Korea Does America's Pastime Better.

One Sunday evening we decided to attend a Korean professional baseball game between the LG Twins and the Lotte Giants, which took place at the Twin's home stadium. While the game may be the same, the differences between Korean and U.S. baseball surprised me. First, the baseball teams in Korea are named after the company that owns them. Thus, you have teams such as the LG Twins, Samsung Lions, and Kia Tigers. (Yes, Samsung and LG are a Korean companies, NOT Japanese). At one point Hyundai sponsored a team called the Unicorns! (Imagine how that name would go over in the U.S.). Second, there are only eight professional baseball teams in Korea, as opposed to 30 in the U.S. However, considering the U.S. has a population of 300 million and Korea contains only 50 million, the number of major league baseball teams per capita is actually a higher in Korea than in the U.S. Third, the average salaries of professional baseball players in Korea is far less than the United States. In Korea, the average player makes roughly $70k per year (http://xr.com/qpru) whereas in the U.S. the average major league baseball player makes about $3.25m annually. (http://xr.com/x9le). Fourth, the LG Twins and Doosan Bears, both based in Seoul, share a home stadium, Jamsil Stadium, which was built for the 1988 Summer Olympic baseball games. Can you imagine the Yankees and Mets sharing a stadium?? Or the Dodgers and Angels?? Somehow I do not think that would fly in the United States.

But now for the less-boring differences between Korean and U.S. baseball.

In Korea, street vendors set up shop all around the stadium. You can buy soda, beer, hot wings, squid jerky, and peanuts just feet from the gate. The craziest thing is that in Korea you can actually the food and drink you buy from these vendors INSIDE the stadium. This blew our minds. Somehow I doubt the administration at Coor's Field would allow a fan to bring in a bag full of hot wings and 12 large cans of Miller Light. But in Seoul, it is allowed. Also, there were very little cops present! I only saw three outside the stadium and zero inside the stadium. No one searched our bags from the vendors either. How easy it would be to sneak a weapon to a game!

In Korea, each team brings its own male cheer/song leader dressed in full uniform and a handful of extremly good looking female cheerleaders in skimpy clothing, who continually dance and sing throughout the game. The home team fans and cheerleaders were along the first baseline whereas the visiting team and cheerleaders sat on the third base side. The fan base for both teams was about even, which made for a good time because the fans from one team could not drown out the sounds of the other. Even though the stadium only seats around 35,000 and wasn't even sold out, the fans were much louder than those in the U.S.

Singing may be the biggest difference between U.S. and Korean baseball games. At our game, the fans sang and cheered the ENTIRE game. When a player got a base hit, the way the crowd erupted you'd think he just hit a homer. When a homerun was hit, it was as if he just won the game with a walk-off home run. Now that I think about it, I'd LOVE to see the reactions of Korean fans when their team wins with a walk-off homer. Throughout our game I heard singing cheers to the tunes of "Dancing Queen," "We're Not Gonna Take It," "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," "What's Going On," and "My Life Would Suck Without You." Sometimes between innings each team would have their cheerleaders dance their own choreographed routines to songs played over the loudspeaker. Since we sat in left-center field, the simultaneous songs made for some interesting music. It sounded like sitting between two speakers, each playing a different song.

Also, I found the fan base to be quite diverse. There were groups of teeny-bopper girls, old men, families, single guys, and couples all cheering for the same team. The two teenage girls in front of us really got excited when the LG Twins did well. Behind us, an little old man grinned from ear to ear and loudly banged his noisemakers together as he celebrated the Lotte Giants victory. You'd think he just had a grandbaby based on the way he looked after the game. Of course, there was also the occasional intoxicated American male who would not shut-up. One of them, seated behind me 5 or 6 rows, taunted me a few times because his Lotte Giants defeated the LG Twins, who I had chosen to support. However, based on his lack of balance and slurred speech, I highly doubt he even remembers doing so. I guess you can't get away from them no matter what country you're watching professional baseball.

One thing I did not like about the Korean game was the lack of instant replays. They never showed a replay the entire game. This got frustrating, especially when sitting so far from home plate. With no replays, the occasional botched fielding of a bunt or close play at first could not be viewed on the big screen in slow motion. But despite this only downer, I found the Koreans games to be a much more enjoyable atmosphere than U.S. games. However, I must point out I've never been to a Yankees/Red Sox or Cubs/White Sox game. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I'd seen a U.S. game with that much hype.

Good Teeth are Hard to Find

It doesn’t take long to notice that people in Korea typically don’t have very good-looking teeth. I don’t mean to say that they’re all terrible looking, but a beautiful set of pearly whites is quite rare. Since I spent the four years prior to law school in Fargo, ND, some may say my standards are too high, considering Men's Health ranked Fargo 9th in their list of U.S. cities with the best looking teeth. However, for the past two years I’ve been attending law school in Jackson, Mississippi, which Men’s Health ranked as the 5th worst city in the nation for teeth. For this reason, I think I have a pretty good idea about teeth in the United States. If you think I’m making these stats up, look here: http://www.menshealth.com/metrogrades/april08/teeth.php)

Before coming to Korea I spent a week in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya Japan. Based on my observations of the people in those cities, the average set of teeth in Japan are worse than those in Korea. When I asked my Japanese friend about the multitude of crooked and yellow incisors, he explained that in Japanese culture teeth are not a big deal, so people do not spend a lot of time on them. He also said bleaching was very, very expensive. Perhaps the same is true for Korea, for their teeth are more similar to Japan than the United States. To be fair, however, I'd like to point out that my American friends tell me that teeth they've observed in Western European countries were also not up to U.S. standards either. Perhaps on a world-scale America has some of the best teeth. But that is a conclusion I’m not qualified to reach. However, what I do know is that I've seen many, many more sets of straight and white teeth in Jackson, MS, than Seoul, Korea. Therefore, I'd say it's safe to assume Koreans have ample room for improvement to be equal with the United States in terms of the aesthetics of teeth.

Legs!

Previously, I’ve never been of the “Asian persuasion,” which is to say, I’ve never been one of those guys who wish for a significant other from the Far East. For this reason, before coming to Korea, I assumed that I’d never be distracted from my prerogative: to compare U.S. and Korean culture. Well, I must admit that I am falling for the “Asian persuasion.” As soon as I deplaned at Seoul Inchon Airport, I found myself instantly comparing the look, style, and demeanor of Korean women with those of the U.S. To not make such a comparison seemed almost impossible, for Korean women instantly appear much dressier than those in the United States. Short pencil skirts, tapered blouses, and heels are everywhere. In fact, the skirts are quite short for United States standards. Some are downright scandalous.

At first I wondered why so many Korean women went to great lengths to look more than presentable. Why dress so nicely when simply going to class, airport, or shopping at the outside local markets? Maybe it’s expected of them by their culture, or perhaps the answer partially lies in the fact that Korean women can very successfully pull off this look. Let me clear: for the most part, Korean women have fabulous body symmetry. Only a very small percentage of Korean women I’ve come across are overweight. Slim, hourglass figures are everywhere. Walking down a crowded street is like walking behind 42 runway models. Nearly every woman possesses a tiny waist with long, slender, very-intentionally exposed legs, which are almost always accentuated by heels. Granted, Korean women are quite petite compared to U.S. standards, but their near perfect body symmetry gives the appearance of height.

However, for what Korean women gain by their slim figures, they lack in, well, bust size. In the United States, if one walks through any public place, s/he is bound to encounter more than a few intentional displays of cleavage. In Korea, that virtually never happens. In fact, low cut blouses are rarely to be seen. In terms of clothing above the waist, Korean women appear extraordinarily modest compared to their U.S. counterparts. But their skirts certainly do not mimic this apparent modesty.

After contemplating these differences in dress between Korean and U.S. women, I propose a common denominator can be found between them: women in both countries use clothing to deliberately accentuate their greatest physical “assets.” For many U.S. women, they may feel that their favorite attribute lies above the waist. For many Asian women, they may think their best attribute lies below their waist. Right or wrong, such a premise on its face certainly seems to explain the differences between the clothing of Korean and U.S. women.

In terms of demeanor, Korean women never make eye contact when passing by, unlike many women in the United States. I asked a local university student about my observation. She stated that in Korea, people do not make casual eye contact. In other words, one should not expect a smile or even an acknowledgment from a Korean when walking through a public place. One of my classmates from the U.S. said it best, “I feel like I should say, ‘Hi,’ or something to these people. It’s so weird that no one says it.” The lack of eye contact and friendly smiles offered by Korean women (and men) may make them first appear uninviting. But when interaction occurs, I have found Korean women to be incredibly kind and gracious. Warm smiles and friendly gestures are prevalent. In this regard Korean women are very similar to the actions of a typical “Southern Belle”. Just don’t expect a smile, or even an acknowledgement of an offered smile, from a Korean woman when walking down the street.

The Start of My Journey

I didn't have to leave the United States to start experiencing cultural differences. While waiting to board my first-ever international flight, I found myself in the minority. There, in the international terminal of the San Francisco airport, Asians surrounded me. Different languages, different hair styles, and different clothing were everywhere. Suddenly, the reality of foreign culture surrounded me. Now I was the one who looked and spoke differently, instead of it being the other way around.

While observing the people around me, what struck me most were the international families. Many young children conversed with their Asian mother in her native tongue, then easily transitioned to English when talking to their white father. These children were not even old enough to attend junior high school, but they were already gaining as many sky miles as myself and had probably taken many more international flights than I! Several of them looked as if they'd endured 10.5 hour flights numerous times prior.

For a moment I couldn't help but be jealous. At such a young age they were bilingual and already acquainted with a culture I was just beginning to experience. But on the other hand, I don't regret not having thrown into international experiences earlier in life. Today, as a rising 3L, even though I'm traveling internationally fairly late in life, I'm entering Korean culture with an outlook I don't think I would have possessed as a child, or even in college. I feel I'm getting more bang for my buck, so to speak, by traveling later in life because I'm here with a definite desire to compare and contrast cultures. Since I've never traveled overseas, my lack of experience has fueled a watchful eye that is ready to observe the most minute differences between my home and Korea. I probably won't ever learn basic Korean conversational skills and I may never have the opportunity to travel as much as some of the children in the San Francisco airport, but in terms of international experience, I feel I'm ready to try and make up for lost ground.