Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Starperson]

Today I was with my Korean boyfriend in the subway station. We hadn't been concentrating and had took the wrong train, and it was taking ages, and I usually hurry through subway stations like a whirlwind. (Takes a breath of smoky air). My boyfriend had decided to imitate the tortoise, but I was feeling more like the hare, so I walked up the escalator quickly, while Boyfriend went on the other one and patiently rode up the right hand-side. I, somewhat jovially, said, "Come ohhhnn! Hurry up!" while he calmly said, "No". It was all a lighthearted little occurrence for us two, but this grumpy man who'd been walking behind me (it wasn't especially crowded) started making comments and talking to the air in Korean. Boyfriend said he was saying I should stop making so much noise!

That's what some may be saying now after this little piece.

I've wondered why Korean women (especially older ones) so often talk to themselves in the street, making comments about who-knows-what. I thought they were just insane, but now I wonder if all along they've been making comments about me?

Has anyone else noticed Korean people talking to themselves, quite loudly?

[peppermint]

I just thought they all had imaginary friends

[William Beckerson]

Yeah.

I just ignore them like I do with everyone I come across.

[posco's trumpet]

[BTM]

Hell, I am one of those grumpy old men. Until I get a few beers into me, at which point I'm, like, 14 again.

[posco's trumpet]

[BTM]

[posco's trumpet]

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[captain kirk]

You know how much rain there has been lately, but the last few days have been the usual, high-skyed, pale blue, crisp sunny days that are what I'd like on my 'ideal planet'. Well, I wake up this morning to the sound of children singing! Look out the window and there are nine year-old on a teacher supervised hike and they're all on their way back from somewhere in a line, in 'buddy pairs', singing like they mean it. And this ran smack into what's been bugging me lately; will Korea's racisim dissipate? And how? Racism has been done over and over. But those sweet kids, along with the fantastic kids at my school, grow up. There's racism here. Kids are all right about it, not too obvious. But they grow up, and the attitudes harden, and get 'in your face'. Making it so that a foreigner feels like a black man in Mississippi. And get this. Today at work I'm talking to the Korean female teacher, 25. I say that it's very difficult to live here in Korea, that the culture is 'set', there are rules and regulations. And she said this, "I lived in Toronto, and I know about black people". She dropped this loaded implication; 'there is racism in Canada, so how can I (being from a country racist towards blacks) criticize the racism in Korea?' She was saying, 'just shut up, you don't have a leg to stand on'. Koreans have no inclination to delve into the depths of the 'experiencing racism first hand' experience. She also seemed to be saying, 'as an Asian, I was treated as a black while in Canada'. Just gives me a friggin' headache. Excuse me, I have to hand out McBalloons now at my hagwon

[posco's trumpet]

[toomuchtime]

On a happier note:
The other day I was looking to buy some ice at a local grocery store and asked a clerk at the check-out counter if they sold any. He said 'no'. I left. On my way out an ajushi, who must have overheard, stopped me and gave me directions to a nearby place that did sell it. Unsolicited help, didn't want to practice English or anything. Nice turn of events.
There are LOTS of a@@hole ajushi's here, but there are also some goodies too.