Korean Job Discussion Forums

Dev · Joined: 18 Apr 2006

It happened last night again for the unteeth time. I'm walking through the supermarket and I get this stare from an old man customer. He looks at me directly in the eyes with a stoned faced expression.

I was thinking that back home in my country staring at someone like that is agressive behaviour - the kind of thing one does to show disapproval or start a fight.

Isn't staring rude in Korea too? If "yes", then why do many Koreans proceed to do so?

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

Yes, it is rude behaviour here too. Why do they do it? I don't really know, but I would guess that they just don't realize they are doing it.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I have a photographer's eye and probably look at more people than look at me. Also I'd bet that an average girl, here or in your hometown, gets more looks than you do.

Dev · Joined: 18 Apr 2006

Lao Wai · Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast Canada

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

I remember an adult student came to class and told me he had just had a staring contest for like 20 minute and he said he felt like he wanted to kill the other guy.

airmax95 · Joined: 02 Jun 2007

Mix1 · Joined: 08 May 2007

Yes, Its "rude".
If they stared like that at another Korean, wouldn't they get at least a "Whae...?" and possibly a slap upside the head? Most modern, educated Koreans with a clue will not be staring at you, as they know this is rude.

It's the year 2007 and the modern Internet age... yes we foreigners look a little different from them... but there is no excuse for an adult to be staring at another adult like that in this day and age without a good reason.

Yes, there are many types of stares ...ranging from moderately interested, to flabergasted, to ridiculing, to downright aggressive and hateful.

Staring back usually gives them the message and they eventually look away, but it's rarely worth the effort and could escalate the problem too (it all depends on your mood, and the type of stare...sorry, but we are humans...moderately aggressive and insecure creatures... and often full of pride) . That said, I have found that you may just want to ignore the staring as it's going to be happening to you quite a lot. Unless its downright aggro, in your face staring... just blow it off.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

You'd think that a nation that's so desperate for foreign approval could at least try to teach it's citizens how not to be perceived as utter idiots by foreigners.

xCustomx · Joined: 06 Jan 2006

This happened to me 2 weeks ago with my girlfriend. This guy was staring at me up and down for a good 20 seconds while we waited to cross the street. I finally turned to him, stared at him for a few seconds, and then said 왜? Probably not the smartest thing to do. He looked kinda surprised that I would even say anything to him, but looking back I shoulda just confronted him in English.....

People will stare in Korea, and I doubt that will ever change. As you live here longer you may tend to not care as much, but every once in a while somebody may piss you off enough to the point of you saying something

monkinwonderland · Joined: 17 May 2007

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

So grow a pair of balls and ask them:

Whe CHODABA? Or if you want to be polite, use CHODABAYO?

Gwangjuboy · Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Location: England

endo · Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Location: Seoul...my home

I don't get this stare thing that everyone talks about.

It just never really happens to me. But I have friends who complain about it and even when my mom and sister came to visit me, they too talked about being stared at.

So why don't I notice it?

I may catch a person looking at me, but then I'll look back and they immediately trun their head away.

I'm tall, 27 years old, and relatively handsome (not modest though Wink

) . What gives?

Why don't they stare at me!~!!!!???

simpleminds · Joined: 04 May 2006

I'm with Gwangjuboy. It annoys the hell outa me the longer I stay. It doesn't happen often, thank goodness. It helps to be the same height and size as most Korean women.

Most look away. The ones that don't are obviously stupid or there's something wrong with them. Or both. Just yesterday, I felt this stare from a young women sitting in the pew across the aisle from me. She was staring with absoute hatred, but it was a glazed stare. So I thought she was angry at somebody else, but it wasn't; it was me. Maybe she was forced to go to church, because she sure looked like she wanted to be outta there, and here was I, having the utter impertinance to go to a mass said in Korean, in her church. I wanted to call her up on it, but it was in church, and it would have turned into a fight. She looked like she wanted to punch me on the nose, and judging on the permanent scowl on her face, she's an unhappy woman looking to stare down somebody she considered inferior. I didn't oblige her. I just glanced at her a couple of times, and shook my head to let her know I thought she was crazy. She didn't look at me once after mass started, though, but I glanced at her on occasion because she creeped me out.