Hello to the world !
We are Mako and Seung A, two girls from Japan and Korea.
We have only just started our blog and few want to introduce ourselves briefly. So, today is the actual start of the blog! Get ready... Today’s topic will be on “Basic knowledge about Japan and Korea” How similar and different are these two countries?
To begin we want to make one thing clear. Many people think all Asians are the same (Chinese, Korean, Japanese) which is of course a really big mistake, because Asia is huge and although each country is close to one another they are very different in their traditions, and culture. However, we of course have many similarities, so we will share the similarities and differences of Japan and Korea.b
We each want to share the impressions that we have on each country. Korea’s image from a typical Japanese point of view is that Koreans are cute, they have hot k-pop stars, and eat Kimchi, shopping is cheap in Korea.
A typical Korean thinks that Japan has many hot springs and they have wild monkeys in it, they eat sushi, ramen. These impressions are actually right.
10 basic facts!!!
1. Transportation: Not everywhere around Korea is full of transportation. And, Korea has one of the best transportation system around the world (maybe Japan too). Especially in Seoul, there are buses, taxi, subway, etc. Buses and subways, not have exact time when they come since they come almost every 5 minutes or even less sometimes, where Japan has exact time. However, there are apps and on internet or on phones that show where and when a certain bus is coming, so you do not have to worry about time. At some bus stops, there is free wifi and most all in subways too. Also there are places for phone charging plug on each bus.
2. Respect to elders: This is very important in both Korea and Japan. Unlike America and other western countries, we have a different, more respecting ways to talk to the elders. In Korea, at the Japanese colonial, Korean culture changed a lot and since Korea was very weak after the invasion, culture from Japan and new cultures were inherited to Korea. Respecting elders like respecting gods have been one of it and is still going on.
3.Personalities: Of course, personalities differ from each people. However, Japanese get stereotyped image of Koreans, and Koreans have stereotypes for Japanese too. Japanese have images of Koreans as strong, short-tempered, and loud, where Koreans think the opposite of Japanese. Polite and quite. I personally believe that this is true in somewhat way. However, this maybe has came from the history where Koreans had to fight one another to survive after the invasion.
4.Temperature/ weathers: Usually, the temperature is about the same except for some parts of Korea and Japan. We all have all four seasons: Winter, Autumn, Summer, Spring. However, Korea’s air on Spring is very bad due to air pollution from China (air pollution of factories in China come to Korea by wind). But air in autumn is really good.
5.Clothes: We usually wear similar clothes. We have a similar trend !! Korean clothes are cheap compared to Japan.
6.Education: We have a simular schooling system, we have primary school (G1-G6 compulsory education), middle school (G7-G9 compulsory education), high school(G10-G12) > university/ college. academic success is a important thing! many academies(cram school) to study after school and prepare for exams etc. Because getting into a good university is the key to get into a well known company with good salaries.
7.Music: k-pop vs. j-pop (we cannot say which is good nor bad) but k-pop came from American hip-hop dance music and the influence of j-pop in the 1990’s (Amuro Namie). On the other hand, j-pop came from the rock music and folk dance music influenced first by the beatles. Korea is making their own music and many young people around the world loves them and some are very popular. Also, there are a lot of Korean and Japanese traditional music and which are still popular for especially old people.
8.Language/ letters: We have different languages however the grammar is really similar and some words come from Japan so some are the same. It is easy for both of us to understand each language which is a good thing! For letters, Japan has three types of letters, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji(Chinese letters), wheres Korea only had Hangul. Both of our countries have great influence of language and letters from China, however both countries made their own letters too. In the primary schools in Korea, they learn basic Chinese letters called Hanul but is barely used to write. However, Hanja is used mostly on meanings of words just like how Latin is used in English.
9.Food: Both countries we eat rice for every meal and no meal can be thought without rice. However, we do have different types of rice (which we will not discuss in depth right now). Korea of course eats kimchi throughout their entire day, and they tend to make many things spicy(the red color). There are also a lot of different types of food in Korea such as with soups. So it is actually true that, “no kimchi for Korean’s is no life!!!” Japan and Korea both have seasonal foods, vegetables, side dishes etc. And some are quite similar, for example both of us eat miso soup.
10.Events: Some traditional days such as the Children’s day is the same, however the new years celebration for example is different. In Japan the new year celebration is from Dec 31st- Jan 1st (and that week), however Korea has a moon lunar year celebration called ‘Chuseok’ were they celebrate the new year. Also, in Korea there is Hangul Day which is not very old. (Korea decided to celebrate it as holiday and the decision was made about few years ago. )
I know it was quite long but I hope you were able to find something interesting, or something that you want to know more about which was not on the 10 facts. So PLEASE leave us any comments and we will discuss that on our further blogs.
Hope this was fun and that you got the general idea of both countries and the distinguishments xxx
BaiBai!(J) Anyon!(K)= Bye!
