Couple Set, Love Trends

It's funny living in a foreign country for so long, your once narrow minded definition of "normal" starts to unravel and you kind of lose a sense of normality. Of course, each culture has its own set of rules and standards and it's only natural to compare ones foreign culture with your own. However after time you start to forget what you used to think was "acceptable" or "unacceptable", "reasonable" or "unreasonable" and find yourself questioning the random and mundane obstacles you face every day. It's really the little things that make me stop and think, "is this normal?" "Do they do this at home?" How soon we forget.

Just the other day I learned that if you press the wrong floor in an elevator all you need to do is simply press it once more and, vola! The light behind the number fades and you've saved yourself a good 4.2 seconds. Necessary? Probably not. Efficient? Most definitely.

Efficiency seems to be the common trend in Korean life. Even their architecture is designed in such a way to accommodate Korea's abundant population while not taking up too much space in their small country. Almost every office building, school, hair salon, grocery store, bar and restaurant is shared and divided floor by floor. Grocery stores here are stories high and shopping carts are engineered to fit perfectly in the ridges of the flat escalator to ensure your eggs arrive safely to the next level.

My school and workplace is on the forth level of a four story building and walking up the stairs, I pass a restaurant, a hair salon and a bank. If I felt like it, I could technically teach a day's work, change my hairstyle and then pay off any outstanding bills without even stepping outside once. I suppose you can say Korea really gives the saying, 'killing two birds with one stone' a whole new meaning.

It's hard to remember my first impressions of this unique country but one of the first memories I can recall was stepping off the plane merely 2 years ago and seeing a couple dressed the same head to toe. I tried to come up with an explanation for this bizarre sight, maybe they were part of a tour group or part of the same family and didn't want to get lost. But after only a few months I figured out this absurdity was really as absurd as I thought. Couples actually enjoy and are somewhat praised for dressing the exact same in public. Their uniform proves to others that they are 'going steady' and are taking their relationship to a whole new level. Now I'm sure this has come up in previous blogs but I just want reiterate how truly hilarious this notion of 'couple sets' really is. Since most Korean people live with their families until they tie the knot, couples are typically living apart. This means couple set couples actually have to PLAN AHEAD! I can only imagine how that conversation would go: (of course it is translated for your convenience)

[Phone rings]
Male Couple Set: Hello?
Female CS: Hi sweetheart. I miss you.
Male CS: I miss you too. Can I see you this afternoon?
Female CS: Yes. I can meet you downtown after I visit my Grandparents.
Male CS: Great! What are you feeling today? Stripes? Polka dots? A pastel, perhaps?
Female CS: Hmmmmmm. You look best in pastel but I think vertical stripes really elongate my mid section.
Male CS: Alright then. How about we wear our skinny blue jeans with the purple and white striped Tee?
Female CS: That's perfect! But what about our shoes?
Male CS: Let's kick the black Nike high tops!
Female CS: Can't wait! People will totally envy us!

So there you have it. What I would assume to be a typical phone conversation had between two willing participants in Korea's strange yet endearing love trend. But I am still left pondering... whose idea was this in the first place? Did one couple randomly decide to dress identical and others followed? Was there a magazine layout featuring couples dressed the same which then assimilated into reality?

Trends in Korea are pretty aggressive considering this is such a homogeneous society. Walking into my staff room the other day I was greeted by 5 of my co workers who apparently all had appointments with their optometrists that morning. I've worked here for 3 months now and not one staff member has whipped out a pair of glasses. But this day, each one of them was sporting a pair of thick black frames minus the lenses. I apparently didn't get the memo!

Whatever the case may be, Korea's efficient trend setters, engineers, designers, and general consumers all help mold this country into a perfect target for foreigners to lovingly mock yet try to understand. But maybe trying to understand them is a waste of time. Perhaps our curiosity is what's deterring our willingness to just accept or conform. Or maybe, the jokes on us.........??

Some Korean guys sporting the black framed trend

Nah! I don't think so!


Write more soon!

"In order to keep anything cultural, logical, or ideological, you have to reinvent the reality of it"
- Ani Difranco

With love,

Signing off,

Gillian Teacher xx