Korean Job Discussion Forums

[djsmnc]

I apologize for the mixed tense and such here, but I hate writing long-winded posts:

Finished my class the other day, walked with a couple students to the subway station, 1 male and 2 females. The male was headed in another direction and the 2 females and I went downstairs into the station. We were headed to the same location, but we planned to go our separate ways upon arrival.

Lo and behold a late middle-aged ajosshi approaches us and starts lecturing the girls in Korean as if a crime were in progress. Almost literally, in Korean: "Who is this foreigner? Why are you walking with him?? Foreigners use Korean women. What he is doing is shameful and you girls are dirty for being with him. Yadda yadda Hongdae, yadda yadda Itaewon, and so on and so forth, you're a *beep*, blah blah blah" One girl said "He's our teacher" and then he starts throwing questions at me: "You're a professor? What? Full time instructor?? Where?" I said "I'm a professor, but it's not your business"

"NOT MY BUSINESS? HA...we will see that!!" Then starts interrogating the girls, trying to get my name and work location from the girls, acting as if he's going to write everything down.

I said "그 사람 미쳐요. 빨리 가자" (That guy is nuts, let's go)

He says to me "NO! YOU GO! GO THE F--- out of my F---ing country!! You f---ing a-hole f---"

I said "Whatever" and motion to the girls to follow me through the turnstile. I go through and then he runs toward me with menacing eyes and hits me on the head with the packet of papers he's holding!

I say "Go ahead, hit me! Keep it up! We can go to the police afterward!"

He comes through the turnstile waving his papers at my head again before saying "Go police? F---- you s---- we can go police!!"

He goes on some cursing tirade, trying to convince the girls to leave. They're frozen like a deer in headlights, one of them on the phone trying to reach someone. She then hits the security button and a couple police come and bring us to the station police office.

THIS may be helpful for anyone in this kind of situation:

Of course I wanted to pummel the guy, but I didn't. Of course I wanted to curse him out, but I didn't. He went to the police station still cursing and trying to say I threatened him and was the one who cursed at him first. (He claimed I directly called him a 미친 놈, which the girls denied) The police actually had to shut him up and make him sit.

I call my GF, who gets stuck in traffic on her way there. My students are sitting there crying while this guy continues lecturing them about the evils of the waegooks and making a fool of himself.

This all took a lot of time, but I didn't talk back much at all except to say what he had done and used his ridiculous tirade to say a few things such as: "SEE, for example...He hit me! He also curses a lot"

The police wanted to work out his apology and move on. Everyone did really, but my girl was like "No, you did nothing to bring this on yourself" To my credit, I can understand a good bit of spoken Korean, so I knew when to say yes and no and that we would need to wait for my girlfriend to arrive and help translate.

We finally ended up at the district police office, the wacko, my GF, and I, after a police cruiser ride in which he was trying to justify his actions to the police by saying that Koreans are called Yellow Monkeys and gooks and such in western countries. In the station my girl continued to use the term "hate crime" when describing our reason for pushing the issue. We both gave our statements, and I was excited to watch the guy get sat down and harshly lectured for threatening strangers.

The police officer asked if I wanted the man to be punished (i.e. a fine) Being the typical gentle natured person I am, I said an apology would suffice, but with one stipulation: I WANT IT IN WRITING. I know how the whole process of admitting something here goes, especially when it comes to officially signed legal documents.

We agreed to that, so the police officer brought us together. The man had to write in Korean that 1. He was sorry for cursing (with each curse written out, 2. sorry for hitting me, and 3. Sorry for embarrasing me and my students but implying a bunch of garbage. He stubbornly started writing and mumbling while asking the officer redundant questions "Like this? Write his name like this?"

Well, thanks to the district office having a good officer on hand, the policeman then said as the guy was almost finished: "And 4. I won't do this to foreigners again"

Bam! The guy threw the papers aside and yelled in Korean "Whatever, we can take this to court!! Ee shi..."

At that the officer instructed us just to ignore whatever the man said and made him sit elsewhere. The psycho came back as we were signing the statements thumbprinting them and said "I sincerely apologize, please, very sorry 죄송합니다" to which we all told him off and three officers came over and sat him in a corner.

Now, without me having to go to court or do anything else, he's getting slapped with a 500,000 - 1,000,000 won fine. I wish it were coming to me directly, but he didn't injure me in any way and I was starving too much to try and go any further.

So remember, there are nasty people anywhere and everywhere, don't fight back if you're given this kind of crap in Korea, make sure you get things in writing, and make sure the other person comes out looking shameful.

There is hate crime legislation now, and the final officer (who was the most helpful and was willing to spend his off-duty time typing everything up) said that he often works on reports like these from Filipinos. The problem is that they often lack translators, so it is really crucial that you try to know someone who speaks BOTH Korean and English. The burden on you as a foreigner, unfortunately, is that small scuffles such as this are seen as time-consuming and difficult. Don't lose your cool (such as when they initialy said my GF couldn't be the one to translate- before they eventually realized they had no option) and just do the best you can to calmly explain your case, IN KOREAN.

Take your case to the district office if at all possible, remain calm, and be sure to call a Korean friend that you KNOW will push the issue. My girl does not back down like many many many young Korean people will in this situation: "Just let it go and sorry it happened to you". The two girls, for example, were crying and just wanted for us to be able to go home. I kind of wanted that too, but knowing that this guy will likely eat ramyeon dinners for a month makes me feel somewhat justified. Not only that, but if he is accused of racism again he will be jailed for some time. I've also got the officer's number to call if this kind of thing ever happens again (which it hasn't in my many on and off again years here). No worries!

[Hyeon Een]

Interesting.

I hope that this doesn't happen to you again!

I'm glad it didn't end up with any violence or any other nonsense.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Well played. You kept your cool in unfair circumstances. You earned a lot of respect from the police and from the people with you, and you made things a tiny bit better for all of us.

[.38 Special]

I've never read a tale quite like this one. Credit to you and your muchacha for knowing the law.

Too bad for your students, though. The things the old man said about you must have been quite humiliating. Hopefully they can see the humor in it by the next time your class convenes.

[kiknkorea]

Well played indeed. There's a lot of nutcases of all stripes out there.

It's really good that you knew enough Korean to help you through that.
And also the ability to remain calm when being accosted was most important.
I'm not sure if I would have been able to keep my cool throughout such an event.

All in all, I have to say that was the model way to handle yourself.

[TDC troll]

Kudos
I don't think I could have been that patient
with that guy.

[Tundra_Creature]

Very interesting tale and nice to see that things ended well instead of in something insane.

[Arthur Dent]

Very impressed with the way you handled this. I'm not sure I could have kept from laughing.

I've had students walking with me to the bus stop and tell me later that people walking by have said very rude things, some adults and some not.

They are always very embarrassed. I just tell them that they know who I am. This is the great thing about getting to know your students. They won't be carrying this kind of attitude forward in their lives.

[shifty]

Good show!!

[BaldTeacher]

That happened to me once when I was out with a girl. Some old man started insulting her and calling her every name in the book, then he started yelling at me. He was sitting at a table, drinking soju. I blew him a kiss and he gave me the dirtiest look ever haha!

Another time the same thing happened, but I wasn't in as good of a mood and I yelled back at the guy. I just ended up looking stupid because I got angry and played into his hands. Luckily, nothing bad stemmed from that incident. Getting into fights with the locals isn't worth the consequences.

Adjeosshi's are crazy too. I saw two of them jump-kicking each other in the legs at e-mart yelling "shi-bal" at each other for about 2 minutes until one of them fell down.

It's good to keep your cool like the OP. 1 million won is a big chunk of money and I notice that a lot of these yahoos who like to start trouble are on the lower end of the economic scale and probably drunks too. He'll end up regretting that he did that more so than if you lost your cool and started insulting and swearing at him.

[Cerberus]

I have wet dreams about something like this happening to me.
Alas. never does.

Perhaps I need to procure more Korean females to accompany me whenever I am out and about.

All I ever get is the drunk adjeosshi yelling hello! (in a friendly, but very drunk manner) at me, at which point their wife/companion grabs them and drags them away, somewhat embarrasingly.

in this instance I would have never initiated physical contact, but I'd be willing to bet you he would've, because I wouldn've never taken the crap the OP did in the manner he took it. This would've resulted in him getting shoved and flying 10 feet before landing on his butt.

(depending on my general mood, this could've happened immediately after getting hit on the head with his newspaper) (I really don't know what I would've done, I can't even imagine such a thing)

I somehow doubt he'd initiate any more contact after that.

but a man can dream, after all

I will say I think "justice" was far more effectively delivered by the way the OP handled matters, rather than me sending the guy flying halfway across the station, but I don't think I'd have that kind of self control under those kind of circumstances

[SeoulMan6]

Well done. I'm sure the calmer you were, the crazier he looked.

[Cerberus]

[VanIslander]

How to Handle a Hate Crime 101

He will be less likely to verbally abuse others in the future. You have done everyone a good service.

[Cerberus]