Be kind- Rewind

I was inspired by my current book, The Power of Kindness, to write a little about the random acts of kindness I seem to experience here in Korea on a daily basis. People warned me that Koreans could be cold and impolite but I have found quite the opposite. Well besides that the fact that bumping into someone in completely normal and never requires an excuse. Bur I actually embrace this custom. I walk fast, so it’s a relief to be able to make my way through a crowd not having to apologize to every person I innocently tap.

But back to kindness, it always surprises me. From the girl who politely informs me that me backpack is slightly open on the subway or the overly accommodating waitress or the fact that I have yet to leave my house without someone yelling “Hello” at me. Old men who want to chat, women who are curious why I am in Korea, and the high school girls and boys who see me walking down the street and always say “Hello.” It cracks me up when I quickly respond with “Hello, how are you? ” they immediately get flustered and run away giggling.

You’d think being the stranger in a foreign land I would be the one who is embarrassed by the miscommunication at restaurants but that is never the case. Every waiter and waitress bends over backwards to try and understand what we are ordering and they often get very shy and apologetic that they don’t understand English. This blows my mind, I should be the one who feels like a moron for not speaking their language and I don’t think any waiter in America has every felt guilty about not understanding a foreign customers. Another reminder of the difference in cultures.

I had my first official failure in speaking Korean. A group of us flagged down a taxi on Saturday night, so I decided to take charge and hop in the front seat. I confidently directed the taxi driver to take us to “Hongdea”. He quickly nodded his head and repeated back to me “Hongdea”. After 15 minutes of driving, a raising cab fare and unfamiliar sights I said “Hongdea nay .. University?” He replied, “no, no… you say Bongdik” Without the exact pronunciation or accent Korean words can easily be misunderstood. He turned around and drove back over the river. In the end we got to where we wanted and the driver kindly reduce our cab fare, even though I am sure it was my fault.


Later that night a very nice guy gave me a stuffed pencil that he had won. It was about 4am, we were just leaving the club and we stumbled upon a group of Koreans trying to knock down a pyramid of bottles with a baseball. Well, I guess my enthusiastic cheering helped and he gave me his pencil! Yet, another example of random kindness.




I was so happy last weekend to finally do some real hiking. Brittany and I took as easy night Friday so we could wake up early (i.e. noon) to actually do something productive on Saturday. We climbed these two small mountains on the Westside of Seoul. We got a great view of the city and little workout too. We did manage to somehow get lost and end up off the trail, probably because we couldn’t read the signs. We had to scale a fence but luckily there was a very sweet Korean lady monk to help us down and point us in the right directions.