(courtesy of the waygooks on waygook.org) I tried to pick the ones that I have experienced first hand. Hopefully it will give you a picture of what living in Korea is like :)
....pedestrians share the sidewalk with cars and motorbikes
on your way to work in the morning you see atleast 5 drunken people sleeping on the streets or walking home
eating out is less expensive than cooking at home!
The washing machine sings...
...a scissors is an eating utensil.
people ask you (all the time) what you had for breakfast, lunch, dinner...l
you can play connect the dot with identical puke piles on the sidewalk while you walk to work
You are suddenly lying on the ground.. you look up and see an old woman running onto the subway! AJUMA POWER!
Your italian Pizza comes with a side of Kimchi, corn and pickles.
you flinch everytime you turn on the sink, fearing you forgot to turn it from shower mode to sink...
you go the restroom and hear one person snoring, and another person turning on their laptop while sitting in a stall....and another on the phone.
.... you open all of the windows in the winter.
you are told you are teaching a new after school class... and it will start in five minutes.
You buy one product, be it milk or face-wash, and you get about 50 other random 'gifts' for FREE!
"You need Big Size, Big Size" but they don't have it in your size!
There is a sound-box in the bathroom that plays a 30-second soundclip of flushing sounds. Weird both because you can just fake-flush to drown out the sound of yourself peeing to begin with, and secondly - why not play a song then instead of just a flushing sound? And it makes me gotta go reaaaaally bad while waiting outside the stalls.
when the shortest laundry setting is 46 mins.
people wear reading glasses when they don't need to AND they have no lenses in them.
everyone, including the beggars on the street have iPhone 5's
You eat candy that is intentionally flavoured to taste like burnt rice
Everyone says "so-so" like it's a commonly used expression.
.... you go to a restaurant bathroom and find a shower along with matching toothbrushes.
Mcdonalds Delivery 24/7!
you're expected to go out with all the teachers on a weeknight...get completely drunk with them...and then expected to show up to work the next day completely fine with no signs of a hangover
the local aquarium is actually just a supermarket...
You hack at an elaborately-adorned cake covered with caricatures and glazed kiwis with chopsticks.
a political campaign is done with a song and dance...
You understand and/or use the phrase "Same Same"
Ajumma power is stronger than the whole of the North Korean Army.
when students point at your hairy arms and say 'Teacher, teacher, monkey, monkey'
when having a suntan classifies you as being poor.
you have at least one friend of a friend that knows someone who has died from leaving a fan on with the windows closed.
when you are introduced everywhere as a vegetable, because your co workers haven't quite got the hang of the word vegetarian..
..you see a beautiful young woman in power suit and killer heels talking into an i-phone while scootching past an old lady permanantly bent double from a life in the rice fields dragging a wheeled basket full of pumpkins.
when you find yourself becoming impatient because your taxi driver IS stopping at a red light.
You see signs that say, "Trespassers will be violated."
70 year old ajumas hike up the mountain faster than you..
when you “take a rest”
when you start craving kimchi when you could swear you didn't like it
When you're going to dinner in 5 mins and the whole school knew about it (a week ago)...except you.
...there's no toilet paper or paper towels in the restroombut there is toilet paper on the tables in restaurants...
you catch yourself giving in and "konglishing" up your English to be understood. Ex. " bus stopu", bus-u, homeplus-uh and don't even realize it right away
...you start staring at other foreigners.
When you start doing that thing where you suck in air through your teeth.
when students are still saying "nice to meet you" after knowing them for a year!
You change your shoes at school even though the students run around in the mud with their school shoes.And then when you new school doesn't change shoes, you feel awkward wearing your street shoes indoors.
when you constantly have to reposition your legs as you sit on the floor at a restauant just to feel comfortable, but then you see 80 year old ajimas and ajashis getting up and down with no problem.
you've forgotten what you used to say instead of "delicious".
When hiking up a mountain, there's exercise equipment ON-TOP of the mountain
You mention you're feeling just a little sick and you co-teachers insist they drive you to the hospital.
... a monk gives you his umbrella because you forgot yours and it just started to rain.
There's no difference between the temperature indoors and outdoors.
a building is said to be old if it was built in the seventies...
the school bell sounds like an ice cream van
...your student farts loudly seven times in class and nobody notices because they do the same.
...your green eyes make a baby cry.
your pizza gets wrapped in a pretty red ribbon to help you carry it
even Jesus is advertised with neon...
You have nearly been spat on several times, but know that you shouldn't take offense
..... when you get a gift of bar soap from the school.
...when you notice there is no kimchi side dish with your meal... and secretly wish there was
when your students see a photo or a video with anyone of color and they all shout "OBAMA!"
it's perfectly socially acceptable to loudly hock up a loogie and spit it anywhere on the street, but rude to blow your nose into a tissue in public.
you are asked what "disease" you have when you've got the sniffles
when it's perfectly normal to have teachers sitting at their desk working....while brushing their teeth.
When you go back home and remove your shoes at the door as if it were the normal thing to do, and when you don't, you feel uncomfortable when others have their shoes on indoors.
When Korea makes thing sweet on the wrong things: Vegetable/Tomato Juice or Garlic bread ... now that's vile!
almost everything you think is going to be chocolate-flavored turns out to be bean-flavored instead.
Cherry tomatoes are on Paris Baguette cakes and it's not weird
You have a GPS so that you can watch TV while driving.
Being called a heavy drinker is supposed to be a compliment.
you've become famous—you get stared at in the streets everyday and your students wave and call your name in the corridors at school and on the streets
...you get the mother load of a SPAM gift pack for Chuseok or Lunar New year. Cuz we all need 20 tins of spam!
teenage boys on the bus sitting on each other's laps and playing with each other's hair
The Girls
