We recently had a discussion about house size with our homestay guest. He indicated that he lives in a 32 평 apartment but his best friend lives in a 100 평 주택 (house). One 평 equals about 3.3 square meters or 35.5 square feet. Therefore, his apartment is about 1,100 square feet and his friends house is 3,550 square feet! He says his friend’s house is three stories and that his friends family is rich. I would think that having a house of that size in Korea would qualify as being rich.
A 32 평 apartment in Korea is above average in size, even though by American standards it is small. We just moved out of a 1400 sq. ft. house and it felt very small. Perhaps that is because there were six of us living there (we have four children). While Korean families typically don’t have that many children, usually several generations live under one roof.
The conversation about house size came up because our house guest’s family is considering moving out of their apartment and into a regular house (주택). He said that he likes our house but that it is scary because it is bigger than what he is used to. He also was a little worried about moving away from the community atmosphere of the apartment complex. In Korea there is not much privacy in life in a typical apartment but moving into a house can be very expensive and one would have to give up many of the convenieces of group/pubilc life in a the apartment. Many apartments are gated communities, they have people who maitain the grounds as well as the apartment itself, they also have common area facilities not unlike apartment complexes everywhere. Despite the appeal of apartment living, however, the desire for ones own land exists in Korea too.
We live in the country and that has been a concern of several children that have stayed here. There seems to be this idea that bandits live out in the country and since we do too then we are liable to get attacked by these bandits. Even here in the United States there are concerns and preconceived ideas about what life in the country is like. The Korean children that stay with us are certainly getting a unique and hopefully good impression of life in America. It is definitely different than life in an apartment complex.
