Getting involved - Korean culture and traditional weddings
Korean culture and traditional weddings
I have also taken every opportunity possible to get involved in Korean culture including attending a traditional wedding and private after wedding party; visiting other parts of Korea and also hanging out with Koreans in my spare time. These conversations, 
experiences and also observations from living in Korea, form the basis of this book. I cannot say that I have met everyone from every side of Korean culture, but I have represented Korea as best as I can with the experiences I have had. If I had been living on a farm in the Korean countryside, maybe my experiences would be a little different because most of my time was spent in Seoul.
Seoul is to be fair, where over a quarter of the population live and these people are people who are born in every corner of Korea. This book therefore focuses on my experiences in Seoul and it draws in comparisons also with ways of life in other countries, such as England, U.S. and Italy. Talking about the differences in lifestyle, in different countries, makes it easier to emphasise some aspects of Korean culture. Koreans often compare themselves to the Italians as discussed in detail in the book. Are there really any similarities between Italians and Koreans? How about the love and hate affair with the United States. And, how does an Englishman fit into the Korean lifestyle?
Many aspects of Korean life are covered, from Confucianism, Norebangs, food, pride, politics and leisure time, to Konglish, education, weddings and logic. I hope this book is equally interesting for Koreans and for non-Koreans. I would love to hear your ideas and I welcome your opinions about this book and anything I missed or maybe you feel misrepresented. A chapter will be added in future reprints to the book and to the website, to include the feedback you send. Feel free to write to me anytime at paul@seoulkoreaasia.com. I realise that it is not common in Korean culture to criticise people but feel free to write. I have tried to be as honest as I possibly can in what I have written and thus if anything about Korean culture that I have written appears negative, I hope that it is in a constructive and fair way. Hopefully my thoughts and experiences will at least provoke constructive debate and ideas for the future about Korea and also make foreigners more interested in Korea.
