Couch Surfing

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Culture_international
Couch Surfing: Backpackers‘ Dream

 Traveling takes us to new places, far away from our daily routines and gives us chances to experience new people and cultures. So many people, not only students like us crave traveling. But styles of trips each individual prefer differs. Some prefers staying in one place, in a good hotel, another prefers visiting many places. Still, some prefer spending their time with locals, and making new friends there. Nevertheless, where we sleep is a significant part of the trip, for it is the place where biggest part of time and budget is spent. Examples of traditional accommodations are hotels, resorts or hostels, or AirBnB, whose emergence gave a great shock to the lodging industry. And all of these accommodations have one thing in common: they provide their customers with places to sleep, and sometimes food at various prices.

 But can you believe that there are services that provide you a place to sleep, and in some cases, food for free? Couch Surfing has made this possible. ‘Couch Surfing’ is a combination of the words "couch" and "surfing,"  and it means the non-profit community’s service of connecting surfers that “surf” to look for a couch to sleep on, in the dwelling of people who want to share couch or extra bed. The founder, Keith Penton, came up with the idea for Couch Surfing during his trip to Iceland, where he received over 50 positive replies to his email requesting a place to sleep, which was sent to 1500 local students through a hacked university server.

 If you want to use Couch Surfing, you have to sign in to the website using your Facebook account or email. After that, you will go through a few optional steps to introduce yourself. You should upload at least two profile pictures and write about things like languages you can speak, your interests and hobbies, and the reason you joined the community. Then you can choose the host you want and send your proposal. You can also share your trip itinerary and hosts in that region can invite you to their homes too. In this case, the more specific and detailed your introduction is, the higher the chance of your proposal being accepted or of getting invitation from locals.

 The biggest advantage of Couch Surfing is that you don’t have to pay for your accommodations. This is undoubtedly a big merit, as you can save a great amount of money, which is usually 20,000-50,000 Korean won per night. Moreover, people who have had positive experiences by Couch Surfing say that there is something more than money in Couch Surfing, and say that they would be happy to use Couch Surfing again for future trips. Of course, the non-monetary advantages they are referring to are the experiences and time they spent together with locals. For example, you can go to good restaurants and hot spots that are popular with the locals. In some cases of sociable surfers, they were even invited to the birthday party of their host’s friend or had a drink with them. Also, there is a case of a surfer who was introduced by her host to acquaintances living in her next destination and she slept in their rooms too. Another surfer became friends with a host who loved traveling, and the surfer invited the host to her home when the host visited Korea a few months later. As you can see in these examples, Couch Surfing can give you precious experiences, along with new foreign friends.

 But nothing is perfect, and Couch Surfing is not free from controversies too. The biggest problem is safety issue of course. In reviews of couch surfing, you can often see female surfers who felt a strange atmosphere from the host’s behavior or words. However, some surfer couldn’t say anything because they thought those behaviors were part of the country’s culture. Men should be careful too, because in countries with sexually open cultures, there is a possibility that homosexuals or nudists may become your hosts. So, if you want to avoid those situations, select hosts that are living with their families or has good rating from other surfers.

 In addition, even though you may think you have found a host that fits you through the website, either your or the host’s passive personality can fill the room with awkward silence. Moreover, host has their own daily routines too, so situations like waiting outside till the host comes back can happen. This happens more frequently when the host has a job and comes home late at night.

So, Couch Surfing provide invaluable experiences but also unpleasant, sometimes dangerous ones. However, the fact that it provides new travel option that has never existed before makes the Couch Surfing meaningful because there are no chances to sleep and mingle with locals in traditional types of traveling. Just remember to be cautious when selecting your host, and most of these issues can be prevented. Also, be careful not to be obsessive with your schedules, because the host has invited you to spend time with him/her. Plus, prepare small Korean gifts and if not, try cooking Korean food for the host or buying him/her a meal. Those are ways to show basic appreciation to a person who eagerly invited you to his/her home, and it will make your stay a happier one.

backpackers’ dream, couchsurfing_교정.docx