The thing that strikes the first time visitor to the country most strongly is the prepondering preference for the letters j and g in the transliteration of most Korean place names. The country and its people seem to have dedicated themselves selflessly and relentlessly (if not quite ruthlessly) to the promotion of these two letters to the point where it is a strange place that doesn't feature one or more occurences somewhere. My pet theory is that there is a J-team, promoting the letter J and a G-team promoting the letter G, and they have been in ceaseless competition since the beginging of time, and are now masters of character insertion. I may be wrong, but if I'm right, it is incredibly interesting.
The thing that strikes the first time visitor to Korea second most strongly is how different it is from Japan. Identical little countries full of little people making TVs and digital cameras? Oh no.
Some christian Koreans take their proletizing very seriously. I'm worried that on a weekday in Seoul station, there was a christian korean with printed english religious material waiting to communicate to me, through the media of human voice and the written word, a series of essential facts / data / information they felt I should not be without.
Seoul (where are all the soul men?)
These pictures free for non commercial private perusal. ©cip, 2007
Email me at:cip1000@sobi.org