I’m seriously turning into a sports fan or something. It’s only a matter of time before I start posting about fantasy baseball leagues, office pools, and the big game. God help me!
So last night I watched some sort of soccer match between the Korean national team and the team from Ghana. Korea ended up being defeated (3-1), but that’s beside the point. This game was held in Scotland, but looking at the crowd in the stands (or the signage for that matter) one would not have known it. A good 90% of the spectators (or at least 90% of the spectators shown on television) were Koreans sporting Be The Reds or Go Togethers t-shirts bellowing “대~~한민국!”
As I watched this game I got to wondering about the crowd. Were these people Korean that happened to live in Great Britain? The continent of Europe? Or were these people that flew from South Korea to go watch a warm up in Scotland? So if you have any information about this (population of Koreans residing in Great Britain [Scotland in particular], number of flights from Incheon International Airport to Scotland, ect.) please leave a comment.
well, the world cup is just around the corner, so perhaps a bunch of people have already followed the national team to europe!
Comment by Andy — June 5, 2006 @ 13:10 pm
why are you so into korean culture?
Comment by kim hyun joon — June 5, 2006 @ 14:37 pm
KAL has a daily flight to London and Asiana flies 3-4 times a week and British Airways doesn’t fly at all. There are no direct flights between Seoul and Scotland.
As for Koreans in the UK there are quite a lot including lots of salrymen in West London and lots of PhD students at all the major universities. Even the town where I live which has a population of 200,000 has more than 100 Koreans in it. The korean community in each town loosely congregates around a “church” so we have one church here but I believe in Edinburgh there are three churches so that indicates that there are far more Koreans there. Moreover as Glasgow is but a stones throw away there are another few hundred potential fans.
Comment by daeguowl — June 5, 2006 @ 17:18 pm
What do you mean Kim Hyun Joon? He lives in Korea with his Korean wife. It would be strange if he wasn’t.
Comment by Jay Lee — June 5, 2006 @ 18:04 pm
Andy, So the Korean national team is like the Grateful Dead and the Korean soccer fans are like Deadheads? That’s pretty awesome then.
Kim Hyun Joon, Jay Lee was pretty much spot on in his answer, though he left out that I find Korean pop culture far more interesting than Korean politics so that’s what I write about. Since I’m living in Korea and my wife is Korean I’m exposed to a lot of Korean culture. If I continue writing this blog when I return to the US, there will more likely than not be less posts about Mr. Shark and more posts about Mr. Met. Less No Brain and more Les Savy Fav. I’d basically write about the same kind of stuff just the American version of it.
Daeguowl, You are always hooking me up with the info I’m looking for. You get a gold star, and can pick one item out of the grab bag of prizes.
Jay Lee, You get a gold star as well for providing the logic whilst I was out.
Comment by Wyatt — June 5, 2006 @ 21:59 pm
Kim Hyun Joon, just as there plenty of foreigners who marry Korean wives but make very little effort to assimilate any Korean culture, there are plenty of foreigners who whole-heartedly embrace Korean culture. While there are plenty of foreigners whose meals while in Korea consist of TGI, Bennigans and MaccyD’s, there are plenty of foreigners who quite happily wolf down Kimchijiggae for breakfast.
I admit that Wyatt is more hardcore than most, I think it is to be admired. (Although I do worry about how you will cope when you return to the states, from my personal experiences I had a lot of difficulty adapting to life back in the UK and still disdain parts of English cultures some 4 years down the line.)
You’ll know you’ve turned Korean when you head back to the states and:
1) You need to equip your house with electronics and you only buy Samsung.
2) You eschew Nokia/Ericsson phones for the latest LG.
3) You go out to buy a car and you end up choosing between a Hyundai and a Kia dealership.
4) You go out for breakfast and you walk straight past Denny’s and on to the Korean snack bar.
By the way, I’m not sure what part of the states you’re from (I’m sure the answer is somewhere on your site but I can’t be arsed to look) but if you do get homesick for Korea then you can move to LA where a whole bunch of Koreans live life exactly as they did in Seoul.
So Kim Hyun Joon, these are the people who you should be asking “why” to. Why have you made no effort to learn more than rudimentary english? Why have you been here 5 years and never eaten anything except Korean food? Why did you come here in the first place if you are not going to embrace the lifestyle?
Apologies if it seems like I’m ranting, I get fed up of having to justify why I as a foreigner like certain things about Korea, all the while being lumped into the generalisation that foreigners come to Korea and moan about how everything is different and not very nice. I shall now get back to work.
Comment by daeguowl — June 5, 2006 @ 22:29 pm
Hyun Joon, I think it is very natural to observe/experience other culture if you are reside other country otherwise you will result in a lifetime of missed opportunities to meet wonderful people and fully enjoy the culture and good times.
You will be bystander forever if you are not into other culture / country.
On the other hand, I do love to have “Bop with Kimchijiggae” kind meals over pastas, salard and and steaks and so on. And I will be up very early to cheer team Korea, local station will broadcast at 5:30 AM, and I would definitely go to stadium to support team Korea with red shirt on if the match held in here.
That’s something from very deep inside of me just like most of ordinary chul-soo and gil-dong would do. It would be same to ordinary Sam and Joe over in Korea.
BTW
Hope team Korea go thru Knockout stage and be on sweet sixteen of second round. Go Korea! Go!
Comment by NOVA — June 6, 2006 @ 4:30 am
You have a very funny blog, I’m thoroughly entertained. Although I’m full Korean and my parents are fobs (I mean that in the nicest way, I love them and their fobby ways) I’ve never lived there, so I find myself identifying with your perspective and observations more than a hangul saram. I hope to go there someday with my hubs and hapa-ling child. Keep on bloggin’.
Comment by cm — June 6, 2006 @ 7:57 am
I mean, hanguk saram. Shows how much I know.
Comment by cm — June 6, 2006 @ 8:18 am
Wyatt, Would you pls delete my last post it’s duplicated? Thanks.
Comment by NOVA — June 6, 2006 @ 8:58 am
interesting…. people.
Comment by kim hyun joon — June 6, 2006 @ 23:02 pm
i don’t thik kim hyun joon meant anything bad. just like most true koreans, she’s curious as a cat.
maybe she hasn’t had the opportunity to meet Wyatt types, who rule.
i mean…anyone who marries a korean, embraces korean, and knows anything about the grateful dead is a fricking stud!!
Comment by james — August 3, 2006 @ 10:15 am