[music]
Hi everybody!
Martina here!
And I’m here with my friend Rachel today
Hi!
From Rachel and Jun
So as you guys know we’ve been living in Korea for about seven years now
And Rachel’s been living in Japan for about a year but
you’ve been going back and forth there for, what, like
Five years.
Five years or so, so
when we go to Japan to visit her, we experience a lot of cultural differences
and when Rachel comes to Korea she’s like, whoa, what’s happening here?
so today we’re going to talk about
some of the cultural differences when visiting each other’s countries
[WHISTLE SOUND]
There’s a lot of really high pitched voices in Japan
So when you got to Starbucks and they say, like
good morning to us or like OHIO GOZAYMAS
It’s like HI!
OHIO GOZAYMAS!
Really high and cute, and I’m like WHOA!
How are you doing that.
In Korea there isn’t really any voice change
We have, like Aegyo, when you’re trying to be cute
and you’re like “OPPA!
WAYGOORAY!”
But it’s mostly like, kind of a flirty thing, right.
It’s not flirty in Japan right?
No, no.
I do know some people who genuinely have high pitched voices
but Japanese as a language is spoken higher in your throat,
so it’s more natural to come out very high pitched,
I do it automatically, like, so many of my female friends do it
without realizing when they speak Japanese
Yeah, I’ve recorded some things in Japanese sometimes on my channel,
and I’ve looked through it later like WHAT?!?!
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!?
WHAT AM I DOING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
And I have to force myself to speak very low
No, you know what?
That makes sense!
Because I’ll notice that rather saying to someone like
ARIGATO, I’ll be like
HAI!
ARIGATO GOZAYMAS!
I’m already changing my pitch
It feels like that what you should do, right?
So
But it’s still pretty shocking to me because
I really feel like I’m watching a cartoon.
[THAT WHISTLE SOUND AGAIN]
I will tell you something else that really stood out to me in Korea
The streets that I’ve walked down,
All of the streets have the doors open
And they’re just, like, blaring Kpop music out onto the streets
You can hear it everywhere
You want to hear something funny?
When we first arrived in Korea, umm, every single shop,
like, not even a clothing store, like every single store
would blast music so obnoxiously,
so you couldn’t sleep at nighttime, uh huh
and eventually they had to put a ban on noise pollution
REALLY?!
OMG!
And so when we were in Hongdae that sound of music
Is, like, way quieter than it used to me.
Oh my god!
So I’m like, “I can hear myself speaking now!”
But it’s still really, really loud.
But I’ve noticed in Japan there’s, like, 8bit midi music being, like,
I go grocery shopping and it sounds like an elevator, like, elevator music,
like, it’s like [Martina attempts to sing elevator music]
It’s the weirdest thing
My first year I was in Japan I was like
Wow!
This is so unique, but now actually,
I want to hear real music.
I’m tired of the,
it sounds like the 80s cellphone ringtones
Yeah…80s!
WHOA!
90s cellphone ringtones.
Maybe, 80s?!
They’re like 80s called and said it didn’t have a cellphone yet!
So, every time I’m out now it’s so noticeable,
and every five minutes I’m like, I know this song!
What song is this?
And then I have to pause for 30 seconds until I can remember
figure out the song
Jun!
Who is this!
And he’s like Oh, this is AKB48
And I’m like OH RIGHT!!!!
So, then, you don’t mind the noisiness in Korea
like for the restaurants and stuff
Yeah, yeah, I…it’s loud and everywhere, but I like having words
and like real instruments.
And.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
[OH LOOK THE WHISTLE SOUND IS BACK]
I’ll tell you a culture shock I didn’t expect to have, yes,
Korea is a very loud place, and it is very 24/7
Seoul is a city that never sleeps, uh huh,
I’ve gotten so used to hearing noise all the time and constantly,
that when Simon and I come to Japan and we’re walking down the street
It’s like maybe 8PM, on a Thursday, we’re going grocery shopping,
It is so pin drop quiet,
and I actually got anxious
SOMETHING’S GONNA HAPPEN!
THERE’S A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!
LIKE [action music]
I could hear the ringing in my ears
People are just, like, really respectful of noises here
and you don’t want to be super loud and inconvenience other people
Like, this is a problem that I still have,
without realizing it, I’ll talk very loudly,
especially in America, my family talks REALLY LOUDLY
WE’RE SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME,
So, like, even now, after five years,
sometimes we’ll be in public and Jun’s like SHHHHHH!!!
and I’m like “I didn’t even notice!”
Oh, we’ve been shushed on the subway and busses,
like, I think we’ve gotten better since being in Korea for seven years,
but, like, when we first came, 100% we got shushed.
SSSHHHH!
And Simon and I are like
I didn’t even notice!
I know!
Foreign struggles
[OH WHAT?
WHAT’S THAT?
IT’S THE SEXY WHISTLE AGAIN!]
So one thing I’ve noticed when I’ve been to Korea
The temples that I’ve seen in Korea
are very brightly coloured, like super bright paint
Like that aqua, right!
But generally a lot of the temples and shrines
that I’ve seen here in Japan are just kind of like
their natural wood colour.
Ohh!
Very nature-ey, and like,
it feels more like, you know, it’s set into nature
it feels a little more mystical to me.
I’m not really into colourful things, so…
I’m not really into the neon coloured temples of Korea
For the first time here in Japan, just yesterday,
visiting Kyoto, so the temples there were a very bright red
but there was a little bit of green lining to it
[YES!
THE WHISTLE!
I THOUGHT IT’D NEVER COME BACK!!!!!]
Korean taxis are super affordable,
it’s very expensive in Japan
and it looks that way, so when you approach a taxi driver
they have suits on, and some of them have little white gloves,
Yeah, yeah.
THE DOORS OPEN LIKE MAGIC!!!
Don’t touch the doors.
You don’t touch the doors, guys!
I’m talking, the door just swings open like magic!
And Simon and I can’t break that habit,
because in Korea you have to open the door to get in
like other parts of the world I guess!
Here it’s like, you go to touch it, and you see them inside being like
and then the door just swings open and you’re like
WHUT
And you get in, and it closes automatically!
However, what I will say is, Rachel, yes.
I have a concern.
Yes.
All your Taxi Drivers are dying!
They’re like, 90.
They’re adorable!
They’re so cute looking,
and they’re very polite, quiet,
but they look like they’re dying, like
we had a guy that we handed the phone to,
and he pulled out an actual magnifying glass,
and then switched on a light on the bottom
that could shine on our phone.
Are you sure you should be driving?
And then another guy tried to help us with our luggage,
And then Simon’s like NO PLZ NO
And the guy is like HHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGG
But I never feel like I’m in danger in a Japanese taxi,
and I never feel like I’m going to throw up.
Have you taken taxis in Korea?
Yeah!
Yeah.
I’ve taken taxis, and one of my friends in Korea
has told me something that seems to be true
You have taxis in Korea, where the taxi driver’s really nice and talkative
and they just talk to you the whole time
and then you have taxi drivers in Korea
who are really angry that they’re driving you somewhere
I mouthed the word, I didn’t even…I literally mouthed the word “angry”?
Cuz I was gonna say…
There like, they seem inconvenienced
that you’re paying them to drive you somewhere
and they drive like…they’re gonna crash.
I was really afraid that I was gonna throw up,
and he was angry at us, because he stopped a block earlier
than what we asked him to, and we were like,
can you just…we’re the next block
and he’s like just…I’ll just stop here
And we’re like “you can drive us more”
And he’s like no, this is good.
I was like, why, why is it a problem to drive us?
We’re gonna pay you more!
You’ll get more money!
This is such a common problem.
That’s why I can’t say
that I hate Korean taxis because I’m split between the two,
You definitely have the ones that are super happy
They want to hear where you’re from,
they want to practice their English,
They’re like really excited that you’re in Korea.
For those of you who visit Korea you might have
the really nice awesome drivers and you might have the angry ones,
but try not to let them taint your experience of Korea,
[GIMME THAT WHISTLE ONE MORE TIME!]
Have you guys ever traveled to two different countries
and experienced a culture shock when you thought they would be the same?
Like, I feel like we could have the same thing about America and Canada
Yeah!
We’re like so close by each other, right,
but if I travel to America I experience culture shock immediately,
like Fahrenheit.
OH YEAH!
What is that, guys?
I know something that happened to Simon and I in Japan,
We were in Tokyo, and we were going to a maid cafe,
and something really crazy happened, but
I’m gonna talk about that on your channel actually!
Oh right!
Yeah!
So I think if you guys click over here
or here or somewhere here, it’s gonna take you over to Rachel’s channel,
and we’re going to continue our discussion.
We have at least three more points that we want to talk about in comparison
and make sure you subscribe to Rachel and Jun.
Thank you!
You have excellent adventures in Japan.
Aww!
Yeah, so, let’s head over to your channel now.
Whoo!
I’m taking my imaginary stairs.
Hahaha.
Well, I ran out the window, so