Public campaigns for good manners

By Kim Ji-soo

With its 10 million inhabitants, Seoul is a sprawling and bustling city. A metropolis of such size can yield a galaxy of observations each day.

Let me share a sliver of that here. To work and live in Seoul involves a daily commute on local buses, subway trains or taxis, then navigating through fast-paced people with distinctive practices.

There are unique sights only seen on Korean subways. These days, mostly gone are the middle-aged men sitting with their legs wide apart and taking up two seats. Perhaps the posters on the trains asking them to refrain from doing so reduced the problem. Less visible, or audible, shall we say, are the loud people who talk on their mobile phones as if they were alone in their living rooms.

In their place, there are an increasing number of people eating on the subway. On a recent morning commute to work on a crowded subway, I saw a professionally-dressed young woman in black suit and high heels, walking amid the constricted space with a large bagel in one hand and iced coffee in the other, touching the shoulder of one or several people. I guess she must have interrupted a smooth line that another young woman in the compartment was trying to put on her eyelids, because the cosmetic-applying woman was giving her the eye. It was a little drama that made the subway ride interesting for a second, but one that left lingering questions as to why people eat on the subway.

Another problem is slow-moving smartphone users. Glued to their monitors as they text-message or play games or watch dramas, they move with a halt in their step. Koreans love cell phones, as shown by a recent survey by digital media and marketing solution firm DMC Media that found four out of 10 Koreans tend toward smartphone addiction. The same survey showed Koreans spend an average of 2.9 hours on smartphones for non-business purposes, and women spent slightly more, or 3.3. hours, than men, who recorded 2.6 hours. While smartphone users consume, with their heads down, contents provided at LTE-speed, they don’t heed the traffic flow of people ahead of or behind them. They move at their own, non-LTE-speed.

Then, one gets off the subway and hits the sidewalks. These are used by all – pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and even cars. The sound of a motorcycle engine from behind is considered fair warning for pedestrians to politely move aside. The actual ground of these paths is shared with spit and phlegm that people expel with violent coughing. All of this, one may encounter on one’s way to work in Seoul, each day.

Seoul being the behemoth urban sprawl that it is, it’s unrealistic to expect 100 percent neatness, order and hygiene. Its inhabitants and visitors, however, have the right to expect that public and private efforts be made so that each day in Seoul is not about being inundated with mass traffic and its subordinate problems. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon has pledged to spend 20 billion won to bring a sense of community to Seoul, so the quality of life can be improved. But the Seoul City and the central government may well do more to refine Seoul not only as a sophisticated city but also as a large community. Right now, the capital city is so drab and inundated with tall grey buildings, it’s hard to detect even a fleck of green. Why not plant more trees than construct roads or buildings, so people can take time to appreciate the greenery, enjoy the fresh air and look up to the sky once in a while? Why not have public campaigns as a gentle reminder to be more aware of the others?

Singapore is a sophisticated city-state known for its smart streets and trendy people. It conducted a public campaign urging people to dress smartly in the 1960s. Who would argue that the Singaporeans lag behind the rest of the world fashion-wise?