Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gajackson1]

Got one for you all: thoughts/comments:

I'm living over in the Nae-son dong area of Ui-wang (very close to Pyoung-chon, if that means anything). Imagine my delight to find a brand new, 5-level community center not 3 blocks away. Checked out the facilities - wonderful. A good gym/sauna for me; swimming pools for us both; dance & aerobic classes for C.

September: Go to sign up. Am told that, because it is a community center, I need to be a resident/citizen. Explain my situation & address. Am told I will need my Imm card to prove/verify. Ok, I'll return in October . . .

October: Card in hand, I go to sign up. Am told that, sadly, membership is currently 'full' but that slots SHOULD open up in November. They take my info, & will call me as soon as a slot is available.

November: Slides through; get no call, but because of job worries & holidays, it is no big deal to me.

December: Show up, explain I was not called. Girl/office members look embarrassed: say there were slots, but they forgot/lost my contact info. Mark my name onto the boards - in several places - give me the short, gym-style app, & tell me to return at the end of the month.

January: C takes my pic, the money for 3 months, & app over to pick up card (taking Korean friend). After 2 hours, my friend is finally told that - despite that this is a COMMUNITY CENTER OF WHICH MY RESIDENCY IS PAYING TAXES TO SUPPORT - it is a 'Koreans first/Koreans only' policy. But, if such a time comes that they DO have a slot, they will 'let me know.'

Next time I go, it will be with a federal judge friend of mine, the media, or both.

(I have subjected others to, & been subjected to by others, the kind of discrimination mentioned in posts eariler in this thread - restaurants, clubs, bars, etc. But this, Dear Friends, is a brand new one for me. You may as well kick me out of a public park, library, or beach).

Regards,

G.

[Cthulhu]

That community center's philosophy seems to be a bit screwed up to put it mildly.

Although winning a court suit might be a longshot (with the confused immigration laws who knows?) it would be a good challenge. And some media attention sounds great though I wonder who would bite and run it. Win or lose, it'll probably exhaust you in the process.

[mithridates]

I assume �Ѱܷ� would be the paper to go to if you want to air that story. Or, you can write an article in the �����Ϻ� and send it to them; they're always looking for non-Korean people to write about their perspectives on Korea in Korean and pay 80 000 a shot with your picture as well.
Or another newspaper I don't know about...

[Goldfish]

I was in Busan at the weekend doing touristy stuff with a Korean friend. Walking around Taejongdae(?) in the rain is not a lot of fun and since the Busan City Tour Bus pulled up, we decided to join the tour. We had been told that it was 5,000won each and as we got on the bus I handed the bus driver 10,000won only to be told that it was 5,000won for Koreans and 10,000won for foreigners. We paid because it was raining, but in the evening I emailed the bus company asking why foreigners were charged double and am now waiting for a reply,though I'm not too hopeful of getting one. I was amazed at this kind of blatant discrimintaion from a goverment department. I have heard that the Human Rights Commission in Seoul are interested in these kind of issues and wonder whether it would be worthwhile following it up.

[Cthulhu]

Goldfish, your story is indicative of some pretty backward ideas about encouraging tourism here in Korea, though I have seen examples go the other way as well. Good idea writing to the company. Korea's tourism industry needs all the help it can get.

By the way, if you think Korea is bad for that, don't even consider Thailand. That country makes its living ripping off foreigners, both officially and unofficially. But I would hope Korea is up to a better standard, <rant mode on> even though so many foreigners seem to put Thailand on a higher level. <rant off>

[mack the knife]

Just read in the Herald today that there were once 60 odd "foreigners-only" establishments in Itaewon. Some 60% of those have gone under, but that means you can still find quite a few of these places.

Bet that really gets under the skin of some Koreans.

[ratslash]

the loss is indeed theirs. if they are willing to refuse a paying customer (that old phrase 'what? my money not good enough for ya?' comes to mind) then it is there loss. in korea, there is a lot of refusing to accept foreingners, from taxi drivers to jinjibangs etc etc. you can get mad, and you can call them rascists, but they do have the right to refuse whoever they want to refuse. all you can do is shrug your shoulders and go to the place next door and give them your money.

is it rascist to refuse foreigners? no. they are just making a decision to not serve a customer and lose that money. it is their choice. i can just imagine the uproar in england, though, if a shop (or such like) refused to serve a korean.

[mithridates]

You don't have to call something racist to see that it makes no sense. Example: A bar or shop somewhere decides to refuse service to foreigners for reasons of their own. Let's say I have decided to settle down in Korea and have now acquired a passport and am also famous here. I try to walk in, they say "No foreigners here, sorry." Ah, but I'm not a foreigner, I'm so and so, and I'm famous, and also here's my passport...perhaps they would still kick up a fuss, but they would probably let somebody in if they were famous or respected in the country.
Up to now it makes sense, but let's say I decide to bring a friend in who is also a foreigner. I'll vouch for the guy, so it's okay. Or perhaps a family member or a friend of a friend, etc. Once they have decided to let me in, they have opened up a whole floodgate...the reason why it opens up a whole floodgate is because policies like that don't make sense in the first place.
Also: some foreigners look Korean,
some Gyopos around as well,
some foreign-looking people were actually raised here or have lived here long enough that it's their own country.

The problem is refusing service to somebody based on something they can't control - policies like that always backfire in the end.