I’m an American living in South Korea. Lately, I’ve noticed so many people on the internet and YouTube talking about Korea with incredibly distorted views, sharing stories that are completely detached from reality. The most common topic is plastic surgery. Having lived in Korea for 16 years, my actual experience tells me that people getting plastic surgery isn’t nearly as common as the internet makes it out to be. YouTube videos exaggerate it to the point where it seems like everyone in Korea undergoes surgery, and people who have never been here actually believe it.
I’ve worked at five different companies here and have plenty of Korean friends, they are just normal people who don’t obsess over their looks. Sure, Koreans generally care about their appearance, but it’s mostly about looking clean and taking good care of their skin. They aren’t “obsessed” with changing their faces. Honestly, though, if I had never been to Korea and only judged it based on the internet, I probably would have fallen for the misconception too.
Another hilarious thing I see is foreigners who visit Korea for a short time, don’t speak a word of Korean, make zero effort to learn, and then complain about not having Korean friends. Flip the script for a second: if a Korean went to the US, couldn’t speak a word of English, and made no effort to learn, would they be able to make a ton of American friends? Of course not. Communication is impossible, so how could you possibly understand the culture or form genuine friendships?
My main point is this: stop trying to learn about a country through the internet. If you only watch the news about America, you’d think the entire country is just people dying of drug overdoses, cities being destroyed, homeless people lining every street, and daily mass shootings. Is that what everyday life in America actually looks like? I lived in the US and never heard a single gunshot in my life, yet the American news broadcasted in Korea makes it look like a daily occurrence everywhere.
And honestly, the absolute dumbest thing you can do is judge Korea based on K-dramas. By that logic, we should look at American TV and assume the US is just one giant, crime-ridden wasteland.
It’s incredibly frustrating to see so many foreigners blindly believing these myths and falsehoods.
submitted by /u/amazing_biggie
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