Things I have Learned

1. The vast majority of people are subject to their culture, even if they have travelled. You can take a person out of a culture, but you cannot take the culture out of that person.
2. However, in most situations the culture differences are small. We are all human: we all want to be loved, successful and accepted...though the degree and definition of each of these vary.
3. The biggest differences in cultures seem to be related to the status of women, the importance of family, and the establishment of independence.
4. The definition of an 'adult' in terms of emotional maturity differs. In the west, an adult is someone who has established financial independence and has moved out of home, with or without a husband. In Korea, the definition of an 'adult' is someone who listens to and abides by parents opinion, and prioritises parents before wife.
5. Technology: Korea is the same as the West, though there are some services and conveniences available in the West that do not exist in Korea eg direct debit; status of women, 40 years behind; independence from family, 100 years behind. However, Seoulites...maybe 20 years behind.
6. What we may perceive as "common sense" in the West may not apply elsewhere. For example, in the work place wherever possible, we do not leave tasks nor information to last-minute. However the Korean way of thinking allows a little more flexibility in a crisis situation compared with the West...in the West we would say: "the system is such and such....so we can't do that for you".
7. Becoming dependent on others to eat, sleep and so forth ie not being able to do things alone stunts the personal growth of the individual. As does obsessive concern of the opinion of others.
8. If we were to use the West as the standard (which is arguably unfair), Korean men mature 5 years slower than the Western male, and Korean women 0-2 years. (But of course, this is a generalisation).This is probably due to a number of factors: 1) Personal growth is stunted by constant company of others 2) Dependence on parents (and extended family's) opinion 3) The hush-hush and denial over certain taboo issues that clearly exist 4) Inexperience with other cultures due to lack of opportunity.
9. Korean food is so much more healthy than the west.
10. Koreans may all look the same to us, but Westerners look the same to them, despite difference in hair colour, skin tone and eye colour. Meanwhile there is little /no variation in eye/skin/hair colour between Koreans. This has lead me to believe that East Asians initially must look for different features to distinguish one person from the next. Personally, to distinguish between Korean people (facial features) after 2-3 weeks I looked at face shape, mouth shape, hair-style, size of eyes and position of cheekbones. Westerners also look at these to differentiate from one another, but one of the first things we notice is hair colour. (I often wonder how in East Asia a witness to a crime would describe the criminal to the police..."well, s/he has black hair, black eyes, slim build....").
11. Koreans are bored. They have very little to do: exercise, read, TV and computer games, drinking and noraebang. Every museum or cultural heritage site is the same as the next. There are few night clubs in the smaller cities (same is true in England). Each block is exactly the same as the next: same architecture throughout the city (and between the cities) same kind of shops on every street selling exactly the same stuff.
12. Koreans believe that the more you study, the more you learn and thus the better you will perform in exams. Koreans don't understand when they have less than 6 hours sleep every night, spend all day studying or researching, why they still perform badly exams, and their universities still rank poorly compared with the West. In the West we believe the brain is a muscle....it needs to rest, not just when sleeping. After 5 hours of study, the brain shuts down; any studying after that is a waste of time.
13. About myself...nothing that I did not know before coming to Korea. My sense of self and judgement of my own character was already finely tuned. At the age of 23, that's quite an achievement.
14. Extra skills: Basic Korean, teaching, self-confidence in a 'stage performance' situation. I have also learned the art of basic communication, and how to explain the same thing in 3 different ways.