OK- that's more like it. I respect all teachers also, who are sincere in what they do. It has been a noble profession for centuries.
Sorry you got off with a bad first impression of Korea. Enjoy it as best you can for the time you are here.

The Dalai Lama says that his basic philosophy can be summed up in this: to paraphrase- our purpose in life may well be to help other like humans. If you can't help them, at least do them no harm.

Good luck to you.

I'm sure that if you asked a Korean, he would say WE were the ones with bad social skills. Just go downtown after 10pm and watch the obnoxious drunk Americans.

Sure, I've seen my share of Koreans spitting, blowing their noses, and even peeing in the street. Koreans are logical; if they need to take care of a bodily function they do it. They don't see it as gross. They had to spit so they spit; no sense in being uncomfortable. Everyone does it so it's not seen as being wrong. They didn't spit on you so no harm done.

Koreans also don't worry about being PC. If you're fat, a Korean will tell you. They're not saying it to insult you; if you're fat, you're fat - it's a fact.

Korea is a small country with a lot of people jammed in. People bump into each other here and it's expected. So yeah, someone might run into you and not say anything. They don't see any reason to if they didn't cause you any harm.

I will say that Korea is somewhat dirty but they do try to keep it clean. There are a lot of Koreans who work all day cleaning the streets. It would be nice if they had a "Keep Korea Beautiful" campaign here and installed trash containers on every street corner.

If you look at Koreans and Americans, you might change your mind on who the messier one is. A Korean will recycle almost everything and on trash day will throw out a bucket of food waste (again, recycled) and will have a very small bag of trash. Americans, on the other hand, create tons of trash and seem to have no problem filling a 100L trash bag. Just walk downtown and look outside the gates on trash day - you'll be able to tell where the Americans and Koreans live.

We all have habits that might seem odd to foreigners. you're in their country - accept it.

Interesting comments about social skills.

For those who haven't been in Korea very long, I think an explanation about trash containers might be helpful.

You wouldn't know it now, but the World Cup Stadium Park was once a huge garbage dump. It started out as an island called Nan-ji-do (난지도). In 1978, it was converted into a garbage dump. For 15 years straight, thousands and thousands of tons of garbage was piled up there - thus forming two mountains that became known locally as Garbage Mountain (쓰레기 산). It was an absolute eyesore that you could see anytime you had to go out to Kimpo Airport (the main airport in Seoul prior to the opening of Inchon Int'l AP). The stench was terrible and there were frequent fires from the gases that it created.

Obviously, something had to be done.

There was a time when public trash cans and garbage bins used to be readily available on the streets in Korea. However, when the gov't decided to make a serious effort to address the gargage problem and instituted the system where you had to recycle and pay special fees for garbage bags, it removed most of them to force people to recycle and use the special fee bags. So people started emptying trash in the few remaining public trash cans, as well as in those that businesses put in front of stores and shops. So then those also disappeared.

I suppose you could look at it as the lesser of two evils...because before the special fee bag system, people didn't separate the trash and recycle like they do now. While it might be inconvenient when you're walking down the street and there is no place to throw away a candy wrapper or soda can, the overall effect of forcing people to be more responsible for their trash has been very positive.

After WWII, America really began to prosper and after all those years of depression and war, people were ready to go out and really enjoy themselves. The baby boom was in full swing, and families loved going to the public parks. But the parks developed a really serious problem with trash - because people just weren't responsible and threw their trash wherever and didn't bother to clean up after a picnic or outing...it just wasn't part of the American conscience at the time. It was like this in Korea in the 1980s. Koreans were finally starting to enjoy some prosperity. They would go up into the mountains and find a nice spot by a stream to have a picnic...and they would just leave their trash right there and jump in the car and leave when they were done.

America went through similar problems in the past. It was easier for America though, because there is much more space for garbage. Give Korea credit. In spite of the garbage you might see here...the country has come a long, long way in dealing with it. Korea has improved a lot in the last 10-15 years, I am sure it will continue to improve.