1) Want to see what the future looks like? Book a ticket to the country with a worldwide high 82.7% Internet penetration and where 78.5% of the entire population is on smartphones (as of 2013). While they're chatting away on emoticon-ridden messenger apps such as Naver Line or Kakao Talk, South Koreans also use their smartphones to pay at shops, watch TV (not Youtube but real-time channels) on the subway and scan QR codes at the world's first virtual supermarket. Hyundai plans on rolling out a car that starts with your smartphone in 2015. Samsung in the meantime has been designing a curved phone.
2) South Koreans became the world's top users of credit cards two years ago, according to data from the Bank of Korea. It's technically illegal for any merchant in the country to refuse credit cards, no matter how low the price, and all cabs have credit card machines. All that flying plastic makes Seoul one of our top shopping cities in the world.
3)South Koreans are so used to studying -- the country has the highest education level in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, with 98% of the population completing secondary education and 63% with a college education -- they can't get out of the habit once they reach the work force. They are just completely workaholics!!
4) When they're not working, Koreans are celebrating their latest deals or drowning their sorrows in soju. Soju is a cheap alcohol drank by everyone 19+ and by their age a certain amount can be drunken legally.
5) When it comes to make-up and cosmetics, South Koreans can't stop experimenting with ingredients or methods of application. Right now, they're pushing "hair shockers" -- neon tints for hair -- and nail polish with real flowers in it. Just as Korean men are less wary of going under the plastic surgery knife (see point 10) than their foreign counterparts, they also snap up skincare products and, yes, even makeup, namely foundation in the form of BB cream.
6) "Why are Korean women so good at golf?" The rankings were staggering. Of the top 100 female golfers in the world, 38 were Korean.
7) Starcraft is actually a legitimate career in South Korea, with pro gamers raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings in addition to endorsements. Since the game launched in 1998, nearly half of all games have been sold in South Korea, where boys, girls, men and women drop by for a night of gaming in giant video game parlors.
There are cable channels devoted solely to the games, and the culture has led to approximately 14% of Koreans between ages 9 and 12 suffering from Internet addiction, according to the National Information Agency. To try to crack down, the government passed a ban dubbed the "shutdown law" or "Cinderella law" two years ago, prohibiting anyone 16 and younger from game websites. The ban has been widely ignored.
8) Flight attendants from airlines around the world come to Korean airlines' training centers to learn proper airborne charm. Ask anyone who's ever flown a Korean airline and dare them to say the service isn't the best they've ever had. It's not just the sweet smiles that greet every little request, but the almost comical looks of suicidal despair when they somehow run out of bibimpap in the row before yours.
9) "When's your next sogeting (blind date)?" That's one of the most frequently asked questions of any Korean single. The standard answer is the epic horror story that was the last blind date. Followed immediately by a chirpy, "Why, do you know someone you can set me up with?" Due to the high volume of blind dates, when Korean make up their minds, they move quickly. In a survey conducted by Duo, working singles interested in marriage say they typically go on two blind dates a week.
10) Whether it's a lantern jaw, wide forehead or long teeth, there's no feature doctors can't beautify in the Asian capital for cosmetic surgery. Russians, Chinese, Mongolians and Japanese flock to South Korea on plastic surgery "medical tours," not only for the skill of the surgeons, but for the good deals.
After research I found out this quote told to CNN, "An average -- not excellent -- face-lift in the United States will set you back about $10,000," Seoul National University Hospital plastic surgeon Kwon Seung-taik told CNN. "But in Korea you can get the same service for $2,000 or $3,000."
