Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ratslash]

i was sat on the subway on monday. i'm six feet tall so when the subway isn't crowded i stretch my legs right out and get comfy. i tuck them in if anyone walks by or if it crowded of course. anyway, monday night, quite late, line 6 towards the start at bonghwasan. it was empty. anyway, this elderly korean guy (about 55-60) starts ranting at me, gesturing towards my legs, swearing, going off his head! i can't explain how it made me feel. angry? confused? baffled i suppose that someone actually cares that i'm stretching out my legs.

i know i shouldn't let it get to me, but this guy did. if he had just smiled, gestured towards my legs, i may have considered tucking them in a little bit. but, instead, i stretched them out further. he started going off his head even more. i stood up to show him how tall i was. bad move coz he thought i was being aggressive and starts shouting in my face. he got off at the next stop still ranting. he gestured for me to get off the train, i presume so he could carry his ranting or maybe to whup my butt.

it made me so angry and disappointed. this is the first confrontation i have had in korea in 8 months and it was over such a little, pathetic thing as getting comfy on the subway.

i know he was quite old, but the ignorance and rudeness of some korean people astounds me, and sometimes, especially in this situation, age is not an excuse. it wasn't like talking loudly, wearing skimpy clothes or wearing a t-shirt wrote in hangul saying 'i hate korea'. i was just happily sat there reading my book and i get abused and swore at! when this happens i wish i did have the above t-shirt!

nice. really got my week off to a fantastic start!

[Cthulhu]

Although I generally like to give old people respect a rude person is a rude person no matter what the age (unless they are just senile)--55-60 doesn't seem old enough to just let it go. I wouldn't blame you considering his overreaction.

[toomuchtime]

Reminds me of my own recent subway experience- my wife, daughter and I got on the 'old folks' elevator in one station and eventually it filled up. As the last person got on, I reached over some people and pressed the 'door close' button. I wasn't paying much attention to what was being said around me, but some of the old fogies were telling me not to touch it. My wife said to one particularly vociferous ajuma that I didn't understand what they were saying. She replied that if I didn't understand, I shouldn't be in this country.
To make a long story short, it ended up with me yelling obsenities in the woman's face, avec extended middle finger an inch from her nose, and my wife shouting at her about her ignorance.
It was pretty tense, and it went further than I wanted, but in the end...
Ahhhhh, can you say "cathartic"? It was like I took out all of my pent-up frustrations with a**hole old folks and their collective sense of entitlement all on this one uneducated peon.
Actually, now that I think back, a year ago I was sitting on the subway and the guy beside me was reading a newspaper. As he turned the pages, he hit me in the face with the edge of the paper- about three times. On the fourth go, I swatted the paper and shouted 'what the frick are you doing?' My god, was he shocked. His obliviousness about his own behaviour was almost more annoying than if he had been doing it on purpose.
There's no real point to my post other than that we all put up with a lot of stuff, but once in a while, it's good to give a little back.

[HardyandTiny]

My filipina friend told me that once while she was attending mass at a church in Korea she was sitting with her legs crossed and the Korean man sitting next to her told her to uncross her legs. 'It's disrepectful to cross your legs in church".

Aieeeshhhhhh.

[the_beaver]

[William Beckerson]

You guys must be ajumma bait. No one ever messs with me in public.

[HardyandTiny]

[crazylemongirl]

I've had people yell at me when I strech my legs out (I only do it on uncrowded trains). I just glare back at them.

CLG

[indiercj]

I've seen old Korean scolding at younger one listening through his headphones too loud or reading his newspaper open wide. This isn't foreign related. It's rather older generation vs younger generation.

[jajdude]

Isolation. Insanity. Korea.

[the_beaver]

[posco's trumpet]

[Blue Flower]

[anae]

Yelling at you publically is bad form IMO and hardly a way to get people to cooperate with what you want. Yet, a few years back there was a public campaign about how to behave on public transportation. Included in the poor ettiquette department was stretching out your legs (though I think it might have been on the seat) and the caption was something to the effect of the subway is not your living room. Koreans often get told that people in western countries have better manners and are shamed into adopting these manners, so it probably is quite shocking and upsetting for some to see westerners going against what they are told is polite. Then again, it could be an old versus young thing too.

[weatherman]

Never got barked at, but have had old man give my feet a subtle kick to let me know that stretching my legs on a near empty train wasn't to their liking.