Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pegasus64128]

[Steelrails]

The dessicants in everything. One of these days HG Pennypacker is going to accidentally send one of those into my Dwaengchang and turn my Cinco De Mayo into Sicko De Mayo.

Seriously, I'm uber-paranoid when I open Korean food packages lest I chomp down on one of those or boil it into my ramyun.

[metalhead]

[Julius]

The lack of facial expressions. The sea of featureless blank stares all day long gets kinda depressing.

The way they let the phone ring and ring for aages before answering it. If they bother to answer it at all.

The ringtones at maximum volume.

The way they pretend to be all busy and flustered when answering the phone, even if they are sat doing nothing.

The way hospital patients bring a whole entourage of family members to tend them day in day out and camp out beside the bed. Are you really that dependent on all those hangers-on?

The fact that you can never count on an agreement actually taking place.

The fact that you can never be sure of anything until it has actually taken place.

The lack of pride in physique or athleticism.

The demonization of the homeless and beggars.

The lack of principle as a motivating force. Protesters and government parties rebel in order to gain power and position only.

The way kids are so pandered to that their personalities are already ruined beyond repair by age 8.

The endless social obligations that eat up free time.

The general absence of real justice. Instead, a focus on monetary compensation.

The corrupt business empires and "upper class" of corporate super-thieves

The endless, unecessary, unsightly and unimaginative construction projects.

The bullying of anyone deemed to be different, or who challenges social norms.

[pegasus64128]

You need to get out of here. You seem like a good person, and you could pop. It's good that you're venting your frustrations somewhere but I think you should seriously consider an entirely different location. Your points all make sense and all stem from certain key points in the history of this place.

I truly recommend you have a holiday followed by a decision to accept that this place will always wear you down and that you should prepare yourself mentally for the things you will miss here. Just my feeling.

[transmogrifier]

I used to think that, but I appreciate it as some sort of performance art. The dedication that goes into the list of rants must have some psychological benefit that we shouldn't mess with.

I mean, deep down, nothing he writes means anything. Korea will go on. I will go on having a different experience to Julius. So will you. It's all just a bunch of pixels on a screen.

But I admire the pluck. And I enjoy the pure distillation of misery on show.

[yodanole]

I find it hard to believe that Julius actually believes all of the things that he lists, especially as regards relating them to Korea. Maybe, like me, he just likes to hear himself type.

1) The sheer volume of items is in and of itself suspect.

2) A great many of those items are nearly universal. especially in places that are not the Amazon Basin, Highland New Guinea or Borneo.

3) Even Al Bundy didn't have that many complaints about life.

[pegasus64128]

[Julius]

[Steelrails]

I dunno there's a sort of Monty Python-esqe quality to the nature of Julius' lists. Although they make you scream "Enough!" there is something to be said for comprehensiveness.

[The Internationalist]

1) The bluntness of Koreans

2) The club / dating scene

3) The avoidance of Koreans to things going on around them

4) The blatant disrespect from kids

[pegasus64128]

Often, it feels like the Truman Show here.

[Scorpion]

I drive, and I can't get past how absurd the directions are on road signs. The sign says that such and such a place is 8km away. I drive for at least 15 km then see a sign saying its another 6km. I drive 10km and the sign says 2km. Do they just plunk these signs down anywhere they feel like it? Because there's often no correlation between the distance on the sign and reality.

And don't get me started on signs showing that you need to turn left to get to such and such a place. What it doesn't say is that you need to take the third left, not the first.

Then there's the English signs that get you half the way into the countryside (say to a temple site) then the English just drops off leaving you stranded.

Another example of Korea trying to give the pretense of modernity without the substance. "Oh, a crosswalk! How convenient. I was looking for somewhere to park my car."