Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bingo]

I'm soooooo tired of Koreans bumping into me one. I've learned to say, "Don't bump into me." (Mil-jee-mah) Someone in another thread said that he says to the jerk bumping into him "Do you also walk into trees?" I'd like to use that, but I'm not sure of the exact sentence.

I know "walk" (gootah) tree (namoo) go (ka) hit (miladah) etc. But I such at making sentences. Can anyone help me here. Also the following, "If you bump into me again I'll tear your head off your shoulders and feed it to you for dinner."

Thanks for the help.

[Return Jones]

It's time for you to head back home.

It's how people have chosen to live in this culture. Take it or leave it. I choose to live with it and don't complain for as long as I'm here.

[kat2]

I bump them right back. I love that there is none of this "excuse me" "Oh, I'm so sorry" crap here. If someone is in the way, you just move them.

I have to be careful at home or I'll get decked though.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

He he, yesterday in Daegu I had great fun bumping into people. The best was a couple who suddently stopped at the bottom of the escalator in Kyopo books, suddenly unsure of where they were going. I was bundled up in a big coat with a big backpack and just charged right between the two of them, sending each stumbling in the opposite direction, my backpack getting the woman pretty good as I turned just slightly to the side.

What I cannot, cannot stand, however, is people pushing from behind, especially when it comes to getting off a bus. I was about to turn around and yell 'hajima!!' at a guy doing it to me the other week but when I turned around I saw that he was Philappino.

Maybe it's the non-bumpers / pushers who are the minority in the world?

[Satori]

Its pretty amazing. In Tokyo, which is easily as crowded as Seoul, in the subway it`s like rivers parting, no one touches anyone and it all seems so effortless. Very sophisticated people...

[Qinella]

I had a weird shoving match with an ajumma in Emart last night. She was trying to pass by me, but decided to ram into me as she did so. So I put pressure onto her, trying to push her a bit, and she did the same thing, resulting in a kind of gridlock that lasted about 2 seconds.

[charlieDD]

[Captain Corea]

[Sina qua non]

[periwinkle]

[skinhead]

The funny thing about the OP is that they do actually bump into trees. Nobody else here seen that? You haven't been here long enough. There've been a lot of priceless examples of mudleheadedness but watching a korean college girl walk smack nose first into a tree while on her mobile phone and then collapse into a squat sqawking abuse at her boyfriend over the phone for distracting her was unforgettable. I laughed so much I actually melted.

[uberscheisse]

lack of spatial awareness. it's part of what makes a group of post-lunchers walk 9 abreast on a street with no sidewalk.

[poet13]

I've never seen anyone walk into a tree, but now that I've heard it happens, I may just hang around the park one day just for kicks.

I have another theory though. I think they know exactly where they're going, and I think in such a crowded country (well, at least the urban areas), there is some pathological need to feel like they are alone and have space. Hence, choosing their path and walkng it regardless of who is in the way and pretending there is no one else is perhaps their way of at least mentally easing their urban congestion. For one of the very first times the other day, I held my ground and was fairly blunt with someone. In the frozen food and meat department at my local supermarket. Standing with my cart to one side. Easily two meters to pass. No other people within five meters. Grandma rolls up on me from the end of the aisle. Bee-line. No wavering. Just before she hit me I reached out and stopped her cart cold. I indicated a circular path around my position and very clearly told her, "Go around." The people behind the meat counter were amused. She wasn't pleased. I didn't give a sh&t.

[VanIslander]

I do.

And more than once I've just rubbed my head, sat right down and continued my read. Nothing better than lounging against a tree with a good book.

I'm one of those book walkers.

(Except I walk and soak up the environs too, on other jaunts out and about.)

[sock]

Sometimes I think it is the competitiveness of the culture. Like the 90-year-old 4-foot-8-inch grandmother who was so desperate to get to the last coveted seat on the subway, she didn't take into account the fact that she'd have to get past me (trying to exit) first. I didn't bodycheck her, but I did stand in "her" way and didn't move until she figured out if she wanted that seat she was going to have to move out of MY way.

It's like these people are starving Ethiopians trying to catch the last frog alive. They do whatever they think they have to do to accomplish their task, and they are totally oblivious of everyone and everything around them. Well guess what, we're not in the days of bare-bones survival anymore. You won't starve if you don't get a free microscopic sample at the counter, and the dish soap will still be on the shelf even if you have to wait two seconds for me to move out of your oncoming path. Little Minsu is still going to need English lessons six years from now, because I can guarantee he ain't gonna turn fluent overnight. Even if you don't get into Korea's top university, it doesn't mean your life has to be ruined forever. You can still get a decent job, take care of your family, and find your life's fulfillment slaving away at some reasonably respectable company for 18 hours a day.

I really think that in a lot of ways, the overwhelming competitiveness that is so prevelant in this culture brings out the worst side of Korea. It makes everything seem like it's never enough, and that's not a happy place to live for anyone.

Yeah, I'm tired of being bumped. I'm tired of being stared at. I'm ready for a vacation at home, where I find the culture comfortingly civilized and familiar.