Q&A with Stephanie Hong

Traveling to South Korea

Stephanie Hong traveled to South Korea last year over winter break. While visiting family and touring the country, she discovered the difference between life in America and Korea. Here she stands in a big city in Korea near to the DMZ.

Stephanie Hong

Stephanie Hong traveled to South Korea last year over winter break. While visiting family and touring the country, she discovered the difference between life in America and Korea. Here she stands in a big city in Korea near to the DMZ.

Q: What are significant cultural aspects you remember about your trip to Korea?
A: Korea is kind of conservative when it comes to ideals such as greeting adults and superiority in business or schools (like an upperclassmen vs underclassmen). There is a separate type of way people talk to show respect to elders.

Q: How do people dress?
A: But while language might be conservative, Korea is highly fashionable in urban areas. For example, when I went to Seoul in sweatpants, people gave me weird looks and I felt extremely under-dressed.

Q: What is your favorite food to eat?
A: Since Korea is a peninsula and is surrounded by water, the food industry is heavy on seafood. There are lots of different dishes centered around seafood. I went to Busan, which is by the coast of Korea, and climbed down about 200 steps to reach the shore. By the shore there are old grandmas who wake up every morning at 3 a.m. to fish and prepare food to sell to customers who walk by.

Q: What kind of games did you play there?
A: I was also there during the New Year, and we play a game where you throw four sticks, each engraved with different things. These sticks are used like dice to move game pieces around a game board, and the object of the game is to get all your pieces off the board.