One of the phrases I've been hearing recently from my (adult) students is that "Korea is a conservative country. Korean people are very conservative." When I first arrived here I would have actually believed that, but after a couple of years experience I now know that this is simply not true. Now I laugh when I hear this! Korea and Koreans may be conservative on the surface, but if you look down below that surface then you will find some things could not be possibly be justifed as being called 'conservative'.  There is simply no way of avoiding the fact that Korea has a huge sex industry. Sex is for sale in most neighbourhoods, if you know where to look and can read Hangeul (Korean script) it's not difficult to find. The only thing is that without knowledge of Hangeul, one wouldn't know what went on behind the walls of any particular building. Pleasures of the flesh are available in massage parlours, barbershops (recognised for providing 'special' services by displaying 2 poles outside instead of 1), singing rooms, love hotels, tea rooms, hostess bars, host bars (a novel idea, men work there and women customers go and pay to spend time with them), juice bars, room salons, business clubs and, the latest thing that I've heard about, telephone rooms.  A telephone room, apparently, is a room with a computer and a telephone. Exciting stuff, isn't it? The idea is that a man goes to the telephone room, finds a girl on the computer database, and then calls her. They meet, negotiate a price, and off they go. Korean men, particularly farmers from the countryside, have taken to importing brides from SE Asian countries. There are an estimated 1million foreigners living in Korea now, and I reckon a good 50% of these are foreign brides from countries like Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. The reason for this is that most of the Korean girls from the countryside want to live in Seoul or another big city, so the farmers simply don't have many options when it comes to choosing a wife.  "Choosing" a wife or husband is still something that is practiced here, and not an easy process either. They seem to be loosening up a bit these days, but a lot of my middle-aged students and friends just cannot understand the concept of being over 30 and NOT being married. I've known people who married someone after only 3 months of dating. Not because they were head over heels in love, or consumed with romance, but because their parents demanded that they get married because they were 30 or over. A lovely student of mine told me that her parents gave her a choice on her 32nd birthday. Either she find a husband within 6 months, or they would find one for her.  If a woman marries a guy who is the eldest son in his family, she could be in for a rough time. It will be her duty to take care of his parents, prepare all of the food for the annual thanksgiving (chuseok) and lunar new year (seollal) celebrations. They may have to live together with his parents for the first few years of marriage, and if she doesn't get pregnant fast, his parents might be very disappointed.   The drinking culture in Korea (it is a culture - a HUGE culture) is also the bane of a lot of married couples. Office workers, teachers, doctors, police officers, store workers, factory workers etc are all expected to drink with their colleagues after work, if a senior person requests that they go. Sounds good? Well, imagine if this was expected at least 3 times a week, during the week, usually with an average finishing time of 2-3am. Add a pregnant wife to this equation and you can see where the problems might arise. I've actually seen guys in suits staggering around, blind drunk, at 6.20am on Tuesday mornings. The amazing thing is that they don't call in sick. It's perfectly acceptable to sleep in the office, to not really get anything done at work, but god help you if you call in sick. Not turning up is just unacceptable.  I seem to be focusing on negatives here, but despite this I am still extremely happy here. I'll be spending at least one more year here, possibly more if the situation back in England doesn't improve soon. My one month vacation is coming up in December, and I'll be heading to Thailand to take a break from my beloved Republic of Korea. If anyone knows any decent Korean restuarants in Thailand, then please let me know. I'll travel for good Kimchi! 안녕 여라분~~~~~~^^

their drinking culture sounds like japanese.

Thanks for sharing, news thing to know for today