Liberia - Three Questions

In keeping with my new 'strand' of research, I have done a quick Google Instant test on Liberia - to see what kind of questions people are asking about this West African country.  The questions people ask are sometimes quite predictable, to be honest, although I guess the following questions are probably quite relevant to anyone who is learning about Liberia for the first time.

Do Liberians speak English?

This seems to be one of the most popular questions generally, if you type Do (nationality) . . . into Google.  We seem to be a bit of obsessed about whether or not the rest of the world speaks English and I guess this type of question reveals a deep-rooted awareness (or even phobia?) of our own monolingualism. 

The Vai script of Liberia

There is a psychological condition called xenoglossophobia or Foreign Language Anxiety - which I'd imagine is a pretty genuine condition for many people trolling the Internet!  I think I have the opposite condition - xenoglossophilia - ie. love of foreign languages. 

I've lost count of how many languages I've started to learn and I'd like to think I can speak four languages reasonably well (my native language is English, but I also speak/know Irish, French and Russian)

And in answer to the question - well . . . kind of - English is the official language of Liberia although many people, especially outside the capital, speak English as a kind of creole, which might be difficult for non-Liberian English speakers to understand. 

Actually, there are more than 30 languages spoken in Liberia - including Mande languages like Kpelle and Vai (which has its own script) and some of the main Kru languages, like Bassa and Grebo.  To learn more about African linguistics, have a look at my blog post about Togo. 

Does Liberia have oil?

Protest sign by Toban Black

Another Western obsession!  Well, there are many oil-producing countries in the world, but Liberia isn't one of them.  In fact, West African countries in general aren't big producers of oil, with the exception of Nigeria and Cameroon. 

Nigeria produces more oil than Norway or Azerbaijan, which I found surprising, until I remembered having read about the environmental and human rights issues between Shell and the people who live in the Niger Delta. 

It's probably better not to have oil, as oil seems to bring trouble and, given Liberia's recent past, trouble is something the Liberian people could do without!

Are Liberians American citizens?

I was a little bit surprised by this question and why so many people might think that Liberians are American (I presume they mean US) citizens?  Liberians are not US citizens, although they do have a long history with the United States and, as I mentioned in my first blog post, Liberia was established by an American society to repatriate freed black (African) slaves from the United States. 

You might have noticed that the Liberian flag looks remarkably like the flag of the United States - also, Liberia is one of only two countries in the world whose capital is named after a US President (James Monroe - Monrovia).  And the other country is?  You guessed it . . . the United States (George Washington - Washington D.C.)

Flag of the United States of America

I think it's fair to say their relationship with the US is still important to Liberians today.  Until fairly recently, the US was by far the biggest donor of aid to Liberia, although this has now changed and the EU and UK have given most aid to Liberia in recent years.  I wrote quite a bit about 'Aid' when I was blogging about Togo - if you want to read more, just click here. 

Despite their close relationship, the United States government refused to recognise Liberia as a country during its first 15 years as an independent nation.  And the reason?  Well, according to Tim Butcher in his marvellous book Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit (2011) - the thought of having to accept a 'coloured' Liberian diplomat in Washington D.C. was too much for a racially-charged nation that was soon to tear itself apart over the issue of slavery, during the American Civil War. 

Image credits: 

The image of Vai script is from Wikimedia commons and in the public domain, as is the image of the United States flag.

The picture of the protest placard is from flickr user Toban Black who is from Canada.  You can see more of Toban's work on his blog. 

Liberia - The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here

West Africa is a fascinating place.  With a population of around 300 million people - living right next door to Europe, I can't help thinking that West Africa will be a true test of Europe's commitment to the world, if not a major partner in Europe's future prosperity.  We tend to overlook West Africa and think about markets across the Atlantic or in Far East Asia - but our ties to West African countries go back a long way - a chequered history of repression, blame and guilt.

I've blogged about West Africa before - when I researched Togo, exactly three years ago and I'm really looking forward to my next virtual journey to this part of the world, as I blog about Liberia over the coming weeks.  With a population of about 4 million, Liberia is a small fish in a big pond, but it holds an important symbolic place in the hearts and minds of all West Africans, as the first West African 'nation' to rule itself.  Liberia became an independent nation in 1847 - 110 years before Ghana became the second West African nation to gain independence. 

Liberian school girl by Ken Harper

Ten years ago this month, Liberia emerged from years of civil war that bankrupted the economy, killed a quarter of a million people and left the country's infrastructure in ruins.  Whilst a lot has been done to rebuild the country, Liberia still has the second-lowest per capita income in West Africa, being slightly ahead of Niger.  The current government faces a whole host of challenges, as it draws international criticism for its failure to address corruption and restore social services to the Liberian people. 

I've already had my first 'myth' about Liberia exploded - ie. the idea that Liberia was established as some kind of benevolent act of charity, funded by the United States.  It's true that many supporters of the American Colonisation society had a genuine desire to do the right thing, by establishing (what was then) a colony for freed slaves back in the 'homeland', on the West African coast. 

The reality is that the freed slaves were born in North America and were ill-prepared to survive in the tropical jungles of West Africa.  Was the establishment of Liberia really an act of kindness in the pursuit of Liberty, or an attempt to 'cleanse' the United States of freed blacks, who could unsettle the slave population of the Southern states?

Local radio station by Ken Harper

The survivors of this attempt at (re)colonisation must have been a tough bunch and, until modern times, Monrovia has remained the centre of Americo-Liberian culture. 

The country's motto is quite revealing - The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here - which means, 'we' are not from 'here', but from 'elsewhere'.  Liberia found itself in the unusual position of an African nation colonised by North American Africans.  Apart from the population that was 'brought here' - like most West African nations, Liberia already had a complex ethnic make-up - the addition of Americo-Liberians was another layer on top of an existing tapestry of cultures, languages and traditions that had been there for centuries.

The Americo-Liberians of Monrovia dominated Liberian history until 1980, when the tribal people of the hinterland rose up in a bloody revolution that saw Samuel Doe, of the Krahn tribe, take control of the country.  Doe unleashed an ethnically motivated campaign against the Mano and Gio tribes of Nimba county and was ousted in an equally bloody take-over by Charles Taylor, who got a lot of his support from the restless north-eastern part of the country.  A civil war ensued, which lasted until the mid-90's before settling into an uneasy 'peace' as Taylor held firm to the reins of control.

Figure in stairwell by Ken Harper

Just last week convicted of war crimes in relation to his meddling with Sierra Leone, Taylor was forced into exile in Nigeria in 2003 and was later extradited to the Hague to await sentencing for the murders, rapes and acts of terrorism that he has been found guilty of aiding and abetting. 

Liberia's current leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is one of only 17 women in the world who currently lead national governments.  She is one of the two female leaders in Africa - the other one being Joyce Banda of Malawi.  President Johnson-Sirleaf very much represents the emergence of civil society in Liberia, especially in relation to the peace movements, mostly led by women, that emerged in the early years of the 21st century.  Tasked with rebuilding a country in ruins, Liberians have managed to sustain the mood for peace and make the first steps in the direction of economic recovery. 

Image credits:

A quick search for Liberia on Flickr currently brings up the photos of Ken Harper, a college professor at Syracuse university - originally from Indiana!  I wanted to highlight some of Ken's photos.  All photos were taken as part of the Together Liberia project.

Thanks to Ken for sharing them with us using the Creative Commons License

Korea - The Final Word in Basketball Diplomacy

As I'm blogging about a new place, I like to keep an eye on the news coming from that country - generally, things are pretty quiet and it makes you realise that, political hot-spots apart, not much happens in other parts of the world that would catch the attention of the international media. Not so with Korea, especially North Korea - which has been constantly in the news in the past few weeks. 

Whether it's the 60th anniversary celebrations, the wrangling over the Kaesong Industrial zone, or the South Koreans shooting dead a man trying to cross the border to enter the North - Korea is one of those places that easily makes the news headlines. 

Basketball coaching in Pyongyang by Scot Byrd

One of the weirdest news stories I've read about North Korea in the past few weeks, involves the US basketball player Dennis Rodman who has, quite famously, made two trips to North Korea this year - he is believed to be the first American to meet North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong-un and, being interviewed at the airport in Beijing, declared that 'He [Kim Jong-un] is my friend for life - I don't care what you guys think about him'

Rodman has quite a reputation for (what people in England would call) eccentricity, back in the States - he's probably just as famous for his piercings and ever-changing hair colour, as he is for his basketball legacy and awards, not to mention dating Madonna and appearing naked with basketballs on the cover of his autobiography, Bad As I Wanna Be. 

I can see what's in it for Rodman - perhaps a genuine desire to do something useful, backed up with the need for continued celebrity, now that his heyday as a basketball player is over.  But what's in it for Kim?  Does he even realise (or care) how all of this is perceived in the West? 

North Korean kids playing basketball by Scot Byrd

I'm also wondering why sport is increasingly seen as a major political arena for the big issues of 21st century life?  Sure, sport can bring people together, despite its competitiveness, it's something that's enjoyed the world over - the Olympic games, the FIFA World Cup, ping pong, cricket, even basketball can create wonderful opportunities for cultural exchange.  But sport can also be divisive - North Korea boycotted the Seoul Olympics in 1988, a real missed opportunity for both Koreas to welcome the world and celebrate the Olympic games together.

But does sport really have all the answers?  To homophobia in Russia?  To racism on the football fields?  To nuclear weapons in Pyongyang?  And is someone like Dennis Rodman really the best person to manage diplomacy with an erratic regime like Kim Jong-un's?  Will his attempts to bring NBA players to North Korea really bring Americans and North Koreans closer together, or will it backfire, when Kim Jong-un realises what a circus this whole thing is?  Who knows - but it'll be interesting to see what happens next in the Rodman/North Korean story!

Image credits:

I found these wonderful images by Scot Byrd (aka byrdsiz) of young North Koreans playing basketball on Flickr and they have been shared with us using the Creative Commons license.  It looks as though Scot travelled to North Korea with a basketball initiative known as Project uNKnown - which looks like a genuinely ground-breaking initiative to use basketball as a way of overcoming cultural boundaries and getting to 'know' each other.   Thanks Scot for sharing these images with us. 

Korea - Tools for research: the Movies

I've watched a lot of Korean movies in the last couple of months - I should say South Korean, as I haven't yet come across any North Korean movies that are easily accessible.  I'm sure North Korea has a movie industry - it's well known that Kim Jong-Il was a massive fan of the movies - but there are very few North Korean movies available in the West. 

By contrast, South Korean movies are, like Japanese movies, becoming increasingly popular in the West. I watched Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003) long before I started researching Korea for this blog.  We seem to like Japanese horrors and Korean thrillers.  Western directors are even making Hollywood versions of East Asian blockbusters, although they're rarely as good as the originals.

One thing I noticed about Korean cinema is how violent Korean movies are!  Almost every movie I watched had high levels of violence, often against women and I found it a little bit disturbing.  I'm beginning to wonder whether or not this reflects a high level of violence in Korean society?

So, here are the movies I watched, in the order that I watched them:

You only need to watch one movie to learn everything you need to know about Korean culture and that is The Host (2006) dir. Bong Joon-ho.  I really enjoyed this movie, with its scaly-green river creature, iconic shots of the Nam River and a very funny performance by Song Kang-ho - it's an incredibly political movie and has a lot to say about the presence of the US army in South Korea.  It's the highest-grossing Korean movie of all time, having sold 13 million tickets at the box office. 




I wasn't quite as keen on A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) dir. Kim Ji-woon - based on a well-known Korean folk tale, I found the plot very confusing and wasn't quite sure what was going on for most of the movie.  I guess knowing Korean culture better might have helped.

I absolutely loved Joint Security Area (JSA) (2000) dir. Park Chan-wook - it's an incredibly sweet story - despite the action-movie-sounding name - and I'd highly recommend it, as a 'feel good' movie that shows how people are just people, regardless of which side of a political border they live on.  I think this movie, more than any other, brought South Korean cinema to the world's attention.




Although, mostly set in the US, I thought it would also be important to watch The Manchurian Candidate (1962) dir. John Frankenheimer and starring Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh and (bizarrely) a stunning performance from Angela Lansbury - I didn't realise Angela Lansbury did proper movies, as I mostly associate her with the TV series, Murder, She Wrote.  The movie is partly set during the Korean War and has a fantastically complicated plot involving Communist brain-washing!

Park Chan-wook made Oldboy as part of a trilogy of films and I watched the other two movies in the trilogy - Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) - I guess Park Chan-wook is mostly responsible for my impression that all Korean movies are violent and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance was particularly violent with an interesting vigilante justice element that made me scream at the big screen - 'No, no, don't do it!'  I noticed with Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and other Korean movies, a peculiar obsession with heroes (or anti-heroes) who are disabled - the main character in this movie, Ryu (played by Shin Ha-kyun) is deaf/mute and Chan-wook cleverly plays around with sound, to give us an idea of life in Ryu's world.

Also featuring a main character who doesn't speak during the entire movie, I really loved 3-Iron (2004) dir. Kim Ki-duk.  With Joint Security Area, this was my favourite of all the movies I watched.  It's a pity about the title though, which gives the wrong impression in English - I much prefer the Korean title, 빈 집 which means 'Empty Houses'.  It's a beautiful story and oddly romantic. 



I was a bit bored by Natural City (2003) dir. Min Byeong-cheon - the first Korean Sci-Fi I've ever watched.  I'm a fan of Sci-Fi, so I was a bit disappointed, as the plot wasn't really up to much and, like A Tale of Two Sisters, I wasn't always 100% sure of what was going on.  An interesting thing about futuristic/science fiction movies is that they seem to recreate the past, when trying to imagine the future and I felt with this movie, quite ironically, that I was getting an insight into what life was like in Korea in the Joseon dynasty - apart from the flying saucers and computers that is!

Although I'd seen South Korea's most famous LGBT film before, I wanted to re-watch No Regret (2006) dir. Leesong Hee-il (South Korea's only openly gay film director) with a greater awareness of Korean culture this time.  It's a great movie and cautiously optimistic, although it shows how difficult life can be for gay men in South Korea (I can't even imagine how hard life is for gay men in North Korea).  It has a strong storyline and is tender, violent, passionate and dispassionate in equal measure. 

Last, but not least, I watched The Housemaid (2010) dir. Im Sang-soo - this was a great movie, about the exploitation of a maid in a modern Korean household.  The Housemaid was nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2010 and I would highly recommend it.  Im Sang-soo is an interesting director and I would like to watch more of his movies. 

Korea - Tools for research: The Books

I think I went overboard this time, with the number of books I read and movies I watched related to Korea!  So much so, that I have to separate the books and movies into two blog posts, otherwise it would be a very long list for you to read, all in one go!

I've also spent two months on Korea, which is a long time - although this did include my summer vacation and other real-life travel. 

The Books

I read way too many books about Korea - although I finished most of them, I had to stop myself in the end, otherwise I could have spent another few weeks reading and writing about Korea!  If you're interested in finding out more about Korea, I would recommend all of the following:

Korea: Insight Guides (2003) - ed. Tom Le Bas - I always find the Insight guides really useful, to give me an overview of the history and culture of the place that I'm blogging about.  I don't usually buy the most up-to-date versions, as they cost a lot of money, but I get older versions for a penny (literally!) online. This guidebook mostly covers South Korea, but I'd recommend it nevertheless.

Korea: Culture Smart! (2012) - James Hoare - Culture Smart! is another great little series of books and I always really enjoy reading them - the edition on Korea is particularly good and James Hoare is an ex-British diplomat who has written quite a few books on East Asia, including a book on the conflict in Korea that he co-wrote with his wife, Susan Pares.  I did buy the newest edition of this book, as I've got quite a nice collection of these cultural guides building up on my bookshelf!

Nothing to Envy (2010) - Barbara Demick - this is a great book and I really got a lot out of it.  Barbara focuses on the stories of refugees from Chonjin, in the far north of North Korea and tries to piece together a picture of what life must be like for North Korea's 25 million inhabitants.  I blogged about this in my post Something to Envy?

The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (2012) - Victor Cha - it really pains me that I didn't have time to finish this book, but I discovered it quite late into my blogging experience and, at more than 400 pages long, I just didn't have time to read the whole thing.  In the 100 or so pages that I did read, I found Cha's writing incredibly engaging and interesting.  Ah well, perhaps I will be able to return to it at a later date!  I'd definitely recommend this book, if you are interested in learning more about North Korea.

Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behaviour and Evolution (2001) - Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger.  This is a brilliant book and really made me question man's relationship with dogs.  The Coppingers are champion sled dog racers and passionate advocates of a greater, more scientific understanding of dogs than we currently have.  It's a bit heavy-going at times, but worth the brain power, if you want to understand the evolution of dogs and dog psychology.

My Sister Bongsoon (2005) - Ji-young Gong - somewhere in the midst of all this research, I even managed to read a Korean novel (in translation, of course!).  It was really interesting and covered a lot of social issues related to the treatment of maids and class differences in Korean society.

Literature from the Axis of Evil (2006) - a Words without Borders anthology, which includes writing from North Korea, but also Iran, Iraq and 'other enemy nations'.  This is a great collection and I read all of the North Korean texts - the first time I've ever read literature of this kind.  According to the editors, only 3% of books in the English-speaking world are in translation, which is pretty shocking and makes me wonder how much great literature we're missing out on, because it isn't translated into English?  I'm a passionate believer in discovering the literature of other countries and this book embodies the spirit of discovery and understanding that I think is so important in our increasingly globalised (and anglicised era)

The Food and Cooking of Japan and Korea (2010) - Emi Kazuko and Young-jin Song - last, but definitely not least, I discovered this wonderful book of Japanese and Korean recipes.  Having initially borrowed a copy from my local library, I felt the need to buy my own copy, in the end, as it's probably one of the best recipe books I've ever come across.  Not only does it give you lots of great recipes, with plenty of pictures and easy explanations, but there are also extensive sections on the Japanese and Korean kitchens - everything you might expect to find there, as well as detailed descriptions of the ingredients used in Korean and Japanese food. It's a book that I'm sure I will treasure for a long time to come!

Image credits:

The image of the book cover was taken by me. 

Happy Blogday! Four years on!!

I can't believe that I've been writing this blog for four years already - the average lifespan of some of the world's most popular blogs is about 18 months so, 213 blog posts later, I'm quite proud to have exceeded that almost three times over! 

With a full time job and the amount of real-life travelling (as opposed to armchair travelling) that I do, it's difficult to keep the blog going at times, but I get so much out of the experience and it's a great record of my learning journey about this world of ours! 

At this stage, I can't say I remember the detail of everything that I've blogged about, but I'd like to think that I'm building a residual knowledge of the world and experiencing patterns in the way that people in different parts of the world react to the human experience and our societies that have developed in different historical contexts.

A word on the process

Recently, I've been remembering the origin of this blog, which was to record the results of a learning journey that existed before the blog began.  I feel that, increasingly, the blog has become the experience and I'd like go back to a time when the experience was the primary objective and the blog was a record of the experience. 

For that reason, I'm trying to keep my blog posts simpler and less comprehensive - I learn so much when I'm blogging about any particular place that it would be tedious (for you the reader) to put it all in blog posts - what I'm trying to do now is blog about the most interesting aspects of my learning experience and provide pointers to readers interested in exploring the themes in more detail.

Some stats

I've now blogged about 31 places around the world - only 6 of these were in the last year though, so it does feel like I'm slowing down a bit.  According to the stats on my blog - there have been more than 30,000 page views of my blog since the very beginning. 

Visitor numbers

Last year I started Google Analytics on my blog and it shows that there have been 4,027 unique visitors to my blog since last September which, added to previous stats makes about 15,000 visitors in total over the period of four years.

In the past year, there have been almost 11,000 page views, which seems to have increased a lot (ie. individual visitors are now reading more) and this is a third of the total page views over a four-year period. 

Only 19% of visitors are returning visitors - which is quite low, but hardly surprising, as I don't have a lot of time to publicise my blog or build up a regular readership.  Still, I sense that the number of returning visitors is slowly increasing each year! 

Which countries

According to flagcounter.com - the blog has had visits from 146 different countries - the newest country being Uruguay in August 2013.

The top twenty countries in terms of visitors in the past year have been:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Australia
4. India
5. Canada
6. Germany
7. France
8. Ireland
9. Saudi Arabia
10. Netherlands
11. Belgium

12. Italy
13. Malaysia
14. Russia
15. Sweden
16. Barbados
17. New Zealand
18. United Arab Emirates
19. Spain
20. Fiji

It's interesting to compare this to the same data as last year  - according to my third blogday post!

Most popular posts

The ten most popular posts in the past four years have been:

1. Togo - Chicken Groundnut Soup with Fufu
2. Yemen - How I made Saltah
3. Barbados - Cromwell, Red Legs and the ethnic cleansing of Ireland
4. Saudi Arabia - Birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad
5. Rajasthan - Gayatri Devi, the Last Maharani of Jaipur
6. Wisconsin - Bucky Badger and the World's most fearless animal
7. Saudi Arabia - Chicken Kabsa
8. Zanzibar - How I cooked Octopus!
9. Urals Federal District - Dr Zhivago
10. Zanzibar - Gurnah's Paradise

Least popular pages

Some of the least popular posts were the ones written in the early days, as I didn't know how to promote the blog then (eg. on Facebook or Twitter) - if you'd like to help me boost my stats a bit, why not check out the following (older) blog posts :-)

1. Kiribati - Part 2 (it might seem hard to believe now, but in the beginning it wasn't obvious to me that blog posts should have a proper title!)
2. Lesotho - The Ampleforth Connection
3. Mongolia - Education and Ethnicity in Western Mongolia
4. Netherlands - Een Hart van Steen - A Gothic tale from Haarlem
5. Oklahoma - Route 66

Tools for research

In the past year, as part of my research I have blogged about Fiji, Guangdong, Honduras, Indiana, Jersey and Korea. 

I have read around 25 books, watched 25 movies and listened to all kinds of music, from the Jackson 5 (Indiana) to Black Rose (Fiji) to Leslie Cheung (Guangdong).  Not to mention, culinary experiments with Palusami, Jersey Wonders, Enchiladas and Naengmyun. 

It's been a wonderful experience and here's to another year of learning about the world!

Korea - Ten random facts

It's almost time for my research on Korea to come to an end.  It's been a fantastic learning experience and I find myself browsing flights from London to Seoul - I am indeed very tempted to see Korea for myself, at least South Korea, as a more accessible (and cheaper) option!

A change to the process

In a departure from my blogging tradition, I've decided to split my final post about Korea into three installments.  This time, in particular, I have gathered a lot of information and I'm afraid that putting it all in one blog post would be overwhelming for you, dear Reader!

The areas I usually cover in my final blog post are:

1. Dinner party trivia: some random facts about the country, which you can use to impress people at dinner parties!)

2. Tools for research: a list of all of the movies I've watched, books I've read and music I've listened to, as part of my research on whichever place I'm blogging about.

3. The Final Word: Usually a smaller bite-sized topic - generally on a topic that I didn't have time to research fully, but one that interested me nonetheless.

Traditional Korea by Smulan77

In this blog post, I'll give you the dinner party trivia - although I've learned so many interesting things about Korea that I've decided to limit this to the ten most interesting things. 

Ten random facts about Korea

1. I was fascinated to learn about the Rangoon bombing of October 1983 - this was an assassination attempt on the life of Chun Doo-hwan, the fifth President of South Korea.  I'd never heard about this before and find it bizarre that the North Koreans could carry out an attack like this, in the territory of a third country, Burma/Myanmar!  21 people were killed in the attack, including 4 Burmese citizens - however, the President survived unscathed, as his motorcade got stuck in traffic and he arrived late for his official appointment at the Martyr's Mausoleum.

2. Two of Korea's most famous brand names are not family names (as I'd previously thought), but are based on concepts.  Hyundai 현대 means 'modern', Samsung, 삼성 (or more obviously in Korean hanja 三星) means 'three stars'.

3. By all accounts, dealing in foreign currency in North Korea is a crime which is punishable by death.  North Korea is one of only five countries in the world that still carry out public executions.  As I was researching for this blog post, it was reported that Hyon Song Wol, a North Korean singer and Kim Jong Un's ex-girlfriend was executed by firing squad, along with 11 other entertainers accused of making pornographic films.

Seoul by Smulan77

4. The US government considered South Korea under President Park in the 1970's to be somewhat of a 'rogue state' which was covertly trying to develop nuclear weapons, against the wishes of the international community!

5. Like most people, I was vaguely aware of the North Korean dynasty and its Presidents, however, I had no idea that South Korea has just elected its first female President, Park Geun-Hye (in February of this year).  She is the daughter of the Park Chung-Hee, who was President of South Korea from 1963 until 1979.  Park Geun-Hye lost both of her parents to the bullets of assassins (her mother was killed in an assassination attempt on her father in 1974.  Her father was assassinated in 1979)

6. The British attempted to establish a colony in Korea in the 1880's via the short-lived settlement, a small group of islands with the main base at Port Hamilton - the islands are now known by their Korean name, 거문도 Geomun-do

Traditional costumes by Smulan77

7. Koreans are sometimes called the Irish of the Orient because of their love of drinking and singing - especially melancholy songs!

8. Perhaps more so than any modern country, Korean culture is defined by Confucian values - these permeate traditional ceremonies, such as ancestor worship, but also business practices and how people relate to each other socially.

9. Many Koreans are superstitious when it comes to the number 4 - 사 this is because it sounds a lot like the word for 'dead'.  Tetraphobia - fear of the number 4 - is quite common in East Asian societies. 

10. Our spelling of Seoul - with its unusual combination of vowels, comes from the French spelling of the name of the South Korean capital.  In the 19th century, Korea was known as the Hermit Kingdom, because of its refusal to engage with, namely, European traders.  The only Europeans who penetrated this cultural blockade were the French missionaries based in China.  A handful of French missionary priests were executed by the Joseon dynasty in 1865, prompting the French to invade Korea a year later!

Image credits:

For the purposes of this blog post, I want to highlight the photography of Flickr member Smulan77 - Smulan77 has a whole series of photos of South Korea, which you can see on his photostream.