able to get my hair done, so I packed some braiding hair with me!

Back to main though, I urge everyone who is preparing to study abroad, to prepare yourself for just how wrong your assumptions may be! See, area culture studies is that in order to study a culture, most of the time we essentialize cultures into simple statements and phrases to make them more understandable. And while it is easy for us to distilled cultures into phrases (especially foreigners), the reality is culture is an ever changing phenomenon! It's also often that these perspectives are oriented in  a Western lens, so they include biased information. Unfortunately then many times the assumptions that we create about culture especially without immersing ourselves, can lead to serious negative consequences such as things like racism or sexism.

It's important to take everything you research with a grain of salt! So light of that I wanted to take the time to add some perspective on two of the biggest of the culture tid-bits that I often see online, and how they differ immersing myself in South Korea:

1. Follow the rules! Koreans are very rule oriented, so in public spaces you have to be extremely quiet, as everyone expect you not to disturb the peace.

   I find this especially troubling, because it implies that Koreans are extremely strict and rigid, when that's not the truth. Of course, there are rules to follow when you come to Korea but remember every country has rules! Whether implicit or explicit every country has rules that have organically developed, so it's important to follow rules everywhere (not just Korera). Often you'll see blogs instructing you to be quiet on Subways and Busses, but I've found that these "rules" aren't strict. Often times, when I want to go party and I find myself on the way to subway to Hongdae, I see many Koreans  chatting it up! On the other hand, I do find the busses more quiet than the subways, but Koreans definitely talk on the busses as well. Now please don't read this, as me telling you to be strict on the subways, but it's much more lax than you think! So don't be too worried, when you're a little louder than you think on the subway.

2.  Koreans are very conservative, so it's important that we you come to Korea that you have to be very modest.

   The reality, depending where you are, this can be true and this can be false, found that this is was way more true in the past (so like almost everywhere older generations tend to be more conservative. However, if you are worried about dressing appropriately chances are you clothing will be just fine! Most clothing that would be consider immodest like crops tops, short skirts/shorts,  shoulder-exposing tops, or things cleavage, are worn by plenty here, especially members of the younger generation. So generally, clothes that would be considered immodest in Western countries are probably going to be considered the same.

These are the two most popular things that I have found, and of course there are so many things that I could write about, but I don't want to give you all the secrets!  Just remember again not to prepare so much that you aren't open to changing your expectations~ 

But more importantly have fun!