[English]
Hello everyone~
Today, I’m going to talk about travel experiences and cultural differences.
Do you like to travel to resorts or tourist destinations?
And where is the most memorable place you’ve traveled to?
Jeju Island is the most memorable for me when I travel domestically, and when I travel abroad, I remember France the most.
Jeju Island is a truly famous travel destination with beautiful scenery.
Jeju Island is an island in the bottom of Korea, and it is a favorite travel destination for many Koreans because of its beautiful scenery and sea and delicious food.
It takes about an hour to fly from Gimpo Airport near Seoul to Jeju, so it has the advantage of being easy to visit on weekends or short vacations.
I went there with my family for 3 days and 2 nights. It was near the end of fall, and even though the weather was cold,
I remember going to the beach, going to a tourist site called Camellia Hill, taking pictures with my family, and eating delicious black pork.
There are many famous restaurants on Jeju Island, so I went on a restaurant tour and I also remember buying specialty products related to omegi rice cakes and tangerines.
I've been to Jeju Island in other seasons, but not in spring, so I really want to go to Jeju Island in spring next time.
They say Jeju Island is pretty in spring because a lot of flowers bloom there.
So, I would like to go to Jeju Island on a nice, warm spring day.
I don't know why, but I think I was always busy in the spring and couldn't travel.
However, I was able to take a long vacation this summer, so I went on a trip abroad.
I was so frustrated because I couldn't travel for almost two years and had to work from home, but I was really excited because I could go on a trip for the first time in a long time.
I was really looking forward to going to Europe during the peak season.
In Europe, summer is the peak season, so plane tickets are expensive, so I only went in the off-season, but I was really looking forward to being able to travel in summer when the weather was nice.
Last time I went to Paris, this time I went to other cities.
I had never been to Paris during the peak season, so I wanted to go to Paris, but the day I arrived was July 13th, and
the next day, July 14th, was Bastille Day, so I didn't go to Paris this time because I thought it would be too crowded and crowded.
A friend who saw the fireworks on July 14th recommended that I go and see them.
It seemed complicated, so I decided to go to a resort this time, so I went straight to another city.
When I went in the winter, it was always rainy and cloudy, which was disappointing, but when I went in the summer, the scenery was really beautiful.
The sun stayed up late, so I could see more places, and it was nice because the evenings were cool.
In fact, the temperature in Korean summer is high, reaching 38 degrees sometimes, or even 40 degrees when it's really hot, and it's often humid and rainy due to the rainy season or typhoons in the summer.
During the rainy season, it rains for almost a month, but it doesn't always rain every day.
It doesn't feel good because you don't know when it will rain and the weather is cloudy and humid.
That's why I often recommend people who plan to visit Korea to come in spring or fall rather than summer.
Even if it's humid and rainy, it's not that bad because there's air conditioning everywhere, but it's uncomfortable if it keeps raining while traveling.
However, in France there is not much rain in the summer and the weather continues to be dry.
There was a heat wave this time and the temperature rose higher than usual. I was unlucky enough to travel at that time, but they say the temperature is not that high usually.
The temperature was high, but it was dry, so it was cool and sometimes chilly when I was in the shade or inside a building, so I had to wear a jacket.
It was so hot in the Korean summer, even at night, that I didn't think to bring a jacket, but in France it was so cold at night that I borrowed a jacket from my boyfriend to wear it.
During my other trips, I only traveled with my boyfriend, but this time I traveled with my boyfriend's family.
I met a lot of friends and spent a lot of time together, so I felt a lot of cultural differences.
In Korea, when we meet, we bow and greet each other, but in France, we shake hands or do a ‘bise’ where we touch both cheeks.
Actually, in Korea, you don't make physical contact with other people unless you are very close with them.
So, it was really awkward when I met up with acquaintances or friends of friends to do beads.
Also, in Korea, if you only order one dish at a restaurant, you can eat a side dish and rice together.
In France, you usually order an appetizer, a meal, and a dessert at a restaurant, so you can eat everything from the appetizer to the dessert at the restaurant.
So, there are times when we spend a really long time in a restaurant while having a conversation while eating.
In Korea, when you order drinks or alcohol, they are often given along with the food, but in France, the drinks or alcohol are served first and the meal is served later.
When drinking alcohol in Korea, you usually order food and eat it, and the food you eat with alcohol is called ‘anju.’
In Korea, when drinking alcohol, we always eat it with snacks, but in France, when drinking wine or cider while talking before a meal, there are cases where we just drink alcohol.
When I went this time, I drank alcohol with potato chips, but I'm not good at drinking alcohol.
If I drink alcohol on an empty stomach, I feel so sick that I can't drink it.
Actually, when you say cider, in Korea it refers to a carbonated drink like Sprite, but in France, cider refers to cider made by fermenting apples.
French people like to drink cider before and after meals.
They drink it often, but I don't think I enjoy it that much yet.
Actually, I really can't drink alcohol and I don't like it either, so my acquaintances gave me wine as a gift and
I tried it when they recommended it to me at a restaurant, but I still don't really know what it tastes like.
I think the cultural difference I always feel whenever I go to France is the greetings.
In Korea, when you meet someone in an apartment building, elevator, or public space, you may greet them, but I don't think they usually do so.
In the apartment I live in, I greet people who work, but I don't necessarily say hello or have casual conversations with neighbors I don't know.
Some people say hello when entering or exiting a supermarket, convenience store, or store, but I don't think it's a problem or makes them feel bad if they don't say hello.
Even when I worked part-time, I didn't pay much attention to how customers greeted me.
But in France, you have to say hello to your neighbors at the supermarket or restaurant.
And when you say hello, I think you always look them in the eye.
When I enter a Korean convenience store, I say hello, but I don't bother to look the workers in the eye.
I just walk by and say 'Hello~', but the French people make sure to look me in the eye and say hello.
When I first went to France, I was in an elevator, and the person getting on the elevator looked at me and said hello.
I was so shocked that I froze up and couldn't say anything.
At that time, I was really surprised because I didn't know any French or the culture at all.
And once in Paris, I was waiting for laundry at a laundromat,
and the person who came in to do the laundry saw me and said hello, and I remember saying hello in a very awkward way.
When my boyfriend first came to Korea, he saw a neighbor on the stairs of his apartment and said ‘hello’.
He didn’t say anything and just left. He said it was a culture shock.
But I think that person was also embarrassed.
Actually, even now, when my boyfriend goes to a convenience store in Korea, he always looks into the eyes of the convenience store workers and says ‘Hello, thank you, how are you’, so some people are a little embarrassed.
I think it's natural to talk while making eye contact in France and other countries, but
when I'm talking, I find it awkward to keep looking in people's eyes.
I think it's really fun to learn about and talk about cultural differences like this.
It would be nice to have a chance to talk more about cultural differences next time.
This was an opportunity to recharge while traveling for the first time in a long time.
It was a very meaningful trip to me because I was able to learn about a new culture.
It would be great if you leave a comment and talk about what you did this summer vacation, what happened, or what cultural differences you felt after coming to Korea.
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Thank you for watching the video today and see you next time~