Coming to South Korea, I had never thought that I would be one of the individual who will experience culture shock. I'd thought that my perspective was already broad enough and that nothing will surprise me. But in South Korea, I had to learn how to appreciate their culture, their way of living and their actions towards me. Whenever I'm mistaken as a Korean, the situation gets uncomfortable because I would get yelled at, sometimes. But through those yelling, I was able to learn more about what they do and don't do. It was a way for me to learn about their culture. For instance, subway ride is a "must have indoor voice," the students and I were lecture a couple of time for speaking too loud. Plus I learn how much respect they have for elders. Anyone would give up their seat for an elderly, not to mention that Korean has more than six different type of formality. I would say that my main take away from this program was how differently we think, coming from both American students and Korean students. We see everything so differently from each other. When we mention what the students think about North Korean, they have almost no fear or worries about them, but Americans find them to be dangerous and unsafe. Also when it comes to education, they have the mindset that if a student study more that 10 and more hours they will succeed in school. As for Americans we believe that a good night sleep and physical activity will regenerate our memory, which will help us succeed in school. I think that what stood out the most for me was the palace and Hanbok. They were both very beautiful and elegant. It's such a rich part of the Korean's history and it's amazing that they were able to make many replica of those palaces.
