Subway Sojourns

Some of my favorite observations of Korean culture have taken place on my two subway journeys to Seoul (I thought about adding Seoul to the title of this post, but I believe there is such a thing as too much alliteration).  The first time venturing underground and trying to navigate the few hours and several transfers to Korea’s capital was absolutely baffling.  I have been on trains and subways in many states and in London, but the language barrier makes a HUGE difference.  

Not to be over dramatic, but on that first trip the universe conspired against an easy journey to Seoul.  First, we got off at a stop that we thought was where we needed to transfer, but it was actually a stop with the same name plus one syllable.  Then when we were in the place to make the transfer to line 4, there was no line 4.  The numbered stairwells skipped from 3 to 5.  Helpful Koreans with a bit of English knowledge pointed us in the right direction eventually.  Next, we reached a stop that we had been told not to leave the train at.  Unfortunately, it was the end of the line for our train so we had to leave and again reevaluate our position.  Overall, though it was a long, confusing, and tiring trip, the feeling of triumph upon arrival at “Seoul Station” was definitely worth it though.

One of the best parts of riding the subway is watching the people who come through with items to sell.  One man gave a long (Korean) speech on his product, which turned out to be glue.  He also had a board with half a dozen items glued to it, to show the effectiveness of his product.  That one was pretty popular with my fellow riders.  Another man came through with magnifying glasses, and more than one person attempted to peddle socks, which are possibly as popular in Korea as kimchi (that is saying a lot).  My favorite salesperson was a man with a product I couldn’t identify.  He spoke about it at length and I thought it was some sort of newspaper or information packet.  Then to my total surprise, he lifted his pant leg and slapped himself on the leg with it several times.  What he was demonstrating I will never know.   A passenger standing across from me found my reaction extremely amusing, but couldn’t explain in English.

Another interesting hobby within the confines of the subway system is reading and trying to understand Korean shirts.  I don’t think that I have ever seen a shirt here that has Hangul writing on it, but shirts with English words are all the rage.  It seems that matters very little what the English words actually are.  For example, there was a shirt that proudly said “QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE.” It was worn by a man.  Then there was a shirt that simply stated, “Saturday” it plain font.  Another man sported a lovely T-shirt with “John Deere” written in cursive across it.  My absolute favorite (that I remember, I didn’t take note of a lot of them) was worn by a woman and said, “Dress Your Believe in a Different Golf.” Yes.  I want that shirt.