Korean Job Discussion Forums

whatthefunk · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Dont have a clue

I hate shopping in Korea more than anything on Earth. I would rather teach 400 ten-year-old Korean hellians how to speak Swahili than shop for anything in this god forsaken, roach infested country.

This afternoon I went shopping because my sisters birthday is coming up. I thought that I could get her something 'Korean'...something she wouldn't be able to find back home.

I went to this huge market area where they sell just about everything on Earth. But alas, every shop was filled with useless garbage, made in China, ajuma-ready *beep*.

The downtown streets are lined with Adidas stores, Puma stores, Nike stores that all sell the exact same *beep* but with different labels attached.

The central shopping district only has clothing stores and they all sell the same crap too. Pre-ripped jeans with ass-patches and v-necked tshirts with stupid English sayings written at odd angles in nature friendly, pukeably horrid colors.

The 'gift' shops and touristy type places sell nothing but second hand, sh*tcicle stand plastic replicas of what used to be real art.

I went to a 'Hand-made' pottery store. 'Hand-made' in Korean must be equivilent to *beep* because everything in there was crooked, half broken and unbelievably ugly.

It is impossible to buy anything in this country. You can't even buy normal jeans if they aren't in fashion at this moment. If you look at Korean culture only through the products you can buy while in Korea, its clear that Korea has no identifiable culture and that they exist purely on fanatic worship of trends in other places that they claim to hate. Even if this country somehow developed a tourist industry, they wouldn't make any money off of it because there is nothing in this entire country that is worth buying.

Maybe Im overreacting, I thought. Korean markets are set up to please Koreans, not those freaky looking white people. But why don't Koreans continue to do their traditional arts and stuff? Even the Native Americans, whose cultures were completly destroyed, make traditional arts and crafts just for their own sake. Why do Korean insist on everything being new and made out of steel? Where the hell have the Korean arts gone?

So, after spending an infuriating afternoon shopping, I bought my sister a book and a CD through Amazon.

posco's trumpet · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: Beneath the Underdog

camel96 · Guest

Yeah don't pay good money for useless crap. Just steal it.

Squid · Joined: 25 Jul 2003 Location: Sunny Anyang

Dr. Funkenstein got a bit stressed going shopping huh? Very Happy

If you make your presence felt in Insadong you can buy some nice things, and get a whopping discount if you send in your native-speaker friend straight after you to actually buy it.

Shindang is, or was my personal favorite area, a short walk from the Dongdaemun subway- but I didn't go there since they started work to uncover a stream the Japs concreted over or something years ago. Most of "Old Korea" seems to have been dumped on the stores there so you can pick up some fairly ornate stuff, including Celadon pottery.

Take your time with Shindang if you go there though, as it will take you a couple of afternoon visits at least to get oriented.

And before I suffer tirades for the Insadong advice- blah blah blah it's touristy, blah blah it's a ripoff...like Shindang, take your sweet time and some good stuff will become obvious in amongst all the trash.

Squid

little mixed girl · Joined: 11 Jun 2003 Location: shin hyesung's bed~

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kiwioutofthenest · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

I think there is loads of good stuff to be had if you look in the right places...The thing that annoys me when shopping is the assistants who follow you around the store pressing themselves against me. Also when i go shopping with either of my 2 "korean sized" friends...the assistant always pulls things of the racks for them beckoning for them to be tried on, but with me i just get pressed against.

Corporal · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

Yeah...I would rather shop without someone two inches from my face watching to see if I'm going for my wallet or if I just want to scratch my butt (not that I do that in public)...

And with all the pushy, half-blind ajumas out there, it's a bruising experience overall.

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

panthermodern · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Location: Taxronto

Sounds like whatthefunk is so negative and pissed off that I fear any advice will of be of little or no help.

whatthefunk · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Dont have a clue

Zyzyfer · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:25 am Post subject:

Word. Shopping is frickin' aggravating. I avoid it as much as I possibly can. I don't like crowds, I don't like nosy salespeople, I don't like lots of obnoxiously loud noises, why even bother?

Corporal · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

The evil penguin · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 7:54 pm Post subject:

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

Last year, I took a lot of traditional(and not too expensive) items back home to Australia. I bought them at the Hahoe village near Andong(basically right in the middle of Korea). If you haven't been there it is pretty cool to see Korea in the 16th. century(just kill the cars). I'd recommend going there. I know it is a long way out of Seoul but I pressume you came here to do some travelling as well. here is your chance.