Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Qinella]

[Qinella]

[Satori]

[Julius]

Never had anything thrown at me in 4 years in korean classrooms.


If I had, in the early days I probably would have actually hurled it back straight between the kids eyes!

if it happened now though i'd probably yell for a bit then get the KT to punish the kid.

[Qinella]

[Sody]

[Sody]

[Poemer]

I didn't grow up in an area that had a large Korean population. I had one Korean friend when I was a kid, even went to Korean church with him once or twice after spending the night at his place. My parents still talk to his parents sometimes because they own a chinese restaurant in town.

I had a Korean friend in grad school too. He is responsible for convincing me to come here instead of Japan.

I was very surprised by the reaction I got when I started telling people that I was going to Korea. Generally it went something like this, "YOU'RE GOING TO KOREA! THOSE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!!! (With eyes bugging out of their head in disbelief) Then they would relate some horror story about a Korean Roomate/classmate/TA/etc. Then a lot of things about my Korean friends started to make sense, especially after I got here. I never thought of it a a "Korean" thing, and maybe it isn't, but it sure seems pervasive.

A lot of Koreans really don't understand the importance of polite public conduct, or the effect their behavior has on perceptions of Koreans, which is odd considering how desperately they seem to want to be respected around the world. They understand the importance of "netizens" and the global community, but then when they travel abroad they act as if they believe their behavior is occurring in a vacuum, that no-one will ever know what they did; the abuse is just between them and the "inferior" hospitality worker and without consequence.

[bonanzabucks]

I live in a Korean neighborhood in NYC and I actually work for a Korean company here. My boss is this Korean dude who has been here for about seven years. His English is absolutely perfect and he has hardly any accent. However, his mind is still in Korea. The way he does business, how he interacts with people, buying ONLY Korean products (even if they're double the price and the same quality), who he wants to do business with, etc., is totally Korean. It's annoying especially since we have been trying to expand our business and he keeps insisting on dealing within the Korean community only. The Korean community here is massive, but come on, this is one of the biggest cities on the world and there is more to NY than Koreatown or Flushing. Not to mention his seven year-old son. He refuses to teach his kid English (his kid just arrived here two years ago) and insists that he hangs out only with other Koreans. As well, some of our clients, many of whom have been here a long time and are US Citizens, don't speak a word of English. They never bothered to learn.

I can't take it anymore, so I'm desperately seeking a new job.

As for some of the observations and analogies I've read on this thread, they were hilarious and I agree with a lot of them. Koreans have a difficult time interacting with people outside their home country. I think the guys are worse than the girls in this regard. Why do we see all these Korean churches and stores in North American cities? In NYC, there must be hundreds of Korean churches. It's actually started to get some bad press here because Korean-owned stores (and not just the ones catering to the Korean community) only put signs in Korean and the locals who aren't Korean feel alienated. One town nearby (Ft. Lee, NJ) actually passed a law that whatever language the sign is in, it must have an equivalent and equally visible English sign too. That town also has a large Korean population.

And it's very rare that I've seen a Korean guy (even one born here) with a non-Korean girl. I've only seen it once or twice, come to think of it. Korean girls, on the other hand, are more open to date others.

But you know, I don't think Koreans are alone in alienating themselves in this regard. I don't think people from China, especially the guys, are really that much better. My father teaches at a Canadian university and a lot of his students are from China. Absolutely none of them interact with the others. His colleagues say the same thing and I would imagine it's no different elsewhere. It's actually so bad, that he doesn't want to take on any more students from China. He has no complaints about his students from HK, Singapore and Taiwan, though.

From my experience, the only overseas Asians who really seem keen to interact with others are Japanese and that's almost entirely to learn English. But hey, at least they mingle, right?

Though I am sure a lot of us complain about Koreans, especially the guys, I don't mind the ones born here or who have lived here a long time. My landlord is Korean and has been here thirty years. He's a really super guy who has helped me out a lot. He even invited me to his family BBQ, which was fantastic.

[Dev]

Awesome contribution to this thread bonanzabucks!

I must say that one thing. I don't understand nationalism. Why does your Korean boss actually punish himself (by losing money) to buy Korean brand products that are more expensive than others?

I think it's good ole fashioned narrow mindedness. Lots of Americans were like that about 25 years ago when they didn't want to buy Japanese cars even though Japanese cars are a better value (because they break down less than standard American cars). You see this behaviour a lot less in America nowadays. Americans will read the car review magazines, compare prices and buy a GM, a Toyota, a VW, or a Hyundai.

[bonanzabucks]

Hey, Dev. Thanks for the kind words.

To answer your question, I have absolutely no idea. I tried convincing him so many times to expand. He refuses. He has the language skills, so that's not an issue. He's also a fairly personable guy, though I notice he seems kinda uncomfortable when dealing with non-Koreans.

Here is another example. He has a real estate license and was trying to sell this laundromat in the Bronx. The owner was Korean. Anyways, initially, he placed an ad only in the Korean newspaper. He got some calls, but they weren't offering that much for it (and frankly, what it was listed at was way too much). I told him to maybe expand and put it in the Chinese newspaper since Chinese have a lot of cash and like doing these cash-based businesses. He relented (probably because he could have made a LOT on this deal), placed an ad (Chinese newspapers are much cheaper than Korean ones) and got a lot more inquiries, some of them made some serious offers close to the asking price. But be always balked with them because "they were Chinese". Not to mention, the way he treated them over the phone and whatnot was rude. He actually insulted this one guy saying, "I don't want to talk to you because your English is bad." Incredible! Though he was always very accommodating with the perspective Korean buyers. In the end, he didn't sell the thing because the Koreans weren't offering enough and he didn't want to sell to the Chinese.

I could go on and on and write a book about what I've seen. It would probably be a great textbook on how to deliberately fail in the business world. An attitude like his is a recipe for disaster and I don't want to be stuck with him when he fails.

Funny thing is, no matter how much he says Korea is perfect and how he hates it here and hates non-Koreans, he can never move back. So, I guess Korea isn't so perfect after all!

[bonanzabucks]

Let me add something else that I just thought of. My boss is Buddhist, not Christian. He hates Christians too, even the Korean ones. I know that Korea is mostly a Buddhist country (I think 80%, but someone correct me if I'm wrong). However, most Koreans in the US and Canada are Evangelical Christians (I believe it's over 90%). They don't display as strong nationalism as the Buddhists do, at least from my observations both here and in Korea. Could it be a religious thing?

[ajgeddes]

[bonanzabucks]

[venus]