I will begin this piece with a confession. I read listicles. I also write listicles. There, it’s out there. My soul laid bare. The world knows my second deepest secret. I read them because I love learning new things, be it bite-sized pieces of information or detailed understanding of complex processes. Guess what? You read them too. Yes, you do… stop pretending that you don’t. You probably don’t seek them out, but you click that link on Reddit, or in your Facebook feed anyway and indulge. Once you are done, you go away and think nothing of it. Until one day people are talking about Graphic design in Soviet Russia and you mention a fact you know about it. Everyone is shocked, including you as you have no recollection whatsoever where you read that fact.
The problem with listicles, of course, is not that they are lists. I LIKE fact lists; I make them myself even. The problem is that they are journalistic filler mostly designed to generate ad revenue form clicks and each listicle itself is not actually financially worth much. As such they are churned out quickly, by writers working outside their fields and with minimal research. Essentially we have reached the point where we have listicles researched from listicles. This has left us in the mucky situation of unreal unfacts. I am not here today, however, to judge the worth of the humble listicle, and I will certainly still be reading them for the foreseeable future (as well as writing some, look forward to that!) instead what I would like to do is address some crimes against fact hood I repeatedly see in listicles about South Korea.
South Korea is cool now. I am happy with the situation as I no longer have to explain to people that I don’t live under the regime of Kim Jong Un very often. People even ask me questions about my life here which is, honestly, pretty awesome. I love that it’s cool and reading peoples blog posts and listicles as they discover Korean history, culture and language. What I am less happy with is some of the bizarre things I see come up in listicles about South Korea. So, just for fun, I thought I would listicle the most egregious falsehoods I have seen about South Korea, specifically from listicles. Twitter and facebook’s bizarre impression of the country is a whole other world that I may explore in future if people are interested in it.
1. Small electric cars are everywhere
So, I don’t even know how wrong to explain this one is. If it said Kickboards or rental bikes were everywhere, I would understand. I am not even from the most bike-friendly European country, and I cannot believe someone thinks these cars are as common as bikes are back home. Do they exist? Yes, I have seen one. My boyfriend has also seen one. That’s it. Before anyone is concerned that maybe it is because I live in the boonies, We both live in Seoul. If they aren’t that prevalent in Seoul and Gyeonggi, it is beyond a massive reach to suggest that they are as popular in Korea as bikes are in Europe. Sorry to burst your bubbles guys, this one just isn’t true.
2. South Korea is an isolated country that doesn’t know the traditions of the Western world.
This one managed to be so ridiculous I think it actually offended my boyfriend a bit. Koreans absolutely listen to music from other countries. Of course, just like everywhere else in the world, they have their own music industry and produce their own artists who are very popular. Foreign artists are also often very popular here too. Western movies are INCREDIBLY popular in Korea, and you cannot move for Avengers themed everything everywhere. Geography is taught in school; I have no idea why the author of this believes it is not. I will concede there is a strong Korean focus to school subjects, similar to the strong American focus in America, but it is incorrect to act like Koreans are not aware. At best, this is willfully ignorant, at worst this is outright racist pap.
3. Koreans don’t eat dogs
They redeem themselves slightly with the caption on this one. I don’t know any young Koreans who eat dog, and it IS falling out of favour. Dog is still eaten though. I even live near a dog meat place in my current apartment. It is not, however, expensive at all. The food they described as being what Koreans eat is Korean BBQ and while very prevalent here not what I personally put usually as a quantifier for diet-wise. They are obsessed with coffee here, though. The fact I do not drink coffee at all is mostly met with confusion.
4. Koreans are so tidy they don’t need public trash bins
This is the fact that inspired me writing this and my boyfriend, and I laughed. Another mixed result here. There are few public trash bins outside of the touristy areas. This is more to do with the fact Korea has strict recycling rules and people abused/will abuse public trash bins to dispose of household or business waste than Koreans being tidy. There is always litter on the streets here.
5. Shoulders are banned in South Korea.
This one is true. As I write this the Shoulder Police, decked in 80’s shoulder pads with gold tassels, are patrolling my neighbourhood and grabbing children over the age of 8 who violate this rule. No one questions their presence. Modesty is so important to the highly conservative people of Korea that they are willing to accept the loss of a few children or recycling collecting Ahjummas in the name of the greater good.
Or, this is bullshit. You decide.
I am sorry that I cannot find the link and if anyone happens to have it, I will update the article. Showing your shoulders is definitely a more scandalous outfit choice than back home and I 100% wouldn’t do it for work, but no one is likely to care bout your shoulders being visible so long as you are vaguely appropriately dressed. Beyond that, it isn’t ‘banned’. You won’t be arrested for showing shoulders even if it does scandalise some lady on the bus.
There are so many more I could have included that are open to a bit more interpretation, and reading these lists does give me a good chuckle. Does your country experience weird listicle moments? I’d love to hear what facts about everyone's countries that we see on listicles are so bad they are funny, so if you have any, please leave a comment for me sharing them. Of course, please keep reading listicles I write, so I don’t get lazy and start just making up facts.
