Fifty years behind

When hanging out with other western friends, the conversation often turns to similarities and differences between Korea and our home countries. Strangely, one comment that keeps coming up is how Korea is about fifty years behind western countries. Don't get me wrong- technologically, Korea is extremely advanced, and the progress South Korea has made since the Korean War in the 50's is nothing short of miraculous. But in cultural and social ways, there's a real Leave it to Beaver thing going on here. Let me try to explain.

Our school is in a somewhat affluent area, and most of our students' parents are solidly upper-middle class. The men get up in the morning, put on their suit and tie (which is the uniform of choice for everyone from doctors and bankers to department store employees), and head off to work. The women get up in the morning, take the kids to school, go and get their hair and nails done, and go shopping. Moms come to our school to pick up their kids, and they look like they just stepped out of Vogue... 1955 Vogue, that is.

We pass a large bank headquarters on the way to work everyday, and at lunch time we often see the bank employees walking together to grab lunch at a local restaurant. The men stride together in large packs in their dark pinstripe suits, pastel dress shirts, and perfectly matched ties, smoking and discussing the day's business. The women scurry dutifully behind the men, looking more like airline hostesses from the 1960's than bank employees. They wear brown uniforms consisting of a modest (of course) skirt that comes just below the knee, and a matching brown jacket. Their hair is always pulled up into a very proper bun, the same bun that a school marm in a one-room schoolhouse would wear. I often feel as though the pinstriped suits and bank uniforms were leftover costumes from the movie set of It's a Wonderful Life.

Now I'm not saying that because they're at the point we were at many years ago we are somehow better. It just means we are different. In fact, there's something endearing about children maintaining a sense of innocence into teenagehood, and I definitely find the emphasis on family appealing. Sometimes I wish they would progress, and then other times I see them moving to become more like us, and I lament their loss. Once innocence has been lost, there's no turning back, and Korea is hurdling fast towards the point of no return.