Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mack the knife]

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/01/03/200701030040.asp

This guy seems to be the new Korean voice of reason. The only place where I think he strays is assuming that Koreans will turn on each other as people in the Balkans did. I have no fear of that ever happening. I do have a fear of Koreans turning on foreigners here, as that sort of thing happens quite regularly here, albeit with far less violent consequences. However, one never knows, does one?

[Mashimaro]

Refreshing to read something exercising some common sense.

[blaseblasphemener]

[mack the knife]

[Paddycakes]

[RACETRAITOR]

If we're playing dice I would feel a lot safer in the DMZ here than in the safest places in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Sudan for starters.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

[Mashimaro]

Did people actually read the article? People may not agree with everything, but surely it's a start. I know some people will criticise anything, however call me strange but I found it a lot more meritorious than the usual Korea world's best ra ra ra BS

[kotakji]

Well the overview is good but the rational is pretty poor.

"Otherwise, their culture would be easily absorbed by powerful neighboring countries on the continent."

Yes indeed Italy, Greece, Spain, Scandinavia- those peninsulas were always at the mercy of the great powers- always hoping that some day they will build a grand empire, but forever thwarted. Oh wait.

[manlyboy]

*Italians are not one big, happy, unified "peninsular" people. They are historically separate peoples of city states. Even today many Italians feel more loyal to their particular region than they do to the nation state. They did not become who they are primarily owing to geographical forces.

*Balkan peoples did not "suddenly" turn in to enemies. That area has always been a powder keg awaiting a spark. Comparing the ethnic and religious tensions of that place to the homogenous squabbling of South Koreans seems absurd to me.

*Several polls I've seen indicate that a majority of students today would prefer not to be Korean. The young people I meet here are not much different from young people in the West: pleasure seeking and self-serving. As Max Cady says in Cape Fear "They're dedicated to their ambitions and their professions, but they're not dedicated to each other". I find the notion of an over-riding desire to "serve the motherland" highly questionable.

*This we-have-constantly-been-the-victims-of-invasion notion has already been debunked.

*Koreans idealize the concept of "han". They sing the tragic song "Arirang" like it's their national anthem. A TV drama will not succeed here unless the characters in it suffer immensely. Koreans are a lot of things, but cheerful ain't one of 'em.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[tzechuk]

Mack the knife - they turned against one another during the aftermath of the Japanese war.

My mother in law's father was killed by his village people because he was the mayor of the village but was forced by the Japs to do their dirty work for them. When the war ended, the village people tried the father and found him *guilty* of treason.....

The mother died soon afterwards of some illness...

The uncles of the said mother were meant to watch out for the kids, i.e. my mother in law and her two brothers but instead they took all their stuff inside the house to sell and took over the house as their own. They stopped short of kicking the children out to live on the street but they didn't treat them much better than slaves either.

My MIL said that there were some other random people who also went to their home and took stuff, saying that their dad was a traitor, so their stuff belonged to them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they would do the same again.

[jajdude]

"Koreans are a lot of things, but cheerful ain't one of 'em."

Yeah, I noticed that too. Cheerful? Maybe when eating and drinking or singing and drinking or chatting and drinking, or....

It's no land of smiles.

[Milwaukiedave]