I’m not qualified to answer, but I do know that it’s the better part of a year since my last post here… but I’m driven back by a recent change in venue. In October of 2015 we moved to Busan, Republic of Korea - South Korea, that is. So I thought it was time to share…
Our nearly 3 years in Taiwan were all great; it was very hard to leave behind a wonderful community of friends and the home we built there - to say nothing of all of the great roads to bicycle. But, as with Taiwan, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so here we are.
We're fortunate that there are many great folks here too, and we know we have loads of fun new experiences and challenges ahead - not the least of which is a new language to learn.
My abilities in Mandarin were such that I could handle getting around via taxi and navigating basic dealings in stores etc, but even with that low level as the height of my learning, it’s still tough to be back to zero here! (though as with Taiwan, there are many people around who speak English, and because of the number of foreigners who live in our area, there is much listed in English, so it's pretty easy to navigate day to day without knowing Korean)
Mandarin has some steep hills to climb up front, the tonal component for one. Then there’s the character set which is tremendously large and complicated making any reading or writing daunting.
Korean has the advantage of using a pretty straightforward alphabet with letters/syllables and word structure vs the characters and character combinations of Chinese. Even at my rudimentary level with the alphabet I can, at a very, very basic level read signs/menus here, and this is already way more connection to written language than I ever had in Taiwan. So score one for Korean…
Where Korean gets tough is grammar, syntax, word order, verb conjugation, and word endings based on with whom one is speaking. Despite Mandarin’s aforementioned complexity, for basic communication of ideas/needs/questions, in form and grammar, it's pretty straightforward and consistent. Learning Korean with all of the finer details gives me sympathy for those learning English as a second language - all of our twitchy exceptions to ‘rules’, different letter combinations that make the same sounds at times but not others, noun pronoun verb shifts/conjugations and the complexity and inconsistencies often involved. Fortunately I have a great teacher and so far it’s a fun challenge.
Busan is the second largest city in the ROK, located on the extreme Southeastern edge of the peninsula. On a clear day you can see the Japanese island in the Korea Strait. And the Japanese city of Fukuoka on Kyushu is a very short trip away - reachable by high speed ferry in a few hours or a 35 minute or so flight.
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| You can find Busan to the lower right part of Korea helpfully indicated by the letters saying 'Busan' |
We live in a part of Busan called Haeundae, known for its famous tourist beach. I was here last summer for a visit when it looked like this. I think people flock here from all over Korea to rent a little slice of paradise on the beach… summer might be a good time for us to go visit Seoul while everyone from there is here!
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| Compared to some photos I've seen, this one appears to be before the real crowds showed up. There is way too much sand and water visible! |
We live in an enormous complex on the 65th story.
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| That's our building on the left. |
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| Here is the complex from much farther away from the other side. The crowded beach in the previous photo is located a few hundred meters behind my back from where I took this photo. Our building from this view is the middle of the three tallest ones in the right background of this group. Biggest of the trio of buildings in our complex is over 80 stories tall. |
These are photos taken from our living room and overlap/stitch together to show most all of the 180 degree view we have, focused on Jangsan, the mountain you see. There is a great trail network all over the mountain. We're fortunate to have a trail head very close to us - it’s a great spot to get back into running. It’s hard for me to get too enthused about running on the road/sidewalks here or anywhere - it causes nothing but pain to my knees and hips and back - because I have reached the point in my life where I complain about my knees, hips and back... don't get me started! But trail running is a whole different story and way more fun to boot.
The beach you see to the right side of the last photo is Haeundae Beach shown previously with all the people and umbrellas and so forth. The small rectangle you see in my photo mid beach is a temporary skating rink that just opened.
More to come, but here’s a little window into our world for now.
