The [ Get to know the locals ] Series - Preamble
Hello all! Since you asked me for reports about my life in Asia, I gave it a long and thorough thought. What could I actually contribute that would be helpful for all of you? There is so many travelers, but is there any kind of information that has been left out so far?
While thinking about topics for my blog, I started to look through comments of young(er than me) people who wish to go abroad. Through this research I found that some people seemed to picture Korea / Japan as a dream paradise where everything is great and life will be extremely comfortable. Well...
Don't get me wrong: There is a lot of amazing things to see and do! Getting to know a new culture is a long, rewarding adventure that will shape you as a person! Especially if you come from a non-Asian background, I believe that there will be a lot of new and exciting experiences waiting for you in either of these two countries and you can learn one thing or another from the locals. On other days, when you stop being just a tourist and start to call these countries your home, you will run into struggles, mostly caused by cultural difference and clashing opinions. I would call myself broad minded, but there is concepts, a certain standard code of behavior that I have adapted from when I was small, as part of my culture. Even though I consider this kind of behaviour natural and logical, they might not neccessarily find acceptance with the natives of your host country. It took me a long time to accept that my German way of reasoning just doesn't work here, and it was frustrating. How can we prepare ourselves for this kind of experience though?
Well, unless you are the type who's pretty neutural towards everything, once you run into a situation where your culture doesn't find acceptance, you will most likely still get upset and find the treatment you are facing unfair regardless of what I tell you here in advance. That's completely natural! But maybe it helps you to find peace within yourself before coming here when you read about this, makes you mentally prepared and enables you to think of your very own strategies to deal with these issues, long before you even set a foot on the ground here.
This all sounds much more serious than this corner is supposed to be - I am sure most of the quirks and habits I am planning to tell you about here are gonna entertain you a bit and show you that "generally accepted concepts" as you know them can have alternatives. This series is for those who enjoy cultural diversity. And at the end of the day, this might also show that humans DO have a least common numerator, which is why basically any place can become your new home if you want to and don't mind things to be different from your home.