South Korea: A Brief Rundown

  Hey all! Hope you're coming upon this post in good spirits~

  As I've begun drafting material to document my time in South Korea, I realized that I should probably take a step back and properly introduce the country to you. Despite the nation's more recent global importance due to geopolitical circumstances and popular culture sensationalization, there is of course much more to the country than just music groups and military cold stand-offs.

So we'll start with the basics~:

-Official name: Republic of Korea
-Capital: Seoul
-Language: Korean
-Population: 51 million
-Government: Constitutional republic
-Currency: South Korean Won (KRW)

  As a peninsula, Korea's only land neighbor is North Korea (Democratic Republic of Korea--don't mix up the official names!). Globally it is well though for some of its massive conglomerate companies like Samsung, Hyundai, Kia and LG. Despite its global reach due to the products made by these companies, South Korea is a tremendously homogeneous place--anecdotal estimates put the society at about 97% Korean (with a good portion of the non-Korean 3% being other East Asians).

Cultural Factors:
-In Korea, you bow to greet others. There are roughly three different types of bows one can perform when encountering others, and the appropriate one to do depends on the age/status of the person, as well as the setting.
-The Korean language has different levels of formality built into it--having different verb conjugations for casual, polite and formal speech, as well as different words and terms that get used to specifically indicate formal speech.
-Food is a very central aspect of Korean culture and living.
-Korea very much operates as a communal society. When it comes to outings, you will find many people in the company of at least one person. Doing things alone like eating and drinking are thought of as unusual, and almost grounds for concern (particularly solo drinking).
-Speaking of drinking: alcohol consumption is very widespread in Korea. On any given night you can find people enjoying soju, beer, or the combination of the two (맥주, 'maek-ju') over a meal (perhaps fried chicken!)
-Dating is also a pretty big deal, particularly amongst youths.
-Questions that many Westerners may find invasive are common to be asked when you first meet someone, such as age, work occupation, relationship status, etc.

Some fun facts:
-The most popular coffee beverage here is an Americano!
-All male citizens have to serve a compulsory military conscription period.
-Literacy rate in Korea is extremely high, estimated at over 97%.
-Fried chicken in Korea takes on a different form than what it does in the US, and it is quite the delicacy! (Gives KFC a whole new meaning~)
-Almost half of the population (44.6% as of 2017) answers to one of three surnames: 김 (Kim), 이 (Lee/Yi), & 박 (Park).
-The most well-known and widespread favorite American sitcom in Korea is 'Friends'.


I hope you were able to learn at least some things about South Korea that you previously didn't know~!