Things That Annoy Me In Korea

Korea is an amazing country and it deserves more credit than it receives but there are a couple of things that really annoy me in Korea.

First off elevators. The Koreans as a race do not understand elevators. You think it would be easy to get...an up button a down button and you push the button for which way you want to go.....no Koreans will push the up button if they are on the fourth floor and they want to go to the first floor. So when the elevator reaches the fifth floor there are people waiting for me to get on so they can ride it down with me.....I don't know if Koreans simply enjoy riding the elevator, maybe it is their own little slice of disney land "the tower of doom" or if they fear that if they don't get on the elevator on the fourth floor it will pass them on the way back down. Regardless of where Koreans want to go they will push both buttons as if to deceive the other travelers of their true destination. I really don't understand it but I know that going from the first floor to the fifth floor takes ten minutes longer than it should with people getting on at every floor. Another great thing they do is they forget to push the button for the elevator to stop at the floor. You will literally be in a line of about ten people waiting to get on the elevator until you watch the elevator pass you by. Then you look at the buttons and none of them are pushed. Koreans understand touch phones and computers but when it comes to elevators they are like "what is the maddening technology. Up and down buttons to take you to different floors....ludicrous." I think Korea is the only country that should sit their children down and have a training course for elevators. They will get a little certificate that says they are capable of operating the elevators "deceiving and complicated controls." I think only then should Koreans be allowed to ride elevators.

Another thing that annoys me in Korea is the sirens and constant sound. The history of Korea is extensive but let me break down the short version. Korea lead an isolationist policy in the 19th century. Korea was occupied by Japan who did terrible things to them almost as bad as what Hitler did to the Jews. They never talk about it but it happened and Japan still wont apologize for it. (research it if you want). World War 2 and the Korean War happened and Korea became divided into two zones. Russian occupied North which became communist and American occupied South which became democratic. Shortly after that speakers were invented and were introduced to Koreans. That is when the democratic south decided that it was necessary to wire every inch of South Korea with loud speakers. They enjoyed speakers so much that they made it mandatory for every fruit truck to have loud speakers on them. So the morning has never been so much fun. Every morning I wake up to fruit trucks that I image sound the same as the Nazis attacking. Sirens that sound very similar to bomb raid sirens sing symphonies over the beautiful pristine landscape of Korea. I think if North Korea actually attacked Koreans would have no clue because every morning sounds like we are being invaded. Imagine waking up to bomb raid sirens with fruit trucks screaming some foreign language at you. For the first few months I ran outside in my boxers with my hands up assuming that it was over for me and I chose the wrong country to teach in. Yep it's great...and the only place that I have found without music playing was on top of a mountain and a river trekking hike I went on. You have to really dig into nature to get away from it. Pop music plays from every corner of Korea....it would be comparable to Americans enjoying elevator music so much that they would say "hey why don't we play this music throughout the entire land every day." We can just hook these speakers up to all the light polls" Then old Jim Bob said "Well shucks Billy that right there might be the brightest idear I've heard since that Joseph Smith told us about Mormonism." Regardless it is really annoying and highly unnecessary. I don't like hearing background music everywhere I go and if I wanted to know what was the hottest most horrific pop song on the charts right now I simply need to step outside.

Super Heroes

Its funny how we always imagine abilities in the laziest of manners. Superman's gift of flight and indestructible body was given to him at birth. To fly Superman must exhort no physical effort, and flying around the world doesn't make him even break a sweat. To depict Superman realistically he should be wheezing and coughing up blood after circling the Earth. The truth is that powers in our mind are the same as hitting the lottery. It is a goal that is attained without no real effort. We have this perpetual belief that something will happen to us by sitting on a sofa. It reiterates our laziness as a society. Hitting the lottery gives you millions without ever working for it as does gaining a power from a freak accident that requires no exertion. Powers in comics seem more entertaining if they are accompanied with no hard work and perseverance. We idolize the work free life style and fantasize about its existence. It is our escape from our bleak reality. This is where superman and other heroes annoy me. Who is the winner of a jackpot to decide who lives and who dies. They have no real character until they began their journey. It takes a great man to realize his mistakes and try and correct them. Knowing that he has made mistakes in the first place shows his character that he is not bad but has chosen wrongly. In fact Villains are the ones who go through some terrible trial that creates character. Take Lex Luthor and Superman....Lex Luthar was a very intelligent man who had drive and vision. He was smarter than 99 percent of our population and worked hard for his goals. Superman is very naive and just figures he has these powers so he handles Lex as an adolescent teenager would. He underestimates his enemy. Lex Luthor takes advantage of that point and that is why the battles are most often won by Lex Luthor himself. Superman wins the war because the people love a hero. Humanity helps him in some way and takes down the "evil villain". We depict the hero as a dumb jock that walks blindly into traps being naive and even arrogant in his mannerisms. Why is it that we depict our heroes as the idiots that we say are wise but they always get tricked. Most of the times the villains are the intelligent ones. They devise elaborate plans for their success....each move is calculated precisely and executed. It is like we are sending the message to be an idiot or you'll be a villain. On the other hand we are rewarding the half retarded lottery superhero that obsesses over a woman that he couldn't get before the powers. Lets give hope to all the stalkers out there. Thats a good message. I think the underlying messages here are very perverse. I talked about this with my girlfriend and she brought up the fact that we also portray the Devil as an intelligent God of the Underworld. In many of the stories God is tricked by the cunningly clever Devil. Now the Devil would normally win after he executes his plan....but again just like the other stories one of Gods servants that he had faith in saves him. I know that usually we say in these stories that God is really just testing someone he loves and at any time he could escape from the Devils evil scheme. I guess in a way it is making humanity realize that the good guy needs help in return. That all of us are important and have the ability to help a man with incredible powers. Maybe even that everyone no matter how powerful they are can't save the world and may need our help from time to time. I know their are plenty of cases that probably contradict what I just said but if you think about it you will understand the picture I'm trying to depict.