Originally published in The Groove
August 2007
A Stark View
By Tracey Stark
Them’s the rules
Since it’s already more than midway through 2007, I thought it was about time to do my good deed, my selfless act, if you will, for the decade. I figure I’ve lived in the Haebangchan neighborhood for almost a year, so I should give something back.
My project: to clean up a festering pile of trash down the street from my house that had been there for about three months. Now, some people might say, “Why hadn’t the trash collectors cleaned it up yet?” The answer is: because there is a right way and a wrong way to dispose of your rubbish in Seoul. And this was definitely the wrong way.
You see, in Korea there are rules for almost everything you do. Some are actually laws, like the one requiring you to buy special bags for your trash and to sort recyclables and food rubbish as well. And then there are customs, such as the one where women over 50 years old must get a perm and dye their hair. These customs strengthen over time. Ask an ajumma today why she gets a perm and she may not know the answer, but she will assure you that if she doesn’t it will likely result in her death by stoning. When given the choice, in fact (and I have nothing with which to back this assertion), more Koreans will choose customs over laws in almost any circumstance.
For example, while hiking a few summers ago at Soraksan my friends and I stopped to eat our bagged lunches partway up the trail. Not knowing any better, we packed mostly sandwiches and fruit. A large group of locals walked by us very slowly and a murmur began to pass among the hikers. I asked a friend who spoke better Korean than I do what we had done.
“It’s what we didn’t do that has them bothered,” he replied.
“What did we miss?” I pleaded, really worried by this point that a lynch mob was being formed just around the next bend.
“We didn’t pack kimbap,” he said gravely, “and we aren’t wearing black or red clothes.”
Needless to say, we turned back and headed for the car.
On another occasion, I went to a public swimming pool with a few Korean friends. When we got there, they donned swimming caps and jumped in. This is a requirement at pools to prevent great clusters of hair from bunching up and dragging some small child under to his or her death. But I shave my head clean, so I jumped in without a swim cap. Almost immediately a lifeguard summoned me out of the pool and ordered me to put on one of these rubber yarmulkes. I balked and pointed at my bald head, but he wouldn’t budge. “Everyone must wear one,” he said. There was no getting around it. On went the cabesa condom.
But my faux pas don’t stop there.
One morning last autumn I was riding the bus through one of the Namsan tunnels. It was a cool day and I was heading to work, enjoying the morning breeze through my window, which was open about an inch or two. About 100 meters into the tunnel the man behind me literally climbed over me and slammed my window shut. He had a look on his face that said, “You idiot! We could’ve all died from breathing tunnel air!” It’s like that silly game my sister and I played as children during long trips where we would hold our breath when passing a cemetery or lift our feet when crossing railroad tracks. (Well, almost the same except these are adults here.)
After five years, though, I think I’m getting the hang of it, which is why I decided to help someone out who obviously didn’t know any better.
So I bought the biggest trash bag available and headed for the flyblown pile of trash down the street for a little karmic workout. As I separated the tennis shoes from the broken beer bottles an old woman with a bulletproof perm, plaid pants and a floral shirt walked up, stopped for a minute, pointed at me and muttered something about doing outdoor work without wearing white cotton gloves and a vest. Then she walked away shaking her head in disgust.
(I hope she doesn’t report me, because I can’t remember if that one is a custom or a law.)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Modern dentistry with a traditional touch
Originally published in Seoul Magazine, July 2007
By Tracey Stark
If you fear the infrequent trip to the dentist because of the inhospitable and overly-sterile environment associated with most dentists’ offices, e-Trust Dental Clinic in Gahoe-dong’s Bukchon neighborhood may be more to your liking. Built in a hanok house – a style of Korean architecture featuring a “madang,” or central courtyard and surrounded by several rooms with doors which all open out – this clinic offers patients a cultural experience as well as state-of-the-art dental care.
When entering e-Trust, there are none of the usual dentist-office smells or harsh lights. The most common materials here are wood and paper, not stainless steel and plastic. Instead of bright fluorescent lights, the place has a soft, natural glow from the glass-roofed madang, which serves as one of two waiting rooms. Soft green chairs sit amid pebbles and stepping stones instead of the usual faux-leather sofas pressed up against stark white walls and darkly carpeted floors.
Through an adjacent waiting room and across an open garden courtyard is a café and art gallery, which can be reached from the street as well, where patients can begin or end their visit with a cup of tea and check out the newest pieces of modern art on display.
For patients at e-Trust, it’s like stepping back in time 80 years, yet receiving the most modern care available.
“It’s good for the patients, psychologically,” says office manager Kim Young-ae. “Especially children,” she adds. “Children normally fear the dentist. But here, it’s like a trip to their grandparents’ house. They run around and play.”
The clinic offers all dental services – cleaning, whitening, checkups, fillings, surgery, implants, orthodontics, and even Botox.
Four dentists share the practice and work here several days each week, while practicing at other clinics the rest of the week in places like Gangnam and Yeouido. The founder of e-Trust Dental Clinic, Kim Yong-hwan, was a lawmaker in The Korean National Assembly with the Democratic Party and served as the Minister of Science and Technology under Kim Dae-jung. After leaving politics, he spent some time in Europe and was inspired by their use of older, traditional architecture for non-traditional uses. Thus, he chose the hanok style, favored by the wealthy in the early part of the last century, for his clinic.
There are six dental stations in the rooms surrounding the madang, all state-of-the-art equipment attached to hardwood floors and enclosed by traditional wood and paper doors. On a warm day, you might find all the doors open and a breeze blowing in from the garden courtyard connecting the dental clinic to the café/art gallery.
One room, which is used primarily for implants, has two short doors which open to the garden and allow the patient to let his mind wander while probing fingers and metal tools do their work. This room, Kim Young-ae says, would be the “sarangbang,” a sort of meeting place for men in a hanok, were this used as a house instead of a clinic.
Across from the primary waiting room, which is furnished with a low table, cushions and a wood floor, which is said to be several hundred years old, is former-minister Kim’s office. Like all of the other dental stations, his is equipped with an identical chair and lighting setup, but unlike the others, his walls are adorned with photos from his previous life in politics – framed portraits of himself with the likes of Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Mohammed ElBaradei, to name just a few. He specializes in crowns and implants.
While it may seem an unsettling thought to undergo a dental procedure with all of the doors open and the central waiting room busy with the comings and goings of patients and staff, the sight above your chair of the century-old wood on the vaulted ceiling, the smell of fresh air blowing in from the garden, and maybe even the sound of rain tapping out a rhythm on the glass-roofed madang may put you at ease.
In the search for a balance between east and west, tradition and modernity, Kim Young-hwan may have found the formula in his e-Trust Dental Clinic.
Checkups and X-rays: 20,000 won
Cleaning/Scraping: 50,000 won
Whitening: 300,000 won
Crown: 350,000 won
Botox: 600,000 won
Implants: 2,000,000 won
To get to Bukchon e-Trust Dental Clinic, leave exit 2 of Anguk Station, line 3, and head north in the direction of the Constitutional Court. Continue on from the court until you pass Kahoi Catholic Church. The dentistry is just past there, across from Gyeongnam Villa. For more information call the clinic at (02) 764-7528 or visit its website (www.dentaltrust.co.kr).
By Tracey Stark
If you fear the infrequent trip to the dentist because of the inhospitable and overly-sterile environment associated with most dentists’ offices, e-Trust Dental Clinic in Gahoe-dong’s Bukchon neighborhood may be more to your liking. Built in a hanok house – a style of Korean architecture featuring a “madang,” or central courtyard and surrounded by several rooms with doors which all open out – this clinic offers patients a cultural experience as well as state-of-the-art dental care.
When entering e-Trust, there are none of the usual dentist-office smells or harsh lights. The most common materials here are wood and paper, not stainless steel and plastic. Instead of bright fluorescent lights, the place has a soft, natural glow from the glass-roofed madang, which serves as one of two waiting rooms. Soft green chairs sit amid pebbles and stepping stones instead of the usual faux-leather sofas pressed up against stark white walls and darkly carpeted floors.
Through an adjacent waiting room and across an open garden courtyard is a café and art gallery, which can be reached from the street as well, where patients can begin or end their visit with a cup of tea and check out the newest pieces of modern art on display.
For patients at e-Trust, it’s like stepping back in time 80 years, yet receiving the most modern care available.
“It’s good for the patients, psychologically,” says office manager Kim Young-ae. “Especially children,” she adds. “Children normally fear the dentist. But here, it’s like a trip to their grandparents’ house. They run around and play.”
The clinic offers all dental services – cleaning, whitening, checkups, fillings, surgery, implants, orthodontics, and even Botox.
Four dentists share the practice and work here several days each week, while practicing at other clinics the rest of the week in places like Gangnam and Yeouido. The founder of e-Trust Dental Clinic, Kim Yong-hwan, was a lawmaker in The Korean National Assembly with the Democratic Party and served as the Minister of Science and Technology under Kim Dae-jung. After leaving politics, he spent some time in Europe and was inspired by their use of older, traditional architecture for non-traditional uses. Thus, he chose the hanok style, favored by the wealthy in the early part of the last century, for his clinic.
There are six dental stations in the rooms surrounding the madang, all state-of-the-art equipment attached to hardwood floors and enclosed by traditional wood and paper doors. On a warm day, you might find all the doors open and a breeze blowing in from the garden courtyard connecting the dental clinic to the café/art gallery.
One room, which is used primarily for implants, has two short doors which open to the garden and allow the patient to let his mind wander while probing fingers and metal tools do their work. This room, Kim Young-ae says, would be the “sarangbang,” a sort of meeting place for men in a hanok, were this used as a house instead of a clinic.
Across from the primary waiting room, which is furnished with a low table, cushions and a wood floor, which is said to be several hundred years old, is former-minister Kim’s office. Like all of the other dental stations, his is equipped with an identical chair and lighting setup, but unlike the others, his walls are adorned with photos from his previous life in politics – framed portraits of himself with the likes of Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Mohammed ElBaradei, to name just a few. He specializes in crowns and implants.
While it may seem an unsettling thought to undergo a dental procedure with all of the doors open and the central waiting room busy with the comings and goings of patients and staff, the sight above your chair of the century-old wood on the vaulted ceiling, the smell of fresh air blowing in from the garden, and maybe even the sound of rain tapping out a rhythm on the glass-roofed madang may put you at ease.
In the search for a balance between east and west, tradition and modernity, Kim Young-hwan may have found the formula in his e-Trust Dental Clinic.
Checkups and X-rays: 20,000 won
Cleaning/Scraping: 50,000 won
Whitening: 300,000 won
Crown: 350,000 won
Botox: 600,000 won
Implants: 2,000,000 won
To get to Bukchon e-Trust Dental Clinic, leave exit 2 of Anguk Station, line 3, and head north in the direction of the Constitutional Court. Continue on from the court until you pass Kahoi Catholic Church. The dentistry is just past there, across from Gyeongnam Villa. For more information call the clinic at (02) 764-7528 or visit its website (www.dentaltrust.co.kr).
The Doppelganger Syndrome In Korea
The Stark View
From The Groove Magazine,
July 2007,
Seoul, Korea
The Doppleganger Syndrome in Korea
By Tracey Stark
“Do you know who you look like?” a bartender asked me one night a few years back. I thought about it, and my poor self image conjured up a picture of Uncle Fester with a light bulb in his mouth or some other bald-headed goon.
She surprised me by saying she thought I was the spitting image of Andre Agassi, one of tennis’ greats and, although bald, far from a goon. A short time later a much older Korean woman told me I reminded her of Yul Brynner, a bald-yet-ruggedly-handsome actor from a bygone era.
My case is far from an isolated one, I must add. Almost every foreigner in Korea is compared to some famous white, black or Hispanic person. (A short, chubby black guy I know used to be told he looked like Denzel Washington.)
A friend of mine, let’s call him Dave since that’s his name, came to Korea six years ago. With darker hair and a younger face, he was compared favorably to Mel Gibson and even Rowan Atkinson – a combination that not even my fertile imagination can conceive. Now, with his hair speckled with gray, this truly nice, non-war mongering type of guy is compared to – wait for it – George W. Bush. (I don’t see the resemblance, nor do I want to see it.)
Then there was the case of the young Canadian woman who came to Korea to teach English at a hagwon. She was tall and thin with short brown hair and freckles. Cute, really. One of her Korean colleagues excitedly approached her a few days after she started her job and, barely able to contain herself, told her, “You look like a famous British pop singer!”
As you can imagine, names like Dido or Posh Spice or even Madonna (she’s British now, right?) came to mind as she prepared for, no doubt, a great bit of flattery.
“Who?” she asked, smiling widely and perhaps even blushing a bit.
“Sting!” he co-worker replied, beaming. Needless to say, Sting’s female doppelganger was a bit deflated. But it was her first introduction into the average Korean’s appreciation of Western popular culture.
If the roles were reversed, my knowledge of famous Asians would leave me telling everyone that they looked just like Jackie Chan or “a young Mr. Miagi” from The Karate Kid.
My wife has been compared to Sigourney Weaver. Mind you, this is not an insult, but considering my wife is about 5 foot 2 and Ms. Weaver is a bit over 6 feet tall, it is a bit of a stretch. Her favorite, however, is Audrey Hepburn.
But Koreans aren’t always that far off the mark. I personally know the spitting images of Johnny Cash, Jesus Christ, Jude Law and Alec Baldwin.
But after hearing Scottish Dave’s tale of woe, going from favoring Mel Gibson (and Mr. Bean) to George W. Bush, I wondered how far from Andre Agassi and Yul Brynner the next few years would take me.
Dr. Evil or Minnie Me? A white Samuel L. Jackson? Or Marlin Brando as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now? The horror!
From The Groove Magazine,
July 2007,
Seoul, Korea
The Doppleganger Syndrome in Korea
By Tracey Stark
“Do you know who you look like?” a bartender asked me one night a few years back. I thought about it, and my poor self image conjured up a picture of Uncle Fester with a light bulb in his mouth or some other bald-headed goon.
She surprised me by saying she thought I was the spitting image of Andre Agassi, one of tennis’ greats and, although bald, far from a goon. A short time later a much older Korean woman told me I reminded her of Yul Brynner, a bald-yet-ruggedly-handsome actor from a bygone era.
My case is far from an isolated one, I must add. Almost every foreigner in Korea is compared to some famous white, black or Hispanic person. (A short, chubby black guy I know used to be told he looked like Denzel Washington.)
A friend of mine, let’s call him Dave since that’s his name, came to Korea six years ago. With darker hair and a younger face, he was compared favorably to Mel Gibson and even Rowan Atkinson – a combination that not even my fertile imagination can conceive. Now, with his hair speckled with gray, this truly nice, non-war mongering type of guy is compared to – wait for it – George W. Bush. (I don’t see the resemblance, nor do I want to see it.)
Then there was the case of the young Canadian woman who came to Korea to teach English at a hagwon. She was tall and thin with short brown hair and freckles. Cute, really. One of her Korean colleagues excitedly approached her a few days after she started her job and, barely able to contain herself, told her, “You look like a famous British pop singer!”
As you can imagine, names like Dido or Posh Spice or even Madonna (she’s British now, right?) came to mind as she prepared for, no doubt, a great bit of flattery.
“Who?” she asked, smiling widely and perhaps even blushing a bit.
“Sting!” he co-worker replied, beaming. Needless to say, Sting’s female doppelganger was a bit deflated. But it was her first introduction into the average Korean’s appreciation of Western popular culture.
If the roles were reversed, my knowledge of famous Asians would leave me telling everyone that they looked just like Jackie Chan or “a young Mr. Miagi” from The Karate Kid.
My wife has been compared to Sigourney Weaver. Mind you, this is not an insult, but considering my wife is about 5 foot 2 and Ms. Weaver is a bit over 6 feet tall, it is a bit of a stretch. Her favorite, however, is Audrey Hepburn.
But Koreans aren’t always that far off the mark. I personally know the spitting images of Johnny Cash, Jesus Christ, Jude Law and Alec Baldwin.
But after hearing Scottish Dave’s tale of woe, going from favoring Mel Gibson (and Mr. Bean) to George W. Bush, I wondered how far from Andre Agassi and Yul Brynner the next few years would take me.
Dr. Evil or Minnie Me? A white Samuel L. Jackson? Or Marlin Brando as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now? The horror!
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