Seoul subway stories and observations

First of all, the subway system here in both extremely well organized and very chaotic. One very nice feature is that the station exits are numbered and there are clear signs letting you know which way to go to which # exit. So, you can say to someone, "Meet me outside of exit 3 at City Hall" and it works (instead of doing the NY thing, "get off at the front of the train, after you go through the turnstile, go left past the newsstand with the Russian guy, then right at the show repair with the Latinos, etc.")

On the platforms, there are images of shoes facing toward the train and, inside those, shoes facing away from it. These are located where the doors open and the idea is to show you where to wait, and to "let 'em off first," as they say back home, by steppng to the side while people exit. For the most part, people line up according to the feet, but then actually getting on the train can be an everyone for himself competition. Fortunately, trains run very frequently.

Several of the bigger stations have underground shopping malls and even public plazas featuring live performances. I heard a woman singing "Let It Be" and "Love" (quite badly) on a stage featuring a Newsweek banner in front of a large bookstore in one station recently.

In the nearly six months I've been here, I've found public trash receptacles maybe 5 times, max. The sidewalks and subways are clean, so I wonder what people do with their empty Starbucks cups and cigarette packs (smoking is big here). I often wind up schlepping my trash home and then putting it out on the sidewalk in the proper way (i.e., using the official trash bags, which you have to buy at the store--yellow for food garbage and white for other trash. You're not supposed to put out bags that aren't completely full.) Anyway, I once asked a student what people do with trash in public and she said sometimes they walk into a retail store and ask to throw things out there. I'd feel too weird doing that though.

So, when I was on the train recently and a man tapped me on the shoulder to indicate a slip of paper on the floor, I figured I'd dropped a receipt or something (small merchants, like coffee shops constantly give receipts here, and then there's nowhere to toss them) and he was being a good citizen. Not wanting to be an American litterbug, I stooped to pick it up off the (fortunately pretty clean) floor only to discover it was some kind of advertisement in Korean. I showed him and shrugged. He seemed amused and satisfied.

My funniest subway stories though, have to be the ones with the drunk guys trying to communicate with me. Not long ago, I sat down next to an older man (maybe in his 60s or so) and he said "Hello!" I said "Hello" back and he asked me if I was American. When I answered yes, he broke out into song--the opening phrase of the Star Spangled Banner!!! I asked him how he knew it, and he said a friend taught him (at least, I think that's what he said). He asked if I was from NY and when I said yes and asked him how he knew, he said he was a fortune teller!

A few days later, I was on a crowded train heading back to Suwon from Seoul on a weekend evening. Another man with alcohol on his breath starting talking to me in Korean. He was laughing, though I'm not sure about what. He seemed to be asking if I was American and, again, I said yes, and that I was a teacher (I remember how to say that much from my beginning Korean course in the fall). Somehow, from his gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice, I had the impression that he thought it was very funny that I didn't speak Korean yet was on the train, possibly not knowing where to go. We were standing near a subway map, so I pointed out my station to him, which he also seemed to think was funny. He contined to talk to me in Korean and laugh, and I continued to shrug with incomprehension. By now a couple of other passengers were catching me eye and smiling about this guy.

Then he indicated his age using his fingers and asked me mine. It's not uncommon here for people to ask your age right away, apparently because that way they know how much respect to trea you with or to expect from you. Social hierarchy is a big deal. The first couple of times people asked me my age I was taken aback, but now it doesn't phase me. It turns out he was 54. But I didn't know what to do with this information. I guess if I spoke Korean I'd know to use the super polite form of address. But, given that I don't, and that he was clearly drunk, I wasn't really prepared to start acting all respectful.