西洋오랑캐

Crapaud: 21st Century Apartment Life In South Korea
Carlos McSuede
KOR 421

You know where you are
You’re in the jungle baby
You’re gonna die
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your knees, knees
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my serpentine

- Guns n’ Roses, “Welcome To The Jungle.”

Throughout history there have been both advantages and disadvantages to every aspect of human existance. These advantages and disadvantages shape human life in both a positive and negative fashion. That is to say that they are good and bad. Nowhere is this battle of good verses evil more obvious than in the case of dwelling in an apartment complex in South Korea in the 21st century.

Wyatt Dunn first moved into a South Korean apartment complex in January of 2006. This move is perhaps best explained by Sir Reginald Alister in his 1867 manuscript titled, 21st Century Housing In South Korea: A Treatise, when he wrote, “In January 2006, Wyatt Dunn moved into an apartment complex located outside of Seoul, South Korea,” (Alister 222).

Once throughly relocated in this new environment, Wyatt Dunn came to realize that there were many advantages to living here. The first, and foremost, was the fact that no longer did he have to deal with shoddy furnaces that did not seem to enjoy cold weather. Nor did he have to let the shower run for hours on end before something closely related to warm water came from the faucet. Upon his arrival, shower time was no longer an ordeal.

“The shower situation has become nearly bearable again. I have warm water that springs from the faucet as soon as I turn the water on. There is one problem though, and that is the fact that I have a tub again. I never thought that I would long for the day when my drain in the middle of the bathroom floor and hose to wash myself down was replaced with an actual tub with a shower curtain, but there is something enduring (and easy to clean) about such a bathroom configuration,” (Dunn, 5477).

The preceeding quote touches briefly upon some of the negative aspects (disadvantages) of apartment life. Among the other various disadvantages of apartment dwelling, perhaps the most obvious is the garbage collection system.

The phrase garbage collection system refers to a system by which garbage (waste materials) are removed from the living area to a region away from the living area where it can decompose or be recycled into new materials. While the residents of “one rooms” or other personal housing are allowed to dispose of their rubbish whenever they see fit, residents residing in an apartment complex are required to depose of waste on “trash day,” (Boggs 1986).

The institution of trash day is of greater concern due to the sheer ammount of seperation required of recycleable goods. Little Jimmy Hoffman claims that, “Glass, plastic, paper, and metal are the four types of recycleable materials,” (Hoffman 1), but the apartment dweller in South Korea is required to seperate clear plastic from white plastic, wrapping plastic from other clear plastic, soju (소주) bottles from beer bottles, and so on. “It’s far more trouble than it’s worth,” (Dunn 49203).

In conclusion without apartment dwelling in South Korea at the dawn of the twenty-first century, apartment dwellers would be without any apartments to dwell in, thus making them homeless. And for all the disadvantages of apartment dwelling, none can outweight the disadvantage that is being an apartment dweller without an apartment.

Works Cited

Alister, Reginald, 21st Century Housing In South Korea: A Treatise. Avet Publishing, 1867.

Boggs, Wade, Baseball Made Easy. Oxford, 1986.

Dunn, Wyatt, Kimchi & Me: The Book. Random House, 2005.

Hoffman, Little Jimmy, “Recycling.” Mrs. Green’s Class Press, 1998.