Today’s meeting was to learn differences about Finnish and Korean culture. Today we didn’t actually taught new languages, but our English skills is getting stronger all the time when we discuss. First we met at the school and then took a bus to the center. The idea was to get something to eat and coffee. We walked by Hämeenkatu and I told a little story of Tammerkoski. If you guys noticed, it was empty for a few days. Couple times in a year they empty the torrent (koski) and at the same time people can go there to find stuff they maybe have thrown there 😀 Like for example rings, bikes, keys, whatever you can imagine..
It’s a nice way to talk different things and get to know each other just by walking. When you see something, like e.g. the torrent, you just start talking about that and then you think about other country, that how is the things there.
Anyway, then we went to Sokos. Sokos is a kind of a shopping centre, in many floors, but the whole centre is a one big store. There is a nice “restaurant” in the lowest floor. If you want to eat good salads, you should go there! I showed to Hui, how the ordering goes there and what does the lunch include. Just showing normal practical, things. At the same building as Sokos, there is Kauppahalli (market hall). We took a little tour there and discussed about things and food what they sell there. I haven’t been in Korea and I don’t know how is the food culture there. Actually, they also have a lot of food ingredients what you can buy, like at the Kauppahalli. If you want to make some special dinner and you need some special things for that, market halls are great place to buy those. Cause normal supermarkets don’t always have all the “exotic” ingredients.
Then we went to Bar K. http://www.bar-k.fi/
It’s one of my favorite places to go to spend some time and drink coffee with friends. You can also go there in the evenings to have some fun and maybe drink some alcohol. The restaurant culture is a kind of different in Korea than in Finland. Here you go to the bartender when you want to order drinks and you’ll pay it immediately. In Korea the bartender comes to your table to take you order, brings order for you and you don’t have to pay it immediately. They’ll bring you the check at the end of an evening, if you want. And you can just leave the money to the table; you don’t have to walk to the desk to pay it.
In Finland people often goes to bar to drink and don’t usually order anything to eat. But in Korea, the thing is like the opposite. You go to eat and drink at the same. If you want to drink, you’ll order also food. Food and alcohol walks hand in hand, if you can say that. Or maybe better way to say it is “If you want to eat, then you’ll order also drinks”. Alcohol is a bit cheaper in Korea than in Finland. The food in market halls is kind of at the same price, but in supermarkets the food is cheaper in Korea than in Finland.
Then about phones and Internet. Here in Finland it’s quite cheap to have mobile data. In Korea it is much more expensive. Your mobile operator (calls, txt-messages and the Internet) can cost even 50-60€. That’s quite a lot.
Earlier I didn’t know that there are saunas also in Korea. Korean people likes to go to sauna. But one thing there is different; they don’t throw water on the stones. In Finnish culture, the more you throw water, the hotter the sauna gets and the one who can stay there longest, is the winner 😉
So this is how it was today, just chatting and comparing cultures. I noticed that there is a lot of same in Korea an in Finland, more than I even expected. Nice meetings today, and next time something special! =)
-Tuija
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