KOREAN VS INDONESIAN CIVILIZATION

KOREAN VS INDONESIAN CIVILIZATION

Hi, guys...It’s been a long time I didn’t share anything on my blog. Blame the internet provider which is so  slow even unreachable sometimes. The more I think about it the more I realize maybe 10% of Indonesian teenagers got early hypertension symptomps while waiting for internet connection to work properly. Ok, let’s forget those dummy internet providers,I have better story to tell. I believe this one will be very interesting for some people who are addicted to K-Pop and wanna know more about South Korea. I won’t talk about North Korea because I know nothing about this mysterious country. I think there are a lot of differences between these two. My wild stupid imagination sometimes make me imagine a picture when in early morning Mr.President of South Korea is reading today’s newspaper and listening to SNSD’s song while Mr.President of North Korea will be watching world map and listening to explotion sound he recorded when he visited military camp where they train thousands soldiers. Hohoho, I am kidding, I just wanna show you how different peoples’ mind will be when they hear these two country names.

    Guys and girls, let’s back to my story, as  I told you before in previous entry that I’m a student of Korean Culture Center of  Lambung Mangkurat University, so now I’m going to tell you some facts about korean society. I heard these facts from my native teacher who came from Korea, Miss. Seo Eun Hee a.k.a Salma saem. You can read more about her in my old entry. I and another teacher who is also a friend of mine, Miss. Rezzqina a.k.a Miss.Rerez (I hope I didn’t misspelled it), used to hang out together with Salma saem. Recently, we never do that because each of us has our own business. Well, eventough it’s kind of difficult to have conversation with Salma saem (it wasn’t a big deal though for Miss. Rerrez who’s so fluent in Korean, Gezz, this person is just too good) but we managed to share few informations about how civilization works both in Indonesia and Korea. Both of Indonesia and Korea grow based on ‘eastern culture’ where everything has rules, values, and consequences. For example, sex before marriage is something usual in ‘western country’ but for eastern one it’s a sin, a moral abuse, and many other judgemental idea. Most of men in eastern country think that marrying an unvirgin woman is a misfortune. I personally think you may demand virgin or not virgin spouse based on your own condition. If you are not longer a virgin why do you force your ego to marry virgin one?

I gotta stop my non-stop complaints about several society issues around me, now. Didn’t I promise telling you about Korean civilization? Ok, here we go :

1.    Watch your language

It’s very important to know whether your speaking partner is older or younger than you. Korean grammar is much more complicated than English or Indonesian. The particle attached to each word may change formality degree of your sentence. For example, when we talk to our teacher or someone older, we must use –imnida/seumnida/seyo- particle after predicate or we may also use –yeye/iyeyo- but never ever go lower than it. Informal language is well known as ‘banmal’. In Indonesia when you talk informally, I mean sometimes we use slank word like “mau kemana” rather than “hendak kemana” to someone older will sound normal but in Korea, people will judge you as ill-mannered person. It’s gonna be a big disaster when you say “odiga?” rather than “odie gaseyo?”  to your neighbour you just meet or anyone older than you. So, for the sake of your image, never forget to ask your partner how old they are so you won’t make any mistakes in adressing them. Don’t worry, they won’t feel uncomfortable to answer any question related to age, they will be more insulted when you ask about their weight for girl and height for man. Formality as well as seniority is sensitive issue for most of korean people. However, there are some good things about this. Seniority in Korea doesn’t only mean unlimited right to bully other juniors but also a big responsibility to guide people younger than you. It’s commonly happen when a junior makes mistake than his/her senior will be judged too as a failed person. So, I think when one day you work in team which is also involving korean people as your senior, you better listen and do their instruction well. As long as they lead you to a good goal. You have to remember that they aren’t doing it or bossing you around for their ego but also they put their reputation and pride on the line. Well, when they go overboard with unrational reasons then don’t do it. Put your logic above your emotion. Someone hurt you then hurt him/her back! Oke, I think I just talked about my personal stuff. Let’s go next point.

2.    Korean teenagers have different style with Indonesian one.

It happened when one day I, Miss. Rerez, and Miss. Seo Eun Hee had dinner together. Miss. Seo Eun Hee asked us about what we often do to spend our free time with our friends. I and Miss. Rerez happily tell her, we often strolling around the mall, watching movie, ‘Pencokan’ (pencok is like fruit salad with peanut sauce) while talking about recent gossip about people around us, or going to karaoke. Miss.  Seo Eun Hee then tell us about what Korean teenagers do and it’s kinda shocking for us. She told us that Korean teenagers spend their weekend by having alcohol party. Waow, you know in Indonesia consuming alcohol is associated with bad enviroment and also a bad behaviour. Indonesia has a spesific law (if I’m not wrong) about which place allowed to served alcohol beverage and who are allowed to consume it. In Korea as long as you are more than 18 years old, you can enjoy alcohol everywhere. Hundreds of stall around the street serve alcohol like ‘soju’ with various side dish. Korean people will gather in this kind of stall to relieve their stress with friend and enjoying their life. Even perents are very understanding for welcoming their drunken children everytime they’re coming home. In Indonesia, come on... once you come home with your mouth spreading alcohol smell, you gotta prepare yourself to be kicked out of the house. And if you are married man, there won’t be a typical korean drama scene where a wife will help her ‘half concious husband after alcohol party’ to get into their bedroom. 90% probability that may happen is a scene where your wife throw a blanket plus a pillow on your face and order you to sleep outside or even worse you will wake up the next morning facing your wife with super angry face throwing a divorce paper, bingo!

I personally think alcohol consuming habit is bad because it isn’t health. Some of my friends saying in Korea they do it to warm up their body in cold weather since Korea is four seasons country but I think alcohol is just a wrong tool to do it. Why don’t people drink traditional herbal drink like ‘ginger tea’ rather than alcohol. Even a cup of plain tea or coffee will help a lot. Other people will be stupidly saying alcohol is a stress reliever. Anytime they have problem, they start consuming alcohol. Hello, I do agree that alcohol may make you forget your problem, how? Because it will make you lose your sanity and mind, you won’t even can’t remember other important things. As time goes by, alcohol will also make you forget to breath by destucting you body metabolism, and then without you realize it you lose your life, your problem will be vanishing just like your life. Such an effective stress reliever, isn’t it?

I don’t mean to insult Koreans, but I think they should be more considerate about this. Korea is one of well known country in the world because of spesific development in cancer treatment. Well, it may be triggered by the fact that many of them suffered of alcohol related cancer such as hepatic cancer. It’s a great achievement but it doesn’t mean they can push the fact that alcohol is harmful juct because they know  their doctors are able to save them by recent cancer treatment. Preventing is much more useful than treating. Let’s start healthy habit to improve our life quality!

3.    Career is more important than love

Don’t be so surprised when you hear that one of the hottest korean artist is older than your mom. Let me tell you that some hot idols like Gahee and Jung Ah (After school), Sandara Park and Park Boom (2NE1), Lee Hyori, and many others are more than 30 years old. I do know that being single in the age of 30 or more for woman in many countries isn’t a big deal. But again I personally think that it’s too much. In Indonesia, you will be  judged as “old virgin” when you are still single even at the age 25 years old. Most of modern Korean woman especially who works as entertainer sacrifice their love life on the name of shining career. Let me tell you a medical fact. Best reproduction period for woman is at the age 20-35 years old. Eventough menopause is started around 40-50 but having a baby at the age more than 35 years old will be risky for both mother and the baby. Many health complications that may harm the mother can appear and most cases of mental retardation happen to babies born from more than 35 years old mother. So I think abondening love life for carrier isn’t a wise decision unless you are ready to randomly getting married to a man before you’re 35 years old to get a baby (I don’t support having baby out of marriage). This fact also happen to Korean men. I once heard Miss. Salma said “getting married in Korea is quite difficult”. When I was at elementary school I ever heard a news on TV that Korea’s population growth is lower than 1%. It happens because of high percentage of maternal death and low number of pregnancy. If  this condition keeps going then handsome population like Super Junior and friends will be no longer seen on this planet, well at least let me get their DNA first so I can run a cloning program, hahaha...

4.    Be careful of judgement

I’m a K-Pop lover so I’m always aware of scandals around Korean idols. One conclusion I can take is I think Korean people are quite judgemental. Well, Indonesians are also judgemental when it comes to cultural and criminal issues. I feel pity for Korean Idols because judgement of society sometimes force them to fake themselves. Recently, there’s a rumour of a chic idol dating a woman 6 years older than him. Many bad comments go to this boy, poor him. This judgemental condition also force many celebrities hide their relationship till it ends up in a break up. Competitive environment also becomes another reason of stressful life of  Korean idol. In my mind, there’s a principe of not meddling in other peoples’ business as long as it don’t disturb you. We have our life to take care of.  It’s fine if you’re involved for good reason but if your existance just create another trouble or doesn’t give any benefit for both sides then get out of the cicle. I don’t want to talk more about this ‘judgemental’ issue because I know not all people can accept and understand my idea. I believe many of you will think I’m insulting korean if I describe more about this point. Then let’s stop it here.

Well, my readers I think these four points are all I can tell you about Korean and Indonesian society. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling or insulting any sides. Trust me, I just wanna share my mind. I’m a K-Pop lover after all. One day, I hope I can take resident programme there. If you find any mistakes about my idea related to the topic please let me know about it. I’ll write more what I know about Korean culture and society when I get new fact, okey? See you later.....