World Cup Diary

Observations after catching eight games in nine days.

By Andy Mead
Special to SoccerTimes

SUWON, South Korea (Saturday, June 8, 2002) -- South Korea, land of a thousand staircases. At least it seems that way when you are wearing a 20-pound bag and carrying a 60-pounder.

My photographer Wade Jackson and I landed in Seoul nine days ago and since then we have crisscrossed the peninsula, catching eight games. Six of the games have been wonderful while another had France. But enough about the soccer, here's the skinny on traveling in Korea.

The transportation works. The subways (Seoul, Busan) and trains are easy to figure out and they run on time. Taxis are very cheap, but the drivers don't always seem to know where they are going. Starting two kilometers from Suwon World Cup Stadium, our driver had to stop and ask for directions three different times.

There have been some planning issues with the games, however. The crush of people packed onto the stairs outside of both Seoul Stadium and Ulsan Munsu Stadium after games can be more than a bit disconcerting. Koreans are both unfailingly polite and quite pushy. Patiently standing still in line does not seem to be a local tradition.

The food is good. I'm not a cabbage eater, but a small about of kim-chi with every meal -- and I do mean every meal -- is just fine. We spent three nights staying in Ulsan with a "host family," and they introduced us to various traditional Korean meals. On the way back from the first game in Busan, we stopped at a seafood restaurant for "Marine Products Soup." Whatever the net pulled in went into the pot. It was very delicious, with special mention going to the octopus chunks. We have not tried the dog, but we did pass by a butcher's stall in a street-side market that clearly had canine hindquarters.

We have gone through a language adjustment. The big difficulty is illiteracy. Even though I don't really speak Spanish or German or French, the similarity of words and the Roman alphabet allows for some conjecture. While there are many signs in English, the vast majority of the text here is incomprehensible.

The second adjustment is that the English that is used here is only a close approximation of American or British English. By now you've all seen banners or scarves declaring "Korea Team Fighting." The English used in Korea is an Orwellian subset, with a small vocabulary and a stripped-down grammar. Words like "fighting" take on the concepts like "effort" or "plays hard." Many Koreans know at least rudimentary English. That combined with a small phrase book has kept us on schedule.

I'll check back in a few days with more observations. Wade and I are in the middle of a 14 days\14 games run that will take our total to 18 games in the first 19 days of the World Cup.

If you have questions, e-mail me at footy@ibiblio.org and I’ll try to answer them.

Andy Mead is editor of the Emerald City Gazette. Subscription information can be found at http://www.mindspring.com/~andymead/ecg/.