Korean Gift Giving

OR: A mystery of the highest confusion.

There are many things I love about Korea. There are many things I dislike about Korea. And there are MANY things that confuse me about Korea. The way they give gifts is perhaps the most confusing of all.

Let me give you some background information. Gift giving is an important part of Korean culture around certain holidays. Unlike in America (and other western cultures), they don't really give gifts on Christmas and birthdays. Christmas is more for couples and I haven't really figured out birthdays. From what I've gathered, they are just not that important. Anyway, the important times for gift giving are the Harvest festival, Chuseok (which is like Thanksgiving) and Lunar New Year, Seollal (which is the new year on the lunar calendar, duh). Ok, and not only do you give gifts to friends and family but your place of employment also gives you a gift.

Now, the gifts. These gifts are completely ridiculous. Last year for both holidays, my school gave us a gift box set of SPAM. That's right, SPAM. The meat that comes in a can. That you can buy at the dollar store at home and is generally regarded as inedible, unappealing and just overall not an acceptable to give as a gift to anyone, under any circumstances. But here, SPAM is a primo gift. Not only do we get a BOX of SPAM, but it comes in like, this fancy gift box, with two bottles of oil (if you like it fried) and the box comes in a fancy bag. I had never tried SPAM before, but I've had it here and it's not the worst thing in the world, as I previously assumed. I would never eat it on my own accord, pay for it, or order in a restaurant, but I have fried it up per a boyfriend's request and when I ate it, it wasn't the worst. It also comes in kimbap, which is Korean style sushi, which I eat frequently, but you don't really taste it since there is a lot of other stuff in there as well.

So, since SPAM isn't the worst thing in the world and people gotta eat, I can see why MAYBE a little tiny bit SPAM is an acceptable gift to give. However. This year, for both holidays, we have received an enormous gift set of bath products. Ok, you're thinking, hey! Bath products are useful and lovely! Yes, they are. But, here's the thing. The most recent box we were given has SIX (6) tubes of toothpaste in it. It also has two bars of soap, two shampoos, two conditioners, and a bottle of what I'm assuming is body wash in the middle. Once again, in list form, for your convenience:

1 person=
2 bars of soap
1 body wash
2 shampoos
2 conditioners
6 tubes of toothpaste

In picture form, in case you're wondering what that looks like:

So much toothpaste

The fancy box for the toothpaste

WHAT?

I can't, I really just can't. I cannot ever imagine myself using that amount of bath products in one year. Especially since for the last holiday, we received, essentially, the EXACT same thing.

The sad part is, no one I know even uses Korean toothpaste. Word on the street is that it doesn't have any fluoride in it. Koreans do brush their teeth more often than most Americans I know, so maybe they actually do go through that many tubes of toothpaste in a year. All the kids brush their teeth after school (it's such a pain) and I frequently see people brushing theirs in public restrooms.

But, my biggest confusion is mainly just, why do I have this? These gifts from my company are going to foreign teachers. Maybe you think it's presumptuous and rude of me to think the Koreans should change their ways for their foreign employees, but it's not really that I want anyone changing traditions, but I really think they just need to stop and think about how much money they are wasting on these products that 95% of the foreign teachers at their company (which is 50% of the company) is not going to use. That is A LOT of money! I saw the SPAM boxes at the grocery store last year and the cheapest one is $45! Just seems like that money could be spent on literally anything else because giving us SPAM and toothpaste is basically throwing the money in the trash.

Plus, it's not just foreigners! My boyfriend just got THREE gift sets from his company and he is planning on giving away all of them. Here's what he got:

A huge box of "seasoned laver," which is dried seaweed and it's actually really good. He gifted it to me. I'm a lucky lady. 

Sadly, the laver is the huge kind (not the bite-size kind I like) and is really only good for making kimbap, which I've done once and never plan on doing again. 

What a fancy box!

FULL OF SPAM. I can't. 

Seriously, the boxes are beautiful. 

These are bottles of ginseng. I was told you mix it into water for a beverage, but it smells awful and I can't imagine ever drinking such a thing.

 I really don't think I will ever be able to understand these boxes. They are the just the epitome of wasteful indulgence and it's depressing. The saddest part is that it's not even cool stuff! I am all for a little indulgence and I LOVE getting fancy gifts but I am forever getting things I will never use here! I hate it! I absolutely hate wasting things (money, food, products, whatever) and I would seriously rather get nothing than keeping getting things that go in the trash. Sometimes I get gifts from parents at school that go to waste as well. It's usually food that I don't want to, or can't, eat OR something random like lipstick. Which is a nice thought, but I don't wear lipstick, nor did it look good on me, haha. People are forever telling me that I can just re-gift them but I don't have anyone to give them to! Most of my friends here are fellow foreigners that don't want it, I'm not going to mail it home and the only Korean people I know (besides my boyfriend) are people are work with, that would know I was re-gifting! I'm doing some research to find a charity to give it to, so we'll see what happens with that.

So anyway, that's whats been going on this week. We have a four day weekend starting tomorrow and I'm currently just sitting at home with my huge box of toiletries. I have been feeling like crap so I'm hoping some sleep will shake my severe case of winter depression. Fingers crossed.

Dream big people!