U.S. Visitors Can’t Say Enough About Koreans’ Hospitality

Lu Lamont, 52, a Detroit bookkeeper who has followed the Olympics from Montreal to Los Angeles to this Asian capital, has one complaint about this year’s site: she’s having trouble finding Diet Coke.

Other than that, Lamont says, she thinks South Korea is “marvelous.” Also, “wonderful, awesome, warm and welcoming.” And, in case you’ve missed the point, “magnificent and modern,” too.

Lamont is one of about 20,000 Americans who have come to Seoul for the Summer Games, according to Transportation Ministry officials. Although the number of Olympic tourists may fall somewhat below South Korea’s expectations, those who have come so far are almost gushing in their admiration of their hosts.

“It’s been fantastic, magnificent, colorful beyond the imagination,” said Joan Carbary of Seattle. “Considering that this city was rubble 30 years ago, they’ve done an unbelievable job.”

South Koreans, after investing seven years and more than $3 billion preparing for the Games, are extremely concerned about the impression foreigners will be taking home. Still a developing country with an average yearly per-capita income of $3,000, South Korea hopes the Olympics will help lead the country into the ranks of developed nations, both in fact and in world perception.

So the entire population of Seoul seems to be working and willing the Games toward success, holding its collective breath that the Olympics will proceed without mistakes, embarrassment or terrorist attack.

One young company worker summed up the mood after the opening ceremonies: “I was very happy,” he said. “Nothing went wrong.”

But if the hosts are a little nervous, most of their guests haven’t seemed to notice. U.S. tourists, despite a few glitches here and there and a fairly solid language barrier, say the Koreans seem to be doing everything right.

“People are so friendly. They try so hard. You feel bad for them when they can’t communicate better,” Donna Colleran of Tacoma, Wash., said.

Colleran is in South Korea for the first time, but her husband, Ed, served here as an Army auditor 20 years ago. He said the Olympic architecture, the subway, the Korean-made cars represent a “phenomenal” change from the impoverished city he remembers.

“And if anything, people are even more friendly,” Ed Colleran, now a lawyer, said. “It’s been a real eye-opener.”

Not surprisingly, there have been a few glitches as two very different cultures meet. Some Koreans were dismayed by the way U.S. athletes behaved at the opening ceremonies, breaking ranks to wave and mug for the television cameras.

“By Korean standards, they didn’t behave,” one said. The IOC was none too happy about it, either, saying a letter would be sent to the USOC seeking assurances the U.S. athletes would not repeat such behavior at the closing ceremonies. The IOC particularly disliked the display of signs with “NBC” on them, which it considers advertising.

Other Koreans have taken offense at the way Western athletes, journalists and tourists have cruised the city in skimpy and casual clothes. “I’ve noticed that the Korean people come out in full dress, they’re so formal, and it’s the Americans who are running around in shorts and T-shirts,” Donna Colleran said.

And still others have been upset by indications that the West still views South Korea as a Third World country. Swimmer Matt Biondi refusing a glass of water during a news conference because it came from a tap, not a bottle, and U.S. track stars training in Japan instead of here raised some ire.

“Athletes from poorer countries seem to be interested in their surroundings, appreciate the athletes village, and so on,” said government spokesman Park Shin Il. “But athletes from the more affluent countries, they don’t want any contact, they don’t want to discover a different country.”

For their part, some Americans have found Korean food too fiery to digest. Despite toning down their usual techniques, Seoul cab drivers have driven several tourists into near-shock. Lamont, the Detroit bookkeeper, found that Korean squat-style toilets in public rest rooms are “not accommodating to women who wear slacks.” And Robert Boudreau, 12, who attends school in Loudoun County, Va., said some Korean teen-agers seem anti-American.

But Boudreau and his mother and sister, staying in a modest Korean inn and traveling by subway to the Games, said their overall impression has been positive. The Boudreaus brought enough chocolate-flavored cereals, breakfast bars and peanut butter to last them for breakfast and lunch for a while, but have ventured out for noodles in the evening.

“Every time you get on a bus or subway, there’s somebody with a hat and a sign offering to help,” Joyce Boudreau, 37, said, as she watched the U.S. baseball team beat the South Korean squad in an exhibition match in Chamshil stadium. “They don’t all speak great English, but they all try.”

Indeed, the effort and enthusiasm Koreans are putting into their work appears to be making the biggest impression on many visitors.

“American kids do not want to work,” Lamont said. “These kids do work, and they do it willingly, and they smile when they work.”

Some Americans said they nearly didn’t come to Seoul because of media reports of student riots and security threats.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want to go over there, where the North Koreans are fighting the South Koreans, and the students are rebelling,’ ” Donna Colleran said. “My husband said, ‘Oh, they’ve been doing that for 20 years.’ ”

And those who have come said they have seen no trouble, while security officers seem tough but friendly and relatively unobtrusive.

The reports may have kept some tourists home. According to the Transportation Ministry, 131,000 foreigners, including 20,000 Americans and 44,000 Japanese, entered South Korea between Sept. 1 and Sept. 18, compared with an expected 250,000 Olympic visitors.

But a ministry official said he expects that close to another 100,000 visitors will come to Seoul before the Games end Oct. 2, bringing the total close to expectations.