Day 171: Size Does Matter

One of the most interesting differences between Korean and Canadian (and American too) culture, I find, is how each of the respective peoples conceptualize space. Now I've done quite my fair share of travelling while in Korea. Between hiking trips, camping, rafting, temple visits, mud festivals, and vacations to various offshore islands, I've covered just about every corner of this little country. But, in a nation the size of Korea, that really isn't all that hard to do.

Korea, at just under 100,000 square kilometres, is not a very large nation. It works out to be a bit larger than New Brunswick, or about the same size as the state of Indiana for all my Amercian readers, or the same size as Portugal for all my European fans. Either way you look at it, that doesn't work out to be a lot of land area. What's fascinating is two things. One, is that the Koreans have somehow managed to squeeze close to 50 million of themselves into this little peninsula! Wow! No wonder it's so crowded here! (Well, almost half of them live in Greater Seoul, so that'll free up some space elsewhere for them!) Can you imagine would happen if we Canadians tried to put 50 million people into lil New Brunswick? Dear God where would we put them all!?? Can you imagine? 'Welcome to Fredericton, pop. 19 million!' Crazy!

The second point is how the Koreans don't really view their own country as being small. To them, taking a trip across the country to visit a place, like say, Busan, is an incredible journey and adventure in itself. To me, I'm floored that I can cross from one end of the country to the other in just under three hours. For the Koreans, there are many, many corners of this country that they probably never make it to in their lifetime just because they view that space in a totally different perspective from us foreigners. In their eyes travelling to the other side of Korea is FAR, and something that you don't do very often, certainly not on a weekend! Most Koreans don't own passports and have never, and probably never will, leave Korea. This little peninsula is all that they have ever known, and as such their idea and conception of space is shaped by those limits. This applies to just about anyone who's from a small country (my friends in the UK are very much the same way.)

Us Canadians, wow, are we ever SPOILED when it comes to space. I always knew this, but never fully realized it until I came to Korea, but Canada is fuckin' huge!!! Our measely 32 or so million population lives in a area that's equal to 6% of the world's total land space. Granted, most of that land is uninhabitable, but still, that's a lot of open wilderness! I've driven across Canada several times and yes it is a long trip, but it doesn't seem all that arduous or crazy. Taking four or five days to drive from Thunder Bay to the West Coast just seemed 'normal' when I was growing up. That's what happens when you live in a ginormous nation. The Koreans, they honestly cannot *fathom* being in a vehicle for 5 days OR MORE to drive across just one country (and that's just half of Canada!) When I tell them that it takes about four or more hours (and not counting connections) to fly from where I was living in Canada to my hometown, they look at me like I'm joking. In four hours of flying here, you can make it all the way to the Philippines or Vietnam!

As a result, I've often gone on weekend trips all the way across Korea cause honestly it doesn't seem all that far to me, and it's always funny to see and hear the reactions of my Korean coworkers when I tell them where I went in just a day or two. From complete shock and wonderment to pure disbelief! It's pretty funny actually, I think you'd be hard pressed to find two populations that have more of an *opposite* view of space and land and travel times than the Koreans and the Canadians! It's really fascinating how geography can have such a profound influence on the culture and social constructions and spatial impressions of a nation's people. Cool stuff.