So few days ago I've been working on a travel essay as a requirement to travel course program that worldnomads held. It is said to craft 2000 characters about my own experience on a place, and because I was too over-excited, instead 2000 characters, I crafted 2000 words essay.
yea I'm that sloppy. I couldn't even differenciate between characters and words ;~~~~; I shed tears when submitting my essay.. not that because I was too happy but because I was really really sad. The essay become mess! Since the deadline is too close so I decided to cut off like half of the essay I wrote before. Forced it to fit the characters, and it looks
AMAZINGLY TERRIBLE, it didn't reflect the theme at all.
I kinda losing the hope of getting this rare chance, but who knows, maybe the judges see something that amazed them, only... IF ONLY.
Well if you wanna see my mess essay for the submission, please do visit
this site. And here's the original essay I wrote couple days ago. Enjoy and please leave a comment about the essay, I'd really really love to receive any suggestions or criticisms, it'll help me alot for my next project :)
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"A Local Encounter That Changed My Life"
Sometimes the one who doesn’t seem
to care at all could be the one who care the most. This probably applied to
Korean people as well.
Early in the morning, when the sun has
just rising, men and women, mostly workers, walk passed by on their busy steps,
focusing only to a thing on their hand, whether it is a worksheet, a newspaper,
or a hi-tech gadget. They didn’t even notice other person’s existance, a
typical big city’s society.
Only it’s fascinating on how these
people could change on the other times and happens to be your old friend, grandparents,
your mom, or just nice strangers you will remember for a long time.
The people are so nice, they barely
understand English but when a foreigner need a help, they will be there and try
to help as much as they could. If things get too confusing for them, they will
try to find other person to help. Sometimes you could probably get ignored by a
person, but that’s not always because they don’t want to help, it could be
because they are shy or afraid of foreigners, not that they think of you as a
bad person, it is more because they don’t understand English at all and has no
courage to even communicate with
foreigners.
At first, I thought it’s only kind
of habits from their parents, they do a lot of thing in a traditional way but I
don’t think they do understand the story or the meaning behind all that
traditions because in this modern era, It should be hard to live upon the
traditions especially the teenagers as new generation find it not really
interesting to learn a thing about the culture but then I realize that I was
wrong. This isn’t only habit but Koreans including the new generations actually
still part of the traditions, they
clearly understand why they have to act politely to the elders or even to
someone whom only 2 years older, calling each other with the honorifics, and
above all of those matters, they proudly introduces and presents their culture
to other people especially foreigners. the culture still exist and up until now
they keep it alive.
For example, most of the times the
friendly koreans people would insisted to talk to you in Korean language, no
matter how much you tried to show or explain to them that you don’t understand
the language. They will use another way to talk about their country, sometimes
using body languages or just telling you several korean words that actually name
of places you should visit.
If you happen to say you love their
country to a local citizen, be sure to see their reaction, you wouldn’t want to
miss a good thing. They will get all excited and start to ask many questions
about your visit and things. Their eyes as they’re talking would sparkles in
such a great way and that’s actually the most beautiful moment I have been
witnessing my own for my time being in Korea.
Another thing that could make
foreigners amazed is how Korean people appreciate foods so much. They tend to eat
all the dishes that has been served at home, dinner party, or even at the restaurants.
It could be impolite to have leftovers on the plate. I got scolded few times
because of them. One time, at a local restaurant, the cooks came to me,
smiling, but I still can see the sad and disappointment looks on her face. She
asked me why I did’t eat all the dishes and wondered if her food taste bad on
me. I feel bad about it, I just knew koreans can be overly sensitive over food
matters, but honestly it is quite hard to finished it all because the portion way too much for
me. Apart from the politeness, it is also because the koreans respect and
appreciate all the peasants, fishermans, and another workers that works so hard
to get all ingredients and served it as a nice and tasty dishes for them.
Oh, have I told you it is common
thing to be scolded by an elders in Korea? But of course, there are reasons why
the elders scold someone, mostly because the person accidentally act impolite
in front of them or other people. I have experiencing this moment when an elder
suddenly spread a korean chilly paste on my dish and not only that, he also
mixed it up for me and whining the words I don’t understand, he probably mad at
me because I didn’t eat the dish in koreans way. I’m surprised at that time
because it is annoying when someone messes up my plate but then I realize that
he’s just want to taught me on how to eat the dish on the right way for the
great taste. So, even if it is wrong because he didn’t ask for persmission
before but I don’t think that’s a bad thing to do either.
Earlier I said the workers seems to
put on serious face right in the morning, but again on the other time, a
different sight appears. At night, you
could see a group of workers walking together after long hours of work quite
often , sometimes their tired faces covered with smile or laugh once one of
them cracking jokes. A very heart-warming scene to see at cold autumn night in
Seoul. According to a friend, in Korea, the workers love to hang out together
for a drink, dinner, or karaoke once or twice a month.
The more I get to know the people
the more interesting it gets. A korean friend told me that it is true they live
in the modern era but they can’t just abandon their own culture and tradition because
what makes them today came from the way they live in the past. No matter how
much life changes, the traditions will still remain in their life as part of
their personality.
There are many things in this world
we knew but only some of them we could actually feel and appreciate, and Korean
people direct or indirectly showed me the amazing little things in life that
could give me warm feeling which I barely ever noticed before.
