For my next trip I didn’t fly solo: I had the pleasure of exploring a part of the Far East with my lovely best friend of 9 years. We chose South Korea as our holiday destination for many reasons. The main being that ever since we were 15/16 we have grown a love and appreciation (and for a time, a slight obsession) for K-Pop. We then quickly fell in love with Korean culture as a whole. Now I know that most people hate to admit any affection for Pop music, let alone foreign Pop music, since it’s generally deemed uncool or lacking authenticity. Thus I realise that half of the people reading this have probably just rolled their eyes at that sentence. But hear me out.

In recent years Western Pop music has begun to pay very close attention to the Korean music industry. K-Pop itself is completely manufactured, but just because it’s manufactured doesn’t mean that it doesn’t showcase talent and originality. Granted, what’s spoken about within the songs is often not particularly raw, personalised emotion, but to dismiss the work put into each song and performance for that reason is unfair. I’m no more than a music lover, so I can’t even fathom the amount of time and effort individuals within the industry put into writing, producing and performing the songs. To add to that, in K-Pop every single released has an accompanying dance routine which has been created, choreographed and performed by someone. That doesn’t even take into account the talent and creativity showcased within the Korean music video industry, where each 3 minute video is treated as if it were a fully fledged feature film. And then there’s all the design of the clothes, and the live shows, and the make-up…

This acute attention to detail is prevalent in all parts of South Korean culture. The buildings are ridiculously well-designed, the food is amazing and the people are all immaculately dressed. My best friend and I felt pretty out of place in our 3 year old jeans… Everything was just so bloody clean, and there weren’t even that many bins knocking about.

It became clear that the Korean people have a level of internal discipline that the West lack. This was not a huge surprise given that the Far East Asian stereotype is that there are many child prodigies able to play Debussy aged 10 and consistently achieve perfect grades at school. Obviously this stereotype is true for a tiny percentage of the population, but for everyone else it’s just that: a stereotype. Regardless of their musical or academic ability however, the South Korean psyche is such that everyone strives for success and to be the best. So the presentation of everything within the society just seemed next level, to me.

Having independently studied South Korea, I’m aware of some of the pros and cons of this ambitious, dedicated and persistent psyche. The people and their creations appear beautiful and perfected but their mental health suffers from the idea that not being faultless is a failure. Students study for obscene lengths of time (often 15 hours a day) in Hagwon institutions and plastic surgery is rampant as the people attempt to reach a ludicrously narrow standard of beauty.

I believe travelling is the best way to realise that no society is infallible, but that all of them should be of interest in one way or another. To me, South Korean people are some of the kindest and warmest around, in a way that the English aren’t. Generally, without even realising it we are cold and reserved here but then in my opinion we have a killer sense of humour and our sarcasm is unmatched. The South Koreans have managed to create a clean, successful and rich society even in the context of losing half of its land, resources and people just 74 years ago. Whereas the British have a history rich with invention and multiculturalism. But South Korea also has such intense societal pressures that often to fail academically is to fail completely. Whilst one of Britain’s societal shortcomings is the recently magnified problem with xenophobia and racism.

I love both countries for their successes, failures and for how they continue to evolve. In my eyes, to say that one culture is backwards or less advanced than another is a pointless statement. What should be focused on is that people can, should, and sometimes do learn from each other.