I like the signboards, too.

I don't know if Robert Koehler was joking or not when he said that he likes all the signboards hanging on Korean buildings, but I actually do like them. There's talk, again, of taking them down to make them less unslightly. I don't have it in front of me, but I know in one of the conversation textbooks at my school there's a unit about signs that dominate a building. More recently there's this Korea Times article.

Seoul seeks to promote the city as a world center for design but it is struggling with messy and garish shop signboards and confusing street signs, which were installed without any proper standardized system.

To tackle the problem, the city has introduced guidelines for signboards and street signs as part of its project to upgrade the cityscape.

``The outdoor signboards of stores have long been visual pollution. The building's outdoor wall doesn't simply belong to the owner of the property but also to citizens,'' Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said.

The city's guidelines are simple ― signs should be smaller and more moderate in color and font.

Seoul has been divided into five zones ― including commercial, residential and tourism ― and each has standardized regulations on outdoor advertisement signboards, most importantly with one signboard for one shop. It will remove unauthorized street signs.

I don't find the signs ugly at all, but I guess the bigger worry should be the amount of energy it requires to light up the city like that. In fact, I prefer all the colors to what would otherwise be unsightly, polution-stained buildings. I appreciate that the reporter asked a few foreigners their opinions, but, seriously, are the signs so distracting that hard to figure out what's where?

The picture up there is from Bundang's Sunae 2-dong, stolen from here. See, I don't think that looks bad at all. Actually that building and neighborhood have a special place in my heart. My first hagwon was there, and on my first day of school---the day after walking off the plane and the morning after spending my first night in Korea in a Yongin love motel---I had to find my way to the hagwon. I did okay, and stopped in that Crown Bakery to ask directions to the bank---the first time I spoke Korean in Korea---that I knew was across from the school. I ended up in Bundang's Central Park, and if you're familiar with the area you'll know how lost I was. Anyway, I find that back end of Sunae kind of charming, especially when you walk past all those nice villas back there. Here's a little photo gallery I took a couple years ago.


Old Downtown, Suncheon's answer to Myeongdong. Shut up.