Korean Job Discussion Forums

[okokok]

Have you or someone you've known ever 'lost it' in Korea? I mean has the frustration ever built up to the point where some whitie has close-lined that pushy ajumma, or suckerpunched that goofie kid mocking your English on the subway?

I want to hear those stories if there are any. Has anyone been pushed to the brink and snapped on a random Korean? I must admit that morning commutes among other things could certainly drive an otherwise sane person mad.
I don't really know of any story such as this. The worst I can think of is a guy who used to punch cars if he was crossing a road and they suddenly cut him off. And that's not much of a story.

[nautilus]

I'm surprised there aren't more stories of people going nuts. Smashing all the windows of their hogwan etc.

[crazylemongirl]

Go down to the local foreigner waterhole and see where that pent-up aggression goes.

I tend to walk it off.

[rawiri]

I punched the passenger window of a van that cut me off as i was walking across a pedestrian crossing last week. The ajosshi slammed on his brakes and turned round to evil eye me so i flipped him the bird.

[jaganath69]

Yep, several times. Have known others to do it too.

[drkalbi]

one time, when I was having a really bad day, I walked on the hood of a car that had stopped in the middle of the cross walk. The driver was so shocked.

[Tjames426]

1.While studying Mandarin in Tianjin, China, I knew of a female Brit to went potty at Tian Da. I think it was the strain of memorizing all those Chinese characters in her study program. They had to send her home.

2.Also knew a retirement age guy with Diabetes who died. He was bored out of his skull and began drinking. He was low of insulin. He went on Winter break and did not pick some up. The crummy translator at his school had no medical background. Probably did not even know what insulin was. Well, short story, the school got him some insulin. But he told everyone something was wrong in using it.

He was found dead on his bed. Probably from a either a heart or a diabetic induced coma.
***

After he died, the Chinese staff was cleaning out his room. The guy had just opened a huge coffee jar. I fidgetted. They gave it to me. I drank it in memory of my lost friend.

Never could understand why my chinese visitors refused a cup of "dead man's" coffee though.

[Oreovictim]

Have you seen that stupid Gag Concert show with the Ma-Bok-E dance? It's the dance with the bald guy wigs.

I was walking down the street at night, and some teenage girl said to her friends, "Ma-bok-e!" when she saw me. Since it wasn't one of my students, I REALLY wanted to get in her face and yell, "Tok-cho!" (Shut up) to the spoiled brat, but I didn't want to come across as a hostile foreigner.

[crazy_arcade]

I've never really lost it...sometimes this piss me off but I'm pretty relaxed and mellow. E-mart on a Saturday or Sunday after 11 am makes me insane (I just avoid it). I hate people pretty much everywhere, it's just that there are a lot more people in a smaller space here. Here, I just laugh most things off and if I'm feeling tense...I go to the gym and go as hard as I possibly can until I can barely move.

I've seen Korean men flip off and yell and punch cars that have crossed crosswalks while people are walking. It's righteous, I'd do it back home, but I won't do it here. I don't live life here like I live it back home. I think you adapt or....you "lose" it.

Oreovictim: My first Korean teacher's husband was a rather large (extremely) American man. She told me that one day he was out and a young girl that was with her mother kept pointing at him and say things about the big fat man (he's fluent in Korean). So he told the girl (in Korean) "you have a very very ugly face" and the girl started crying. HAHAHA. My teacher told me that most Koreans would take it very hard if a foreigner made a disparaging remark about their appearance. So her advice: "Just tell someone annoying you that they're ugly" (in Korean).

Seriously, it works if a Korean person says it to a Westerner in English too (ask Brento about that).

[Ya-ta Boy]

The best one I ever saw was the waygookin who just could not handle the local inspecting his grocery cart. First he grabbed the stuff in his cart and threw it down the aisle, then he attacked her cart and tossed her stuff down the aisle and then he started in on the stacks of cans. All the while screaming something about privacy and god knows what.

It was awesome. I enjoyed every minute of it.

[fadedgirl]

well yesterday I went to buy the last of my Christmas cards to send...yes I procrastinate.
and I was walking through a packed Kyobo...and this Korean woman thought it would be a good idea to push me through the aisle...as THOUGH IT WOULD MAKE ME GO FASTER (quite the opposite actually).
I really wanted to turn around and slap her. Instead I just turned around and gave her a dirty look.

[poet13]

I walked out of a class once.
Went back in after a two minute cool-down, and told the boy if he came back to the haggie, I would punish all of his friends friends for the rest of their lives. He never came back.

[jajdude]

I've freaked out a few times, nothing violent, generally alcohol behind it. Have seen a few others freak out too, start shouting crap at the world or whoever was around. It makes us look bad but sometimes the pot just burns and steam must come out. I think it reflects a day to day chipping away to where the chipping starts to chafe and hurt, and you just need to say OUCH Dammit $#&%^$*%(*&^ sometimes. Frustration and other unwanted feelings can awful to carry around for too long.

[Bagpipes11]

One day, I was late for class so I was running frantically trying to make it on time. When I got to a crosswalk, a car had stopped to let me pass. I waved a thanks and continued running. When I get halfway across the street I hear the screeching of tires and a car came so close to hitting me...when I turned, it knocked my backpack to the ground.

This car had passed the car that was stopped for me to the outside. The car stopped....but before the driver could get out to yell at me I had kicked a dent into his back passenger door.

When he got out of the car, I pointed my finger to him and said, "Get back into your car or I will ****ing kill you!!!"

He mumbled some aieeeshes and Sheebals got back into his car and took off.

I did make it to class on time so all in all, that release felt great!

[leebumlik69]