Picture of the Day: Welcome Week for Foreigners in Seoul
Thai tourists pose behind a welcome sign set up at Myeongdong Street in downtown Seoul on April 25, 2018. The Seoul city has launched the 2018 Spring Welcome Week for foreign tourists, which will last until May 6. (Yonhap)
South Korea is a bit schizophrenic about foreigners. On the one hand, Koreans are generally warm people. On the other, they can be quite rude if they don’t know a particular waygook. Then again, bus drivers seem to hate everyone equally, so maybe it’s all about having a Korean to use as a “beard”, if you will. Someone to help the other Hangooks know it’s okay to be polite.