In Peter Shaffer’s well-known British play Equus, there is a scene in which the protagonist, Alan, appears naked as he forms an intense connection with a horse. Although this scene functions as a crucial symbol of the boy’s repressed desire and distorted religious psyche, it is often consumed in Korea mainly through the provocative lens of “nude performance.”
This difference led me to question how the same cultural work can be interpreted so differently depending on the society that receives it. To explore this, I used Python to compare article headlines about Equus from Korean and British media, confirming that keywords related to bodily exposure were significantly more prevalent in the Korean press. The result gave me a quantitative glimpse into a qualitative question: how cultural context shapes the focus of interpretation.
The project, however, also left me with a sense of limitation. Numbers could show a pattern, but they could not capture the texture of the cultural environment from which the play emerged. Data told me that an interpretive gap exists; it could not teach me why it feels so different to discuss Shaffer in a British pub versus a Korean classroom. This is why I hope to study abroad in the UK. For me, international placement is not simply a journey to another country, but an opportunity to enter another cultural space with humility, attention, and responsibility.
This is my definition of sustainable travel. Sustainability is not only about leaving less waste behind, but also about leaving less cultural distortion behind. A culture can be damaged when it is consumed only through stereotypes, spectacle, or convenient misunderstanding. In that sense, my placement at Bristol will be an exercise in responsible interpretation. I seek to study how texts change as they move through translation, adaptation, and different cultural expectations. I hope to understand why Equus can produce discomfort in one society and fascination in another, not by observing from a distance, but by joining the conversations around it.
I also expect to encounter such cultural tensions in ordinary, lived settings. I still remember a French exchange student in Korea asking me, “Why do Korean students rarely speak actively in class?” What I had internalized as natural respect was, to her, a strange silence. That moment made me realize that cultural difference is not always found in grand traditions; it resides in small habits, classroom silence, conversation styles, and assumptions about participation.
In the UK, I want to continue experiencing these moments of productive discomfort. I will take part in discussions, language exchange, theatre visits, and everyday conversations where different interpretations meet. By placing myself in such moments, I aim to learn how to listen before interpreting, and how to question my own assumptions before judging others. This, to me, is the kind of sustainability that matters: entering another society without flattening its complexity, and returning with a more careful, responsible, and multidimensional way of seeing the world.
