cultural (mis)understanding?

you’d think that a month would feel like a really long time to be in a foreign country and that it would provide enough time to gather solid information on that country’s language, culture, and approach to green building. In reality, we’re halfway into week three of the trip and I only feel like we’re going to be able to scratch the surface, even though our itinerary is built around those things. I think that this is partly because I’m not in control of my own schedule, partly because I didn’t prepare for the trip in as complete a way as I could/should have, but primarily because it takes way more than a month, several visits to palaces and museums, and visits to a handful of A/E firms to even begin to get to the bottom of what the fundamental drivers in a society and people are, how the government is structured, how policy influences my particular field, and why Korean customs and behaviors are what they are.

at times I have found myself feeling critical, not only of our Korean hosts, but also of the GSE team members, and of myself, but I’m trying to channel the advice I once received as an exchange student, which is, “It’s not bad, it’s not good, it’s just different" (thank you AFS!). this applies both to acknowledging cultural differences without value judgment and accepting each of my fellow traveler’s way of taking in information, adjusting to difficult circumstances, and processing this experience.  I’m not saying that I have to force myself to like everything I observe… for example some gender roles appear to be so old-school that one of my host was embarrassed for me to know that his daughter-in-law is 5 years older than his son and the types of careers that are generally acceptable for women still seem so prescriptive (one person told us that women who are good at math and science generally “prefer” studies in medicine because they don’t “want” to go into engineering or technology).  BUT, even though these concepts/behaviors/beliefs seem strange to me, I have to acknowledge that there is history in this country that I don’t understand, cultural norms that are so different from my own that I can’t even begin to construct the logic behind them.

one other thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about is language and its impact on cultural understanding. Our Korean has not progressed much beyond “hello,” “thank you,” “tasty food” and a few other phrases we use pretty regularly, and although I know that there’s no way that we could become proficient in Korean in a matter of a few weeks, part of me wishes that I had a decoder ring that would allow me to eavesdrop on conversations going on around me, read signs, and express all my thoughts and questions fluently in Korean. so many of our questions go unanswered because the translations aren’t clear or we don’t get subtle cultural clues that would allow us to interpret the responses even if the words aren’t exactly right. knowing the structure (grammar and word formation) of the language would probably give some insight into the way Koreans think, how they see things through their cultural lens, and what they value. for example, I learned yesterday that what we call a sea cucumber is called “sea ginseng” in Korean. I’m not sure exactly what that reveals, except maybe that ginseng is more of a staple in the Korean diet so they’re more likely to make a comparison to it than to a cucumber… but I suppose this in and of itself is a cultural clue.  this is the part of learning a foreign language that I find fascinating, and I hope that I stay motivated to follow through on learning Korean when I get home.

green building in korea, informally...

The first week of our trip was very culturally focused, visits to temples and palaces, evenings with Rotary club members and host families, amazing food at every meal, and a bit of language acquisition.  It was all amazing, but seven days into the trip we had yet to visit any A/E firms or green buildings, and I think we were all wondering when the “vocational” components of the trip were going to start, at least officially. Despite this, we had already noticed a lot of things in the Seoul cityscape and the Korean mentality that reflect a lot of the sustainable design principles that we all talk about in our jobs on a daily basis. A few examples:

1.    All buildings, and I mean all of them (high rises and everything) have operable windows.  Somehow they work it out with the HVAC systems design and the BAS (and we later learned, when visiting a sustainable design consulting firm, that Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations are pretty common to show how best to implement natural ventilation strategies). There seems to be an inherent understanding that at certain times of the year, even if limited, interior comfort levels can be maintained by opening up the building envelope to the elements.

Greenspace adjacent to apt building parking

2.    There is some kind of vegetation in every spare square meter of the city… even the largest streets (four lanes in either direction) are tree-lined, and every building seems to have its own patch of green, sometimes with vegetables and sometimes with more conventional landscaping, and when there is no place in the ground to plant things, planted pots are placed on top of the ground, some along the edge of the sidewalk in the street. Green roofs seem to be pretty common as well… and this level of integration of green into the cityscape could not have been an afterthought.

3.    Of the recurring experiences we’ve had over the past 16 days, hearing the phrase, “it’s good for your health” has probably been the most frequent. Virtually every food that we have eaten, as it has been explained to us, has some kind of health benefit. Whether it’s that ginseng enhances for strength and stamina, lotus root is good for your eyes, walnuts benefit the brain, tea made from the peel of the mandarins from Jeju Island helps to prevent cancer, taking vitamin C after eating red meat reduces its impact on the heart, or that drinking vinegar (or possibly only the secret recipe version we got in Kangwhado) protects your liver from the effects of alcohol, the list goes on, I assure you.  I suppose my point is that there is some underlying health-related reason why Koreans eat most things and this focus (read, obsession) seems to make them pre-disposed to favor building practices that also have a positive impact on human health.   

Bike rack at the entrance to every subway stop

4.    There are bike racks everywhere. Simple as that.
5.   Last but not least, we’ve visited several historic buildings, all of which incorporate passive design strategies (orientation with respect to the sun, eaves on the roof for shading, placement of windows to optimize natural ventilation. They also use a traditional means of under-floor heating called Ondol (Link), which circulates air heated by a stove(often waste heat from the kitchen) underneath raised wooden floors, the air flow created by a chimney that creates a draft. We have been told that all residential buildings (new and old, single and multi-family) use more modern interpretations of this concept, in the form of radiant heating and cooling systems built into concrete floor slabs and sometimes even in the walls. This is (at least in part) why most residential furniture sits low to the ground, and why most Koreans still eat and sleep on the floor.

i have more info on the actual green building visits we've done in the past week, but that will have to wait for later. 

question:

how do you say no to an invitation from your host "dad" to go on a day trip with him to a city you think you've already visited a couple of days before, for a "meeting" that you assume will consist of older Korean men, without a clear sense of what the other activities will be, and knowing that you are going to miss out on the opportunity to meet a bunch of young people that the rest of your group will be hanging out with on a Saturday night? 

answer: you don't.

in an effort to manipulate what activities i'd be participating in yesterday (because of a fear of awkward social interaction with people whose language i do not speak, but more so because i didn't want to miss out on something fun or be separated from the group), i created an even more uncomfortable situation for myself and others.

Freshly picked strawberries (G&G Paju)

part of the problem was that i didn't want to go with my host (mostly because i could not get any clear info about what the day trip would entail and we had already been near Paju to visit the DMZ), but i  didn't think it would be culturally appropriate to say that directly.  English and Korean speakers were going back and forth about what the heck was planned and whether or not i was required to be at the Rotary club meeting that night, and the longer the conversation lasted, the more people poked their noses into it, and the worse it became.  in the end i just said what i should have said from the start which was that i would skip the rotary meeting (and all the fun and games that represented in my head) and go with my host to Paju, crossing my fingers that everything would be okay, WHICH IT WAS.

bottom line: this trip seems to be a remedial lesson for me in the subjects of: "accept that you have no control over anything, but things will still turn out fine" and "don't automatically expect or assume the worst of the unknown."

me eating a7-year ginseng root which, i was told is worth >$1k
(assuming nothing got lost in translation)

the day trip resembled one with family that you're not particularly excited about at first, but that ends up having some redeeming qualities. there was no one who spoke English enough to have a full conversation with me, so there was a fair bit of time when i was either zoning out or listening to everyone speaking Korean in the hopes that I might catch the gist of the topic from a randomly recognized word or two. BUT the "meeting" was for a "friends club" that the group was starting (not a business meeting with a bunch of dudes in suits as i had feared) and i was pleasantly surprised that the group had as many women as men (including one woman who, impressively, wore spike heels while walking through the woods looking for ginseng, and another who is the leading voiceover actress in korea, no joke).

I'd never actually seen an entire
eel, let alone two!

beyond that, the day included some pretty cool stuff that i never expected, like a boat ride on the Imjin River (which belongs in part to North Korea and in part to South Korea), strawberry picking, a visit to a mountain ginseng farm, and wandering around the Heyri Artist's Village, which is a development for studios, residences, and galleries of artists, musicians, architects, etc. for dinner i ate some of the best eel i have ever tasted, not to mention the fact that everyone was incredibly generous (true to Korean hospitality as far as all of us have experienced so far), not letting me shell out a fraction of a Won, even for some souvenirs I picked out at the artists' village.

i have to say that i still felt a pang of jealousy when i heard that two of the GSE cohort might have had the chance to do Norebang (literally "song room" = karaoke) after the Rotary meeting, but then i reminded myself that our experiences here will have some shared components and some individual ones, so each of our trips overall will be unique and that's okay (plus i have three more weeks to get some singing in).

even though when it started, spending 7 days with the same host family seemed like it would be an eternity, it's actually gone by very quickly. at dinner tonight, i noticed a bit of sadness, despite the language barrier when we talked about my departure tomorrow. weirdly, it also seemed to me that we were just getting to know each other, and i'm  already moving on to a different homestay, and into week 2 of the trip! time flies, as they say...

almost one week down...

Curly puffed rice snack on the street in Insa-Dong

It's the end of day six (DAY SIX) in Korea and it's almost too overwhelming to blog because i feel like i'd be forgetting to write about something important in the short time my body will allow me to keep my eyes open at this hour: a critical historical fact that i learned while being whisked through the museum at the DMZ, some detail about the kings of the Joseon Dynasty, all the vocabulary words I've been learning, writing in my notebook and then promptly forgetting, or some funny moment shared over a meal or in the van with our "best" driver who has been graciously navigating the traffic-filled streets of Seoul to get us to various destinations, sometimes when it would have been faster for us to walk. anyway, i think i'll just post some pictures for now and let them speak for themselves. 

Entrance to the Bongeunsa with lanterns for Buddha's
upcoming birthday (May 28)

The GSE team members nervously waiting to give speeches (in Korean!) at the Rotary District
Conference and the incredible performers who accompanied dinner

Looking at the fence marking the beginning of the DMZ and beyond into North Korea,
a sculpture representing efforts toward reunification

food canning, Joseon Dynasty-style

Sajeongjeon, or "hall where the king should think deeply before deciding
what is right or wrong."

A popular dessert - shaved ice, read bean sauce
and ice cream (pat bing su)

Some of the tasty (mashisuyo!) food we have been eating,
temple food" in this case... all vegetarian, all beautiful.