Swimming in Korea

Hey everyone, I just got back from Boryeong, a really nice place by the sea, located on Korea's west coast. It is most famous for the big annual Mud Festival, which I also attended several years ago, but that's not what I want to write about today. Today I want to write about swimming.

I might be wrong, but from what I've learned, most Koreans, okay let's say A LOT OF Koreans, don't know how to swim. I asked a lot of my friends and most of them said that they either can't swim at all or that they can't swim that well. I also used to teach at an academy (kind of like cram school) for 3 years. I asked LOTS of students whether they can swim or not and usually it was 2~3 out of 10 who said they could swim. And it wasn't just elementary school, there were middle school and high school students as well.

AND, I just googled a bit and I noticed other people wondering about the same thing: why can't Koreans swim?

I was at the beach all weekend and the weather was perfect for sunbathing and swimming. So a lot of Koreans were in the water. But, you could notice right away that Koreans don't move far from the land, but always stay in shallow water. They stay close enough so that they're still able to stand. There was a group of young guys (probably in their mid 20s) in the water right next to us and as soon as they couldn't feel the ground beneath their feet anymore, they would start saying "oh, too deep, too deep, let's go back" and they would move a meter or so to where they could stand again. I thought it was kind of cute, actually. My boyfriend was the same. He kept telling me not to go too far, 'cause "you can die in deep water".

These two photos are actually from Busan last year.

This is why everyone pretty much stays in shallow water and why everyone uses inflatable toys. I have never seen so many inflatable toys on the beach at the same time as I did here in Korea. It's awesome! The huge yellow tubes are the most popular, I guess, but they also have inflatable sharks and dolphins, cars even... it's really cool to see, actually. I've always loved inflatable toys so me and my boyfriend bought a huge inflatable mattress.

It was cool, my boyfriend loved it so much he didn't want to get off of it. And I was pushing him around in the water lol Once he went into the water and was swimming towards me. I was sitting on the mattress and he was only a meter or two away from me. He was able to swim just fine, I thought, but then I asked him "can you touch the ground?" and as soon as he realized the water was too deep to touch the ground he just kind of panicked and couldn't swim anymore and he looked like he was about to drown.

Maybe it's not that Koreans can't swim, maybe they're just afraid? But why? I asked my boyfriend why so many Koreans can't swim and he said they're probably too busy. I don't know... that might be a reason. But it might also be an excuse. Koreans go to the beach with their families, with their schools too, I am sure they have opportunities to learn if they wanted to. Unless they're really scared of water. Maybe they had lots of accidents that scared them. Remember Sewol? Of course you do, it hasn't been long since it happened. That really freaked everyone out and I can understand why, it was a real tragedy.

I am not saying there's anything wrong with not being able to swim. I just find it interesting, that in Korea, a country that is pretty much surrounded by water, so many people can't swim. I wouldn't say that in my country (Slovenia) it's embarrassing if you can't swim, but we do believe it's an important thing to learn. I mean, you never know, one day it might save your life.

Anyway, it's just something that I notice every time I go to the beach in Korea. What do YOU think?