David Grajal

The cuteness is something characteristic of the Japanese culture that also has been influenced in Korea. The cuteness doesn’t stand out at the beginning, but after a while it’s overwhelming. Korean society is cute. They use cute things/signs in places that in our society would be considered immature. Lots of companies have cute mascots to present themselves to the people. When you are walking in the streets you are surrounded by cuteness, starting by the Korean fashion but also, the sings, colors and lifestyle. It seems really estrange, it’s like when I started using Windows XP with the duplo default theme. In Europe we are use to serious stuff and It’s quite difficult to accept cuteness in important things.

For example In Korea the police stations have cute big-eyed small cartoons welcoming you instead of serious information. Korean subways are completely cute. Even the KTX, the bullet train, used for top executives and serious people, is full of cute signs. The society is clearly influenced, In Korea is common for couples to match their clothing (They match their cellphones too!) and there are lots of stores that sell cute products.

Korea must be the country with a higher proportion of metro sexual men. Korean guys doesn’t care using things clearly designed for girls. They like to use cute hello kitty shirts and bags and they don’t have any problem using clothing and bags full of lovely hearts. They are really into the cosmetics too. In every other corner there is at least one cosmetic shop and all of them has sections for men.

Moreover Koreans live surrounded by love. Korean pop, movies and television shows are centered in the quest for the perfect partner. In consequence, Korean people are obsessed with finding a partner and finding real love. Everybody has somebody that consider a special friend with whom share experiences. In Spain a special friend has sexual connotations but in Korea is different, is more about discovering real love. Their society is not as liberal as us. In Korea, couples are always together holding hands but they don’t express publically their emotions kissing each other and they don’t practice sex until they really sure that the partners is a good catch. They don’t have one night stands. I also believe there isn’t an important gay community.

Jaimi is now travelling to Seoul…