Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

Maybe it happens to all of us sometimes. The blank looks and stares or just some vibe we get in public can make us feel uncomfortable. Sometimes in Korea I feel like I've accidentally walked into a stranger's house. I get a sense of this is their country, not mine. True, but is there any reason to feel I'm not entitled to be here? I've only been to a few other countries in Asia. Never felt this anywhere else though. I've heard the middle east can be rough. Maybe a lot of us often feel we don't really belong? Well, the past little while has been a rough patch. Maybe tomorrow the mood will improve.

[Ilsanman]

I am mich past the culture shock period, where you accept anything that happens, and blame it on 'different culture'. Now I have began to berate people for their behaviour if it affects me. That includes horking and spitting phlegm in the showers at the gym, the staring, and the generally xenophobic behaviour.

It is an everyday thing here, but it barely bothers me anymore.

[William Beckerson]

I'll give you a hug when I meet you.

Of course, if you later find your wallet missing, that wasnt me

[Gollum]

I'm walking down the street with my date yesterday near Sinchon, and getting all of these glares from groups of single guys.... never noticed that so much before. Maybe they think my gal is really pretty? I don't know... I think she isn't considered so beautiful in Korea.. only average. We were holding hands, and it was very obvious that she was really interested in me. She didn't feel at all like hiding it.

Anyway, she was a treat to watch. She would turn around and stare at them with this half-baked, "do you have a problem???" look on her face. By the way, she was dressed very nicely, and conservatively. She is also about 35 years old (older than me, but we look similar in age).

Loved it. All you single, stuffy Korean aggosshees who have a problem with it can kiss my butt. And I say "my" butt only because she would never let them touch hers.

[Bulsajo]

[jajdude]

Past culture shock? Does that ever happen? I think some of us get the ol' shock on and off no matter how long we spend in any place. I have spent about four of the past six years in Korea. Maybe I'm permanently shocked because everywhere looks strange to me now.

[Zed]

Bound to have culture shock when you can never pretend to belong. That'll never go away here. I think a Caucasian like myself may get past most of it when living in a place like Russia or Czech. If you can learn to be proficient in the language you won't be viewed like a Martian, ... but in Asia (no matter how you speak their language)...well I think that's a given, perhaps in Korea more than elsewhere.

[little mixed girl]

.....

[buddy bradley]

I had people speaking slowly to me all the time. When I stopped using sign language though they spoke normally.

[weatherman]

[just because]

You have to remember that Korea really opened up to the west about 15 years ago(except for the GI's) so they are still very protective of their own country. I have found over time that I get stared at less and less(or maybe I am so used to it I don't notice it) but I couldn't care less. If some ajoshi keeps on looking at me I'll just give them a melong and have a laugh.

[jajdude]

Yes I understand Korea "opened up" only recently, say 15 years ago, around their Olympics. But a real opening up will not occur for a long time, I think. I'd say it will be a few decades before most Koreans get used to the world a bit, and the recognition and consideration that, god almighty, there is quite a large world with a lot of diversity beyond this small peninsula. I have heard adults say how amazed they were on their first trip outside Korea, to see diversity of peoples, supermarkets with a supply and variety of foods that doesn't exist in Korea, and relationships between people of different (gulp) ethnicities. It'll be a long time before it "opens up" around here, I am sure.

[Homer]

Perhaps a little historical perspective should be applied here...

[weatherman]

It doesn't really matter what the historians say, or what the Korean government says or does about Korean being 'open', which has a lot of different meanings applied to it, the fact of the matter is that the Korean mind is closed, and this makes all things at the grass roots level of society closed, and this is the level at which we lead our lives. So daily we are faced with racist, xenophonbic, myopic, insular disdain for our existence. I don't care what the government says or some Korean expert who doesn't even live in Korea says about the place, when I walk into a restaurant and have to fight back the stares or the snide little comments about me, I know the great Hub of Asia will fail.

[Homer]

Good call weather man and a very balanced view of Korea...
Oh my...