TV!

Rebecca asked, during my quetions request post:

1. What kind of TVs do they have? Is reality TV a thing over there?

Good question Rebecca!  I don't have a TV (even though I'm supposed to, gotta pick my battles here) so I only get to see it when I'm out and about in Korea.  But that's ok because Koreans LOVE TV!!!  And I love them for it.  

Most TVs are just like the big flat screens we have at home.  Actually, it's very possible that your TV comes from Korea.  LG and Samsung are both Korean companies and most TVs here are of one of those two brands.  

Koreans have TVs all over the place.  At the train station there is a TV to watch with rows of chairs in front of it.  Same at the bus station.  Same at nearly every restaurant.  Same on a ferry.  Same in a charter bus.  And sometimes even in taxi cabs.  

Did you guys just read that?!!  A ferry.  They somehow manage to get TV reception in a ferry.  And on charter buses, and in taxi cabs.  This is mind blowing to me.  

But it's also awesome!  Because I love watching TV and any time I have to wait somewhere I can just sit and watch TV.  The majority of the programs I have seen are either Korean dramas (oh how I love Korean dramas) or "reality" shows that are more like variety shows.  I've seen things that seem to be some sort of competition/race thing and I've seen shows where it's just footage of different choirs singing.  There is also one show I saw where people competed in a karaoke (noraebang, in Korea, means singing room) style format.  Fairly standard TV fare.  

As far as I know they don't have Jersey Shore-type reality shows but I could be wrong.  I also don't think they have a lot of imported TV shows from America or other Asian countries.  Most stuff is home grown.  I know they know what the Simpsons is but I haven't actually seen it on TV.  

Other than that, people download and torrent and stream illegally like nobody's business. The laws in Korea about doing those sorts of things are not nearly as strict as in America so people do it a LOT.  For example, many of my students and coworkers watch Modern Family with Korean subtitles.  This is not thought to be immoral in the slightest by anyone.  Very different from America.