Floods of Filipinos - street vendors selling almost everything from fresh vegetables and coconut juice to CDs of Filipino music and even DVD players! The Tagalog language heard here and there. Guess where you can see and experience all this. The Philippines? Yes, but not only there. Take another guess. Here in Korea? Exactly.
Visiting Daehangno (Hyehwa station line 4) on a Sunday afternoon offers anyone exotic sights and experiences. This is because the Filipinos residing in Korea, gather on Sundays in Daehangno at the Hyehwa Catholic Church for the Tagalog Mass held at 1:30 p.m.
But there seems to be more to the weekly hour and thirty minute gatherings at the Catholic Church. A community of Filipinos forms around the Catholic Church, and the area in Daehangno is central to it. Temporary markets are stretched out along the sidewalk outside the Catholic Church, where Filipinos sipping on coconut drinks buy goods that soothe their homesickness. Long queues are formed along the telephone booths as Filipinos make phone calls to their families back home.
Rhoderick Mojica, a migrant worker in his early 30s who has lived in Korea for three months, says, "We can talk about what's going on in both the Philippines and Korea, share the problems we are facing in jobs, and get to know each other." Occasional sounds of "Pss's," signaling to a person of acquaintance followed by a hearty handshake show how this setting is an important place for Filipinos to meet and socialize with one another.
A Korean lady in her late 30s holding up a sign saying "Looking for an English tutor for my children" said that she didn't know there would be an exotic place like this in Seoul.
Our new column "Scent of Home" will cover the cultures of communities in Korea from various nationalities.