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Very Impressed with Korean Culture
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twg



Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...

PostPosted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 9:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tomato wrote:
Don't you know there is a Law of Conservation of Happiness?"


It's a law now?!

Dammit! I need a lawyer!
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Beej



Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Location: Eungam Loop

PostPosted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

5000 years and they still cant flush down toilet paper.
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awalk2remember



Joined: 29 Dec 2006
Location: Pusan

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dang!!!! Laughing

Some of your postings made me almost peepee myself !!!
Thanks for the awesome humour !!!!

It sounds to me like MESL is in the honeymoon period to the extreme !!!
When I first got to S. Korea, I felt so high immersing myself in a new culture....S. Korea was the first place I traveled to internationally...

So you may have seen a blonde woman skipping down the street in utter bliss because I was high on the whole "I'm new to Korea"

And, "Wow...the old ladies are actually drying red peppers out in the parking lot !!!"
Don't forget, "Beer is so cheap !!!"
Finally, "Actually, the bus rides are like an adventure !!!"

Now, my second year here, I am a lot less impressed with everything, but still I don't think its that bad either...

I really think MESA's consolidated speech on : "S. Korea: the wonderful-the great-and my new home!" will slowly change as the year goes on...

Keep riding the high for as long as you can !!!
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MESL



Joined: 23 Jul 2006

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This essay was written after working in, living in, or traveling to 15 countries in Asia and the Middle East. There are plenty of things I like about the cultures of these other countries and there are plenty of things I don't like about Korean culture, but Korea is overwhelmingly my favorite country after my own. Yes, I submitted this to the Korea Herald and the Korea Times, as well as a few American media outlets, after a Korean was named new head of the UN. But none of them responded or notified me and I was not aware that any of them printed it.
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4 months left



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

MESL wrote:
This essay was written after working in, living in, or traveling to 15 countries in Asia and the Middle East. There are plenty of things I like about the cultures of these other countries and there are plenty of things I don't like about Korean culture, but Korea is overwhelmingly my favorite country after my own. Yes, I submitted this to the Korea Herald and the Korea Times, as well as a few American media outlets, after a Korean was named new head of the UN. But none of them responded or notified me and I was not aware that any of them printed it.


Well now that you have lived here for awhile maybe you can correct the myriad of mistakes in your extremely flawed essay. Where the hell did you live, 14 Middle Eastern countries and Korea?? After being in Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc., I suppose Korea could seem better. What's your country, North Korea, Cuba??
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Adventurer



Joined: 28 Jan 2006

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

MESL wrote:
This essay was written after working in, living in, or traveling to 15 countries in Asia and the Middle East. There are plenty of things I like about the cultures of these other countries and there are plenty of things I don't like about Korean culture, but Korea is overwhelmingly my favorite country after my own. Yes, I submitted this to the Korea Herald and the Korea Times, as well as a few American media outlets, after a Korean was named new head of the UN. But none of them responded or notified me and I was not aware that any of them printed it.


Koreans are among the most genuinely friendly people you'll ever meet. They are also among the most hospitable and among the most helpful. Korean companies do not import manual labor and the Korean government does not encourage immigration. So 99.99% of the people you'll pass on the sidewalk will be pure blood Koreans. Drinking is popular, getting drunk is common. Koreans are notorious for smacking and slurping during meals. A lot of middle age women smack their gum. Many men smoke, but a cigarette on her lips is a sign of a "bad girl."


Brother writing about pure blooded Koreans sounds kind of fascist. It is also genetically nonsense. Some Koreans look similar to Mongolians and some look like Tibetans or Japanese. There is no pure blood Koreans or
Germans. You also seem to think that the idea of a girl being bad because she has a cigarette is a good thing? I don't think your compass is quite right. Yes, Korea has many great things, and I like the country.
You do have a point one must look at the many positive things in this country, and I try to remind myself of those things such as most people have been kind to me, immigration was helpful when my boss was jacking around with me, and many people in Seoul asked me if I needed help if I was lost. I also like seeing Korean women carrying babies on their back, and I like how they are very concerned about their children's education and manners more than they might be in North America.
You must admit, your posting sounds like propaganda.
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SPINOZA



Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Location: $eoul

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm with you, MESL.

I've travelled pretty extensively (although never actually lived in those countries admittedly) and I can say with some authority that Korea, even the uglier parts of Seoul, is by some considerable distance superior to the absolute dumps within a 5 mile radius of where the average pepsi-guzzling ESL monkey comes from.
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tiger fancini



Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Location: Testicles for Eyes

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:38 am    Post subject: Re: Very Impressed with Korean Culture Reply with quote

MESL wrote:

Few punkers, few hippies.


What's a "punker" Question
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captain kirk



Joined: 29 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd wager most everyone goes along with the spirit of what the OP has written. It's just that it becomes a habit, whining, and everyone is doing it, so it's fashionable and cool, like 'I'm so jaded, blablabla, my blase ennui is smokey like venerable old whiskey and classy jazz, blarblarblar'. People biyatch about stuff back home all the time. What's missing is a clear perspective, respect, gratitude. That seems too simplistic for discriminating whiners.

Why doesn't Dave's have a 'public flogging for chronic whiners' section between Off Topic and General Discussion? Because flogging is too good for them, that's why!!!!!! Laughing
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Qinella



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

captain kirk wrote:
blablabla, my blase ennui is smokey like venerable old whiskey and classy jazz, blarblarblar'.


holy cow dude!! Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing

You are fucking hilarious, you know that?
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JongnoGuru



Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Please be advised that dodging the swear-filtre, which is a violation of the TOS, will not enable you to escape any punishment.

-- The Management
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Every once in a while, someone posts a message saying something, "Help! I've been stranded for six months way out here in 포덩크 and it's so boring! There's nothing to do! I'm the only foreigner here!"

I have to fight back the temptation to say, "What? You've been here only six months, and already learned to speak fluent Korean? And you have applied for a library card and already read all the books in the library? And you have signed up at one of the local music studios and already learned to play all the instruments perfectly? And you have signed up at one of the local self-defense academies and already earned a black belt?"

I recently started to read a book on art education.
The book made me think about this forum.
The book starts out:

Quote:
I have seen children surrounded with an abundance of toys, crying, tense, and unhappy, not knowing what to do with them, unable to use their minds and imaginations to achieve happiness. I have also seen children completely absorbed and content with a single piece of wood, using it at one time as a train, and at another zooming it through the air, as an airplane. . .

There are people who need a continuous flow of excitement. If they don't have it, their life is dull. They have become insensitive to the richness which surrounds them. . .

How the child uses his mind, how he uses his hands, whether he reacts sensitively toward what he sees, hears, feels, or touches, whether he develops desires to communicate with others, are all part of his happiness. It is up to you to develop the sensitivity which is necessary to recognize the child's needs when and where they may occur.


Now I know what is wrong with the whiners on this forum:
Their mommies and daddies never read this book!



Lowenfeld, V. 1954. Your child and his art: A guide for parents. New York: Macmillan.
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jaganath69



Joined: 17 Jul 2003

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Qinella wrote:
tomato wrote:
Hello, MESL!

We seem to have a silent majority and a vociferous minority on this board.
According to a poll which was posted in 2003, three-fourths of the ESL Cafe denizens were happy in Korea.

If there are few posts like yours, that could be because we usually get replies like:

■ "If you see anything good about Korea, then you are not looking deeply enough under the surface. In fact, you are a naive, gullible, fool."

■ "You're a phony liberal. You're like a white person who shakes hands with every black person he sees."

■ "If you're better off here than you were in your own country, then you must have been a real loser in your own country."

■ "If you're loyal to Korea, then you're a traitor to your own country. You didn't give a hoot in hades WHAT happened on nine-eleven, do you!"

■ "So you like Koreans better than you like us, huh? All right, then, reject us! See if we care!"

■ "What right do you have to be happy when we are unhappy? Don't you know there is a Law of Conservation of Happiness?"

■ "Oh! So you're happier than we are! So you must think you're better than we are! Well, tooooouch you!"

Mashimaro's message is original, so I will add it to the list:

■ "You must be an agent from Korea Herald or someplace."


Tomato, people generally like it here, but that doesn't make his farcical list any more valid. Come on, man. Streets are clean? I counted FIVE loogies on the ground from my apartment door to the sidewalk (about 15 feet). And Korea is not becoming westernized?

Oi vey.


You count loogies on the sidewalk? Call me an apologist, but I think its time for you to go home.
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Yu_Bum_suk



Joined: 25 Dec 2004

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MESL, this is satire, right?


Quote:
Korean companies do not import manual labor and the Korean government does not encourage immigration. So 99.99% of the people you'll pass on the sidewalk will be pure blood Koreans.


This is like a Jew buying into Nazi myths of pure Aryan blood. In the event you're not joking, read your freaking history and do a bit of geneological research. After so many generations of unpure Sino-blood circulating the gene pool the number would be more like .01%.

BTW, if Korean companies do not import manual labour, what are all those Nigerians and SE Asians you see walking around doing for a living?
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Mashimaro



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tomato wrote:
Every once in a while, someone posts a message saying something, "Help! I've been stranded for six months way out here in 포덩크

포덩크~ Is that anywhere near 포항?
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