I always wonder about what the directors of those dramas must be thinking when producing those dramas.
There are two possibilities:
They know exactly what they are doing when choosing the cast, deciding on the clothes of the actors, arranging the set, doing the lighting, and deciding on what is in the background of each take and they know how silly it looks most of the time.
They have no clue and no taste whatsoever.
From a technical standpoint, never mind the stories, most Korean dramas you can see on Taiwanese TV are really, really, really bad. I think on average the Mandarin dramas produced in Taiwan (not the Taiwanese language ones) are more professionally made, not as professional as the Japanese, but better than the Koreans. Of course, the Thai dramas appearing on Taiwanese TV nowadays are even worse…
Agree, to a point, and definitely don’t try to take pictures of dogs in cages. I did manage to take a few shots the couple of weeks I was there, though: flickr.com/photos/poagao/set … 867152081/[/quote]
Where can I see more of your pictures I must have more of your pictures I think I’m in love[/quote]
[quote=“Dr Jellyfish”]I would change the name of the capital from Seoul to Seoless, and South Korea to Purgatory. I had the misfortune of going there once. I didn’t like it.
Oddly enough the only time anyone has been rude to me in any restaurant in Taiwan is when I went to an authentic Korean restaurant. My wife had been before with her friends and wanted to introduce me to Korean food (my wife enjoys watching all the crappy Korean dramas… which is why I ended up spending a week in Purgatory a few years back). Anyway, the moment I walked in the Taiwanese manageress, wife of the Korean chef, came over and asked if I could use chopsticks… before we had even sat down. I said yes. Then she said American’s don’t like Korean food. I told her that I wasn’t American, I’m from England. She went over to her husband and chatted for a bit. I felt a bit uncomfortable, but to be honest, I’d rather put up with that silly cow and her husband’s antics for an hour than spoil my wife’s evening. So we sat down. Each dish seemed to be banged down on the table. The woman told me I was using the chopsticks wrong (which I wasn’t) and just buzzed around out table for the whole meal. Anyway, the food seemed pretty bland. Kimichi is ok as pizza topping (at pizza hut). But I never went back.[/quote]
Amazing mistreatment !! But actually sounds like you were getting the VIP treatment. I must say that we have a large Korean contingent here in the bay area. And there is this one Korean restaurant (the Korean owner also owns a Japanese restaurant I also frequent). And I am treated like a VIP there. Always get an extra dish and a lot of smiles from everyone there. Well knowing the owners helped I can imagine.
I am not that well versed in Korean cuisine myself, but then i always order the bulgogi . That and the bulkalbi is all i ever want. And iv come to love KIMCHI.
There has to be other Korean restaurants in town no?
For the Korean dramas, they just all seem so similar and… empty, for lack of a better word. There’s always a dull house in which 90% of the shows take place, a couple of scenes at an office and the very similar characters. I don’t know why there are so popular on Taiwan.
For the restaurant thing. It annoyed me. I didn’t go into every detail, but I am sure the lady had some kind of chip on her shoulder. She even tutted when I didn’t use the chopsticks her way. I just like to be left while I dine, most people do I think.
Kingjoin is a vegetarian Chinese royal cuisine restaurant. It used to be very famous when it wasn’t vegetarian. For a while all China Airline’s food were prepared by kingjoin. But the owner became a vegetarian and changed his entire restaurant to offer all the same menu but vegetarian style. It’s pretty tasty, though it has always been a bit pricey.
[quote=“tommy525”][quote=“Dr Jellyfish”]I would change the name of the capital from Seoul to Seoless, and South Korea to Purgatory. I had the misfortune of going there once. I didn’t like it.
Oddly enough the only time anyone has been rude to me in any restaurant in Taiwan is when I went to an authentic Korean restaurant. My wife had been before with her friends and wanted to introduce me to Korean food (my wife enjoys watching all the crappy Korean dramas… which is why I ended up spending a week in Purgatory a few years back). Anyway, the moment I walked in the Taiwanese manageress, wife of the Korean chef, came over and asked if I could use chopsticks… before we had even sat down. I said yes. Then she said American’s don’t like Korean food. I told her that I wasn’t American, I’m from England. She went over to her husband and chatted for a bit. I felt a bit uncomfortable, but to be honest, I’d rather put up with that silly cow and her husband’s antics for an hour than spoil my wife’s evening. So we sat down. Each dish seemed to be banged down on the table. The woman told me I was using the chopsticks wrong (which I wasn’t) and just buzzed around out table for the whole meal. Anyway, the food seemed pretty bland. Kimichi is ok as pizza topping (at pizza hut). But I never went back.[/quote]
Amazing mistreatment !! But actually sounds like you were getting the VIP treatment. I must say that we have a large Korean contingent here in the bay area. And there is this one Korean restaurant (the Korean owner also owns a Japanese restaurant I also frequent). And I am treated like a VIP there. Always get an extra dish and a lot of smiles from everyone there. Well knowing the owners helped I can imagine.
I am not that well versed in Korean cuisine myself, but then I always order the bulgogi . That and the bulkalbi is all i ever want. And iv come to love KIMCHI.
There has to be other Korean restaurants in town no?[/quote]
Yep, this is normal. She was giving you ‘service’, she just didn’t have a clue how to do it.
i think taiwan needs to face more ridicule for its crappy urban landscape. especially when compared to its neighbours. as i live here its not really a factor, i just got used to it, but if i was a tourist coming here to see a modern asian city i would be pretty unimpressed and disappointed at the state of taipei.
i climbed up elephant mountain a few weeks ago and noticed an interesting thing. the city looks fantastic from about 7 floors up! its just everything lower than that is covered in ugly shanty town style corrugated iron, illegal extensions, window cages… and layers of filth.
Not to stereotype, but it seems that Koreans are just more intense, competitive, and cold people, while Taiwanese people are (slightly) more easygoing and not quite as super-competitive?
Also, one huge reason for South Korea’s economic performance vis-a-vis that of Taiwan’s is, simply, as others have pointed out, the fact that South Korea has just about every conceivable advantage in its favor. (It’s an officially recognized nation, it has more people, etc.)
I just came back from Seoul, Korea… Yes, its probably the worst times to visit weatherwise, since it was rather hot and humid. But all of Asia was suffering a heatwave when I was there.
Living in Taipei - I have been to HK, Tokyo and to S. Korea so far for quick trips. Korea had to be the borringest place I been to.
You speak about how wonderful the ancient building are? As an American - I saw virtually zero signs explaining what exactly I was looking at.
Go ahead… prepare your flaming of me. I really dont care.
S. Korea will always play second or even third fiddle to HK or Tokyo in the tourist travel business. Why?
Stairs… and Signs… and minimal A/C.
For the young, Korea will attract the adventerous, or attract people with a deep fixation on asian culture. But say a middle aged couple or even older - hell no. Stairs to climb out of every Subway and underground area. Barely any escalators. Minimal A/C. The constant battle of boiling heat in one building hallway… to ice cold the next. Spells disaster on the sick and frail. Middle aged, will get tired so fast in Seoul.
So just ride up an elevator, you say?
They have this contraption for handicapped people that is a metal plate that slides up the stairs and plays awful music the whole time. Instead of building a elevator.
When you do crawl your way up the stairs to exit the Subway system… you better have an excellent map. I do mean fight your way out… because there is virtually no flow of traffic, its a free for all. Any path that you can take up or down the stairs is fair game. Old and young. Queing on the escalators like we do here in Taiwan… forget about it. Enjoy your trapped slow crawl to the top of the aging escalator behind smelly no use for under arm deodorant. So you made it out to street level? Congrats… There are no signs pointing you in the direction of sites.
Its lifeless and dull. I seen the junk they sell at the night markets and its embarrassing. I mean I seen junk too in Taiwan, but goddamn if this stuff they were hawking was atrocious. I can go on. The only highlights of the trip were - sticking feet in the river, eating kimchi - which ended up burning my stomach for a week straight. S. Korea - I am not a fan.
The other places were WAY more organized and Tourist friendly as far as getting from A - B with little fuss. People were friendly, food acceptable. I’ll go back and give it another try - for snow skiing, which I am looking forward to. But this past trip, was a dud.
A plus for S. Korea - was minimal Scooters, I liked that. But then I remembered how Korea has a reputation of eating dogs. Compared to Taiwan where every 20th person is a 4 legged furball. In Korea, they were practically non-existent as pets.
That’s surprising. I thought they would have become pretty bilingual after the Olympic Games and the World Cup. In Taipei, there is English even at many of the lesser known historic sites, not that there is no room for improvement of course.
That’s surprising. I thought they would have become pretty bilingual after the Olympic Games and the World Cup. In Taipei, there is English even at many of the lesser known historic sites, not that there is no room for improvement of course.[/quote]
This was at one of the main tourist attractions… I am not saying this was the case for ALL tourist attractions. Here is another example and I was really surprised by this… korea failed cashing in on this with the tourist:
PSY comes out with a smash song praising gangnam area of S. Korea, my girl was super excited to see this area.
Granted we were already beaten down by the lack of A/C, stairs up and down every subway to everywhere, and the salty food making us sweat HARDCORE. It’s not spicy, its salty dont let anyone fool you.
We got out of the subway station that directed us there… and there was … hills… and no signs anywhere. Dreading going in the wrong direction for far too long in the heat. We found the Samsung buildings and kinda enjoyed their “showroom”… wooopie! We asked a local… and all they would do is point to the street we were on and say “yes, Gangnam.”
Not much of an “experience”. why am I here? Retail therapy? Looked like anywhere else in Seoul.
Japan - the trendy retail shop area “Hills” something, was so easy to navigate, absolute pleasure.
Hey, at least 3 people in my extended family of 60 Taiwanese resent that comment. and the ones that actually are furballs hate you.[/quote]
Your furball friends are delusional, if they enjoy seeing their friends being eaten.
Seoul’s subway foot traffic is chaotic at best. My Korean school buddy told me that the up/down stairs direction was changed several times over the years, but the majority of the passengers still adhere to the old way, which adds further to the confusion and chaos.
