Americans are Lucky

         So I've tended to put Korea in a better light than America. Well of course, I have still put Korea in a not-so-good light by exposing the plain truth a few times before. But for this blog post, I want to shed some light on us Americans about how lucky we really are.

         South Korea is very much a developed country of its own, but it's still true that modern-day Korea is being westernized. Some of the customs are becoming subsided, such as saying "jja" after each character of an elder person's name. Like I said, Korea's styles still scream "Republic of Korea" but while some of its traditions are getting lost, new western traditions are coming in.

          Part of the reason to that is because Koreans gobble up American culture. Whenever I meet a new person in Korea via social media and I tell them I'm Korean-American, they have lots of interests and questions about America. Questions along the lines of, Isn't everything cooler there?

          Now, as a Korean-American who has always lived in America, I long to live in Korea and to me, a lot of things in Korea seems to be cooler. So it frustrates me to the point that I want to argue with the Koreans that, no, they have it pretty made there and should really appreciate what they have. Don't think I'm like anti-American though, 'cause I'm not, I have my fair share of what I love about the land of the free.

         So this is the part where I try to hammer in to you Americans what you are all blessed with - KOREA LOVES YOU! That's pretty darn true about most Koreans. Last year, after getting out of a European History/Western Civilization class where the lesson was about America's intervention in foreign affairs in order to stop communism from spreading. My (other) American friends were all, "We are so annoying - everyone hates us [America]." Knowing how untrue this is, I didn't nod in agreement with them. Maybe what they said is true in a political, diplomatic sense, but not so much socially. 

        Last but not least, be grateful that you all natural speak fluent English. I think I've already said something like this before in a previous post, but I say it again because I look at most Americans and see that they just don't get it. English is studied so fervently in Korea, it's like a survival skill, and although you learn English grammar in American schools, you still know where to put your articles - "the" and "a/an" - without even really thinking about it. Articles do not exist in the Korean language, and there seems to be no basis or rules for when to use either "the" or "a/an", which is just one of many frustrations to English-learning Koreans. Americans are so lucky.

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