Korean Job Discussion Forums

[inseoul]

Or I guess many of you do already know, but wanted the heading to get attention.

Having spent a few months now living in Gangnam, I have leanrnt something new about the culture here.

In Gangnam, as most of you probably do know, there are literally hundreds of room salons and "business bars/clubs". They range from full service luxury drinking/singing rooms, to casual bar type places where pretty girls sit with you and serve your drinks.

The demand for these types of places around Gangnam by the Korean business men who work here (and wish to play here) is huge. Its a very big business.

From Monday to Friday night, I walk home from my school past about 20 of these places. They have sheek entrances with valet parking outside, and are usually down in a basement. There are always about 5-10 large black executive Korean cars parked outside, often (depending on the time) with korean businessmen dressed in suits inside the car, either waiting for their friends, watching TV, or sleeping it off.

If I go to the health club after work (and thus walk home after 12 midnight) I often see very pretty Korean girls being whisked out of the club entrance and ushured into a waiting black Mercedez or 7 series BMW.

I raised this with one of my coworkers and she pointed out that there are actually many of what they they call "the top 10%" business clubs within walking distance of our school. These are the well known bars here in Gangnam which are suppose to house the "top 10%" of Korean women. Or put simply the women who are considered the most pretty in Korea. They are not models or actresses, but roomsalon/business club girls.

There is probably some debate over which of these places actually sell s.e.x services and indeed which girls allow themselves to be sold as such, but there is a very, very thin line between what goes on those bars and clubs and what goes on 2 or 3 hours later at the hotel room.

Anyway, for young pretty girls in Seoul, who have often missed out on an education (because there is no point in burying your head in a book when you look so damn good and every guy is chasing you and offering you things from the age of 14 ) these places are a place to make serious money and indeed a way of life (while still young and pretty enough anyway).

I have seen the most drop dead gorgous girls walking out of those bars to wave good bye to their customers and more often than not, to jump into the front seat of a very expensive luxury foreign brand car (from Maybach to Porsche and Merc).

Often before I start work, I stop in at a nice Apkujong coffee shop to mark some homework and have a coffee. There are a selected few of these coffee shops where at around 3pm, what i presume to be these same girls, appear for their first taste of the day. Drop dead gorgous, tall, slim Korean girls sporting a whole list of surgery procedures, with the latest handphones and top of the line street fashions. They come in two's usually and have fairly harsh sounding voices (from staying up all night drinking and smoking I guess). They sit down together with their coffee's and laugh and joke about what happened the night before. They dicuss plastic surgery, make up, guys etc and then proceed to take photos of each other in various facial poses. I think they are some of the hottest ones around, but there is a whole line of girls in the same field, from all the different bars around here- from the top 10% bars to the basic drinking bars where not much goes on. There are literally hundreds and hundrerd (if not thousands) of young pretty Korean girls who work in these places around Gangnam alone (Gangnam being the epicenter for all this action).

I often go out quite late on week nights as I finish work late and have to work weekends. After midnight, you will see many of these girls out in drinking bars or nightclubs, or even just restaurants. They meet with friends and chat about their jobs (and the same things above).

I have gotten to know a few of them here and there and have had a few short term relationships with some of them. Short term because, it doesn't take me long to figure out what they really do for a living and it doesnt take them long to figure out that I do not have the resources they need to maintain themselves/ their lifestyle. But fun experiences none-the-less.

One of the girls I met recently (at about 6am in a Gangnam nightclun on a Monday night - she was dancing on the bar for fun with a friend), turned out to have another foreign boyfriend who I saw her with the next weekend. I talked to the guy and turned out she had been dating him for over three months and lived at his apartment. He actually had no idea what her real job was, and had been told by her she was a violin teacher and taught violin to high school students till 3am each night. He was never able to ring her while she was at work, "because her students would get angry". he also didnt know she had spent three nights sleeping at my house the week before. Yes, I got his number and explained a few things to him over the phone the next day. I believe they have broken up now.

I have a few other stories which are simliar to that but will keep them to myself.

Some conclusions:

If you want to play with the very beautiful girls here, you need to hang out in Gangnam late on week nights. When you see these girls out on weekends (and they often do not work weekends), they are the ones who catch your eye. They are hot. They work full time on being hot. They often drop into some of the Itaewon bars for a look around and to escape the judgement of Korean people around gangnam (or just to play with the foreign guys of course).

If you talk to one of them, they will be a little (or very) evasive about what they do for money, or will often have some sort of strange sounding pre packaged story to tell which doesnt quite add up (for example they study, but cannot say what they study or where they study).

If you get their phone number or even start a casual relationship, you will be in for many late nights wondering where they are and why they do not answer their phone, or why they get up so late each day when they are supposed to be in exams at University.

And when they were suppose to show up at 3am, but havent made it home till 6am, you can almost guarantee they have been making the number two money or were simply swept off their feet by the playboy who was their customer all night.

Korea or Seoul or just Gangnam if you like is still the old Asia in many ways. Around here it still resembles Bangkok to me, its just packaged better and in ever more sophisticated ways, which I guess is just in line with the increase in wealth (no where more obvious than in Gangnam). The underlining culture has not changed much.

[keseki]

i hate to be *that* guy...but run a spell check or re-read your paragraphs before posting. especially after such a long post.

you are an 'english teacher' after all!

[inseoul]

yeah, i just did. should be a bit better now. shouldnt post before eating something!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[JeJuJitsu]

You do know that violin/piano/music teacher is code for prostitute, right?

[bobbyhanlon]

you're new around here, right?

[princess]

To the OP. That's chic, not sheek.

[rothkowitz]

[inseoul]

not new to korea, but new to gangnam, yes.

[jdog2050]

[jdog2050]

[brento1138]

That was a very interesting read. Thanks.

[leebumlik69]

[antoniothegreat]

[esetters21]

Welcome to Kangnam, neighbor! When I first came here last year I was approached by several Korean business men when I used to frequent a local pub in Apgujeong. It seemed that at some point in the night we always ended up at one of these places with them throwing money around. Hell, I just went along for the ride. It was quite entertaining, but made for some hellacious weekday hangovers.